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Our Curriculum Choices – Year 5

sensible homeschool our curriculum choices year five on chalkboard background

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If you haven’t done so yet, read the first post in this series here and check out Our Curriculum Choices – Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4.

Year 5 Snapshot

If you’ve been following this series of posts, we’ve now caught up to real time. I wrote about the first four years retroactively because I started this blog just before we began our fifth year of homeschooling. 

Since I can’t summarize a year that hasn’t happened yet, this snapshot will be a look at how our year has started so far. Later this school year I hope to post about lessons learned during Year 5… but I have to learn them first, so stay tuned. 

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Our Curriculum Choices – Year 4

sensible homeschool our curriculum choices year four on chalkboard background

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If you haven’t done so yet, read the first post in this series here and check out Our Curriculum Choices – Year 1, Year 2 and Year 3.

Year 4 Snapshot

While we were (and still are) far from having it all figured out, Year 4 was the first year I felt noticeably more confident in our homeschooling. 

After several years of educating our kids at home, I now had some data to work with – some proof that this was working. We could look back on work from the years past and see tangible evidence that growth and learning were taking place. Phew!

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20 Fantastic Ways to Help Your Homeschool Kids Stay Focused

20 Fantastic Ways to Help Your Homeschool Kids Stay Focused teen girl reading on red sofa

Home sweet home… 

The place we feel warm and cozy and free to be ourselves. 

The place we live and laugh and love and create beautiful family memories. 

The place where naked toddlers run through the middle of the lesson on the Byzantine Empire singing “I’m a Little Teapot” and throwing Cheerios in the air like confetti. 

*sigh*

While there’s a lot to love about the freedom a home-based learning setting provides, there are definitely some unique challenges that homeschooling parents need to navigate. Many of these challenges stem from two fundamental characteristics of a homeschool. 

Homeschools are often multi-AGE and multi-USE settings.

These two aspects can equate to high levels of distraction unless some thought is given to managing them well. 

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Our Curriculum Choices – Year 3

sensible homeschool our curriculum choices year three on chalkboard background

(There may be affiliate links on this page. For more information click here.)

If you haven’t done so yet, read the first post in this series here and check out Our Curriculum Choices – Year 1 and Year 2.

Year 3 Snapshot

Each year seems to bring something new and Year 3 was no exception. It was the first time I was homeschooling with an infant and without the support and encouragement of my dear mother-in-law who passed away only a few weeks after I had our third baby. 

But God has always been our Provider, whether it’s in the form of new insights, tangible resources, or help from friends and family. He’s consistently given us hope and a way through difficult seasons, both in homeschooling and life in general. 

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Our Curriculum Choices – Year 2

sensible homeschool our curriculum choices year two on chalkboard background

Read the first post in this series here and check out Our Curriculum Choices – Year 1.

Year 2 Snapshot

Well, we made it through the first year and came back for more. Just when I was starting to figure a few things out, Year 2 brought new challenges. 

My oldest was now in first grade and our three year old wasn’t content to sit on the sidelines. Finding ways to engage them both was a trick. It’s not easy to find a balance where everyone is met at their own level and not frustrated (with work that’s too hard) or bored (by work that’s too easy).  

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Our Curriculum Choices – Year 1

sensible homeschool our curriculum choices year one on chalkboard background

If you haven’t done so yet, read the first post in this series here.

Year 1 Snapshot

This was our first “official” year of homeschooling. My oldest son was starting Kindergarten and our younger son was a toddler. 

I was excited to finally be homeschooling after several years of reading about it and trying to plan ahead for the unknown. We’d already done preschool at home and, of course, he’d been learning at home since he was a baby, but I felt like this was the moment I’d been waiting for. 

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