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Group subjects are essential at this point. My youngest is starting second grade, so you could say things are getting pretty serious. With all three kids deep in the elementary years, the more subjects I can combine and streamline the better. Plus it’s fun! Watching them interact, each learning the same information but in their own unique ways, having conversations together; it’s the best!
My approach to morning basket and group subjects this year is read all the things! The stack of books I want to rotate through makes my mouth water. So much goodness! I know from experience that the odds of us getting through it all are slim, but dang if I’m not gonna try.
So as I go through this list of resources, keep in mind this is the goal, we will be looping (see more about loop scheduling here) a lot of these, and the odds are good that some might not get finished. And I’m totally ok with that! There’s always next year.
Bible is always first!
This is no surprise if you’ve been here awhile. We’ve completed some awesome Bible studies over the years (find some of our favorites here) and I will always believe reading the actual Bible, not just a devotional or storybook Bible alone, is the way to go. It opens the door to so many wonderful questions and conversations.
At the end of last school year we were working our way through The 10 Minute Bible Journey. If you read my year-end review, you know it’s not really ten minutes if you take the time to read the Bible verses each chapter is based on. Since I do read the verses, it’s taken us a while to work through and it’ll be the book we start with this year.
Next up is always catechism. New City Catechism is our favorite (and the only one we’ve ever used), but there are lots of other options too. This will never leave our morning basket. Once we memorize it, we’ll memorize it again.
Our next group subject is history.
The only thing staying the same for history this year is our Elementary Catechism on the Constitution of the United States. This simple question and answer book takes only a few minutes to practice each day but adds so much value to our history lessons. Understanding our Constitution is essential and I’m thrilled I get to learn more about it along with my kids, because I literally have zero memory of covering it in school.
I’ve always sung the praises of The Story of The World history, and I still do, but we’ll be taking a break from it for a bit. We ended last school year with volume three, Early Modern Times, with the gold rush and California becoming a state. It feels like a perfect place to pause and dive deeper into US history specifically. The Story of The World volume four is Modern Times, which includes the Civil War, World War 2, the Cold War, and a large handful of many other large topics. I’d like to lay a solid base before we jump in.
So for history this year I’ve decided to use Tuttle Twins American History.
My kids already love Tuttle Twins and I trust that they’re accurate. We’re all excited to read these books. I used The Story of The World strictly as a read-aloud and as of now, I plan to do the same with the Tuttle Twins books. The set I purchased does come with a printable curriculum, and I may occasionally use it, but I don’t plan on printing the whole thing. Once we finish American History, we’ll jump right back into Story of The World volume four.
I’ll be adding two new resources to the mix this year to go along with our history.
I saw Ashlee from Grace & Grit use The American Patriot Almanac a couple years back in one of her YouTube videos. I almost immediately added it to cart, but then it sat on my shelves for a bit when I realized my kids were a bit too young to grasp the information. Well, I think the time has come and we’re going to add this quick page-a-day history book to the mix. It gives a short list of historical events that happened on each day of the year and a brief explanation for one major event that happened that day. It’s super interesting and I think the kids are gonna love it.
I’ll also be adding in World Watch News. World Watch is a concise, Christian, and age appropriate (I even made sure to ask them directly if my six year old could watch) daily kids’ news program is. This will be our first step into current events. Our kids hear bits and pieces of world news right now but are largely (blissfully) unaware of major news topics. World Watch will give them enough information from a Biblical perspective to be more informed, in my opinion, than most adults. We’re dipping our toes in so we don’t end up with our heads in the sand.
After history, we’ll take in some beauty subjects.
We still love our Sing A Song Of Seasons book. This poem-a-day book is beautiful and easy to add to the mix. The kids ask me to re-read the days poem multiple times and it’s a lovely way to add poetry to our morning routine.
We’ll also continue our artist studies from Simply Charlotte Mason. We enjoyed learning about Van Gough and Monet last year. I have several more artists lined up, but I think we’ll start with Leonardo da Vinci. Reading the short biographies is so interesting and discussing each work of art has become a favorite part of morning basket. I’m always amazed to hear what each child thinks about the paintings and they frequently pick up on details I miss!
Latin is one of our slow and steady group subjects.
I know some people might judge me for how long it’s taking us to get through Prima Latina, but I don’t care! Switching Latin to a group subject and starting over with all three kids (instead of working through it with only Squeaks like I originally did) has been a game changer. I feel like this is already a bit of an abstract subject. Aside from the concept of Latin roots, the ability to practice Latin in the everyday is rare. However, I still firmly believe in the longterm benefits so going at a slower pace and making it work for us is just how it’s gonna be.
We have fun with it! The kids enjoy answering questions buzzer-style, and are so proud when they remember the prayers. Squeaks even told me that Latin is her favorite group subject now!
Science has been a real hang-up for us over the years, but I definitely know it needs to be one of our group subjects.
We’ve tried science one on one, as a read-aloud Charlotte-Mason-style, and as unit studies. We just can’t seem to find a style or curriculum that fits. So this year it’s a wild card. I know two things for sure though. It needs to be done together (for time purposes), and it needs to be Biblical. I’m not one to insist that every subject needs to be Bible based. In fact I welcome the opportunity to discuss other ideas and point my children to the truth when discussing different world views. Science can be tricky though and frankly very time consuming to constantly be correcting in a secular curriculum.
So I have landed on Journey Homeschool Academy. From their website- “We believe in passing on the legacy of our Christian faith to our children—but not because we’re keeping our kids locked away in a “Christian bubble.” Instead, we invite lively discussion on current events, modern scientific discoveries, and engagement with the vibrant world God has created.” That’s exactly what I’m looking for! So here’s hoping we finally found a science program that will stick.
Since we already do family Bible study and participate in Awana weekly, we won’t use their memory verse cards. My kids also get plenty of writing practice so we won’t use Journey’s included writing and copy work. The videos, activities, and quizzes are what I plan to focus on. To spice things up, I’m not doing the quizzes as a worksheet but as a game! We got these fun buzzers so I’ll read the questions out loud and the kids will buzz in with their answers, gameshow-style! It’s gonna be a blast.
Finally, we end with a read aloud.
That is, if my voice holds up. Lol! Last year’s read-alouds included Little Pilgrim’s Progress, Narnia, and a kid’s version of Hamlet. This year, I’d like to do a few more of Shakespeare’s plays and I also have The Complete Brambley Hedge in the stack. The Vanderbeekers have been waiting on the shelf a bit too long as well. We’lI start there, and I know the kids will love them.
Read aloud time is when I plan to break out our Morning Menus, so they’ll get some practice with calendar work, personal info, and maybe even some copy-work while I read. I don’t make this mandatory any more though since it’s been part of the routine for so long. It’s just skill maintenance now.
And that should do it! Aside from the occasional skip counting practice to keep us sharp and the frequent request to play our timeline song at the end, those are our morning plans. After which, mom’s voice takes a small break, the kids get snack, then we move into our core subjects. I’ll share those next!
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