Open and…GO!
A cover is not the book
So open it up and take a look
'Cause under the covers one discovers
That the king may be a crook
Chapter titles are like signs
And if you read between the lines
You'll find your first impression was mistook
For a cover is nice…
But a cover is not the book.
Mary Poppins Returns
Open and…Go!
When my husband and I first started homeschooling, he was working full-time and I was working nearly full-time as a freelance creative project manager. Our kiddos were in second and sixth grade and I had no intention of slowing down with work. With zero experience in formal education, I knew out of the gate that we would need an open-and-go solution if homeschooling was going to work for our family.
Taking Anna Willis’ 5-Day “I Can Homeschool” Course was a game-changer for me. It did a fabulous – and efficient – job of guiding me through our ‘why’, educational goals, methods of homeschooling and curriculum recommendations. Serious time-saver! Out of that course, I realized that my kids really enjoyed reading – and being read to – so, we leaned into that and launched our homeschool journey with Sonlight’s All-Subjects packages (aka. BookShark). Now that I have more than four years under my belt, we’re a little more relaxed and eclectic than when we first started but here’s what I can share so far.
Reading, Language Arts, Social Studies, Science & Health
We still use Sonlight for most of the core subjects that the State of Wisconsin requires. Hands down, what I love about the approach is how efficient it is. I couldn’t wrap my brain around it at first, but the scope and sequence is centered on history. In other words, student(s) focus on an overarching historical theme each year and other subjects branch off of that vine.
For example, in second-grade (Core B) the focus is Intro to World History. Your history ‘lesson’ for a given day might be learning about the Romans in The Usborne Book of World History. For reading, your student might read a chapter of Detectives in Togas, following seven boys in Ancient Rome as they solve strange crimes. Writing practice could be copywork or drafting a news article reporting on a crime that took place in the reading.
If you’ve every done a unit study, Sonlight’s approach feels very similar. Science and health feel like they’re are on their own little island but follow a similar literary track.
Even though the instructor’s guide warns against this, I still fell into a newbie trap with Sonlight. As a task-oriented project manager, my natural tendency is to check boxes. The problem is that Sonlight’s instructor’s guides give you more than you actually need. Way more! This is supposed to provide you options. You know…inspiration on how to flex your day or week. But, as a new teacher, I was afraid of missing something! So I took it as a challenge to…check all the boxes. Eeek! Where do you think that led us? Overwhelm and frustration. Thankfully we identified the roadblocks and as time went on I got more comfortable with minimizing the workload.
In summary:
What I like: A fabulous mix of books, faith-based options, minimal workbooks, zero tests, great discussions, open-and-go, efficient learning, integrated geography, easy to transport and student independence.
Watchouts: Reading fatigue, timeline book (bleh!) and instructor-guide overwhelm
Grammar
Mechanics practice is included in the Sonlight Language Arts program but we also used Prodigy English to sprinkle a little fun into the day. What I liked about Sonlight is that the grammar lessons on Day 1 and 2 are short and sweet (10 minutes or less). That said, it’s a very analog curriculum and while I appreciate not having my student(s) tied to a screen all day, sometimes it’s necessary to change environments and re-engage the brain with a different method. Prodigy can be configured to comply with Wisconsin State standards and educators can even assign lessons to focus on particular topics.
Math
When we first launched our homeschool journey, Math-U-See was the default recommendation as part of the All-Subjects Package. We used this curriculum for two years before we decided that the approach just wasn’t cutting it for any of us. Due to a number of factors, this was an area that needed to go on autopilot or be taught by someone else.
We landed on CTC Math and it worked great for us! It has bite-sized lessons, the Aussie teacher is a pleasure to listen to, the grading is auto-magical and the record keeping reports are amazing. This platform gives home educators so many customization options and provided the visibility we desired to spot problem areas.
To level up the fun-factor, we supplemented with Prodigy Math through sixth grade. This is a great tool to have in your back pocket when your kids are in math-meltdown mode. Take a break from the usual grind or use it as an end-of-week reward for good effort. We often used the reports from CTC Math to assign related topics in Prodigy so that the learning stayed relevant.
If your kids are in the early stages of math facts, we found Math Speed Drill helpful. It’s super basic but works! On roadschool days, the phone would get passed around the car for a little friendly competition. At one point we used actual coins (err…poker chips) that the kids could turn in for various rewards.
Handwriting & Typing
As much as I love the benefits of handwriting and cursive, we live in a Google Docs world. Second and third grade we focused on print and cursive handwriting but we started to introduce Typing.com in fourth. As we transitioned from handwritten assignments to Google Docs, typing speed and confidence became more necessary. The platform offers many customization features and recommended WPM targets per grade level. We practiced typing for 10-15 minutes per day and alternated between typing practice and handwriting practice.
Subscription Boxes
Hooray for subscription boxes! We used Kiwi Crates for a couple of years and eventually transitioned to Mark Rober’s CrunchLabs box. It’s a fun monthly surprise to look forward to and…call me lazy…but I like that it’s a self-contained project that my kids can work on independently. Boxes were a wonderful way to try something new every month without the added stress of planning it out!
Community Classes
I always preferred roadschooling over homeschooling. Community classes offered by local libraries were just the ticket! We started library-hopping early on in our journey and often traveled up to an hour-and-a-half away to leverage no-cost or low-cost programming. This approach worked really well for us on so many levels:
It gave us a change of environment
It started the week off strong
I had a captive audience in the car for audiobooks, sing-alongs, discussions etc.
It offered a quiet, focused environment for reading, writing and computer work
It mitigated over-the-top meltdowns because we were in public
It encouraged us to explore the surrounding community
It introduced us to new parks and trails and,
It checked the box for socialization and group collaboration
It wasn’t until we started library-hopping that we discovered the wide variety of educational programming and other amenities that Wisconsin had to offer. Ten out of ten, highly recommend!
I hope this post inspired you in one way or another. Enjoy the journey and know that every year looks a little bit different as you move through different ages, stages and interests. Do what works for you and yours!
