Adventures in Homeschooling

Spring a year ago, we decided to take Josiah out of public school to homeschool him. I went through a huge learning curve on all things homeschool. I was very overwhelmed at first with how much there is out there. Thankfully, I have several friends who homeschool who could point me in the right direction.

Here is Josiah on the first day of homeschooling.We decided to use Tapestry of Grace for our main curriclum. We have loved it. It covers history (including church history), geography, literature, and music/art appreciation. It is meant to be used by families with several children. They can all study the same thing while each student works on his/her own level.

This year we did Year 1: The History of Redemption. This covered creation through the fall of Rome. Here is a picture Josiah drew when we were studying ancient Egypt.


Here is Josiah dressed as a Roman on a field trip to BJU Museum & Gallery.

For science this year, we have studied Animals, the Human Body, and Plants. Here are some pictures of things we have studied this year.

Amphibians

Insects

Mammals (here we took a field trip to a dairy farm)

Reptiles

We studied all the major systems of the body.

Then we studied plants. Here is Josiah on a tree walk trying to find

evergreen and deciduous trees.

For Bible, Josiah copied a few verses each day from the book of James. He has worked through the entire book this year.

For Spelling we used Spelling Workout. This curriculum used crossword puzzles, riddles, and other fun things to teach various phonics rules.

For Math we used Math-U-See. I really liked this curriculum but it wasn't a great fit for Josiah. So next year we are switching to Progress in Mathematics. We'll see how it works out.

For Handwriting we have used Handwriting Without Tears. Josiah has done really well with this. He started learning cursive this year.

On Fridays, we changed things up a bit. For Bible, Josiah wrote and drew in his Gratitude Journal.

For Spelling, Josiah used English From the Roots Up. I love this book. It has Latin and Greek words in it with English words which are derived from them. I picked a word for each week that generally went along with what we were studying in science. He has learned the Latin numbers I - X as well as various words like:

Zoon (Greek) - animal; zoo, zoology

Pes (Latin) - foot; pedestrian, pedestal

Bios (Greek) - life; biology, bionic

Instead of Math we did Logic. We used Building Thinking Skills.

We also added figures we had studied that week to our timeline.

While working on this fun, different stuff on Fridays, we tried to listen to some music that went along with what we were studying. Some of what we have listened to has been Egyptian, Hebrew, Chinese, Native American, and Greek music played on ancient instruments.

Overall, this year has been a great success. I look forward to adding in Caleb next year. He is excited about homeschooling next year. It will be different having two to teach and should be an adventure.