Looking to homeschool? (3rd-6th)
I encourage you to look back at my previous posts about homeschooling, because it gives you a snapshot of some reasons why I homeschool. If you live overseas, I STRONGLY suggest you to get Kindles for your kids and utilize the library system back in the states if possible. This was a life saver for us. My kids all bought their own Kindles and what a HUGE blessing. Something I love about homeschooling are the super sweet moments I have with my kids, which aren't every day, but special nonetheless.
Here is my list of what I generally do in these grades:
3rd:
Saxon Math 3/4
Rod and Staff 3 (I actually just do the first half of the book for 3rd grade because it is a bit advanced)
Apologia Science books for the elementary years
For History- Story of the World books and other church historical figures
Explode the Code workbooks
Drawing
Piano practice 30 mins per day (min.)
Handwriting cursive workbooks
Reading- read lots of books!
Spelling- I just make the kids rewrite words that I notice they misspell 10 times
4th:
Saxon Math 4/5
Rod and Staff 3 (I do the second half of the book that we didn't finish in 3rd grade)
Apologia Science books for the elementary years
For History- Story of the World books and books on other church historical figures
Explode the Code workbooks (usually my kids are at the last 2 workbooks for these by now)
Drawing
Piano practice 30 mins per day (min.)Handwriting cursive workbooks
Reading-read lots of booksS
Spelling- I just make the kids rewrite words that I notice they misspell 10 times
5th:
Saxon Math 5/6
Rod and Staff 4 (now I make them do the entire book)
Apologia Science books for the elementary years
For History- Story of the World books, Mystery of History (I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THESE BOOKS!) and books on other church historical figures
Writing with Ease (Susan Wise Bauer)
Drawing
Piano practice 30 mins per day (min.)
Reading-read lots of books
Spelling- I just make the kids rewrite words that I notice they misspell 10 times
6th:
Saxon Math 6/7
Rod and Staff 5 (now I make them do the entire book)
Apologia Science books for the elementary years
For History- Story of the World books
Mystery of History (I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THESE BOOKS!) and books on other church historical figures
Writing with Skill (Susan Wise Bauer)
Drawing
Piano practice 30 mins per day (min.)
Reading-read lots of books
Spelling- I just make the kids rewrite words that I notice they misspell 10 times
As I wrote before, we have leaned on homeschool coops for art, gym, science experiments, socialization, etc. I love attending homeschool coops when possible, probably partly because I am very extroverted. I miss these sweet expat families that were in our last coop. They were all truly amazing.There are sweet (sometimes rare) moments like the one pictured below when you notice your kids are helping each other, that makes homeschooling so precious to me.
I definitely had a geeky homeschool mom moment when we did a visa run in Greece last year. We went to this museum and saw the head of Alexander the Great that you see pictured in history books. I could not convince my kids to take a picture next to this sculpture, so I did. They were so embarrassed, ha!
And seeing history like this with my kids in person was absolutely mind-blowing and completely sobering.
Having times like these together as a family whether you homeschool or not, is absolutely incredible...what a privilege. That spontaneous visa run (we had a tricky visa situation, so after much thought, leaving the country for a few days was our best solution). Deciding to go to another country one day before your visa expires is yet another perk of homeschooling! The principal (my husband) and teacher (me) all were able to approve the 2 days off, on the spot. 🤣