Finally Decided On Our Homeschool Family Subjects!

It's one of the most fun times of the year for homeschoolers...curriculum shopping season! (I know that not everyone feels this way, so if you're not really into it, but shop out of necessity, that's ok too!) I'm excited to be sharing what we will be using for our family subjects. For us, the family subjects include science, Bible, history and usually a few other things such as character training/habits, poetry, music, etc. I'm streamlining for next year and keeping things basic, but I still think it will be a full and rich year. You can check out what we're using here:
The Good & The Beautiful Science Units: www.goodandbeautiful.com/pre-...
Sonlight History E (get $10 off your first order of $100 or more): www.sonlight.com/?awraf=7BAED...
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homeschool curriculum, homeschool family subjects, homeschool morning basket, homeschool science curriculum, homeschool history curriculum, homeschool Bible curriculum, TGTB science, Sonlight history E, Masterbooks, critical thinking,

[@angelinacarraway3576]

Can u do a video on how u schedule ur day for each child?

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

Sure! That might be a summer video as the next school year gets closer 😃

[@stephferenzkidsforjesus298]

Look into the devotional sword fighting! It’s amazing scripture memory with a short bible read. My kids 9 year old, 12 and 14 year old love it. Great discussions and Godly character training from the bible!

[@dwoodw6990]

I remember reading Old Yeller in 4th or 5th grade. Old Yeller along with Where the Red Fern Grows made me cry. Sad but good books.

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

I’ve never read either of them 🙈

[@cynthiacarter9055]

I read Where the Red Fern Grows as an adult. I'm not even really a dog person, and it made me ugly cry. It is still good, tho... some times life just IS hard, so it is good for kids to see that those hard things can be used to make us better people. ❤

[@GardenMinistry.]

I get equally as excited about these curriculum videos! I honestly start researching/picking by the middle of the year. Love that many of your choices are literature based! We did Ancient history this year, so next year we'll work on Medieval History and I have made book lists from books available at our local library to add to our spine. 😊 Excited about your next curriculum-picks videos!

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

I hear ya! I start in January 🤦🏻‍♀️ (hi, I’m Lauren and I’m a curriculum addict)

[@Rosamund311]

Memoria Press has "Manner of the Week" flashcards (set of 36 cards). Something quick & easy to add to morning time, instead of another full book or curriculum. They do have a character/manner curriculum called "Myself & Others", but the flashcards seem like a easier add-in. 😊

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

Thanks for the suggestion…I will certainly look into it 😊😊

[@katrinakim4145]

I second the MP Manner of the Week! Love them.

[@SevenInAll]

Loved hearing all about your family subjects! I really love the book titles that Sonlight has for their E level. A great year lies ahead!

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

I was hoping we’d enjoy them, but if you say they’re good, then I definitely know they will be! 😃

[@lifewithginab]

I get excited for this time of year! Enjoyed seeing your picks Lauren ❤

[@worldofweeze]

Thanks for sharing! Sounds like a fun year🎉

[@therusticroad]

Love Sonlight so much! ❤ Level E was such a great year for us. So many amazing books that gave even me a much deeper understanding of this time period. Love, love these books so much! Blessings on your year to come!! ❤

[@CalmintheChaosHomeschool]

We enjoyed all the Bible components of that Sonlight level :) I think you will have a great year! 😄

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

Thanks for the recs friend!

[@ekreutzer2639]

We love sonlight in our homeschool!

[@lisaroper421]

We are working on the Early American History too! So thanks for researching the next step for me ;)

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

Glad to do it 😄

[@MM-sk5yr]

We did modern history last year and I added in the American girl historical doll books and movies and that was so much fun for us

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

Ooh I love that!

[@jerilyn-ourhomeschooltable]

We are doing Sonlight E next year too! I can’t wait to read all the books.

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

Ooh nice!

[@emily-lifeonaranch7093]

This is so exciting. I remember all those books,Excellent choice mama. Y’all are gonna have an amazing school year.

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

Did you do this one??

[@emily-lifeonaranch7093]

@@thepracticalhomeschooler we did the book shark version. My son really enjoyed all the books.

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

@@emily-lifeonaranch7093 o cool! Great to know ☺️☺️

[@heidibarker2120]

We loved Sonlight E. We did Early American with Beautiful Feet, then tried Sonlight for E because BFB seemed like it was just too much for my then 4th grader. My kids prefer Sonlight. I feel like they do an excellent job at bringing in books with characters close in age to my children, making it easier for them to connect with the characters and thus, the history. We are using BFB for CA history for my daughter this year. This was the first year I separated my children. I thought it would be so difficult for me, but it really isn’t. So yes, this year we are using both Sonlight AND BFB. We still do devotions, current events, study skills, and civics (currently doing election). We do rotate much of this, so we aren’t doing it all every day. We used to use the Character Matters cards, but I have used Sonlight books and our Not Consumed studies to pull in discussions about character in a more organic way. It looks like you have a great year ahead of you.

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

Thanks for the feedback! That’s helpful! I’m glad to hear that about Sonlight 😊

[@kiras7874]

Looks like some great choices. Thank you for sharing. You might want to look into Concepts of Character for a Character/Habits curriculum, I have looked into it and they have some great books and resources.

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

Will do! Thanks 😊

[@papuakacie]

Our kids are the exact same grades. I’ll be doing HBL D, so I’ll eagerly watch your reviews to see what I’ll be up to the following year. I usually use Sonlight but I make changes.

[@daniellemunson6806]

We are also doing a literature based program for next year, but we're going to use Guest Hollow. Your book selections look great for the year.

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

I’ve heard good things about that one, but haven’t looked into it much. Best of luck next year!

[@worldofweeze]

The Case books for kids are really good!

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

Can’t wait to read them!

[@cheriselueck2194]

I’m excited for all your upcoming videos that you mention! Have you ever tried/gone through “24 Family Ways”? I haven’t personally, but I’ve been interested in it and have heard it recommended by quite a few.

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

I have and I keep going back to it from time to time hoping to love it, but it just doesn’t click with me, if that makes sense. But you never know, maybe one year it will be just what I’m looking for (that has happened MANY times)

[@rewise73]

Check out the character study from beautiful feet books! That might be a better solution for the habit training search

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

That one looks so sweet ☺️ I think our plate might be full with all of the reading we have in store though 🙈🙈

[@rewise73]

@@thepracticalhomeschooler so true, you’ve got a lot! It all looks so great!

[@homeschoollifemom]

I just got out the Case For Christ for kids to do with my kids over the summer. I didn’t know there was more in the series! I agree about the Laying Down the Rails. It’s a bummer since it’s so expensive to purchase. I’m considering For Instructions in Righteousness. I have no clue if it’s what I want or not but I’ve heard good things and seems worth a shot.

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

Thanks for the suggestion…I always look into them so I’ll see what it’s about 😊

[@karliering4412]

I found your page when searching for curriculum for my kindegartener as we have decided to give homeschooling a try. Watched this one this morning and feel very overwhelemed with how i would do this as a working mom as my kids get older. With so many books, how does your day look? Are you reading multiple books a day? Focusing on one until completed? How much timeish are you doing school daily? Have you always done so many books vs a different approach? Any insight is appreciated! As i mentioned, i will have one starting kindergarten but also have a 1 and 3 year old coming after......so its the later years in homeschooling where i have doubt of how to do it all.

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

That’s a lot to give a quality answer in a written reply. But I’ll say, you as a first time homeschool mom to a kindergartner with toddlers, your day will look completely different than mine as I’ve been homeschooling for almost 7 years and my kids are middle school/upper elementary. I remember first starting out homeschooling looking at moms of multiple kids who were older and had been homeschooling a while and felt VERY overwhelmed and discouraged. Not that I don’t want you to watch my channel, I do 😄 But i get how it feels to feel that way. If you’re feeling discouraged/overwhelmed when watching, that is not my goal, and it might be more encouraging to your spirits to watch a mom who is in a season that is more similar to you. You won’t always feel this way ❤️ focus on the very basics for kindergarten (reading and math) and reading fun books to your kids!

[@melisasantiago5420]

Hello, I was wondering do you get the sonlight teacher guide or do you choose their books and make up your own plan?

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

Great question! I’m not that adventurous to do it on my own, so I’ll have the teacher guide!

[@wilmarielima95]

Since you purchased the books second hand, do you just buy the lesson plans from Sonlight so you have the schedule or just do your own thing?

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

No I’ll be using the teachers guide and go according to that

[@homeschoolteenswithjenny]

My son enjoyed Henry Reed, Inc. when he was younger :)

[@karenmorales1558]

Have you heard of generations curriculum? I’ve been hearing a lot about it and curious

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

It seems like it’s popping up everywhere, huh? I honestly haven’t looked too much into it

[@jennythomas3985]

Can you please give me the list of books again you are using for your history?

[@Brigsgirl22]

It is on the Sonlight website. She is doing level E

[@melodyandhermunchkins6548]

We are going to be using Kids of Character. Character Concepts the company has character training all the way through high school level👍🏻

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

Thank you for sharing that…I always look into recommendations given, so I’ll check it out ❤️

[@sarahmogus9464]

I just heard of this too the other day and that’s what we are gonna use too! (Character trails)

[@and4563able]

Do you differentiate history and science, especially when they hit middle school?

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

I have just added a little extra. My oldest just finished 6th, but she did Abeka history on her own independently because she wanted to, and then joined in our family history. For science we did TGTB and she did the lesson extensions for the 7-8th grade. Next year, her literature will be reading the readers for our Sonlight history so that will be extra history that she’s reading that I won’t be doing with my younger two. Overall I try to keep it together as much as possible and just give her a little more since she can handle that.

[@gingerdillard1664]

What apologetics book would you suggest for a 2nd grader? He knows the Bible as well as a 2nd grader can, however, we have not done any apologetics books yet. Thank you!!

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

I haven’t used them so I can’t say from experience, but a lot of people recommend the answers for kids series. If you go to masterbooks website they have a ton of apologetics resources for people of all ages. But it also depends on your child too! Are they new to faith or were they “born in church” so to speak? My 7 yr old will be learning from these books right along with us. It might be that he is ready for things at a bit of a deeper level.

[@gingerdillard1664]

That’s so helpful, thank you!

[@AlwaysBooked]

We tried sonlight when my kids were smaller and it had you read a few pages of each book a day but never anything to completion. Are the older grades that way too?

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

I haven’t used Sonlight HBL before but from what I can tell yes you’ll be finishing the books (maybe not every page of the history spines, but the chapter books yes) The science Sonlight that we’re doing you finish the books.

[@AlwaysBooked]

@@thepracticalhomeschooler so you focus on one book at a time instead of dipping into a ton? It felt so scattered I hated it but the idea of sonlight sounds so good!

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

@@AlwaysBooked I’m just going to go by what the lesson plan says since they have all the chronology laid out and have planned which chapter books line up with what part of history we will be studying

[@emilykmangina]

If you have Apple Music most the CDs are available with the music subscription 😊

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

O I didn’t realize that! That’s good to know ☺️

[@bridgetcoody9946]

Do you do all subjects in one day?Or do you break it up throughout the week?😅

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

We do everything daily (except the critical thinking will likely be just one lesson a week or maybe one lesson broken down a little each day).