How We Homeschool | A Family with 7 Kids

Today we're going to be talking about homeschooling and what curriculums I use, the pros and cons of different curriculums. This is not sponsored. I just wanted to share what we're using and what we have loved. I've made one of these videos in the past, but since then we've kind of changed a little bit of what we're doing and I thought I would share. So stay tuned if this is something you're interested in. We currently have first grade, third grade, fifth grade, and eighth grade and this is probably one of my favorite years in homeschooling. It is a little tricky with homeschooling. I'm sure you know if you have little ones that are not at school age yet. Just being able to balance entertaining the little ones while you're also teaching the older ones has been a little bit of a challenge, but I think when you are homeschooling you kind of have to be very relaxed in your schedule. You have to be able to pivot. If a child might need some outside time or it might not be feeling well and just be able to kind of pick back up where you left off and not be frustrated with the change or the schedule change. So I feel like you just have to be able to be flexible with homeschooling and I'm learning that even more so now with, let's see, we have Finley, William, and Henry. So three little ones that are in the entertaining playtime stage, nap time stage. So it's just a juggling act sometimes of entertaining them, water play, nap time, food breaks, laundry folding time, and then also being able to help the older kids while they school. And another thing I want to share is that I feel homeschooling is a huge privilege. Everyone's not able to do this and I just count it such a gift to be able homeschool my children. I know every mom can't stay home and do this so I don't want to take that for granted and I know sometimes financially others aren't able to do this, but I have felt that I had such a wonderful education through my homeschooling experience as a child and Chet and I both knew that was something that we wanted to give our children as well. Homeschooling is really a first-hand view on how your child learns, their learning style, where they thrive, their weaknesses, and being really able to pursue their strengths and help come alongside them and guide them in not just a wonderful education, but for me, a Christ-centered education is super important. So we're just going to be going through taking a deep dive on curriculums, some of my favorite things, spotlighting different ones, and let you look through the books so you can get an idea of what curriculums are like and the pros and even cons of each one. For us, we do not have a strict schedule. It's more of a rhythm. We kind of follow the same routine each day and it doesn't necessarily have a time slot on it, but we start with the same subjects, kind of follow that routine, and if there's breaks in the schedule, that's okay. Being flexible is part of homeschooling. So that's kind of how we do each day and it might change up in scenery. You know, we might be doing it out in the front yard, out in the backyard, we might be doing it on the trampoline. We kind of change up things and that's the beauty of homeschooling. You get to decide what's best for your child and it's not always going to look like this sit-down classroom teacher experience and I love it that way. I love it where it's flexible. I love where the child's able to learn in different locations and being out in nature is one of my favorite things and my children's and often I find that they actually retain what they're learning even better when we're doing it outside. I also want to say that I am still learning. This is always something that's learning and changing and pivoting. I definitely do not feel like I'm experienced in this. My mom would definitely be much better, but I think that the more I learn, the more excited I get about it. Being able to be the one that gets to teach my children about each subject and about life and it's just such a blessing. I love it. I absolutely love it. At the beginning of each semester, I try to look at everything my child is doing and see maybe their weakest points and say let's put an emphasis on this subject this semester. So we try to dedicate a little more time to that and for each child it's going to be different and I have found that being able to focus on one area where they might be weak in or where they might be struggling in has made a difference in our homeschooling. And then there's a couple subjects that are super important to me. I feel like reading is super important, so we put a big emphasis on that at all times. Reading really opens a whole nother world for your child and when your child loves to read, it is so great for really their imagination, their curiosity. It answers questions. It's just one of my favorite subjects. So I always put an emphasis on making sure that my child can read very well and find books and things that they enjoy reading. So it's something that's exciting for them and we always have reading time every day. Also writing, I feel like that's almost a lost art right now, is just being able to have really beautiful handwriting and also being able to articulate yourself in writing abilities, especially in a new world of AI where everything is not genuine and real. To actually use your thinking skills to be able to put what you're thinking on paper is definitely something that I don't want the children to lose. There are two subjects that we always do as group lessons and I have found that the kids all look forward to it. It's so exciting for each of them. So science and history we always do together and I even let the little ones in on this. So typically we do it outside and I'll just lay out a big picnic blanket and we'll all go lay out there. I'll take the books out there and they're colorful and they have pictures so they're exciting and engaging for the children. Henry can be crawling around with the grass. Bully's always playing with this little dump truck. So it's something that we do as a family and I love it. They're some of my favorite subjects. Each child starts the day with a Bible lesson. Depending on their grade, it lasts 20 to 45 minutes and includes Bible teaching, scripture memories, songs, and lots of interaction. I honestly haven't found another Bible program that compares to a Becca. It's available through streaming or DVD. We do this five days a week. I want each of my children to learn cursive. It feels like a lost art but it's also so good for their developing brains. It connects reading, spelling, and memory because it combines movement, vision, and language. We use BJU Press handwriting three days a week. It's simple, teaches proper letter formation and writing habits, and the video lessons are generally around 15 minutes. History is a subject we do together and knot grass is one of my favorites. The books are colorful and story-driven so younger kids can listen while the older ones go deeper. The courses also weave in literature, maps, primary sources, music, and hands-on activities. Most importantly, history is taught through a biblical worldview. The lessons are open and go so there's not much preparation for me. You can see it's like six pages every day and we just do it three days a week. For grammar, we use IEW's Fix-It Grammar. We start this in third grade. Each book unfolds as a story. Every day the child learns vocabulary, identifies parts of speech, corrects a passage, and rewrites it. The grammar builds gradually so they just keep applying what they have learned. It's a quick, simple, and actually fun thing for us to do. Starting in fifth grade, we start doing IEW Structure and Style for Creative Writing. Its video instruction teaches them to organize ideas and make their writing more interesting. Writing used to be a weak spot in our homeschool, but now my fifth and eighth graders may be better writers than I am. For kindergarten through fourth grade, we just use Abeka Language Workbooks. I feel like it gives a great starting foundation for the children. Starting in fifth grade, we use Saxon Math. It's one of my favorites because the explanations are clear, skills are taught incrementally, and old concepts keep returning through continual review. Although sometimes the lessons can feel really long. This year I found Nicole the Math Lady and I wish I had found her sooner. You can subscribe to her teaching videos and it just pairs with each Saxon lesson. It usually is only five to ten minutes. For kindergarten through fourth grade, we use Abeka Math Workbooks and I just teach each lesson. Each lesson is about two pages and it just builds on what they've already learned. Three of our children take piano lessons and since I already am teaching so many subjects, I chose not to teach this one. They actually do FaceTime lessons once a week and it's just a 30 minute lesson for each of them and then they practice 20 minutes every day unless they want to practice more. The children all love art. Painting, drawing, it doesn't matter. They just love to use their imagination and creativity this way so I love to encourage that. Reading. Each child reads aloud for at least 20 minutes each day. It lets me notice their fluency, expression, pronunciation, and comprehension and I can help them right away if needed. I look for books that build character, teach history, strengthen their faith, or follow something that they're genuinely interested in. I'm going to link some of my favorite books below if you're interested in these. Science is another subject we study as a group. This year we started the science units from the Good and the Beautiful and I'm actually so impressed. The lessons have beautiful photographs, illustrations, vocabulary, activities, games, and videos, and even hands-on learning. Once I gather the supplies, it's open and go and tells me exactly what to teach. It makes it really easy when I'm teaching several ages at once and since the kids always ask me to keep reading, I'm going to say that's like the review a curriculum can get. We also slow down if they need to spend longer on a certain subject or something that sparks their curiosity. Beginning in third grade, we use All About Spelling. It teaches phonograms, spelling rules, and word patterns in a logical sequence. It has hands-on practice and continual review. It takes a little time to understand the program and there are more activities than I actually prefer, so I just choose what works for us and we skip the rest. We do this three days a week. So thank you so much for watching today's video. I'm still learning so much and I'm thankful for each of you and if there are certain curriculums or things that have worked for you and your family or maybe you've already had kids that have graduated and you've already walked this road, please let me know in the comments some things that have been your favorite and what has worked for your family. So thank you and may God bless you.