The solution I discovered a few years ago to homeschool burnout midyear is to begin transitioning into our next “grade level” of school. We educate year-round, so we don’t follow the traditional school calendar and we don’t completely take summers off. I began this non-traditional schedule with Elizabeth when we first began homeschooling since she finished her curriculum about March. Then, I panicked, what were we to do until August?!

Our Curriculum for 2011-2012

Elizabeth is 11.

She’s mostly in 6th grade.

One of the freedoms and blessings of home educating is that we don’t have to maintain that grade level standard. We do have to report to our local schools a grade level on the form, so I go with whatever math level we’re currently using. Elizabeth reads on a high school level, and has vast interests in languages, history, and art.

She does like science, but we’ve not pushed her because I wasn’t ready to move on to Apologia General this year. One reason is that I wasn’t ready to put Elizabeth in with the high schoolers at our homeschool co-op. I am kinda worried about how she would do socially with 13-18 year olds.

In reviewing our proposed scope and sequence and upcoming schedule for 7th grade, the workload is going to increase exponentially. I hope Elizabeth can rise to the challenge. She has done better this past month or so; I hope that means she is maturing. First semester had some rough patches.

After intense research and polling the members of our homeschool co-op about math curricula…it seems our best bet (since we’ve used Singapore from grades 1-6) is to go through Saxon 8/7 and then dive into Video Text algebra.

So, next month, we’ll continue with

• Tapestry of Grace
• First Form Latin
• Ambleside Online
• First Start French
• Write Shop Storybuilders
• Artistic Pursuits Book One: The Elements of Art And Composition
• Bible journaling and copywork

Elizabeth takes P.E. and drama at co-op and a cooking class through our community learning program.

We need to get out and do more nature activities, but I’m just not a winter girl.

We’ll be finishing up Singapore math 6B and Apologia Swimming Creatures. I plan to wait until this fall to start the new math and science. Co-op will probably offer an experiment course.

Track should be starting up soon! Elizabeth and Victoria can hardly wait!

The girls are doing Kindergarten work.

They’re not fluent readers yet and we need some work with handwriting. I find that I’m getting frustrated with them because they’re not where I want them to be. Some days, they really get the concepts we’re doing…and other days I want to pull my hair out.

They’re finishing up the program at Raising Rock Stars Kindergarten and You Can Read.

I started First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind: Level 1 (Second Edition) (First Language Lessons) with them last week and they love it.

My son likes to sit with us and be nearby. We give him fun Montessori toys and keep him busy and watch him play.

We’re reading The rainbow book of American history : Illustrated by James Daugherty.

I plan to supplement U.S. history with a download from a while ago called Read-draw-remember American History Activities.

We will continue to use Tapestry of Grace, Ambleside Online, and Artistic Pursuits, Book One: An Introduction to the Visual Arts.

Here are the co-op classes we’ve done: Swimming Creatures experiment course, a StArt class that’s really popular, a PE class, and a geography class with Window on the World: When We Pray God Works.

We’ve done a few lessons from Draw Write Now, Book 1: On the Farm-Kids and Critters-Storybook Characters (Draw-Write-Now). I will introduce some real copywork next week.

I’m thinking about doing Apologia Land Animals for science in the fall. I kinda want to see if co-op offers a science course for this age group next fall.

I still like Singapore math for grades 1-6, but my husband has never really cared for it, so we may change. They still have a K math workbook to complete and lots of fun hands-on activities. We’ll continue to do some Montessori works. The girls have been great about going out to play even when it’s cold. Good for them and gives me a break!