Let me preface this with, “we are eclectic homeschoolers”. We don’t use just one thing to teach one subject. Language arts is not the exception, it is the rule. It was very important for me to begin to expose James to the foundations of literature and to allow him space to apply literacy, grammar and comprehension concepts to literary works. I also really wanted to work on his creative writing muscles. Lastly, I wanted to formally introduce vocabulary this year. Whew!
Now that we got that out of the way, here is what we are using. I do suggest heading over to youtube to listen to how I plan on making all of this work.
Read Aloud for Literature Exploration: Black Boy Joy, 17 Stories Celebrating Black Boyhood
Reading: All About Reading, Level 4
Spelling: All About Reading, Level 2
Grammar: Kamali Academy, middle grades
Handwriting: Melanin Inspirations Cursive Practice
Creative Writing: LWT Building Writer, Usborne Books, Young and Brilliant Workbook
Vocabulary: Young and Brilliant Vocabulary Puzzles, Banish Boring Words, Word Roots Beginner, Schoolnest Vocabulary Notebook. I know that was a lot. You can see all the items here. You can read what we are doing for Jude here.
So, our LA curriculum is expansive and that is because my kids are not “one-size fits-all”. They need specifications and alterations. Through this year, we’ve observed lots of difficulty with Jude’s reading fluency although he can recognize both upper and lower case letters and their phonemes. He can segment cvc words and even spell them but reading is difficult. It is affecting his confidence as well so we are taking interventions.
With that, these are what we are choosing so far but may change
Reading: Teach Your Child to read in 100 Easy lessons, Orton Gillingham Workbook, Explode the Code
Handwriting: Melanin Inspirations copy work, Schoolnest Copywork Notebook, Letters and Numbers for Me
Spine Read Aloud: I Affirm Me
Everything is linked here and you can watch me explain it all here.
Oh! You can read what we are doing for James here!
We are rolling full-steam ahead in sharing what our homeschool will use for learning for the 22-23 academic year. You can check out our math picks here if you missed them. Today is all about Science.
To be clear, I’ve never once been excited about this subject. I am so excited to share that I am for this upcoming year. Part of it was finding our stride and identifying my kids interests, another part was realizing and healing part of my traditional school trauma and another part was finding resources!
Y’all I am stoked!!! Better than that, my kids are stoked!
As we are wrapping up what we planned for this year, I asked my kids what it is they wanted to explore and having a solid grip on their interest and capabilities, I began the hunt. Jude was easy. He likes nature, rocks and robots. Sold! I’ll go hard with exploring nature with children, supplementing with other books and things he will learn at our hybrid homeschool program. We will also delve into some earth science folder games and do all the things with rocks. All of them. We recently decided to throw in some weather robots units too!
James was a bit more tricky. He was quite a bit more detailed about what he wanted to explore (muscle movement, animal life, propulsion, distance) and adamant about the things he did not (the human body systems). Great. Just great. Thanks To Erica at Melanated and Well Educated, I was introduced to Science Fusion and grabbed grade 5 and 2 grade 6-8 books. Those will be our spine and we will use other library books, videos and activities to round it out to fulfill his heart’s desires. You can get all the links for these items here.
Can we just take a minute to acknowledge how fast this year has just flown by? I mean, wasn’t I sharing curriculum picks like two weeks ago for the 21-22 school year?
Le sigh… time flies when you are having fun! That’s what we did this year and I am anticipating lots of fun for this upcoming year as well!
I won’t bore you with all the deets as this will be a series of blogs. I value your time and attention span. Today’s subject? You guessed it! Math!
True story, this was the easiest subject for me to choose. Per what we used last year, I added a few things to our math manipulative stash and quickly decided on Saxon Math 3 and Singapore Math 3 as James’ main loop and we will throw in Horizon’s math grade 2 as a review and confidence boost. Saxon and Singapore worked so incredibly well this year and I feel like the math gains were significant but they weren’t painful for us.
For Jude, we will continue with Singapore math as well and I’ll bring out our faithful Math U See Primer from demme Learning. Jude’s math gains were great but the Demme learning provides a number sense foundation that is unmatched.
You can check out our math manipulatives here and all our curriculum picks here.
To know me is to know I love a board and a basket. Honestly, I adore them and I love how easy it is to make common necessities and/or some cute festive additions so much more grande and special. That’s my goal, the memories. I want, I guess I need my kids to feel so incredibly treasured it is foreign to them to not love themselves or others well.
Anywho, here’s the rundown for all the things in their ‘Back To School” baskets. I think I will present them the week before with a special doughnut breakfast. Thoughts?
You should know these freaking adorable labels are hand painted and personalized from Grace and Grain Studio. Seriously, the BEST customer service ever.
Both boys are getting the following:
Navy Backpack– I spent like 7 hours trying to find the best backpack for their needs as they will spend Tuesdays learning at a local homeschool program. These fit the bill and the budget. My prayer is they will last 2 years too. I also snagged lunch totes on clearance and personalized them myself. (Mine sold out so linking similar, check their clearance though!)
Speaking of personalization, I personalized two shirts for them; a polo with our homeschool name (state requirements as I have to register this year) and grade level t-shirts. I was on a roll so I personalized a crayon holder as well.
Not personalized but awesome, they got a primary composition book that leaves room for illustrations as we want him to practice writing short stories this year. I’m planning to have them dictate lots to me!
Acrylic Numbers: This was not a need. I couldn’t resist and can see us using these manipulatives for so many things.
Crayola Band-aids (BullsEye Playground unconscious purchase. No idea how it happened.)
Here is where they differ…
Books: Jude got a signed copy of The King of Kindergarten and James got The Day You Begin (a gift from Grandma). They also got a “what’s different” activity book for the car or trips that are based on their level. (No link because I have no idea where I got them, I’ve hoarded them for a few years.)
How goes it? Is anyone else in full “back-to-school” mode? Honestly, I feel like I have been in this space for a while, planning, preparing and sharing. I recorded a video of our math manipulatives that some of you requested and I thought I would a draft a blog to say the following:
You do not NEED any of this. Not one thing.
I strongly suggest you hunt sales and buy used.
If your kids need or desire a multi-sensory approach, manipulatives help a ton! I bought these over the course of 4 years. I also had help from the grandparents.
Please please please do not feel pressured into buying anything or stressing over what to get where. I share my favorites in this video if that is what you would like to start with.
This summer is way easier than last summer and for that, I am thankful. It is also easier to plan for homeschool and, again, I’m thankful.
I wanted to share our homeschool Rhythm with you. Please know this will ebb and flow and is a work in progress. It’s also very far from perfect. If you want to know about our rhythms, check this out. There’s a whole blog and video detailing why do a rhythm and not a schedule.
On Tuesdays and Thurdays, we will do a little car school. Mostly science and bible using podcasts , audiobooks and call and response. On Thursdays, I would also love to do some park school, lunch outside and some good fun This is due to our enrichment activities now that we can finally safely participate in them.
Every day we will use a loop schedule for our subjects and curriculum. You can grab a blank printable here. It really helps us all to see all we need to achieve and how.
Every morning, (except tuesdays) James will do his morning starters and Jude will do morning baskets.
We will journal in the evenings, switching from the mornings. I think this will allow us to get more school work done quicker and enjoy our day.
Mondays and Wednesdays will be heavy school days, meaning, we will get through all of one loop, some review and make sure our foundation is solid.
Monday and Wednesday James will do his science and history with me solo while Jude naps.
Again, this is all proposed. Nothing is set in stone and will likely have to change or be adjusted. That is ok!!!
We are continuing with a loop schedule because that is what works for us.
We made it! We are at the end of the 2021-2022 Curriculum Picks series. Thanks for rocking with me. Today is everything for our young second grader, James. Like Jude, James’ next year will most likely be 2nd Grade 2.0 and we are so fine with that. My kids did stellar with all 2020 threw at us and yet, we still may need another year solidifying things before hitting the hard stuff of third grade. We are also preparing James for his first year of testing in addition to a full day at our local homeschool program and gymnastics. Whew!
I also would like to kinda see how much James can handle and retain well. I feel like I am always reconciling his age with his intellectual and physical abilities; not wanting to either push too hard or limit him. I think him having his own science and history time with me will work out well as his love language is quality time.
