Our Plans for American History and More!
We will be starting our 8th year of homeschool soon with an 8y (4th grade), 10y (6th grade), and 12y (7th-9th grade). We will continue for a second year working our way through American History. With Out of the Box kids, grade levels are hard to follow; and this year they are becoming even harder for several reasons. First, for community activities we generally go by their age based public school grade, but in our homeschool learning it is getting much more blurry. Last year the oldest skipped a grade to be in a co-op class. This year the plan is to skip another year and start earning her first few high school credits. Additionally, we are also making travel a priority as a family and will be taking several long trips for some hands-on learning this year.
Look Back on Past Years of Homeschool
Family Subjects
We learn together as a family as often as we can for our core content based subjects including History, Science, Art, Literature, and whatever else fits our family. So the materials we choose to use for these areas are flexible enough to be used across grade levels and are often discussion based.
American History
We will continue our study of American History this year picking up where we left off using the Story of the US by Joy Hakim. We are enjoying listening to the series on audiobooks as part of our Scribd membership. We will also be using independent readers from Sonlight for American History to build on what we learn. Sonlight does an excellent job choosing novels in their program and we have used them for many years and always been impressed with the selections. We will add significant events to our ongoing timeline books as we go along and journal about the events that resonate with us. This year we also plan to add more documentaries to our school. Ken Burn’s The Civil War will help us start our year. PBS has many materials online and available to watch for free.
Science
For the last few years we have taken a unit study approach to science. We pick a few topics to learn about in depth as much as we want. We focus on going deep instead of learning a little bit about everything. We are planning to kick off the year with Geology before we drive to Arizona and see the Grand Canyon for some hands-on learning. We also plan to study Energy, Simple Machines, Nutrition and Botany this year. We will be pulling materials from a variety of places for our units so stay tuned as we get to each one and I share what we used! I’ll be updating my Nutrition Lapbook for older students when we get there!
Geography
The last two years we have studied World geography and US Geography. This year we are taking a hands-on approach as we plan some road trips to see some of the sites of America and visit National Parks. We bought a camper this summer and are planning our year with freedom to travel. We will be earning Junior Ranger Badges along the way. The best part of homeschooling is we can plan our other subjects to fit with our travels to create a fuller experience and appreciation for the places we visit.
Fine Arts: Music Appreciation
This year for Art our focus is going to be on Music Appreciation. We haven’t intentionally studied this yet as a family and I’m excited to learn alongside my students as we walk through each of the musical periods of history and study various artists and styles. We started late with formal Art in our homeschool. We are going to start our year with a unit study of the instruments and the orchestra to set a foundation for the rest of the year. I’m looking for some concerts we can add to our field trip schedule as well.
Social Learning & Service
As our kids age, our schooling has to change some extras we are including in our homeschool and morning time include the Learner’s Lab membership community and community service. The Learner’s Lab provides a way for us to grow our emotional intelligence each month with EQ challenges on topics such as worry and motivation and self care. It also provides all of us a way to connect with other gifted and 2e families.
We also want our kids to value serving others so we are making volunteering a family priority this year. It’s our goal this year to volunteer every month at a local thrift shop as a family. Dad will join us on this learning adventure so it won’t fit neatly in our school hours but it’s still part of our learning this year.
Independent Work
The other half of our school day is independent work. This is the skill based work that each child does. Primarily it includes their Math and Language Arts. As they get older it also includes some electives that may not fit for their siblings. I’ve said before with Out of the Box kids, grade levels don’t always fit and the more we trust the process of homeschooling and watch each child grow they fit less in the expected grade level box. I’ll list each child by their age associated grade but you will see the materials we are using don’t always match that grade.
3rd grade
The youngest is age wise in 3rd grade but will be doing 4th grade level work. Because of his Dyslexia we are working on cursive which can help with the letter reversals he still uses. We are trying Spelling-U-See for the first time. He struggles with vowel combinations and I believe the new approach will unlock the patterns for him. He will continue with the Sonlight 4th grade readers for his independent reading. It’s bittersweet to watch him finish these books as it’s one of the few things all three students have enjoyed and shared in their schooling.
- 4th grade Readers from Sonlight
- Spelling U See D from Demme Learning
- A Reason for Handwriting, Transition Level
- Mammoth Math 4th Grade
6th Grade
The middle child enjoys working independently and having clear instructions. Not much will change for him as he enters middle school. We will start working together to find a planner system that works for him and learn organizational skills. Last year the interest based writing we did let me see his amazing skills as a writer and this year we are encouraging that with Cover Story. We will practice all the kinds of writing you find in a magazine and compile it at the end of year into his own full length periodical.
- American History Readers from Sonlight
- IEW Fix It Grammar, Book 1 Nose Tree
- Cover Story for Writing
- Mammoth Math 6th Grade
7th grade
My priority in choosing materials for each of my students is always what does this child need next? Sometimes it’s an easy answer and it’s the next workbook in the series and other times it sends me searching. For my oldest, what she needs next year is more challenge for her English and the freedom to pursue her interests. Which is why she is taking two high school credit classes, English and Psychology this year. They are what she is most excited about and the beauty of homeschooling is we don’t have to wait until she is “the right age” to learn the material. It also means that having a learning disability like Dyscalculia doesn’t have to hold her back from pursuing more advanced classes in other areas.
- Language Arts 130 from Sonlight
- Cover Story
- Zeta level from Math U See
- High School Psychology from Sonlight
No two years of homeschool are the same because no two years are you teaching the exact same grades. This year we are sticking with some favorites and trying some new things. I’m sure some of this will be tweaked in a few months. And that is OK!
What are you most excited to include in your homeschool this year?
