2023-2024 Curriculum Picks and Other Notes

It is totally unfathomable to me that we have a rising 6th grader, 4th grader, kindergartner, and 3 year old! The time is flying by these days… I had mixed feelings this year while I planned out our courses as this will be our last school year with everyone home! (Unless of course God sees fit to change those plans.)

I have enjoyed looking back over these posts over the years; I am by no means a faithful blogger or an influencer of any type. But when I read my school year picks for each year, it’s like watching myself and my children grow in the span of a few clicks. I’m reminded of phases the boys went through, fun projects, and tough parenting challenges. So, more for myself than anyone else, here’s my plans for this year!

2023-2024 Theme Scripture Verse

Family Studies

6th grade picks

4th grade picks

Kindergarten picks

Tot School

Our Daily & Weekly Rhythm

6th Grade Curriculum Picks: 2023-2024

Never dreamed I’d be homeschooling a middle schooler, but here we are! This will be his last year at home, and I am so happy with all the things I’ve chosen for him!

Language Arts
He will be reading books selected from the reading lists from Mater Amabilis and Ambleside Online. Some of his reading assignments this year will also be from the Memoria Press American History studies since we aren’t doing a separate formal history this year.
For writing and grammar this year, I chose Language Lessons From Literature. I love the weekly format, the way it uses excellent literature as examples for teaching grammar, and the scaffolded writing assignments.
He will continue with All About Spelling, on to Level 6 this year!

Math
He will move on to Level 6 of Math Mammoth. Math is not exactly his favorite, but lately I have really seen the fruit of his labors! His mental math capabilities at his age blow mine out of the water at that age (and sometimes even mine now, ha!).

Science
We are trying out a new curriculum this year, and I am pretty giddy with excitement. Science has been one of those happy surprises in homeschooling. I didn’t love science growing up, but now I find it so very interesting and have really enjoyed learning alongside the boys! After lots of research, I went with Biology for the Logic Stage, put out by Elemental Science. It combines so many of the educational practices I like! It uses real books rather than textbooks (a collection of science encyclopedias), has a memory work program built in, includes narration prompts, diagrams, and experiments. It is everything I was looking for in a good science program, and I look forward to seeing how it works for us!

Theme Bible Verse: 2023-2024

When praying over our schooling decisions for the upcoming year, it struck me that *where* our children do school is not nearly as important as *how* they do their school. Wanting to instill the ideal of doing our best and letting God handle the rest – no matter what our path may be – we chose this verse for the upcoming school year: “Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and He will act.” Psalm 37:5

Our previous Bible verses of the year:
2022/2023: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” {to encourage a spirit of love for God and one another}
2021/2022: “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10 {to encourage my boys in seeking out what it is God has prepared for them to do}
2020/2021: “For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7 {courage in the time of a pandemic}
2019/2020: “Be on guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” Corinthians 16:13
2018/2019: “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Philippians 4:8 {starting point for our Morning Time selections}

Family Studies Curriculum Picks: 2023-2024

I am so very very excited about how our family studies evolved and took shape over the summer. Though I am a planner, I am constantly amazed at how God cares about the smallest of details and orchestrates this beautiful tapestry of learning that I could never have woven myself. I am thankful to so many wonderful, talented homeschooling moms who share their inspiring ideas and plans online! We are studying all things America this year! From geography to music to art to history to saints… and from sea to shining sea, here we come!

Geography
We are using Beautiful Feet Book’s U.S. Geography for 4th-6th grades, and I just can’t wait! We have loved everything we’ve ever used from BFB. The guide is gorgeous, with extensive booklists, mapwork, cool projects, and easy recipes for a “taste of America.” We will likely complete the lesson on Thursday mornings before we leave for our afternoon co-op, and then do the projects and/or recipes on Fine Arts Fridays! This curriculum is billed as geography, and it undoubtedly is, but it also includes quite a bit of history in the selected literature. So this will actually serve as our history as well.

Music
We’ve used SQUILT Live for years, and I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it here, whoops! This year however, instead of joining in the live lessons, I have selected American composers from the archives to cover (one composer per month). The boys *love* Mrs. Mary and have grown so much in their music appreciation thanks to her! We will have a SQUILT Day one Friday each month. The lessons are more than adequate, but we will also check out picture books to read about the composer. (Mrs. Mary often has some suggestions!)

Art
We will be studying American artists using the books Discovering Great Artists and Great American Artists for Kids. These books have some information on the artists, as well as a fun project to complete modeled after the artists’ style. Lucky for me, our library has them on hoopla, so I didn’t even have to purchase them! I will also be pairing picture books with these texts where I can.

Science
My oldest will actually have his own more in-depth science this year, but the rest of the boys will be using Exploring Nature With Children. Admittedly, my oldest will more than likely join in with this curriculum too since it is mostly read alouds (that we will do during Morning Time) and nature walks and nature journaling, but if he would like to move on to some of his own work during this time of day, that will be fine with me since he will be doing a more challenging science on his own.

Spanish
After taking an unintended hiatus from our Spanish studies, I am starting them back up this fall. I use Linguacious flash cards, music from 123Andres and CalicoSpanish (both found on YouTube), and picture books to teach Spanish. Our goal is at least 15 minutes a day in Spanish during Morning Time.

4th Grade Curriculum Picks: 2023-2024

My second son will be a 4th grader! Moreso than my other boys, he thrives on a routine framework, but variety within that… He does very well if I switch up his curriculum every 6 weeks or so. It will also more than likely be his last year at home, so I am feeling the push to make it a memorable last year!

Language Arts
Like his older brother, I will be pulling his literature selections from booklists at Mater Amabilis, Ambleside Online, and the history and literature guides at Memoria Press. He will also finish up his Beautiful Feet Books History of the Horse curriculum. We will rotate through each of these formats so that he doesn’t get bored with the same types of tasks.
For grammar, he will be doing Easy Grammar, Grade 4.
For writing, we will use a couple of things: Writing Down the Days for smaller daily writing practice and WriteShop for some larger writing assignments.
And of course, we will still employ copywork to practice penmanship and reinforce spelling and grammar.

Math
After much research and thought, we are going to stick with Math Mammoth for this student as well, but he will also be using Khan Academy videos. They cover almost exactly the same content, so for sections that come easily to him, if he can watch the video and answer the questions with 95% accuracy or better, he can skip the corresponding worksheets in Math Mammoth. I think this will be a good balance for him! We’ve also been using Musical Multiplication from The Good and the Beautiful over the summer to solidify his facts. It’s been such a hit that even the rising kindergartner is spouting off math facts, ha!

Kindergarten Curriculum Picks: 2023-2024

Oh, my sweet third born! He was a dream baby, and it just doesn’t seem real that he is starting kindergarten. He and his younger brother are so outgoing and independent. This child used to say regularly that he wanted to go to school, though he has since changed his mind. I would like to keep him home through 2nd grade, but we honestly take that one year at a time, one child at a time. He loves to do school work for me, and he adores our weekly homeschool co-op, so for now we are quite content!

Reading
He started All About Reading Level 1 mid-Spring semester, so we will continue that! If he should finish it before the year is out, I will more than likely just use our vast collection of vintage readers to complete the school year rather than starting Level 2.

Handwriting
He will do the handwriting lessons in Part II of IEW’s PAL Writing Curriculum. Last year he did capital letters with Handwriting Without Tears, then lowercase letters with IEW’s PAL. This year he will start doing copywork, first with individual words, then phrases, then sentences by the end of the year. The copywork also reinforces phonics, which is a nice bonus, and lays a good foundation for starting spelling next year.

Writing
He will be keeping a journal this year! I did this with both older boys their kindergarten and 1st grade years, and I love looking back at them. The development in their abilities over just two years is incredible!

Math
He began Kindergarten Math With Confidence in January or February of this year, so we will start out with that, and once he finishes, I will let him move on to 1st Grade Math With Confidence. Math is one area I don’t mind them getting ahead in, because so far all of my boys have experienced a slow down at some point. Getting ahead when we can just gives us more wiggle room for sick days or going more slowly when we get to something challenging!

Daily & Weekly Rhythm: 2023-2024

There are some things that I would change about last school year if I could, and one is that we didn’t do as many enjoyable activities as we had in years past. Some of the curricula I selected will help with this (hello Beautiful Feet Books Geography!), but I also realized that we had some room in our schedule for more fun.

In my mind, our weekly rhythm will go something like: Monday-Wednesday, focus on getting all individual subjects completed. Thursdays, do Geography lesson and project together in the morning, then go to our afternoon homeschool co-op. Fridays are now Fine Arts and Fieldtrips Fridays! The boys will still have a math lesson, but then we will rotate through music, art, poetry, cooking, fieldtrips, etc. I have gathered lots of fun materials for those days and am really looking forward to some fun memories!

On the days that we are home and carrying a full load, which should be Monday-Wednesday, our days should look like: Breakfast & Morning Time (which is when we cover our family studies), morning break, School Block 1 (I work with the kindergartner while the 4th and 6th graders do their independent work), lunch and recess, School Block 2 (I work with the 4th and 6th graders on math and other subjects with which they need assistance), afternoon break, get ready for dinner and Daddy coming home!

We will still meet monthly with our book club, but I have stepped down from leading our nature club since I am helping coordinate a nature class at our co-op. The oldest still takes piano, the oldest two will both want to do basketball again, and the third born will want to do soccer. We did swimming last year, but that will not be repeated this year, ha!

Tot School: 2023-2024

The little one will not be doing any formal schooling this year as he is only 3 years old, but he always wants to be included in our school time! To help me rotate through my collection of activities, I’m devoting certain days to certain tasks.

He will have Magnetic Mondays (we have several magnetic Melissa & Doug toys, a magnadots, a large dry erase board with several magnet collections, magnetic puzzles, etc.), Tactile Tuesdays (pattern blocks, lego duplo printables, kinetic sand/play doh mats, bristle blocks, etc.), and Writing Wednesdays (tracing cards, dry erase books, mazes, water wow books, painting, coloring, drawing, etc.) He doesn’t need any tasks on Thursdays or Fridays due to the nature of our schedule.

We will be working on the ABCs and counting 1-10 this year and will be using some of the resources from This Reading Mama and The Measured Mom. We also have some Kumon workbooks for scissor skills.