In my most recent video on YouTube, I unbox our homeschool materials for next school year. But in case you are like me, and prefer a written list, keep reading. (Don’t worry, if you prefer the video, it will be linked at the end!)
Toward the end of every school year, I get a major itch to start planning for the next year. But, let me be honest and say this “itch” tends to start well before the last few weeks of the current year we are trying to wrap up. In fact, I typically start dreaming of the next school year (and my bountiful summer garden) by early Spring. Maybe it’s the dreary, rainy days that cause me to dream of those sultry August days. Or maybe it’s those brand-new pencil boxes filled with unused crayons and perfectly sharpened pencils and a massive pile of newly purchased books (either new or used!)
Any way you look at it, I start looking ahead and opening blank Word documents and spreadsheets. They easily fill up, often with too many books, which means hours of internet research and days of Excel-ling. (If you want more info on THIS part of the process, stay tuned! I plan to share exactly how I go through these stages of early planning to having a fully planned school year.)
Once I have whittled all the “dream list” books down to what we will actually need for the school year, I spend another day or so price checking books on the few websites I prefer to purchase homeschool material from. While I try to be frugal, I also prefer good quality books. So, if something is cheaper on one site, but is well-used, I will often purchase the newer copy at a slightly higher price. (Believe me, if I can find a used book that is in decent shape, I will always buy it over a new one any day!)
Now that all the books have arrived, have been unboxed and sorted, let me share with you exactly what books I plan to use this school year, along with a bit of info about the upcoming school year.
Our school year typically runs roughly during the same time-frame as a brick-and-mortar school, August through June. Over the years we have created and recreated the yearly timeline to fit our life rather than the other way around. This means some years we start in the first few days of August and run through the last few days of June. Other years we start at the end of August and barely hit the middle of May. Either way, the kids always get “enough” schooling, as quite honestly just about everything we do counts as “school.” (Fun outings with friends, a grocery trip in the city, a tag-along trip with Dad, etc…)
Another caveat to our yearly schedule, is that we often pause from mid-November until the first week or so of January. This allows us to fully embrace the holiday season and experience it to the fullest. We put aside our regular books in favor of holiday-themed stories like A Christmas Carol. While I see this as a “break,” it really is just a continuation of our learning, just in a different format. I do count this time period in our weekly/daily attendance, so we hit our only state-wide homeschool requirement: 180 of instruction. (Want to find out more about what is required in your state? Visit HSLDA!)
Okay, one more thing…. Our theme for this school year is: The Ancient Civilizations. Specifically, we will camp out in the regions of Egypt, Greece and Rome for roughly 10 weeks each. (Yes, this makes our “actual” school year only 30 weeks, but see the above paragraph…)
NOW FOR THE BOOKLIST……
Bible: Genesis, Exodus (This will be read from our personal Bibles)
Daily Hymn: Hymns For Family Worship, Building Faith Families
Missionary: Christian Heroes: Then & Now, Elisabeth Elliot, by Janet and Geoff Benge and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, by John Foxe
Map Work: Draw the World Series (We will start with a new one, An Outline of the Continents and Oceans and once this is completed, work through others in this series that we own.)
History: World’s Story: The Ancients, MasterBooks Curriculum
Geography: World’s Story (The teacher’s guide has a mapping page to go along with our weekly reading) and The Student Bible Atlas, by Time Dowley
Shakespeare: Tales from Shakespeare, by Charles and Mary Lamb
Math: Algebra 1 & Pre-Algebra, Math-U-See
Science: Exploring Creation with Physical Science, Apologia
Poetry: Ancient Egyptian Poetry and Prose, by Adolf Erman and A Greek Garden of Verses (I don’t currently have a poetry book for Ancient Rome, so I may just use a book we have or keep hunting.)
Art: Make it Work Ancient Egypt, Two-Can Publishing; Greek Gods and Goddesses and A Coloring Book of Ancient Greece; Make it Work The Roman Empire, Two-Can Publishing
Handwriting: Tattoo Lettering and my younger student will continue working through a variety of cursive books we have from previous years.
Spelling: Spelling by Sound and Structure, years 6 & 8, Rod and Staff, Publishers Inc.
Latin: First Form Latin Series, Memoria Press
Literature
Egypt: Tales of Ancient Egypt by Roger Lancelynn Green, Tirzah by Lucille Travis, Mystery of the Egyptian Scroll by Scott Peters, The Eyes of Pharoah by Chris Eboch, Temple Cat by Andrew Clements
Greece: The Children’s Homer by Padriac Colum, Who Let the God’s Out? by Mary Evans, Fleeced by Julia Wills, Famous Men of Greece from Memoria Press
Rome: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare, Diary of Dorkius Maximus by Tim Collins, The Roman Mysteries: The Secrets of Vesuvius and The Thieves of Ostia by Caroline Lawrence, Famous Men of Rome from Memoria Press
NON-BOOK SUBJECTS (Online, hands-on, or otherwise)
Memory Work: I often select scripture to memorize from our group reading, Church readings, areas we need to work on, or take suggestions from the kids. We work through 1 new scripture until it is memorized, while reviewing previously memorized passages. (I will link a video below that explains our Scripture memory box.) The kids also select one Psalm and one poem (of their choice) to memorize over the term.
Artist Study: Art Study – AmblesideOnline – Charlotte Mason Curriculum
Nature Study: This will consists of a weekly walk, observation and recording observations in a nature notebook.
Music/ Composer: Composer Study – AmblesideOnline – Charlotte Mason Curriculum
STEM: BricQ Motion Prime Set 45400 | LEGO® Education
Typing: Learn Touch Typing Free – TypingClub
ASL: A class through our church, plus supplemental Youtube videos from Learn How to Sign
Spanish: Spanish 1 – Easy Peasy All-in-One High School (allinonehighschool.com)
Current Events: Ambleside Online recommends middle and high school students stay up-to-date with current events. This can be done in a variety of ways including; listen to a political-based podcast, watch the news, read a newspaper, read blogs on current events. We have decided to listen to one podcast each week that is put out by Albert Mohler called The Briefing and discuss it as a family.
EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Other activities that my “students” will participate in over the course of the year will include music lessons (piano, voice or guitar,) Civil Air Patrol, Young Eagles program, Karate, Krav Maga and weekly church services/ activities. Of course, there will be at least one full day at home to simply “be” and about one afternoon per week to visit with friends in a “free play” style of hanging out. 😉
We have opted to not return to our Homeschool Co-op this year as it simply does not fit our schedule or the age-range of my children, I mean teen & pre-teen!
Okay… So, I am sure you are wondering the cost of the materials needed for this school year, and the total amount I’ve spent so far (not including extra-curriculars that will be paid monthly) is…… $676.18. (I still need to order the Lego STEM set which should bring our grand total to just over $820 for both kids for the entire school year.)
VIDEOS
HOMESCHOOL RELATED POSTS
Back to Homeschool: Book Haul – The Rural Companion
Homeschool FAVES And MUST Haves – The Rural Companion
How We Homeschool… Part 1 – The Rural Companion
How We Homeschool… Part 2 – The Rural Companion
Thanks for reading this post! If you are a homeschooling parent and have any GREAT resources to recommend, be sure to leave a comment below. If you are considering homeschooling and have any questions, be sure to shoot me a message. I’ll try to answer it or point you toward someone who can!
❤️Ashley
