Most of you probably know by now that we are a homeschool family. For any parent with school age kids you know that each new year brings fresh excitement and new challenges. Since we’ve been on this homeschool “journey” as a family we have been blessed to have great support and success with our kids, which we don’t take for granted.
This is our fifth year as a homeschool family and our first year using Abeka Academy as our main curriculum. In the past years I have used My Father’s World (Kindergarten and 1st grade) and for the last two years I have created my own curriculum by putting together separate learning systems (Mammoth Math and the Growing with Grammar language arts series were staples of our curriculum). Since my daughters both are enrolled in an umbrella school and attend classes once per week I was looking for something new this year to offer some variety from our learning plans of the past.
This is a year of firsts for our homeschooling family. We have been homeschooling now for 4 years; aside from stints in traditional preschool programs for both of our girls, they have always been homeschooled. As much as we enjoy it, homeschooling has required us to be particularly flexible with our daughters’ learning styles and finding ways to keep things fresh. This year as we have enrolled both girls in an “umbrella” school called Circle Christian School.
A couple Sundays ago we spent a few hours at a local charity called Feeding Children Everywhere. Our friends, who have worked with the charity before, had planned their daughter’s 5th birthday party there. We didn’t quite know what to expect but it seemed like a unique idea for our children to begin fostering a spirit of volunteerism so we were glad to participate.