Because Ana Lia and Eliam are only a year apart and are academically around the same place, we do all our classes together. Each of them have different strengths, and this allows them to collaborate with one another. We don’t do all these subjects every day; in fact many of them we only do once a week. I did much better about budgeting this year. I had a better idea of how many books we could get from the library so that I didn’t need to purchase so many, so this year, I spent $250 on books. 

Quiet Times

We start our morning with devotions from Not Consumed. At first I was using our Bible history as the Bible lesson for the day, but soon realized that the kids were getting lots of knowledge about the Bible without letting it impact their hearts, so I had to change the approach. These studies have led to some excellent conversations. It is pricey to get a book for each of the kids, especially because each study is only 20 days. I will probably not use them for the long term, but it has helped us get into the habit of studying and discussing Bible application together.

As part of our quiet times, we also go over our memory Scriptures. We use the Scripture memory system from Simply Charlotte Mason. It takes about five minutes after our Bible study, and I have been surprised at how effective it is. 

Math

We are using Singapore Math in Focus because the charter school that we homeschool through provided it.. We started with 1B this year, and we are working through each chapter together. The kids love the manipulatives that come with the program, and they use white boards to write the answers so that we don’t have to use all the worksheets. This way the whole book can go to new students next year. 

Reading

We use All About Reading, which is also provided by the charter school. This has been a game changer for us because the reading games are tactile, which meets a huge need for Ana Lia. We do the lessons together, and then I have them read books that match their reading levels. Eliam usually reads the recommended story that goes with the lesson, and I pick a different book for Ana Lia. It is important to me that she builds her confidence in reading, and having her read books that are too advanced does not support that goal. Even Finiasi joins us when we use the flashcards. While I don’t want to start his formal lessons until he is 6, he refuses to be left out. So we started the flashcards from All About Reading 1, and he loves getting to be involved in class too.

Writing

The Child’s Copybook Readers from Simply Charlotte Mason are a natural progression for the kids to work on their handwriting. We use these for five minutes a day while we listen to the composer of the term in the background.

To develop their story writing, we do Friday Freewrite. Each child has a notebook that is specifically for Friday Freewrite. On Friday, I give them a prompt and then transcribe the stories they tell me. It stays on the bookshelf with all of our children’s books so that we can pull it out and read it like any other book. This helps the kids understand that they are already writers, that their words belong on the shelf and deserve to be read out loud. The stories are mostly hilarious, so rereading them has us doubled over in laughter.

We also use Mail Mondays to work on writing, which has several additional benefits. Each Monday, they will send pictures with a few words to a variety of friends. They are learning to address envelopes, getting a chance to draw while listening to our composer of the term, and making continuing relationships with children around the country.They have already received several pieces of mail in return, and they get so excited when I tell them a letter arrived for them.

History and Geography

We are doing Joshua-Malachi and Ancient Greece this year for history. This has been especially fun because the kids already know many of the stories, and getting to dive a little deeper into them by discussing the characters and situations has been great. The stories of the ancient Greeks has been a highlight of the week as well. Each of the stories is fascinating, especially the ones about the battles.

For geography, we do not use the Visits to Asia that is recommended with the Simply Charlotte Mason study. Instead we use country studies from Thistles and Biscuits. Each day we do map reviews so that we learn the location of all the countries in Asia. Following that we do one of the activities or read one of the books from the unit study. We finish each month with a meal from that country. 

Science

This is by far the subject we do the fewest formal lessons in. We complete a nature journal entry once a week, and we do lots of cooking and some fun experiments. But my consistency in sitting down and teaching science lessons is almost nonexistent. We have a tried a few curricula, but nothing has stuck yet.

Enrichment Studies

These are the subjects that we enjoy the most. We do each of these once a week, and they add variety and fun into our days.

Poetry – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Ana Lia loves poetry days. She thinks like a poet and can often understand exactly what is going on while we read. Like me, Eliam struggles more with this medium, so he and I slow down and talk through them together. They will often illustrate the poems after we listen to and narrate them.

Shakespeare – This is by far our favorite subject of the year. We look forward to Thursdays so much because we have loved Comedy of Errors. We have completed the three steps as recommended in the book, and now we are working on putting on a scene ourselves. The kids chose their favorite scene from the play, and they each picked their characters. We will put together costumes and have someone record it for us. Our next play will be A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Picture Study – We will do Vincent Van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci. I was disappointed that the da Vinci study only had painting in it. I plan to add some of his drawings to our studies as well because they contributed so much to anatomy and engineering. I plan to do Robert S Duncanson for our third artist, but I haven’t been able to find a premade study for him. We will have to see what happens when the time comes.

Composer Study – This one has become not only a focus once a week but also part of our days woven into other activities. I have learned so much about the composers we have studied. We are studying Beethoven right now. Because our next term will include Christmas, I think we will do Handel next, but that could change.

Habits – We use Laying Down the Rails for our habit training, and it has been priceless to us. It gives us some focus and Biblical teaching for why we are working on a particular habit. This term (and possibly longer), we are focused on Orderliness. 

Foreign Language – Afa is teaching us all to speak Tongan. I purchased Spanish Volume 1 from Cherrydale, and every time we are ready for a new series lesson, Afa translates it into Tongan. This has been one of my favorite new subjects for us this year.

Computer Time

We homeschool through a charter school, and the school requires the kids to do 45 minutes a week of knowledge and skills practice on a software called iReady. The kids also do 40 minutes a week of typing practice on Typesy

Conclusion

This is the plan for the year. After spending several years studying and practicing unschooling, I have learned to hold onto our plans very loosely. It gives us freedom to enjoy the days and flexibility to lean into the hard ones. Most days we finish all our subjects, but if we don’t I prioritize Bible, reading, and enrichment. Even if we don’t get through those, I keep in mind that no one is going to die. We are all going to be okay, and we will pick it up the next time around.