Counting My Blessings

Happy Thanksgiving!  As we all reflect on our blessings at this time of year, I can’t help but thank God for my family and how fortunate I am to be educating my children at home.  I know that this is what God is calling me to do, and I am rewarded everyday with getting to spend precious time with the children that I have been entrusted.  It is not always easy, but I know that I am in it for the long run, and I can do what I can and that the Holy Spirit will cover the rest.  It is exciting to see the growth of each child after the day in and day out of our homeschool and I know that the milestones will keep coming as we continue.

Naturally with Thanksgiving this month, we have been devoting our morning time session to learning all about the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving.  Through reading living books, it became evident that the Pilgrims risked and gave up a lot to escape religious persecution to live how God called them.  I am determined to follow the Pilgrim’s example if any roadblocks present themselves in my own spiritual and homeschooling life.  We need to remember the adversity that the Pilgrims lived through and remember that we have it pretty good.

If you are interested in getting a little Pilgrim inspiration, here is a read aloud version of the Landmark book, “The Landing of the Pilgrims.”  Enjoy!

 

Curriculum Choices for 2022-2023

When it comes to homeschooling, I’ve learned that no two homeschools are alike.  There are many different homeschooling styles and every homeschool educator has to decide what works best for their family.  This year, I’ve had to make some adjustments with our curriculum choices and decided to go with a blend of an All-In-One, Charlotte Mason-inspired, and add on curriculum to enhance and enrich our selections.

We’ve been using Sonlight for years and it worked well when I was only homeschooling my oldest.  Due to now homeschooling a pre-kindergarten/kindergarten-aged child and a third-grade child, it was difficult to continue using it fully for the two grades.  I’ve decided to continue using Sonlight for language arts as well as Math U See for math (as recommended by Sonlight); however, I am now using Awaken to Delight, a Charlotte Mason-inspired, family-style morning time curriculum, for the remainder of the subjects.  This move has made my life a lot easier, and I can really focus on language arts and math skills when I am working with each child one-on-one.

As far as add on curriculum, I purchased Kids Cook Real Food for cooking skills and some fun science kits from The Young Scientists Club for both kids.  For my third grader, I also added on Redbird for math and language arts and Cottage Press for an additional Charlotte Mason program.