2024-2025 HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM CHOICES

It’s that time of the year once again! The start of a new school year! Although we homeschool year-round, we keep some wiggle room for “life” as I like to say, you know, sickness, vacations, “blah” days/weeks… so it all works out great and we don’t feel like we’re behind or needing to “catch up” if we miss a little bit, since we school all year, anyway! One thing that helps combat any feelings of “being behind” is the reminder that all we need is to just “do the next thing.” One step at a time, pick up where we left off and just. keep. moving. forward. It’s a relief and also, so simple when you stop and think about it! So if you need any sort of encouragement for wherever you may be, just remember: do the next thing.

2024-2025 HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM CHOICES

Although we homeschool year-round, I do like to have a solid “start day” and “end day” for us to celebrate the start (and end!) of a new calendar school year, because everything is worth celebrating! So this week we will be officially beginning our 2024-2025 homeschool year! We’ll have a 5th grader, 3rd grader and a kindergartener!! WHAT! I can’t even believe it!

Last year (you can see my curriculum choices here), we pivoted about halfway through, which was a difficult choice at first but then one that felt so right with our family. We are no longer doing any formal “language arts” curriculum, and have dropped The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts and Math. It just wasn’t the right fit for us- which doesn’t mean it isn’t great and won’t be good for your family!

Without further ado, let’s get into it…

We follow a Charlotte Mason philosophy of education in our home, so although Ollie is technically in “kindergarten,” it is a soft and gentle approach to learning, very much play-based and child-led since he is still so young. The age of 6 is when we’ll truly begin his formal lessons, but for all intents and purposes, my little 5 year old will be in kindergarten! The other day he looked at me with a very serious face and said, matter-of-factly, “3+2=5… Do you think I should start math lessons soon?” I’m all about starting when the child is ready, and when he’s asking for it, who am I to deny him?! So we will be doing some math, LOTS of reading, and endless hours spent outside, working on our habits of attention and also observation. This is, in fact, what Nature Study (or “science” for the younger years) entails. Hours of outside exploration and observing the world around us. We already do this naturally, so I’m excited to be a bit more intentional about it!

My youngest will be doing kindergarten Math With Confidence and building a foundation of number sense, as well as letters and writing! We’ll be using a few resources, including Handwriting Without Tears and also this fun Lovevery Montessori Movable Alphabet from the Persister play kit! They have play kits for 4+ and this one is perfect for learning words! Speaking of learning words, if he decides it’s time to start learning to read (following his lead here!), a friend generously gifted these darling Dash Into Learning beginner reader books! We also have BOB books that we’ll read as well, but the Dash ones are way cuter and so sweet. ;)

I will be doing many fun activities from this page, so many great suggestions like baking cookies, observing our backyard birds and animals, making leaf rubbings, etc. Mostly just letting him continue to explore the world around him, and truly just enjoying his CHILDHOOD. Making his own connections, sitting in on good books during our family read aloud time, and soaking in that “quiet, growing time,” as Charlotte Mason put it. It’s magic. And it is enough.

YEAR 3 PLANS

My 3rd grader and 5th grader will both be doing Year 3 of AmblesideOnline. It says “online” but the only thing online about it is that the entire curriculum is freely available on the website. It is very much off-line. ;) I love what a well-rounded and beautiful education Ambleside offers. In addition to the core subjects, we incorporate a folk song and hymn each month, artist and composer study each term (every 3 months), as well as poetry (simply reading a poem a day by a designated poet, which changes each term) and beautiful free reads that turn into our family bedtime read alouds, that we absolutely cherish. :) I recommend everyone include these “riches” into their homeschool, whether or not you go with Ambleside. They are a delight and truly add such beauty and goodness to our lives! Plus, it’s pretty cute when your kids are singing classic folk songs throughout their day instead of (or in addition to!) Taylor Swift (just saying). ;)

A NOTE ON HOMESCHOOLING AND AUTISM:

My oldest son has nonverbal autism, so we have to get a bit more creative with his learning. ;) Lots of movement and supports so he can be set up for success. He has an AAC device (his “words”) that he is getting better and better at communicating with, so this is how I’ll have him narrate after a reading. I’ll ask him what we talked about, and sometimes he blows me away with his responses! It is truly so neat and life-giving to see him grow so much, and I get a front row seat for it. :) I just got a new book I’m excited to dive into, on teaching him to read, which has been something that’s tripped me up quite a bit, but I believe every person should have the option to escape into the world of reading- it’s such an important thing in life! The book is Comprehensive Literacy For All, and I have no review as I haven’t read it yet, but there it is! I truly believe that he absorbs it all, and I always presume competence and know that he’s getting exactly what he needs. It takes a lot of faith, and has been one huge blessing in my life that has only grown my faith exponentially. How could it not?!

HISTORY:

We will be reading from a few books, including Our Island Story, This Country of Ours, and A Child’s History of the World. History this year will be focused on Late 1400s-1600s Renaissance and Reformation, English monarchs, Pilgrims, Da Vinci/Michelangelo, and keeping a timeline.

GEOGRAPHY:

Mapwork, Marco Polo and China.

SCIENCE:

Nature Study, Ocean life, Woods Animals. Nature Study is simply spending as much time as possible outside, observing and exploring. Lots of nature walks around our home, time in the backyard, observing the plants around us through the seasons and jotting down the changes we see, etc. Some books to supplement here are Handbook of Nature Study, The Wonders of Nature and Nature Anatomy. The goal is to remind them to slow down and be observant- creating little naturalists! :) And something we would all be well to be reminded of.

MATH:

Math With Confidence. All 3 kids will be using Math With Confidence. We switched from the Good and the Beautiful halfway through last year, and absolutely LOVE it! No more tears and everybody actually enjoys math now! 🙌🏻 So happy we’ve found what works best for us! The kids started at the foundation as it lays such a solid one it was not to be skipped, so we will just continue on to the next, one day at a time, not worried about what grade level it says on the book!

RELATED: WHY WE HOMESCHOOL

LANGUAGE ARTS:

Oral Narration (simply telling back what we read each time) and Copywork are the bulk of our language arts. Also recitation (reading aloud poems and Bible verses) and lots of reading! I also grabbed the Good and the Beautiful Handwriting 3 for Sophie, as she will be learning cursive this year, and we do love their handwriting books!

Bible:

We’ll be reading through Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew as well as Little Pilgrim’s Progress. We read Little Pilgrim’s Big Journey last year and loved it, so this is the next step. We’ll also do our daily Catechisms from The New City Catechism.

RELATED: HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM PICKS FOR 2023-2024

Mother Culture

A big part of the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education is the mother teacher’s continuing education, as well. If I want to instill a love of lifelong learning in my children, that starts with me modeling just that for them. I always like to have a nonfiction book and a fiction book going at the same time, as well as a devotional style (or just the Bible itself). Always learning, always growing. Notebooking is also a big part of our homeschool- when we do nature study we’ll draw and write what we observed, after a reading sometimes they’ll narrate orally but sometimes I’ll also have them write down something they remembered or that stuck out to them and/or draw it as well! It’s actually so much fun, and something I do along with them. :) We always have notebooks circling around our home. I just grabbed 3 of these notebooks for this year, to document each child’s progress, wins and anything I want to remember from our school year. They each have their own that I’ll write in and keep for them for the future. It helps me to see how far they’ve come and what areas we need to focus on, as well.

RELATED: 2022-2023 HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM CHOICES

Phew!! That was a lot. But at the same time, it’s so rich and full, and we’ll still have time to just LIVE. Our fall schedule includes 2 days a week at the kid’s enrichment center where they’ll be taking fun art classes and cooking classes, and Sam will be in a woodworking class which I’m super excited about! We’re also starting a few new things: a sweet Christian co-op one morning a week, and Sophie will be starting American Heritage Girls! It’s going to be a great, full and growing year for us all- I just know it! Grateful to God for the opportunity to love my babies and pour into them and homeschool- something I do not take for granted, ever!!

SHOP OUR CURRICULUM AND HOMESCHOOL FAVORITES:

Any questions, as always, please leave a comment below!

xo