How We Homeschool (January 2024)
If you are a homeschooling family, you typically fall into one of three categories:
Your kids go to a homeschool hybrid, where the curriculum is selected for you.
You have been using the same curriculum for decades.
You reassess the needs of each child each school year (or even more often) and often shuffle among different curriculum resources.
We fall into that third category. And since I know many of you do also, I wanted to share some of our favorite curriculum and resources we are enjoying most this school year (‘23-’24).
Homeschool Tip:
Have your older students read to the younger ones whenever possible! It is reading practice for the older, engaging for the younger, and bonding for both.
Last summer I began to pray that God would make it clear what needs to be most important in our homeschool. If we only had one year to homecshool together, what would be most urgent and pressing for them to learn? How would we spend our time? What should the primary and secondary focuses be? My hope is that we have many more years of homeschooling together. But keeping the mindset of highest priority helps me focus and not become weighed down with things that matter less.
Homeschool Tip:
Major on the majors, and minor on the minors. Allow margin for the majors to squeeze out the minors for a day. The scheduled assignments are not most important when those moments arise that minister to their soul. Be flexible enough to linger sometimes when their soul is engaged, and leave something else undone.
In that time of preparation, those things that impressed most on my heart for this season were:
Teach the kids (and myself!) more of the history of our faith
Move through life as a family unit—be together as much as possible
Find ways to learn more together, instead of each on their own
With this in mind, I went on a hunt over several months and discovered some of our new favorite books and resources! There are more homeschool resources linked on the resources page, but here are a few of our favorite new finds:
This page contains affiliate links, which means I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
Generations has an incredible series of Church history blended beautifully with world history. The elementary years focus on one continent at a time, and highlight different individuals and events which helped shape the Church and the world. These are great read-alouds or “morning basket” options that cross over grades very well. My 4th and 2nd graders do this together, and it works super well. We highly recommend checking these out!
The same organization created a beautiful and engaging science curriculum. It is easy to understand, full of gorgeous photography, and it gives all glory to God while remaining faithful to scripture. My 2nd and 4th graders read these together also, and even my preschooler loves to listen in and enjoy the beautiful photos!
This magic erase ink book set has brought new life to my 2nd grader, who became very discouraged and bored with writing practice. The child uses the special pen to trace the indented letters, numbers, designs, and age-appropriate math challenges. The ink then disappears after a few minutes, so it can be enjoyed over and over. The kids love seeing the “magic” of the disappearing ink. (And it comes with a bunch of ink refills, so everyone wins!)
Teaching Textbooks is an online math curriculum, which both displays the text and audibly speaks the instructions in a very simple, down-to-earth way. They offer elementary through high school level math, and you work a lesson at a time, at the pace that works for your family. They take all the guess work out of presenting math to your child! They do an excellent job of both explaining concepts with simplicity, and then creating practical practice opportunities, with real-life scenarios. Your child can return to previous problems or lessons, if needed, and you have the ability to control each aspect of the program and grading for your child. They offer a free trial of the first 15 lessons, and they also have a family discount for larger families of 4-8 students! It’s amazing!
This interactive book is my preschooler’s new favorite thing. There are dry erase pages for practice with letters and numbers, interactive games where their recognition of words is challenged, and even a little bit of Spanish practice with some basic words. (And parents everywhere rejoice because there is a volume control button! Ha!)
These are a few of our favorites that we added into this school year with great success. You can find more of the tools that make our homeschool work well on the resources page.
How is your homeschool journey moving along this year? Are you staying the course or making some changes for the spring semester? Please feel free to send me a message if you have a question or want to share ideas!
Sincerely,
Lizzy