Honest Blossom & Root Review | 1 Yr Later | Homeschool Diaries

[@jenniferchristopherson]

I'm a Catholic homeschool mom that used B&R half way into last year and LOVED the flexibility. I'm using B&R 3rd grade with very high hope this fall. I am combining it with Mater Amabilis curriculum and so excited for this coming year. If you are a religious family, you CAN use it too! It's not just for secular families! You can incorporate it in line with your values. And it ALSO gives options if you aren't an outdoorsy family. If your family prefers “indoor” learning - that's the beauty of it. You can go all the way “nature loving” outdoor with it or curl up with a book together and learn! I'm excited about the options for sure! Plus, the levels are NOT rigid. You can move up or down according to your kids and their needs!

[@RainbowMiller]

YES! That's the beauty of a secular curriculum, anyone can use it! We add our own practices and beliefs as well and it's so flexible! We love how easy it is to flow through the different grades, or even add more challenging material when needed as well! So happy to hear you're also enjoying this curriculum, Best wishes for third grade! Xx

[@talesofavloggingmommy8479]

Thank you for this comment. I’ve been looking into science curriculum and when they are emphasized so much as being secular it almost leaves the impression we aren’t welcome in the community of people who use it for our needs and add to it what we will.

[@nataliepineda9656]

Thank you for this! Its so hard to find other homeschoolers using/reviewing the older grades! It would be awesome to see a DITL or a type of "do a lesson with us" in the future, but definitely more reviews for sure.

[@RainbowMiller]

I totally agree! There doesn't seem to be much past grade 1. I have a school routine from last fall, but this is a great idea and I'll add it to my list! I'm going to do a book round up from the past school year with my daughter as well, to get her perspective and not just a parents. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJXUoqiwiNiaaKc

[@icu6427]

We love Blossom and Root so much. We are mainly unschooling but using this curriculum as a guideline to introduce new ideas to our son. It's wonderful! Greetings from The Netherlands. 🌷

[@RainbowMiller]

It's sooo good for that! We started as unschoolers, so I totally understand that! such a beautiful learning tool!

[@Theandafamily]

Thank you! We are unschooler in the USA + I’m going to use this for sure. Just starting out at level 1. This is awesome🤗.

[@RainbowMiller]

You're going to love level 1! It's a great foundation.

[@crissylynn12]

I couldn't help but notice your bedside table books!! 😍😍😍 LOVE them!!!

[@RainbowMiller]

hahah my ever growing stack of books I need to read! Xx love that you noticed them 🥰

[@camillabrinkman2175]

I love blossom and root! We finished year one last year and ordered year 2 for this school year. I love that she gives an age range in the scope of sequence and makes it possible for me to order one grade for both of my daughters. I have a kindergartener and second grader and we will be using only the grade 2, I can tweak things where needed for my youngest. We personally loved and ate up the fairytales from year one. Especially near the end of the year when it gets into Scottish fairytales. I did say to my sister who has a little boy my daughters age that I think year one is a little more on the “girly side” and could see why it might not be as exciting or entertaining for little boys. One of my favorite aspects of B&R is that the language arts ties perfectly into geography/ social studies. For every fairy tale we read we mapped out where the country was on the globe and learned about that country and the traditions there. I am so excited to continue our homeschool journey with blossom and root, like you said they have put together the most beautiful book lists and have a little something for every family and learner! ♥️

[@RainbowMiller]

Yes! I love that about this curriculum too. Totally, my daughter loved all the old world fairy tales, my son liked some parts but they couldn’t hold his attention. I agree, so easy to fit other things in, I’m so glad you’re finding as much joy in it as we are! I’m really looking forward to schooling this year 😍

[@ashburgess9563]

I am planning to use B&R level 1 science, nature and art, this year for family style learning with my 7 year old and my 4 year old. We have been doing their “ Wonders of the Prehistoric Wold” over the summer and LOVE it! I am so excited!

[@RainbowMiller]

so fun! It's an awesome curriculum for family style learning!

[@murkatata6640]

@@RainbowMiller what do you mean by family style? Many kids?

[@m.appleton9956]

Thank you so much for sharing! We tried B&R last year and found the level didn’t fit for my eldest (we did grade 3 and found the literature not challenging enough for her), but we are trying again this year with grade 4 science and are really enjoying it! We did love her American history course, River of Voices, and will use that some more this year. We are using torchlight this year for literature, again for the diversity and secular elements, and we have found the level better fits my 4th grader this year. I feel as if there is perhaps a lot of variation from year to year/grade to grade. Hopefully the older grades work for us as we age into them!

[@RainbowMiller]

love how flexible this curriculum is. we added and went on rabbit trails when things weren't challenging enough which was so easy to do with B&R. Glad you've found a combo that works well for your family, that's what it's all about! Xx

[@abbilentz1794]

Love this thank you so much my 10year old is doing Level 3 this year it’s our first year homeschooling and we are expecting a newborn in two weeks lol excited to see how it all flows together 💕🤍

[@RainbowMiller]

Glad it was helpful! congratulations on your pending arrival! ❤❤

[@bridgetcurren8336]

Thank you for doing this review! We also used B&R year 4 & will be using year 5 this fall. My 5th grader is very an artistic, crafty, nature lover so it was perfect for her. And I loved that it was flexible and gave me so many options.

[@RainbowMiller]

You are so welcome! awesome to "meet" another family who will be using year 5 along with us! Yes, that's how my 5th grade daughter is as well. it's been such a great curriculum (especially for making it easier to homeschool multiple grades!)

[@lindsyhughes-curtis7243]

We had this same experience with Year 1 and my son. As a result, we switched to Torchlight Level 2 and used it for second and third grade. I'm considering switching back to B&R Level 4 for next year and have an up and coming daughter. I was so excited to see the story revisions to K and 1st. Yay!

[@RainbowMiller]

I really and truly loved grades 4 and 5 so far! I found it super easy to swap out any stories we didn't like in the early grades too which I really appreciated! We will be trying grade 3 for the first time in the fall, but i can say 4 & 5 were great and I'll use them again.

[@java4mama]

Wow, what a fantastic review. I am most definitely going to check this curriculum out. It sounds like just what we are looking for.

[@RainbowMiller]

Glad it was helpful! We are so in love with it, I hope you find what works for your family!

[@jessicazanetti4781]

Just started our second year homeschooling and started Year 4 and absolutely love it! The book choices look amazing and I can’t wait to read them with my daughter. We did their Year 3 language arts last year and the paleontology unit and had so much fun. Just purchased the Early Years 2 for my son to do also.

[@RainbowMiller]

That is awesome! it's such a fun curriculum! I genuinely enjoy teaching it so much. the book selection for year 4 is sooo good!

[@darlinglittlethree5860]

I'm curious how do you handle/schedule all the reading with multiple children? Do find it challenging, or do you have them read on their own? I have an upcoming 7th, 3rd and k and want to try to use this with them but very nervous about using 3 separate levels (but also having fomo by grouping them together haha)

[@RainbowMiller]

For us, we were doing individual reading at bedtime which helped a lot, and then we eventually switched to my eldest reading her books on her own. it helped keep everything manageable for me!

[@Nambazi]

I love the change the option section on their list if they let us know the theme since I like switching them out with books where my child feels seen rather than let’s read 1900s brothers Grimm

[@RainbowMiller]

Yes, I do this too! I'm swapping a few books for my third grader this year.

[@shareesecastillo8725]

This review is soooo helpful!!! Thank you! are you still using it? Did it meet your second/ third grade math needs or did you need to supplement- if not what did you choose to switch to? I ask because what you listed as your check off is exactly what we need this year with a rising 3rd grader and kindergartener, and I have a 16 mo at home.

[@RainbowMiller]

So glad you found it helpful! Yes, we are Still using it. Hoping level 6 releases in time for us to use some of it for the next school year. So it doesn't come with math or social studies, you add your own! This allows it to be used in any country, which is perfect for us since this is american made and we're Canadian. We just added our own math and social quite easily into our year 😊

[@lynxacresb5331]

did you have to add a writing/reading/spelling curriculum to it? Also, did you add in a math curriculum? Also, what did you do to add in social studies? I'm in Canada too.

[@RainbowMiller]

No the language arts curriculum is full, but you need to add your own math and social studies/history. social studies I played around with a LOT but we found it easy to do that on our own without curriculum, so we did canadian history, geography, native american studies and then we kind of branched out from there

[@lynxacresb5331]

@@RainbowMiller thanks!!

[@muka0301]

Are there a lot of activities that are actually outside? We live I'm minnesota so we are certainly limited on outdoor activities for part of the year

[@RainbowMiller]

There is always an outdoor option, but you can just choose an inside one on bad days (or any day). We live in the Canadian prairies where it's usually -40C in the winter, I understand what you mean haha

[@sarahennis1702]

Thank you for this my kids are this age and I’m considering homeschooling

[@RainbowMiller]

Glad it was helpful!

[@angelrodriguez3069]

Just bought the younger years ❤❤

[@kristinajones9975]

I have a kinder and 2nd/3rd grader that sound a lot like your daughter. It sounds like you are doing a different program for each child. Is that not too much reading for you? How do you make it work with 2 kids? Thanks! Great video. Thinking of switching now. :)

[@RainbowMiller]

Ys, so I am doing blossom and root for both kids, but 5th grade with my daughter and 2nd grade with my son. so two separate grades. Last year I was running a dayhome and also doing preschool. It's all about the rhythm and routine for me personally. We school from 9-12 or 1pm and I will chose two times to read that make the most sense in our rhythm. we changed it depending out the season and what our needs were, but i'd either read to one right at the start of our morning while we all had tea etc, and then read to the younger one when the oldest was doing independent work. or in the afternoon if there was time, however my favorite is I read to each of them the at bedtime individually. So we'd just read the next days portion of the book the night before. I schedule 30 mins each into my own schedule for that. hope this is helpful, but if you have anymore questions feel free to ask!

[@sarahennis1702]

For these 2nd grade/4th grade are you using for math and history

[@RainbowMiller]

honestly this was a couple of years ago, so i don't recall what exactly we used this year, but we're canadian so we used canadian math and canadian social studies 😊

[@user-en2lc3ou1q]

What years of the ELA did you do?

[@RainbowMiller]

Whichever grades I said we did in this video, we did across all subjects ☺️ (sorry this is an older video so I don’t want to misquote myself lol)

[@veganstarseed6914]

This is a great review! My daughter is going into 4th grade what is the cost? I couldn’t find pricing on their website!

[@RainbowMiller]

you just have to click the full bundle link under 4th grade. the cost for this grade is 162. blossomandroot.gumroad.com/l/BavJV hope this helps!

[@veganstarseed6914]

@@RainbowMiller oh awesome, thank you so much!! 😊

[@ThreeSistersOf7]

Is the reading strong? I have struggling readers

[@RainbowMiller]

it's totally flexible. The language arts as a whole in regards to teaching and what is learned is strong (in the best way) but you can just read the books aloud together for readers who aren't quite there. That's what I've done and it's worked great! As you know one of my kids is dyslexic, and this curriculum has been a huge tool in getting that child on par if not above their peers in one short year! (with my help guiding through lessons of course)

[@terez1158]

​@@RainbowMiller hi my 6th grader experiences dyslexia too. How did B&R get yours on par or surpassing his peers? And in what ways?

[@terez1158]

Thank you ❤

[@VeganEmelda]

This may be silly, but you're the first homeschooler I've seen who hasn't gotten curriculum professionally bound. I was worried I was doing it wrong with my plan of just putting it in a binder!

[@RainbowMiller]

Haha oh my, I just can't be bothered to go to all that trouble! Maybe it's easier to do in America? but it's a hassle and expensive here, so I just print it and pop it in a binder. I like to keep things as uncomplicated as possible lol

[@biancaeleanor]

What happened with nightzookeeper?

[@RainbowMiller]

nothing major happened. I was affiliated with them but then my kids got booted from their system and suddenly they wanted me to pay a fee lol (while still advertising for them), but also although it was fun, it wasn't my kids favourite thing, and didn't teach in a way that we personally strive for (we avoid "grading" our children and putting silly pressures of that nature on them, instead opting to nurture a love of learning.) I just had a few things I started to not like about it, and found it pricey for what it is (120/year) and felt that it no longer aligned with something i'd want to be promoting to my fellow homeschool friends.

[@Katieann1982]

That's one thing I've struggled with is finding homeschool curriculum that's not religious. We do abeka, but have since added different bits and pieces here and there

[@RainbowMiller]

it is a struggle, hey?! Are you part of the "secular, eclectic, academic (sea) homeschoolers" Facebook group? It can be a really awesome resource for secular school stuff.

[@Katieann1982]

@@RainbowMiller no I'm not but thank you for telling me about it I'll check it out ☺️

[@kriskoeh6901]

Which math do you use?

[@RainbowMiller]

We're canadian so we use a few sources, not a lot of good canadian math resources unfortunately so I'm still hunting for the right fit.