Well, I've begun planning for the new school year for my 4 kiddos. This will be the first year I'll be teaching all four of them at the same time. For the most part, we will be continuing where we left off in the language arts, spelling, science and history, since we are in the middle of those curriculums.
THE SIXTH GRADER
My oldest will be entering middle school! (Really, how did she get there so quickly?) She will continue in The Good and the Beautiful 3rd grade language arts, and when finished will move on to 4th grade. She is also continuing with All About Spelling level 1. She has made great improvements in spelling since starting this curriculum, and I plan to work with her through the entire set. It has been a good fit for her. I've signed her up for Khan Academy as a place to review material already learned, but mostly for science. She is very interested in Earth and space, so she will be working through their course on this subject for 6th grade science. She will continue through American History with her brother, we will be beginning with the Revolution and the events leading up to it, and then working as far forward as we can in the next year. I also, for the first time, purchased a math curriculum. I did not like the way the free curriculum we had been using was formatted for the middle school years, so I opted to purchase Dimensions Math. It hasn't arrived, yet, but I will make a post about it as soon as I have a change to look through it!
THE THIRD GRADER
My second child will be working through 3rd grade! He still has a few lessons in 2nd grade language arts (The Good and The Beautiful) and math, which we hope he will finish by the end of August before moving into his 3rd grade work. He has done an excellent job learning to spell on his own, so I have not used any formal writing curriculum with him. We've been working through science for human anatomy (Apologia), which he does with his older sister, and the younger ones listen in on occasion, and like his older sister, he will continue through the American history we've been learning. We have no set history curriculum at the moment, but we are just working through a timeline of events and using the variety of resources available to us to learn about each one in detail. We will also be working on his handwriting this year. I have made some handwriting worksheets that we will use in conjunction with other fine motor activities to help improve his handwriting and make it more legible. I also signed him up for Khan Academy as well, for him to work through and review concepts we have learned.
THE FIRST GRADER
My youngest son will be in 1st grade. He will finish his Kindergarten math in a few days, and then first grade math will start in August. He is still working through Kindergarten language arts from The good and The Beautiful, which I don't expect him to finish until around January 2024, as we didn't start the curriculum until earlier this year, as we waited until his letter sound knowledge was mastered before beginning this new curriculum. We don't really do any formal social studies or science lessons with the younger kids, as they just listen in when interested or they sit and watch the videos with us on occasion as well. He will also be working on his handwriting with his older brother. They both need some extra practice is making their handwriting neater and the appropriate size.
THE PRE-K STUDENT
My youngest will officially be a pre-k student this year. We did some preschool activities this last year as she was interested in working on things, mostly doing art related activities, as that is what she likes to do. Starting in August, she will have one or two short activities to do each day, one math related, and one alphabet/language related. Other than that she will have free choice play while the others do their work. Our goals for pre-k are to learn letters and their sounds, some phonological awareness skills and learn to count and recognize numbers to 20, and learn to write her name.
The way we do school has definitely evolved over the last 7 years from when I started with my oldest. It does become easier as they get older and can work independently. My oldest prefers to work this way, with little help from me, and our tester year with Khan Academy science will let me know more on how she will do left to her own. If she does well, then I will give her more independent activities next year. Both of my boys still want me to sit right next to them to do their work. It becomes hard when they both need to read something to me at the same time! I plan to use Khan Academy with my third grader to help foster more independence in areas where he is already excelling. Overall, I am excited to start the new school year!
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