My brain hurts!!!! Let me just say that I do love the way we have set up homeschooling in our home. I think letting the kids have a huge part in the planning of what they learn is important. But y’all… my brain hurts! Customizing, orchestrating, choreographing four individual school years is tough. There has been some negotiating. There has been some bargain shopping, some swapping of skills, some creative piecing together going into this school year. I am one tired mama.

I shared already about our Elementary School Plans… well… I already changed that up a little. So… I cannot promise that what I share in this post is set. I’ve already had many discussions today about science and what direction my middle schooler wants to take this year.

Here is what we have so far. This is our spine… our core…. the steady things that will be ongoing. We will leave wide margins for creative learning, tangents, rabbit trails, and more.

For math, my 7th grader will be doing Pre-Algebra with Math U See. She has done Math U See the whole way through and completed Zeta in the spring. This child is quite math minded and should transition into this next phase of math with no problem. Because math is not my strongest area, I like to have a solid curriculum on which to rely.

We really saw some great strides with this middle schooler of mine last year. We found The Good and The Beautiful and have been very pleased with it. It was tough and required more of her than she necessarily wanted to give. However, she even recongnized at the end of the year that she had improved in her language skills. Her confidence in reading has grown as well. Why mess with a good thing?? She will continue with The Good and The Beautiful, Level 6 Language Arts this year. The course incorporates geography and art study as well. I purchased the PDF downloads and printed from home.

I worked out the cost and I do believe it was more cost efficient for us to print at home. I have found great prices on paper and ink on amazon.

She will be working her way through a Civil Rights Unit on Schoolhouse Teachers. This is a great, thorough, and thought provoking unit that begins with the slave trade and continues through the 1960s. My son completed this unit a couple of years ago. It opened up some great conversations in our home. The course uses texts and youtube videos.

This particular 7th grader fancies herself to be a veterinarian some day. She has chosen an animal science course through Schoolhouse Teachers. We will hold this course loosely as she may very well rabbit trail off or get stuck on one particular animal for a while. It is a 27 week course… so we have a little wiggle room.

FYI… Schoolhouse Teachers has a Great BOGO Deal Right Now. Just use SHARK when you check out.

She will also be taking a Spanish class through a local co op. While she will undoubtedly will learn Spanish… she is very excited to be seeing her friends weekly in class.

This is where we are today. Who knows what might change tomorrow. School is starting for us this week. We are doing a slow start… just a few core items such as language arts and math. We will gradually add in the Civil Rights and Science. I’m sure there will be art. We will read. We will pray. We will school.