Because we are home-schoolers, we are
“Not” Back-to-School.
(We’re basically just at school all day, every day around here.)
This will be my fourth year of this “Not Back to School Series”.
To see posts of how we’ve done things in previous years, you can check those out here:
“Not” Back to School 2020-2021
“Not” Back to School 2019-2020
Series Intro.
Our Homeschool Organization & Space
Our Homeschool Yearly Schedule & Terms
Our Homeschool Curriculum Choices
Our Homeschool Daily Schedule & Routines
Homeschool Planner
Our Story of How We Decided to Homeschool
Our Favorite Homeschool & Educational Resources
Summer School
Today, I’m here to give you an update for this school year. I get asked ALL the time about what curriculum we are using, and since we use a variety of things… not a boxed curriculum – it’s much easier just to put it all in a blog post! I also love sharing the resources and supplies that have become our favorites over the years.
**This post does contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links, I do earn a small commission – at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for your support!
4th Grade
- Religion ~ Finishing up More Than Words in our first term, Bible Roadtrip Year 2, and I’d like to add “Who am I?” from Apologia later in the year
One of my main goals for Lawson this year is that he would learn how to actually study the Bible for himself this year. It’s such an important skill, and I think this is a good age for it, although I didn’t really learn this until I was an adult. I relied on devotionals up until then. We tried Bible Roadtrip a couple years ago for this, but it was a little too early for him. Now he’s more able to understand and comprehend what he reads so I think he’s ready now. - Memory Work ~ We’re using Classical Conversations Cycle 1 for most of our memory work this year, but we’ll also continue with our catechisms, More Than Words Key Truths & Memory Verses, and the Bible Roadtrip memory verses; We also memorize a few poems with The Good and the Beautiful course each year; We’re working on a few other things like U.S. presidents and State Capitols as well, but we’ll see how much of it actually sticks, and I’ve got plans to fill in those gaps over the next couple years
- Math ~ Life of Fred, Math Fact Practice
We’re trying out Life of Fred as a group subject this year and we’ll fill in with practicing math facts. I will re-evaluate after first term on whether I think it’s enough for us or if we need more. Right now, I’m loving how much it has simplified Math for us! - Reading ~ Course books from The Good and the Beautiful and age-appropriate reading list to fill in
- Vocabulary ~ We’ll use vocabulary from our other subjects.
- Grammar ~ The Good and the Beautiful Level 3, then Level 4
- Spelling ~ The Good and the Beautiful
- Composition Writing ~ Write Away Textbook, Writing Workshop, & Writing Strands
- History ~ Mystery of History Volume 1 & Who Was Read Alouds
- Geography – Adventure Homeschool Geography Binder Builder
- Science ~ The Good and the Beautiful Unit Studies: Geology, Safety, and Ecosystems
- Art ~ Appreciation from The Good and the Beautiful
- Handwriting Practice ~ Writing Workshop, The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting Workbooks
- Elective ~The Good and the Beautiful Typing, Level One, Football, & Soccer
2nd Grade
- Religion ~ Finishing up More than Words in our first term, Bible Roadtrip Year 2, and I’d like to add “Who am I?” from Apologia later in the year
My main goal for Linkin this year is that he would be able to read the Bible for himself by the end of this year. Currently, he’s reading great with shorter books, but he’s excited to start reading chapter books, and I’m going to let him join in with Layten on My Father’s World First Grade with the Bible Reader, because that’s really more on his level at this point. (See Preschool / Kindergarten below) - Memory Work ~ We’re using Classical Conversations Cycle 1 for most of our memory work this year, but we’ll also continue with our catechisms, More Than Words Key Truths & Memory Verses, and the Bible Roadtrip memory verses; We also memorize a few poems with The Good and the Beautiful course each year
- Math ~ Life of Fred, Math Fact Practice
- Reading ~ Course books from The Good and the Beautiful and age-appropriate reading list to fill in
- Vocabulary ~ We’ll use vocabulary from our other subjects.
- Grammar ~ The Good and the Beautiful Level 1, then Level 2
- Spelling ~ The Good and the Beautiful
- Composition Writing ~ Write Away Textbook, Writing Workshop
- History ~ Mystery of History Volume 1 & Who Was Read Alouds
- Geography – Adventure Homeschool Geography Binder Builder
- Science ~ The Good and the Beautiful Unit Studies: Geology, Safety, and Ecosystems
- Art ~ Appreciation from The Good and the Beautiful
- Handwriting Practice ~ Writing Workshop, The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting Workbook
Legibility has been a real struggle because he was so strong-willed on writing letters HIS WAY when we first learned them. He’s much more agreeable at this age, so I think he’ll be more receptive to learning the correct way this time. - Elective ~The Good and the Beautiful Typing, Level One, Soccer, & Possibly Kids Cook Real Food
Preschool/Kindergarten
- I really don’t know what “grade” we would consider Layten to be in. She’s only 4, but she’ll turn 5 in October. She LOVES school and begs me to do it with her, so how can I say no? We started My Father’s World Kindergarten last year because she already knew her letter sounds, and she did amazing with it, so we’re just going to keep going I guess.
She will be finishing up My Father’s World Kindergarten and then moving on to My Father’s World First Grade. We’ll likely do the Bible portion of this as a group because I want the boys to get this Biblical overview that this curriculum offers as well. - Religion ~ My Father’s World Bible, but she also usually joins us for our Group Subjects as well
- Memory Work ~ My Father’s World Bible Truths, but she also usually joins us for our Group Memory Time as well
- Math ~ Counting and Ordering Numbers Practice with our Hundred Chart, Life of Fred
- Reading ~ We check out books from the library each week to go along with My Father’s World unit study themes. She’ll get to read from her own little Bible reader when we start First Grade, and I’m excited about that!
- Vocabulary ~ N/A
- Grammar ~ N/A
- Spelling ~ N/A
- Composition Writing ~ Writing Workshop (She draws a picture and then dictates her story, and I write it for her. Sometimes she likes to go back and trace what I write. I’m telling you – she loves ALL THINGS SCHOOL!)
- History ~ She’s usually with us for Group Subjects, but I don’t require any of it from her.
- Geography – She’s usually with us for Group Subjects, but I don’t require any of it from her.
- Science ~ She’s usually with us for Group Subjects, but I don’t require any of it from her.
- Art ~ Free Art with Craft Supplies and Drawing Books
- Handwriting Practice ~ Writing Workshop, The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting Workbook
- Elective ~Ballet, Tap, & Acro
We’ll continue to review letter sounds with these See,Hear,Do Books. I’m convinced these books are what actually helped her to remember the sounds that the letters make. (Remember we’ve been going over them since she was 2.) Either it was just time after all of the multiple and meaningful exposures she’s had, or these books really work. I’ll let you decide.
Note: It looks like they’ve updated their books a bit, or maybe I just never noticed how they were ordered. We’ve done the Uppercase Level 1 Book with the coloring and writing practice. We’ll do Lowercase next and then move onto the others. They have a ton available now!
See, Hear, Do Book Learn to Read Uppercase Letters Level 1
See, Hear, Do Coloring Book
See, Hear, Do Tracing Workbook
See, Hear, Do Learn to Read Lowercase Letters Level 2
See, Hear Do, Learn to Read Blended Beginning Sounds Level 3
My Father’s World Kindergarten
Tot School
- Lyndon is 2, and he’ll turn 3 in December. We’re using the same Tot School Printables that I’ve used with all my children and several others. Each week we work on a letter of the alphabet, an object that begins with that letter, and there is a theme that surrounds it as well. For example: Aa for apple, and we learn about different fruits. Naming the different fruits and matching them up is the Vocabulary Development that I LOVE! We practice counting, shapes, colors, simple tracing, and coloring. I try to make it more hands-on by including Dot Markers for searching for our letters, hand-made puzzles to match up shapes and colors, and I’m trying to create VERY SIMPLE sensory trays this time. Basically, I just want to start buying little Toob sets that go along with the themes to give him a visual aspect and little toys and manipulatives to play with that relate to our themes. I don’t really assess anything or require anything from him at this age. It’s just (M&Ms) multiple and meaningful exposures to learning concepts, some of which he’ll retain – some he won’t. This is basically just what we do for “intentional play” to begin our day. He LOVES it. I give him little “invitations to play” by introducing the activities, and I follow his lead for the rest. When he’s done, we’re done. Then he’s usually good to go off and play on his own so that I can work with the big kids.
- Religion ~ He’s usually with us for Group Subjects, but I don’t require any of it from him.
- Memory Work ~ He’s usually with us for Group Subjects, but I don’t require any of it from him.
- Math ~ Shapes,Counting to 20
- Reading ~ We check out books from the library each week to go along with Tot School unit study themes. He also usually joins Layten for her read alouds as well.
- Vocabulary ~ Tot School Vocabulary Development
- Grammar ~ N/A
- Spelling ~ N/A
- Composition Writing ~ If he wants to tell me a story, I will dictate it for him and let him color, but I won’t require it. Sometimes my little ones are excited to do this too, so I feel it’s good practice. His language skills are exploding right now, and he talks pretty much nonstop!
- History ~ He’s usually with us for Group Subjects, but I don’t require any of it from him.
- Geography – He’s usually with us for Group Subjects, but I don’t require any of it from him.
- Science ~ He’s usually with us for Group Subjects, but I don’t require any of it from him.
- Art ~ Color Wonder Markers and Coloring Book & Free Art with Craft Supplies
- Handwriting Practice ~ N/A (He’s just practicing with different writing tools at this point.)
- Elective ~N/A
Our Favorite Home School Tools & Resources…
- My Levenger Planner Cover
- My Levenger Disc-bound Planner Divider Tabs
- My Editable HomeSchool Planner
- Our “Notebook Paper” Assignment Dry Erase Boards
- Our Pencil Sharpener
- Our Favorite Pencils
- Frixion Erasable Colored Pens – I use these to color-code my lesson plans.
- Frixion Erasable Colored Highlighters – I use these to highlight through what we’ve completed in my lesson plans.
- Erasable Colored Pencils
- Our “New” Favorite Watercolors – They come in several varieties – SO MUCH better quality that what you’d find in most back to school sales.
- Disc-bound Covers -The kids use these with their printable curriculum.
- Metal Discs – We use these with our printable curriculum.)
**I like this option better than bulky binders or having the pages bound because the spirals always seemed to come undone throughout the year which would drive me nuts. This way we have the “customizable” flexibility of a binder by easily being able to take pages in and out and also the ability to flip it around like a spiral-bound book. It’s the best of both worlds, in my opinion. - Laminator
- Dry Erase Markers
- Wet Erase Markers
- Printer
- Label Maker
- ESV Children’s Bible
- 365 Great Bible Stories
- 66 Books One Story
- Window on the World
- Large Notebook (We use this for note-taking in our group subjects or in anything we’d use a chalk or white board for, except we get to keep it and refer back to it if we need to.)
- Spelling Power Student Record Book (This has been a game changer for our spelling lessons this year!)
- The Homeschool History Book of Centuries
- Rand McNally Historical Atlas of the World
- The Student Bible Atlas
- Amazon Kindle Fire Tablets
- Wooden Easel (We originally purchased this for Typing, but we use it for so much more than that actually! I love to display a book we’ll be reading or something fun like that.)
- Teaching from Rest Book
- Your Morning Basket Podcast
- The Homeschool Solutions Show Podcast
- The Homeschool Sanity Show
- Raising Arrows Podcast
- Nature Study Hacking Curriculum
- Julia Rothman Books
- Montessori Hundred Board
- My favorite Planner Dot Markers
- Burlap Wall File
- Montessori Peg Counting Boards
- Burlap Pocket Chart
Our Home School Wish-List:
Just ask any teacher out there… every single one will have a wish list. Whether it’s written down or just in our heads, there’s always something else we’d like to add – whether supplies or resources. I personally LOVE adding on supplemental resources and hands-on activities with our core curriculum! The kids enjoy it so much more too when it’s more than just “busy work”!
We always prioritize the most-important things, of course. These things haven’t made the cut… yet. (This is more of just a reference for me to have and come back to when I’m looking for ideas. You’ll probably slowly see me add these things in to our home school as our budget allows as I’ve done in years prior.)
Kids Cook Real Food
Preschool Fall Video Art Lessons
Fall Video Chalk Art Lessons
Classical Collection History Art Lessons
Hymns Video Art Lessons
Illustrated Nature Journaling
LovEvery PlayKits: Lyndon
Panda Crate: Lyndon
Koala Crate: Layten
Kiwi Crate: Linkin
Tinker Crate: Lawson
Alright, I think that’s all for now. I’ll be sure to re-evaluate everything throughout the year, and I’m sure we’ll make some changes. I’ll try to add updates throughout the year if I can remember to do so.
If you have any questions about anything, please let me know in the comments, and I’ll be sure to get it answered for you. I absolutely love homeschooling, so it’s a thrill for me to get to talk about it whenever I can!
