photo c/o my friend Holly Fish
This is what my favorite moments of homeschooling look like. This is VERY RARELY what homeschooling looks like. Also, you can’t see all the mud on the floor behind that pink couch. Just keeping it real, y’all.
This time of year is definitely when most of us homeschooling moms start feeling the blahs. Cold weather and burnout make a terrible combination and leave us all reconsidering whether this homeschooling thing was just a terrible, terrible idea.
In an effort to stay motivated, in January I like to take stock of what we’ve done so far and where we’re headed before the end of the year. So I thought I’d share a mid-year update about what’s working and what’s not.
If you’ve never read any of my homeschooling posts before, here’s some background. I homeschool our three kids: a 2nd grader, a kindergartner, and a preschooler. I am not a type A homeschooling mom. If I had to pinpoint my “method” it would probably be some kind of Charlotte Mason/Unschooling hybrid. My basic ideology is read, read, read, read, and read some more. Everything else will fall into place.
Math:
Only the 2nd grader is doing math this year. If you remember, Singapore Math (1A and 1B) was a HUGE failure. He understood it, but hated it. After we switched to Life of Fred the angels in heaven started singing. I really love Life of Fred and so does Benjamin. He’s flying through the books so I think we’ll actually have 3rd and 4th grade math completed by the end of his 3rd grade year. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.
We supplement with Khan Academy math. (A great free online resource!) Khan Academy is great for drilling the concepts until the student achieves mastery. And there’s fun badges to win, so what’s not to love?
Reading:
Now that we live in town and close to the central library, we spend time there every single week. The name of my homeschooling game is read alouds and audiobooks.
For the preschooler and the kindergartener I love bringing home books from this preschool curriculum Twenty-Six Letters to Heaven by Sarah Park. The picture book lists in it are worth the price of purchase. 
Lately I’ve also been hunting for the picture books Sarah Mackenzie over at Read Aloud Revival shares for each month. Here’s her February list if you’re interested!
I don’t think anyone’s ever too old for GOOD picture books, but a couple of years ago we added chapter books to the mix, particularly for bedtime reads. These are some that we read as a family or with individual kids (read alouds or personal reading) or are currently reading.
- Shakespeare Stories for Young Readers by E. Nesbit
- Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
- The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
- The Felicity Books by Valerie Tripp
- The Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder (read out loud by Daniel)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
- The Kirsten books by Janet Shaw
- The Trumpet of the Swam by E.B. White
- The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
- Catholic Tales for Boys and Girls by Caryll Houselander
- Secret of the Shamrock (Chime Travelers) by Lisa Hendey
- A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
Benjamin (age 7) finished The Spiderwick Chronicles and is deep into the How to Train Your Dragon series.
Here’s a few of our favorites that we can choose from for reading this spring:
- Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
- Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater
- Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
- Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle by Betty MacDonald
- The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
- Redwall by Brian Jacques
- A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
- Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
- The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
- The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
If you’re interested, you can read about our favorite authors and favorite picture books. We’re also very into audiobooks. I’m not ready for the kids to use an iPad or anything with an internet connection to listen to stories so we just ordered a simple CD player from Amazon and use actual CDs from the library. How old school, right? I came up with a big list of audiobooks we especially love and where to find good audiobooks (and free ones!)
We also discovered Playaways from the library. They’re a tiny little device that has just one audiobook on them. You add a battery and a pair of headphones and my kids feel SUPER COOL while listening to The Chronicles of Narnia or The Secret Garden and I love it.
We used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann to teach our oldest to read and now we’re 3/4 through it with our kindergartner. Even the preschooler wants to try it and is 10% done. Highly, highly recommend.
Handwriting:
This is the first year we added handwriting to our curriculum. My 2nd grader started Handwriting Without Tears. I started him with the grade 1 book since it’s a new subject for him. He finished a few weeks ago and has started on the grade 2 book. So we should be caught up to the grade 3 book before his 3rd grade year begins. So I think it’s a good curriculum and we plan to stick with it at least for now!
History
We haven’t done much this year apart from watching some Liberty’s Kids and reading some books from the library with historical themes.
Geography:
The little homeschool co-op we joined last year used Classical Catholic Memory curriculum. We’re going to use it to cover geography this year. We got a little stuck on all the tiny New England states (I was stuck more than my 2nd grader was!) but we’ve got all the continents and oceans down, all the Canadian provinces memorized, and now that we know where everything in New England is, should have all the states and capitols memorized by the end of the year. (Georgraphy is a huge hole in my education so I’m learning with him!)
P.E. Art, Science:
We’ve been LOVING our co-op for this sort of thing. Benjamin has also been loving joining the local beekeepers association and once a week we go to the farm where Daniel works for some good enrichment time.
Check out this awesome icon Benjamin made in his art class at co-op! I’m obsessed!
Composition:
This year it was my plan to do more focused writing with Benjamin, but I’m only just now getting going. Now that his handwriting is so much better I think we can move forward on this one. Still not planning to add any official curriculum until next year. Probably just going to encourage him to write letters to pen pals for now.
Poetry:
One of my favorite things we did this year was focus on poetry. We learned some Robert Louis Stevenson poems and some Shakespeare. This is something the girls join in on, too and everyone has a lot of fun.
Spanish:
Benjamin started doing the DuoLingo app so he could compete with Daniel. He’s actually learned a ton and I’m really impressed. Free, folks.
tl;dr : 2nd grader does Life of Fred and Khan Academy math, Handwriting Without Tears, handwriting program, reads constantly and listens to audiobooks, practices Spanish, memorizes some poetry and geography here and there, and does some enrichment classes through our co-op. Kindergartner is learning to read, memorizes some poetry, and enjoys read alouds and audiobooks. Preschooler is along for the ride!
Just so you know, we do NOT do every subject every day. Not even close! There are plenty of mornings that we spent outside at the park or the zoo without any official “schooling” happening at all. But I think that’s also valuable (perhaps even more valuable at this age).
Our typical school day schedule looks like this:
- Morning Prayer (might be the Morning Offering or Daniel will read aloud the Mass Readings)
- I read aloud to the kids during or after breakfast (usually a chapter book)
- Benjamin starts math while I do reading practice with Lucy.
- I go over the math practice section with Benjamin and get him going on handwriting.
- We MIGHT cover some Geography, or Poetry. But most likely not.
- Benjamin does some Spanish and maybe some Khan Academy Math.
- I read picture books to the girls (and Benjamin if he’s interested).
- DONE! Usually by 11am we are 100% done and either go to the park, library, museum, or zoo or get ready for lunch and an early nap.
- Rest time (quiet time for Benjamin, nap time for the girls and maybe for me, too).
- Extracurriculars or dinner prep.
- Anytime we’re in the car: an audiobook.
And there’s usually some Netflix happening somewhere, too. Sometimes in lieu of naptime or if mom needs to shower or maintain her sanity. Hang in there, fellow homeschoolers!
Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase a title linked in this post, at no additional cost to you, a portion of the sale will keep Carrots up and running. Thank you!
I use CDs from the library too but the laptop I’m playing them on is too quiet and can’t take headphones. Could you link to player you chose (if it’s a winner) and save me the shopping time? 🙂
Unless it hooks up to stereo system, in which case I’m on my own. I’m hoping to find something kids can manage on their own…
Thanks!
We bought a $20 CD player off Amazon and it’s defective! It plays CDs but the headphone jack doesn’t work. I was too lazy to send it back, but don’t listen to me when it comes to CD player purchases, apparently! But there’s lots of options on Amazon 🙂
If I find the golden egg of CD players I will let you know, haha!
We bought a travel DVD/CD player and I love it.
I can’t find the exact one, but here is a similar one: https://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-SDVD7049-7-Inch-Portable-Player/dp/B01EUEJREG/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1485466336&sr=8-13&keywords=sylvania+portable+dvd+player
Here is a bunch of other ones: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_6_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=sylvania+portable+dvd+player&sprefix=sylvania%2Caps%2C251&crid=P27J0WE3V1JG
On ours the buttons get mixed up, so we don’t use them, we use the remote that comes with it. It also has a charger that you can use in a vehicle. That’s about the only downside. We use it all the time for documentaries, audiobooks, Christmas CDs, etc. My son can use headphones with it when brother is sleeping.
Forgot to say, the 6 year old and 4 year old can operate this thing by themselves. 🙂
It’s so fun to see what other families are doing. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve gone back and forth about Twenty-Six Letters to Heaven. My girls loved sitting down with workbooks, so that’s what we did. With my son, I don’t think that will fly. Your now 2nd grader enjoyed it when he was younger, though?
He did, but honestly, we didn’t do a lot of the “crafty” stuff. Not that it’s extensive! But we just mostly used it for the great book lists 🙂
Your homeschool style sounds very similar to ours! I had to chuckle though at being confused by all those tiny New England states. We live in VT and I can’t imagine getting them confused. But getting all those complicated Midwest and Western states figured out is another story 🙂
We went over them yesterday AGAIN and I was like….wait….WHICH one’s New Hampshire? lol
I can only remember the difference between New Hampshire and Vermont because Vermont is shaped a bit more like a “V” 🙂 Maybe it will help you, too!
I love homeschool posts, even though we are not homeschooling. I always appreciate book recommendations. My kids are about anyear younger than yours, and my oldest is a choleric too. I’m part way through the book you recommended (although it’s been a while so maybe I should start over!). I remember her saying she does temperaments as part of her homeschool. Do you talk to Benjamin about his temperament? Would love a post on how you approach that with him (if you do).
Yes! I do talk to him about that. Mostly to help him understand why he’s freaking out when he’s not in control. I think it’s important to strike a balance between equipping your kid to understand their temperament so they can give grace to themselves and grasp why they’re emotionally reacting to certain situations while also emphasizing that having a certain temperament isn’t an excuse to behave badly 🙂 I think talking about being choleric has helped him IMMENSELY, though.
We LOVE The Story of the World history series (Susan Wise Bauer), if you’re looking for an unsolicited recommendation! I also have a kindergartner and 2nd grader.
Thanks for the peek into your homeschooling day…I love to see what other families are doing.
We love those, too! We only have the ancient world one, but it’s so good. 🙂
But really, that icon though ? Make sure that one stays with art!
It’s interesting because he’s 100% not interested in art. As in, he NEVER colors or wants to use paper and glue. It’s all LEGO and building and reading. But in this class, he’s really loving it!
We use an amazon echo for audio books with the kids now – it will play off your audible account or you can pair it with a device and use it as a Bluetooth speaker. But I like just playing off audible since we have a lot of kids books on there.
I’d like to try out life of Fred, but Singapore has been working fine for us so far. I’m a curriculum hoarder though so I’ll probably end up with Fred before we start first grade so I can check it out.
We have an Amazon Echo, but all our audiobooks are from the library. I wonder if we set up something that would download our library audiobooks to the laptop if it would just play from there! That’s a good idea. I think Singapore would work great for my second born. I think it’s a great curriculum, it just wasn’t a good fit for my choleric first born 🙂 But LoF is great for supplementing, too!
Thank you so much for posting this! I start homeschooling officially this fall with a kindergartener (& unofficially a preschooler) and feel super encouraged after reading what you are doing. It sounds similar to what I’m planning but I waffle between feel great about it and worried I won’t be doing enough. Thanks for sharing a peek into your homeschooling day, it has helped me feel confident that I’m planning well!!
The advice I was given by veteran homeschoolers was to NOT SWEAT IT in the early years. Play, read, and have a great time together. I’m so glad I followed that advice! These are the carefree days you can spend at the park and on nature walks without any big kids who have to do math problems. Just enjoy it and read a ton <3
How did you decide to homeschool? I considered becoming a stay at home mom when my daughter was born thus starting to homeschool my preschool son however my son gets very upset when he doesn’t get to go to school and see his friends.
I was homeschooled 3rd-8th grade and also experienced public school (high school), secular private school (high school), and private religious school (pre-school-2nd). So having something to compare it to and knowing my firstborn’s temperament, I was convinced it was a good fit for our family. If your preschooler is wanting more social time, could you join a co-op,extra curriculars, or park play dates with other homeschoolers?
I love hearing about your homeschool. I think you need to do a homeschool post once a month 😉
I don’t know that I’d have that much to say! But I’ll try to do them more frequently for sure 🙂
We love Life of Fred as well.
It’s just great! And I love that I can keep the books for the next kid because the practice work is done on your own paper!
Have you read the My Father’s Dragon books? Super cute. Your girls are a good age for them, and I don’t think they’d totally bore your son yet.
https://www.amazon.com/Three-Tales-My-Fathers-Dragon/dp/0679889116/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1485213649&sr=8-2&keywords=my+father%27s+dragon
I keep hearing about those! I’ll grab them next time we’re at the library 🙂
I loved reading this post. I am a homeschooling mom for the past 9 years to a kindergardener, first grader, third grader, fifth grader, and a seventh grader. I love seeing what different mom’s days look like. Thank you for sharing yours! I’m a “newbie” to your site and enjoying all your posts.
Aw, thanks, Tammi!
Reading your post has just confirmed to me I am not alone x
I only started homeschooling back in September after deciding that public school wasn’t benefiting my children whatsoever (plus the fact my 8 year old suffered years of bullying!) and there have been many moments of wondering whether I made the right decision for my children.
It’s hard but extremely rewarding x
Thank you for reassuring me x
So sorry to hear about the bullying! Heartbreaking! It isn’t easy, but I think it’s such a great way to give your kids a great education. <3
You are my homeschooling role model for when we (God-willing) have children. And I hear ya on geography, I lived in Boston for 8 years and still struggled with those states. I now live in Minnesota and am slowly learning what all the giant squares & rectangles are out here.
Keep up the awesomeness!
Ha! I’m glad I’m not alone with the geography 😉
I’m a long-time, long-term homeschooler (18th year, graduated two so far; two to go). The advice you received about “don’t sweat the early years” is spot on. We have followed Mother of Divine Grace from the get-go and this is their philosophy as well. For math, we have used Math-U-See forever–love it!
I’ve heard great things about MODG 🙂
Looking for a new read-aloud for our 5.5 year old (our options are limited because we’re expats) and I wondered if Trumpet of the Swan would be good at her age?
I think it would! My 5.5 yo enjoyed it 🙂
I also have a 2nd grader and Kinder (and a 2year old). I’m curious if you are introducing cursive? My 2nd grader is having a hard time with letter reversals, so I’m going to introduce cursive in hopes that a cursive b looks nothing like a cursive d, etc. We use the memoria press handwriting books, mostly because they are prettier than HWT. Who wouldn’t want to write a row of ‘c’ next to an image of St Catherine 🙂 Anyway any thoughts on cursive??
After this book is completed, then he starts cursive. I never learned cursive so it’s not really a big priority for me that my kids know cursive, but we’re planning on teaching them.
How to Daniel and Benjamin compete on Duolingo? My daughter uses it, but I didn’t know we could compete!
*do not to
Well, they can’t really COMPETE, but they can see how many lingots each other has and how long their streaks are. Keeps Benjamin motivated to beat Dad 🙂
Thank you for sharing what you’re doing. My daughter is three so we haven’t started anything yet but I like to see what others are doing. This sounds crazy but when did you start with introducing letters/alphabet? I’m probably one of the few people who doesn’t sing the “ABCs” and I have a slight idea of what Montessori teaches but I’m curious how others have done it. So far, a lot of what we learn is self-led. She learned her numbers because she saw them everywhere and we went from there. Not quite an interest in letters yet but….
I taught Benjamin his ABCs and Lucy learned with the song without me teaching her. I didn’t teach Gwen and it’s made it EASIER for her to learn to read phonetically because she sees an “m” and makes an mmmmmm sound instead of saying “im”. I honestly wouldn’t bother!
New to your blog and love it! 🙂 I’m a CM home- educator as well and I love all your book choices and felt a kindred spirit rise up in me as I read along here. I am a crazy Jane Austen fan and L.M. Montgomery too…we also use Life of Fred for math and LOVE it. 🙂
Bless you.