View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Shay (@mrsaddison)
Some of the caption from above: This probably seems crazy to some...but Monday the 5th was our first day "back" to school! We are pretty much year round homeschoolers but we do take breaks for holidays and busy times in our lives. Since the months of June and July are full of 4-H and the library's Summer Reading program activities we almost always end school in May and then start back up again at the beginning of August. However, since I'm due at the end of July this year, we decided to start earlier so we could get into the groove and get a little more established before our schedule gets completely thrown out of whack. So - onto the curriculum choices!
Zeke, Ellie, and Zac are using Time4Learning for the majority of their curriculum this year. We used it years ago when Zeke was in preschool I think (I'd have to go back and look!) and decided to try it out again after the disastrous end of year experience we had with our previous curriculum. (That's a story for another day, though...)
Zeke is a sophomore/in 10th grade, Ellie is in 7th, and Zac is in 3rd grade. Zeke is taking Economics, Geometry, Language Arts, Strategies for Academic Success (first semester), and Personal Finance (second semester). He's also using Duolingo to study Japanese. Ellie is taking Language Arts, Math, Earth Science, and Civics, Government, and Economics. She is using Duolingo to study Spanish. Zac is taking Language Arts, Science, Math, and Social Studies, as well as a Language Arts extension class to fill in any gaps from last year we may have missed out on.
Hezzy and Betsy are both using Reading Eggs. Hezzy is in 1st grade and Betsy has started kindergarten! I'm using the homeschool program of work that Reading Eggs includes in it's subscription - it gives you a schedule to follow with what specific lessons to do for that grade level. I've talked about Reading Eggs in the past but I don't know if I've ever done a full blown review of it. It's more than just reading, they also have phonics lessons, math, spelling, games, and more. I'll post a more thorough review in the future but if you're interested in trying it out, you can get a free trial HERE.
Hannah just turned 4 and is doing a little bit of Reading Eggs and some preschool workbooks I picked up. I'm not super rigid with preschool - I used to be but I feel like it burns the kids out quicker and when we do a shorter, less rigid program it seems to work better. (Every kid is different though so I reevaluate each year.) Lily is 1 and won't be doing anything formal obviously. She mostly just plays with toys, runs around, makes a few messes, and eats snacks. :)
Social Stuff: As far as our co-op group goes, our once a week classes are scheduled to start in September so I'll write more about them later. This summer we did 4-H but there will be stuff on and off all year long that we'll participate in. Zeke is in Junior Leaders and Ellie may be joining it later this year as well since she's of age now. We're doing the Summer Reading Program at the library - which Ellie is knocking out of the park - and will obviously continue to keep going to the library all year long.
Sports: Hezzy and Ellie did soccer in April and May and have signed up to do it again in the fall. Zac attended a football camp and has shown an interest in it so he's going to try and do the fall youth football league. And Zeke should be starting bowling back up again in August or September. I'm feeling mildly overwhelmed thinking about coordinating those practices but it will work out! (If anyone ever tells you homeschooled kids are unsocialized or don't get enough social time, that is not the case with us! Ha!)