School is back in session! Or rather homeschool as my newly minted Kindergartner will tell you. He was delightful in the week leading up to our first day with him as fellow student. I would casually ask if he was ready to start school to which he’d reply with a series of questions. He would ask several questions to clarify that I meant he was homeschooling! Very cute.

Onto discussing our new year!

We run a year round schedule of sorts. This year with the way we worked through those cold and stuck inside months of winter I was able to easily have a nice summer break of about 6 weeks. That break ended just after July 4th but with the big holiday I gave the boys an extra week to start the following Monday. This year is different for me in that I am actively schooling two children this year versus last year where our youngest was still more of a “hang out if he wants to” student. This year is also a bit different because I separated the boys in Science which is something new to all of us this year.

Thus far we are managing our new schedule pretty well considering we’ve only been at it a week. Those darn science experiments are already causing me headaches which means this weekend I’m going on a shopping spree to fill the lab box with all that we need. On hand makes it much easier to make the experiment happen! Last year my lack of things on hand had me saying “tomorrow” too often. This year I’m determined to avoid that with the Lab Box. I love that R.E.A.L. Science has the materials list that makes it so easy to get what I need to fill up the box! I am also pleased with some of our new choices including Spectrum Writing for an introduction to basic writing skills and Phonetic Zoo for spelling.

Here is the breakdown for my Year 3 – Mostly 3rd Grade (Age 7 going on 8 )

Math: Singapore 3A
Science: R.E.A.L. Science Chemistry
History: History Odyssey Early Modern Level I
Language Arts:

  1. Writing: Spectrum Writing Grade 3
  2. Handwriting: HWT Cursive
  3. Grammar: Growing with Grammar Grade 3
  4. Spelling: Phonetic Zoo
  5. Phonics: Review using a Phonics series from Teacher Created Resources
  6. Reading: Reading a chapter book a week is the goal

Here is the main breakdown for my Year 0 – Kindergarten (Age 5 for almost the whole year!)

Math: Singapore used to be Earlybird and I can’t remember the new name Book 1
Science: Unit studies using Living Learning Books (Animals, Plants & the Body)
History: Following along with History Odyssey Early Modern Level I as able
Language Arts:

  1. Handwriting: HWT Printing
  2. Phonics: Phonics series from Teacher Created Resources
  3. Reading: Read with Mama lots and lots of early readers

Together the boys are also touching Music and Art but I think I’ll go into more depth with those in a separate post as those are both handled with less formality or structure.