Jennifer Lambert

A Sacred Balance

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Our Curriculum for 2020-2021

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I’ve been homeschooling my four kids for about sixteen years now. My younger three have never attended school. My eldest attended day care, preschool, and one month of third grade at a DoD school.

We learn year-round and love having freedom to learn when and how and what we want. We love being able to take breaks for field trips, extended travel just for fun or educational purposes, sun days, snow days, movie days, game days, park days.

Most of the anxiety I had in the beginning years has faded away and I am mostly in awe of my kids’ abilities and interests. I learn so much from watching and learning with them.

I highly recommend the books by Louise Bates Ames. A good guide to follow are the What Your ?-Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. His books have some problems, but it’s a great jumping off point.

My eldest daughter is taking a break from college and working full time.

6th Grade

My son is starting middle school! It’s a lot more writing and independent work than he’s used to, but we will ease into it. I love this age! It’s so exciting to see all the changes and connections.

9th Grade

My two middle girls are officially in high school!

I’m keeping track of their credits in a transcript for their future needs. Our high school goals are four full year credits of English, math, science, social studies, with two full year credits of foreign language, and multiple electives for creative arts and physical activity.

Some electives the girls are pursuing in addition to their sports are cooking/baking, creative writing, drawing/animation, jewelry making.

Ohio doesn’t allow students to work until age 15, and my girls are already looking forward to their first part time job in a year or two – maybe at our Dairy Queen around the corner or a locally owned shop or volunteering with the Red Cross.

  • Astronomy and Microbiology from OpenStax
  • VideoText Algebra
  • Tori is continuing Russian and Greek
  • Tori continues aerial arts and is beginning lyrical dance
  • Katie is continuing German
  • Katie is participating in a virtual Dungeons and Dragons weekly game

Together

We still do lots of morning read alouds together for Bible, church history, natural history, world and American history, and lots of multicultural literature.

We are currently finishing up reading Life of Fred pre-Algebra 2 with Economics. We also have Life of Fred Financial Choices. We will soon start Beginning Algebra. My son may not be quite ready for it yet.

We’re starting over again in our history cycle with Year 1. It will be my last history cycle with my girls and I feel so sad. I will update as we continue to add better book selections to our repertoire. Libraries still aren’t open except for requests by appointment.

Our main text this year is The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer. I just purchased the Study and Teaching Guide: The History of the Ancient World by Julia Kaziewicz. My girls are completing the critical thinking questions for each chapter.

Also The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained by DK and The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way by Joy Hakim are daily read alouds.

I look forward to studying in depth ancient art history!

See how we do history. Our main curriculum Tapestry of Grace (and the way I supplement it each year) covers all the humanities – history, literature, art, music, philosophy, government.

My kids are very active with skating/roller blading, cycling, hiking, walking, playing the Wii, in addition to their classes and rec sports.

I love seeing my kids get creative with floral arranging, jewelry making, various arts and crafts, cooking, writing, map drawing, herbology and foraging. We will discuss elective transcript credit for various hobbies if they complete enough or do a big, long project.

How is your new homeschool year looking?

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Secular Curriculum

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I have come full circle, back to the views I had during our first year of homeschooling.

We began homeschooling for academic reasons.

I got confused, sidetracked, shamed, humiliated, and lost with all the religious homeschool groups, sites, curriculum.

I am a trained English teacher who has taught public, private, middle, high, college, and tutoring – but I questioned my abilities to homeschool my children well.

Homeschoolers, groups, and co-ops are only too happy to jump in to offer advice and help to new homeschoolers. But it seems to come with a catch. Many homeschoolers meetup or co-op through their churches. There is still a large percentage of homeschoolers who are conservative Christian and they feel this is the only way. They ostracize anyone who doesn’t conform.

Do a web search about the origins, beliefs, and requirements for Classical Conversations, HSLDA, many homeschool conferences, and other large homeschool organizations. They’re certainly not secular or even welcoming.

I didn’t even grow up Christian. Not evangelical at all, not going to church except with my Lutheran grandma who visited two-three times a year. I was never confirmed. I had been christened as an infant at the bequest of the grandma and I said meal blessings and bedtime prayers, but that was the extent of my religious upbringing until I met my first husband.

Growing up in the Bible belt of Georgia, I was odd. I always felt out of place. I didn’t understand the Christianese language.

Many homeschoolers don’t identify as evangelical Christians. There are Catholics, Jewish, Muslims, and other faiths who homeschool their children and would like secular or faith neutral materials and curriculum or something designed just for them. It’s really hard to find.

We started off with The Well-Trained Mind and I found it (and still find it, mostly) to be respectful regarding those other than the evangelical Christian faith. We began with the materials suggested for first grade.

Having four kids, we reuse curriculum each year. It saves us money. So, we own the entire Apologia science curriculum. They have since separated from Dr. Jay Wile and and he wrote and sells new texts while Apologia commissioned another author to recreate their middle and high school science texts. I think their quality has deteriorated so we continue with what we’ve always done. The science hasn’t greatly changed.

We bought all four years of Tapestry of Grace online. It was great our first couple years, for the most part. As my eldest daughter went through the dialectic stage for high school, we didn’t buy some of the book selections, and very few of the religious texts recommended.

As the kids and I grow, we tend to edit out much of the religion in our curriculum and it can be tiresome. The science books are still solid for the academic lab science and we just skip the weird Bible parts. We don’t read a lot of the religious selections from the Tapestry of Grace humanities book lists. I supplement church and religion history from better books when I feel it’s appropriate.

If I were beginning our homeschool journey now, I would choose more secular materials. I wish there were any complete affordable science lab homeschool curriculum good enough for high school credit, but I have yet to really find any we’re happy using.

I have found many Waldorf sites and curriculum is sometimes secular or very respectfully spiritual.

Secular Curriculum

I haven’t used all or even a lot of these. Some we reviewed when my kids were younger. Some of the materials for middle and high school may or may not meet standards in my opinion. My kids are all 10+ now and we are mostly finished buying curriculum and making do with what we have.

Complete or All in One or Boxes

Science

See how we do science in our homeschool.

ELA

See how my kids learned to read. I don’t teach English in our homeschool.

History

See how we do history in our homeschool.

Math

See how we do math in our homeschool.

Arts

See how we do art in our homeschool. See how we do music and cinema in our homeschool.

Foreign Languages

See how we do foreign languages in our homeschool.

Other

See how we do health and PE in our homeschool.

Secular Sites

Some of my favorite (mostly) secular homeschooling and parenting sites:

What’s your favorite secular curriculum?

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Homeschool Middle School

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Middle school, or junior high, is a transition time – between elementary and childhood, high school and college prep.

It’s awkward and gawky and uncomfortable, both physically and emotionally. For the kids and for me!

I loved teaching 8th grade, many years ago now. It was so exciting to see the kids change from the first day to the last day. And I love seeing my students all grown up and starting their own families and teaching their own classes!

Homeschooling was a huge switch for me. I went from teaching teens and adults to teaching a 5 year old, then my babies. As they grew, I became more comfortable. I grew with them, learned with them. We all adapted.

Having my kids reach middle school is so much fun for me. I tease them: you’re in my world now. I know this. I got this. We’re gonna do this right.

The kids know I was totally out of my element teaching preschool and elementary. We laugh about it now. I learned to love it, but I absolutely adore teaching middle and high school.

I love having my tweens and teens home with me. I love discussing history and literature and science and art and music, and even math. I love seeing the connections and assimilation going on from all the topics and travels and years I’ve taught them. I love still reading aloud to them.

I love the sudden fierce hugs. I love watching their bodies grow full and strong, giving me a glimpse into the adults they will soon be. I giggle that they’re all becoming taller than I am! I love hearing about their sports events and art and what they found in the woods. I love that they still show me rocks and flowers and worms and cicada shells.

They’re still so much children but they’re becoming so responsible and big. I desperately want to protect them while realizing I must fall back little by little and let them learn their own path.

I was horrified by a conversation I had the other day where a lady described her son’s harsh transition into middle school. He was suddenly completely responsible each day for turning in his work in the correct tray, completed, on time. There were no reminders or anything. I gave multiple reminders to my kids, even my college students! This is just ridiculous and sets kids up for failure. Her son’s As and Bs turned to Ds and Fs. Without an IEP, there was no assistance from the teacher or support from administrators. This is not the real world!

A master teacher, rather than pushing pupils toward independence, supplies them instead with generous offerings of assistance. A master teacher wants her students to think for themselves but knows the students cannot get there if she resists their dependence or chastises them for lacking maturity. Her students are free to lean on her without any sense of shame for their neediness.

Hold On to Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers by Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Maté, MD

Middle school need not be a scary age to navigate or teach.

It’s important as parents, we understand the changes our kids go through at this age. We must be supportive and patient. We must remember what it was like for us at that age.

Adolescence is a critical time for brain growth. Thinking become less concrete and more abstract. Hormones and body changes are awkward. Critical thinking is more advanced. Short term memory may be compromised as everything tears down and redevelops.

I highly recommend the books by Louise Bates Ames. A good guide to follow is What Your 6th Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good First-Grade Education by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

I still read aloud every morning and evening. We go on lots of family hikes. We go out for ice cream and slushies a lot and this is a great time for conversation. We have dinner together at home as a family every night.

It becomes more and more difficult to find interesting and wholesome activities for older kids and teens in our society. It becomes narrower for homeschool kids. Even school kids mostly do sports.

Most states don’t allow paid employment until after age 14, and most of those jobs are pretty undesirable. We’ve found the minimum age for many volunteer opportunities is 15 or older.

The town library closes at 5 PM on Fridays and it’s a big joke in our family that there is nothing wholesome to do.

I constantly shift our priorities as interests change.

Our Middle School Curriculum

6th Grade

This is a huge transition year for most kids – in schools and with homeschooling. For us, dialectic work begins. There’s lots more writing, questions, critical thinking. My kids expand their interests: dug deeper and explored new things!

7th Grade

This is one of my favorite years. My kids constantly surprised me with their interests, abilities, and minds. Their intelligent, thought-provoking questions encouraged me to be more honest and authentic. We all made lifestyle changes for improvement.

8th Grade

My kids began to earn high school credits. We transition from dialectic level to rhetoric level work. It’s amazing to look back on the changes since 6th grade!

These few years between elementary and high school are crucial to having a great relationship with my kids when they’re older teens and young adults.

You ought to give him a taste of freedom while he still thinks it’s yours to give. ~Outlander

I give them more space, freedom, privacy. I encourage discussion about academics, religion, sex and culture, current events, their interests, their lives.

I still remember them as rambunctious babies, toddlers, youngsters…and now they’re growing up into these wonderful young adults.

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Our Curriculum for 2019-2020

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I have reached the apex of homeschooling where my kids are pretty much independent learners!

I highly recommend the books by Louise Bates Ames. A good guide to follow are the What Your ?-Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

I don’t have little kids anymore!

More and more, I just stand back in awe and watch them create and perform.

We love learning and exploring together!

My eldest daughter is 18 and beginning her first official year of college! She has a part time job as a bank teller.

My middle girls are doing 8th grade work.

Tori is 13 and doing Greek 2 and Katie is 12 and is continuing German.

We’re looking into private art lessons for Katie. She does fall soccer. She loves to cook and draw and create.

Tori practices weekly aerial arts at a local gym.

My son is doing 5th grade work.

Alex is 9 and does fall and spring baseball and weekly ninja classes. He won 3rd place recently in a ninja competition!

We’re in year 4 of our history cycle.

We still do lots of morning read alouds together for Bible, church history, natural history, Life of Fred, world and American history, and literature.

I can’t believe how time has flown!

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3rd Grade Curriculum

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I remember 3rd grade. It was one of the few years I enjoyed in school. I loved multiplication and would do worksheet after worksheet, asking my teacher for another when I finished and was bored.

Homeschool 3rd grade is pretty laid back. I felt like I was almost getting the hang of homeschool by year 3 and then when my younger kids were doing 3rd grade, I was like a pro.

I highly recommend the books by Louise Bates Ames. A good guide to follow is What Your Third Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Third-Grade Education by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

My eldest in 3rd grade:

We had just moved to Hawaii.

We joined a history co-op.

My daughter tried school on Hickam AFB. It lasted one month.

We took a tour of Pearl Harbor Memorials.

My middle girls in 3rd grade:

  • Tapestry of Grace
  • Life of Fred
  • Singapore Math 3
  • Spelling Workout C
  • Apologia Chemistry and Physics
  • Prima Latina

My son in 3rd grade:

  • Tapestry of Grace
  • Christian Liberty Nature Reader
  • Life of Fred
  • Singapore Math 3
  • Spelling Workout A
  • Apologia Animals

Third grade is an exciting time and I want to make sure my kids have fun, play lots outside, and love learning.

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4th Grade Curriculum

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Kids in 4th grade are so helpful and knowledgeable. They can do so much! They read and write fluently. They’re so eager. They start to become quite independent.

I highly recommend the books by Louise Bates Ames. A good guide to follow is What Your Fourth Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Fourth-Grade Education by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

My eldest in 4th grade:

My middle girls in 4th grade:

My son in 4th grade:

I love seeing my kids grow in late elementary and begin asking hard questions and critical thinking.

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Our Curriculum for 2018-2019

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I have homeschooled since 2005.

It’s been a wild journey and I have learned so much about myself as a mom and teacher over the years.

You can see how we began with our first and second years.

Here’s how I plan a homeschool year.

You can scroll through all the curricula we’ve used over the years for various levels.

I also created these pages of homeschooling topics and to help answer questions.

This year, I’m only homeschooling 3 kids!

We’re still finishing up some maths, science, and history…but we should have about a month off from academics. We typically school year round with lots of breaks for holidays, resting, and travel.

My eldest is dual enrolled at a local university, and has all but completed her high school work of French and history.

We continue to use our core curriculum of Tapestry of Grace for history, geography, literature, art, music, and church history.

We use Memoria Press for Latin. My son is finishing up Prima Latina and the girls are doing Latina Christiana. We also learn modern languages.

We’ll take local weekly art classes again since we love the teacher.

My middle girls are 11 and 12 years old. We don’t really do grade levels, but I guess they’re in about 7th.

Katie is trying soccer again.

Tori loves being outdoors and walks, runs, bikes, rollerblades all the time.

This year, they’re studying:

My son is 8 years old. He is in about 4th grade.

Alex loves baseball and will play fall ball and spring league again this year.

He is studying:

Apologia Chemistry and Physics to coincide with his sisters’ physical science.

A winter Astronomy Unit

Some of this curriculum is no longer printed or has updated to new editions. I’ve had these books for years and if it ain’t broke…

What are you studying in your homeschool this year?

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Our Curriculum for 2017-2018

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It seems like summer has flown by for us this year!

We moved from Germany to Ohio and spent lots of time getting settled and dealing with reverse culture shock.

We’re pretty relaxed and spend most mornings reading and completing the lessons so our afternoons are free to play, explore, create, bake, watch videos, or ride bikes.

I’m not worried about schedules or how long it takes to complete a book. Some days, we don’t get to math. We do science only a couple times a week. We read every day.

Our curriculum this year:

We still use Tapestry of Grace as our base. I like their book lists and activities. I print Notebooking Pages every week to coincide with our history and literature studies.

We don’t really label with grade levels, so here’s what my son will be working through so far this year. He’s 7 years old.

He also listens and participates in history and literature read-alouds with his sisters.

  • Christian Liberty Nature Reader
  • Life of Fred
  • Singapore Math 3
  • Spelling Workout A
  • Apologia Who is God?
  • Apologia Land Animals

My middle girls are 10 and 11 years old and here are their core texts.

  • The Story of the World
  • Elementary Greek
  • First Start French
  • Singapore Math 6
  • Spelling Workout G
  • Apologia General Science

My eldest daughter is almost 17 and will be attending a local university part-time for dual enrollment.

She’s looking for a part-time job too! It’s a bit discouraging how few jobs are available for a 16 yo and how potential employers talk to and treat her. She volunteered with the Red Cross for two years, but has no paid experience. And everything is online now, so she can’t charm anyone by walking in. There are no help wanted signs in windows anymore.

She is still finishing up French, year 3 history, and some literature. She has to review algebra and take a math entrance exam to enroll in college algebra spring semester.

The kids really work quite independently.

We do history and literature read alouds in the mornings, after breakfast.

The kids then work on their notebooking, Bible, vocabulary workbooks.

I assist Alex, which really just means I just watch him do his work. Every few days, I read a science chapter to Alex and he works through his science notebooking journal the other days.

I assist with and discuss science with the girls. Dad reviews science in the evenings and weekends and does some of the more extravagant experiments.

Dad does math with the girls in the evenings and weekends. We all like to listen to Life of Fred!

We’re usually finished with the bulk of school work by lunchtime.

Then the kids can read whatever they like, create art or crafts, play outside, rollerblade, scooter, ride bikes, wait for their public school friends to get home on the bus, play table games, iPads, Wii, watch Netflix, hike in the woods, bake something yummy, practice typing, research, nature journaling, or almost anything they want!

We take days off for field trips and other activities. Since we school year-round, we don’t stress. Evenso, we still often complete the year’s workbooks, journals, and other curricula by March!

What are you using this year?
What does your schedule look like?

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Homeschool Preschool

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For preschool, we’ve tried lots of different activities and curricula.

Preschool homeschool doesn’t have to cost really anything. I know some homeschool parents who buy these expensive boxed curriculum sets, but I think these are a waste of money and cause lots of stress for child and parent. The schedules are strict and seem to have a lot of worthless busy work.

Our homeschool days have always been only a couple hours of academic work, even for high schoolers!

I highly recommend the books by Louise Bates Ames. Good guides to follow are What Your Preschooler Needs to Know: Get Ready for Kindergarten and What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know: Preparing Your Child for a Lifetime of Learning by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.

How We Homeschool Preschool:

While I believe that small children should play, play, play as much as possible, my younger kids wanted to “do school” like big sister, so I obliged with workbooks and fun activities and they soaked it up like sponges.

I read aloud to my kids from pre-birth through high school age. We all love books.

Autonomy

I don’t force anything on my kids. I allow them to explore their interests. We don’t worry about handwriting. Reading comes naturally, whenever the child is ready. They love learning about science and history.

Toys

Lots of plastic electronic toys are a waste of money. My kids prefer building materials and toys and recyclable items for craft creations. Pretend play is important. I shop after Halloween sales and thrift shops for fun dressup clothes.

Technology

Screens in moderation. Sometimes kids just need and want the downtime. When it’s bad weather outside or we’re not feeling well, it’s fine to curl up together or alone with the cats and watch a show or play an app. Why should we make kids feel guilty when adults do it all the time?

Outdoors

We spend lots of time outside. We play balancing and running games and run free and wild. We learn about and experience nature.

Practical Life

They use real tools in the kitchen, helping cook real food meals.

We explore textures and colors and drawing with real art supplies.

We go to the library weekly – for storytime and checking out lots of fun books.

Lots of fun field trips – farms, museums, science centers, historic locations, beaches, parks, nature centers. We prefer realistic locales over entertainment places like amusement parks. We love to travel!

Letter of the Week

We loved using the programs from Confessions of a Homeschooler and 1+1+1=1. It was lots of paper and printing, but the girls really loved it. Alex liked it ok.

My girls completed 2 levels of All About Reading and my son used their entire program. They all loved it! It was a fun and easy way to learn to read and they begged to do a lesson every single day.

Here are some of our random letter blog posts. I didn’t record all of our letter learning efforts.

Unit Studies

Preschool Pinterest Board

Montessori Pinterest Board

I try to limit toys to encourage imaginative play.

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Our Curriculum for 2016-2017

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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.

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.

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.

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!

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