Another year of homeschooling is close to starting and I can’t wait!
If you are a homeschooler, you understand the sheer pleasure of planning, collecting resources and mapping out your school year. It is one of the very best times of the year! Homeschooling is one of those convictions the Lord placed on my heart way before I was even married and it has truly been one of the best decisions I have ever made (I will be writing a blog post later on with all the reason why we love homeschooling and how we homeschool multiple grades).
This year is no different, the excitement is high and everyone is just ready to get started. We will have a child in 4th grade, 2nd grade, Kindergarten and Preschool and a tagalong for all baby giggles and squeezes. For the sake of not making this an encyclopedia book in length I’ll just share the books we will be using and not much more. If you have any questions please feel free to email or comment. I have used many of these books for years and as with most things there are pros and cons to them all.
Last school year we did homeschool 100% from home, no tutorial or co-ops. I taught every subject (some family style) along with field trips, projects etc. There is a ton of freedom when we homeschool this way and that is just what i needed with a fifth baby in tow. This year we were ready be back in our beloved tutorial and they will be going twice a week. In their tutorial they will be covering subjects such as science, history, art, spanish, writing, language arts and bible. I will sharing the curriculum they’ll be covering in each subject also, so not all of these will be solely at home. At home we will cover language arts & math, along with their tutorial task, homework and projects. We will also have our own bible study time apart from their bible classes at the tutorial where we will cover character training, prayer, sibling bible study and catechism.
We will be using The Good and The Beautiful for math for all grades (4th, 2nd and K). We have loved TGTB for many years now, it has worked perfectly for their style of learning and keeping their interest and attention. I have been truly impressed by the way it has progressed and how much they has learned and truly grasped.
4th grade: TGTB Math 4
2nd grade: TGTB Math 2
Kindergarten: TGTB Kindergarten
The Good and The Beautiful is truly an open and go curriculum, which is one of my biggest pros, it also has minimal manipulatives, it has worked great so far! If you are interested in trying them out they are amazing enough to offer their math curriculum completely for free, here!
With language arts and writing it’ll be split between what they use at tutorial and what they will use at home along with a blending of them both.
4th grade: IEW Fix It! Grammar: Town Mouse & Country Mouse, IEW Fables, Myths & Fairy Tales, Spelling by Sound & Structure grade 4
2nd grade: IEW Bible Heroes, Spelling by Sound & Structure grade 2
Kindergarten: TGTB level K & TGTB handwriting level K
If you want a preview of TGTB language arts curriculum they offer the whole curriculum for free as a printable, click here.
This is a subject that’s will be taught in part at their tutorial.
4th grade: Masterbooks The World’s Story 2: The Middle Ages
2nd grade: Masterbook America’s Story 1: From Ancient Americas to the Great Gold Rush
Kindergarten: BJU Press Heritage Studies 1: Family and Community
This is also a subject that’s taught in part at their tutorial.
4th grade: BJU Press Science 4
2nd grade: BJU Press Science 2
Kindergarten: BJU Press Science 1
In their tutorial they will be doing passage memorization, bible drills and more. At home we will reinforce those passages, along with Kids Theology Handbook by Phylicia Masonheimer, individual bible studies for the older two and the younger ones will follow along with mom. We keep it super simple by picking a. usually, new testament book and just reading through it. The oldest read it once or twice on their own (sometimes aloud to us all) and then we read it together and discuss. Morning time will also include a sibling bible study we found and love by Not Consumed Ministries and Character Matters Cards by September & Co.
Finally, our preschooler! He just turned 4 in May and we will be doing a combination of Peaceful Preschool, The Good and The Beautiful and Simply Learning Tot School Curriculum which is 100% free! We have done this combo for all three older kids and it has worked like a charm! Along with bible time, reading aloud and him tagging along and listening into everything older siblings are learning and doing.
Most, if not all of these curriculum offer and sneak peeks into what they cover. Although you truly cannot grasp a curriculum until you start using it.
Thanks for hanging in there I know this was a ton of informational dump but I tried to make it as concise as possible so that you can get a view into what we will be using with our 4th grader, 2nd grader and kindergarten. I didn’t give a lot of background on any of these curriculums so if you have any questions feel free to reach out.
And remember no one family is the same, what works for me might not work for you and that is absolutely 100% OKAY! What a blessing it is that we don’t all have to be carbon copies of each other!! The first step to homeschooling is approaching it with a heart that is ready to learn your child’s heart, their needs and wants.
Hold curriculum loosely and their hearts closely!