Thank you for attending the livestream!
Below you will find a summary of my talk along with all the homeschool resources I mentioned.
The Student Planner templates are what we use in our homeschool. I have tried many planners and needed something streamlined. Now each boy knows exactly what they need to do each day and it’s much simpler for me.
In addition to more than 6 different layouts (both daily and weekly) there are also pages for yearly goals and plans with five beautiful backgrounds to select from. You will also receive four Charlotte Mason printable quotes.
My Father’s World is our core curriculum. I really love that it has a family cycle. That means that everybody is learning about the same things for history, science, and Bible, but they are doing work at their own level. It is a lifesaver—or maybe a sanity saver.
I like All About Spelling because it is direct teaching (explains the rules explicitly), and it is multi-sensory. The tactile learning portion is very valuable for those who are not naturally good spellers. Learning the rules of our crazy English language has helped ME even as I taught my kids. I also appreciate that it focuses on HOW to spell instead of drill-kill-test. All the kids like this spelling curriculum. It has also helped families with dyslexic kids tremendously.
All About Spelling has a big selection of free resources and learning games to help your child learn to read and to spell.
We love Math-U-See. I chose it for several reasons, but the main one is that it fits all learning styles. The kids watch and listen to the lesson, they build the concepts with the blocks, can read the lesson in the textbook, and have enough worksheets to practice with.
Typing
We use typing.com for (obviously) typing. It’s free, very well done, and includes a lot of typing games. My kids look forward to typing each day. In fact, I make them set a timer because they’d practice for an hour if I let them.
Music
There is a podcast called “Classics for Kids” that has biographical information on all of the major composers studied. I am finding it to be well-done and engaging and the kids are finding it fun. The best part is that it is “sticking” and they are interested in learning more. As a bonus, each episode is only 6-minutes long. We use this at lunchtime.
We also use Hoffman Academy for online piano lessons.
Foreign Language
There are 4 levels of learning a new language. The foundational level is listening. The more they listen for the first year the better they will do. We have Epic* (a wonderful ebook service) for our kids. They listen to Spanish picture books every day. (The books are narrated with karaoke-style word highlighting.) We also use Epic to supplement history studies, fun e-reading, and audiobooks.
*Note: Epic does not work on Kindle Fire tablets. Amazon wants you to use their (inferior) ebook app.
After my kids can read AND have had a year of listening to Spanish books, they use Duolingo to learn Spanish. Next year we will most likely incorporate some Outschool Spanish classes so the kids can practice listening and speaking with other students.
Electives, Fun, and Extra Help
Outschool is an amazing resource. They offer more than 15,000 unique online classes from hundreds of independent teachers. The classes meet via group video chat and could be a one-time class, a few times, or even a full-semester. Use this link to get a $20 USD credit towards your first class.
A little bit about me: I’m Esther 🥰
I help exhausted moms discover a simple path to health.
I often see exhausted moms who are trying to create a healthy lifestyle amidst their too-busy-to-add-anything-else days. I believe in whole health—mind, body, spirit, diet, and environment.
As an RN and homeschooling mom of 4-boys, I believe keeping whole health practical so that moms can create a simple path to health. I know that when mom changes her own health, the health of the whole family improves in a domino effect.
I have had a life-long passion for helping others. After 16 years working as an RN in the ER, I was fed up putting short-term band-aids on chronic problems. So I left the emergency department to start holistic health coaching where I help change a family’s legacy.
Click the button below and schedule your free 20-minute Holistic Health Strategy Session.