Today I am going to talk about our summer homeschool plans, but first I have to set the stage (so to speak). As a professional researcher and a first-year homeschooling mom I went a little crazy buying curriculum. Not to mention that because we live in Florida we have access to the Personalized Education Program (PEP) scholarship, which provides homeschooling families with money to spend on school supplies, curriculum, and extracurricular activities. All of this to say we bounced around quite a bit this year in terms of the curriculum we used before finally settling on something that works for Bones and that we both enjoy. 

Here are some of the curriculum we tried: 

• All About Reading
• Math With Confidence
• The Good and The Beautiful – both math and language arts curriculum
• Campfire Curriculum
• Logic of English
• Explode the Code

We liked aspects of all of these curriculum (some more than others) but I finally feel like we have a solid idea of the curriculum that works best for us and so I plan to use this summer to “catch-up” on some of his core subjects (ie, math and language arts).

Math

We started out Bones’ kindergarten year using Math With Confidence (MWC) and I felt like it was working well for him. But, like I mentioned above, I got a little curriculum crazy and started doing a bunch of research on other math curriculums out there. I saw The Good and The Beautiful (TGATB) math and fell in love. The illustrations throughout the program are so beautiful (hence the name of the company) and it just seemed like a good curriculum. And it was, Bones did great with TGATB math. I ultimately decided to go back to MWC because both Bones and I liked the shorter lessons and more game-based learning. He is doing great with MWC and he is over halfway through the kindergarten book so our focus for this summer is to just finish the MWC kindergarten curriculum and start with Grade 1 in the fall. 

Language Arts

Ahh language arts…it has been a struggle. Bones has always loved books and being read to but teaching him to read has been a challenge. We started our reading/phonics journey with All About Reading (AAR) Level 1 but I could tell right away that we would have to go back to the basics with their Pre-Reading program. Bones completed the AAR Pre-Reading program and knew all of his letters and their basic sounds but instead of going to AAR Level 1 – like I probably should have – I again was captivated by TGATB language arts curriculum so we tried switching to that. Boy oh boy was that a mistake. Bones hated it and pushed back every time we sat down to do school. So I started researching other curriculum and stumbled upon Campfire Curriculum. I liked that Campfire Curriculum was a more gentle approach to phonics and reading but I felt like it was moving way too slow and I could tell Bones was getting bored quickly. So back to the drawing board I went…and I decided upon Logic of English (LOE). I really wish I had started with this curriculum to begin with but as they say, hindsight is 20/20. I absolutely LOVE this curriculum and Bones has done so well with it. It teaches the foundational skills of reading and spelling using a more game-based approach (although we sometimes skip the games). Bones has really flourished using this phonics and reading program and I could not be more proud of how far he has come. 

We are about 10 lessons away from completing the Foundations A curriculum so we will finish that up over the summer and start on Foundations B. In addition to LOE, Bones has also been doing the Explode the Code and he is currently working through the Get Ready for the Code – C book, which we will continue throughout the summer. 

Extras

In addition to his core subjects that we are catching up on, we have also been doing some science lessons using TGATB Science for Little Hearts and Hands program. We chose to start with the Sparks and Stars unit and we are doing science as a family subject so both Bones and TG sit in on the lessons. So far both of them have loved doing science and it is the one subject they both ask to do every day (which makes my science-loving heart so happy!). 

We alternate science and foreign language (Spanish) throughout the week during the summer and it has worked out great. Bones and TG also enjoy learning Spanish together and we have been using (and loving) Homeschool Languages Spanish 1 program. The program comes in the cutest packaging and both boys love the puppet (a dog named Alberto) who comes with the curriculum. I feel like they are actually learning Spanish and it is such a fun and easy curriculum to teach. We will definitely be continuing our Spanish studies throughout the summer as well. 

The last thing we will be doing throughout the summer are family read-alouds. We started doing Story Tea Time during the “regular” school year and the boys love it. I took them to the thrift store to buy some cheap mugs to use and I let them pick what beverage they want to have (usually milk or orange juice) and then we sit down and read an age-appropriate chapter book together. Our current book is The Wild Robot and we plan to have a family movie night to watch the film version of The Wild Robot once we finish with the book. The boys are so excited and it is such a cozy time together. 

Well I think that about covers our summer homeschooling plans. The boys will also be doing some camps over the summer but they are mostly in the mornings so we will hopefully still have time to get some school done in the afternoons. I am trying to get as caught up as possible before baby #3 arrives so we can start Bones’ 1st grade year and TG’s pre-K year off on the right foot. Wish us luck!