I don’t know about you, but I love seeing what other homeschool families are using for their studies. So if you’re like me, here’s your peek at what DeDeyne Lutheran Academy is planning for this year! Warning: It’s a long one. Also, can you believe this is already our fourth year of homeschooling? What? When did that happen?
Bible Time. We are using the same free online Sunday School curriculum as last year. We’ll finish up the last few Old Testament lessons and move on to the New Testament. We use Level 2 of these (last year we did Level 1, but it was a bit easy), supplemented with projects and activities from Pinterest. We usually spend 2-3 days on each lesson. We’ll also work on learning some hymn verses, spending 2 weeks at a time on each one.
Handwriting. A Reason for Handwriting Level K (Hannah) and Level A (Jonah and Matthew). We didn’t have a handwriting curriculum last year, and we need the structure. So this year we’re trying this out. I like that Level A focuses on a Bible passage each week, and I’m switching the Level K lessons around to go in alphabetical order along with our letter of the week, only because Hannah has already been asking to learn how to write letters and is excited about it. Otherwise I don’t think it’s necessarily something needed in preschool.
Math. Saxon Math 2 and Saxon Math 3 (Jonah and Matthew), various math concepts (Hannah). We only made it through about 2/3 of Math 2 last year, so I want to get a little bit farther in that before we switch to Math 3. And for Hannah, I’ll be using the same list of math concepts I used with the boys, focusing on one each week (things like shapes, patterns, biggest/smallest, etc.). I find activities for those on Pinterest.
Reading. The Ordinary Parents’ Guide to Teaching Reading (Jonah and Matthew), Letter of the Week (Hannah). Jonah and Matthew will pick up where they left off last year for reading, with Jonah finishing about a month before school ends, and Matthew still having about 10 weeks left. I usually do 2-3 lessons per week and supplement with other activities to reinforce whatever phonics they get that week.
We’ll also be reading aloud from a chapter book at snack time. I was pretty terrible about this last year, but I’m committing to being better this year by assigning it an actual time instead of winging it. The kids are all sitting (mostly) quietly at the table, so we should be able to get in at least a few pages at a time. I haven’t picked what we’re starting with yet, but we’ve picked up a bunch of good middle grade chapter books at book sales over the summer so I’ll be searching the shelves for something good.
For Hannah, I’ll be using this Letter of the Week curriculum as well as reading picture books that emphasize those letters (I like these book lists from The Measured Mom and This Reading Mama for suggestions!). We’ll also have plenty of activities and projects from Pinterest.
The remaining subjects will just be for Jonah and Matthew.
History. Story of the World Volume 1 and Volume 2. We have a little bit left in Volume 1, and then we’ll start Volume 2. Mostly we’ve been reading the text, doing the maps and coloring pages, and picking 1-2 of the easier activities that go along with each chapter. No mummifying chickens over here! But if we can build something from the chapter with Legos, that’s usually a hit.
Science. Intro to Science from Elemental Science, with experiments from More Mudpies to Magnets. This is the follow up to Elemental Science, which we’ve slowly worked through the past two years. This one is divided into 6 units, which have 6 weeks each. The kids love all of the outside exploring that comes with the nature walks (one each week focusing on something specific) and the projects too. I like that everything is laid out for me, and it doesn’t require too many weird ingredients or equipment for experiments.
Piano. Alfred Level A. This is what I learned with (the boys will actually be using one of my lesson books from when I was in kindergarten!), and I found this amazing freebie from Mary Organizes with the entire thing laid out in a lesson plan. We started piano last year a little bit but I didn’t have anything planned out and it sort of fizzled. This year we’ll have actual lessons each week and work to do. Sometimes it’s worth spending money on books if it means you’ll actually teach something instead of trying to do it yourself and not doing it.
Art. Drawn to Discover. I happened to stumble upon an Instagram post giving away free year long subscriptions to this (no longer available), so I jumped in. I think the boys will like the onscreen part of this, and I like outsourcing something! This is a drawing program that also includes STEAM concepts along with the art, which is cool.
I have most of my lessons planned out as to what should happen each week (in an ideal world, of course), but I’m still working on figuring out the actual daily schedule. This is my first year teaching on more than one level, since the boys have been doing pretty much everything except reading together. So now adding Hannah’s stuff in the mix, plus making sure Elizabeth doesn’t destroy everything, will be interesting.
I’m pretty sure some of the school stuff will overflow into the afternoon, which may be normal for some folks, but we’ve been able to do pretty much everything in the mornings so far, so that will be an adjustment for everyone, including me!
If you’ve taught multiple levels at a time, I’d love any advice you can give me!
Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I receive a bit of a commission at no additional charge to you. Thank you for your support!
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I found 2017-2018 Homeschool Curriculum very educational.
I want to share with you how my children learned to love the piano: https://s96.me/ingenious-way-to-learn-piano-and-keyboard
Kisses!! 🙂