Hi my name is Cristin and I’m a first-time homeschool mom. If you had told me 5 years ago that I would be homeschooling, I would have most likely laughed in your face. I am NOT what I would describe as your “typical” homeschool mom. For starters, I lack this little thing called patience. I also really love having structure to my days, alone time to run errands and work out, a clean and organized house, and I really enjoy working. For the past few years I have been feeling a tug on my heart to homeschool and this year I was finally able to convince the family that we should go for it. We are almost a year in and still very much finding our rhythm and what works and doesn’t work, but it has been a big blessing for our family already.
Everyone always wants to know “what made us decide to homeschool”. First and foremost, we spent a lot of time praying over it and ultimately felt like it was where the Lord was leading our family. A huge factor in the decision was time and being able to have more time to spend with our girls during these years that seem to be going by too fast. We were at a very sweet Christian school prior to homeschooling that allowed for leniency with vacations and early dismissals, etc but between the time commuting, the time packing for school, unpacking from school, doing homework, projects, fundraisers, etc there was very little down time to our days. Throw in activities and sports and we were lucky to spend 30 minutes of family time together each day. Now our days are a lot slower, the girls get to be involved in more activities since we do a lot of them during the day, they spend a lot more time outside, and we have way more time together. Will we do it forever? No. Am I thrilled we are doing it during this season of life and at the ages they are now? Absolutely!
I’ve gotten enough DMs about this on Instagram that I thought I would make a little homeschool resource post for you! I will keep adding things we are studying as we find them!
OUR SCHEDULE
If you follow along on my Instagram you will know that I run this blog, my lifestyle shoppe, have 4 kids and recently moved. A common question I get is how I do it all. The short answer is, I don’t. Within one week we decided to homeschool and also found out that we were expecting our 4th baby. Finding out I was pregnant was a confirmation of sorts that we were making the right decision because I don’t know how I would have been able to handle our commute and pre-school and a newborn. On the other hand, I was in a bit of a panic because I didn’t know how I was going to teach our oldest two and keep up with pregnancy along with a toddler.
We have ended up with a really great schedule that works for our family. I will keep the details private as I do with all of our girls activities, but they get tutoring in 3 subjects twice a week for half a day, attend a great Co-Op that covers another subject one day a week and then I handle the other subjects. They do lessons and activities in the mornings and we honestly just weave learning into everything we do in the afternoon, whether it’s gardening, cooking, taking care of our chickens or just grocery shopping.
I find that I am way more intentional about taking the time to help them learn in real life situations now that we have margin in our days. Before we homeschooled we were always rushing to and from. Now I have them with me during my day to day and I have way more time and patience with letting them figure things out through reading, spelling, adding up food orders, reading instructions, problem solving, etc. Another thing that makes it easier is that my husband and I own family businesses. I am still able to work and include them and the girls will regularly go to the office with their dad. They especially love it when they get to sit in on meetings and take notes.
OUR CURRICULUM //
MORNING TIME
Our morning devotion & read-aloud time centered around Little Pilgrim’s Big Journey and then we moved on to The Kingdom of God Bible Storybook. They read their bibles each morning when they wake up and we have also chosen books of the bible to read through together.
Other great resources for morning time & read-aloud can be found here:
Little Pilgrim’s Progress
Anything By Lithos Kids (Save 10% with code CRISTIN10)
WRITING
Memoria Press
Handwriting Without Tears is another great one!
The girls keep a homeschool journal where they write an entry each day we do school. They can write about what they are learning, something fun they did the day before or something they are looking forward to. The goal is to weave in some of their new vocabulary words but I want this to be something fun that they can go back through and read about their day so I don’t mandate that. If they are frustrated & don’t feel like doing school that day? Great! Journal about it. If they read something cool that morning in their bible. Awesome! Journal about it!
NUTRITION
Growing Up Nourished // We have loved this course work focused on nutrition!
MATH
Good & Beautiful Math (FYI The Good & The Beautiful was created by a Mormon but it is not based on any Mormon theology, or at least I haven’t noticed anything through level 5. When Bible Verses are included, they use the KJV version. We are not Mormons and I have loved this curriculum. I will update this post if anything changes!)
SCIENCE
Adventures on Planet Earth
Adventures in the Scientific Method
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
Good & The Beautiful ELA & supplement with Memoria Press Grammar
SOCIAL STUDIES
Beautiful Feet History
Tuttle Twins
Geography A-Z
LATIN
ART
Helen Dealtry // We love watching her art & trying to paint with her.
Yellow Spot Sun Art Courses
MEDIA WE ENJOY
World Watch News
The Tuttle Twins
Mark Rober
The Magic Schoolbus
Physics Girl
SUPPLIES
Shop my Amazon homeschool list here.
We love these visual timers for when we need to stay focused.
HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM SITES
Brighter Days Press
The Peaceful Press
A Gentle Feast
Harbour & Sprout
*If You Publish Homeschool curriculum from a Christian Worldview, I would love to promote your materials! Just email me through my contact page to connect.*
