Homeschool Update

This year we have a 4th grader, 7th grader and 11th grader. It is a very different year for me as a teacher – for many reasons.

First, the oldest kid is taking all but one class at the community college. He is dually enrolled through an awesome program in our state called Career and College Promise. He gets to take these classes for free. He is currently taking Sociology, Music Appreciation, Math {Pre Cal}, and English. The one subject he is doing at home is US History – we are using Notgrass.

It has been an adjustment, for sure, but the timing is right for him. It blows my mind how a 14 year old seems so young and a 16 year old seems so old, yet there’s only 2 years between. He is working at Chick-fil-A also, which is awesome, but he’s gone a lot. We LOVE that he gets to figure out the trials of a busy college-student life while still living with us. It’s not exactly how I envisioned his junior year, but it working out better than I planned!

Our 7th grader is using almost all new curriculum making his year different for both of us. We stuck with Teaching Textbooks for math and IEW for writing but switched the rest to Lifepac. You can see details here in his 7th grade curriculum choices post. I love Lifepac for him, it’s a great fit. He is using Science and History/Geography – which are going great. We are also using Lifepac Language Arts, but I am not completely sold so far. It is just laid out so differently than what we have used {for grammar, spelling, reading comprehension, etc.} and I am not certain it jives with us. I am not giving up, but not sure about it.

We switched up the routine for our daughter, which is working VERY well. Not huge curriculum changes for her, but some additions have really made our year more fun so far. See all of her 4th grade curriculum choices here.

Adding in art time together has been great. I haven’t been 100% consistent, but much better than ever before! The biggest change is her independent “homework” time. With a goal of teaching her to become more independent, I now teach her lessons, go over the work that needs to be done and then she actually completes the work on the following day during her morning independent “homework” time. This helps her retain information, since she isn’t completing the work from the lesson immediately afterward. It has been a great change, and also frees me up to focus on her brother more individually.

Gymnastics

Our son is staying busier and busier with gymnastics. Most recently, he qualified for Future Stars Nationals! This is a big deal and something he missed by just a tiny bit last year when he had a wrist injury. This year he was well for the regional evaluation and he is thrilled. We will head to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs in November where he will compete with boys from the entire nation.

Ky has a new Instagram account for which you are welcome to follow if you’d like to.

I also share much of his journey on my account using the hashtag: #krashthegymnast.

Our daughter is beginning her competitive gymnastics journey in a much more laid-back style – which is awesome. She joined the AAU Bronze team and is loving it. She is currently learning her routines and will have her first competition in January. Follow her journey on my Instagram using the hashtag: #LFHgymnastics

Chickens

We are blessed with MAY eggs daily thanks to our girls. They are a delight and we love having them. Now that they are bigger, it is more work for sure {keeping their coop and run clean} but it is still fun and we LOVE the eggs!

Lately in Our Life Oct 2018-3