Homeschooling the Little (Growing) Women 2024-2025

A New Year of Learning!

Here we are again, starting a new school year… this year, they’re in 8th, 6th, 4th, and 2nd. Goodness gracious, that means next year my first little student that started off our homeschool journey years ago will be in high school! I feel like I’ve been a mom for a long time, but I don’t feel that old.

A new school year always feels like an exciting, blank canvas. Even if we’ve been doing this for 10 (TEN!) years, no two years are alike. Especially as they get older, we have to reevaluate even more.

Last year the girls were in need of more social experiences, and this year that is even more true.

Also, this year Sophie is homeschooling again as well. She did public school for 6th grade and half of 7th grade and then pulled out and finished her 7th grade year at home. This year, for 8th grade, she is going to do a hybrid option. We have a local Christian school that offers homeschool classes for middle and high school. She is going to take a full load of classes there two days of the week and then do work for the class the other three days that she is home. I’ll also supplement English as she isn’t signed up for an English class. Brielle plans to take an art and gym class here as well.

The younger three girls will still mostly be at home, though this year we are doing a weekly co-op. This is our first year doing a co-op that meets every week! I’m honestly not sure if I’m ready for it, but this seems to be the year of trying a lot of new things and seeing what sticks. Our co-op will allow the younger three girls to interact with other kids their age weekly while also learning three subjects. One of the classes will give them a chance to speak in front of peers, which is a difficult experience to provide for homeschoolers typically.

Even with these classes that will be outsourced this year, we will still do a lot of work at home. Here are my plans:

Math: Violet (2nd) and Lyla (4th) will continue on in Simply Charlotte Mason’s Elementary Arithmetic series, which we love. It provides such a solid foundation for mathematics. We are trying something new with Brielle (6th) this year… she is using ThinkWell’s online math curriculum. I have her doing their 7th grade program even though she is in 6th grade because she has a solid math foundation. Sophie is taking algebra 1 at the nearby school once a week and then doing the rest of the work at home

Literature: This year we also joined a book club that will meet quarterly. This year we plan to read Robin Hood, Alice in Wonderland, My Side of the Mountain, and Secret Garden. On top of this, we will read some our favorite children’s books, poetry every day, a Shakespeare play or two, some fairy tales, and I’ll continue reading the Little House on the Prairie series to Lyla. The girls read books of their own choosing as well.

Reading: Violet is still learning to read. She’s in 2nd grade, and reading has come a little harder for her as it did for Lyla. I’ve (mostly) learned to relax about the pace it takes them to learn to read (you know, because experience and studies all say it’s ok for it to take a while)… but I did decide part-way through last year to try a new program with Violet to help her with her reading skills, and I’ve been pleased with the gains she’s made, and she likes it as well. We use Rooted in Language’s Pinwheels Curriculum, and we started with Year 2.

Writing/Grammar: With the middle two girls, we’re using IEW’s Fix-It Grammar. This is our first year using this program, but so far we’re enjoying it. This includes grammar work as well as copywork. I think I may add in The Good and the Beautiful’s Creative Writing notebooks for my 6th grader.

History: For history this year, we are studying the 1800s. We will use a mixture of picture books and chapter books (nonfiction and historical fiction) to study this time period, including slavery, western expansion, and the industrial revolution, from multiple viewpoints.

Science: Science tends to be the subject I bomb the most. In the younger years, it’s easy to focus on nature walks and nature picture books and subjects like the weather. But as they grow older, we’ve moved into using The Good & The Beautiful’s Science curriculum, and we enjoy it overall. This year, I plan to use their Marine Biology course for first term, and for our second term we’ll study simple machines using this kit.

Bible/Religion: For Bible, I plan to use Kaleidoscope books this year. Typically we also learn about other religions too, but I haven’t determined what books we’ll use for that yet. We may read The Barefoot Book of Jewish Tales, and I’ll probably read about some religious people, like Ghandi.

Geography: This year we will study American geography as we study westward expansion, and we’ll also learn a bit about other countries.

Extras: The girls will have art classes at both their co-op and the local hybrid school. We will study artist prints as we always do, and we will sing songs together and recite poems. We’ll learn handcrafts and nature journal from time to time.

Extracurriculars: The girls are again doing dance this year. They are also trying some new things! Violet, my flexible and acrobatic queen, is taking gymnastics classes this year, and Lyla and Brielle are learning volleyball with a group of homeschool girls. They are also taking music lessons—Brielle and Lyla are taking piano, Violet is learning violin, and Sophie plans to start guitar lessons.

Whew! It’s sure going to be a busy year. I absolutely love watching the girls get older, but our lives sure get busier.