We are finishing up another year of homeschooling. Is it possible that I’ve been homeschooling twelve years? Each year brings new changes and challenges, but I am amazed to see how much we have grown.
One of the questions I am most asked by other homeschool families or those thinking of homeschooling is, what curriculum do I use? For the bulk of the kids’ schooling we use Classical Conversations. My kids according to their ages and abilities were in Foundations, Essentials, Challenge A, and Challenge 1. In the younger grades we use CC in a more supplemental way. As the kids add Essentials in about the 4th grade CC takes over most of their homeschool work. Once the kids enter Challenge, CC is the bulk of their schooling. The only variation we do is using Teaching Textbooks for math.
Bobby started kindergarten last year making it the first year that I’m formally homeschooling all five! Whew! With Bobby we used Abeka for reading, writing, and math.
In addition he loved his Classical Conversations Foundations class that includes memory work in all subjects, science experiments, music, art, and so much more.
Little Jason’s schooling was similar to Bobby’s with the exception of Teaching Textbooks for his math. This kid does not enjoy formal schooling at all, but anything hands on that interests him is gold.
Grace finished her last year of Foundations and Essentials and plans to begin Challenge A next fall. For her Faces of History project, a research paper, she became Betsy Ross, finding things around the house to put together her own costume. I was so proud of her.
Joy completed Challenge A this year. It is so fun to get to this point and see the kids take ownership of their work, manage their time, and love learning. I managed to avoid a science fair project until this year. Between Joy’s effort, and her dad and I put together we…may have passed! Ha. I think she enjoyed it. Me? Can I please move to Alaska until the next science fair is over?
Faith completed Challenge 1. Looking back to beginning schooling her at age 5 and trying to teach her to read I wondered if she would ever learn anything. She has done so well and most importantly she loves to learn. She is one that will read a book three times until she understands it. I am so proud of her diligence and desire to succeed.
We continue to finish various parts of our schooling this summer, but it’s nice to be on what I call a “school light” schedule. When we are home we keep working on the things we want to finish up, but if we have an offer for fun, friends, or family, we party! 🙂
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