ᴅᴏᴜɢʟᴀs ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴅᴀʏ.

— Week One

Our first week of homeschool! We used this time to talk about our expectations and goals for the year. Eli wants to learn more about animals and Brilynn wants to learn to read (a pretty ambitious goal for a 3.5 year old!). 

In Math, Eli learned about The Months of the Year, Equal and Not Equal, Greater Than/Less Than, and Counting Down. 

In Language Arts, Eli covered One-Letter and Two-Letter Words, Sight Words, and Phonics.

Brilynn worked on the Letter A this week and counting to 10!

We originally began our school year using the Level K Torchlight Curriculum, kicking off the week with a study on European Russia.

— Week Two

Week one down, ready for week two. We were slowly getting into the swing of things, figuring out what did and didn’t work for us! For the first time in his life, Eli wanted to read more. That is a huge accomplishment for my struggling reader. 

In Math, Eli worked on One More, One Less, Down the Number Line, and Growing Patterns. 

In Language Arts, Eli worked on Two-Letter Words, Three-Letter Works, Independent Reading, Phonics, and Sight Words.

Brilynn learned all about the Letter B and Butterflies

We continued with Torchlight. This week we learned about North Africa. It was at this point that I realized a lot of the material was going over their heads and maybe they weren’t quite ready for this curriculum. It held absolutely zero interest for them beyond learning what animals came from what region. We decided to switch things up a bit. 

— Week Three

This we worked on our morning basket. The topic of the month was Dinosaurs. Eli is obsessed with dinos and has been since he was two. He can tell you things about dinosaurs I have no clue about. 

In Math, Eli review previous lessons, learned about Evens and Odds to 2, and Two More.

in Language Arts, Eli covered Short and Long Vowel Sounds, Three-Letter Words, CK, Phonics, and Sight Words. 

Brilynn worked on Letter C, and we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar as a family. 

We spent a lot of time in nature this week, going on Nature Walks and looking for minibeasts. 

— Week Four

We were excited for this week! We started a new curriculum called Passport to Adventure, created by a homeschooling mom using The Magic Tree House book series as a spine. Over the summer we had read the first two Magic Tree House book, Dinosaurs Before Dark and The Knight at Dawn. They loved them, so I thought this would be a huge hit. 

In Math, Eli learned about The Octagon, Two Less, and Fact Families this week. 

In Language Arts Elijah covered, Short and Long Vowels, SS, FF, LL, CVC Words, Phonics, and Sight Words. 

Brilynn worked on Letter D and learned about shapes

In Passport to Adventures, we read Mummies in the Morning. We had a lot of fun with this unit and learned about Ancient Egypt, Pyramids, and Mummies. Some of the highlights of the week were learning about King Tutankhamen and watching the Who Was show on Netflix, playing Top Trumps Ancient Egypt, and writing our names with hieroglyphs. But, our absolute favorite thing was our Apple Mummification experiment (see Photo 8 above). We learned which agent (salt, sugar, or baking powder) worked best to mummify our apple slices. 

— Week Five

This week we read Pirates Past Noon and learned all about Pirates, Blackbeard, and studied some geography in relation to the pirates. We watched Who Was Blackbeard on Netflix, made Pirate-related snacks, made up our own pirate names, learned to talk like a pirate, and so much more! To end the week, I drew up a treasure map (complete with instruction the kids had to follow) and sent them into the yard to hunt for gold (chocolate coins). They had a blast! 

In Math, Eli worked on Making Ten, One Day, and Pennies and Dimes. 

In Language Arts, Eli worked on Short and Long Vowels, Reading Comprehension, Dictation, Phonics, and Sight Words. 

Brilynn worked on Letter E and learned all about Elephants.

—  Week Six

Finally, week six! I’m starting to feel like we got the hang of this homeschool thing and feel more absolute in my decision to withdraw Eli from public school. We read Night of the Ninjas this week and learned about Ancient Japan, Ninjas, and Samurais. We played Pirates vs. Ninjas (a dice game), dressed up like Ninjas and practiced our stealth skills outside, talked about Ancient Japan, and made candy sushi. The kids really enjoyed our ninjas obstacle course made out of pool noodles and streamers. 

In Math Eli reviewed previous lessons and learned Subtracting From Ten. 

In Language Arts, Eli worked on reviewing the concepts we’d learned thus far and Reading Comprehension. 

Brilynn worked on the Letter F and learned about Flower this week! We also talked about how much pennies and nickels are worth.