We use Sonlight curriculum for many of our subjects so typically, our homeschool year is roughly 36 weeks long. This means, every 9 weeks we finish one quarter of school. I’m excited to say that we have officially finished our first quarter of school!! Honestly, I am very excited about the progress we have already made in our school year. Our original plan for our move to Hong Kong had us not even starting school until November or December.
I am thankful that God changed our plans, so our entire family was able to come straight to Hong Kong in August with my husband. Just one week after our move, we started school. We decided to start school right away, so that our family could begin to get back into some kind of regular routine. We’ve had hard days or days when we took a break from school. However, overall school has provided the structure needed for our family to begin to call Hong Kong home.
In case you are curious, I've included my original 2018-19 Homeschool Curriculum Choices for my girls. Overall, we haven't made any major curriculum changes yet and all of the curriculum choices we made are working for each individual child. I will be sure to let you know if we make any major changes as our school year continues.
One the biggest changes to our school year, has been that I have 5 kids and two of them are just 4 months old. As a result, our daily homeschool structure has to be very flexible right now. We don't have a rigid daily schedule to follow, because I would get overwhelmed if I wasn't able to stick to it like I planned. We have an overall rhythm to our day, but I have to remain flexible and be willing to change things up incase the babies get fussy.
I am so thankful for my big girls and their willingness to go with the flow. They're diligent to work on school when we have some quiet moments throughout the day and most of the time finish school before I expected them to get done. I am so proud of them!!
.....
2018-19 Homeschool Curriculum Choices
This year, I have a child in 1st Grade, a child in Kindergarten, and a child in Preschool. I will start by sharing the subjects that everyone is going to work on together.EVERYONE TOGETHER
Bible, Memory Verse, History, Read-Alouds: Sonlight. This year, we are using Sonlight’s Core B – World History I. We have used Sonlight for the past few years and it really works for our family. We specifically picked this curriculum, because we knew it would be best for us if/when we moved overseas. You see Sonlight mails you a box with all the books you need for the whole year. This is great, especially now that we live in Hong Kong and don’t have the same resources that we did in the States. I have everything I need for the whole year and don’t have to worry about not being able to find a particular book. If you would like to read more about our journey with Sonlight click the link to read my blog post, “Finding Flexibility with Sonlight“.
Science: Exploring Creation with Astronomy (2nd Edition). We used Apologia’s Exploring Creation curriculum last year and really enjoyed it! There was no question about what we would use this year for science. My husband also purchased the complete science kit, so I would have all the resources necessary to complete our activities/experiments in Hong Kong. Initially, I was against this, because I didn’t want to spend money on something like this. However, I’m thankful for my husband’s wisdom. This kit has been a lifesaver! I’ve been able to do school even though we just moved. I don’t have to spend time tracking down our scissors, because there is already a pair in the kit.
1ST GRADE
I’m sure I say this every year, but how do we have a 1st grader!? When we were making our curriculum choices for our 2018-19 school year, Olivia could read some things. However, reading hadn’t come together for her yet and we didn’t want to force her to read if she wasn’t ready. We decided to let Olivia do things at her own pace. As a result, we purchased Sonlight’s Language Arts Grade 1 program, but by the time that curriculum arrived something clicked and our daughter, who started reading everything she could get her hands on. As a result, we struggled to know which curriculum would be best for her upcoming school year. Thankfully, Sonlight has a test kids can take online, which helped us know what level language arts program to buy for Olivia. We exchanged our grade 1 language arts for grade 2 and it’s been the perfect fit!!
Language Arts: Sonlight Language Arts 2
Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears: My Printing Book
Phonics: Explode the Code 4, 5, 6
Math: Math-U-See Beta
Vocabulary: Wordly Wise A
KINDERGARTEN
How can Sophie already be in Kindergarten!! Sophie is a hands-on learner and she remembers things much better when she gets to use a manipulative to help cement different concepts into her brain. For this reason, we are switching from A Reason for Handwriting back to Handwriting without Tears. I think the manipulatives that go along with this program will help both of my girls to have a better understanding of how each letter and humber written.
Language Arts: Sing, Spell, Read, & Write “Off We Go” & “Raceway Book”
Handwriting: Handwriting without Tears: Letters & Number for Me
Phonics: Explode the Code 1, 2, 3
Math: Math-U-See Alpha
PRESCHOOL
Matilda is 2 1/2 years old, but already she wants to be involved in our school day. She has a strong desire to have her own things to “work” on, so that she can do school right along with the big girls. Though her learning will be more informal, I am planning to use ABC Jesus Loves Me, Playing Skillfully, and Sonlight Preschool Readers for Matilda this next year. Our focus will be to learn more through playing, fun activities, and great books. I’ve used these curriculums with my other girls and we loved them, so I hope Matilda enjoys these as well.
Letters, numbers, shapes, and more: ABC Jesus Loves Me
Learning through play and fun activities: Playing Skillfully
Reading great books: Sonlight Preschool Readers
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This year, we ordered most of our homeschool curriculum online from Sonlight and Rainbow Resource Center. Rainbow Resource is great, because any orders over $50.00 qualify for free shipping.
No comments:
Post a Comment