Our 4th Year Homeschooling: My Favorite So Far!

Last year I made a post discussing the progression of our first 3 years of homeschooling. In it, I explained how I changed things from year to year and how year 3 was finally working how I wanted it to. If you want some back story on that before reading this then you can find that here. 🙂

So if you’re all caught up, or just don’t care what we did prior to this year, then let’s talk about year 4!

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– Using a Routine (as opposed to a schedule) –

I still love this approach and don’t see it changing anytime soon. My one exception of wake-up time remains as well…8:00 wake-up so we can get started! It truly was a game changer in allowing us all to sleep a little later but also get started by a certain time and finish often by 12:00!

– Morning Basket –

Another part of our day that I don’t plan on getting rid of anytime soon! This is how we start every morning around the kitchen table with breakfast. It’s all family style learning and it’s one of my favorite things about homeschooling.

With that said, we do change up what we do during this time a little every year! Here’s what our Year-4 morning basket has looked like:

Breakfast and Morning Menus/Seasonal Bundles: (I make these myself!)
Bible: This year we’ve been going through the books of the New Testament using Not Consumed’s New Testament Flipbook and Student Journals.
Catechism: Truth and Grace Memory Book by Thomas Ascol
History: We’ve moved from U.S. History to World History this year and it will continue next year! Notgrass is my favorite right now.
Rotating Activities:
- Art Study using Simply Charlotte Mason
- Life Skills for Kids – read aloud
- Mad Libs – currently we have a Star Wars one because my girls love it. 🙂

– Loop Scheduling –

We have continued doing a unit study with math two days a week and Language Arts with Math the other two days. I continue to like how this works for our family. They get the bulk of their science and some social studies/history through the unit studies.

– Took “Music and Movement” Out of the Routine –

Now that my girls were 11, 8, and 7 this school year, they didn’t need as much down time in between lessons, so we just went straight from morning time to their individual lessons so we could get done earlier. Then they could move and/or listen to music all afternoon if they wanted. 🙂

– Using Individual Dry Erase Boards to Teach Independence –

This is not a necessary thing at all, especially if your kids are on the younger side. However, I realized that my oldest is approaching middle school (crazy!!) and that should would likely benefit from learning how to start managing how to get her lessons finished on her own. Time management is not always her speciality and sometimes I think that can be a struggle for homeschooled kids just because they aren’t always following a rigid schedule.

For consistency’s sake, I just got all three of them a little dry erase board and decided to try something new with it this year.

On LA/Math days I write everything they need to accomplish on the white boards and they can do their work in whatever order they want and take however long they want….but they don’t get to have “free time” until their work is done for the day. We call it “board work”. Usually they all finish by 12 – 12:30 and then we have lunch and are finished.

Here is an example of what a day of boards might look like for each child:

The 11 year old –

Read “Captured Words” Chapter 8 (an assigned book from her LA curriculum)
LA Lesson 100
Cursive – next page
Math Lesson 89 – circled problems only
Chore
Night Zookeeper

The 8 year old –

Read “Molly and the Falcon” Chapter 5 (assigned LA book)
Cursive – next page
LA Lesson 90 (with me if needed and on her own if an option)
Math Lesson 76 (She was in The Good and the Beautiful Level 4 this year and it has a video lesson option for self-teaching…my 8-year likes to do things on her own, so she has been doing great with this! We go over anything she doesn’t understand together.)
Chore
Piano

The 7 year old –

Read next chapter in Magic Tree House ( She started off the year reading smaller readers but progressed to early chapter books by the end of the year.)
Handwriting pages 45 + 46
Booster Cards 50 + 51 (these are part of her LA curriculum)
Musical Multiplication Set B, 2 times
LA and Math with Mom
Chore
Math Tango on iPad

This setup has worked really great this year because, not only is it fostering independence and a little self-motivation, but it also provides a sort-of “station” environment that makes it easier for me to work with each child individually.

I don’t know if it’s my teacher background or what, but work or play stations have always been a go-to for me since my kids have been little during times when I needed them to be a little more calm and quiet, but still wanted them to be able to play and learn. I would just choose three different activities and they would rotate through each of them, spending a set amount of time at each. They always enjoyed this time and it helped me out sometimes too!

So…fast forward to homeschooling….and I think trying to work individually with multiple kids can be one of the more challenging parts. When they were younger, I still used the idea of activity stations to be able to work better with each child individually but these boards work for that now.

Here’s an example of what I may be doing during their board work:

I teach my oldest any new math concept for the day or review before she starts her board work. I also go over anything else she needs to know for the day. The other two get started on their work.
If my middle needs assistance with anything that day, then I usually work with her next while the other two are working on their boards. However, many days she works pretty independently and I go back and look at her work later.
I work with my youngest on her LA and Math lessons while the other two are busy working.
The last item on every board (Night Zookeeper, Piano, and Math Tango) are enrichment activities that they enjoy. They rotate through them during the week. Typing and Slice Fractions are also frequently added in as well….but this is a great way to incorporate ANY activity/skill you’d like them to practice! This is also what they do while they’re waiting for everyone to finish their school work for the day and for lunch to be ready.
I usually have my laptop nearby and will also attempt to get little snippets of work done in between teaching and helping the kids or if they finish up early and there is still a little time before lunch.

– We Joined a Co-Op –

Prior to this year we had only done a co-op for one year, and that co-op wasn’t a very traditional one. It was a small Charlotte Mason minded group of people that met at a local park and read, did art study, handicrafts and played. It was great that year for my younger kids but it was on Fridays and we didn’t want to continue with it since my husband is often off on that day.

So we took a break our 3rd year.

Our church, however, hosts a homeschool co-op that is more traditional in nature but more mid-sized and also laid back, so we decided to give it a try. It consists of 4 class periods a day, two before and two after lunch. I decided that we would do our regular school work at home in the mornings and then just go for 3rd and 4th periods after lunch….and that worked great for us!

The girls love going and making new friends. They took fun classes like middle-school art, sewing, vintage games, and performing arts, plus they offer field trips and special fun days like water wars, field day, Christmas parties, international food days, and end of year ceremonies!

We attend more for the fun and extra-curriculars at the stage we’re in. We enjoyed it enough that we have already signed up for co-op again this upcoming school year and I’m even teaching an embroidery class. 🙂

It took some years of trial and error but I think I’ve found what works for our family. As they grow and require different things, it’s always changing a bit…but for now we have our groove.

If you’re just starting out, don’t worry! It can feel challenging at the beginning as you are learning to adjust to learning at home…but you’ll figure it out! It took us a good 3 homeschool years to really get into a good routine! 🙂 So be encouraged.

Blessings,