We're starting our 11th year homeschooling. People ask me what made me start. For me, it was simple: when it was time to register my oldest for kindergarten, it felt very unnatural to send my 5 year old off to strangers for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 9 months of the year, for 13 years. So I didn't. At the time, we were just going to take it one semester at a time, but now I could never give up the freedom that homeschooling offers. My kids are thriving, have tons of friends, and are academically ahead of grade level. It's one of the best decisions we've ever made.
@@kristaw2686 Glad that you like it because we absolutely hated it. I have a master's degree in education, and it was still too much work. We homeschooled during the pandemic and it was just awful. They missed their school life and friends so much.
Retired teacher. I love this! I wish all kids had this opportunity ❤. I am going to purchase Musical Mathematics for some littlest I know. What a gift that you are so organized and thoughtful about their learning styles. Homeschooling is such a gift to your kids. God bless your year.
I’m an empty nester now but I am so happy to hear about a young mom helping out other moms simply by sharing the specifics of how it actually works. I love the details and the schedule on the fridge is wonderful! I love the color coding. I’ll be watching as the year unfolds. God bless!
I am a former homeschooling momma. Mine have all grown up and flown the nest. I have 2 with college degrees and 2 that chose to be tradesmen. The most wonderful thing about homeschooling is meeting your children's academic needs. My youngest used Math-U-See by Steve Demme. I watched him do advanced math with a 4th grader. My youngest was a visual learner so this program was a gift! I will be praying for you as you enter this new adventure!
I don’t have children but I loved this video. All the work you’ve put in to make homeschooling work for your kids and family is inspiring. You’re a great mom, Alyssa!
Alyssa I stand amazed at how educated you are to give us who doesn’t understand homeschooling. You are an amazing Mom. I love following you and your beautiful family. You are so uplifting. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I’m amazed at your devotion , organization in the kid’s home school. I had no idea the wonderful resources you are providing the kids. Much respect to you…your time and organizing all this is commendable! The classes are so pertinent to their education..how exciting!!
Alyssa, you did a great job. It's great that you recognize the different learning styles and took time to find what's best for them. You did a fantastic job with everything.
This was really helpful. I just pulled my 7 year old out of public school this week and we’re beginning our homeschool journey. She was a little hesitant but I said “homeschool is what the Webster girls do!” And she understood and got so excited!! She now wants to homeschool like them, from what she’s watched on your channel 😊 Maci is her favorite and she will be excited to hear Maci is also starting homeschool this year like her! 🥰
Another homeschool momma here! Love hearing about your plan for the year. I think it's great that you adapted in order to better suite your kiddos. That is definitely one of the benefits of doing it! Doesn't have to be a one size fits all education 😃
You’re an amazing mom! I am a former public school teacher and now in my 5th year of homeschool. Watching your Mom was an inspiration for our families decision to homeschool. I use many of the same curriculums with my children. I added Nicole the Math Lady to our Saxon Math. She teaches the lessons and it was so helpful as we entered the upper grades. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. 💕
You're extraordinarily excellent parents. What a blessing you are for your children. Thanks for sharing❤. Scheduling prayer into their day would be great as well. You may already be doing that. It's important to teach conversing with God throughout the day.
Wise Mom I’m a retired K5 Teacher I used Hammond- Baptist Curriculum & incorporated A Beka(LOVE THEIR VISUALS). I made My OWN curriculum with BOTH! Very affective & fast paced BUT it worked for over 16 years. You do EXACTLY what YOU think Alyssa will work for your kids. My students thrived ( All Gods doing). I have graduates that are Successful Adults in their own lives now. Prayer- Perseverance-Planning makes it All work. Thankful my Grands are all in great Christian Schools now BUT own daughter home- schooled hers for several years. I’m soo proud of YOU for doing THIS & being proud too. It’s definitely a lot on you BUT you WILL be so glad you did. I told my daughter you only get ONE CHANCE in raising your children. Just take that extra time and do all you can will Gods help & He will keep His Promise. Love watching you and your family weekly. You have an Amazing Heritage Alyssa. Love & Prayers for THIS school year. Much Love from NC❤
Thank you for all the time and effort you put into this video. It was very helpful . I gained insight as to what I want to do . I’m new to this . Kinda nervous but now I’m excited to see what I can do for my little one .
I’m a homeschool mama and we piece together our subjects like you’re doing and do lots of family subjects! It’s more work but definitely well worth it because each kid learns different!
Homeschool mom of 4. We started out with a 2 day a week co-op, but transitioned to Classical Conversations. We LOVE it and have now graduated two of our kids and will graduate the third this next school year. If I could go back to the younger years where your kids are, I would read aloud to them classic literature and chapter books every day! You’ve chosen really great curriculum, but the best thing you have done is prayerfully consider your individual kids’ learning styles and needs. Nice work!! Have a great school year.
I am a homeschool mom, and I always love to see what other moms are doing! I love your room, and how scheduled you are! This was a great video! You not only informed about your curriculum, you informed about your process! I don’t think I’ve ever seen another mom do that, and I know that is probably helpful for some first time moms out there that have no clue what a school day could look like! I love how you talked about all children learning differently, and how not only each child may need different things, but each subject may need to be a different curriculum. Some parents don’t know the true freedom of homeschooling, and you probably just blew their mind, in the best way! You are doing great! Keep doing what you’re doing! I hope y’all have a great school year, with less struggles! 🥰🫶🏻
As a first-time homeschooling mom this year, this video was an encouragement to me! We are not using any of the curriculum you mentioned, but love seeing how you organized your day and physical space. I’m sure we will continue to tweak and change as we go as well.
I love watching your family's channel. I have 2 daughters, and my youngest daughter will be going to college next month. I was not in a position to homeschool my daughters, nor did I know much about it, but watching yours and Erin's channel has motivated, inspired, and convinced me to homeschool any children I may have in the future. I love your organizational skills. I pray your children will have a fun, creative, and blessed school year.
Homeschool mom of over 32 years here! You got this! You will learn you love teaching them yourself and the family style subjects with older girls wil become treasures to your heart! The Lord has fully equipped you!
I love that you’re not just teaching your children the different subject matter, you are also teaching them to think, organise and entertain themselves. These are essential skills that so many children these days are missing. I would have loved to have done this with my own children.
Such great curriculum choices! You're doing great. I graduated my first and used most of the curricula you're using. Very quality programs. I'd encourage you to look into Saxon math for your littles. It helps kids "think mathmatically". Saxon has a grammar program you can look into if you don't love these grammar programs. You're a great homeschool mom!
I was homeschooled from 2nd grade through high-school and just finished second year of college studying engineering. Also started out with abeka then switched things up! Apologia science is awesome and so so solid!! Recommend it for all the way through high school. Saxon is great but not for everyone so test it out this year (don't feel like she has to do all the homework problems tho bc sometimes it's way too much.. once she gets a concept she doesn't have to review it endlessly lol). If Saxon doesn't work, math u see is a good option! IEW was never my favorite but if it works for them that's great! Love how you're trying different things out this is awesome!
You are going to have the best year!!! We are beginning our 11th year homeschooling. We did a lot of the same curriculums you’re doing. I will say that Nicole the Math Lady was my son’s absolute favorite when it came time for some extra instruction in Saxon math. She is fun and engaging, which is exactly what he needed at that stage. Have the best year!!!
Solid choices! I homeschooled and then ended up becoming a teacher at the private school my kids attended for a few years. I used Saxon math as a homeschool mom and as a 6th grade teacher and loved it. I love Apologia for Science for the younger grades. My one suggestion for English is Bob Jones. After using a lot of different curriculums, I found it was my favorite. I also used Bob Jones for my son in the 7th grade for Science with the videos. My younger children loved watching the videos with him. They have the neatest experiments, and he learned a lot. As a former homeschooling mom and private school teacher, your schedule is making my heart happy!
This was so interesting. I love seeing the curriculums other homeschool moms choose and their reasons for doing so. You are so organized and doing such a great job managing all of the girls’ school and their specific needs. ❤
Homeschool mom here! This is my second year of homeschooling and this year we are going to try Master Books! I love hearing everything you are doing as food for thought for future years! Thank you! Have a wonderful year!
It's fun to watch you pivot and notice what your kids' needs are and change according to that. I think that re-assessing every year is so important! I've been eclectic homeschooling for a couple of years now and I really enjoy it. It's like a surprise to the kids every year what were going to do and it does feel more fun. We do use some abeka stuff but really pull from a ton of different curriculums as well. It's also a great way to save some money if you're trying to homeschool on a budget. We had a really great homeschool consignment store where we used to live. I would just go in there with a loose list of who needed which subject, and flip through everything before I decided. I found so many good things I never would have been able to purchase new, and the added benefit of getting to see it in person and make sure it was what we needed. Good luck this year! Glad to hear your girls are so excited!
You are amazing and so organized! You are so blessed to have a husband who supports home schooling. I wanted to home school my children but couldn’t get my husband to see the value. Be Blessed! ❤
Homeschool mom here i find it interesting what other moms do!! I have a different curriculum company for each subject that i have pieced together because of struggling learners but doing so well after switching!! God bless as you teach those precious girls!!
Thank you for sharing your subject choices! So glad you weren't in bond with one curriculum at the detriment of your child's learning. There are soooo many options now, its incredible. ❤
Looks like an awesome year! I have been homeschooling for 13 years. Our four children are all spread out in age so having them all doing different things is hard on my brain 😅. This year we are trying Gather ‘Round curriculum. This allows all of my children to be learning about the same core subjects but in different levels. It covers everything except math and foreign language. Praying y’all will have a great school year! ❤️
I love it that you have it all organized for your kids to know what has to be done for that day. I remember my kids loved it too. I'm sad and excited to see my youngest start Bible College this Fall. You have still lots to look forward to with your 5 kids. You will never regret that you home school your kids. Thy learn so much more at home and plus the family relationship is wonderful ❤️ May God give you and your husband lots of wisdom and strength by raising your kids .
We are starting our 5th year homeschooling. I reevaluate each year to see what is working based on my kids' needs. There are some things we have used each year, but I have changed other subjects up. I was a public school teacher for many years. I feel so blessed to teach my own kids and have the freedom to choose our own curriculum. You are doing great! I hope your school year goes well.
I just finished my last year of home schooling. I love how you over the last year have realized what your girls learning needs are and adapting them to help them grow and learn. Love the curriculum you chose. I did not use The Story of the World curriculum, I still have it and my daughters want to read it even after graduation. Always learning! ❤
Wow! Y’all are going to be busy! I only have two homeschoolers and feel overwhelmed sometimes. But thankful the LORD has blessed me with this challenge!
Thanks for sharing! We are new to homeschool and to get in depth things about all your curriculums are so helpful! Please keep posting this content! God bless y’all!
I will be teaching my children beginning next year, and I find these UA-cam videos so very helpful, as I was not homeschooled myself. I’d love to see more homeschool videos from you - you seem so organised and good at helping your kids learn in the best way for them.
Kudos to you, momma! I love how organized everything is. My son has always done ACE, but this year we’re switching it up and doing MasterBooks. Sometimes it’s good to have a change! I went to a Christian Academy in 4th grade & cried everyday because Abeka was to hard for me. It wasn’t my style of learning. I hope you all have a wonderful school year! ❤️
Home school veteran with grown daughters...We started out with Abeka because we were "new" to homeschooling and this was back in the 90s when homeschooling was not as accepted. It mimicked the traditional school setting the closest so it was a good way to start but when we got our footing, we quickly changed to more "hands on" and FUN learning and that was really great for our girls. The key to teaching your children is remembering you cannot teach them all there is to learn so the key is teaching them HOW to learn so they can stay in a state of gaining knowledge. Great job and you seem very organized!!
Being homeschooled, I relate a lot to this. I changed curriculums several times, differentthings working for me at different times. It is true that every kid is different. My siblings and I had each to learn in different ways. Your doing a great job!
As a teacher I think you’ve gone to great lengths to find curriculum. The only thing missing is a reading curriculum for the older 2 girls. There are so many reading standards that need to be taught to help them tackle those nonfiction science and social studies texts
Loved watching this! Saxon is wonderful. I’ve used it for 3 years. I recommend Nicole the Math Lady videos to go along with the lessons. She teaches the lessons in about 10 minutes and my kids found it very helpful. Her pricing is very reasonable for the year.
I love Aplologia science books! IEW is wonderful too. Living in Florida, look into the Step Up scholarship. If you didn't know, they opened up the scholarships to homeschoolers last year. It will cover pretty much everything you've gotten for curriculum along with co-ops, and sports, music lessons, etc. Look into it!!!!! If you apply, save your receipts, so you can get reimbursed.
It’s fun to see what y’all are doing! I was homeschooled as well and plan to homeschool my boys. We did Abeka (without the videos) mostly in the younger years and switched to a lot of the same things you guys are using! Being the 5th kid in my family I did a lot of subjects with my sister above me and it was great!
Homeschool mum from Australia here! So excited to hear your thoughts on Good and the Beautiful. We have enjoyed their preschool - year 2 programs so far. Looking into Apologia Science for next year, and IEW. And we also LOVE story of the world. Praying it’s a fantastic year ahead for you all xx
Well done! You’ve done so much research, I’ve used similar curriculum choices. One thing that I’ve found helpful is to plan in 9 week chunks instead of using a planner. A planner was hard for me to keep up with. I made a 9 week checklist, it was on one page. I printed it on cardstock so it was sturdy. My kids knew what was expected in each category. I like that because sometimes one of my kids wants to work ahead, which is fine, but I wanted to keep them around the same pace. So they were only allowed to work up to the end of that 9 weeks.
I homeschooled one of my daughters for kindergarten because of Covid and it was a disaster. Then she was in public school for three years and now we are jumping into homeschooling again. It’s for different reasons and with a different approach and I’m super excited! I’d love any tips and tricks from any homeschooling families that have them! We are doing the Good and the Beautiful for curriculum for 2nd and 4th.
Good job! It’s great that you are recognizing the different learning styles of your girls and using curriculum accordingly. I homeschooled for 14 years and with my youngest two (twins), I changed curriculums several times.
I have used many of the same curriculums and loved them! I also switched curriculums during my years. At one point, it was not working and so I quit mid year and began something new. Saxon math worked great for my oldest all through his homeschooling. For my youngest it worked great through grade 2 and we switched during grade 3. I love that for homeschooling as mom's we can adjust to our kids needs. Great job!
You are doing a job at teaching your children at their individual levels. My children went to a private Christian school in Washington, DC where there main curriculum was Abeka . The school also used Saxon math for upper elementary as well as the Bob Jones curriculum. I pray a great school year for you all.
Realistically I am never going to choose homeschooling for a variety of reasons, but I absolutely loved this video! IMO there is, and I will, use a lot of the scheduling tips and tricks you implemented in your home in mine. Thank you so much for taking the time to create such a detailed video.
Great video, your excitement is inspiring your children, which is just marvelous😃😃! Maths can be hard to grasp, take your time and do not rush these foundational stages, go for complete mastery rather than speed. When I was doing multiplication and division I would use small plates on the table and we would do 'fruity sums'. With a mixture of fruit like blueberries, raspberries, grapes etc we would 'share out' or 'gather together' the fruit between the plates. It worked really well and reinforced the concept, with my children really enjoying the delicious game whilst they learned.
I love the planner idea! Thank you for sharing that! Much easier than writing their assignments on my whiteboard, plus it’s good for accountability & my task oriented kiddo will thrive with that! & Thank you for sharing the musical multiplication! I think I will add that this year for some reinforcement. God bless your homeschooling year!
Thankyou I actually bought very similarly to you!! Apologia science, Saxon math, IEW! This gave me a confidence boost because I doubt my choices all the time 😅. Also I love that you use technology and show how you set it all up. 🎉
You are amazing and you are absolutely right about children learning from play. I heard a gentleman who came to our nanny group who promoted the play learning.
Does my heart SO good to watch this video!!!! I homeschooled and graduated all 4 of my now-grown children. For my kids, I had to use 3 different math curricula, because as you said, every child is different and has their own unique interests, abilities and learning styles. One size does not fit all!!! My kids *loved* the Apologia sciences! Such a wonderful hands-on learning curriculum. We also did Easy Grammar and Daily Grams- such a good reinforcement of grammar in a practical way! I help homeschooling families here in PA and I tell them this all the time. You are a great mama and your children will thrive because of your time, attention and dedication to customizing their education to what works best for them. God bless!
These are great curriculums! Saxon is great for the structure of math. It lacks problem solving and abstract thinking. You can give them problem solving problems to solve using “whatever tools they need “ to keep them thinking deeply. It helped my kids bridge that gap. Hope that helps. Great job!!!!
I was also homeschooled like you were and used A Beka for high school. Abeka can be pretty intense so it seems that your family is probably already used to doing a lot. For us, the amount of curriculum you showed would be overwhelming. But the choices are great! And maybe for you all it's the perfect fit. I'm going into the 11th year of homeschooling my own children. Each year can certainly look quite different based on the current needs as children grow and circumstances change.
I CANT WAIT TO WATCH THIS 😍 Next month we will start a new school year - our first time not using mostly Abeka Academy! We are ready for a change and I am excited to see what your changes are too! Hopefully it wont trigger more shopping for school curriculum 🤣 Thank you for this video!! You are so organized - we are similar and its nice to get new ideas!
Great setup, organization and planning. Saxon Math is excellent, because it spirals (constantly goes back to past lessons for review). My daughter is a math teacher. She does spiraling and a hands on notebook that becomes a study guide. That is a great tool for kids who don’t like math but also kids who are more artsy.
I was so surprised and pleased as almost everytime you lifted a book to show I said “oh! We did that!” Abeka to start (especially the readers),Story of the world (combined ages), IEW, Easy Grammar etc… We did math U see and Ken ham’s recommended science curriculum. It was the greatest joy to homeschool my four kids. I encourage you by informing you my girls graduated from PCC and one with a masters. She teaches music now at the academy where they film the Abeka videos. the biggest thing I learned from homeschooling is to trust God- they can’t know everything and He knows their future and what they need for it so teach them to love to learn! I now live in Pensacola and go to the church for PCC and minister and mingle with many of the Abeka teachers and staff. It’s a wonderful place!
I'm a homeschool mom of 3. I was homeschooled in the 80's with curriculum from Christian Liberty Academy which uses Abeka and others. I loved it! I piece-meal my children's curriculum to match their learning needs & styles each year. Bible, History, and Science we do as a group. We also do school year round with just core subjects in summer when they have more activities. Love your organization and use of free play time as a class period! I'm looking into some of the video instruction courses for my oldest since she wants to be more independent and is pushing against me teaching her lately. How is your school year going so far now that you're a couple weeks in?
Thanks for sharing your curriculum. It’s so interesting to see what others do. We also started with ABeka and switched to MasterBooks with a few other things mixed in.
This explanation is so thorough and much appreciated! The organization and thought you've put into this does make this look so interesting. I love the journey too and that you included preschoolers too, I started to let my son watch preschool prep. What Bible stuff do you use for toddlers? I've been doing abekka homeschooling Bible curriculum for 2-3 but it seems too advanced. I have so much to learn from you as someone who went to public school and didn't have intentional adults in my life.
I used Saxon,SOTW and apologia too..she loved it! Her best memories are of the activities with history and the read alouds and readers we did with her other curriculum! If I have any advice is to do Saxon as it comes, the meeting time might seem skippable but it sets the tone for lesson and reinforces it, the same for activities with SOTW, they are what sets it apart from just paperwork and all your kids will enjoy them. I wish I could go back and do it again it was a great time!
As an experienced homeschool mom (and homeschooled myself), please consider dropping some items if needed. Having used many of these curriculums myself, you've really overloaded some of the choices. For example Story of the World has maps inside it, you don't need another world geography curriculum. IEW is fantastic for writing you absolutely do not need a seperate daily paragraph program. IEW is plenty. Also, if you haven't gone through their teacher training program and you are the one teaching it (not through your co-op) you really need to take that program yourself in order to teach it. Of course I'm just a random person on the internet and you know your kids best, just passing on advice from someoen a little further along in the journey. Have a great homeschool year!
Love SOTW! When I homeschooled I learned more history from that curriculum than 12 years in private school in the 60s and 70s. That’s is saying a lot! Great choice!
❤ your so organized it's great . Yes , I homeschool my last two kids. My older kids I had too. I always did different curriculum or programs based on what they needed. I'm currently using, The Good and the Beautiful for Language Arts , Story of the World for history , Teaching textbooks for math , Apologia science, then we got to coop , mix in art , poetry, etc. thanks for sharing
I have to say that as a retired teacher, you've done an excellent job at finding really good curriculum. A-Beka is so good for the primary years, but it isn't for everyone after the third grade. Easy Grammar is such a good all around grammar curriculum and Saxon math is very good as well. Sounds like they are going to be very well rounded after this year! Good job!
Love Abeka….best for learning reading…phonics based. But being able to change curriculum is the beauty of homeschooling. I hired a tutor for math for my son in 6th grade. Best decision ever! We lucked out and found a retired teacher/Navy guy. Best match ever…taught my son how to play chess. Having a male teacher was so good for him too! Love you guys….you are awesome people! God Bless💕
THIS is the way to educate a child! Great job mama! I am 56 yo and I remember doing the different cultures around the world when I was in the 4th grade in public school. My teacher would do a culture day every Friday on the country we were studying that week. She would either cook a dish from that culture or buy something that they had that's not customarily found in the US. We would either do a craft relating to the country or do an activity from the culture. For instance the Philippines, she made a dish that was from that region and boxing was a very big sport there so a few of the boys put on mock boxing matches and shadow dancing where myself and other girls would tape on long strips of paper to our fingers to represent the long nails that they wore and stood behind a large white sheet with a light behind us and we would dance (or try to) the traditional dance. It was very fun, my favorite part of the week. I still remember the interesting tid bits of information from those cultures to this day because of my 4th grade teacher!
Thank you for sharing your positive experience in fourth grade! As a retired elementary school teacher, it disheartens me to hear so much criticisim and vitriol directed at public schools and educators. Teachers are retireing or just leaving the profession in droves, and not nearly enough new ones are coming through teacher training to replace them.
As a teacher in the UK I found this super interesting and really admire your ability to reflect and change depending on what each child needs! This is what I wish I could do for each of my children at work!
That was absolutely fascinating. I’m 51 with no kids. I loved this video. I want to start school now. I would love to know more about how you decided to split up the programs i.e SaxonMath etc etc. Also, the schedules for Allie and Lexi, how did you come up with that? How did you decide what days for what subjects and how much time to allot? I love those.
I am 71 and have never been taught nor have ever taught home school. It looks amazing but difficult with so many kids. Also, do you have to pay for all of these books, supplies, etc on your own ? Can you please share what this all cost for 1 year of school on average for 1 child or in total for all of them?
Wow I am very impressed. My kids are starting 8/9 grade this year. I am hoping I can get them excited and we can get all the things they need to know. Wish we a luck!
My two are 2 grades apart (4th and 6th) and we have done group lessons for Bible, science and history for the past few years and LOVE IT!! It's a game changer!
We're starting our 11th year homeschooling.
People ask me what made me start. For me, it was simple: when it was time to register my oldest for kindergarten, it felt very unnatural to send my 5 year old off to strangers for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week, 9 months of the year, for 13 years. So I didn't. At the time, we were just going to take it one semester at a time, but now I could never give up the freedom that homeschooling offers. My kids are thriving, have tons of friends, and are academically ahead of grade level. It's one of the best decisions we've ever made.
It is fabulus !!! You know, in France , we don't have choice. Our baby go in school at 3 old years 😢 all the day. 4 days by week...
@@kristaw2686 Glad that you like it because we absolutely hated it. I have a master's degree in education, and it was still too much work. We homeschooled during the pandemic and it was just awful. They missed their school life and friends so much.
Retired teacher. I love this! I wish all kids had this opportunity ❤. I am going to purchase Musical Mathematics for some littlest I know. What a gift that you are so organized and thoughtful about their learning styles. Homeschooling is such a gift to your kids. God bless your year.
Praise the Lord for Moms like you Alyssa! Also for Dads like John! You guys are a great example for many!
I’m an empty nester now but I am so happy to hear about a young mom helping out other moms simply by sharing the specifics of how it actually works. I love the details and the schedule on the fridge is wonderful! I love the color coding. I’ll be watching as the year unfolds. God bless!
I am a former homeschooling momma. Mine have all grown up and flown the nest. I have 2 with college degrees and 2 that chose to be tradesmen. The most wonderful thing about homeschooling is meeting your children's academic needs. My youngest used Math-U-See by Steve Demme. I watched him do advanced math with a 4th grader. My youngest was a visual learner so this program was a gift! I will be praying for you as you enter this new adventure!
I don’t have children but I loved this video. All the work you’ve put in to make homeschooling work for your kids and family is inspiring. You’re a great mom, Alyssa!
Alyssa I stand amazed at how educated you are to give us who doesn’t understand homeschooling. You are an amazing Mom. I love following you and your beautiful family. You are so uplifting. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I’m amazed at your devotion , organization in the kid’s home school. I had no idea the wonderful resources you are providing the kids. Much respect to you…your time and organizing all this is commendable! The classes are so pertinent to their education..how exciting!!
Alyssa, you did a great job. It's great that you recognize the different learning styles and took time to find what's best for them. You did a fantastic job with everything.
This was really helpful. I just pulled my 7 year old out of public school this week and we’re beginning our homeschool journey. She was a little hesitant but I said “homeschool is what the Webster girls do!” And she understood and got so excited!! She now wants to homeschool like them, from what she’s watched on your channel 😊 Maci is her favorite and she will be excited to hear Maci is also starting homeschool this year like her! 🥰
Another homeschool momma here! Love hearing about your plan for the year. I think it's great that you adapted in order to better suite your kiddos. That is definitely one of the benefits of doing it! Doesn't have to be a one size fits all education 😃
You’re an amazing mom! I am a former public school teacher and now in my 5th year of homeschool. Watching your Mom was an inspiration for our families decision to homeschool. I use many of the same curriculums with my children. I added Nicole the Math Lady to our Saxon Math. She teaches the lessons and it was so helpful as we entered the upper grades. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. 💕
You're extraordinarily excellent parents. What a blessing you are for your children. Thanks for sharing❤. Scheduling prayer into their day would be great as well. You may already be doing that. It's important to teach conversing with God throughout the day.
Wise Mom I’m a retired K5 Teacher I used Hammond- Baptist Curriculum & incorporated A Beka(LOVE THEIR VISUALS). I made My OWN curriculum with BOTH! Very affective & fast paced BUT it worked for over 16 years. You do EXACTLY what YOU think Alyssa will work for your kids. My students thrived ( All Gods doing). I have graduates that are Successful Adults in their own lives now. Prayer- Perseverance-Planning makes it All work. Thankful my Grands are all in great Christian Schools now BUT own daughter home- schooled hers for several years. I’m soo proud of YOU for doing THIS & being proud too. It’s definitely a lot on you BUT you WILL be so glad you did. I told my daughter you only get ONE CHANCE in raising your children. Just take that extra time and do all you can will Gods help & He will keep His Promise. Love watching you and your family weekly. You have an Amazing Heritage Alyssa. Love & Prayers for THIS school year. Much Love from NC❤
Thank you for all the time and effort you put into this video. It was very helpful . I gained insight as to what I want to do . I’m new to this . Kinda nervous but now I’m excited to see what I can do for my little one .
I’m a homeschool mama and we piece together our subjects like you’re doing and do lots of family subjects! It’s more work but definitely well worth it because each kid learns different!
Homeschool mom of 4. We started out with a 2 day a week co-op, but transitioned to Classical Conversations. We LOVE it and have now graduated two of our kids and will graduate the third this next school year. If I could go back to the younger years where your kids are, I would read aloud to them classic literature and chapter books every day! You’ve chosen really great curriculum, but the best thing you have done is prayerfully consider your individual kids’ learning styles and needs. Nice work!! Have a great school year.
I love CC! Graduated my daughter from CC and now I'm starting from Foundations with my 2 boys.
This is wonderful! Having the flexibility to meet each child’s learning style is so important! Good job Alyssa.
I’m a homeschool Mama of 1. I appreciate this video and all you put into it! Homeschool has blessed our family so much. We love it!
I am a homeschool mom, and I always love to see what other moms are doing! I love your room, and how scheduled you are! This was a great video! You not only informed about your curriculum, you informed about your process! I don’t think I’ve ever seen another mom do that, and I know that is probably helpful for some first time moms out there that have no clue what a school day could look like! I love how you talked about all children learning differently, and how not only each child may need different things, but each subject may need to be a different curriculum. Some parents don’t know the true freedom of homeschooling, and you probably just blew their mind, in the best way! You are doing great! Keep doing what you’re doing! I hope y’all have a great school year, with less struggles! 🥰🫶🏻
As a first-time homeschooling mom this year, this video was an encouragement to me! We are not using any of the curriculum you mentioned, but love seeing how you organized your day and physical space. I’m sure we will continue to tweak and change as we go as well.
I love watching your family's channel. I have 2 daughters, and my youngest daughter will be going to college next month. I was not in a position to homeschool my daughters, nor did I know much about it, but watching yours and Erin's channel has motivated, inspired, and convinced me to homeschool any children I may have in the future. I love your organizational skills. I pray your children will have a fun, creative, and blessed school year.
Homeschool mom of over 32 years here! You got this! You will learn you love teaching them yourself and the family style subjects with older girls wil become treasures to your heart! The Lord has fully equipped you!
I love that you’re not just teaching your children the different subject matter, you are also teaching them to think, organise and entertain themselves. These are essential skills that so many children these days are missing. I would have loved to have done this with my own children.
Such great curriculum choices! You're doing great. I graduated my first and used most of the curricula you're using. Very quality programs. I'd encourage you to look into Saxon math for your littles. It helps kids "think mathmatically". Saxon has a grammar program you can look into if you don't love these grammar programs. You're a great homeschool mom!
I was homeschooled from 2nd grade through high-school and just finished second year of college studying engineering. Also started out with abeka then switched things up! Apologia science is awesome and so so solid!! Recommend it for all the way through high school. Saxon is great but not for everyone so test it out this year (don't feel like she has to do all the homework problems tho bc sometimes it's way too much.. once she gets a concept she doesn't have to review it endlessly lol). If Saxon doesn't work, math u see is a good option! IEW was never my favorite but if it works for them that's great! Love how you're trying different things out this is awesome!
You are going to have the best year!!! We are beginning our 11th year homeschooling. We did a lot of the same curriculums you’re doing. I will say that Nicole the Math Lady was my son’s absolute favorite when it came time for some extra instruction in Saxon math. She is fun and engaging, which is exactly what he needed at that stage. Have the best year!!!
Awesome. Home school is the best option nowadays. I wish more kids had this available. Best you, Alyssa, John, and your beautiful family. ❤️❤️
Thank you so much for showing how doable homeschooling can be. You and John are inspiring! May God continue to bless and keep your beautiful family 🙏
Solid choices! I homeschooled and then ended up becoming a teacher at the private school my kids attended for a few years. I used Saxon math as a homeschool mom and as a 6th grade teacher and loved it. I love Apologia for Science for the younger grades. My one suggestion for English is Bob Jones. After using a lot of different curriculums, I found it was my favorite. I also used Bob Jones for my son in the 7th grade for Science with the videos. My younger children loved watching the videos with him. They have the neatest experiments, and he learned a lot. As a former homeschooling mom and private school teacher, your schedule is making my heart happy!
This was so interesting. I love seeing the curriculums other homeschool moms choose and their reasons for doing so. You are so organized and doing such a great job managing all of the girls’ school and their specific needs. ❤
Homeschool mom here! This is my second year of homeschooling and this year we are going to try Master Books! I love hearing everything you are doing as food for thought for future years! Thank you! Have a wonderful year!
It's fun to watch you pivot and notice what your kids' needs are and change according to that. I think that re-assessing every year is so important! I've been eclectic homeschooling for a couple of years now and I really enjoy it. It's like a surprise to the kids every year what were going to do and it does feel more fun. We do use some abeka stuff but really pull from a ton of different curriculums as well. It's also a great way to save some money if you're trying to homeschool on a budget. We had a really great homeschool consignment store where we used to live. I would just go in there with a loose list of who needed which subject, and flip through everything before I decided. I found so many good things I never would have been able to purchase new, and the added benefit of getting to see it in person and make sure it was what we needed. Good luck this year! Glad to hear your girls are so excited!
You are amazing and so organized! You are so blessed to have a husband who supports home schooling. I wanted to home school my children but couldn’t get my husband to see the value. Be Blessed! ❤
Well done for recognising your children's different needs.
You put so much work into homeschooling, it's really commendable!
Homeschool mom here i find it interesting what other moms do!! I have a different curriculum company for each subject that i have pieced together because of struggling learners but doing so well after switching!! God bless as you teach those precious girls!!
Thank you for sharing your subject choices! So glad you weren't in bond with one curriculum at the detriment of your child's learning. There are soooo many options now, its incredible. ❤
Looks like an awesome year!
I have been homeschooling for 13 years. Our four children are all spread out in age so having them all doing different things is hard on my brain 😅. This year we are trying Gather ‘Round curriculum. This allows all of my children to be learning about the same core subjects but in different levels. It covers everything except math and foreign language. Praying y’all will have a great school year! ❤️
I love it that you have it all organized for your kids to know what has to be done for that day. I remember my kids loved it too. I'm sad and excited to see my youngest start Bible College this Fall.
You have still lots to look forward to with your 5 kids. You will never regret that you home school your kids. Thy learn so much more at home and plus the family relationship is wonderful ❤️
May God give you and your husband lots of wisdom and strength by raising your kids .
We are starting our 5th year homeschooling. I reevaluate each year to see what is working based on my kids' needs. There are some things we have used each year, but I have changed other subjects up. I was a public school teacher for many years. I feel so blessed to teach my own kids and have the freedom to choose our own curriculum. You are doing great! I hope your school year goes well.
You are so organized and a great teacher! I wish all kids had this opportunity to be homeschooled.
I just finished my last year of home schooling. I love how you over the last year have realized what your girls learning needs are and adapting them to help them grow and learn. Love the curriculum you chose. I did not use The Story of the World curriculum, I still have it and my daughters want to read it even after graduation. Always learning! ❤
Wow! Y’all are going to be busy! I only have two homeschoolers and feel overwhelmed sometimes. But thankful the LORD has blessed me with this challenge!
So excited for you guys! We started changing up our curriculum last year, and have changed it up even more this year.
You are super mom!!! I am so impressed with your organizational skills. Have a blessed school year.
My son did public school, I'm a new mom again and I think I want my new baby to do home school so this is a great kick start and information I needed.
Thanks for sharing! We are new to homeschool and to get in depth things about all your curriculums are so helpful! Please keep posting this content! God bless y’all!
I will be teaching my children beginning next year, and I find these UA-cam videos so very helpful, as I was not homeschooled myself. I’d love to see more homeschool videos from you - you seem so organised and good at helping your kids learn in the best way for them.
Kudos to you, momma! I love how organized everything is. My son has always done ACE, but this year we’re switching it up and doing MasterBooks. Sometimes it’s good to have a change! I went to a Christian Academy in 4th grade & cried everyday because Abeka was to hard for me. It wasn’t my style of learning. I hope you all have a wonderful school year! ❤️
Alyssa you are the most organized mom I've ever seen..Love it!!
Home school veteran with grown daughters...We started out with Abeka because we were "new" to homeschooling and this was back in the 90s when homeschooling was not as accepted. It mimicked the traditional school setting the closest so it was a good way to start but when we got our footing, we quickly changed to more "hands on" and FUN learning and that was really great for our girls. The key to teaching your children is remembering you cannot teach them all there is to learn so the key is teaching them HOW to learn so they can stay in a state of gaining knowledge. Great job and you seem very organized!!
Being homeschooled, I relate a lot to this. I changed curriculums several times, differentthings working for me at different times. It is true that every kid is different. My siblings and I had each to learn in different ways. Your doing a great job!
I love when you share homeschooling! Enjoyed this thoroughly! 📙
I love these homeschool videos! Can't wait for you to update us throughout the school year!
As a teacher I think you’ve gone to great lengths to find curriculum. The only thing missing is a reading curriculum for the older 2 girls. There are so many reading standards that need to be taught to help them tackle those nonfiction science and social studies texts
@@The_One_and_Only996 Thank you for saying this. ThIs is the point I was trying to make.
Can you please recommend some good reading curriculum?
@@zandilemeier3204all about reading!!! It’s amazing!
Do they have to take all those tests since they don't attend public school?
@@laurazalewski5153 well if they don’t they should be able to pass them anyway
Loved watching this! Saxon is wonderful. I’ve used it for 3 years. I recommend Nicole the Math Lady videos to go along with the lessons. She teaches the lessons in about 10 minutes and my kids found it very helpful. Her pricing is very reasonable for the year.
I love Aplologia science books! IEW is wonderful too. Living in Florida, look into the Step Up scholarship. If you didn't know, they opened up the scholarships to homeschoolers last year. It will cover pretty much everything you've gotten for curriculum along with co-ops, and sports, music lessons, etc. Look into it!!!!! If you apply, save your receipts, so you can get reimbursed.
It’s fun to see what y’all are doing! I was homeschooled as well and plan to homeschool my boys. We did Abeka (without the videos) mostly in the younger years and switched to a lot of the same things you guys are using! Being the 5th kid in my family I did a lot of subjects with my sister above me and it was great!
Thank you for recommending fun curriculums for homeschoolers, especially those with learning differences !
Homeschool mum from Australia here! So excited to hear your thoughts on Good and the Beautiful. We have enjoyed their preschool - year 2 programs so far. Looking into Apologia Science for next year, and IEW. And we also LOVE story of the world. Praying it’s a fantastic year ahead for you all xx
You executed the demonstration very well and presented information very cohesively!! Thank you for the inspiration!
Well done! You’ve done so much research, I’ve used similar curriculum choices. One thing that I’ve found helpful is to plan in 9 week chunks instead of using a planner. A planner was hard for me to keep up with. I made a 9 week checklist, it was on one page. I printed it on cardstock so it was sturdy. My kids knew what was expected in each category. I like that because sometimes one of my kids wants to work ahead, which is fine, but I wanted to keep them around the same pace. So they were only allowed to work up to the end of that 9 weeks.
Neat video! You can’t lose with all of the prep, research and care you’ve put into this! Very thorough and impressive!
I homeschooled one of my daughters for kindergarten because of Covid and it was a disaster. Then she was in public school for three years and now we are jumping into homeschooling again. It’s for different reasons and with a different approach and I’m super excited!
I’d love any tips and tricks from any homeschooling families that have them! We are doing the Good and the Beautiful for curriculum for 2nd and 4th.
Good job! It’s great that you are recognizing the different learning styles of your girls and using curriculum accordingly. I homeschooled for 14 years and with my youngest two (twins), I changed curriculums several times.
I have used many of the same curriculums and loved them! I also switched curriculums during my years. At one point, it was not working and so I quit mid year and began something new. Saxon math worked great for my oldest all through his homeschooling. For my youngest it worked great through grade 2 and we switched during grade 3. I love that for homeschooling as mom's we can adjust to our kids needs. Great job!
You are doing a job at teaching your children at their individual levels. My children went to a private Christian school in Washington, DC where there main curriculum was Abeka . The school also used Saxon math for upper elementary as well as the Bob Jones curriculum. I pray a great school year for you all.
Realistically I am never going to choose homeschooling for a variety of reasons, but I absolutely loved this video! IMO there is, and I will, use a lot of the scheduling tips and tricks you implemented in your home in mine. Thank you so much for taking the time to create such a detailed video.
Great video, your excitement is inspiring your children, which is just marvelous😃😃! Maths can be hard to grasp, take your time and do not rush these foundational stages, go for complete mastery rather than speed. When I was doing multiplication and division I would use small plates on the table and we would do 'fruity sums'. With a mixture of fruit like blueberries, raspberries, grapes etc we would 'share out' or 'gather together' the fruit between the plates. It worked really well and reinforced the concept, with my children really enjoying the delicious game whilst they learned.
I love the planner idea! Thank you for sharing that! Much easier than writing their assignments on my whiteboard, plus it’s good for accountability & my task oriented kiddo will thrive with that! & Thank you for sharing the musical multiplication! I think I will add that this year for some reinforcement. God bless your homeschooling year!
Thankyou I actually bought very similarly to you!! Apologia science, Saxon math, IEW! This gave me a confidence boost because I doubt my choices all the time 😅. Also I love that you use technology and show how you set it all up. 🎉
You are amazing and you are absolutely right about children learning from play. I heard a gentleman who came to our nanny group who promoted the play learning.
Does my heart SO good to watch this video!!!! I homeschooled and graduated all 4 of my now-grown children. For my kids, I had to use 3 different math curricula, because as you said, every child is different and has their own unique interests, abilities and learning styles. One size does not fit all!!!
My kids *loved* the Apologia sciences! Such a wonderful hands-on learning curriculum.
We also did Easy Grammar and Daily Grams- such a good reinforcement of grammar in a practical way!
I help homeschooling families here in PA and I tell them this all the time. You are a great mama and your children will thrive because of your time, attention and dedication to customizing their education to what works best for them. God bless!
These are great curriculums! Saxon is great for the structure of math. It lacks problem solving and abstract thinking. You can give them problem solving problems to solve using “whatever tools they need “ to keep them thinking deeply. It helped my kids bridge that gap. Hope that helps. Great job!!!!
I love your organization and passion to get it right for your kids. God bless!🙏🏽✝️🕊
Wow, way past this season in my life. Truly amazing!!! Have a great school year
I was also homeschooled like you were and used A Beka for high school. Abeka can be pretty intense so it seems that your family is probably already used to doing a lot. For us, the amount of curriculum you showed would be overwhelming. But the choices are great! And maybe for you all it's the perfect fit. I'm going into the 11th year of homeschooling my own children. Each year can certainly look quite different based on the current needs as children grow and circumstances change.
I CANT WAIT TO WATCH THIS 😍 Next month we will start a new school year - our first time not using mostly Abeka Academy! We are ready for a change and I am excited to see what your changes are too! Hopefully it wont trigger more shopping for school curriculum 🤣 Thank you for this video!! You are so organized - we are similar and its nice to get new ideas!
Great setup, organization and planning. Saxon Math is excellent, because it spirals (constantly goes back to past lessons for review). My daughter is a math teacher. She does spiraling and a hands on notebook that becomes a study guide. That is a great tool for kids who don’t like math but also kids who are more artsy.
I was so surprised and pleased as almost everytime you lifted a book to show I said “oh! We did that!” Abeka to start (especially the readers),Story of the world (combined ages), IEW, Easy Grammar etc…
We did math U see and Ken ham’s recommended science curriculum.
It was the greatest joy to homeschool my four kids. I encourage you by informing you my girls graduated from PCC and one with a masters.
She teaches music now at the academy where they film the Abeka videos.
the biggest thing I learned from homeschooling is to trust God- they can’t know everything and He knows their future and what they need for it so teach them to love to learn!
I now live in Pensacola and go to the church for PCC and minister and mingle with many of the Abeka teachers and staff. It’s a wonderful place!
I'm a homeschool mom of 3. I was homeschooled in the 80's with curriculum from Christian Liberty Academy which uses Abeka and others. I loved it! I piece-meal my children's curriculum to match their learning needs & styles each year. Bible, History, and Science we do as a group. We also do school year round with just core subjects in summer when they have more activities. Love your organization and use of free play time as a class period! I'm looking into some of the video instruction courses for my oldest since she wants to be more independent and is pushing against me teaching her lately. How is your school year going so far now that you're a couple weeks in?
Thanks for sharing your curriculum. It’s so interesting to see what others do. We also started with ABeka and switched to MasterBooks with a few other things mixed in.
This explanation is so thorough and much appreciated! The organization and thought you've put into this does make this look so interesting. I love the journey too and that you included preschoolers too, I started to let my son watch preschool prep. What Bible stuff do you use for toddlers? I've been doing abekka homeschooling Bible curriculum for 2-3 but it seems too advanced. I have so much to learn from you as someone who went to public school and didn't have intentional adults in my life.
I used Saxon,SOTW and apologia too..she loved it! Her best memories are of the activities with history and the read alouds and readers we did with her other curriculum! If I have any advice is to do Saxon as it comes, the meeting time might seem skippable but it sets the tone for lesson and reinforces it, the same for activities with SOTW, they are what sets it apart from just paperwork and all your kids will enjoy them. I wish I could go back and do it again it was a great time!
I love this so much! Would love to see a day in the life of homeschooling as well. I’ve considered homeschooling but it seems intimidating.
As an experienced homeschool mom (and homeschooled myself), please consider dropping some items if needed. Having used many of these curriculums myself, you've really overloaded some of the choices. For example Story of the World has maps inside it, you don't need another world geography curriculum. IEW is fantastic for writing you absolutely do not need a seperate daily paragraph program. IEW is plenty. Also, if you haven't gone through their teacher training program and you are the one teaching it (not through your co-op) you really need to take that program yourself in order to teach it. Of course I'm just a random person on the internet and you know your kids best, just passing on advice from someoen a little further along in the journey. Have a great homeschool year!
Love SOTW! When I homeschooled I learned more history from that curriculum than 12 years in private school in the 60s and 70s. That’s is saying a lot! Great choice!
❤ your so organized it's great . Yes , I homeschool my last two kids. My older kids I had too. I always did different curriculum or programs based on what they needed. I'm currently using, The Good and the Beautiful for Language Arts , Story of the World for history , Teaching textbooks for math , Apologia science, then we got to coop , mix in art , poetry, etc. thanks for sharing
I have to say that as a retired teacher, you've done an excellent job at finding really good curriculum. A-Beka is so good for the primary years, but it isn't for everyone after the third grade. Easy Grammar is such a good all around grammar curriculum and Saxon math is very good as well. Sounds like they are going to be very well rounded after this year! Good job!
Love Abeka….best for learning reading…phonics based. But being able to change curriculum is the beauty of homeschooling. I hired a tutor for math for my son in 6th grade. Best decision ever! We lucked out and found a retired teacher/Navy guy. Best match ever…taught my son how to play chess. Having a male teacher was so good for him too! Love you guys….you are awesome people! God Bless💕
You will love ❤ Saxon Math!!! It spirals to ensure the students learn the concepts. It's phenomenal!!!
THIS is the way to educate a child! Great job mama! I am 56 yo and I remember doing the different cultures around the world when I was in the 4th grade in public school. My teacher would do a culture day every Friday on the country we were studying that week. She would either cook a dish from that culture or buy something that they had that's not customarily found in the US. We would either do a craft relating to the country or do an activity from the culture. For instance the Philippines, she made a dish that was from that region and boxing was a very big sport there so a few of the boys put on mock boxing matches and shadow dancing where myself and other girls would tape on long strips of paper to our fingers to represent the long nails that they wore and stood behind a large white sheet with a light behind us and we would dance (or try to) the traditional dance. It was very fun, my favorite part of the week. I still remember the interesting tid bits of information from those cultures to this day because of my 4th grade teacher!
Thank you for sharing your positive experience in fourth grade! As a retired elementary school teacher, it disheartens me to hear so much criticisim and vitriol directed at public schools and educators. Teachers are retireing or just leaving the profession in droves, and not nearly enough new ones are coming through teacher training to replace them.
As a teacher in the UK I found this super interesting and really admire your ability to reflect and change depending on what each child needs! This is what I wish I could do for each of my children at work!
That was absolutely fascinating. I’m 51 with no kids. I loved this video. I want to start school now. I would love to know more about how you decided to split up the programs i.e SaxonMath etc etc. Also, the schedules for Allie and Lexi, how did you come up with that? How did you decide what days for what subjects and how much time to allot? I love those.
I am 71 and have never been taught nor have ever taught home school. It looks amazing but difficult with so many kids. Also, do you have to pay for all of these books, supplies, etc on your own ? Can you please share what this all cost for 1 year of school on average for 1 child or in total for all of them?
Great video!! What kind of snacks do you recommended before breakfast? Would love to see a video on your snacks and meal ideas during school year 😀❤
Wow I am very impressed. My kids are starting 8/9 grade this year. I am hoping I can get them excited and we can get all the things they need to know. Wish we a luck!
Homeschooled years ago.. was great for us.
My two are 2 grades apart (4th and 6th) and we have done group lessons for Bible, science and history for the past few years and LOVE IT!! It's a game changer!