Homeschool Year in Review: 2019-20 (4th grade)

Evie's style is to get a lot of help but also work independently. She thrived this year and enjoyed her work.

Here is what we used for resources:

Math- I thought of switching math curriculum for her this year and she wouldn't have it. So we continued with Horizons. The 4th grade curriculum is probably my least favorite; it feels redundant. But it covers the topic using a spiral method (which worked well with all of my kids who would each get bored from doing too much of one thing in math for too long).

History and Reading-We used Story of the World Vol. 2: The Middle Ages with Evie and Kyrie covering the same content. Evie is a fast reader and in addition to a lot of related art projects from the activity guide, she read a lot of the suggested book titles for geography, literature, and history.

Earth Science and Astronomy-Ben and Kyrie were studying this course at their levels and I was able to take the curriculum guide by the same company (Elemental Science) and rearrange the order of the lessons so Evie was studying the same topics they were. We didn't do the experiments in her book and instead she participated in the labs for older students. But the reading assignments and books (additional purchase or library) and the writing component were more on her level. She made a gorgeous model universe and this along with identifying stars and planets while eating smores around the fire pit were probably her favorite part of science.

Grammar-I tried something new for Grammar and while Evie enjoyed the story of the family with their pets, I found Well Ordered Language to be really time-consuming and confusing. It relied on songs and Evie dismissed this as unnecessary and we skipped a lot of the material that was just not necessary. By January, we had finished and went back to First Language Lessons, Level 4 which covers grammar so well with no prep required for the teacher.

Writing & Rhetoric-I continue to love Classical Academic Press's Writing & Rhetoric series. Evie completed Narrative I and Narrative II and focused on learning about the different kinds of stories as well as the elements of narratives.

Spelling & Handwriting-Evie worked her way through Spelling Workout D and Zaner Bloser. I have liked Zaner Bloser for fundamentals; but about 4th grade it seems completely boring to me. But I appreciate the way the different letters are taught by strokes that tie in together. Spelling Workout books group spelling by similarities (i.e. Latin roots, prefixes, suffixes), and have the perfect amount of practice without feeling like busy work.

Bible- Kyrie and Evie used God's Great Covenant: Old Testament 2 from 1 Samuel through Malachi this year. In addition to Scripture reading and memorization, Evie had worksheet pages and a quiz each week. I love the way this curriculum tells the story of God's redeeming work in the world.

Art-Art was a Friday subject for Evie that incorporated projects from the Story of the World Activity guide, and then projects I came up with using art lessons from The Metropolitan Museum. Most of the lessons plans just included learning objectives and talking points; but I used the art itself to come up with ideas for projects.

Typing and Logic: Once a week, every practiced typing with Typing Instructor and did fun online logic puzzles with Mind benders.

Homeschool Year in Review: 2019-20 (7th grade)

Kyrie has a completely different style than Ben. "Tell me what I have to do and I will do it." She finds me if she doesn't understand something she is assigned and otherwise, she operates fairly independently. But she is exacting about having me keep up on corrections and grading. 

Math- She wanted to continue using Horizons math for Pre-Algebra. She enjoyed it, understood it, and other than a few times when I needed to help her, I just graded her work. 

History & Literature- We continued with The Story of the World Volume 2: The Middle Ages. This curriculum is ideal for younger students, but I teach it concurrently to Kyrie and Evie and Kyrie is responsible for writing a summary and for using additional internet resources. The activity guide makes it for us and we check out 5 or more library books per chapter for additional learning. When the library closed in March, it dampened my style. More e-books, more creativity, and less reading requirements (just like kids who go public and private school) didn't hurt us too much.


Earth Science & Astronomy-This was our first year using Elemental Science and we liked it a lot. Making use of science encyclopedias, labs and written lab reports, and written summaries, I loved the way this book offered additional resources for going beyond, but also could be done simply. Because I was trying to teach the same subject at three levels (using two different texts-more on Evie's later), I had trouble staying ahead. Buying the lab kit in advance would have been helpful; however, for this course, the materials weren't terribly expensive or difficult to find. The curriculum is flexible, offering suggestions for a 2-day a week or a 5-day a week schedule (which can be adjusted to 3 or 4 days/week). It provides valuable guidance in preparing a science fair project, but coronavirus happened.

Grammar-We used Rod and Staff (just the text and teacher's guide). Kyrie continues to love grammar, and while we rolled our eyes at some of the focus on archaic language, bad theology, and farm references, there are not mistakes. A well-edited grammar book is good thing.

Writing & Rhetoric-We kept going with Classical Academic Press's writing program. This year it was Encomium and Vituperation which involved biographical writing while focusing on positive and negative behaviors and analysis of them. Kyrie loves to write and spent hundreds of hours researching Louisa May Alcott for her final paper. (If the library had been open, it would have been easier.)

Spelling-Kyrie worked ahead of grade level, wrapping up her spelling studies this year with Spelling Workout H. We love this series; focusing on a logical study of spelling (or as much as can be logical about English) and offering just enough puzzles and exercises to understand how to spell a word and its meaning.  The 36 lessons are four pages each, and so work nicely with a schedule of grammar four days and spelling on the fifth.

Bible-We've been using God's Great Covenant series for year and I like them more every year. This year was Old Testament 2: From 1 Samuel thru Malachi.  This series does a great job of sticking to Scripture and not missing the point of Scripture: God's love and redeeming work in the world.  It involves a lot of Bible reading, some text, worksheet pages, and a quiz. This can be taught at different grade/age levels and Kyrie and Evie did this class together.

Art-I had plans for 4 museum trips this year and we made it to one b.c. (before coronavirus). I took the Metropolitan Museum lesson plans and chose to use about half of them, particularly anything that coincided with what we were doing for history. Most of them didn't offer a lot of specific art projects; Kyrie usually viewed the art and we talked about it. For Evie (who did the same thing with us), I came up with a related art project.

Music-Kyrie kept going with piano lessons.