Since I've already shared most of our curriculum choices for the 2022-2023 homeschool year (except Bible curriculum, that post may be coming), I thought I would share three smaller changes I am making to our homeschooling this year.
Latin
At the end of last year, I decided to start my oldest on Latin lessons. Foreign language is one of those subject areas that scares me. Even though I took a little Spanish in high school, I remember almost nothing, except "Gracious" and "Por favor", and the only time I use those words is incorrectly in order to make my husband laugh. I read somewhere once that people whose brains have the talent for thinking in code excel at music and languages - I guess I'm not one of those people, since neither of those subjects is my forte.
It is yet to be seen if any of the kids picked up the code-thinking gene from their dad, or if they are stuck with inheriting my brain, but I decided Latin was something we would try. I think whether they go on to excel at foreign language studies or not, Latin is one of those things that will give them a good foundation for understanding many languages better, including our own!
After doing a bunch of research on Cathy Duffy's website, I decided to go with The Great Latin Adventure. The website is pretty old-looking, but don't let that fool you! This is an interesting program that comes in a PDF format, put together by a Latin teacher for use in either a school setting or in homeschools. There are no bells and whistles, no colorful flashcards or CD's. It's just bare-bones Latin instruction, where the student makes their own flashcards, does two translation worksheets a week, studies their notes, and listens to Latin pronunciation mp3 files.
What I love about this curriculum is the extensive teacher guide that goes into detail about how to teach each aspect of Latin to the student - sometimes it goes into too much detail, but it also gives me confidence that the course is thorough! It also helps that it was very affordable. I'd say the first level seems appropriate for 5th or 6th grade, though some younger kids might also be able to understand it!
Scheduling In Notebooks
The other big change I am making this year so far is using Sarah Mackenzie's spiral notebook method for planning and scheduling our homeschool week.
Planning the year all at once, or even a semester at a time, doesn't work well for me. If I plan too far out, we will inevitably get behind the pre-printed schedule, and then the schedule will feel useless and I won't look at it at all. Then books or subjects I wanted to get to will inevitably fall through the cracks.
This year, instead of planning the whole homeschool year out, I gathered my curriculum, and sat down with a weekly calendar planning page, and laid out all the subjects each kid would have to get through in an ideal week (I made a separate calendar for each child). Then I printed that sample week and pasted them into the back of plain notebooks, one for each kid.
Each week I will consult the ideal week sample schedule in the back of the notebooks, and then write a to-do list for each day of the week in each child's notebook. The kids just have to check everything off the list, and they will be done for school for that day.
Benefits of this:
-It encourages my kids to be independent, while letting me keep track of what they should be doing and what they already did.
-It helps keep me on task throughout the day, and reminds me of the things I wanted to accomplish each week so nothing falls through the cracks.
-Planning once a week (with the pre-set guides) helps me set short-term goals within a reasonable framework, and we end up getting more done.
We've been using the notebooks for a few weeks now, and it's been going wonderfully! I wish I had started keeping a homeschool to-do notebook years ago. I may write a more detailed post, with pictures and trouble-shooting in the future, so if you have any questions or comments about this system, let me know!
Working At The Kitchen Table
The last change I am making is insisting that all the kids need to do their bookwork at the kitchen table.
Some of my fondest homeschool memories were of doing my schoolwork in unusual places - the couch, the spot of sun on the living room floor, the porch, the hot tub. Because of that, up to this point I have let my kids work on their schoolwork anywhere that they like.
However, last year it become obvious that they are still just a little too young and distraction-prone to be allowed to work anywhere. They need to be where I can see them, and where I am easily accessible to help them if they get stuck.
With four kids doing serious schoolwork this year, I need to be able to help multiple kids with their work at once if I don't want the day to drag on. Ideally I'd love to work with them back-to-back on their individual lessons, giving my full attention to each child in sequence, but it's really not practical with a bigger family, and it's also not necessary. Even though it's a little exhausting for me to be on my feet all morning, circling the table to explain concepts and answer questions, it actually is manageable, not confusing (as I was afraid it would be), and much more efficient.
I'm sure the "stay at the table" rule will change in the future as my kids grow more independent, but at these ages, when they do need me to explain the lessons to them, it is so helpful to have them all in the same place, getting their work done at the same time - instead of scattered throughout the house and possibly getting distracted by toys or games!
That's all for now, though I am sure I will be making adjustments throughout the year, as always! Are you making any big changes to your homeschool this year?
We just moved and I decided to turn the kitchenette area into our homeschool room. I like that I can work with them in sequence, too!
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