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School Year 2022/2023 Mid-Year Check-In.


Here in Missouri, January 1st marks the halfway point of the school year (July 1st-June 30th). With this in mind, I was going through our hours (we're required to log 1000 hours each school year with at least 600 of those being core hours) and looking at what the rest of the year is going to look like. I was also looking at what the graduation requirements are for kids who attend public school to see where we stack up with that. I figured I would share what we're working on and the different curriculums we're using for the rest of this school year, some of which will cross over into next school year (which, I will probably make a new post about what we are doing next school year then).


So, for the record, I have an 11th grader, 9th grader, 7th grader, 3rd grader, kindergartener, pre-4/5, and a toddler. I'm not required to keep hours for the younger three so I'm not.


We start our school day with our daily Bible/biblical worldview time. For that, we are currently working through the different Bible studies put out by Not COnsumed ministries. https://store.notconsumed.com/collections/bible-studies At the start of the school year they had a pack of most of their studies that I bought. I plan to get the rest of them. We have used some of their studies previously and always enjoy them. This is followed by catechism, which we have a few on YouTube that we rotate through. We also do a hymn study. For that, we are currently working our way through this book on Kindle https://read.amazon.com/?asin=B00OSAXE8I&ref_=kwl_kr_iv_rec_2&language=en-US

Once we're done with that we'll be switching to this https://www.amazon.com/dp/0785251685/ref=emc_b_5_i

We went through the first book in this series several years ago. I have this second book somewhere but I haven't found it since moving last year. I love including a hymn study. There's some good theology that can be found in hymns as well as some interesting history. That is followed by singing the hymn we're studying as well as another praise and worship song (usually one that the kids request).




The younger kids (7th grade down) then stay with me for our daily read-aloud time. We use Sonlight as our core curriculum to cover reading and history/social studies (as well as a bit of Bible). We've used it for over a decade now and absolutely LOVE it. We finished Core A just before Thanksgiving (the old core A, they recently changed things and have a new Kindergarten curriculum and a new Core A and we're staying with the old one. If you are interested in the new one it can be found here https://www.sonlight.com/intro-to-the-world-cultures ). We started Core B+C last week, which can be found here https://www.sonlight.com/intro-to-world-history-one-year-condensed . After that we move into Science. We have used Apologia Science for a little over a decade as well. It can be pretty intense and wordy at times but it is thorough and maintains a biblical worldview, which is important to us. We are starting their botany book, which can be found here https://www.apologia.com/shop/?swoof=1&pa_grade=elementary&pa_topic-series=botany&really_curr_tax=89-pa_grade .






We will also be starting to work our way through Apologia's Health and Nutrition curriculum (found here https://www.apologia.com/shop/?swoof=1&pa_grade=high-school&_ga=2.130080719.1577096674.1672616840-929712327.1672332289&pa_topic-series=health-nutrition&really_curr_tax=22-pa_grade ) to meet the high schoolers' health requirement. They will also be doing a first aid and CPR course to fulfill the CPR and Heimlich requirement that MO has for public school kids to graduate.


For math, the five older kids are all using CTC Math online ( https://www.ctcmath.com/ ). We've used this for three or four years now. We tried several different math programs before landing on this one but, now that I finally gave in to it, we all love this math curriculum and the kids all do really well with it. When it's time, the younger kids will use CTC as well.






For language arts, we use WriteShop (each child is doing the level appropriate for them). They can be found on Amazon ( https://www.amazon.com/s?k=writeshop&crid=3FTWGGPVS6245&sprefix=writeshop%2Caps%2C151&ref=nb_sb_noss_1 ). We also use a lot of Spectrum workbooks for spelling, vocabulary, and some more advanced language arts skills. Along with Spectrum, we use Explode the Code for extra spelling practice ( https://www.amazon.com/s?k=explode+the+code&crid=1MR9NSP366778&sprefix=explode+the%2Caps%2C168&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_11 ) since that is an area all of the kids struggle in. We use A Reason For Handwriting for handwriting practice. I chose this for two primary reasons. 1) Its use of scripture and 2) the style of cursive it teaches. We've used this for as long as we've used Sonlight (it can actually be ordered from their website as well). Due to some delays, my 3rd grader has just been ready to learn to read this last year. We did Sonlight's kindergarten readers, which was enough for the other kids, but it wasn't enough for her. So, after much research, I decided to supplement with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons ( https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671631985/ref=sr_1_1?crid=27OYP5EKTP481&keywords=teach+your+child+to+read+in+100+easy+lessons&qid=1672699668&sprefix=teach+your+chil%2Caps%2C199&sr=8-1 ). This has worked VERY well for her. We are almost done with it and she is doing excellently. We have also gone through all the Bob readers and now finds them easy. Keeping all of this in mind, I'm planning to continue to supplement with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for the rest of the kids.






As for reading and history/social studies, each child is in their own level in Sonlight. The 3rd grader will be starting Sonlight's 1st-grade readers ( https://www.sonlight.com/grade-1-readers )which I expect she'll breeze through with how she's doing. My 7th grader is about halfway through Core F ( https://www.sonlight.com/eastern-hemisphere ). And, yes, that does mean she's currently going through two history/social studies cores (one with her younger siblings and me as well as the one on her own. Once we are done with B+C she will move into just doing the one on her own since she recently went through the rest of the elementary-level cores with me). My 9th grader will finish Core W ( https://www.sonlight.com/world-history-one-year-condensed ) this week and move into the 100 level which covers American History and American Historical Literature as well as some biblical worldview books ( https://www.sonlight.com/american-history-100 ). My 11th grader is currently working through level 200 which covers the history of the Christian Church as well an overview of literature (hello classics!!!!) and, as always, some books on biblical worldview and the Christian life.









For foreign language, we are using StartASL ( https://www.startasl.com/ ). I'm comfortable teaching this since I took ASL in college and have done a bit of it throughout my life.


There are some other smaller things that we may use here and there. Each of the older kids are doing some things that interest them (the 11th grader is doing some programming stuff while the 9th grader does a lot of baking and cooking and the 7th grader helps Greg with a lot of the household projects). We also count homestead chores as electives and extracurricular hours. Along with all of that are games, crafts, hiking, homeschool swim days, and other such activities, audiobooks while we're driving with Greg and Story of the World CDs ( https://www.amazon.com/s?k=story+of+the+world&crid=IPT9QM8UEUS1&sprefix=story+of+the+world%2Caps%2C198&ref=nb_sb_noss_1 ) and, eventually, Jonathon Park CDs ( https://www.jonathanpark.com/ ) while the kids are in the van with me, and we are listening to the Bible in Chronological order during our afternoon clean up times.



Whew. That's a LOT. I think I remembered everything. Of course, that's also for a lot of kids at a lot of different levels. As you can see, we take school seriously around here and are trying to make sure that the kids are getting an amazing, well-rounded education.


(BTW, the two older girls do a lot of their independent work downstairs, which I can trust them to do, so there are not as many pics of them doing their school work as there are the other kids. So, here's a pic of all the kids on Christmas morning in their matching PJs.)










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