Hi! I'm Davene. I am a homeschool mom to 4 very active, upper elementary and middle school kids. I would say our homeschool style is literature-based, Charlotte Mason-inspired, and very eclectic. We like to try to follow Charlotte Mason's philosophy while still being free to try out a wide range of educational activities and resources. Through this channel, I hope to provide helpful content to other homeschool moms like myself. I will be creating curriculum flip throughs and reviews, as well as sharing my general experiences with homeschooling. I hope that you will join me here to learn more about various resources and pick up some tips that might help you in your own homeschooling journey. Welcome!
Hello just a quick question I'm interested in purchasing level 4 books for my 9 year old. Is the answer sheet inside the book for the parents? Thank you for your time!
So, I try to start my year by looking to see if any of the books are on audio (and where I can get them for free). If I can find them for free (usually library or Everand... I do keep a subscription for that) then I have a copy of the books and I note where I can get the audiobooks. Then, we try to do as many of those in the car when we are driving around. Next, I make sure that my kids are spending at least 20-40 mins a day reading (scheduled into their day in some way). Finally, when we have too many books to read, I'll just offer my kids some options of what we have and we skip a few here and there. With multiple literature based courses, it can get tricky. We also have no issue with taking more time to complete a level.
We are currently on our second year of Whirlwind World History. It is the perfect course to split like that. I hope your daughter enjoys it as much as my kids do.
I often buy books as we go along with our curriculum!!! Seeing my teen daughters books its about the same as sonlight!!! We love using books for learning!!! We love hands on learning!!!
We got off to a bit of a scattered start to the year because my oldest just delivered her second baby a few weeks ago. I'm curious as to how you all are enjoying the MB Spanish for Families. Do you think a 16 year old boy would enjoy it, or is it more geared for the younger ones?
Wow! Congratulations! That is so great! It makes sense that you guys would be a bit scattered right now :) So, we really do enjoy the MB Spanish. It is fine for my 15 year old, but she is not the most mature 15 year old. She doesn't really think that things are baby-ish. So I think that would depend on your son and if he is likely to think that he's too mature for some things. I really enjoy it myself and I'm learning a lot, but I can see how for some older kids, it might not be the best fit.
@@CalmintheChaosHomeschool Thank you so much! We are enjoying the new addition to the family...she is so sweet. Thank you for your insights on the Spanish program. :) I hope your first day of homeschooling went well.
@@liztefft5312 oh… one more thought, they do have sample lessons and you could take a look at those. The professor is very animated, and she builds on a lot of good review.
I purchased this recently at a homeschooling consignment sale, neither of my kiddos are science minded, so this seemed perfect for them. Just a basic chemistry unit, I will probably also add GH Science in the Kitchen so there is some literature as well. Thanks for sharing!
Definitely would fit the bill for that. Though, adding GH could be a lot :) I'm currently planning out GH Chemistry and I'm hoping I'm not getting in over my head for myself or my daughter :) I really don't remember anything about chemistry from high school (I don't remember any science I took except maybe biology?), so I'm hoping I can keep up!
I do not think so, but I couldn't be 100% sure. I think it would be worth reaching out to the company and see if there is anything they can do about that.
Do you know of any other secular unit studies for Kindergarten that isnt $1K??? 😢 I am very interested in using unit studies but 1K is a bit steep as i will only use it once. Thank you.
We’ve started new stuff so I’d say we’ve started our school year!!! We find that plane schooling helps us to keep up!!! We live in the Chaos when travelling!!!
I used this in the early 2000s but I think it’s changed since then!!! I loved it!!! I remember it being gentle!!! My high schoolers loved the guest hollow’s biology!!! I remember it being a Christian curriculum but I can’t remember the lab reports!!! The videos looked awesome!!! I remember using a microscope for this course!!! I only buy Christian Science curriculums!!!
This was super helpful! I am working on some incentives for my child with ADHD who needs to see some immediate results. I used your idea to award points for sections of the day and added in points for working on Emotional Regulation and Executive Function skills. This really helped me break down what I wanted to award points for and how many points.
Glad it was helpful! I have also found with one of my kids that a tiered of ladder of specific rewards has been helpful too. For a while I had to give points for EVERYTHING from getting dressed, to eating breakfast, to doing each assignment. He got points for each thing he did and as he earned he moved up a ladder of rewards from snacks to tablet time to skipping chores or play dates. It was tedious, but necessary to help us get through a tough year.
We have used 3 of the elementary science in the history series. We have thoroughly enjoyed them. They are rigorous enough for my science lovers but being gentle enough even for my little guys
I have a family subscription to CTC Math, so I just had her do the units she didn’t finish in that course. Next year we will be trying out Denison Math.
I was curious how you have column A & C "locked" so it doesn't move when you scroll the rest. I need that to happen on my excel spread sheet and can't figure it out.😊
Oh! So there is a dark “line” on the top and side of the page. I just grab it with my mouse and pull the line down to where I want it to be and then grab the line from the left to where I want that to be. Then that part always stays on my screen while I scroll.
We are doing beautiful feet science history and we saw this on timberdoole!!! I didn’t kno what it was like!!! I’m glad it’s modem science as that’s where we started to struggle!!! My kids started to struggle with instrest especially as I tried it to history we where doing!!! It looks independent!!! We did the scientific method a few times by now!!! We like to do scientist studies!!!
I don’t. I don’t tend to teach specific things on those days. I like to teach all those events as we go through them in the context of our history, so I don’t have any specific resources for those.
I am also in Washington. We have our first year of testing this summer. Everyone I've talked to says we can use CAT testing. Have you used this before? Is it valid here? If you have used something else what do you recommend?
We have always just done our testing through the local public school because my kids take a class or 2 there most years. I’m pretty sure the CAT would be fine. I’d probably do something like that if I had to do the testing.
“See How They Run”….oh that is perfect!!! I think we need to add that to our collection!! That’s a good amount of information for my 5th grader! Thank you for sharing!!! Enjoyed this collab with you!!
We haven’t used build ur library!!! We love guest hollow!!! I was talking to my teenage daughter and she will be still in high school in 4 years so I love ur approach of a introduction to elections this year!!! I believe history smashers are the American version of the British horrible histories that we love!!! My kids spent a good chunk of time in the U.K.!!! We where I. Sydney when the local government went pear shaped so we had a lot of discussions then!!!
We love Guest Hollow! My senior is using the government course this year. As read alouds for the rest of the family I chose the Tuttle Twins 12 book series.
I cannot in good conscience support Emily and Build Your Library due to personal differences in beliefs. We are using Bookshark's free two week study this year.
Thank you for sharing. I have not experienced Build Your Library yet, so I don’t know how it will go. I assume I wouldn’t agree with 100% of just about any curriculum company, but it’s good to know your own limits. I’m glad you commented on this so that people can be aware to do their own research to see what they are comfortable with for their family.
I know you posted this a long time ago but this is our day 6 of homeschool ever with a 5th 3rd and 1st grader with a 4, 2 year old and 5 month old in tow. Today is a all plans out the window day and i needed this video and a lottle cry. Thank you❤️
Oh, let me just say, first year was HARD. Good enough for me to continue, but it was a rough start. It takes some time to find your groove, and it does get better. But, even with the groove, there are days and periods when the hard comes back 😞 Praying for your homeschool right now!
I want to add that, you have much more than most have to deal with when first starting. Many start with one kid at a time as they grow older. I started with 4, but all school aged at the time. You have a tough dynamic. So give yourself so much grace! My advice for you (that you can decide if it’s right or not for you) might be to start super duper slowly… that could mean just get your oldest doing 1/2 of the work, or all your school age kids doing 1 subject a day. Do that for a bit and slowly add other subjects as you start figuring out a schedule or routine that will work for your family. Don’t try to do all the things all the time. If you need a venting buddy or want to chat more, I’m super happy to be a sounding board or be an outside set of eyes. Feel feel to email me or pm me in Facebook. I’d love to help you feel more successful in your homeschooling if I can ❤️
Thanks for sharing. We have quite a few favourites that are yours too. I will check out critical thinking company reading detective and spelling you see, I don’t have favourites for those areas. Our favourite for grammar is Rod & Staff English, it’s really good.
my daughter is 14 and we love morning basket but we only do 15-30 minutes a day - we always does a poem, word of the day, a book about an interesting person and then if we have time we do Letters from Afar, Heritage Letters or Tuttle Twins monthly magazine. I have been wanting to get the World Watch News but we just don't have time. The 13 things strong kids do : think big, feel good, act brave big looks amazing - definitely want to add that to our morning basket
