Our Current Homeschool Curriculum for 2020

Our homeschool is constantly changing, ebbing and flowing with our growing and changing family. I'm finding that homeschool with two kids looks very different than homeschool with three, especially when that third one is an energetic and demanding (and extremely adorable) little toddler.

My Favorite Curriculum

I'm a huge fan of The Good and The Beautiful curriculum. I honestly don't think I would have been able to start homeschooling without it. It's simple, beautiful, and it makes planning easy on the parent. I love the one on one time that goes with the younger levels, but Mason does NOT like his brothers getting that one on one time. Don't his brothers know that I'm HIS mommy? Why on Earth would I give them attention? Sheesh. Sometimes the world just makes no sense. 😂

The Good and The Beautiful is my curriculum of choice, but honestly ABCmouse.com has saved my sanity during this toddler stage. It allows Kender and Rhett to take care of all the required basics independently, and we spend Mason's nap time having one on one time with scripture study and speech therapy practice. We still use The Good and The Beautiful for handwriting, and I plan on slowly adding more as Mason gets more independent. ABCmouse.com always has awesome deals going on, so we scored a 6 month membership for $30. That's a pretty great price for a full curriculum! And at the end of our 6 month period I can reassess where we are at and see if we need another 6 months or if we are ready to transition back into The Good and The Beautiful full time.

Nature School

Since ABCmouse takes the pressure of the core subjects off of me, I get to focus my energy on making sure my kids get enough outdoor time. And quite honestly, making sure I get myself enough outdoor time. I'm not very good at going outside in the winter, but I'm trying to change that. We all feel so much better when we get more time in nature.

I really enjoy our outdoor "curriculum". It consists of building parking garages for construction toys in the rain, and caring for our new baby chicks. Ryan is even raising meal worms for them now... He's on a work kick. We've got worm compost too. I'm ok with the earthworms, but the meal worms gross me out. At least I get to feed them to the chicks. 😁

I feel so much closer to God in nature. I think that's part of the reason winters can be so hard. In the spring and summer we spend hours outside in all of God's glorious creations, but in the winter we hole up in our cozy house. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE our cozy house, but it's not quite as therapeutic as a walk in the woods. Nature is good for the soul ❤.

Ok, to wrap up this post, I'm gonna give you a basic outline of what our average school day looks like right now.

Our Current (Ideal) Routine

Morning Chores

• Make beds
• Eat breakfast
• Brush teeth
• Get dressed
• Pick up toys

School

• Scripture & prayer
• Pledge of Allegience
• Article of Faith copywork
• Handwriting
• ABCmouse lesson
• Reading practice
• Speech therapy practice
• Audiobook
• Play outside

On my whiteboard I have it broken up into "morning time" and individual time, but really we just work around Mason's nap. If we can get it done while he's awake, we do it. If not, we wait for his nap. The morning chores don't always get done, because we are humans. Humans who don't like to get dressed. But that's the ideal!