Our 2019-2020 Homeschool Curriculum Choices (6th Grade, Kindergarten, and Toddler)

It's summertime, and we are actually taking a bit more of a break from formal homeschooling this year than usual. We have been on break since mid-May, and our first day back to school will be July 15, 2019.

We had quite a crazy ride last year with my husband suddenly losing his job and then finding a new one with a totally different schedule after months of searching.

Plus, we are switching up most of our curriculum.

So a slightly longer break seemed necessary to catch our breath and make preparation for the 2019-2020 school year.

What's new for us in 2019-2020?

1.) Little Brother will be an "official" Kindergartner this year! 

2.) Big Brother is exciting to be switching to a new curriculum for everything except Math!

3.) Baby Sister is 1 1/2 and will need to be kept busy while her bubbies are busy.

4.) I am going back to school myself!

Read on for details!

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Kindergarten

Just call Little Brother "Mr. Kindergarten!" He turned 5 back in April, so K5/Kindergarten here we come!

For K4, he had so much fun last year using the Gentle + Classical Preschool Level 1 and the first half of ACE's Kindergarten with Ace and Christi program.

So for Little Brother's Kindergarten year, we will be:

• Finishing up the second half of the ACE Kindergarten with Ace and Christi program.
• Supplementing a little extra math fun using Math Lessons for a Living Education Level K from Master Books.
• Learning to read with Foundations Phonics from Master Books.

When I tell him he will be able to read at the end of this school year, he gets so excited! 

For some extracurricular fun this year, Little Brother will be --

• Joining our local 4H Cloverbuds Club and 4H Homeschool Club.
• Joining the Kentucky Junior Historical Society.
• Starting piano lessons with me using the Madonna Woods Piano Course for Christians Preparatory Level.

6th Grade

Big Brother is starting middle school this year! Where has the time gone?!

As I said above, we are switching Big Brother's curriculum this year for every subject except Math.

• MATH - ACE's Math program is rock solid. He has been using it successfully for a few years now, and I honestly think math is a subject that should not be switched around any more than necessary. So he will be continuing to use ACE Math PACEs this year.
• LANGUAGE ARTS - We are making a switch to the Writing Strands series from Master Books. I am starting him out in the Beginner 1 Book. This class will cover grammar, creative writing, spelling, and literature/reading.
• SCIENCE - He picked out his own science class this year! We will be using the Applied Engineering course from Master Books. (This course is set up for grades 7-9, so I have scaled it down slightly and typed up our own set of quizzes.)
• HISTORY - Big Brother is most excited about starting a new history curriculum! He will be using The World's Story series from Master Books this year. We are beginning with Volume 1: The Ancients. This volume covers the time from Creation to the Roman Empire.

In addition to his basic course work, he will be --

• Participating in the local 4H program.
• Joining the Kentucky Junior Historical Society
• Possibly attending homeschool art classes again.
• Continuing guitar lessons with me.
• Volunteering at a local soup kitchen.

Toddler

Baby Sister is a running, climbing, giggling, pilfering bundle of energy wrapped in cuteness who wants to do everything her brothers do!

At almost 17 months old, she's as busy as a bee. While she's much too young for formal schooling, not having a plan for her days could be disasterous! Here are a few things I have planned for Baby Sister this school year--

• She loves the phonics songs that are part of the Kindergarten with Ace and Christi program, so I will definitely keep including her in that part of our school day. Sometimes she will also listen to the Bible stories and hymns we sing during our Morning Time.
• I have started letting her experiment with drawing and coloring with jumbo crayons. I might dig out some old dollar store coloring books for her to enjoy when I need her to be quietly occupied.
• I plan to read her at least 1 picture book each day.
• I am working on a plan to rotate her toys and to make some of them "school time" toys. My hope with this is that it will cut down on her ability to make such huge messes with so many toys out at a time and maybe she'll not get bored too quickly since the toys will rotate. I am still figuring this out!
• This seems like a good time to start teaching color recognition. In addition to pointing out colors in her everday life and play, I plan to make her a game similar to the one I made Little Brother for learning colors.
• By the end of this school year, I hope to have Baby Sister weaned from the breast and potty trained... y'all pray for me! These are my two absolute least favorite tasks of child-rearing, but both have to happen sometime!

Mommy is Going Back to School!

This 31 year old homeschooling mama of 3 is going back to school in August!

I started earning college credit during my last couple years as a homeschooled high schooler, and I took LOTS of college classes for a few years thereafter.

But then life happened, and I just never took the time to finish any specific degree.

So I am beyond excited that I have been given a fresh opportunity to finish what I started more than 15 years ago!

I have been accepted to Liberty University as a transfer student, and I only need 5 classes to graduate with my Associate of Arts in Education in Spring 2020!

(I am considering going on to finish up a Bachelor's degree in the next year or so as well...we shall see!)

Liberty University is the largest Christian university in the world, and their motto is "Training Champions for Christ." Liberty's residential campus is located in Lynchburg, VA. Liberty also has a top-ranked online program. Not only will I be able to complete all my classes online (hey, once a homeschooler, always a homeschooler), but I am also absolutely thrilled to know that everything will be taught from a strong Biblical worldview!

I feel so blessed to be embarking on this new adventure, but not only for the furthering of my own education.

What I am doing will also benefit my children as I intentionally work on developing my skills as their teacher.

I take God's commands in Deuteronomy 6:6-9 and Proverbs 22:6 ever so seriously. My children are my ministry, my occupation, my passion, my inspiration, and my heart. I absolutely love the quote that says "She wanted to change the world, so she decided to homeschool her children." I love having the opportunity to train my own little "champions for Christ!"


I desperately desire your prayers! Juggling my classes along with all my other responsibilities as a wife, mommy, and home educator is not exactly going to be easy. I am blessed to have the support of my family and friends, and I know with God's help I can do it!

So what's on the menu for your new school year? 

Is this your first year homeschooling, or perhaps your last? Do you have questions to ask or tips to share? I would love to hear from you! Feel free to comment below or visit with me on Facebook and Instagram!

Visit our Shield of Faith Homeschool Gift Shop to discover fun apparel and gifts designed by homeschoolers for homeschoolers!

Our January 2019 Homeschool Morning Time

Homeschooling is back in session for our family after a long, leisurely Christmas break.

Last week, I shared with you our homeschool goals for 2019, and I mentioned that I was ready to plan out specific systems to help make sure we reach those goals this year.

For all of our homeschool goals this year, there's one simple routine where I can plug in basically all of our top priority activities.

And that simple routine is our "Morning Time."

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Here's your glimpse into our Morning Time Routine for January 2019:

Some days we begin our homeschool morning time routine at the kitchen table while the children are eating breakfast, but our favorite way to have morning is comfortably gathered in the living room. Either way, our routine is basically the same.

Side Note: You'll notice from the picture that our morning "basket" is more like a practical plastic Sterilite box with a snap-on lid.  For ease of use and due to space constraints, the best place for our box to stay when not in use is on the floor beside our living room couch. And when you have a little crawler (sweet as pie though she may be) who loves tasting and tearing anything made of paper (or any other material for that matter), you don't tend to leave important books and school materials out in open containers. So while I love looking at other families' beautiful morning time baskets, that just isn't a good option for us!

Prayer

We always try to begin morning time with prayer. Most of the time I will lead. I just thank the Lord for His blessings, mention each member of the family and ask God to take care of each one that day, and mention any special prayer requests we might have. Lately Little Brother (age 4) has also taken initiative in leading us in prayer some mornings. Let me tell you, it is the sweetest sound to this mama to hear her little ones sincerely talking to the Lord and even praying for me! What a beautiful way to start any day.

Bible

One of the perks of being a second generation homeschool mom, is that my parents know how to give the absolute BEST Christmas gifts for us to use in our homeschool! 

One of these gifts they blessed us with this year was the 10 Minute Bible Journey, and I knew right away it would be great to use in our morning time routine.

With 52 short lessons and beautiful full-color pictures, the author is taking us on a crash course through the entire Bible with a focus on apologetics and the Gospel!

We start the lesson with Big Brother (age 10) looking up the Key Verse in his Bible and reading it to us (the verse is given in the book itself using a different version, but we prefer the good old KJV, plus it gives Big Brother practice in looking up Scripture references).

Then I show all three children the pictures and read the lesson aloud. If we're in the living room, I allow them all to sit in the floor with Little Brother and Baby Sister (almost 11 months) usually playing with some quiet toys as they listen. (If we're in the kitchen, their breakfast keeps them occupied for the story.)

We talk about what we are reading, and they are free to comment or ask questions as needed.  Each lesson ends with a short prayer.

If you need a great family Bible time resource, I highly recommend the 10 Minute Bible Journey!

Singing

You might remember that I set the goal of daily singing with my children for this year. So I am making an effort to include singing into our homeschool morning time.

I have 2 Volumes of the Then Sings My Soul book series, and these books are so good for learning about hymns and their writers. I also love that there is a song ballad included for each hymn so we can practice singing together.

For this month, I picked the hymn "Jesus Saves" for our morning time song. I chose this hymn because of its cheerful melody and because the repeated lines "Jesus saves, Jesus saves" throughout the hymn makes it an easy one for Little Brother (who isn't reading yet) to pick up and sing along. Even Baby Sister enjoys bouncing along and waving her chubby little hands while we sing.

Scripture Memory

We spend a few minutes reviewing the boys' Scripture memory work together. 

Little Brother has memorized Psalm 100 recently, so we recite that together to keep it strong in his memory. Now he's working on learning a group of verses that take him through the life of Christ. 

Big Brother is reviewing Matthew 5:1-18 and is now learning Psalm 119:1-18.

Both boys also learn a verse or short passage weekly to share with the congregation in church each Sunday morning.

Adding relevant hand motions or singing our verses have been the favorite ways to practice our memory work recently.

Never underestimate a young child's ability to memorize (and understand) God's Word! Their minds are like sponges soaking up all the knowledge they can find. Even Baby Sister recognizes when the boys are reciting familiar verses and joins in with their hand motions.

Oral Language Exercises

I know I have mentioned this resource numerous times before, but it is valuable enough to share again. The Abeka Oral Language Exercises booklet can be used with all ages and lends itself perfectly for use during our homeschool morning time routine.

Each daily exercise with 10 sentences for the children to repeat after me takes only 2-3 minutes to do, but it effortlessly teaches them to recognize proper sentence formation and word usage. I also like using it as an exercise in focused listening skills.

One booklet is all you need for your entire family, and you can use it over and over again year after year!

Read Aloud Time

First of all, we are rotating Big Brother's Science and Social Studies PACEs as morning time read aloud material. 

Little Brother also enjoys listening, and it helps to lighten Big Brother's independent workload later in the day if we complete those readings together in the morning. This week we've read all about meteor showers and the sun in Science and the reasons for the start of the American Civil War in Social Studies. 

The other book we are currently reading aloud from daily is Buddy Davis' Crazy True Life Adventures. 

If you are familiar with Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum, and dinosaur sculptor and musician Buddy Davis, this book is not to be missed! Buddy has led such an exciting life, and he shares his stories in such a humorous and engaging way the whole family enjoys. So far we've read funny stories about Buddy going moose hunting aboard an old school bus in Alaska, his odd habit of practicing taxidermy on road kill, and his failed attempt at keeping a lion for a pet! The boys keep asking me to read just one more story every morning, so I'm pretty sure that means we've found a great book. (Thanks to my parents for this gift, too!)

Phonics/Reading

At this point in our homeschool morning time routine, Big Brother is dismissed to go spend the next half hour curled up reading a book of his choosing before getting on to his independent assignments for the day.

In the meantime, Little Brother does his phonics review. I have shared before that Little Brother is working his way through the Kindergarten with Ace and Christi program from Accelerated Christian Education as his K4 Reading Readiness program this year. As part of that program, he's working on a new letter sound each week.

For each letter, we meet an animal friend and learn a new song for each sound. Each morning we listen and sing along with our letter sounds and animal songs on his CD. I am also teaching Little Brother the ASL signs for each letter as we flip through our large colorful flash cards. Baby Sister also enjoys listening in and bouncing along with the fun animal songs!

Once this is done, our actual morning time is over the we launch the boys into the rest of their work for the day. 

We love starting our homeschool day together this way!

Morning time at our house has changed and taken on a new look every so often as the needs of our family and the ages of our children change. I've shared about some of our past morning routines here, here, and here if you want to see more.

For lots more great homeschool morning time resources and inspiration from homeschool moms all over the internet, make sure you are following my Homeschool Morning Time board on Pinterest!