What We Are Using This Year 2018-2019

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Anybody else feeling like this summer is just going so fast? Like I get it. We always say that they go fast, but this time I really mean it. It has flown by and I'm feeling completely not ready for our "normal" to go back to being more structured days and Aaron back at work.

On the other hand, I love planning a new school year! There's always so much excitement that surrounds it, especially when you are little. I've been planning here and there for the last few weeks, mostly because finding a large chunk of time to sit and plan all at once is nearly impossible for me. I am super excited about what I have picked out for this year for both Ivy, who will be in first grade, and Hattie who will be doing preschool! If you are as nerdy as I am when it comes to curriculum, you'll like this post. So here we go!

Unit Studies :: We will be using Konos once again! I've written many times about how much I love this curriculum. If you haven't read about it, you can here or here. The unit studies focus on learning Godly character traits and they are just so good! Each unit integrates science, social studies, art, music, literature, information books, health, safety and Bible. However, I found that I like to supplement these with some other fun curriculum, which you'll read about below. We will be starting this year with the Obedience unit, and I would be lying if I said that wasn't a teeny bit strategic on my part.

History :: I've been following Beautiful Feet Books on instagram for the last year and their products look unbelievable!

Don't these books look amazing? My plan is to go through the first semester of the early American history curriculum. Learning history with quality books is right up our alley over here, so I really can't wait! In addition to this, I picked up this History Pockets book to supplement. If your child likes doing lap books, all of the History Pockets books look like so much fun! And at first glance it appears to be something my preschooler can do right along with us, which is a total win in my book!

Math :: Last year we started Math Lessons for a Living Education halfway through the year and didn't have time to finish our book, so the plan is to finish that up with my first grader and then evaluate where she is at. The book we started last year is technically first grade level and I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, so I might pick up some supplemental material half way through the year that will keep us at first grade level unless she is really excelling in it.

Language Arts :: This year we are going to be trying out Brave Writer. Julie Bogart has a TON of amazing products that help teach grammar and writing through reading really great books. She has programs for kids as young as 5 and all the way up through high school. Her philosophy of education is nothing short of incredibly inspiring. While we aren't using one of her formal programs this year (maybe next!), we are going to use her Arrow Guide for Charlotte's Web to see how we like it, and I can't wait! Did I mention this guide is a FREE SAMPLE on her website? A great way to see if her style works with your family! Just click the link and scroll down to the bottom. There should be a tab labeled "sample" and you'll find the free download there. In addition to this we will continue working through the Explode the Code series. This year I am also excited to incorporate Marie's Words. These look so fun! Over 550 vocabulary words that I anticipate we will use over the entire course of our homeschooling years. I basically went through the whole stack and took out around 40 words that I felt were age appropriate to learn and plan to learn about one each week.

Science :: I didn't really enjoy science as a kid. And I really want my kids to have a different experience than I did. So I'm working hard at making science a form of play and finding it all around us. We are going to start right in our backyard with 100 Backyard Activities That Are the Dirtiest, Coolest, Creepy-Crawliest Ever!

Preschool :: Hattie will be working on preschool this year! We did a few very loose things last year, but she wasn't quite ready to sit down with us each day for school. She surprised me with what she did know already and what she learned throughout the year even when I didn't realize she was picking things up. This year I'd like to strengthen her upper and lower case letter recognition. I would also love to work on having her learn how to write all of her letters. We are going to continue with The Peaceful Preschool because I just adore how Jennifer has written it. We are also going to try out ABC See, Hear, Do by Stefanie Hohl which teaches letter sounds through seeing the letter, hearing the sound, and doing an action.

You guys I'm really excited to say I'm going into my second year of home educating our kids! It's been a blast so far and I can't wait to see what this new year brings.