New Curriculum for a New School Year!

I started this homeschooling journey in 2009, when I brought my oldest daughter Katy home for her 5th Grade year.  At the time I had four daughters in my home.  Two of them were also in elementary school and the youngest went to a pre-school/daycare.  I am a single parent, therefore I must work so I have an Accounting Firm which I am blessed to work in my home.  I specialize in Small Business and Taxes so I am fairly busy all year, but extremely busy during Tax Season.

I had intended to start homeschooling Katy in the 6th Grade, since I really didn't want her to go to Middle School.  But I changed my mind as we got closer to the end of her 4th grade year.  I had researched many different curriculum and i knew I needed one that had done all of the work for me!  I didn't really want to write my own lesson plans, plus I wasn't really sure how to start, so I knew I needed one that included everything!

I decided on Sonlight.  It is really great, so many awesome books and you can use each Core for multiple students.  We used Sonlight for the first 5 years.  I used Horizons Math for a couple of years and then we switched over to Teaching Textbooks, which I also loved!  I continued with Sonlight as I added each child to our homeschool classroom.  It was kind of a chore to keep track of all of the books, but I really had decided to keep doing Sonlight all the way through high school!  I mean, why would I change?  (I hate to change something!  I am totally the type of person who will stick with the same insurance company, cell phone provider, cable provider...toothpaste!  I just don't see why you need to change something if it is working!)

Then we hit 2015, and things started to change!  Our family was looking into another adoption, possibly adopting a large sibling group and literally doubling our family size!  So I happened to order Terri Maxwell's Managers of Their Schools.  In this wonderful book, Terri outlines all of her struggles, hard work, and tips for homeschooling a large family.  (They have 10 children.)

And Terri said they used Alpha Omega's LifePacs!  Textbooks?  I would never use Textbooks!  Those are boring, lifeless, too structured, did I mention boring?!  But you know what?  They are not boring, they are not lifeless...yes, they are very structured, but isn't structure a good thing too?  Especially when you are homeschooling 12 children at the same time?

So we ordered the Alpha Omega LifePacs!!  10th Grade, 7th Grade, 6th Grade and 2nd Grade!!  And we LOVE them!!!

Katy loves them because she likes to work independently!

Mackenzie loves them because of the Self-Tests and questions about everything she reads, she said she likes to be accountable!

Madyson loves them because she can do her lessons FAST!

Ava Marie loves them because she gets to work with Mommy still!

And Mommy loves them because they are making my girls smile and we are moving along awesomely!  Change can be good!

First Day of Homeschool 2015-16

Can you believe the new school year is already here?

This year we have four in school and two in Pre-School.

Katy is now is 10th Grade.

Mackenzie is in the 7th Grade.

Madyson is in the 6th Grade.

Ava Marie is in the 2nd Grade.

Beckham & Hudson are going to Pre-School.

We started the morning with breakfast muffins and fresh new School Supplies at the table!  Who doesn't love new pencils and brand new notebooks!

I love how ready everyone was to get started on this day!  We were able to really get into the new schedule.

Getting up at 7 am, breakfast, morning chores and ready to start lessons at 9am!  Love it!

This is a good view of our homeschool area.  The girls at the big table and the little boys at their table.  The boys will be home all day on Monday and Friday, and will attend a morning pre-school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Happy fist Day of school to you too!