We are finishing our homeschool year this week, and on the whole it has been absolutely fantastic. Homeschooling with cousins has proven to be a perfect fit for our family. I’ve loved watching the kids grow closer, and I am cherishing the extra time with my nephews and niece.
Since it’s the end of the year, I thought I’d share a bit about what I used this year, what worked and what didn’t, and what I’m already planning for next year.
Math
For math all of the big kids used The Good and the Beautiful. We will be continuing them next year, and I love them for several reasons. First, it’s open and go- which with so many kids at all different levels, really helps me out. Second, the lessons are designed brilliantly- just the right amount of instruction and practice. It’s not overwhelming or daunting, and my kids happily sit down for lessons each day.
The process in the book allows for tweaking based on need, and it comes with manipulatives (though I’ve added others as needed as well).
I also really like that Luke, who is on Level 3 this year can do most of it himself. He likes being independent and in control, and I love that this lets him do that. For the other kids, I sit and give the lesson and then check their independent review, for him I let him do as much as he wants solo and check his work.
My two vibrant 4s have been doing Montessori math this year with lots of hands on and manipulatives, which I love for this age. You can check out some of my previous math posts for pre-k lessons.
Language Arts
This year we had several LA tracks that interwove in lots of ways. It was wonderful, but boy a lot of work.
William and Peter were both beginning readers, so most of the year with them was basic decoding and comprehension skills, along with the very basics of grammar. Most of this was done with the Montessori materials and beginning reading books. Both boys love the Now I’m Reading books, which also just happen to be my favorite reader set as well. One thing I like about them is that they have multiple sets at each level, so if you’re kid finishes the books in a set but isn’t quite ready to go farther, you can stay put and read new material. Bonus: you can get either hard copies or kindle versions.
Gianna and Luke are avid readers on their own and devour books in their free time, so I chose to stick with mostly short comprehension passages to get them the skills they need instead of having us all read a book together. For finding grade level based comprehension I like Super Teacher Worksheets. It’s a subscription service, and you can search by grade and subject matter. We also focused a lot on parts of speech and used the Montessori grammar curricula.
Each of the big four had a handwriting book from The Good and the Beautiful as well, because dang, they need it!
The little girls mastered the sandpaper letters quickly, and then moved through the beginning object sound bags, and are now happily working with the moveable alphabet. I was surprised at how well they both took to it.
We’ve got some changes coming for next year (more on that at a later date), so I am considering switching everyone but the little girls over to The Good and the Beautiful language arts books for ease of use.
History
This year I used River of Voices for our early American history curriculum. I loved that so many different perspectives were covered- not just the pilgrims! I also appreciated that each lesson had many options: videos, books, essays, articles- I could choose what was right for my group for each topic. I was really pumped about the activities that went alongside the lessons, but they were a miss for Luke and G, so we ended up tossing them in favor of mom-created extensions about a third of the way through.
I realized that both kids learn well through books, so for next year I’m researching different Charlotte Mason lists. We’re going to start with this timeline because it shows the breadth of human history across all of the continents, and then I’ll let them choose some moments and events that interest them to dive deeper into.
Science
This year instead of choosing a full curriculum for science, we did several different unit studies. I mixed and matched based on interest and level, some Montessori units from my days of teaching and a couple from The Good and the Beautiful. The kids enjoyed having more control over this piece of their schooling and loved being able to choose what we studied.
Religion
Again, this piece of the puzzle was mixed. We celebrated different liturgical feasts throughout the year with projects and books (take a peek at my archives for some of my favorites).
Luke really took to Lectio Divina, and I loved diving into Scripture with him and G. You can grab my free how-to Lectio book here and get a copy of my Lectio Journal for Kids on Amazon.
We also used the brand new Into the Deep curriculum this year. I LOVED it. It’s faith-filled and beautiful and intuitive. We’ll definitely be using it again next year.
And that’s it- simple and easy (though sometimes not so much). I’m excited for summer but of course, as most homeschoolers do, already planning and plotting out next year.