I almost forget that it’s back to school time for many families.

Since we homeschool year round, we typically transition into our next levels around March or so.

This year, I actually held back the workbooks and we had some free time over the summer.

But the kids are chomping at the bit to get back into math, spelling, and Bible in addition to science and history!

We’ve pared down our homeschool materials, threw out all the printables, cleared away many manipulatives, and generally streamlined our approach to learning.

Our focused academic time is only a couple hours each day – for each child.

We learn all day, everyday – life skills, reading, playing, creating, exploring.

Our homeschool curriculum for the 2016-2017 school year:

Tapestry of Grace encompasses our literature, history, geography, arts, and worldview studies.

We’re already finished with Year 2 Unit 2 in Tapestry of Grace. We have two more units to complete in Year 2, then it’s Year 3!

We read Bible scripture every morning individually and every evening as a family with the Pray Now app and Book of Concord.

I’m focusing on penmanship through copywork, memorization, and organizing with my younger three this year.

We learn about artists and musicians along with our history schedule.

We use Notebooking Pages for the majority of our academic work and evaluations, especially with history and science.

2nd grade

Alex is only 6 but he begs to keep going, going, going with his studies – and he’s reading and writing so well and doing great in math! He can almost learn everything along with his middle sisters! I make sure he has plenty of play and exploring time. Honestly, I’m so glad we’re out of the preschool stage and I don’t feel any need to “keep him busy.” He’s quite a fluent reader and does well with writing. He doesn’t enjoy play time with his male peers, most of whom are too rough and tumble for him. I’m perfectly happy with my gentle boy.

• Journey Through the Bible New Testament
• All About Reading Level 4 (already almost completed!)
• Singapore Math 2
• Apologia Botany (almost completed!) and Flying Creatures with junior notebooking journals
• Daily journaling – art and writing

5th grade

Tori (10) and Katie (9) amaze me every day with their knowledge and interests. They’re pretty much doing dialectic work already, with help and a slower reading schedule. I’m working with Tori (per her request) to improve her reading and spelling with All About Spelling. This is a tough transition age. Academic work increases greatly in upper elementary and middle school and sometimes, we take longer on lessons, but we still maintain our play and exploring time each day.

• Studying God’s Word F
• Spelling Workout E
• Singapore Math 5
• Apologia Botany (almost completed!) and Flying Creatures with notebooking journals
• Daily journaling – art and writing
• Latina Christiana 2, Greek, and French 2

11th grade

Elizabeth turns 16 in October! She will finish up almost all her academics this year, completing some history and literature reading and writing her senior year along with more volunteering and possible dual enrollment or community college courses. She knows she wants to pursue a career in the medical field.

• The Case for Christ
• Writing, Government, and Philosophy through Tapestry of Grace
• College Psychology
• Videotext Geometry (already halfway completed!)
• Apologia Physics (already halfway completed!)
• SAT prep with Khan Academy
• Red Cross Volunteer at our local hospital two full days a week
• Civil Air Patrol weekly meetings
• French 2

We’re taking a break from organized sports and music lessons since they’ve been a less than stellar experience for us. It also saves money so we can travel!

We get plenty of outside play time and nature study – almost every day.

We have more traveling planned this year to coincide with our studies and for fun. We’ll move back to the States next spring!