Our 10th Year Homeschooling

May 23, 2025

Our 10th Year Homeschooling

It’s so hard to believe that we’ve been homeschooling for a decade! This year looked very different than our previous years. With my oldest son in public school, I only had four kids at home. We decided to only take one enrichment class at our homeschool co-op, so most of our mornings were spent at home. This allowed us to get in a good routine.

My oldest daughter was supposed to be in 9th grade this year; however, after much prayer, I’ve decided to hold her back because of some learning disabilities. She’ll officially start 9th grade with two of her siblings this coming school year.

My oldest son was in 9th grade in public school this year. For him, this has been a great decision. He’s thriving.

My next two kids were in 8th grade and my youngest was in 3rd grade.

For eight solid years, we used My Father’s World Curriculum. We did kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade and the entire family cycle (3rd-7th grade). The following year, we were involved in a homeschool co-op, full time. I planned to lightly go back to the beginning of the My Father’s World family cycle that year but our schedule was too full. That same year, my oldest son did some of the My Father’s World 9th grade curriculum. It was very good but it would be too advanced for my other children. So, we changed things up quite a bit this year.

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For my oldest three children, at home, we used the following assortment of curriculum. Yes, I’m now officially piecing my curriculum together. It is freeing to find exactly what I feel is best for each subject (and a little frightening). I’m so sad that I didn’t take many pictures this year.

History

We read through the first two volumes of Mystery of History. The reason we did two is because I want the kids to finish all four volumes by the end of next year. Then we’ll do the suggested two years of United States History, Government, and Economics for the remaining years of high school. We first discovered Mystery of History at our homeschool co-op, and it has been a perfect fit for us.

Science

For Science, we used Abeka’s Order & Design. We really enjoyed it. It had lots of experiments to do.

Math

We have used Teaching Textbooks for years now! My favorite aspect of the curriculum is how it encourages independence. It takes a load off of me by automatically grading their lessons everyday. I had two in Pre-Algebra and one in Algebra 1. We have a system that I’ve set up, if they make below an 80, I have to work with them through their missed problems. That seems to work really well.

English

We used Easy Grammar for the first time this year. To be honest, I don’t like it. It feels like the lessons are choppy and disorganized. We will be moving on to something else next year.

In addition to this curriculum we also used Late November’s Paragraph Practice and Writing Essays curriculum. I found out about this curriculum at the homeschool convention I went to last year. I sat in on a break out session led by the author. She inspired me to slow down and work on the basics with the kids on their writing skills. I feel that they are all stronger writers after this year but we will continue to get better through high school.

Spanish

We started using Rosetta Stone last year after finishing 1 1/2 years of private Spanish lessons. We work on a section most mornings together. I bought one subscription and I screen share it to our TV. Each kid, including Mila, sometimes, take turns completing the exercises as we all pay attention. What I love about Rosetta Stone is that if you buy the lifetime subscription, you can learn any language for the rest of your life. We really want to try Russian next. That is the language all three of our adopted kids once spoke.

News

We started subscribing to World Watch about three years ago. It is a short 10 minute news show that keeps us in the know on World News. It is from a Biblical worldview so all news good or bad is seen through a Christ-centered lense.

Typing

We started the year strong keeping up with our typing lessons but we didn’t do it the entire year. I really like Typing.com.

Homeschool Co-op

My middle two homeschoolers took an art classes every Tuesday afternoon. They had a wonderful time.

My oldest homeschooler attempted to take an elective Health class but it proved to be too difficult Ifor her. We decided to drop the class around Thanksgiving, and she finished reading the book on her own.

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I’m so grateful that I’ve been given the opportunity to homeschool one more child. It has been a challenge trying to figure out how to fit my youngest daughter’s school in but we’re finally getting into a groove. She was in 3rd grade this year. We did a mixture of curriculum.

History

For history, we used Abeka’s “Our American Heritage” curriculum. I’m beginning to really like what Abeka has to offer! It told the stories of pertinent people throughout America’s history in chronological order. She did most of the reading aloud to me, which is a huge task for her. She is slowly getting better at reading. We also did the accompanying Map Skills book and she memorized where all 50 states are.

Science

For Science we kept it simple this year and read through the DK First Animal Encyclopedia.

Math

Mila started using Teaching Textbooks, like her older siblings, this year. It has been a good fit for her.

English

For English we used Language Lessons for Today. This is the same English I did with my four older kids. It is a slow approach to English, which has been perfect for this season of my life.

Homeschool Co-op

Every Tuesday afternoon we went to a homeschool co-op. I ended up teaching the afternoon elementary class. Mila was in my class. For the first semester I taught Spanish, and for the second semester I taught music. I’m not fluent in Spanish but we as a family have had private lessons and we are now continuing on with Rosetta Stone. Teaching this class was way out of my comfort zone but it was so good for me. The best way to test what you’ve learned is to teach it to someone else. We had a wonderful time learning together.

Field Trips & Special Events

Every year we celebrate another year with our adopted children by having a “Ukrainian Day”. We dress up, eat Ukrainian food and listen to traditional Ukrainian music.

We went on a field trip to American Village with some other homeschoolers.

Aunt Dana gave us season passes to the zoo!

Brody was able to fly in a small plane.

During Christmas time, we went to a Christkindlmarkt, saw the Nutcracker, saw the play “A Christmas Story”, and visited a dear longtime friend, Mrs. Lisa.