I can’t believe we are starting our 5th homeschool year! But I’m so thankful. I love how it has shaped my kids, me as a mom, and our family as a whole. It’s one of the best decisions we have made.

When we started, my oldest was going into 3rd grade, middle into 1st, and my youngest was preschool aged. Now they are going into 7th, 5th, and 2nd. Time truly flies.

I want to share all the things we are using for their curriculum this year. We are just starting our school year, so things are subject to change or be tweaked, but this is the plan as of right now. I’ll share their individual things by grade and also share what we do all together as a family.

If you want to see curriculum we have used in prior years and for different grade levels, you can see all of my curriculum posts here:

7th Grade

Language Arts

He’ll be working through Level 7 Language Arts from The Good and the Beautiful (TGTB) this year. He has used their LA since 3rd grade, and we have loved it. He has always been a great reader and speller, and this has helped solidify his grammar and writing skills tremendously. He’s also loved the geography element and the art projects he’s gotten to do, as well as be introduced to some really great books and stories. I like that each level gives him more independence and responsibility each year, as well.

Math

After using Math from TGTB since our first homeschool year, we are moving on to a new math program simply because the level he needs isn’t available from them yet! He finished level 6 last year, and while they do have a level 7, that level serves as a bridge to pre-algebra (which will eventually be level 8). And I knew he was ready to move to a pre-algebra specific curriculum. I did a lot of research and we landed on Shormann Math. After taking their assessments, we realized he was actually ready for Algebra 1. So he will be jumping into that this year. So thankful homeschool allows us to let him be where he needs to be! And I hope that is an encouragement and a testament to how solid the math program is from TGTB for any of you using it for the younger years. It builds a solid math foundation.

Science

He will be taking Apologia General Science at our co-op this school year. We have only done science units up until this point, so this will be a great overview of all the science areas and prepare him for high school level science classes in the next couple of year. I think he will probably sit in on the science we will do at home with his younger brothers as well (I’ll share more about that below).

Typing

Last year my older two used typing.com for typing practice, and I plan to keep using that this year for them. It’s helped them build speed and accuracy, and also has fun typing games they get to play. I have heard great things about www.typesy.com as well, so I have that in mind if we ever need to change things up.

Co-op classes

Along with his science class, he will also be taking Spanish, cooking, photography, and art at our co-op this year. I’m excited to get to teach his photo class and help out with his art class this year!

5th Grade

Language Arts

He will be doing a few different things this year for LA. He finished up Level 3 from TGTB last year, which we loved so much. I went back and forth about keeping him back a level a few years ago, but it was a great decision (we did the older Level 2 in 2nd grade, and then we did the new updated version of level 2 in 3rd grade - modified and skipped over some things he was good with already - and then we did level 3 last year, which was one of my favorite levels of TGTB so far). By the end of the year last school year, I could see that he had grown in skill and confidence so much. I knew he was ready for more of a challenge than he was getting…something more on grade level. So we will be pulling some things from Level 5 TGTB for him, but we may not use everything. He loves to write, so we will also be incorporating a creative writing class called Write for Life (scroll down for a huge discount!). He has done a little bit of it over the summer, and is very excited about it. I like the Scholastic Grammar and Word Ladder books, so I will probably use those alongside the creative writing course to help him on that end if needed. And I will have him read lots of well written books! I really just wanted to spend this year focusing in on what he needs and what he loves and not feel tied to one specific thing. He has ambitions of writing books one day, so I want to lean into that creativity and excitement and help him build skill and confidence in something he is excited about.

TL;DR: we will be pulling things from TGTB Level 5, doing the Write for Life course, reading good books, and adding anything I feel he needs to supplement as we go. Somewhat just figuring it out as we go!

((I have a discount code for the Write for Life course if you’re interested. She’s having a 30% off summer sale until August 15, but I have a code that gives you 45% off. After the sale ends August 15, my code will only be good for 15% off. Use HOMEGROWN at checkout for your discount.))

Math

This is way less complicated of an answer than Language Arts! He will be using Level 5 from TGTB. We love their math program so much! The video lessons are interesting and thorough. He typically can watch these independently, and I will sit down and help him with the practice problems as needed. I will say that through 5 and 6, the practice gets a little long some days, so if I know it’s a concept my kids are good with, I will let them skip over some of the problems. Make your curriculum work for you! Don’t let it be your boss.

Science

Last year he took a science class at co-op, but he asked if we could go back to doing it at home this year. So we are using our favorite units from TGTB again. This year we plan to do Health and the Human Body & Health and the Human Mind. I also have their weather unit and the mammals unit, but I’m not positive we will make it to those. We shall see! He will have the student journal for grades 3-6 to use. We also love the read aloud books that correlate with the science units.

Handwriting

He is finishing up the level 4 handwriting book from TGTB, then will move right into level 5. It is solidifying print and also teaching cursive. Both are such important skills in my opinion! He does 2-3 pages a week of this.

Typing

Same program as my seventh grader! Typing.com

Co-op classes

This year he is taking a drama class, nature study (with me!), art, logic puzzles, and sign language. I think this is going to be such a fun year of classes for him!

2nd Grade

Language Arts

You guessed it….we will be using TGTB Level 2. We probably won’t be using the booster cards that come with it, because his reading level is already past that. But he still likes putting the stickers on the pages haha, so we will look at them and practice any of them as needed. We will also use the correlated read-together books, because that’s part of what makes homeschooling so fun and special!

Math

Also using level 2 of TGTB math. This will be my second time doing this one, which feels crazy! But we are both excited about it. He especially loves that box that comes with it that he will use for different games throughout the course. For helping with place value, we bought a set of place value blocks last year when he was struggling to grasp it, and they were so helpful. Just wanted to share in case you need something hands on for your kiddo, too. This set from amazon is great.

Science

He will be involved in our science units we are doing this year (shared above in the section for my 3rd grader). I got one of the new activity books for K-2nd grade that goes along with the unit. He will still participate in experiments and things, but some of it is over his head, so I love that the activity books give him something fun to do while he is learning with us.

Handwriting

He is finishing up level 1 of the TGTB handwriting book and will start on the level 2 book after that. We are still solidifying print writing. Cursive gets introduced in level 3. I love their handwriting books!

Co-op classes

He will be taking a literature enrichment class, music, nature study (with me!), P.E., and a K’nex class (how fun, right?). Last year he was just in a little 1st grade class for the day, so he was excited to pick out which classes to take this year.

Family subjects

Morning Time

This has been a staple of our homeschool from the beginning! Years 1-3 we used the Morning Time guides from Brighter Day Press (highly recommend these!!! And you can use the code HANNAHHOMEGROWN for a discount). Last year I put our own things together. We read a chapter a day in the New Testament (Acts-Jude), studied artists and composers, and read a few different books. By the end of the year, some of the extra stuff fell off the list, but we did stay with our Bible reading and scripture memorization. I knew I needed a fresh perspective for morning time this year though, because a lot of times it felt like list-checking and honestly there was a lot of frustration. And so we neglected the other fun things that are part of what really make homeschool so enjoyable - being together.

The Bible is where we always start. Right now we are going to focus on reading the Proverb of the day (i.e. on August 5th we read Proverbs 5, on the 16th we read Proverbs 16, and so on). My boys also want to read Revelation since that’s where we left off at the end of last school year. So we will do that and also use the Kaleidoscope Revelation book. And then I will see where we go from there!

We will also be reading Jennie Allen’s new book called You Are Not Alone: A Kid’s Guide to Overcoming Anxious Thoughts and Believing What’s True. I think this will be such a great topic for us to intentionally work through from a biblical perspective, especially with puberty on the horizon. Boys are, in fact, very emotional. And I want us to have open conversations about what it looks like to work through our emotions and thoughts.

Scripture memorization is a big part of our morning time, so we will always be working on verses and passages. I don’t have a specific resource for this! Some things that help with memorizing are doing copywork and using the first letter method - I’ll write the first letter of each word down on our white board to help us practice. It’s such an effective tool!

We will also study different artists and composers. I like the Mike Venezia books as an intro to whoever we are talking about. We will also just spend time looking at and studying paintings by that artist, and listening to songs from the composers. I like the book A Child’s Introduction to Orchestra because it walks through different styles, composers, and instruments. There’s also a link to listen to specific songs that go with the book.

We have a stack of other books and resources we will rotate through. We don’t use these all every day! They are just out for us to loop through during the year. I’ve linked all of our favorite books we have used and ones we plan to use here.

We also watch World Watch News every morning. We all enjoy it. It has helped open their eyes to what is going on both in our country and in the world in a way that isn’t sensationalized or scary. They also present all their stories from a Christian, biblical perspective. I highly recommend this to all families!! You can try it out for free here.

History

We are finishing the last few chapters of Volume 1 of The Mystery of History, then rolling into Volume 2. I am so glad I found this curriculum! It’s so well written and very much from a biblical perspective. You’ll find biblical history along with other world history. So volume 1 includes creation, the flood, the prophets, Jesus’s birth and ministry, etc. And volume 2 starts off with the early church. We don’t do a lot of the projects that are included in the course companion because that’s just not my jam, but we do love the map activities! I tried so hard to make our own timeline last year, but it ended up being put off or stressing me out, so I bought this timeline, which is incredible! I like timeline books like this one as well. I also have my kids either do oral narration with me after the lesson or do a notebooking page - draw a picture and write about what we learned that day. This is such a fun and effective way to help them engage with what we are learning. Other things we enjoy are finding YouTube videos or watching Drive Thru History episodes that tie to what we are learning. I also will occasionally assign a historical fiction book for them to read independently for whatever time period they are in, and we will do one as a read-aloud as well. The course companion has a great list of book recommendations!

Piano

Not necessarily a family subject, but all three of my boys will be doing piano lessons through Hoffman Academy. My oldest 2 have been doing this for a while, but I’ll be working on getting my youngest doing lessons on a regular basis as well. We have loved Hoffmann Academy, and they have truly learned so much. It’s so fun to hear them playing!! You can use my link and the code LEARN to get 10% off the premium membership, which is very much worth it because you get access to music theory pages, practice sessions, listening tracks, games, and so much more.

I think I have covered the basics of everything we will be doing this school year. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out anytime! I love connecting with y’all. Be sure to follow me over on Instagram as well to see more of what we are up to and for some homeschool insights and encouragement!

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