Yes I agree so much but also I have to add you too you’ve influenced me to buy new things. 😅 We recently ordered the prodigies beginner bell kit and that’s thanks to you. We’re loving it but my kid broke a bell in under 2 weeks.
Contact their support! They have a great bell replacement policy! Oh man, it is so hard not to influence and be influenced on this platform! I hope you guys love prodigies as much as we do! :)
@@ThatsRightIHomeschool yes they sent us a replacement but sent the wrong bell. 🤦🏻♀️ So now we’re waiting again. Yes my kid adores it and asks to do it all the time but we can’t practice hello c right now which stinks. I’ve let him do more of the other bells because of that. Also I’ve been learning a ton too. My husband is a musician and I think he likes that im finally understanding some of the concepts he’s tried to explain for over 10 years. 😂
@@CondorsCroft that's great! Something my kids love is musical bottles or water xylophones! We sometimes play those when we want to do something a little different. I highly recommend something like that if your child wants to play. Really fun to set it up with the kids too. :) I don't recall the video we used to learn how to set something like that up, but there are a number of videos on RU-vid to walk you through!
Love this! My son is the same way and we’re doing handwriting without tears. It’s working well for him. We are also using Blossom and root as well as all about reading! You have some great suggestions in here. I’m going to check out Jacob‘s ladder for sure! Thank you, you’re doing an amazing job!
Love your honestly! I think self-reflection is so important. I have Blossom.& Roots. There are elements that I do like, but I don't do everything. I VERY loosely follow it. I am really on the fence about Prodigies. Do you think 2 is too young to start the video lessons? Would starting say at 3, be better?
We started early, around 2! We did them as a family, one video at a time and it has been a really good fit for us. Their RU-vid channel has some free content. I would recommend starting there before purchasing, if you are on the fence. It's a good representation of the kind of videos they have. :)
I would love to see a video about how you plan overall. Do you keep a document of your household scope and sequence? Do you keep all the resources Handy and just know what you plan to do? Do you have things planned out to a daily plan on a calendar? I’d love to see your process.
Will definitely do a video on this soon! Computer situation changed and am learning (quite terribly!) new editing software! But I hope to have my regular videos out soon, with this being a topic! 😁
Oh wow, I would **LOVE** a closer look at the Alfred's series if you have the time. I'd like to see a flip through of those books and which ones are required and which ones are *extra*? Do you need a skilled teacher to go through Alfred's or could a family member teach it in the home?
Helpful French Resources Our Favorite French Music on Spotify: ● The Kiboomers 'Favorite French Songs for Kids': open.spotify.com/album/7i147xXeVHKqInsRAxvwAY ● CoComelon en Français: open.spotify.com/artist/7v8RRIvobOTfhtGRCWFUs5 ● Gérard Dalton '100 chansons et comptines à l'école maternelle': open.spotify.com/album/0XsS5gvRNZ74iwGxAuCXrw ● Whistlefritz: open.spotify.com/artist/0DtXS2sF7QBOVIiwSihEEY Our Favorite French Localization Dubs on Disney+: ● Mickey Mouse Club House ● Ready for Preschool ● Little Einsteins ● Winnie the Pooh (movie) Our Favorite French Audiobooks on RU-vid: ● Histoires et Contes: www.youtube.com/@HistoiresetContes ● Le Petit Prince: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lV-yH_d2npg.html ● Harry Potter et la pierre philosophale: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e44cTxlKAq4.html
That’s interesting. My son started piano lessons just after he turned 5 in the fall, and his teacher didn’t use the Faber beginner books. She used a different book for theory and simultaneously she started him with the Faber preTime piano books. In three months he moved to the Faber level 1 books which he’s been on for approximately 5 months now. He still has a lot of work to do in the Faber level 1 series. She has also brought in an Alfred’s duet 1b book and an adult theory book for him to just read (he likes to read stuff like that). As someone who is not a musician and definitely not a pianist, i have no clue of the difference in progression between the similar but different books. It’s interesting to see what others use. Your books look more fun, but my son doesn’t seem to think his books aren’t fun, but maybe he doesn’t know any better lol.
It definitely seems to be wholly unique per instructor...another person we talked to used something called Piano Safari (I think!?). Current instructor also uses Wilbecks, as well as some other series that targets younger piano players. It's really neat seeing the variety! Can't wait to see how his instruction progresses as he gets older. So amazing to hear your son enjoys piano! It's so incredible hearing such young ones play. 😊
I forgot to mention that we have also really enjoyed Little Einsteins! This show features a musical piece and work of art per episode. Very calm show, no violence! Big win for us! We will watch it throughout the year ❤
LOL. Would love your thoughts on what you're going to do differently this time around. For example, if you don't go through everything in that week, do you just extend it until all activities are done, or do you simply move on to week 2?
Core knowledge pairs very well with build your library level 0. We are in week 8 now. You can see the background knowledge from core knowledge really shines when we are using build your library. ❤excellent choices!
Thank you for being transparent about budget downfalls. Being transparent myself, I brought too early and needed to reflect a little more to remind myself what worked. Blossom and root is also not a good fit for our family.
Great reflections, thank you for sharing 😊 I also need to be better about remembering what worked and embracing the consistency, rather than the new and shiny!
This video really spoke to me. My downfalls are buying from excitement and buying too early. I really tried to hold off this year, but the big sales happen in Spring when I really shouldn't be buying until July. Also, I gravitate towards literature heavy curricula which means buying lots of books on top of the curriculum. I also tend to buy something if I can't get a good sense of it from the sample online. Like, I really need to see two months worth to know if it will work for us, not just a couple of pages or a week. And, being honest, all of the homeschool content creators on youtube make it look like they had such a fun and magical year and show the resources they used and of course I want to try those out too since our year is lacking in magic.
The elusive magical year! I love your honesty, and I relate to this so much. I can say that our school isn't magical. It's work. It's messy and challenging. It is an experience...one that has brought me closer to my kids, tried my patience, and helped me grow as a parent and as a person. Magical it is not, but incredible it still is. :) I wouldn't change it for the world...although I wouldn't mind the occasional magical day 😁
I get FOMO so bad when it comes to curriculum. I purchased both blossom and root and torchlight level k to see which fit best for us. We will spend about 6 months doing each (year-round homeschoolers). We started with all about reading. Loved it, and then I purchased the next 2 years of it used. (and all about spelling). Then I saw multiple people recommend Brave Writer and picked that up. Then someone else mentioned Ambleside Online, and while it's not secular someone in the comments section listed the secular version. Now I've added that on as well. Plus my daughter will go to a micro school 2 days a week. I need to stop watching videos. Then I would never know about all the amazing curriculum that's out there. And would spend a lot less money. 🤣
Ugh the Mega Bundles are my Achilles Heal!! I had to unfollow and unsubscribe from all of the creators before I bankrupted the homeschooling account.😅 We are going into our second year and targeting a $1,000 annual budget. I think we have it dialed in for this year at $705 for the core curriculums and memberships. We will see how it goes🤞🏻😄
8 years in I still do this 😂 but… sometimes it’s so hard to figure out if you actually want something until it’s in your hands and you can look through it. I look at it as like in business, there is always a percentage of the budget for waste (or at least that’s what I tell myself lol). Those “mega bundles” are 100% junk for sure.
I definitely did this my first couple years of homeschooling but I’m finally getting so much better - I still often buy way more than I need (as evidence in my latest used book and curriculum haul video 😅), but only when it’s used so I know I’m at least not spending a lot of money 😂 and I’m okay with buying a lot of books, but getting better at not buying tons of actual curriculum!
Oh man- this brings back all the feels! I did something similar and kind of combined Sonlight A, BYL, and Torchlight for my kindergartener. I have so many good memories from the great books we read together. That kindergartener is now going into 7th grade! 😭 I have some homeschool regrets, but the time we took exploring great books together is not one of them!
Yessss!!! I just finished recording a video talking specifically about this and how I plan to use what I bought and my plan to try and stop this! It's terrible!
We’ve used Saxon for 4 years now and have gone through levels K through 6/5 so far. We love it. Just a heads up, level K is only 3 days a week so you’ll need to adjust your lessons if you’re trying to do them daily. It does go by the specific month. ☺️
Hi, can you explain when do you find time to read for yourself? I have 4 kids 14-4 and I have a stack of books I want to read, but I cannot seem to make time. How do you get reading done for yourself?
I only have two kids and it's tough, so I imagine it's a lot harder with 4! Most days, we do 15 minute quiet reading time at home, where I read and the kids either look at their own books or do a puzzle quietly. But most of my reading comes at night, when I get around 30 minutes of reading done before bed. Also, audiobooks! I listen to those when I do things around the house and the kids are peacefully playing (you know, for approximately 5 minutes 🤣).
I reference How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare all the time. I first checked it out on our library's Libby app and then decided to purchase. I think it is a good one. I also want to purchase one of those visual timers for my kids, too.
For the blossom and root nature study: we liked just watching the video links and read alouds for the picture books on RU-vid. Super easy and my littles actually got a lot out of it 👍🏻. I found reading the Burgess animal book tedious after a few weeks (and we LOVE reading and Beatrix Potter…this one just didn’t land in our house).
A visual timer has been a must in our house. Outside of homeschool as well. Great for little ones to visually see the time allotted since they can’t grasp actual time until they’re older.
My library has How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, so I check it out when I need it. It's a guide to memorizing passages from the plays, and it provides some background info. History Quest Ancients suggests those Gilgamesh books for one of the hygge weeks. We really enjoyed them! Again, we got them from our library. Oh! I had that States and Capitals CD as a kid. The songs are really annoying, but I can still sing a lot of them, so ymmv. You can probably find audio samples somewhere. I thought those composer CDs were really boring. I prefer the Classical Kids CDs and the Maestro Classics CDs.
@@EclecticHomeschoolShelf Definitely skipping the boring CDs 😂 Great alternative recommendations. I will check them out! Oh it looks like Gilgamesh books are read aloud here on RU-vid. So even though my library doesn't have them, watching them here might be a good alternative. Glad to hear they are worth reading though! Your comment on the States and Capitals is hilarious 😂🤣
Hi i think the timer is quie useful and as for the CDs you can easily get the pieces and more from youtube and other free sources. The math picturbooks seens quite intersting. For the bags i think you can use something that you already have at youe home
And I am so with you on the board games!! I actually just filmed a video of favorite educational games for the family and am hoping to post it in the next couple days 😊
I also love reading and read a wide variety of genres - my favorites are historical fiction and classics like Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. I haven’t read LOTR in years but I absolutely loved the books as a kid!
We are listening to Anne of Green Gables as a family right now on audiobook. It's also one I love a lot ❤️ And definitely lovvveeee Little Women. I like your style! Haha!
For religious reasons we don’t listen to music, but I think we will go with this curriculum and just switch out the music for something else. Thanks for sharing your thoughts
My dd's favorite games in K were Sleeping Queens and Outfoxed. My ds is going into K, and his favorite game is Pandemic (he likes games with lots of rules, haha). My husband and I usually play Wingspan or Dominion (the Prosperity expansion is our favorite). Oh, and everyone likes Splendor!
Thanks for sharing about yourself! I didn’t grow up having a lot of board games but my husband did so now we are starting a collection in our home. It’s been fun teaching our son to play with us! The open mindedness when it comes to world religions is another pro to us as well! Same as social justice or just introducing philosophy in a child appropriate way to help understand things in the social justice. 😊 We are secular homeschoolers.
Not to be a multiple commenter, but I also realized the homeschooling world is bigger than I ever thought. My husband and I were both public schooled. I believed a lot of stereotypes about homeschoolers before we began. I still find myself worrying strangers will think we are like the Duggars when we say the word “homeschool”. 😂 I find myself saying “we homeschool, but not like the Duggars” 😬 but I do think the events of 2020 brought a lot of light to homeschooling and did a lot to normalize it in the eyes of American society. Also, love the cat in the background. YT videos are always better with cats in the background 😂
Haha "We homeschool, but not like the Duggars" 😂 I might borrow this line in the future lol. I have so much to learn on the homeschooling front, and I do still notice myself stereotyping sometimes. It's terrible and I am definitely working on it and learning more. RU-vid really has opened my eyes, and I agree that the pandemic helped normalize homeschooling. 🐱 My cats nap 98% of the time...until I start recording! They always want my full attention then, and only then 😂😂
I think the Well-Trained Mind is really helpful, but it can be a bit overwhelming, imo. Ignore the schedules--no one follows them (SWB's publisher made her add them). I'd love to see your roadmaps! They look lovely. I also plan everything out, but I just use a spreadsheet, haha.
Thank you!! Does your family have favorites? Not that we need another excuse to buy more books... But I would love to read some of your family favorites! 😁
Thank you so much for these Q&A! It was really helpful since we are just behind where you’re at (age of our first) and seem to have a similar approach or mindset about school 😁
You are most welcome! 🤗 Thank YOU for your questions! Please don't hesitate to ask more questions if you need help navigating homeschool. Chances are, I am going through something very similar and had the same questions. Happy to share my research and thoughts!
