Well friends, we have reached the mid-year mark in our homeschool! We started the beginning of August, with a couple breaks in between. We always take off the entire month of December to enjoy the holidays and recharge completely before picking up the second term after the new year. We are all very much looking forward to the break! I am super proud of both kids because they have worked hard with (minimal) complaints and I’ve already seen wonderful progress in just the first term.
I’d like to share what’s working for us currently and a few things that we dropped/was not working. I am happy to say that a lot of what I planned has been going well. We did make some additions along the way, too. So if you are here for the homeschool content and interested in hearing more, keep reading on.
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What’s Working
For my oldest (1st grade)
Reading/Spelling
- For my oldest, we keep chugging along with All About Reading (which I cannot recommend enough). She finished level 3 this term and we plan to start level 4 in January. There was one component to AAR that she didn’t like (which I’ll talk about in the didn’t work section and share how we worked around it).
- We also added All About Spelling into our routine and she has about 4 lessons left and then we will move onto level 2. We tried the color version but it felt very clunky and had too many extras. We prefer straight-forward, so I ended up selling that on a Facebook group and snatched the black and white version instead. The B&W is so simple, to the point, and effective. The thing I like most is that it teaches phonetic rules for spelling rather than a random spelling list. We have been working at her pace. Some weeks we finish a lesson a week and some lessons we sat with for 2-3 weeks to make sure the rule stuck with lots of practice and games. I am very happy with her progress so far. We do spelling for about 10 minutes, 3x per week.
- My daughter is into poetry these days and loves to read them back to me to practice her fluency. That has been a joy for her.
Math
- First Grade Math with Confidence is working great for us. She’s about 3/4 way through it. Since she’s ahead, we have had some weeks where we just play games to reinforce addition/subtraction facts. Sub facts are tougher for her at the moment but the following games have helped and are fun for all: Math Island, Sum Swamp, Pop for Addition/Subtraction, Clumsy Thief, Summit Sums, Race to Planet X (our latest favorite). These are good games to ask for if family members or friends want to know what to get your kids for Christmas. We have built our collection that way!
- Another math resource I am using is this Kumon workbook. If we skip a lesson to play games, sometimes I will have her do a page or two to reinforce whatever we are working on.
Writing
- Madlibs Junior are a fun way to practice both handwriting and reading.
- Star Wars writing workbook has been fun to have in rotation.
- I give my daughter a question of the day/writing prompts 1-2x per week in her Copywork journal. I tell her not to worry about spelling, but to just get her thoughts on the paper.
For my youngest (pre-k)
My youngest has shown an interest in reading now so after finishing TGATB Kindergarten Prep (which was a great intro to reading), we moved right into All About Reading 1. We are moving much slower… about 1 lesson over a week or two, to be honest. But she is on the young side so we are in no rush. Just moving at her pace! She really enjoys it.
We are only focused on reading and handwriting at this point (and only because she asks!) Other things working for her: BOB books, word wheels, TGATB level K handwriting, Explode the Code book 1 (to reinforce whatever we are learning in phonics).
We tried to start Kindergarten Math with Confidence and got through 6 lessons but I decided to wait until she’s closer to 6. She just isn’t as interested in math yet and that is fine – she’s a young 5! Instead, we have been playing games like Sum Swamp, Clumsy Thief Jr., war, and 10 frame games for fun.
What’s working for everyone (group subjects + beyond)
- Kiwi Co World Crate! This is our favorite addition to be honest. It is such a fun way to introduce young kids to geography concepts, map work, and cultures around the world. We were using Kiwi Co science kits for a bit but I am very happy that we switched. It has been a real treat. I highly recommend!!
- On that same note, we did enjoy the Kiwi Co Labs subscription while we had it. My younger daughter, not as much. But my oldest would take complete control and follow the instructions to work on the activities herself. Reading, comprehension, troubleshooting, learning steam concepts… check check check check.
- Book parties! Oh, these are probably my favorite part of our year so far. If we all really really love the read aloud, I plan a book party. We have done one for the Heartwood Hotel series, the Wild Robot, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Yes, it takes some work on my end but we all enjoy it so much and it makes the book come to life. I go crazy looking on Pinterest for any recipe ideas that go with the story, drawing sheets, coloring sheets, games or puzzles, etc. Then we will discuss things like characters, plot, setting, themes, favorite parts, etc. I have shared snapshots on my Instagram – you can find them in the hs highlight reels.
- DK geography workbook. It’s inexpensive and yet it is the perfect jumping off point for concepts that I want to make sure we touch on. Sometimes we supplement with a YouTube video, song, our Atlas, or other books. For just over $5, this has been something my oldest daughter especially looks forward to.
- Outsourcing classes. My kids are a part of a few different classes this year (from music to science) that have not only given me a break to myself while they are in class, but have engaged them in ways I am not able to. They have also made friendships with other homeschoolers. Big wins for everyone!
- Sprinkling in unit studies has been so fun and breaks up the monotony of core work. Once a week, we focus on either science, history, or social studies. We are currently working through the Me and My Amazing Body unit study with friends and in January we are diving into all things ancient Egypt.
- Prioritizing field trips has been huge for us this year and has made a big difference. It breaks up the week and museum-hopping is just fun for everyone in general. I am glad we have the freedom to go wherever we want, whenever we want. A few of our adventures: children’s museum, multiple aquariums, biomes center, rocket building/launch event, whaling museum, theater performance
- Audiobooks are great for long car rides. Lately, both kids are into the Magic Tree House series. I like it too because they are short (about 45 min) and we can get through one story in a sitting. They also listen to audiobooks on our Yoto player.
- Taking breaks when needed. When we need to rest or sit a few days with a concept, there’s no urgency or rush. We take the break.
What didn’t work
- For my oldest, she really doesn’t enjoy handwriting workbooks. I had bought Building Writers by HWT but she would dread it so we dropped that. Hence why you see a few different things we do above instead of a single workbook.
- For my oldest, All About Reading leveled readers were not inspiring her to read. She would drag her feet and huff and puff. They are very boring, to be quite honest, so I can see why. The readers started to hold us back from moving ahead. On one hand, I wanted to make sure she was grasping the concepts and it was translating to her fluency, but on the other hand, I didn’t want her to trudge through it and dread reading. The solution was this: we skipped every “Read the story” lesson and swapped it for her reading me a poem of her choice instead (we grabbed a few poetry books from the library). However, once we reached the end, she would have to read the story from the very last lesson, which would encompass all of the rules she has learned up until. If she could read that to me fluently, we could move on. If not, we would go back and review concepts. Spoiler alert, she read it just fine and we are moving along! Don’t be afraid to go against the curriculum!
- Another thing that didn’t work for us is classic literature… *shock* I was very focused on trying to get her to enjoy read alouds like Stuart Little, The Wind in the Willows, or Pippi Longstocking… but she just wasn’t as interested. But when I pick up something more current or modern, she was enthralled. So that is what we have been reading together and you know what… I am okay with it. There will come a time for more classic works but this year isn’t it. She did enjoy Charlotte’s Web and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but she more so enjoyed The Wild Robot and The Heartwood Hotel series. All reading is good reading.
- Evan Moor workbooks. We tried their science level 1 and geography level 1 this year but we just didn’t care for the work. It felt boring, so we dropped them. (We much prefer the DK workbooks!)
- Magic School Bus science kits. We grabbed a few to go through together but they were not worth it… some of the experiments did not work or pan out.
- TGATB Wind and Waves science unit. It was pretty boring and we all felt uninspired by it. I ended up reselling after about 7 lessons.
That was a lot. If you are still with me, thanks for reading up until now!
So one thing that has been tough for my first grader is independent reading. She can read early chapter books but just doesn’t have the motivation to (I think she just prefers snuggling up with me while I read). We have been trying to do more buddy reading, but I am trying to get her to read even 5-10 minutes a day quietly to herself. If you have any tips for me, I would greatly appreciate it – please send me a message on Instagram! I don’t want to push her if she isn’t ready, but maybe some gentle encouragement…
Thanks for being here and I hope that your homeschool year is fabulous and rewarding thus far. x
