We are homeschooling… not the zoom, we have to because schools are closed homeschool… but the MOM is the TEACHER kind. My philosophy with eduction is that life skills are where it’s at. Granted I can firmly say this because it’s MY perspective. So many others find so much value in traditional schooling, thrive and build incredible careers off of their hard work in school. I come from a line of not that kind. I come from entrepreneurs and therefore I’ve found my most absorbed lessons are from experiences outside of the textbook. Absolutely nothing wrong with either kind of learning. As the girls made their way through an incredible school which we loved I felt so secure in knowing that they were being taught at an accelerated level as well as bolstered in our families beliefs. With junior high coming for Capri in the next year, we had given lots of thought to homeschooling for 7th and 8th grade. With the uncertainty of the pandemic and schools reopening, we decided to pull the trigger and start homeschooling a year earlier than planned.
After gathering loads and loads of opinions and ideas from my trusted homeschool mommy friends we cherry picked what thought would be the best fit for us. We wanted to keep our curriculum faith based and independent from a charter school to keep it as flexible as possible. We chose The Good and the Beautiful for our core subjects of Language Arts, History and Science and an online option for Math called Teaching Textbooks. Our biggest goal was to keep as computer free as possible and give the girls loads of options to learn outside of just a book lesson. They both tested out of their previous school two grades ahead which brought Capri to an 8th grade level and Peyton to a 6th grade spot. Capri isn’t as quick of a learner as Peyton so we decided to start both of them at 6th grade.
The girls chose to start Marine Biology for their Science which I was thrilled about! So many fun options for adventures. For History we started with US history ( 1 lesson a week) which was been so beyond interesting for me too! I feel like I’m learning so much! As we got situated we have added on Creative Writing and Typing.
Our days have been really smooth, so much so that I was worried we were doing it right. We would finish up our lessons and reading in a couple hours time. I would require the girls to get ready for the day ( dressed, hair done, and teeth brushed) , rooms cleaned and one chore done before they could play. They would take an online paint class, jump in our jacuzzi, play games or in the yard before they got ready for dance. They dance for roughly 3-4 hours a night so I never felt to worried about their PE.
We would create fun little projects to bring in a Life Skills lesson. My favorite has been “Iron Chef”. Each girl was given a main ingredient that we had a bit of at the house or in the garden. They had to find a recipe that sounded good to them. They were to make their shopping list of ingredients within a budget. We would head to the store and price out each item to make sure they picked out items and quantities that fit in their budget. They would be completely in charge of executing their recipe while the other sis set the table and prepped things for dinner. We have had Ultimate burgers, BBQ ribs, Breaded Italian cod sticks, Zucchini lasagna and double decker brownies. I love the lesson of using what you have in the pantry to create meals that sound good. It teaches them to work with a budget and follow instructions with their recipes. We take notes on what we really liked about how the finished product came out and what we would change next time. We do this lesson about once a month.
Both of them spent a couple months in a musical theater class during the day, twice a week. This was great because it eased me in to having a couple days kidless. They made a handful of new friends and learned all sorts of new things. My favorite was the emphasis on public speaking and confidence building on stage. They took voice, singing and music. They have joined in Outschool classes in a couple different book clubs and creative writing and a Barnyard class to learn new things on a farm.