2021-2022 Planning Series

Here we go again! We’ve had a good summer, and each year once my birthday passes, a switch flips, and I’m ready to get in school mode! This year I will have a 4th grader, 2nd grader, tag along 3.5 year old and 1.5 year old. Our days will be busy no doubt, but there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.

Just like last year, we had prayerfully considered and were leaning towards putting the big boys in public school this upcoming school year. We decided that school issues related to the pandemic were not resolved enough for us to feel comfortable sending the boys just yet, so the boys rejoiced to hear they would be home for another year.

I have purchased all the major items needed, purged and reorganized our school space, and am wrinkling out a few more details in some of our curricula. In other words, I’ve gotten to spend some of my spare time this summer doing my favorite things, ha! I still have some house projects to complete before we start school, but I’m feeling pretty good about this year!

Here’s a peep at our school year selections!

Our 2021-2022 Theme Bible Verse

Morning Time

Together Subjects

4th Grade

2nd Grade

2nd Grade – 2021/2022

I saw the biggest growth in this particular student of mine last year, and it was a joy to behold! Thank you God for giving me the gift of witnessing that firsthand! I am very excited about starting a new school year with this precocious boy and am trying to treasure his fleeting childhood! He is inquisitive, artistic, and persistent. I can’t wait to see what God has planned for him! This is what his second grade year looks like:

Math:
We are continuing with the pilot program for Math With Confidence. He is actually a grade ahead in Math, and it is so fun to watch him calculate in his head and turn numbers and shapes with ease. He did not get that from his mama! {MWC is new; only the kindergarten and first grade levels are available for purchase. Second grade will be released in Spring 2022, and the current pilot program – which is full – is for third grade.}

Reading:
We have a reader! Woohoo! He will finish up All About Reading Level 4 the first semester, and then we will switch over to booklists from Ambleside Online and Mater Amabilis.

Writing:
The jury is still out on this one. I have three options to try. The first is that I may actually combine writing with big brother and modify the writing assignments, which would be WriteShop. Or I also have IEW PAL Writing. That is not my favorite program, but it may give him a good start. He also continues to really enjoy journaling, so we may just continue with that for another year before we start something formal.

Spelling:
This boy loves to spell! He is about halfway finished with All About Spelling Level 2, and then we will begin Level 3!

Grammar:
His grammar will consist of memorizing the definitions and helping label parts of speech in sentences from our read alouds.

Cursive:
He was itching to start, so we actually began this summer, using the same program I loved with our first son.
Roller Coaster Writer makes learning cursive easy and fun, and it’s my preferred style of letters, ha!

4th Grade – 2021/2022

I’m not sure how I’m old enough to have a fourth grader, but here we are! He is turning into such an interesting, kind, self-motivated, and responsible young man. I am so thankful for him! I really agonized over keeping him totally home this year or joining a homeschool community for part of his studies. In the end, I decided to keep his academics at home, but we are looking forward to meeting up with friends and getting back in sports! These are the final curriculum picks for his fourth grade year:

Math
We are continuing with Math Mammoth, as well as Star Wars math for Friday Fundays.

Reading
We are using the fourth grade booklists from Ambleside Online and Mater Amabilis.

Writing
We are going to use the same thing we did last year. We were happy with it, and it has options within each lesson to adapt for different levels. Last year we did the “on-level” lessons; this year we will do the advanced level to bump him up. There is also an option to make assignments even easier, so I am toying with the idea of using it for both boys and adapting the assignments for each of them. We used WriteShop Level D.

Spelling
We will continue using our beloved super simple and streamlined All About Spelling. I have seen the fruits of this program and just love it! He is currently in Level 4, but will probably need Level 5 before the school year is up.

Grammar
We are trying something new this year for Grammar. So far, I have not liked anything we have used, ha! We are going to try out Easy Grammar, and I am looking forward to it. It looks simple, straightforward, and easy to implement with plenty of practice.

Typing
We are switching to the free typing.com. The lessons and the games are fun and engaging, and you can’t beat free!

Together Subjects – 2021-2022

We study all subjects except for math, reading, and spelling together. We do this in a couple of ways: some of them are studied together during Morning Time, and others we do on Friday Funday. On Fridays, we don’t do any individual lessons; it’s a full day of fun learning that we don’t normally have time for throughout the week, like big art projects, science experiments, field trips, etc. Here’s a peek at what we will be using this year!

History
We are studying ancient history this year and are using TAN Story of Civilization combined with Story of the Bible and some amazing booklists I’ve gathered from the Internet. I am so excited about history this year! The curriculum has a fun activity book that the boys have already flipped through and begged to start (craft project ideas, recipes, mazes, wordsearches, coloring pages, etc.)

Science
We are going to use Mystery Science, a great booklist, and a variety of super fun science kits that I have been gathering over the past year. We are studying electricity, magnetism, simple machines, and sound & light. The boys have a very deep natural science foundation, so we are venturing into the physical science side of things this year. I know my second son in particular is really going to love this!

Morning Time 2021-2022

Morning Time continues to be the favorite of everyone in the family! It is bittersweet this year that I am going to have to shorten it up a bit. Realistically I can’t continue to devote that much of our day to Morning Time, as the boys grow and have more individual work and outside commitments. Here is the plan for this year!

Morning Basket 2021-2022 Edition
Ritual
• Prayer
• Special Feasts/Liturgical Celebrations
• Bible
• Holy Water Blessing
• Flag Salute & patriotic song

Recitations/Memory Work
• Poetry (IEW Poetry Memorization)
• Weekly hymn or folksong
• Memory Work songs: Timeline, Presidents, Prepositions, States & Capitals
• Geography Map Work: States & Capitals and World (Continents & Oceans)
• Spanish Vocabulary (linguacious flashcards)
• ABCs and #s 1-100 (for the tots)
• Skip counting songs/Multiplication Charts
• Memory Work Lists: Scripture, Spelling rules, Grammar rules, Math definitions

Read Alouds
• Chapter Books
• Seasonal/Liturgical picture books
• Read Aloud Revival Monthly booklists
• Mater Amabilis booklists
• History & Science booklists
• Treasuries