Back to "school"

Although we've already logged several days of school through field trips and such, we're calling today our first day of school for the 2021-22 school year because it's the first day we're breaking open spelling books, math books, etc. This is our ninth year of homeschooling. I already felt 100% convinced this was the best choice for our family, but COVID has only reinforced that decision. I'm very thankful my kids don't need to wear masks while doing their schoolwork. 

Here are some things that we are continuing from past years:

1. Nadia and Ian are still doing grammar together using Fix it Grammar from IEW.
2. Ian and Oliver are still using All About Spelling (level 7 for Ian and level 4 for Oliver).
3. All three kids will complete some pages from All About Homophones (Ian and Nadia do it together, and Oliver does different pages).
4. Oliver is still using Handwriting without Tears to complete his 2nd cursive textbook. Nadia and Ian will be required to copy a few passages from Draw Through History in cursive throughout the year.
5. We will finish reading through the Old Testament this school year. As for Bible memory, we're memorizing the book of James plus some selected verses from Romans.
6. All three kids will read chapter books independently each day. They will need to pick books from a list I have created for each of them. Most of the books relate to what we are studying in history.
7. We're still using Apologia science textbooks. Oliver will be studying animals that fly and animals that swim. Ian and Nadia will be completing an 8th grade Physical Science textbook.
8. Most years we've gone on a lot of field trips. That wasn't the case last year, but I believe it will be the case again this year! This includes earning a lot of Junior Ranger badges at National Park sites. 
9. We'll keep listening to audiobooks together through Overdrive and Audible.
10. We took a break from IEW last year, but we're resuming that this year, and it will be Oliver's first time using the curriculum. Last year we spent a lot more time on art and not as much on creative writing. The kids type their final products which is how we incorporate keyboarding into the school year. The writing topics also correlate to what we are studying in history.
11. We're still using Life of Fred to supplement math. Ian and Nadia work through the same books together and Oliver does different books.
12. We will continue to work through inductive Bible studies together.
13. Ian will continue his piano lessons with me.

Here are some things we are doing differently this year:

1. Last year we used Talkbox.mom for Spanish. This worked really well for the first couple of boxes and then wasn't as successful. The plan this year is that each child will be required to earn at least one crown on the Duolingo app each school day, and also each child at the start of the week will pick one phrase from the Talkbox.mom book that they will try to help all four of us use throughout the week. I personally try to earn at least five crowns a day on the Duolingo app on my phone. 
2. I really, really want to do better with completing more of the demonstrations and experiments in science. This is a high priority for me this year. Hopefully it will actually happen this time!
3. We're signed up to be in a co-op on Tuesday afternoons for the fall semester, and Nadia will continue to have a drama class there in the spring semester. We haven't been in a homeschool gym class since the early part of 2019, but I'm planning on signing the kids up for the gym class at our church starting in January of 2022. It's been awhile since we've been in a co-op. Oliver was in the nursery the last time we did one so we shall see if we like it enough to continue in future years or not. I'm not signing Nadia up for voice lessons this school year like she did last year.
4. I'm going to quiz Nadia and Ian on questions from the Bible quizzing question database every school day over Romans and James.
5. Oliver will start taking piano lessons with me.
6. Ian and Nadia will begin working through two coding books (starting with Python and JavaScript).
7. Nadia took a photography course last year but didn't actually get a lot of practice with shooting in manual on a DSLR. I am going to let her use my old camera body plus one lens on our vacation and hopefully that will be the beginning of her getting more practice with shooting in manual.
8. Although we're still doing the same five year cycle in history, we're using Mystery of History this year instead of Story of the World that we used for four years in the past. We're still supplementing with many library books and books we own (picture books, chapter books, and nonfiction). This year we're doing from Creation to the time of Christ, which is slightly different than five years ago when we did Creation to the Greeks. I have many new books in the plans, but we're also rereading some of the best ones that we read five years ago.
9. It took me almost all summer to decide, but the plan for now is that Nadia will do Saxon Algebra I (her first time with a traditional textbook in a few years), Ian will do Teaching Textbooks grade 7 (first time for him to do math on a computer), and Oliver will do Beast Academy (2B, 2C, 2D, 3A, and 3B). My goal for him is to finish 5D by the end of 6th grade. All three kids really need to work on their problem solving skills - especially Oliver as his are about nonexistent at this point.
10. None of my kids have read any Shakespeare thus far. This year we plan on beginning to read some of his writings, and we plan to continue that in the years to come. Now that Nadia is in 8th grade I feel the need to make sure we've listened to (or the kids have read independently) many classic pieces of literature.
11. I purchased a book of centuries for each child. They will use them over the next four years to record with sentences and also artwork - sort of a timeline in a book. I don't usually keep much of their schoolwork, after the year is over, but I'm hoping they will save these for years to come.

Here's to hoping and praying that my 4th, 6th, and 8th graders all have a great school year!!! I'm very, very thankful I have the privilege of homeschooling them. Next year I will need to grade far more of Nadia's work  as I'll have to actually create a report card for her each quarter. This year I'm only planning on grading her work in science and math. Although I don't put a lot of stock in grades, I do want my kids to strive to do their very best in whatever task they are doing.