HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM 2022 | This will be our 5th year homeschooling!

hello and welcome to hopewell heights i'm steph in this video i'm going to talk to you guys all about our homeschool curriculum for 2022. this is our let's see fifth year homeschooling but it's only the fourth consecutive year because the first year that i homeschooled i believe it was my oldest his kindergarten year and it did not go well at all and i actually sent my kids back to school the following year because i just had this picture in my head of what homeschooling would look like and i was basically trying to recreate the typical 40-hour school week here in our home by having my tiny little kids sit at our table for pretty much eight hours i'm cringing thinking about this but pretty much eight hours a day doing structured work all day long i ca it was so miserable i cannot believe i did that but that is what i knew because i went to traditional school and i really wanted to make sure that i didn't miss anything i put so much pressure on myself that first year thinking that because we homeschooled i had something to prove and my kids had to be over achievers we had to check every single little box but since then i have learned that part of the beauty of homeschooling is that we do not have to fit inside of the traditional school box in fact that is exactly what i do not want to be doing that is why we homeschool but it's taken a lot of unlearning and relearning to get where we are now and now i can truly say that i love homeschooling my kids we are in such a great rhythm i don't even want to say routine or schedule but just a nice rhythm where we know what to expect every day i know each of my kids and their learning style so i can provide that one-on-one instruction that suits their learning style the best and it really is just a positive experience for all of us so being that this is my fifth year of homeschool i still get just as excited every year when our new curriculum starts coming in the mail let's see it is mid-august right now we are not going to be fully back to school until after labor day so i've still got a couple weeks i've still got some things that are trickling in in the mail but i've started getting our new books and oh it's like christmas i just i just love it so i'm excited to share with you guys what we are going to be using this year but before i break out my books and break all of that down i just want to go over a few basics just in case anyone watching this video is brand new to homeschooling or maybe you feel like i felt when i first started and you're not enjoying it or you've tried it before and maybe you sent your kids back to school but something inside of you just doesn't want to give up on homeschooling one question that i get a lot is where do i start and i actually have a really easy answer to this question for you guys and that is homeschool legal defense association it's hslda.com so write that down or i'll link it in the description here but copy and paste that in your browser and go check that out right away that is like my number one resource for homeschooling on the hslda website you will be able to find laws for homeschooling in every single state so just click your state and read all the laws to figure out what you need to do i live in missouri and it is a great state for homeschooling because we really don't have to do anything we're supposed to track our hours but we don't have to turn those in there there isn't any kind of testing that kids have to do we are free to educate our children as we see fit which i really really like and you can also which i highly recommend doing this you can also purchase a membership to hslda and you will have 24 7 legal representation just in the event that you would ever need it pertaining to anything around homeschooling well actually not just homeschooling i remember getting an email from hslva where members you can i think it's like it's something ridiculously cheap like oh 12 bucks i might have written like 12 dollars a month or 125 a year something like that you can even buy a lifetime membership which i believe is twelve hundred dollars which if you're going to be homeschooling multiple kids for years and years then that's worth it anyway i remember getting an email from hslda a few months maybe a year back where a homeschool family actually was in the hospital having a new baby and they what was it either they declined some procedure just some routine procedures in the hospital or i think they were ready to go home they this was during covid and there were a lot of restrictions the baby was born healthy mom was healthy everything was fine and they wanted to be discharged so they could go home to their family and the hospital would not let them go they said that they had to stay for some extended period of time and they weren't giving them any reason and they were actually threatening to call child protective services on this family if they continued asking to be discharged so the family called they have you get a little when you become a member you get a little card for hslda they call the number on the card and they were able to get legal representation very quickly they had a lawyer on the phone that was able to talk to an administrator from the hospital and resolved the entire situation and the family was able to go home so you guys this is such a valuable thing if you are a homeschooling family and it might come in handy in more ways than one while you are on the hslda website check out the sections on bookkeeping the records you'll need to keep will vary from state to state so check out the section on bookkeeping and then also they have sections on special education on dual enrollment there is just a ton of information on this website you guys so pretty much all of the big questions that people have that probably scare a lot of people away from homeschooling you will find answers on this website all right a couple more things i made notes here a couple more things before we move on to curriculum let's talk about expectations so i touched on this just a little bit when i told you guys that my first year of homeschooling i had the expectation that my little bitty kids would sit around a table for several hours and be very focused quietly and diligently doing lots and lots and lots of written school work that was a very unrealistic expectation i have since come to realize that since we live out in the country my kids love being outside they love free time they do not like structured play they don't want or need me to tell them what to do or give them ideas of what games to play i mean they are very creative and they love just going outside and gathering up sticks and rocks and baler twine and all sorts of things and making things coming up with games and projects and things to do all on their own so when i am thinking about structure for our homeschool and choosing curriculum the style that works best for us is no frills i look for things that get straight down to the subject matter and accomplish the academic task at hand my kids do not enjoy built-in coloring or craft activities or games or anything like that they actually do like school they want to learn the material and then be free to go play and honestly this works out really well for me too because this is a very busy homestead we have a lot going on all day and we're just not the type of people to sit around and do a structured craft for several hours however i do have friends who have children that enjoy that type of thing they love to sit down for hours and do tedious little projects so if that is you and your child then there are definitely options out there with lots of built-in activities crafts games all sorts of things that will keep you busy all day long you really do need to consider your lifestyle and your kids individual learning preferences before you choose a curriculum i think one of the biggest mistakes that i have made in the past and i see a lot of homeschool moms making is looking at what all the biggest influencers are using and choosing that so my first year of home school all of the big influencer homeschooling moms were using this one particular curriculum and it had all the cute games and crafts and all the things that i mentioned and from what i could see online it was working great for their families so that is what i used and then when my kids and i were miserable i felt like i was a failure and we were doing something wrong but since then i have talked to a lot of moms who have tried that that one particular curriculum and none of them liked it and now that i've gained a little insight in some other areas i think what was going on is these influencers were being paid to adver to use and advertise that curriculum so just be wary of that when you are looking for inspiration and ideas in fact i actually recommend getting the bulk of your homeschool information and inspiration from older moms older seasoned moms who have been there done that they've got at least one or maybe several children who have flown the coop they have successfully done this and they and their children can look back and say that it was a positive experience and they had positive results while we're on the subject a few of my favorite seasoned homeschool moms to follow are nikki truesdell and sally clarkson nikki truesdell's website is such a fabulous resource and a lot of the books that i'm going to be sharing come straight from her website there are tons of great companies out there making great materials and it can feel really overwhelming when you are shopping for curriculum so i highly recommend checking out kathy duffy reviews kathy duffy is a christian and she has reviewed tons of material in the homeschool world so her website is another really great resource all right guys i promise i am getting to my huge you can't see it all here a huge stack of books that i'm going to show you here just a couple more things that i wanted to mention before i start going through these uh let's see two things three things priorities uh finding community space and organization so a quick note on priorities one thing people say all the time is they're so worried about homeschool kids and socialization worrying that they won't get enough opportunities for socialization we have actually had the opposite problem we have so many social invitations and events all the time that it could quickly become really really overwhelming and one thing that i have had to learn to do is to say no to prioritize our learning time and space and say no when something interferes with that don't get me wrong there is a certain level of flexibility that i like to maintain that's part of why we homeschool i do want to stay somewhat free and open to be spontaneous but there are also certain things that we just have to get done that means that sometimes we have to say no to certain play dates or field trips or hanging out with friends in order to accomplish our daily tasks next little note here finding community i think homeschooling can be incredibly isolating not necessarily for kids no matter where you live there are usually tons of ways to get your kids involved there are co-ops and meetups and all kinds of groups and activities but it can be isolating for moms there was definitely a season where i felt this i felt lonely and isolated in our home school journey so for about the last four years we have been meeting weekly pretty much every friday with a local group of homeschooling families there are i think we have a group a group text us moms do and there are nine of us moms and i think we're pushing like 40 kids there's a lot of kids and we just take turns hosting out of our homes or we find a local spot to go to we do a lot of things like you know in the summer we might go strawberry picking or peach picking or find a creek to swim in or go to the city pool there's a lot to do we're always chatting in our group text and exchanging ideas and this has been a huge blessing for us this is something that i look forward to and the kids look forward to every week we do a four day school week so we go to school monday through thursday and then every friday pretty much all day starting at like 9 30 10 in the morning until early afternoon we hang out with our home school group our group is very laid back we don't have an itinerary or anything like that we all just bring some food and hang out and let the kids play so i would highly recommend finding some sort of community maybe check out local co-ops check to see if your church has a homeschool group or put together something or you could put together something like our group does last thing i wanted to mention was space and organization we do have a homeschool room we actually have a second story loft with bookcases and a big chalkboard and all of our homeschool supplies are up there and we do school up there sometimes but most of the time we end up here in the kitchen where i'm sitting right now around our table doing our school work and that is because of once again the lifestyle that we live i cook our meals from scratch i'm always doing something in the kitchen or running back to the laundry room to switch a load of laundry we do not homeschool in a box our homeschool fits in with our life so no matter how hard we try we always end up here around the kitchen table i have these little boxes for each one of the kids so each one of the three big kids has a little box like this and they fit on a shelf here in my kitchen and their core curriculum is inside of here this is their daily work things that they have to do every single day so like let's either math spelling grammar what else is in here i've got a cursive one i've got one learning cursive here reading all of their core stuff stays in here so it's easy to grab every morning they know what's expected of them and they can just get started and then we can go upstairs and grab anything else if we need it for the day now let's move on and talk about the curriculum that i am using for 2022. i made a few changes but overall i have been in a pretty good group for the past couple of years so we're just going to continue using the materials that we have now when you're choosing curriculum there are a couple ways to go about this you can buy leveled bundles where you get all of your materials from one company and it's by grade level and everything is done that is what your child does for the year so if you like a lot of structure and you like the idea of having having everything planned out for you and that is probably the way to go i will say that bundles are usually a lot more expensive because not only do they come with the student materials but they come with teachers manuals and they usually have like accessory kits like your macbook for example might have a bunch of manipulatives and games and stuff like that so there's a lot that comes with these bundles most of the time they're they're pretty pricey another route that you can take is just piecing your homeschool materials together so this is what i do i piece my curriculum together from several different companies using tried and true materials from experienced moms that i have the same values and a lot of what they share really resonates with me and fits our lifestyle a third option and there are people that do this it is totally possible especially if you have access to a public library is you can homeschool for i would say not for totally for free you can homeschool using free resources now you would still have to have access to probably like a printer and your basic school supplies but there are enough free resources out there that if budget really is a concern for you it can absolutely be done all right i shared with you guys that we are a no frills family we like to get down to business get things done and i piece my curriculum together now i'm gonna show you exactly what that looks like i'm going to show you our core first and then talk about some electives that we do as well for teaching reading i start all of my kids off with this book here it is teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons i will link all of this in the description for you guys this is such a fabulous tool this is tried and true used and loved by homeschool moms everywhere these short lessons can be done every single day so if you wanted to you could have your child reading in a little over three months with this book now when i get about halfway through 100 easy lessons i add in phonics with explode the code this is level four but i start at level one and this is a workbook it's very simple and repetitive all of my kids have loved it it's something that once they kind of get the format and get the hang of it they can pretty much do independently and it really helps to tie together what they're learning in 100 easy lessons once my kids finish 100 easy lessons i keep them going on explode the code all the way up until i think it goes through level eight my kids do like three or four pages out of this workbook every day and it takes maybe 15 minutes once they finish 100 easy lessons then i add in leveled readers so there are lots of different level readers i really like these i can read books my daughter was a very reluctant reader and it was actually these amelia bedelia books that got her to really start loving to read i also really like the mcguffy's readers we incorporate these a lot as well my kids really like these stories mcguffy's readers are very very old gosh i i don't even know when they first came out probably late 1800s maybe if you guys have ever read any thomas soul his book inside american education talks about that's where i first learned about makeup use readers this is what used to be the standard in this country before education standards were lowered quite considerably my philosophy on teaching reading has changed quite a bit what i have realized with having my three older children very close in age and trying to teach them all at once is that it is very beneficial to get them reading as early as possible i know a lot of people do in the homeschooling community do not like that they want to say to wait until your child is ready to read but you guys teaching a lot of little children close in age i'm just one person that can be pretty challenging if you can get them to a point to where they are reading mostly independently you can give them a list of their daily tasks that they need to do and then they can read the instructions in their workbooks and be working simultaneously as you are overseeing and doing one-on-one with each child where necessary so all three of my big kids are reading now little ernie is only seven months old however if we are blessed with more children i will be teaching them to read sooner rather than later all right moving on to bible study and christian studies this is how we start our day every day we start our day with reading from the bible i read from the bible to my kids every day we go cover to cover we take our time and the bible that i use is the reformation study bible this bible is full of study notes theological notes there's a concordance in the back so you can study by topic the creeds are listed in this bible the westminster catechism is in this bible this is such a great resource i read to the kids out of the bible when we sit down for breakfast and then we always do a little bit of catechism and one thing that i am starting this year we actually started today is catechism memory with brian sovay's westminster shorter catechism albums you guys have to check these out on spotify they are fabulous he also sings through the psalms which are really beautiful and just another great way to memorize scripture with your kids as far as christian studies go this year or at least the first part of this year we are going to be reading through fox's book of martyrs the kids actually just this morning at breakfast i don't know how we got on this subject but they ended up asking about martyrs people who have died for the faith and i have this book tucked away for a time such as this so i was so excited that they showed an interest in learning about early christians and protestant martyrs who have given their life for the faith i'm really really excited to go through this one with the kids moving on to history all of our history is read aloud i read so much to my kids you guys this is a huge part of our homeschool is just me reading to our kids at every meal i have a book and i am reading to the kids in the summer i wouldn't say that we sit inside and read as much but in the winter for a few hours every single day we are sitting in the living room around the fire and i am reading to the kids and my favorite way to teach history is chronologically so history is a story it is one big story from beginning to end we believe as christians that god created this world and he created us in it and it is a story it's his story and history makes so much more sense when you start at the beginning i don't know about you guys but i do not really remember learning ancient history when i was in school in fact i don't remember much of history at all i remember not liking history but now it is one of my favorite subjects so the curriculum that i use is story of the world it comes in four volumes it starts with ancient history then moves on to the middle ages then early modern history and modern history however i will tell you guys the author of this book is more on the liberal side so i still really like story of the world but that's just something that i want to mention to you guys i don't necessarily see that come through in her work at all i think the work is really great but i have since learned about another curriculum that is biblically based so story of the world contains bible stories and they're included as a historical fact telling the story of israel and you know the story of abraham there are a lot of bible stories in here but i am thinking about switching to the mystery of history for chronological history from beginning to where we are now told from a biblical perspective so this is actually christian curriculum so check that out you guys and also if any of you guys watching have experience with any of these please feel free to share your reviews in the comments that way we can all learn from each other one thing that i do as we are reading through history is if there's a really significant event or a story a particular time in history that i noticed my kids are really enjoying and interested in then i will actually go and find more books on that time in history and we'll stop and do a deep dive so one thing we did that for was when we read about homer i actually read the kids the iliad and the odyssey and they really really enjoyed this and we've done this for so many things when we were reading about ancient egypt i ordered tons of books on pyramids and the pharaohs and the kids just got so into it it really is something that we enjoy so much for science we use rod and staff so this is once again a christian curriculum so this is science from a christian worldview you are learning the scientific method and investigating the world around you with the understanding that we serve an orderly god who made an orderly world and that's actually the title of book one god's orderly world and as we are living in space and time where many people at least pretend not to even know what a man or a woman is it's very important that we are teaching our children order and actual science all right let's talk about language arts and before i show you guys these workbooks here funny story when i first started homeschooling i said that i would never use workbooks i really liked the idea of doing a lot of verbal work and i like i said i do a lot of read aloud to my kids and we do a lot of memory work we do a lot of verbal work but my kids love workbooks so we actually utilize workbooks a lot they just really like their repetition and predictability of knowing what exactly what's expected of them and being able to dig into their work first thing in the day go at their own pace and accomplish what they need to get done so for language arts i have two workbooks that we really like i use these core skills leveled workbooks here and also leveled spelling workouts these are very cheap you guys and like we talked about earlier no frills it just gets down to business kids are able to learn new concepts and accomplish daily tasks in like 10 15 minutes a day in a very systematic and organized way all right last but not least for our core curriculum is math now this is actually new to me this year in the past i have used charlotte mason mouth and i've also used master books charlotte mason math is pretty much all verbal it's hardly any written work and i really did like charlotte mason math because it really is important to be proficient in mental math however like i mentioned earlier i do not have time to teach each one of my children each subject one-on-one every day all day and that is what i was having to do with charlotte mason math so we switched to master books which is a workbook the workbook style worked out a lot better for us but what i did not like was master books was full of all kinds of stories and activities and games and just frills things that basically if each lesson had maybe 12 pages we were skipping like seven or eight pages just to get to the actual material so this year we will be using math you see this is like the best of both worlds because it's very straightforward as you guys can see in here just black and white simple math but it is in a workbook format so that i can write down my kids tasks kind of get them started for the day and then let them go as i supervise and work one-on-one as needed we have already cracked into these books and i can already tell i love them i would highly recommend math you see for all ages this is a very old curriculum and it's definitely tried and true alright now as far as electives things like the arts and music you guys these are things that i outsource i have a lot of knowledge and skills but i am not an artist and i am not a musician however i do value my kids learning these things we do music lessons we take art classes and we get our hours in that way so that pretty much wraps up our homeschool curriculum for 2022 i could sit here and go on and on and on and show you guys a million other things because we have lots of books we have lots of little things that i like to use but that is the core that is the bulk of what we will be doing day in and day out to meet our milestones and academic goals for this year one more thing i did want to mention before we go this is something that i have been doing for a few years and that is getting our homeschool year started with a soft start instead of waiting and having our typical you know first day of school where i get out all of the curriculum and the first day is a full day we go back to school a little bit at a time beginning a couple weeks before our actual start date so like i mentioned we will not officially be back to school until after labor day but i've actually already started kind of cracking into our new curriculum and just here and there i pull one kid aside and we maybe review some concepts from last year go through a few pages of their new books just to become familiar with the layout and the format that way they know what's expected of them and they can start the school year with confidence rather than feeling overwhelmed on that first day this has been really really helpful in the past few years and my little guy my now seven year he just turned seven seven year old when we opened up his math book the other day he actually did the entire first week he was so excited to get back to school so over the next couple of weeks before we start i'll continue pulling the kids aside one at a time doing some review from last year and just kind of getting an idea of what our game plan will be for this fall heading into our school year so that i know how to plan my day speaking of planning that is one thing i didn't mention earlier there are lots of fancy homeschool planners out there you guys i just use i think i got this at target walmart i don't even know i just picked it's just a basic daily planner up and i will just write each child's name in and write down what they do each day that is as fancy as i get for planning and this also serves as a log for our hours as well so i do write our time in here all right well i am going to wrap this up thank you guys for tuning in please use the comment section to ask questions or share your homeschool favorites share tips or resources everything that i mentioned in this video i will share in the description and i will also write up a blog post with all of these references as well alright well i will see you guys next week i make new videos every week on motherhood homesteading and life on our farm be sure to click subscribe and hit the like button before you go

Channel: Hopewell Heights

Views: 3,194

Keywords: homeschool, homeschooling, christian education

Id: B-3IJR8ydqo

Length: 30min 7sec (1807 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 18 2022