Today we begin our 4th week of our 8th year of homeschooling. My son will be graduating this year and my daughter is in her first year of high school. The years are flying by and before I know it our homeschooling years will be behind us. It seems like we are just hitting our stride and have learned to navigate through the often times rough seas of academic education at home. I honestly feel the most difficult part of this journey has been finding the right curricula, books, methods, and resources to provide the most effective path of learning. Over the years we have had hits and misses, and have learned that what worked one year suddenly isn’t suited for the next. My kids are like day and night and day again. Each one has a different way of grasping a concept and even with the same child they learn differently across their subjects. This year we are still as eclectic as we have always been but it seems like we may have more hits than misses this year, although time will only tell. Because this is the last year I will have two children homeschooling I decided that we would spend more time doing subjects together. They will be doing Bible Study, World History, Literature, Science, Computer Studies, Spanish, Speech, Art Appreciation and Music Appreciation together using the same resources.

These are some of the resources we will be using for those subjects:

Bible Study:
Thinking Like a Christian: Understanding and Living a Biblical Worldview (Worldviews in Focus Series)

Homeschool in the Woods: The New Testament Activity-Pak

World History:
Mystery of History 3

Literature:
Mom selected literature books and study guides (still working on complete list)

Science:
Mom created Botany course using the following books:
Exploring Creation With Botany (Young Explorers)

The Botany Coloring Book by Paul Young (This is way more than a coloring book. It is loaded with informative reading.)
From Google Books: (the book titles below link to the books in Google Books)
Science of Plant Life
Botany: Lessons in Botany and Analysis of Plants
Grey’s Lessons in Botany
Outlines of Botany for the High School Laboratory and Classroom
Botany for High Schools

Computer Studies: Software Development Basics
Software Development I: with Python

Spanish:
Speedy Spanish Book 1

Speech:
Sound Speech

Music Appreciation:
Homeschool in the Woods “Composers Activity Pack”

Art Appreciation:
Homeschool in the Woods “Artists Activity Pack”
Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters (Bright Ideas for Learning)

Mom created Digital Photography Art Assignments

They both will continue studying etymology and working on their spelling skills. I found a computer program (Spelling Depot) that works well for the daily spelling drills and allows me to create my own spelling lists. I especially like that I can record their words along with any other information that I want like a sentence or a definition. This program is also not loaded with a ton of confusing bells and whistles and includes a couple of word games they can play based on their lists.

These are the resources we’re using for their individual subjects:

12th Grade Son:
English 4:
Writing Skills

Wordsmith

Language Lessons for the High School Student 3 (excluding the copywork which we are substituting with our own)
Easy Grammar Ultimate Series Grade 12 Teacher

Math:

A Beka Books Consumer Math

9th Grade Daughter:

English 1:
Put That in Writing
Language Lessons for the High School Student vol 1 SET-Student /Key (Language Lessons, volume 1) (excluding the copywork which we are substituting with our own)
Easy Grammar Ultimate Series: Grade 9 TEACHER

Math:
Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1

Logic:
Introductory Logic

As you can see we have a full year planned. I am leaving it in God’s hands to make this an awesome school year.