Homeschooling- Choosing a Curriculm

My husband and I made the decision to homeschool our 7 year old this upcoming 2020-2021 school year– a difficult choice for us. After researching the different types of homeschooling options, we decided to do a School-at-home curricula for her and sprinkle in some other types of learning.

If you are new to homeschooling like I am, finding a curricula that is right for you is akin to staring at all the delicious flavors of ice cream and trying to decide which one you are going to have every night for the next year.

By narrowing down to a style, it made it a little easier to choose a curricula because certain curricula aligns well with different styles. Since we were looking for a Christian curricula complete with lesson plans and spiral learning we decided to go with Abeka. They are well-respected. Lots of homeschoolers use them. There is an option for video lessons or parent-led lesson plans and the lesson plans are all laid out for you by the day. These were all things that we were looking for in a curriculum. Abeka will serve as “the spine” of our program.

My 7 year old is starting 3rd grade and my 5 year old would be in Preschool this year (we were planning to hold him an extra year). Despite their age gap– they both love doing the history and science lessons together!

Additionally to sprinkle in a bit of variety and because I love history, we will be doing The Story of the World. This curricula is a narrative tale of ancient civilizations and both kids absolutely beg to hear the next chapter. To augment this learning, I have found all kinds of fun kits on Amazon– digging up fossils and gemstones, papyrus and hieroglyphics kits and so far it has been a big hit!

To add a bit more of a STEAM component to our homeschool, we have also ordered some of the Kiwi co. crafts which allows them to build things together. The last few kits had them make a sweeper, a pendulum and a treasure box and map!

Finally, for music, we are simply continuing with my daughter’s weekly piano lesson over zoom and for gym, we are doing a unit on yoga (my favorite). Her community involvement will be through our church– for example, last week she was a lay leader and did fabulously!

For my 5 year old, we are doing some basic Abeka practice books, a unit study on space, dinosaurs and superheroes and he will get all the history and science from my daughter’s lessons!

Getting the books in the mail and all of the kits made me feel a bit like a kid in a candy shop– all of these fun resources for the kids to learn from. They were super-excited too.

We are almost finished with our first month of homeschooling now and I think the coolest thing about the process is that we are all learning together at times. While this year has been one that is challenging, I am hoping that the pieces that stick for me when I look back on our journey is sitting together outside on the patio swing reading history, or doing science experiments in the living room. Those are the memories I am choosing to take forward for this 2020 year.