I am in disbelief that I have been homeschooling for nine years. I still feel like the new kid on the block, but I guess that isn’t necessarily true anymore. However, like parenting, homeschooling is a plate of shifting sands – once you think you figure things out, things change! Kids change, life circumstances change, and curriculums that worked for one, don’t work for another. Also, as the years pass, I let go a little more of “what school should look like” in exchange for “what school can look like.”
This was the first year of homeschooling that we did not move and/or I did not have a baby. Throw in two months of quarantine thanks to COVID 19 and we have had a pretty calm year!
Here’s a roundup of what we used this past year and how it worked for us:
Morning Time
We start our morning together with a few group activities, wrangling people to their chairs and providing a definite start to the today.
- Prayer
- Pledge
- Scripture Memorization using the 50 times method. (Check out more about it here over at The Prime Pursuit.) This year we memorized Hebrews 10:19-25, I Corinthians 13 and Romans 12.
- Hymns – Once or twice a week we gather around the piano, working our way through the hymn book.
Read Alouds
Tapestry of Grace has read alouds built into the program that focus on people, topics, and time periods covered in the history lessons. We listen to the books on Audible every day during lunch. (Most of the missionary stories are from YWAM’s Heroes Then & Now series) Here are the books we read together this year:
| Amy Carmichael |
| Pollyanna |
| Eric Liddell, Something Greater than Gold |
| Mary Poppins |
| The Hiding Place |
| Mr. Poppers Penguins |
| Brother Andrew |
| Jim Elliot |
| Jacob Deshazer |
| Billy Graham, Get Up Out of Your Seat |
| Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe |
| Destination Moon (not on Audible) |
| Red Scarf Girl |
| Book of Virtues (not on Audible) |
| Joni: An Unforgettable Story |
Addison – 7th Grade
History and Literature – Tapestry of Grace, Year 4, Dialectic
Tapestry of Grace is a four-year cyclical history program that incorporates literature, worldview, art, geography and writing, with history and literature being the main focus. The reading material is broken down into four categories: Rhetoric (high school), Dialectic (general 6th-8th grade), Upper Grammar (generally 3rd-5th grade) and Lower Grammar (1st-3rd grade). You determine your child’s level in large part on their reading level.
This year was our first time to cycle back through a year plan since we started with Year 4 Addison’s 3rd grade year. This is my favorite year of study. I enjoy the events of the 1900’s but specifically with this year’s plan I enjoyed the missionary biographies that accompany our history studies (Year 3 follows this same pattern). With two years of Dialectic level reading under her belt, Addison more easily and confidently read her history assignments and worked through her response questions independently.
We participate in an online coop with other Tapestry families which adds a valuable layer to our school days. Addison took history, literature and writing this year. I believe a coop is essential for Tapestry at the Dialectic (middle school) and Rhetoric (high school) levels for the students to critically think through the reading material and present their thoughts in class.
Geography – Tapestry Map Aids & Seterra
Tapestry has a built-in geography program, including detailed map assignments at every age level. I have found the maps to be helpful in understanding the landscape of historical events, but not before the Dialectic level.
Seterra is a website with loads of fun geography quizzes for all ages. This year Addison has been working through each continent, learning the countries and then the capitols before moving on to the next. It is a quick and valuable tool. So often geography is overlooked or skimmed over and this website makes it easy and fun for the kids to learn the countries and capitols of the world. It even has more specific quizzes like Civil War Battles, Physical Features, Bodies of Water and Layers of the Earth.
Grammar & Vocabulary – Fix It Grammar, Worldly Wise, Abeka
As part of our Tapestry Coop writing class, Addison did Fix-It Grammar assignments (Littler Mermaid). These exercises are short and have the student edit a passage each week. Learning to edit and correct mistakes is a valuable skill for writing and reinforces grammar rules.
Last year I learned that the full Abeka grammar program was overkill on top of the coop grammar assignments. This year Addison used the Abeka Grammar Supplement assignments. Each exercise is short but reviews important concepts.
This year we also added Wordly Wise Book 4 to focus on vocabulary expansion. I wish I had done this years earlier!
While this may sound like a lot of grammar, she alternated between the three curriculums each day and it proved to be much more manageable than the full Abeka program paired with a writing class.
Writing – Online Coop Class
I highly recommend a formal writing class for writing instruction in middle school and beyond for most families. I am a professional writer. It is my job, and yet I struggle to be consistent in teaching and evaluating my own kids’ writing. Having taught writing for four years, I can attest that most other families share the same struggle. Most people need accountability to teach writing well. If you are considering online classes for older students, I would put writing at the top of the list. It is a life skill that they need to be able to do well.
Our coop class focused on solid paragraph construction, topic sentences and essay writing, with a few fun activities thrown in.
Spelling – Learn that Word (online), Sumdog
My kids and I enjoyed the online spelling program Learn that Word for years. It is easy to use and a straightforward spelling drills and practice. However, the company’s customer service is terrible. We have had issues renewing our license for years and this year I finally gave up and moved on to another program – Sumdog. Sumdog is a math as well as spelling program. I do not like it as well as Learn that Word, but for this year, it was a quick, and possibly temporary, fix.
Spanish – Potter’s School Online Class, Spanish 1A
One of my biggest blunders as a homeschool mom was not enrolling my kids in a formal Spanish class the year we moved to Spain. Since we moved in October, the school year was well underway before I realized how desperately they would need it. I thought this whole learn a second language thing was going to be a breeze, I guess! This year we did not make the same mistake! I enrolled Addison in the Spanish 1A class online from Potter’s School. In this format, they divide Spanish 1 over the 7th and 8th grade years, with the students earning a 1/2 credit for high school Spanish each year. The class met once a week for an hour and a half. While the class seem to CRAWL by for Addison, she needed the reinforcement for grammar and spelling, even if she already knew most of the material verbally.
Math – Life of Fred: Factions; Decimals and Percents
Math is not Addison’s favorite subject. She does well overall but has to work hard and has never really enjoyed it. Based on recommendations from friends, we decided to try Life of Fred this year to see if it would help her to enjoy math more. This math curriculum was written by a math professor who wanted kids to love math. He believes that death by math problem (Abeka, Saxton) is not only ineffective, it turns kids against math. Each non-consumable book has 30-35 lessons. The lessons are told in story form with 3-5 practice problems at the end of each lesson. And after five lessons is a Bridge Quiz. They have five tries to pass the bridge with a score of at least 9/10. Then there is a final bridge at the end of the book. The student self-grade their own homework and quizzes making it easy for moms. The bridges provide a great assessment of whether they understand the concepts of the past five lessons or not.
I thought Pre-Algebra would be the best place to start for Addison this year. However, I wanted her to have a solid foundation of fractions and percent, so I bought the full five volume middle school set to review those concepts. We ended up spending the entire year on the first two books. We repeated the decimals and percent book because every quiz and her final test was a struggle. Instead of just getting through it, we agreed the beauty of homeschool is that we could make the time to go through the book again to master the concepts. The second time through was much easier for her than the first, enforcing that we made the right decision.
I would highly recommend Life of Fred to anyone, but especially to those families looking for a different approach to math.
Finance – Foundations in Personal Finance (Dave Ramsey)
This was hands down my favorite addition to our lineup this year. Foundations in Personal Finance is a DVD curriculum with a student workbook. The lessons are short (10-15 minutes), engaging and super practical, even for a middle schooler. Addison is a spender by nature, and I have seen tremendous growth in her attitude about money since working through this curriculum. I would recommend this for anyone with kids, homeschooling or not.
Science – Apologia General Science (Online Class)
I have eagerly awaited the day when my kids would be old enough to take an online class fully independently! We have always used Apologia Science and so General Science was a natural choice for Addison in 7th grade. Because of the time zone challenge of living in Europe we chose a recorded class vs. a live class through Apologia Academy. The recorded class gave her the flexibility to listen to class as she had time during the week, yet all of the assignments were still graded by her teacher along with the students in the live class. The bonus of a recorded class is that recorded students are welcome in the live classes any time. Pretty quickly Addison decided she preferred going to the live class vs. listening to the recording, but it still gave us the flexibility when we traveled. (Remember those days? When we could get on airplanes and go places for fun! Ugh!)
Mya – 4th Grade
History and Literature – Tapestry of Grace, Year 4, Upper Grammar
I kept Mya in the Lower Grammar level last year to be able to read books with Lucy, but she could have easily handled Upper Grammar. She moved to Upper Grammar this year with no problems at all. I try to keep evaluations to a minimum still at this age, because we are focused more on exposure to topics than memorization of facts. I often had her journal 1-2 paragraphs about history topics and weekly she completed the Tapestry history quizzes, which are mostly short essay questions, charts or diagrams to fill in. She really enjoyed the literature selections: Indian in the Cupboard, The Breadwinner, The Wizard of Oz and more.
Geography – Expedition Earth & Seterra
Mya and Lucy enjoyed this fun world geography curriculum, surveying 31 different countries around the world. It is set up to focus on one country per week, with daily assignments, however we easily covered the material in one day per week. (Full disclosure – we did about 1/3 of the projects and crafts she recommends. If you do more of those, you will need more than one session a week.) Along with learning about each country, it also covers topics like weather, ocean currents, the water cycle and volcanoes using the Usborne Geography Encyclopedia. Mya also used Seterra quizzes, focusing on US States & Capitols, Countries of South American, Europe and Africa.
Language Arts and Cursive – Abeka
Cursive may seem obsolete, but I continue to feel that it is a worthwhile investment. Not only are they able to write in cursive, they will be able to read letters and documents written in cursive.
At this age Abeka begins to drill the eight parts of speech in the grammar text and introduces diagraming. While I think the grammar instruction overall is fantastic, I do have a few complaints about the workbook. The unit on research papers is almost exclusively focused on encyclopedias (like the actual hard back books) as a primary source. While I do think the grammar instruction is solid enough to overlook outdated material like that, I do wish they would update their material to reflect how students actually research papers today. Although I did have Mya write a 5-paragraph essay over a history topic during that unit, we skipped most of that material and the other writing prompts.
Writing – Usborne’s Creative Writing Book
Having taught my own kids and coop writing classes for year, I have found that I do not like the majority of writing curriculums on the market for the upper elementary and middle school age groups. I feel like they are a bit heavy handed in the mechanics of writing. While important most of that can be covered in a grammar workbook. Kids at this stage also need to be encouraged to think in order to write well. Especially paired with a solid grammar program like Abeka, I feel like you can be a little more whimsical in your writing selections.
I bought this writing book in a set with very little expectations. I thought it would be a handy way to keep me accountable to have Mya write consistently. Guys – I was thoroughly impressed with this book. It covered a wide range of writing topics from poetry, a variety of fiction genres, screenplays, speeches and even sportscasting scripts. I will definitely be incorporating some of these ideas into the future writing classes I teach. As I posted this link I see the book says out of stock. Hopefully that is temporary, or there is a replacement title. This is a gem! It is perfect for any upper elementary or even lower middle school students needing a fun and engaging chance to expand their writing skills.
Spelling – Learn that Word & Sumdog (see above)
Spanish – Potter’s School Online Class, Elementary Spanish
The format for Mya’s Spanish class was a bit different than Addison’s. They met twice a week for 45 minute classes instead of once a week. The homework level was a pretty big jump for us in the beginning of the year, but we eventually got into a rhythm. Since this was Mya’s first online class, she needed a bit of hand holding in the beginning. Like Addison, she knew most of the material verbally but needed the reinforcement of grammar and spelling. For a kid unfamiliar with Spanish, this is a good, but challenging, class.
Math – Abeka, 4th Grade Arithmetic & Reflex Math
Although I was intrigued by it, I was a bit hesitant to move the everyone to Life of Fred Math (see above). I left the choice up to Mya and she decided to stick with Abeka this year. While I had no complaints with the program, side by side with Addison’s math work, Mya’s really did look like death by math problems. However, having her complete the odd or even problems only relieved most of that. We also skipped some of the General Review pages scattered throughout the book. I do appreciate consistent drill practice however for concepts like long division, fractions and story problems.
Reflex Math is a website/app that is solely focused on drilling math facts. All of my girls have used this and it is far more effective for us than flashcards.
Science – Apologia Zoology Flying Creatures, with Notebooking Journal, with MP3 Audio
We love the Apologia Elementary Science books. They dive deep into one subject rather than skim the surface of many topics. Mya and Lucy rounded out their three-year study of zoology this year with Flying Creatures. This is one of my favorite books of the series. We especially love the chapters on bats and bees. The caution I would give to this book is it is a bit difficult to do overseas, or at least for a non-bird expert like me. Many of the observations were geared toward different species of birds than we have here in Spain. I’m sure this could easily be overcome with a little effort should this be an issue for you. (I think you would run into the same issues with the Botany book.)
Mya and Lucy listened to the chapters on their own and then we went over the review questions together.
This year I did notice one drawback to this series, however. When you dive deep into subject matters rather than skim, there will be gaps in knowledge compared to other elementary science curriculums. For instance, in her elementary years Mya so far has studied Land Animals, Sea Creatures, Flying Creatures, Astronomy and Anatomy. This has provided her with a wealth of knowledge, but means she hasn’t studied things like electricity, the layers of the earth or elements. This isn’t a negative; it is just something to be aware of. Elementary age is perfect for exploration and introduction to a wide range of topics. Gaps will be filled in with later science studies. Addison filled in many of these gaps after General Science.
Lucy – 1st Grade
History and Literature – Tapestry of Grace, Year 4, Lower Grammar
There are a ton of books for the Lower Grammar Level of Tapestry. Since Lucy is still a beginner reader, I read her all of the history assignments. While they cover mostly fun and interesting topics, it is a lot for a first grader. We didn’t cover every suggested history book, but we were able to cover all the literature selections.
Geography – Expedition Earth & Seterra
In addition to Expedition Earth (see above) Lucy also used Seterra quizzes, focusing on the continents, oceans, and US States.
Language Arts, Reading and Cursive – Abeka
The Abeka phonics program is a solid reading program and has worked well for all of my kids so far. It reviews phonics through 2nd grade. The 1st and 2nd grade workbooks have a language book and a phonics book. If you have a really strong reader, the phonics workbook is probably not necessary in 1st grade and definitely not necessary in 2nd grade.
As Lucy’s spelling improved through the year, she began journaling on science or history topics once a week, 2-3 sentences.
Spelling – Learn that Word & Sumdog (see above)
Math – Abeka, 2nd Grade Arithmetic & Reflex Math
Typing – Typing Instructor for Kids
Science – Apologia Zoology Flying Creatures
Since introduction to concepts, not mastery, is the goal at this age, I did not have Lucy do anything else other than listen to the chapter and review the questions with me.
Jake – Preschool
Letter of the Week Preschool Curriculum
I am pretty flexible when it comes to preschoolers. It is the one age level that I am fully on board with child-led learning. Jake was more enthusiastic in wanting schoolwork than his older sisters were at the same age, especially at the end of the year.
I have a file folder of each letter with the activities printed, cut, laminated and ready to go at the beginning of the year. This helps ensure I will actually do preschool every week. Some years I have not been as organized, and I am never very successful printing and prepping during the school week.
Group subjects:
Bible – Apologia What We Believe Series: Who Am I
This is our second year using the What We Believe worldview curriculum. I continue to be impressed with the discussions and engagement we have though these stories, lessons and through provoking questions. Addison has assignments in the companion notebooking journal, while the younger kids engage with discussions only. If you are a military family, contact Apologia for 40% off all of your purchases!
What’s in the Bible – DVD Series
Every Friday morning the kids watched a 30 minute What’s in the Bible episode. The series is a fantastic overview of the Bible and is great for ANY age. Watching one episode per week, it takes 26 weeks to walk through the whole Bible.
Art – Local Art Classes and ScrawlrBox
Addison is our resident artist and has flourished being in a formal art class this year. She is a pencil drawer primarily, so the exposure to other mediums have been great for her. ScrawlrBox is a subscription service that delivers art supplies every month and features a small original work by a member artist. It has included things like gel pens, brush-tip markers, smudge erasers, and quality colored pencils. Every month they also include a new drawing pencil. It is her favorite day of the month when it arrives in the mail.
Music – Piano
This is our second year of online piano lessons and I don’t think we will ever go back to in person lessons. Chad’s cousin Rachel is a piano teacher and she offered to do online lessons with the kids. It has worked out well for us. I love the consistency it will provide in the future and I love not having to wrestle Jake somewhere outside our house while waiting on the girls to finish lessons. The girls even got to participate in the recital virtually!
PE – Swim Team, HIIT and Downdog Apps
We made the leap from gymnastics to swim team this year and the girls have never looked back. Normally they swim three nights a week, plus competitions on the weekends, so we haven’t added a lot of formal PE into the schedule. When COVID closed everything down, we needed a more focus on workouts at home. We have found a family of apps that we love to use. HIIT gives killer quick workouts and Downdog is a yoga app that is totally customizable for whatever practice you want that day. There is a free version of the basic workout, and the full version is also free until July 1st for students, teachers and healthcare workers!