Finishing the School Year

 We have just finished off another great school year. This year went really pretty smoothly. We took a week off for moving but other than that, we didn’t have any new baby or new foster placement interruptions. (Not that I don’t welcome those interruptions when they come!)

Esther, Age 9

This year Esther completed third grade. 

For Math we used The Good and the Beautiful level 3. Esther really thrives on TGTB math because of how pretty and fun it is. We have used this curriculum for math from the beginning, so it flows pretty seamlessly for us. However, the lessons are much too long for Esther. I’m glad they have extra practice problems when needed, and I appreciate the spiral approach, but I only had her complete about 50% of each lesson. Otherwise it would have been too overwhelming and long. She still learned and retained all she needed to to complete the course. She learned all her multiplication facts up to 12 using the musical multiplication course. I was impressed and proud by how well she learned them. Having math facts memorized and down is very important to me for the kids to learn, so we’ll continue reviewing these over the summer and onto level 4 too. 

For reading Esther did All About Reading level 3. All About Reading has been a great fit for her. It is very thorough and completely phonics based. It was a slight bit too easy for her this year but it really helped boost her confidence. After several years of very slow but steady progress,  she took of with reading this year and her fluency especially improved. She still claims she “doesn’t like” reading and isn’t one to pick up a chapter book to read…yet. She does love audiobooks and her and Adele love being read to, and listening to books on audible, Libby, and Yoto player. I’m still deciding what we’ll do for Esther for reading/language arts for next year. We could do AAR level 4 or I’m thinking of switching to TGTB language arts now that she has a basic level of reading. It’s hard to know what to do! 

For her elective class this year Esther wanted to learn to sew. I have wanted to teach her but it’s just one of those things we never seem to get around to, so I was happy to officially put it on our schedule and be forced to make time for it each week. I didn’t follow any curriculum but just went and bought fabric and worked on projects she was interested in. She made a cat pillow, a skirt, a quilt for the new baby, and her final project was a dress for herself, that one felt quite ambitious but we did it! I was learning right along side her. She has worn it to church several times and is so proud of it. Creating is her passion and it’s been great to see her flourishing in that. 

Esther also did piano this year. She has completed almost two years of piano now. When we moved she took a little break from it but we were able to find her a teacher that lives right down the street from us. That was such a blessing living in a rural area, to not have to drive for this activity. Her new teacher is more rigorous then her first teacher. This teacher has required hard work for Esther but the hard work is paying off! She is reading music better than ever, and loves to compose songs and teach them to Adele. 

Adele, age 7

Adele completed first grade this year. 

Adele has a LOVE of learning. She begs to do school, loves workbooks, and is sad when we don’t do schoolwork on weekends. 

For math this year she completed TGTB math level 1, and she started level 2 and is about a quarter of the way through it. She loves math and has caught on well to all the concepts taught. I would have skipped some of level 1 since it was pretty easy for her but she loved doing it so much she did every problem. Next year she’ll continue with TGTB level 2 and probably start level 3.

For reading we started with All About Reading level 1, but it just seemed too slow for her. She wanted to read everything and was sad she didn’t know all the phonic sounds yet. She really wanted to be reading books, not flash cards and word lists. What had worked so great for Esther wasn’t working for her, so I decided to switch her. We started doing Dash Into Reading book sets in the fall. I had done these with Esther as a supplement but I was skeptical of it was enough to actually teach a child to read. We’ll I had her read each book 3-4 times and we went through sets 1, 2 and 3 (10 books in each set) and by the time she got to the end of set 3 she didn’t even need to read the books 3 times because she could just read them! It’s been amazing to see! She is very good at deciding words and remembering all the phonemes. She loves reading and will try to sound anything out. I always knew she would love reading ever since she was tiny and would sit and pretend to read chapter books with no pictures, so it’s been so fun to see her finally get there. She still is just reading easy readers, but I can’t wait to see her get into full fledged chapter books here soon. I’m pretty sure I’m going to have her do TGTB language arts next year to help a little with her spelling and writing. She loves writing stories and is constantly making books. 

Both girls did Dash Into Learning for handwriting each day. Adele did print levels 1,2 and 3. Esther did D’nealian level 2 and 3 and started on cursive level 1. Cursive has been a little tricky sometimes but since she relishes knowing how to do things Adele doesn’t that sense of competition has kept her going with it. 

Both girls also kept a journal where we would do writing and copywork 1-2 times a week.

Julian, age 6 and Israel, age 5

Julian and Israel  were both considered pre-k this year. (We kept Julian back a year since he clearly wasn’t ready for any type of sit down work yet.) For the first 2/3rds of the school year they did very little “school”. I taught them each how to say the letters in their names, and they would join in on lessons with the girls here and there. Julian especially was very very resistant to anything I tried to teach him up until he turned 6. When he turned 6 he started occupational therapy mostly to help his fine motor skills. Around that time we also moved to our new house. Once we moved here we started doing schoolwork at the dining room table right in the middle of our home. Something about those changes made both boys become very eager to participate in school lessons. 

So I started teaching them letters and numbers and handwriting. Thanks to his help from OT Julian finally learned to hold a pencil and copy his name. Israel was still a little too young and would tell me his hand was tired, though he does enjoy writing his name, and signing anything he comes into contact with haha. Israel did pick up on letters and numbers very quickly. He has a mind for math just like his dad. In bought TGTB kindergarten math for next year and they were both dying to start it this spring, so we did. We got through about 12 lessons just doing 1-2  per week. I had hoped to keep both boys on the same level with everything to make things simplified but it’s already clear that Israel is going to outpace Julian so I’m not sure if I’ll make them stay on the same lesson each day or not. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do to teach them to read yet. Israel is very eager to learn to read and I think it will still be a couple years before Julian is ready.  Which is fine! Julian had a hard beginning to life and is still catching up in a lot of ways , and he really has come so far.  I did buy the leap frog letter factory video to help them learn all their letters and sounds so they’ll be ready to start phonics reading in the fall if we choose to. They both enjoy watching the video and Julian is picking up on a lot of letter sounds which is great.

Adele, Julian and Israel did Let's Play Music first year this year. They were all in the same class. It was a big money and time commitment, with parents required to attend every other class, plus practice at home each week. But it is such a great program. I have really loved it and so have the kids. Music is important to Leland and I and since we plan for our kids to have music instruction through high school it just makes sense for it to start this way. They have learned so much just in the first year. They will continue it for two more years and then go on to traditional piano lessons. 

History

This year for history we continued with American History. Starting with the after the Revolutionary War and ending with the Civil War. Some of the topics we covered were Lewis and Clark, Westward Expansion, Native Americans during this time, Slavery, The Underground Railroad, Abraham Lincoln, and The Civil War. I think there were more topics I'm forgetting, but we covered a lot. The entirety of our lessons were books, mostly picture books. A good friend made a booklist for American History so we used her list and it went well. The kids learned a lot. I do wish I had made time for more hands on learning and projects, I know the kids would love that but it's really hard for me to make the time for projects. Next year we are going to study Ancient History using Story of the World, and I hope to be able to do more hands on learning with that curriculum. 

Science

For science this year we continued doing Exploring Nature with Children with our forest school group. However with moving, being pregnant, and the terribly harsh winter we had it was really hit and miss. A lot of times we would plan lessons but it was just impossible to do outside with feet of snow on the ground so we just went sledding instead. Once we moved we have tried a couple natureish homeschool groups but it's not really what I was looking for. 

We also did an electricity and circuitry class through My Tech High. The kids, even the boys were very involved with this class. I didn't love it because it felt really really repetitive and somewhat boring, but I think the kids learned new things. They know how to make a circuit board at least. 

Read Alouds

Probably my favorite part of homeschooling is our read alouds. I just love reading and I hope I have passed that onto the kids. We read picture books at bedtime every night, just random ones the kids choose. During the afternoon we sometimes have storytime where I choose books to read to the kids, especially in the winter we do this more often. And everyday at lunch, almost no matter what, I read a chapter book to the kids. I've been doing this for years and usually around age 4 the kids start actually listening. However, Moses (2) seems to listen more than my others have. Recently I put our book away after finishing a chapter and Moses said " Mama, keep reading Uncle!" haha, The book was Heidi, which mentions Uncle a lot at the start. Here is a list of all the books we've read this year. Now that we live further from the city we've started to listen to books together in the car, so a few of these were audiobooks. 

 By the Shores of Silver Lake- Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Life of Joseph Smith- Richard E Turley

Prince Caspian- C.S. Lewis

Children of the Noisy Village- Astrid Lindgren

The Christmas Doll- Elvira Woodruff

The Yule Tomte - Ulf Stark

The Long Winter- Laura Ingalls Wilder

Anne of Green Gables- L M Montgomery

Old Yeller*-Frank Gibson

Charlotte's Web- E B White

The Little House on the Prairie*- Laura Ingalls Wilder

Heidi- Johanna Spyri

Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh*-Robert C O'Brien

*audiobook

All things considered I think this was a really great school year. There is always so much learning that takes place outside of formal lessons too. Lots of hikes, trips, gardening, taking care of animals, field trips, and arts and crafts. I am so happy I'm able to stay at home with the kids and learn along side them. There were some times during this really long winter when I was questioning things. Not seriously, but just wondering what it would be like if  I sent them all to school. I think its good to think about sometimes ha. I don't think my life would be way easier if  I did that, I think we would have new and different hard things but still hard things. Homeschooling is the hard thing I choose, and I'm so glad I get that choice. I'm glad that my children get a slow and peaceful childhood, to learn at their own pace. 

Next year we will be adding in a newborn and who knows what else life's curveballs will throw at us. Even with a newborn I feel confident and excited for the new school year to begin soon.