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Anyone making changes for second semester?
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What changes are you making in your homeschool for after the New Year?
Anything you are trying out or approaching differently?
No big changes for us. We are actually almost at day 100 for school, past the half way point, and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, haha.
A couple years ago we started beginning our school year August 1st and we take off May, June, and July. It has worked really well and I no longer hit the Feb “slump” because when it used to hit and we just wanted to stop, I can see that we are well into our third term and almost done, helps motivate us all. Also May weather is much nicer than August, I love having May off from school to be outside.
We started out the year doing Great Science Adventures (Botany). It wasn’t the best fit for my daughter, so we didn’t spend as much time on it as planned. I started using Christians Kids Explore Biology, which covers everything from plants to insects/animals to the human body, but the units are small. Since we had already done study on animals, we didn’t spend much time in that area. I had planned to take the last half of this year and study the human body. My daughter is a remedial 9th grader. She recently made a comment to me that makes me believe she needs to be challenged more, which is a good thing. So, I am going to use God’s Design for Life (Human Body) to be able to study this topic more in depth than with what I had planned. That is basically the only the change/addition I am making this next half.
Psreitmom, my son used the God’s Design Human Body book in 9th as well. He enjoyed it and did some really nice anatomy drawings.
My changes for this semester:
I think I might start my K’er on Math Mammoth 1. She has blown through all the cute K math books I bought from Amazon and loved them, so I think it’s time to move her on. The first chapter is a K math review anyway, so we’ll just start slow.
I might also move her from Adventures in Phonics to Explode the Code. We tried ETC earlier in the year and she didn’t like it, but AIP is soon going to get too complicated for her, so I might try ETC again.
My high schoolers will be finished their first electives of the year and moving on to the second. 11th grader will be doing computer programming at Code Academy and 9th grader will do computer science online. 11th grader will also be finished Notgrass Exploring World History so he will be spending the rest of the year on Abeka World Geography.
We are changing math and handwriting. I thought we’d always be mostly-CM homeschoolers, but my kids are doing really well with Memoria Press, and I decided to switch our last two non-MP subjects to the programs they schedule for math and penmanship. So at this point we are pretty much 100% classical homeschoolers—aside from our CM co-op and my CM mom’s book club. The CM police will be knocking at my door any day now. 😉
I’m also planning on a new routine. All fall I focused on my younger kids in the morning and my older ones in the afternoon, which worked great except for the preschooler. Starting in January, I’m going to assign an older kid to watch my (almost) 5yo, and they will each take a turn playing with him. He has spent too much time in front of screens over the last couple years. I’m tired of feeling guilty about it. So hopefully we can all pitch in and spend more quality time with him. He still needs lots of supervision, so I hope this helps!
Erin – Thank you. That is encouraging. I hope I can get my daughter engaged in something else this last half of the year. One thing she has been enjoying is writing. I’m just not very creative when it comes to modifying things for her.
Happy New Year!
We are changing up our routine, a little. We have four blocks: Pre K, Read alouds, Table time, and Morning time. Last year I was successful at doing something with the preschoolers first, then Morning Time, Table time, lunch , followed by read alouds and then quiet time. This year we’re starting with read alouds, followed by morning/table times. Preschoolers get after lunch time for their energy-consuming, messy activities 😉
After reading Julie Bogart’s inspiring A Gracious Space, fall edition and Karen Andreola’s January article for the new SCM planner, I am going to be more intentional at including some things I’d like to (re)learn: French, Geography, wool felting, and new recipes. Sonya has also inspired me to unpack my figurative backpack (When Less is More audio talk), once again, and just put in what I can handle without being overwhelmed. There’s just no need to try and keep 15 books going on. Teachers in Charlotte’s time were just that-not home educators. Simply done is just a grand idea for this busy season of life 🙂
I’m switching up language arts. I was going nuts with 4 kids doing Climbing to Good English. Too much busy work for me. So, I’m switching the older ones to English for a Thoughtful Child 1 and 2 and just ordered PLL lessons for #3.
I’ve got more! 10yo son was trying out apologia flying creatures and didn’t like it, so he’s going back to his first science love (geology) with Our Planet Earth.
Also, I am adding in the 3rd and 4th volumes of Mystery of History for my high schoolers in place of Notgrass because it just doesn’t have the amount of detail I want.
Feels like I’m constantly tweaking.
Only minor adjustments here. Mason is moving from TGTB Handwriting 2 into Draw Write Now for second semester. He’s ready for the challenge of writing sentences and I know the drawing tutorials will also be a good thing for his fine motor issues.
The rest of the things for all kids stay the same.
I may get a bit weepy some days at the realization that this semester is the very last one for my oldest before graduating high school. She has been homeschooled all the way through and it has been amazing and overwhelming by turns. Then I look at baby #10 and realize I still have 18 years of homeschooling ahead…lol.
ErinD, since your son loves geology, he may be interested in the courses and resources offered by Northwest Treasures.
We did a program through Northwest Treasures, geology for kids, and it was so much fun. I am going to do it again with my youngest, he was little the first time through, and thinking about a different one for my older kids maybe next year. At first I was not sure at the cost of the kit (we were at a conference and able to hear him talk and ask a lot of questions) but it was worth it. It was hands on and enjoyable all my kids learned a lot, and I did too. We tend to do Apologia and we enjoy it, but Northwest Treasures was a great break and so much fun.
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