Homeschool Organization

Happy November!

This is a very pic-heavy post, but if you are like me and organization pictures are your jam, welcome and enjoy! Today I'm addressing another common question, and one of the main things I put a lot of thought into when we were considering homeschooling - "How the heck do I set this up and keep it organized and flowing smoothly!?"

Current Room (more info below about what is pictured): each girl has their own side of the room, Lulu on the left and Buggy on the right. The shelves next to each desk holds their supplies, current work bins, books we are or will use for each, and their miscellaneous items/toys that make them happy during the school day. The middle area is random stuff - office supplies, cleaning wipes, crafting things, markers, my little stash of Jolly Ranchers, etc...

This front room is in the shape of a large rectangle, and has been wonderful during the years. This space was originally a playroom when the girls were little:

We were homeschooling when I created the playroom, so we did our schooling in the dining area:

But then, as I often do, I decided to mix things up, and that's when we moved our school room into the playroom:

(SO FREAKIN TINY OMGEEEE. ^^ Buggy about 5 years ago...)

We had a couple other variations that I posted about here at the time, and then took a break from homeschooling. This room just became a craft/fun room, but now we are back! So here, again, is our current setup:

Desks - they are super budget-friendly and from IKEA. (Didn't get a picture of this before school today - obviously it's post-school video-game playing time up in here!) In some of the pictures above, you can see I originally had these 2 desks bracketed together to make one big square where we sat and did all our work together. It was cozy and wonderful, and perfect for a 2nd grader and preschooler. Now that we are middle school and 3rd grade, everyone wants their space. Plus, if the girls shared a big desk, I'm pretty sure most of the school day would be spent fighting about whose side is better or who has more room or who is looking at whom with a "creepy cringey face", etc. You get the picture. 😂

Shelves - those are... just shelves I ordered online maybe? They used to be black before I sanded, primed, and painted those suckers. I think Amazon? I don't know. If you are starting out and don't have shelves yet, I would totally do some Kallax from IKEA. 😍 These would be great for homeschooling organization.

Bins/drawers - we have pretty much always used a variation of the Sue Patrick Workbox System. Currently we are literally doing the most basic version of it: labeled drawers. There are a lot of ways to use this system, and as Lulu gets older I may incorporate it more for her (check out link for how awesome it can be). For now, though, we use these drawers, along with a checklist for the week broken down by day with what they need to do.

The girls just go to the drawer for their subject and pull out what needs to be done. Super basic, super easy. I add in any worksheets or extra materials they need for that day. There are many ways to do this system. You can see in some of my pics above other ways we have done this, with baskets and shelves for 2nd grade, and for preschool we did open trays with the materials laying on each tray. The point is to have the papers and materials ready for each subject so your child (or you!) can easily grab what you need and get it done.

Miscellaneous Storage: Just random crates and bins holding manipulatives, extra supplies, and papers. Nothing too exciting. But there are some pictures of it. You're welcome.

My little nook: I have moved my stuff into the dining area now. I camp out at the dining room table and print things as needed for the girls, grade things, teach new concepts, and answer questions. I have all my teachers manuals and binders easily accessible.


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So there you go - many pictures and links to info about homeschool organization!! I'm sure this will change again; but right now it's working very well for us. As I touch on different subjects, I will get more into what binders and bins I have for each, and how I keep it all organized.

OK time to go inhale carbs and watch election results, who's with me!?? 😵

THE Question....

Hello! Happy almost-Halloween! Grab some candy and settle in - long post ahead...

As I mentioned on Facebook earlier this week, I have received an increasing number of messages from friends about homeschooling. These messages range from "My child hates school, tell me all about homeschooling!" to specific questions about a curriculum we use, how high school would work, what groups we are involved in, ways I have helped my kids conquer their various quirks while we are doing school, how I'm maintaining any semblance of sanity (spoiler: I'm usually not!), and so on. I have been trying to answer people comprehensively (aka in my usual rambling wordy fashion), but I feel like I'm overloading everyone with my responses because there is SO MUCH information. So, I am going to try my best to post once a week highlighting one area of homeschooling, in the hopes that this helps answer questions in a more sane way for everyone.

To start out, I thought I would address the main question I receive:

"WHAT ABOUT SOCIALIZATION?"

I would bet solid money that if you asked all homeschoolers, “What question do you hear the most often?”, this would be it. And keeping it real, this was a hard one for me to get past as well. I wanted my kids to go to dances and sporting events and have the typical schooling experience. I worried that they would become freaky weirdos who couldn't interact in a normal way with their friends. I had to challenge all my preconceived notions of why going to school is the best way for kids to become well-adjusted members of society.

Disclaimer: Everyone who homeschools has to address this topic for themselves and their family personally. My opinions and views expressed here are based on my own thoughts and experiences.

There are many homeschoolers who see "lack of socialization" as a positive thing - they don't want their kids exposed to the society we live in these days. The sex, the drugs, the rock'n'roll (ok not that last part, I don't think...). But seriously, we live in a messed up world. So for some, the answer to "Hey freaky homeschooler, aren't you worried your kids won't be socialized?" is "Heck no, I want that!" And believe me, I get that. There are aspects of that I agree with. I'm happy my kids don't have to do active shooter drills or be exposed to *some* things at too early of an age. (I also think timed math facts testing is the devil and could go on a huge rant about that, but I'll save that for another time. And don't get me started on standardized tests.....)

But, on the whole, I respectfully disagree with that mindset. I do want my children to be exposed to the messier aspects of life that we maybe wouldn't encounter here at home, so we can have the big conversations and use them as teachable moments. I also want them to have experience working with their peers, forming bonds and maintaining friendships - the things a healthy well-run school would provide for them. I want them to be involved in their community, and yes be exposed to society. Not so they can conform to it, but so they can function in it, and be empathetic individuals who are aware of what's going on around them. So, in short (even tho I'm about to follow this up with many words), my answer to "what about socialization?" is: I am extra deliberate in the types of extra classes and activities my girls do, so that they are exposed to the things they are missing from school (and in our case, getting more than school would offer). In other words, we get OUT of the house and into the world as much as possible.

We meet up with friends as frequently as we can, travel, do field trips, volunteer in our community, and I have them signed up for the following classes/activities (after each, I have listed my reasons why, and what they are gaining by each experience):

Sports: different authority figure than MOM, teamwork, group of peers working together, pushing themselves to achieve results and reach goals.
Girl Scouts: problem solving, working with a group of peers towards a common goal, discussions about our world and what we can do to improve it, opportunities to be involved in the community, and again, a different authority figure.
Cub Scouts: Lulu just started this, and again, different authority figure, group of friends, plus a little more hard core in that she is learning survival skills and being challenged in a way she hasn't before. It's outside both of our comfort zones!! (especially those freakin uniforms.....)
Homeschool Group: for obvious reasons!
Online classes: live with a teacher - homework assigned by someone besides MOM, working with other classmates, making new friends. Or pre-recorded lectures - listening to someone else, taking notes, yada yada.
In-person classes*: actual live teacher in a classroom with other students - completely recreating the school classroom; this is a new thing we are trying this year with a local organization, kind of in the "trial" period for us. But it has the potential to provide a lot of what the girls miss in school - even student council and winter formal. The group is Quest for Education and Arts.

Bottom line: If "lack of socialization" is holding you back from homeschooling, please don't let it! While my kids are not in an actual school setting all day and may be missing out on some things because of this, I feel like a whole new world has opened up for us as homeschoolers to get involved in our community more than we would otherwise. They also have each encountered people from different backgrounds and been exposed to scenarios that have jump-started some important conversations about life. But again, everyone needs to think this topic through for themselves and decide whether they are okay with their kids having a different experience than the norm. 💕

Story of the World, Volume 3 - Chapter 1

We survived our first week of a new school year- hurrah!!

One of the new-ish things we are doing is Story of the World (SOTW) together. Bug already did the first 2 volumes last year for 6th grade, but it was within the Sonlight history curriculum. She read the chapters and discussed with me, and also read historical literature that went with each time frame.

This year, I am reading the chapter aloud to both girls and asking questions afterwards. We are also doing mapwork, Lulu is making a lapbook, we are incorporating projects/field trips, and we are making a wall timeline. Oh and Bug is also getting official tests at the end of each chapter. I'm getting hard core yo.

So here is how our first chapter looked this week:

Chapter 1 was basically about how Charles wanted to rule all the things and threw a temper tantrum to the Pope and got his way, and then his son Philip wanted to own all the gold in South America and stole it from the Native South Americans, and forced them to work alongside African slaves. Delightful family!

Bug is reading "I, Juan de Pareja" as her literature to go with this time period. Olivia didn't read a fiction book to go with this history chapter. (But do not fret, next week we have some cool stuff!)

So - in each chapter, I will give the girls a map page like this one below, and have them circle, color, and mark various areas according to my directions. Like this (P on Philip's lands, F on Ferdinand's, etc.)

Our project this week was making gold doubloons from cardboard and gold foil:

We read an amazing story about a man (during the 1960s all the way through the 1980s, after much hard work and loss) who found treasure in the ocean from ships that were taken down by a hurricane while trying to get home to Spain from South America back in the 1600s. 

And here is the first part of the lapbook that Lulu is making. Under each flap, she wrote a sentence with information about what she learned on that topic.

And, last but not least - here is our wall timeline that we started. We are doing this in an unconventional way, and we will see if it works. My vision is that those racks (this was previously a book display wall) will hold books and projects for each section of the timeline, like this -- our book (library tho, so not a permanent fixture), and our bag of treasure! 

And here is the big empty wall, ready to be filled!!

Close-up of the super cool world history timeline poster I got on Amazon:

So there you have it! Chapter 1 done. Week 1 done. Yay!

Thoughts on the end of a school year....

We are starting our new school year tomorrow! 3rd and 7th grade. We are schooling year-round, so it's kinda weird to do "first day of school" celebrations tomorrow, but that's how we're rolling at the Cactus Schoolhouse.

A couple posts ago I reviewed all the curriculum we used this past year and what we will do this year. That is all still mostly accurate, so I'll leave that be for now. 

I want to take a moment to reflect on what *I* learned this school year.... so please indulge me. :)

1. Homeschooling is a 24/7 endeavor. I knew that logically, and have been through this before when we did 2nd grade and preschool @ home, but holy moly people, it's completely different with a middle schooler and a 2nd grader. One of the main reasons we decided to homeschool was so that our kids weren't just sitting in a desk checked out all day long. Now, I'm not saying my kids need to be entertained/engaged all day long (rest assured, they are quite adept at entertaining themselves, thank goodness!) - however, I did need to make sure the curriculum I chose and activities we did were filling their buckets, so to speak. I spent a good long time assessing and re-assessing what we were using - was it engaging enough? challenging enough? were my kids learning what they needed to? was I completely ruining them with my curriculum choices? (kidding on that last one... kinda... )

We tossed some things and then also brought in some new ones -- and after all is said and done, I'm really pleased with what we ended up with. But I also know that if something stops working, we can tweak it to suit our needs. Coming out the other end of this first year, I am so much more confident in all of this. I'm doing more on my own, to tailor it even more to my kids' needs.  It gets easier after year 1, and I'm guessing/hoping each year after gets a little easier too?

Side note: HOW DID PEOPLE HOMESCHOOL BEFORE THE INTERNET?!?!

2. Before we started, I sat down and came up with all the ways I could streamline our lives so that everything could continue to run smoothly, and also so I could carve out purposeful downtime for myself. Many of you who know me well, know that I am a borderline extrovert/introvert. Meaning, I can "people" with the best of them and have a great time, but if I don't get that downtime (reading, a quiet walk alone, watching Netflix - something where I am not interacting with people), I BURN OUT. Big time. So I knew that having people around me 24/7 every day would be taxing if I didn't practice self-care and make some tiny changes to adapt.

I am happy to report that most of my efforts were successful!! I did some major meal planning, streamlined the grocery shopping (Clicklist had me at hello omg insert heart eye emoji here!), I had a come to Jesus talk with everyone about pitching in more around the house, I was disciplined in getting my workouts done and eating healthy, planned some nights out with my friends, joined a book club, I took an hour or two every afternoon of quiet time for all, blah blah blah. Bottom line: I did lots of work making sure we had a good structure and schedule that helped us all stay sane.

So it went really well until about late November when Girl Scout cookie season started. In case you are not aware --  I lead a wonderful troop that we LOVE. A big troop, with about 20 amazing girls and seriously the best families. We are so lucky. And I knew things could get taxing on that end as well, so I spent a couple weeks before our July 17th homeschool start date planning meetings and events and organizing paperwork, and streamlining GS stuff as much as I could. However. Once cookie season kicked in, I crashed and burned. My plate, which had been so carefully (and sometimes precariously) balanced, flew off and smashed into the wall and yeah, insert all the metaphors to properly illustrate how badly I went down. So I came to the difficult realization that something had to give -- and that despite my careful pre-planning, running a troop was just too much for me right now. I'm super thankful that one of our amazing moms is stepping up to fill in as leader, and the leadership team is being so sweet about letting me be a "drop-off mom" next year so my girls can stay in the troop. I literally cried. I may cry again. Huge tears of gratitude. I waved the white flag, and things didn't fall apart! Life lesson - it's OK to back off from things, even the things you love. 💓 So that will be a HUGE change this coming year for us - leading that troop has been a major part of my life for the past 4.5 years. It's definitely bittersweet!

3. My girls' anxiety has gone down SO MUCH. When we started homeschooling, they both were super anxious - about tests, random things, decision-making, etc. Lulu more than Bug. For example - each week with Lu's writing assignment, she was borderline hysterical at the beginning of our school year about whether it would be "good enough" .... Now, she loves being creative and just putting herself out there without fear.  It was heartbreaking, for both of them. They both still have their delightful quirks and moments of OCD/anxiety/sensory stuff, but they are back to being happy well-adjusted usually-confident kids who aren't getting caught up in their heads on the anxiety train. (Not that I can relate to that at ALL....🤣) We will keep working on tools/ideas to help them each manage anything that comes up. I'm very happy with our progress so far! I've shared with them what I have learned in my many years on this earth, and I've also learned some new things through my research. So we are all growing!

So --  in summary, my advice for anyone who is pondering homeschooling (and I know several of you are!):

1. Curriculum: spend time looking at different ones (I spent literal weeks researching last year - it was fun in a weird way - there is a metric ton of info out there, take your time!), don't freak out if the one you start with isn't the right fit - keep working at it, I know it's exhausting, but in the end you will be so happy that you found the right curriculum for your kid(s). Life is much easier when your curriculum is working for you. Also, if you aren't sure, there are a bunch of used curriculum sales sites!! They saved me from spending too much $$ while figuring all this out.

2. This is a full-time job. And then some. View it that way. Make some hard choices about your commitments. 💕I'm a bit of a control freak (shocking!), but I have learned this year that I can let go of some things, and life will keep chugging along just fine. We are surrounded by surprisingly huge amounts of love and support, ready to lift us up and get us through, and it's truly okay to rely on it sometimes.  We don't have to be perfect and do all the things. I promise.

3. Trust your gut. I knew in my heart of hearts that my girls would thrive with homeschooling. And they are. Listen to your instincts and make the choice that's right for **your** kid. Whether that's leaving them where they are and working within your circumstances to make it doable, trying an alternative school, or homeschooling. You got this.

OK ruminations complete -- time to finish my day of rest to prepare for A NEW SCHOOL YEAR! HOORAY! 🎉

Mystery Science - Rivers

So I discovered this little website called Mystery Science. It had an offer for a "year free!" and I figured why not. I come across that quite a bit in the online homeschool realm. Sometimes it's something pretty lame that normally you couldn't pay me to use, but sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised. This time, it was the latter --- turns out, it's legit and actually costs a bunch of cash money per year. So we got a deal! And bonus - it's actually great, and Lulu is LOVING it.

Here is an example of how the lesson and activity go. She did a lesson on Earth's Surface Processes a couple of weeks ago, about rivers - where they start and where they end up. The format is a video with some questions to ponder, and then an activity at the end. She gets super excited about all of it, which is awesome. Also, it's not too long - perfect for someone with, shall we say, an active brain...

So she watched all about where rivers end and start... and they got her cute little noggin working on it... and then we did this activity:

You are probably wondering "ummm what is happening here?" Well let me tell you! Thank you for asking, amazing reader!

1. She crumpled up paper and taped it down onto a guide page from the website.
2. She drew with marker all along the top ridges of her paper mountain.
3. She sprayed it (maybe too enthusiastically, but hey MONSOON!) with water.
4. We watched where the marker went down the mountain...
5. And Lulu made some observations about where water flows.
6. We also looked at a map (guided by the website) of major rivers, and where they start -- voila! Mountains or higher elevations.
(Plus - 7. AND where do they end? Oceans!)

Super simple, but also super fun. She started the unit on rocks today - so I'm excited about some good volcanic fun coming up soon. :)

Here's a link to the website.

Wow I'm bad at blogging.

I started this cute little blog many moons ago, to keep track of our homeschool adventures. I did it to keep friends and family apprised of this weird outside-the-box journey we had started, and also to have something to look at for myself. And it's so neat to do that, to see all the adventures and projects we did.... back in like 2014!!!! I've been SO BAD about blogging this year. And here we are, with only about 8 weeks left in our "school year". (I put that in quotes because we are schooling year-round so we will take a week or two off and then dive back in, for 3rd and 7th grades.)

But fear not, we have been chugging along with our schooling. This year has been great for laying the foundation and finding out what works. I really want to add more adventures outside the house, and more hands-on projects. I'm gathering resources for both of those as I go, and I am excited about what this year will bring in those areas.

So as we wrap up 2nd and 6th grade, here are some thoughts.

What worked:

• Story of the World. Love. Will keep doing that with Bug for Vol 3 and 4, along with the Activity Book, Recommended Reading, and Tests. I am planning on doing it with Lulu when she starts World History in 4th grade as well. (and will also add in Classical Conversations for her that year too, but that's a whole other post!)
• Growing with Grammar. So simple, so straightforward, and easy to assess progress. 
• Khan Academy - LOOOOVE. So much. It has been great for Computer Programming, and to help reinforce some of the trickier Pre-Algebra concepts for Bug.
• Horizon Math - mostly love. See above, with needing additional clarification/support sometimes.
• Mystery Science - great for Lulu,we got a free subscription for a year - check it out! Videos and activities.
• Code.org - another great one for Lulu for her weekly coding sessions.
• Road Trip USA - been using this for years and it's amazing. 

What kinda worked:

• Sonlight reading lists - great literature.
• Mandarin class - it was nice to find one and be part of a "class", but it wasn't a big class and Bug knew everything they were learning. And then vball practice was a conflict, so we are not doing it again this semester.
• Sonlight LA for Lulu - see below.

What did not work:

• Science - Oak Meadow was too easy; Sonlight had too much anti-evolution in there for Bug, and not very engaging for Lulu. It's very hard to find a comprehensive homeschool science curriculum, as most come from a creationist young earth anti-evolution standpoint. We have been piecing things together and learning cool stuff, but it's a LOT of work for me honestly, and I worry I'm not getting in what needs to be done. Right now Bug is watching Bill Nye videos. ha! As I mentioned above, Mystery Science has been great, and Lulu has gone through units on Plants and Weather so far on there. She enjoys it.
• Sonlight Language Arts - while I LOVED the readers, and the writing portion for Lulu was ok, the writing for Bug was too vague.  She's learning about many different writing styles and mediums, and currently doing her first big research paper (of course, on Jane Goodall). That part is great. There is a rubric for each assignment, to help me assess, which is also good. But. I prefer the approach of Winning with Writing (created by Growing with Grammar company), where it is very straightforward and more easily assessed.  Many say to "trust the process" (and reference Ruth Beechik) and it will work out well in the end, and she will be an amazing writer (which, she is already!)... but if you know me, you know that is HARD. :) I like to see the numbers and make sure I'm doing this whole thing correctly.  It's been OK for Lulu, because she's younger and also LOVES writing, but I'm also going to switch her to a more concrete program.
• Sonlight History - Again, I LOVE the literature (mostly), and I adore Story of the World. But the layout is "Child reads assignment, parent asks discussion questions". And that's it. No tests or assessment of knowledge retained. So I'm going to just use SOTW and their resources, and consult the Sonlight reading list as well. I really like having fiction that goes along with the historical period being learned - that is amazing and enriching. But we can do that on our own, and for a heckuva lot less $$! I also may pull Literature Unit Studies for some of the books to do more reading comprehension/studies along the way.
• Rosetta Stone. Meh. I think I already got into this one on a previous post.
• Wordly Wise - maybe if we had been homeschooling and doing vocab from day 1, but no. This wasn't a good fit for us. Bug is going to complete her book, but I have only done a handful of the lessons with Lulu. We are also switching this to the same publishing company that does Growing with Grammar. (Can you tell we like their approach???)

Our curriculum plans for 2018-19:

• Story of the World (Bug) Vol. 3 and 4
• Road Trip USA (Lulu)- going through a second time and getting more in-depth with regional history and cuisine, more American History, more biographies of important people, President studies, and hopefully traveling for hands-on experiences! Also going to use the Little Prairie Primer in conjunction with the Little House books. Still working on this.
• Growing with Grammar, Winning with Writing, Soaring with Spelling and Vocab (JacKris Publications) - both girls
• Houghton Mifflin/Holt Science for Bug. and maybe Lu. See above re: struggles with science curriculum. This is just straightforward and what they use in public schools, so I think that's what I'm going to do for now, to make sure we are covering all our bases.
• and/or -- Unit Studies for Science for both as well - to add in some creative hands-on projects.
• Outschool - I haven't tried this website yet, but they have classes in various subjects and it seems pretty amazing: as of right now, Bug has picked out Japanese and a Warrior Cats creative writing class. Lulu will also select a language and elective.
• Horizons Math for both - Bug's Pre-Algebra will carry over into 7th grade, and then we will start Algebra during the year when she is ready. Jumping from public school "accelerated" 6th grade math that she took in 5th grade to a pretty rigorous 7th grade homeschool math was a leap. She's holding her own, but we have had to go back and go more in-depth on a few concepts that were difficult. I want to make sure she understands Pre-Algebra, as it lays the foundation for so much coming up. (And this is an example where testing as an assessment tool is SO helpful! I am able to see when she hasn't fully grasped a concept, and go back and re-teach or come at it from a different angle until she gets it.)
• Literature - for both, will be in conjunction with the time periods in history they are studying.
• Coding - will continue with code.org and Khan Computer Programming.

...and anything else I come across that looks interesting! 

That was quite a post. My goal for this coming "school year" is to post weekly to keep track of what we are doing!!! I found a homeschool log to fill out each day that will also help me. The days all kind of bleed together and it helps SO MUCH to look back and see what we've done. I have also started a Fitness Challenge for the girls that will go into next year, and found the website that sells supplies for Milers Club, that Bug did in school and loved. I have also started working on creating Cactus Cash to dole out for awesome grades or behavior, like they do in school. I think this will help motivate the girls even more and help me with "classroom management"..... I'll do a post another day about all the things I've struggled with and learned this school year. That will be another whopper!

If you read this far, thanks for all the support and encouragement you all have given me. This hasn't always been easy, but I can already see the benefits for us and can see how this is going to be the best option in the long run for both Bug and Lulu. 💕

1/3 of the way through the year!

I'm very bad at blogging regularly, apparently.  But we are still here! Still homeschooling, and really getting into the guts of the curriculum for the year. We have gotten through the initial "review and introduce a few new concepts" part of the curriculum that apparently exists even in homeschool. And now it's getting real. I'm loving how the girls are both being challenged in ways they haven't been before. The pace of homeschool curriculum can move quicker and go more in-depth just because it's one-on-one (or one-on-two in my case!). There have been frustrating moments for both the girls, but I'm loving that because it means they are growing and trying things they haven't before. Definitely not a lot of boredom or "phoning it in" happening in this schoolroom. :)

Here's what we are loving:

Weekly writing assignments with different genres. Bug just endured/survived a couple weeks of poetry. She hated it initially (and probably still does) but by the end, wrote a poem that I was super impressed with! It was outside her comfort zone, but she got into it and DID IT. And now we are moving on to other types of writing - this week is about news stories (in weeks past, she has done compare/contrast essays, descriptive paragraphs, etc.). Basically, each week she learns mechanics of that type of writing, analyzes it, learns concepts that relate to it, and then is guided through how to write her own version. In retrospect, I maybe should have gone down a level (she's doing this, and from what I've read we could/should have done F, since she hasn't been doing this curriculum the whole time and our schools weren't super heavy with the ELA work). Hindsight! But, we are powering through and she's catching up and getting it. This and vocab are both really pushing her outside her comfort zone, but I see growth and that makes me happy. Lulu also does weekly writing assignments, on a smaller scale. I'm so happy she is getting a solid foundation in this - by the time she gets to Bug's age, it will be much smoother than it is for Bug right now!!

Khan Academy - LOVING it. Free online courses, and they are good!! Bug does computer programming and is now also doing math - it goes more in-depth than Horizons. Much like the LA above, I forgot how homeschool curriculum is ahead of what the kids learned in school. So even tho she did 6th grade math last year, 7th grade homeschool math (pre-algebra) is a challenge. She is doing very well grade-wise, but we are taking our time with each concept and making sure she understands everything. Horizons is just a brief blurb, classwork, and then assignment. With a new concept every day. She was keeping up, but my math-loving kid was getting pretty run down by it all. Khan has videos that explain the concepts more fully, with follow-up quizzes and tests. So we are doing a combo of Khan and Horizons, and I think that will work really well going forward.  I want her to really GET these concepts so going forward she has a strong foundation.

Sonlight History/Literature - still loving it. I may add in some supplemental materials for the second Story of the World book in the spring. I'm very excited for Lulu to start using Sonlight History/Literature for 3rd grade next year! We are going through the literature lists for previous years that Lulu has missed, and doing them as readalouds. Right now we are doing Charlotte's Web and creating a lapbook to go with it. Sonlight is VERY literature heavy, but we 3 girls love a good story, so it's working well so far.

Here's what we will be changing next year:

Sonlight Science. Eh. The books are Usborne, which I LOVE. But the science worksheets that Sonlight creates to go along with the books have questions that don't always line up. That can be confusing and frustrating. Also, while Sonlight is one of the few (maybe only?) Christian curricula that understands not all homeschoolers are anti-evolution, there is a bit too much of the anti-evolution mindset that seeps into the worksheets for my taste. I believe we will just go with Houghton Mifflin or something straightforward next year. Bug is finishing up her Sonlight (we skipped the 12 weeks called "Origins" and so we will be done by March with the rest), and then we will dive into 7th grade science in the spring.  Lulu is now working on a plants unit, and then moon phases, and probably butterflies after that with the Insect Lore kit... etc etc. I will probably either continue unit studies for 3rd grade or also put her on Houghton Mifflin. Something like this.

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So that's where the girls are at. For me, personally, I'm bit by bit finding my groove. We are all relaxing a bit, and getting out of the "recreate public school @ home" mentality. Meaning -- it's not about the grades or tests, it's about mastering concepts and spending time learning; it's not about getting school out of the way so we can get on with our day, it's about enjoying the process of learning, and letting it seep into every aspect of our day; it's not about scheduling every moment of the day like I did at the beginning of this year; it's about the content.  yada yada yada... you get the point (hopefully). :)

I will try to update more frequently!!!!!!!! Thanks for all the support and encouragement from everyone!! xoxo