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2025-2026 Edition – What We’re Doing for 3rd, 4th, and 6th Grades
No, really, what are we doing? I’m combining these grades for this post this year because so much of what I’m using is just different levels of the same thing. I still need to put together my pacing guides. I need to finalize things… It’s a mess, but a somewhat organized mess? Part of it is that I decided to change up some things last-minute and add some other things in. English Language Arts I decided to use Logic of English Essentials with all 3. The 3rd and 4th graders will be starting at level A, and the 6th grader will start with level C. They’re all very solid –…
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2025-2026 Edition: What We’re Doing for Pre-K
It’s that time of year again – when everyone’s making last-minute tweaks to their curriculum choices, and I’m no different. I have my pacing guides just about ready for starting up next week (and what I haven’t finished, I’ll finish up in the next week or so as we do our soft start. Miss 4 will be attending Pre-Kindergarten (also known as Transitional Kindergarten, K4, or Junior Kindergarten) this year. Here’s what we’re doing. Our Main Curricula: I’ll be using Torchlight Pre-K “Curiosity and Character” and Blossom and Root’s Early Years 2 for many of our subjects this year. Supplementary Curricula: I’ll be adding in bits and pieces (namely, the…
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Did This Week, Month, or Quarter Get off Track? Get on Track ASAP
This week didn’t go quite right. The 8-year-old had a lot of rough moments, the 7-year-old was tired, and the 10-year-old started the week out great, but by Thursday, we weren’t crossing everything off. Our dishwasher broke. I decided today would be better spent fixing the dishwasher and giving everyone a break from mom bugging them about math and spelling. It was a weird week. We didn’t get through all that was planned. That doesn’t mean anything is wrong with our curriculum or our homeschooling style. It just means it was a rough week, and even though it’s been six months since my mother-in-law died, we’re still having a lot…
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What Helps Me Feel Inspired When Homeschooling
Homeschooling isn’t always snuggling around a couch, reading a lovely book, or gathering around a table engaged in education. Often, it’s dirty laundry, refereeing fights between kids, keeping the preschooler busy so she doesn’t color on siblings’ spelling work, and other not-so-fun tasks that go along with living in the real world. Sometimes, it’s not the kids feeling less-than-excited about another day of learning adventures; sometimes, it’s me! Here’s a list of things that help me when I’m feeling meh about the task ahead. Re-Reading My Favorite Homeschooling Books The first thing I do when I’m feeling “meh” is revisit the three books that have influenced me the most regarding…
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What to Do When You Feel Like You’re Behind in Your Homeschool
It happens to all of us. We’re looking at curricula or talking to friends, and suddenly, we feel like our kids are behind. Behind what, you might ask. Just behind. Even when my kids read my old college astronomy books, I’m over here questioning myself occasionally. We skipped a curriculum level to match interests or are taking more time to master grammar. When I say I’m behind, I usually mean I’m behind in what I’d planned for the year. I try to plan some gaps where we have time to “catch up” on my plans. But often, people feel they’re behind because their kiddo isn’t reading at a certain level…
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What We’re Doing for 5th Grade for the 2024-2025 School Year
I’ve saved Miss 10 for last because I’ve been writing these in grade order. If you’d like to see what I’m doing with my other kids, check out our preschool, 2nd grade, and 3rd grade plans. Miss 10 loves science and art and spends hours of her time every day reading about science and drawing. So this year, we’re science-heavy and art-heavy to follow her interests. We’re especially excited to use our microscope and telescope a lot this year. Without further ado, here’s what we’re doing for 5th grade. Language Arts Spelling and Word Study We aim to finish Spelling Workout E and start Spelling Workout F this year. We…
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What We’re Doing for Third Grade Homeschool for 2024-2025
Mr 8’s third grade year share some curriclum with the second grader, so some of the curricula choices will look the same. Mr. 8 wanted to do Japanese this year, and we start Latin in third grade, so I’ll share some of those choices as well. Language Arts Mr. 8 is already a fluent reader, so we won’t be doing phonics for grade 3. Spelling We’re using MCP Spelling Workout again this year, and we’ll be aiming to finish up Spelling Workout C and make it about halfway through Spelling Workout D if we keep on pace with what we’ve been doing. Grammar We’re using First Langauge Lessons, and our…
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How I Plan Part 1: Pacing the Year in Microsoft Excel
I will get back to what I’m using for 3rd and 5th grade, but I wanted to take a moment to share with you how I plan. Since I do this in multiple steps, I’ll share it in various posts. Once I’ve purchased my curriculum for the upcoming year, I like to put together a pacing guide for it so I know roughly what we’ll do when. This is handy for planning field trips and homeschooling-related travel. Figure out the school year. The first thing I do is figure out our school year. This year, we’re starting next week, in early July, to allow us space to travel in late…
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What We’re Doing for 2nd Grade for the 2024-2025 School Year
Now that I’ve shared what we’re doing for preschool, it’s time to share what we’ll be doing for 2nd Grade for the 2024-2025 school year. Some of this will be the same for my 3rd grader, as I combined some of the subjects for Mr. 8 and Miss 7 to make life a little easier, but also because they’re so close in age. Language Arts Phonics Miss 7 is the only one still working through phonics. Our goal is to complete All About Reading through Level 4 this year. Spelling We’ll continue to use MCP’s Spelling Workout this year. Our goal is to finish Level B and start Level C.…
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What We’re Doing for Preschool for the 2024-2025 School Year
I have the school year for each of my kiddos planned out for next year, so I figured it was time to go ahead and share what we’re doing. I know many people don’t use anything for the early years, but Miss Three cannot wait to be part of the studying crew. As it is, I often keep extra crayons and pens and paper nearby so she can “do school” while her older siblings work. That said, I still want to keep preschool gentle, especially since Miss Three already knows her alphabet, can count to 20 accurately with and without objects, knows her colors, recognizes numbers, and is starting to…
