A new baby will be joining our family at any moment. In fact, for a few hours today I thought she might be on her way already.  But contractions have stopped for now, and I’m hoping she’ll hang on for one more week.  The next few days are pretty full, but after that we’re wide open and ready to be in full-on Newborn Mode.  I’m crossing my fingers that the little one will adhere to my timeline. 🙂

Because of that pending major life change, our homeschool plans are very simple this year.  No big hairy projects or intense outside classes on our docket.  Only Ellie will be attending our beloved co-op, while I stay home with the younger three.  As I’ve been researching and planning over the summer, I realized that one thing will remain the same: lots and lots of reading.  I’ve created an extensive list of read-alouds for both our history curriculum (this year we’re studying the middle ages) and our science curriculum.  The majority of these books are picture books that can be finished in one sitting.

Our homeschool days are divided into two parts: Morning Time and Independent work.  

Loop Topics: We rotate through these topics on a loop schedule, meaning that we rotate through each subject in order but don’t have assigned days of the week for the topics.  That way if we have a really busy/hectic/grumpy day, there is no guilt about skipping one of these subjects, but if our day is more relaxed we can get to multiple lessons at once.  

This year we’re looping the following:

Science: Exploring Nature with Children  (I’ll link to our science read-aloud list here when it’s ready), Fine Art: SQUILT Music Appreciation, Drawing with Children, and Gift-Making.  We’ll work our way through each curriculum until it’s complete.  We’re currently using SQUILT, and will finish it in its entirety before we move on to Drawing.  During our late November-December term we’ll focus on crafts and making gifts for neighbors, family and each other.