Planning our 2018

Oh it's so good to get back into the swing of things! We tend to keep our formal learning to school term times; it gives the kids a chance to spend time with their friends (and me with my mumma friends too!), and for us to go away as a family. So while so many others are eagerly awaiting to send their kids back to school, I'm sitting here hanging out for some serious down time with three pretty awesome humans.

We've been pretty busy...

And among the fabulously wonderful chaos of the holidays, I have managed to (once again) redesign my planner to better suit how our homeschool is evolving. I got the idea for this planner from The Mulberry Journal. It's truly a stunning design and a lovely concept - I just needed to adapt it to my specific planning needs, and I'm a perfectionist, and mine has twice as many printouts, and mine is way too excessive, and I'll probably change it again by the end of the term. So I resolved to never buying a planner, because I change everything up all the time... But if you're not an old fusspot like me, check it out - you won't be disappointed!

We're beginning our third year at home, and I'm feeling as blessed as ever that I have the opportunity to raise my children as I choose and not how anyone else chooses. We have our own homeschool prayer, our family prayer to Mary, our Rosary, and time to study the Word of God - things we never would have had time for otherwise. We cook, read, create, laugh, argue, play, learn, grow food, work hard, and devour board games. Oh and we love our chooks!
Just. So. Blessed.

So here is roughly what I've got in store for us this term and, hopefully, it'll carry on nicely through the year!


English

We use Brave Writer resources for all of our Literacy outcomes, and I cannot speak highly enough of the fabulous programs that Julie has created. Worth so much more than what I paid, the focus is on developing a love of literature and taking risks with your writing. All literacy is taught through a book/novel using Charlotte Mason methods, and the corresponding writing projects are heaps of fun! Lessons are short and can be as simple or as challenging as your child chooses, and the best part is that we get to share awesome books from awesome authors together. My three are doing three separate programs, and I've had no trouble delivering the content - it's so simple.

Maths

ALL of our math lessons are done through this remarkable (and free!!) website. It covers all maths from foundations through to advanced calculus, and also has information on science, music, and the arts. Sal Khan, the genius behind this website, believes that everyone who wants to learn maths should be able to learn it regardless of their circumstances. Khan Academy works on the concept of mastery, which we LOVE - your learning evolves and is challenged in different ways, and math concepts keep coming up over a long period of time to reinforce what is learned. The lessons are super easy to understand - even I have signed up to stay one step ahead of Jack - and the activities and assignments are well set out too. 

Scripture

Some of our Bibles!!

That's our beautiful family bible in the centre - hubby and I were given it for our wedding from my amazing parents and we use it pretty much every day. The Action Bible and the Picture Bible are essentially biblical comic books and have been perfect for engaging our boys interests; stepping stones for deeper bible appreciation and loads of fun! And that glorious Bible for Children... well I have had that since I was a kid so naturally it has a place here with my kids all these years later. We use our bibles for loads of things - to help with our bible study, for our scripture verse copywork, and for referencing after mass too. I am also learning very quickly that such a book was never meant to be interpreted by the every day person, and so I'm also working towards exploring the early doctors and scholars of the church... though that's more just my journey at the moment, but I'll keep you posted!

Devotionals and Bible study

It took a lot of searching and researching, but I found an awesome Catholic bible study curriculum that we're all loving! The Great Adventure Storybook is the children's version of the adult bible study program called The Bible Timeline - The Story of Salvation. Check it out here - though this is the American website... a bit harder to get in Australia! But it can be done and it is sooooooo worth it. The study focuses on the 14 narrative books of the bible; you end up with an understanding of how we got from Adam to Jesus, and also how the Catholic Church is the body of Christ on Earth. We learn where our sacraments come from, where the Rosary comes from, and where important parts of the mass come from too! Brilliant. The pack came with playing cards and beads that help with memorisation, a colouring in book with stunning images, a bible timeline fold-out page, a bookmark, and the Storybook. Can't recommend this enough!
The kids also have their own devotionals, and we use a bible atlas to make a bit more sense of the places we encounter in our studies. It always sparks interesting conversations, and we often end up off topic and away on a tangent - but oh well! That's the best part about homeschooling!

Science

Berean Builders - Creation Science

HURRY UP AND ARRIVE ALREADY!! As I type, my delivery of the first book in this series - Science in the Beginning - has yet to arrive. To say I'm anxious to get it is a huge understatement! I'm so excited! Let me introduce you to Berean Builders: where Science is taught as it should be - as a gift from God. Here's what their website has to say:

"Acts 17:11 says the Bereans received gospel information with great eagerness and examined the scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. We think that is exactly what education should be. We want to help parents teach their children to become critical thinkers. We want to build continuing generations of Bereans who will seek the truth and build a life-long foundation on those guiding principles."

The chapters are written as a dialogue, designed to be read aloud and discussed, and ends with experiments and projects divided into "youngest", "older", and "oldest" students. I particularly love this as it means I can scaffold the lesson to include three different year levels and abilities! 

If you're familiar with the Apologia series, this is created by the same guy - he simply left the Apologia company and began Berean Builders to ensure that his methods and philosophies remained intact (translates to: this is better!). 

Below is what I have at the moment: the Astronomy book I grabbed for a bargain second-hand from a friend and is from the Apologia series (which is still very good, mind you!), so we'll use that until my treasure arrives...

The other book is from the middle school series, which also includes a General Science book as well as the Physical Science one pictured. I picked it up for a great price too, and just need to keep my eye out for the other one (second-hand junkie here!).

HASS - Humanities and Social Science 

... so that's Geography, History, Government, and Business.... and i suppose sustainability as well!

If you're homeschooling in Australia, you need to have My Place, by Nadia Wheatley. I'm basing our entire HASS program on this little gem. The book traces back from 1988 to 1788, one decade per page, as told by a child that lives in that place. It covers immigration, urban development, rural issues, war, pollution, economics and the great depression, government and federation, first fleet and colonisation, the gold rush, Aboriginal culture and rights, business, Australian history, geography... the list goes on! We will be working from the back of the book, and moving forward through time. You can do it in as little or as much depth as you like - my eldest will be covering the topics in much more detail than his younger brother and sister, and producing projects based on what we discuss from the book.
Get it, seriously.
For sustainability and global issues, we love If the World Were a Village - which condenses the population of the world to 100 people in a village. It really strikes a chord with my kids when we discuss why 10 people in the village live on less than $2 per day (every villager equals 71 million people), and 37 don't have adequate sanitation...
We love to travel with our caravan, so naturally we need the Explore Australia book (the sticker wouldn't come off nicely for me!!). It also conveniently ticks off maths through map reading and distance calculation. We use anything by Steve Parish too - and the kids love it when they see places they've been in his books.
Our HASS is project-based, so I try to guide them based on what is in the curriculum but at the end of the day there is just so much to explore and learn in this subject, why would I stop them in their pursuits??


Health and Sports

See the book that looks like a tennis ball there...? It's another little gem of mine that Jack (eldest) found at an op-shop for $2! It has the descriptions and rules for pretty much every single sport there is, including how to score and how to be good at it! So, needless to say, it's pretty popular in our sports-mad household...
I have truckloads of gardening books (greenthumb alert!) but this one is my favourite. I love being a member of The Diggers Club, and their magazines and books have helped my confidence in growing food for my family. Everyone will have their own veggie garden plot to design and maintain, so keep an eye out for when they post updates of their progress!
I'm also an avid researcher into healthy eating, and it is such a joy of mine to be able to pass on the knowledge of gut health, fermenting, and traditional eating to my kids. I've learned so much from reading Pete Evans' books and, while we don't eat completely paleo just yet, I can't wait to be cooking his recipes using our own freshly grown veggies!


Music

Thank goodness for online lessons! Beautiful music is irrevocable proof that God exists, and wants us to be happy. Hearing a song come from the depths of a piano or the unified strings on a guitar, you can't get much better than that. Our awesome neighbour gave us the mini-drum kit - which should appease Dom for a while until he decides if he actually wants to learn it properly. And recorders... well, it's not a childhood without a recorder!
We do online music lessons, which is such a blessing. Teachers who give up their time and effort to film lessons and make them available for others to learn for free are worth their weight in gold. We use Hoffman Academy for our piano lessons, and Justin Guitar for our guitar lessons - both of which are fabulously simple for the kids to follow. Even I can understand and follow along! I would love to encourage you all to check out these awesome resources - you will not be disappointed!!

Other stuff we get around to...

One of the things Charlotte Mason advocates in her methods is to have a Nature Journal. It is such a beautiful concept - teach your children to see the small things around them in nature, see how those things change over time, produce the art into your journal however you want, and even write some information if the spirit moves them to! Beautiful.

Art lessons all come from YouTube, usually to match something we're studying in another subject.

Coding and online script come from Khan Academy (is there anything Sal can't do?!), and Scratch - where you learn to code games and animations. Any other tech like word processing and digital design I teach them myself.

We're learning German using a YouTube channel called Learn German With Anya - it's a lot of fun! We also use the Goethe Institut Deutschland online resources, and an app called Mindsnacks German, so we're pretty happy with how things are going there!

We do photography with our DSLR camera, sewing, cooking, camping, hiking, listen to classical music, play heaps of sports, learn how to live a sustainable lifestyle, and how to look after ourselves and our home.

This is just a sample of all the resources we have, as well as using our FABULOUS local library! We have TONS of other books... I like books. A lot. So free learning happens quite often around here...

Better give my hands a break from typing, and your eyes a break too! I hope this info was helpful for you; a lot of these fabulous resources can be used whether you are homeschooling or not. What have you found useful in your homeschool? Please share all your secrets!! I'm always on the lookout for new resources and information! 

Until next time,
God Bless!

Em xxx