There has never been a time I've been more grateful to be homeschooling than during this crazy season of Covid-19. When things started shutting down last spring it was so comforting to know that nothing had to interrupt or change my girls education. So much of homeschooling is going out and experiencing life outside of the home, however the core of our learning is done using the curriculum we have chosen right in our home. To know that we were able to finish out our year strong and that my girls didn't get behind was so comforting.
I was able to order all of our curriculum for this year in the spring when I usually do and did my normal lesson planning over the summer. As so many parents are still struggling to fit their child's education into whatever plans the schools choose to move forward with I'm glad that we were able to start on time without any delays and that there won't be a disruption to the girls schooling.
- Bible: Turning Your Bedroom into a Bible College, Misc. Books
- Math: Math U See - Algebra 1
- Language Arts: Essentials in Writing - Level 9
- Literature: Essentials in Literature - Level 9
- Grammar: Rod & Staff English 7
- Reading: Library Books & Sonlight Readers
- History: Sonlight Core H - World History 2
- Science: Sonlight Science F - Anatomy
- Logic: Orbiting with Logic
- Language: Sign Language Made Simple & Duolingo Spanish
- PE: Family Workouts, Swimming, Hiking
- Music: Piano Lessons
- Electives: US Elections Lapbook, Typing Instructor
Sonlight H - World History 2 - History, Bible, and Literature. We enjoyed our first time back through part one of world history last year and are excited to finish it out from the Roman Empire through modern day. There are always so many amazing books and I love that the girls have both re-read almost every Sonlight book we have multiple times. It definitely makes owning all these books beyond worth it! The girls really enjoyed the lap-book last year and are excited to complete another one.
Sonlight Science F - Anatomy for Girls - This is our first year doing Sonlight for Science and we're really excited. After 6 years of NOEO we were ready for a change. We're excited to jump into Anatomy this year and the girls are really excited for the worksheets that go along with each lesson. In the past I've made them keep a science journal but they're happy to switch from that to completing diagrams on worksheets instead of making them themselves
Math-U-See - Algebra 1. We had a fabulous year doing Pre-Algebra last year. I'm always waiting for the girls to hit a bump in Math where they struggle or we have to slow down, and because of Math-U-See we have yet to hit that bump. I'm so blessed we started this curriculum from the beginning and am happy that it will carry us through our last few years of Math.
Our biggest changes this year come in our choices for Language Arts. After a second year struggling through Grammar for the Well Trained Mind I made the decision to try something different. The girls learned so much but there was still so much they struggled to understand and while the approach was meant for them to repeat over the coarse of 3 years grasping more each year they felt frustrated not understanding parts of what they were being asked to do. We're moving to Rod & Staff English this year since it has a heavier grammar focus than some programs and I moved us back a level since it will differ a bit from what we have done in the past and I didn't want it to be frustrating. We still love Essentials in Writing and will be doing the 9th grade program this year as well as adding on Essentials in Literature to learn to break down literary work. I'm excited for the growth the girls will do this year in their writing and understanding of the English language.
For Bible this year the girls will be doing How to Turn Your Bedroom into a Bible College. It teaches them a variety of ways to break down and study the Bible on their own. From word studies, to book or chapter studies it will take them through different ways they can break down God's word. In addition to their own study time we'll be reading these additional books together and discussing them. The girls just finished doing an in depth Bible Study with their Jr High group and are really thrilled to jump into something else.
For our electives this year we are continuing with Typing Instructor, and for our language we are continuing to work on ASL and then doing an intro to Spanish by using the Duolingo App. Since this is an election year we'll also be doing a lapbook on US Elections. The girls are still going strong with Piano and for PE we are now doing family crossfit style workouts at home and eventually when things open back up we have gotten a gym membership for the girls.
We're excited and ready for our final year of Jr High!!!
