Our School Year 2022/2023

Abby completed 5th grade, Evie completed 3rd grade, Obie & Elly completed 1st grade, and Chloe, Josie, and Katie worked on pre-school skills some more.

Abigail - 5th Grade:

Abby's weekly schedule:

Monday: Bible reading/journal, piano practice, math, McGuffey reader, copywork, copy spelling words for the week, typing practice

Tuesday: Bible reading/journal, piano practice, math, copy spelling words, Pathway reader/workbook, read to the little kids

Wednesday: Bible reading/journal, math, piano lesson, copy spelling words, reading & language arts, art

Thursday: Bible reading/journal, piano practice, math, computer spelling practice, read to the little kids

Friday: Bible reading/journal, piano practice, math, spelling test, pathway OR reading & language arts, science

Abby upgraded her Bible to a more adult version and added Bible journaling to her daily Bible time.  She typically started her day out with her Bible time.  I asked her to continue reading one chapter, encouraged prayer time, and suggested she write down either a verse, a question, something she learned or some other personal thoughts.  As you can see, she routinely copied down a verse.

We stuck with Saxon for math.  Caleb continued as Abby's math teacher.  She would do the lessons on her own and then go over them with him when he had time.  I think she did pretty well for the most part, although there were times she rushed through and made silly mistakes.

The McGuffey book was quite a bit more challenging this year with it's old time language, but I still found it very useful for Abby.  She would read the stories aloud to me which was great for improving her read aloud skills, fluency, clear enunciation, etc.

I also used Abby's McGuffey for her weekly spelling word lists and copy work.  She would copy a paragraph or two, depending on length out of it once a week.  I would choose 10 spelling words for her.  Initially, I was going to have her review her cursive by copying her paragraphs in cursive, but she couldn't remember it well enough.  Instead, I switched to having her copy her spelling words in cursive.  I would write them down for her so she could see what they needed to look like.  Once we were done with spelling for the year, I just had her copy one word a few times, working our way through the alphabet alphabetically.  We used the same spiral journals we've been enjoying for the last few years now.

Abs also used her journals for anything she was required to do out of her My Father's World language arts book.  She typically completed a few lessons from it each week.

Pathway was one of Abby's favorite subjects this year.  She enjoyed the fact that I started letting her do her reader book all on her own.  I enjoyed the fact that she is becoming more and more independent with her schooling.  Every second saved counts around here. haha

We continued piano lessons together.  Abby really enjoys playing and learning piano, but she dislikes any instruction during her lessons. haha  Her perfectionist, I can do this all on my own, don't tell me what to do attitude gets in the way here and there.  She was often playing away and singing her heart out in her free time though, which was quite cute.  Typical Abby, she is catching on quickly.

For art, I usually found a short lesson or skill online and went over it with the kids or had them watch a lesson of some sort.  We did a lot of card making activities since the girls were very excited about sending letters to all their pen-pals.  

For science, Abby went through a variety of animal books and journaled about them with a picture.

Other than all the school activities, Abby plowed through a bazillion chapter books.  She reread a bunch in our house as well as enjoyed a ton of library finds.  If she had nothing to do and was enjoying inside time, she was typically found curled up in a chair devouring a book.  I'm pretty sure she still likes to skim read at times, but her comprehension has been pretty good, so whatever. haha

Evelyn - 3rd Grade:

Evelyn's weekly schedule:

Monday: Bible, Bible journal, math, piano practice, Mc Guffey Reader & copywork, copy spelling words

Tuesday: Bible, math, piano lesson, Pathway, copy spelling words

Wednesday: Bible, math, piano practice, reading & language arts, copy spelling words, art

Thursday: Bible, math, piano practice, computer spelling words, reread Mc Guffey or new stories

Friday: Bible, math, piano practice, spelling test, science reading & journal, reading & language arts OR Pathway

Evie inherited Abby's old Bible.  She would read one chapter a day and do a journal entry (copy down one verse with reference) every Monday.

Evie completed her third grade Saxon.  She usually did pretty well with her math.

We continued piano lessons.  Although Evie really enjoys piano, she hates putting in the work to learn it.  She will bash on the piano, freak out, say she can't do it, etc. etc. while I'm trying to give her a lesson.  It can get quite wearisome, but we're pushing through! haha

Pathway was Evie's most despised enemy.  She didn't mind reading the stories to me - they are always so fun!  But, she was a dedicated hater of her Pathway workbooks.

My Father's World reading and language arts lessons was useful as usual.  Evie enjoyed some of the lessons (the less writing the better in her opinion), and moaned through some others.haha

My personal favorite subject for Evie, was her science.  This girl struggles with writing things on her own because she wants it all to be perfect and gets soooo focused on her mess ups that she won't do the writing.  For science, she would read about some type of animal (we used a variety of our animal science books over the year) and then have to journal about what she learned.  The zinger?  She had to do it all on her own.  I told her it didn't matter what mistakes she might make as long as she was trying.  It was amazing to see her improve over the year!!  It was also a great way to assess what she needed more instruction/repetition on. haha  At first, I didn't correct anything to her.  I simply fixed whatever she did wrong later on (so I could read it in the future haha) and didn't make a big deal about it.  As time went on and she became more comfortable with it, I would have her come back later and fix a few misspellings I knew she should have done right.  I loved all her little entries and included a few favorites here.

Peanut read a few stories out of her Mc Guffey reader each week.  I had her read them aloud to me (much needed).  She would copy a selection from her reading once a week, as well as get her spelling words from there.

We used this spiral journal mostly for Evie's spelling word practice and tests.

This other journal (I prefer this one for its sturdy pages and the kids usually enjoy drawing pictures in the spaces provided) I had Evie use for copy work and reading & language arts assignments.

Obadiah & Eliana:

These two were in 1st grade this year and really upped their game academically.  They had daily math, just like the big girls.  Saxon for the win again.  We just got one workbook and had them each do one side every day.

I put a big focus on reading for them both as well.  I rotated which books they read aloud to me from each day to keep things interesting. haha  Sometimes they read their Bible reader (My Father's World 1st grade) and other times their Mc Guffey primer.

They also were old enough to begin Pathway readers!  Yay!  I love them.  They have such fun stories and are on the easier side as far as reading level, which is nice for the kids.  As I was working on putting this blog together, I realized I never had Obie and Elly read their 3rd book.  *Head slap*  We are now working on it and will try to wrap that up before the next school year begins.😜  Since I'm really late getting this blog done, we'll see how that goes. haha

For writing practice, they used our little rainbow resources spiral primer journals.  I love them!

Initially, I had them work on individual letter practice for handwriting and draw a picture that started with that letter.  Here are a few from Elly's book.

And here are a few from Obie's journal.  It was interesting working with their various strengths and weaknesses.  They basically are opposite of one another. haha  Obie was a much faster reader (thanks to his insane memorization skills, I can say a reading rule once and unless there's a word contrary to the rule, he can read it), but Elly was way more advanced with her writing and drawing.  I had to spend a lot of time with Obie helping him write his letters and even with his drawings.  In the beginning, I often had to erase a lot of his letters and have him try it again and again before it was neat enough that it was legible.  As time went on, they definitely both showed a lot of improvement though!

As the letter writing became too simple for Elly, I had her advance to copying words and then sentences out of her readings.  Here's a few of those as a sample. She is the queen of candy pictures and you have to love her "van" picture with our crew.  It definitely looks more like a bus, but such is life around here.😂

The younger crew (Chloe, Josie, and Katie) spent the first part of their school year working on letters and sounds altogether.  We did a lot of book reading (thanks to the older girls with that too!) and a little number practice too.  Josie moved on to writing and beginning reading by the end of the year and Chloe and Katie mastered all of their letter names which was great!  They know most of their sounds now too, although I'm sure will need a bit of refreshing with the start of the new school year.  Numbers were a bit sketchy, so we'll work more on those too.  It was a great year, although it was definitely nice to take a break too!  Hopefully we'll be all geared up and ready to get back to it soon!