Back to School!

Is it that time already?

It hardly seems possible that it’s time to get back in the swing of things. We have had a lovely summer break full of fun and a lot of work. We are in transition from our house in town to a camper at our mountain property! It’s been whirlwind of “what should we do?” and “oh boy, we’re really doing this!”

It’s been great though! We are settling in well in the camper and are learning how to organize and make life work in such a small space. We are loving it!

Having said all of that, I want to touch on curriculum for this year.

Brinley is 8 and going into 3rd grade. Kaston is 5 and will be working his way through Kindergarten (he started some Kindergarten work during last school year, so he’s starting where we left off). We have already started review work, just to ensure they remember things from last year and to make sure they’re where they need to be, as we are starting new curriculum for a few subjects. We have traditionally used all Masterbooks for all subjects, however, we are switching things up this year to meet the needs of each kid.

This year, we went with The Good and The Beautiful for Brinley’s Language Arts. We have discovered she is struggling with dyslexia of some sort. We have been having evaluations done to see exactly what we are dealing with. She has improved greatly in her reading skills over the summer, I just will feel better to have an exact diagnosis to know how to better help her. While tossing options for curricula back and forth, I ultimately decided to give TGTB a chance. We have been working through their Booster C card set to make sure she’s is on par to start Level 3.

For math, we are sticking with Masterbooks. Brinley really loves following along with Charlotte and Charlie and was adamant we stick with them! Following along with their story keeps her engaged and motivated to push through. I really appreciate that about Masterbooks’ math!

For Kaston, we are doing The Good and The Beautiful for both Language Arts and Math. He is a challenging kid. Nothing interests him more than guns, hunting, cowboys, and cattle. So, when we find, say, farm related curricula, but its filled with cutesy, cartoon critters, he will not engage. He wants nothing to do with “little kid” type stuff. When we received his Language Arts from TGTB in the mail, he groaned! But after looking through the books and seeing all the wildlife, he changed his attitude and can’t wait to get started.

I chose Masterbooks’ America’s Story 1 for both kiddos to participate in. Just flipping through the books, I can tell we are going to love it!

We will be doing God’s Design: Life for Beginners from Masterbooks for a science that is more on Kaston’s level, but both kids will participate. We also have a Mammals Science unit study from TGTB, again, both kids will do.

One other thing I’ve decided to add to our curricula, is this Fall Bundle from Home and Haven. Their Bundles are absolutely darling. This bundle includes an 8 week study on Laura Ingalls’ Little House in the Big Woods. We have been reading Laura Ingalls books all summer, so when I found a family study that went along with one, I jumped right on it. There are tons of great activity sheets for both kids’ development levels and even a cooking section that mirrors recipes Ma makes in the book! We (probably mostly me) are excited to get started on this one. I am in the process of having it professionally printed, as well. I will make another post about that!

Other things I want to include this semeseter are Fall Feast studies (Biblical Feasts) and an Exuma critter study. We are headed to the Bahamas in December! On the Exuma website, they have a “safari challenge” that challanged people to get photos of their top favorite critters around the islands. So, to keep things educational and exciting, we are going to be studying one Exuma critter per week in the weeks leading up to our departure for vacation!

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