Homeschool: End of Year Review

We had our official last day of school on Friday! This was our second year of official homeschool, with Esther being in first grade and Adele in Pre-K. This year wasn’t without it’s bumps (being pregnant then having a newborn and having a toddler with us most of the year) but it was so much easier than last year. Esther was older and able to focus more easily, and we found a good routine that worked for us. 

ROUTINE

morning devotional

Each day we would start around 9 with a Morning Devotional that consists of

Hymn 

Prayer

Scripture or Poem

Affirmations

Lesson or Story

Calendar

Learning Song or Pledge of Allegiance

It seems like it would take a long time but it only took about 20 minutes each day. During this portion, all the kids were required to sit in their chairs and listen. It’s the only thing I required for the boys and Adele to do each day.  

Hymns: For the hymns we usually sing a hymn or a primary song that goes along with Come Follow Me or one they needed to learn for Primary. I use the Sacred Music app to make it easy to get to the songs. We sing the same hymn each day for a couple of weeks until they get it and periodically review them. 

Scripture or Poem: We memorize scriptures or poems by saying a portion each day. It usually takes a month or so depending on the length. We memorized a handful of scriptures, the first three articles of faith and Walking Through Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. I don’t expect the kids to remember these forever but memorizing things is proven to help kids academically and I think memorizing poetry and scriptures is a lost art that is valuable for all people. Also I did reward the kids letting them pick out something from dollar store for each poem or long scripture passage they learned.

Affirmations: I was a little skeptical of these but I the kids and I ended up loving them and they do help all of our mental health. I wrote up five affirmations for the first semester and five new ones for the second that we all said together. Some examples are “I can do hard things.” “I am special to my family.” And “Heavenly Father and Heavenly Mother love me and want me to be happy.” These I do hope my kids always remember and keep close to their heart when they face tough times. 

Lesson or Story: I would take a part of Come Follow Me and do a five minute lesson on it, sometimes a video, sometimes the kids would act things out, or sometimes an object lesson, occasionally me just explaining a principle. I know there are so many resources out there to help with doing Come Follow Me with kids but those were really overwhelming to me. Keeping it simple was how I was able to do it almost everyday. If we had already gone over everything in CFM that week then I would read a story either from one of William Bennett’s Children’s Books, Girls Who Choose God cards or Miracles of Jesus by Tomie DePaola. 

Calendar: Pretty self explanatory but we’d quickly go over what day it was and the days of the week. 

Learning Song: We would sing something like ABCs, says of the week, counting by 2s etc, whatever the kids needed to work on. We love these videos by The Good and the Beautiful. Sometimes we would say the pledge of allegiance but once the kids learned it I didn’t feel the need to do it every time.

After morning devotional the boys and usually Adele would go play. Then I would work with Esther on her core subjects. 

Language Arts: For language arts we did All About Reading.  All About Reading was a lifesaver for teaching Esther to read. It is very slow paced and repetitive and level one was slightly too easy for her which gave her a lot of confidence. The lessons are 20 minutes each day which was really manageable. We finished level one by March and I was planning to wait to buy level two until next school year but I figured why wait. So we started level two and it’s been just as good. Part of me wanted to follow the traditional school way of one level per year but I quickly let that go and figured one of the big benefits of homeschooling is going at each child’s individual pace so why slow them down or speed them up just to fit into some imaginary time line, ya know? 

Handwriting: We used handwriting from The Good and the Beautiful. Esther did one page a day. Usually she’d do this on her own while I would work with Adele, then when she finished handwriting she’d go play for a bit while I finished working with Adele. I really liked this workbook and so did Esther. I will probably buy the next level for them both next year. 

Math: We started out doing Simply Charlotte Mason Arithemtic. I liked the simplicity of it and the emphasis on mental math but it was not a good fit. It was so boring and we both hated it after a while. So we switched back to The Good and the Beautiful, what we did for Kindergarten, in mid-October and it was so much better. The lessons in this curriculum can be long so I shorten them so they last about 20-30 minutes each day (they are coming out with a new curriculum next year to fix this problem). Esther enjoys math the most now because this curriculum is really colorful and fun. We have about 15 lessons left in level 1 so we’ll continue it into next year and move onto level 2 when we finish. 

Adele’s School: Adele was turned 5 in January of this school year. She has been eager to learn to read but in the past she would be distracted only a few minutes in so we just did tracing and such when she wanted to “do school”. This year she was ready to sit for longer so we jumped it. I started her with The Good and the Beautiful Pre-K and she finished that in a few months. Then we moved to The Good and the Beautiful K Primer. She finished that in about two months and that got her reading 2-3 letter words. After that I started her reading Dash into Reading level 1 books. I like that they are really cute and much more appealing than other early readers. She is now reading those nicely. She has really taken to reading and seems ready to learn to read quickly. So if you know of a good curriculum that facilitates that let me know. 

These morning lessons would generally take until 10:30 or 11:00. At 11:00 I would make lunch and then read from our current chapter book while the kids eat. This can be a little chaotic, but it's the only way I can read aloud to them consistently, and eating usually keeps them still and paying attention for about 10 minutes. I try and read for 20 minutes and then I eat my own lunch. Here is a list of all the chapter books we read this year. (click to make it bigger) The girls really loved The Secret Garden, Birchbark House (I thought it was SO sad) and Little House in the Big Woods of course. 

At 12:00 the boys would nap. While they napped the girls usually get a show, almost always Wild Kratts or Molly of Denali on the PBSkids app. I joke that Wild Kratts is their science curriculum but it's kind of true. They know so much about animals from Wild Kratts. 

This year we did homeschool through the online charter My Tech High. How it works is they reimburse you for homeschool supplies if you meet their requirements, which are teaching your kids certain subjects and reporting it to them each week. It was really easy and totally worth it for us.They don't reimburse for religious curriculum so anything from The Good and the Beautiful we have to pay out of pocket and they paid for almost everything else, plus a lot of extra stuff. So through that program I choose 3 "electives" for Esther this school year, they were Art, Technology and Social Studies. We would rotate these subjects and try to do them each at least once a week, usually in the afternoon. Adele would usually join in these subjects and sometimes the boys, though most often we did them during nap time. 

Social Studies: For social studies we did Five in a Row. I wanted to love this curriculum, but  I just didn't. It is a literature based curriculum where you are supposed to read a picture book five days in a row and do activities with it each day. I don't think we ever read the book five days in a row, it just was too much to keep up with. We did read all the books and discussed them and did a few activities but not many. It didn't feel like enough history but just random tidbits from various countries. The kids enjoyed the books, but next year we are going to do a different literature based curriculum that focuses on American History. Along with our curriculum we were reimbursed for a family pass to This is the Place Heritage Park. I hope we can go often this summer. The kids really love it and they definitely learn a lot each time we go. 

Technology: This was the only subject where I choose a direct class from my tech high. Esther did Early Robotics and Coding. This was definitely her favorite subject. The first semester she used a toy robot and coded it to do various things. The second semester she used the app Scratch Jr. to learn more about coding and create programs. She had an assignment each week to turn in and that kept us on track somewhat. She loved this class and it felt like just playing each time. This was the only part of her schooling that used a screen. I prefer no screen time learning during the early elementary but this minimal use was a really good fit for her. 

Art: For art I bought My Book of Delights series from Libraries of Hope. The plan was to study an artist or art style and then create our own art based on that each week. I didn't exactly stick to that, but we probably did about 12 lessons that way. The rest of the time I just gave the girls paints or clay or something and they created whatever they wanted. Esther is very creative and makes a craft, or paints or draws a picture multiple times a week so I never felt she was lacking in this area. Everything from libraries of hope is beautiful and really well done, I highly recommend them as a resource to all moms, and even all people who want to learn more about art and history and music. Anyways, below are some of my favorite pieces they made this year. 

Adele's:

Esther's:

All in all, it was a great homeschool year. With so many little kids, I really have to keep my expectations low. It is really easy to get in too deep with all the amazing resources, subjects and curriculums for homeschooling out there. For me, when I start to compare what we did to what other families do, is when  I start to feel like we failed and if my kids aren't reading chapter books on their own and learning a second langague by now, what is even the point?! But really I have to remind myself, hitting the above subjects, the kids all having lots of time to play and the whole family having lots of time in nature were big goals for me. It is enough. Play is so beneficial for young children, I really want them to have lots of opportunities for that. 

At times, especially during the stress of foster care, pregnancy, the pandemic, I have felt like homeschooling is too much. I think all homeschool moms entertain the thought that sending their kids to public school, thinking it would solve all their problems. When things got difficult this year, I had to continually remind myself why I'm doing this. It's not because I'm "afraid" and I think public school is evil. It's not because I want to get my kids ahead and make them super advanced. Honestly, I do it because I think it will be better for them in the long run. One of the big reasons I do it is for their mental health. I felt prompted to homeschool when Esther was a toddler, and with all that has happened with the pandemic, I am glad we already had homeschooling in place. I see young kids struggling with their mental health and it is heartbreaking. I want my kids to have time to play, a slow and deliberate childhood, and lots of time outdoors. I want them to learn about good people who overcame hard things so when they face hard things they will know that they can overcome too. Homeschooling is a sacrifice. It's not easy. My house is soooo messy most of the time because of it. But I feel like homeschool is a gift  I can give them, because you only have one childhood and when it's gone you can't get it back. 

P.S. If you're worried about homeschooling and socialization read this amazing article my friend Becky wrote. She says everything way better than I can.