 How you guys my name is Brittany and welcome back to my YouTube channel you guys in today's video I'm going to give you a January homeschool update. I love making these videos I love updating you guys on everything that is going on in our homeschool So let's go ahead and get into today's video So if any of you guys are new here to my channel again, my name is Brittany I am a homeschooling mom to three girls ages 10 3 & 2. I'm in my second year of homeschooling So you guys January as far as any big updates You guys have already seen it in my last video that I made that we have changed our math curriculum I feel like that was like the biggest thing that has happened for us in the month of January So if you guys haven't checked out that video I'll go ahead and put it in the iCards and in my description box below because I feel like that was like our biggest update for January I really just made a Really think I should say a impromptu Decision as we started our second semester just to go ahead and switch our math Curriculums and like I said before I went into further detail about that in that video But I just want to give you guys a quick update Saxon math is going great as you guys can see it's right here on my daughter's desk back here So it's been going great. We have been utilizing the cold the math lady and you guys I just feel like I Feel like a relief just honestly because our homeschooling days have been going so well We've been having a better flow I haven't had any tears with math for this whole month and I really feel like that says a lot um Math has just always been that subject that brings tears in our household But it doesn't anymore and I really hope it stays that way, but um, I'm really finding my daughter She is really grasping math concepts in a way I didn't see her grasping it with the other curriculums that we've been using so um, I'm really happy about it I cannot wait to give you guys like a month review like once we get into the end of February I am going to give you guys like a full month or full I guess it'll probably be like a month in a couple of weeks that we have used Saxon So you guys can see and hear how's it going and I can go like in further detail about it But um so far so good another curriculum change that I did make was Last semester. We actually finished this Evan Moore building spelling skills great for we finished this whole book Um, if my daughter passed a pre-test, we would just go on to the next week's worth of lessons So she completed this one and I was like at a crossroad whether I wanted to do wordly wise no spelling But I just ultimately decided you guys to go ahead and try out a hundred and days a Hundred and eighty days of spelling and word study I bought fifth grade because my daughter She is very very good at spelling and I wanted to go ahead and give her a challenge Plus I know that we're not going to finish this whole book So this can go ahead and seep into next school year, but so far you guys so good I have been really enjoying this hundred and eighty days of spelling because it has a word study right here that I really like it has Synonyms and antonyms that they're doing it also has Where they're answering questions using the spelling words in complete sentences So I really feel like this is a good combination of spelling and vocabulary I thought I was gonna pick up my wordly wise and kind of like hack it into a spelling and vocabulary But I just wanted to really simplify it. This was actually on sale. So I purchased this in December So I'm so happy we've started off with this and so far so good If you guys want me to like make a comparison video between Evan Morris spelling and a hundred and eighty days of spelling Just let me know I definitely will I honestly love both of the spelling programs I just think that this one is what I was really looking for because it adds that like vocabulary in it So you're kind of getting two subjects in one, which is really really great So, um, yeah, I've been loving this one. My daughter has been loving this one as well So, um, yeah, so you guys that's honestly everything as far as like curriculum Changes or just curricula in our home school what we've been doing as far as our Bible and I guess spiritually we have been studying the fruits of the spirit and I Printed off this little sheet of the fruits of the spirit because I've been having my daughter memorize the fruits of the spirit She actually has memorized. What is it? She's memorized first Corinthians 13 verse 4 through 8 and I printed it off right here And I really feel like she has grasped a good knowledge of love because love was our first fruit of the spirit We are heading on into joy next So I've really been taking my time going over the fruits of the spirit with my daughter And she's been loving it too and it's really been amazing for me to pull back out that fruit to the spirit Especially when like we're having bad moments sad moments. I can just say Bree How can we show love in this situation? How can we show joy? How can we show peace? So it's been a really really good study. So I've been really enjoying that in our home school Okay, so what else do I have down here? So you guys in a month of January? It was dr. Martin Luther King's birthday and me and my daughter we spent a whole week doing a Martin Luther King unit study. I actually printed off their free unit study from What is it the Waldorf way? I think that's what she's her channel's name is called But I printed off a free MLK Unit study that she had and we worked on it for the whole week along with reading this book The story of Martin Luther King jr. And you guys like this was the first time in my home school that I really introduced Martin Luther King and The civil rights movement and just deeper we went a little bit deeper into history Then my daughter has ever been in before My daughter was in public school from Kenny Garten and half of second grade. So she's never really experienced History civil rights movement She's never really learned about Martin Luther King and this year you guys it was such a beautiful Experience culling on the couch with my daughter reading this book you guys I really love this story of book and I think I went into depth about this book in my January morning basket video I really loved it because it really just allowed my daughter to think critically I love the layout of this book right here. And it's just been amazing Here goes a question that they asked the kids to think about here I'm gonna go ahead and read it to you guys and it's these little parts right here where it says Jump in jump in the think tank is what they call it and after we read the first chapter about Martin Luther King's childhood It asked it asked you to ask your child the question It says how would you feel if you had been stopped if you had to stop being friends with someone? Just because of the color of their skin and I love these like critical thinking questions that they have in the story of books because it really allows you to see if your kids really understand and grasp the Text in the history and it was just beautiful just hearing My daughter's take away from really learning about Martin Luther King's life his dream His impact in America and it was so beautiful. We did a lot of art. My daughter made a timeline She wrote a beautiful paper and it just was amazing I never really experienced that with her because we've been doing like a lot of geography studies a lot of things not necessarily in American history just because I've been very hesitant to do American history with my daughter because I want her to Not take away from here from American. I guess I just know I want her not to take away from American history to be feeling like suppressed or to be feeling down I Felt that way in my personal journey with American history. And I think that's probably why I have been treading very lightly doing American history with my daughter Just because I didn't have the best experience with it So I'm doing this story of Martin Luther King and the unit study It really just showed me how I can make history beautiful in my home school And it was beautiful this month. And I'm so happy that I did that unit with her I'm so happy that we sat down and we had some deeper conversations that we've never had before and I feel like that Was like my highlight of this month. So yeah, it was it was beautiful So along with that, I'm gonna show you guys my daughter's independent reading what she has been reading this month She's been reading this story called love like the sky and she's really been enjoying this independent reader This was actually one of her Christmas gifts for Christmas She asked me to buy her books and now her bookshelf is almost all the way filled and she's so happy She can kind of like go on her bookshelf pick whatever book she wants to read and I'm really happy She's written this book this book to give you like a short and sweet version of what this book is about It's just about this girl her name is peaches and it just explains how she is dealing with her new blended family And I really feel like I love my daughter reading about different types of family and their struggles And then how they come together and she's been really enjoying this book every single night She's been up past her bedtime. She comes and says mommy Can I read one more chapter and she's been going a bit late? But I've kind of been letting her Go to bed like 30 minutes after her bedtime because she just wants to read more and I mean I really can't say no, especially when she's like getting into this book. So as you guys can see she's almost finished with This book. She probably will be finished by the end this week and the next time I make an update video I will let her do like a review on this book So you can hear from her opinion how she loved this book This book has two in the series. So she might want me to buy the next one. You guys already know my daughter She is a series junkie. So yeah, so we've been or she's been enjoying this one Now as far as my daughter's creative writing, she actually did another story Hopefully you can kind of see it. I have the little cellophane on or the little book cover But she's written another short story. She's actually been working on this short story right here since November And she actually finished it in the afternoons my daughter She works on the computer and she does story writing or creative writing We used to do creative writing first thing in the morning. However, now we kind of switched up our schedule I made a schedule change for our second semester. It's been going good And it's allowing my daughter instead of working on creative writing in the morning She has free range in the afternoon and I really like her working on it in the afternoon All of her core work is already done and she can kind of do something that she's passionate about So this is her short story. She has written and it's so cute I have to take the time to actually read it now since she's finished it So I printed off so hopefully I can read it I can finish reading it throughout the rest of this week and me and my daughter can have like Discussions about her short story and I can just let her know what parts I like then we can kind of like Laugh and chat about it. So That's kind of like what I do for her creative writing I do not edit or I don't do any corrections to her creative writing because I feel like I just want her to get into The flow of just getting her thoughts down I do edit her writing when it comes to any paragraphs or anything that she writes for any of her like English or her History any place where I have her writing paragraphs in her core work I do edit that but other than that creative writing it's just supposed to be for fun It's just supposed to be an outlet just to let her brain go and she's definitely been uh enjoying that like Doing her like story writing. So um, yeah So you guys I do have a preschool update I want to share with you guys If you already know I do have a two and a three-year-old and I have officially incorporated them into our home school Last semester. We actually uh did a purely preschool unit We did uh the purely preschool fall unit. I wasn't like consistent throughout the whole year We only did that unit. I think for the month of october, but it was beautiful. We had so much fun doing that However, uh starting off this semester. I knew I wanted to be more consistent with them Not just do something with them for just one month But I wanted to really incorporate them into our home school days So I picked out some curriculum and the main curriculum that we've been using now It's actually uh playing preschool. I really have been enjoying playing preschool We are actually doing the colors unit and it's been so much fun My kids have been having so much fun and it's really been easy incorporating them into our day Right after bible time. We go straight into um our playing preschool and it's just been like a natural flow And I really have been enjoying it as far as like preschool curriculums Honestly, I love both playing preschool and purely preschool. They both were amazing Preschool units. They really helped my hand in doing a preschool at home And I will continue to kind of use both of them In our home school I do have a purely preschool insect unit that I want to do when it comes to spring time So um, yeah, so flea school has been going good I haven't been as consistent as I want to be with preschool We've been doing it like three days out the week on Wednesdays. My daughter has speech therapy. So I don't do um Preschool don't on Wednesdays and I was finding myself kind of like dropping the ball on like um Tuesdays So I was really doing preschool like Mondays Thursdays and Fridays I really want to kind of get into the routine of doing preschool four days out the week But for right now, I feel like I've been consistent at least three days. So that's a start So we've been making it Another thing that I'm going to be adding in our preschool is that I've been noticing my oldest daughter Leia She's three. She will be four on March the 28th. So her birthday is coming up very soon And I'm kind of sad. I will not have a toddler two toddlers anymore. She's going to be like an official kid and um Yeah, so um, I've been noticing. She's been like starting to count like her blocks and doing like early counting However, she's just like counting randomly and I really wanted to start working on like some early preschool math I really didn't know like what to do. I didn't want to just like give her worksheets I just wanted something that was going to guide me along the way Um, I seen a recent video from rachel from seven and all and jasmine from uh, one caffeinated mom They showed this book. Um, hopefully you can see it. It's not too much of a glare, but it's preschool math at home Hopefully you guys can see that. Okay. Yeah, there it goes Okay, so this book is called preschool math at home and it pretty much, uh, just helps you and guides you to uh, Different activities and ways you can help your kids get a really a good number since when it comes to math So I just purchased this book. Um, and it just came in a mail on friday So I haven't started it yet with my daughter I think I'm gonna read like the first chapter so I can kind of get familiar on What to do because I've been noticing she's been like picking up everything legos blocks And she's been like randomly trying to count it. However, you know, they count one two three and you're touching the item like 10 times So, um, yeah, I really want to start working on that preschool math with her because she's interested in it So, um, hopefully this book right here preschool methods at home by kates. No will help me I'll let you guys know how it's going But um for preschool you guys as you can see I definitely want to continue to do like a fun Playing literature reading based preschool. Um, and yeah, if you guys want to see like, um, how preschool is going Or my daughter's preschool routine as soon as I get into a better flow with them. I definitely will share with you guys. Um Just how it's been going as far as preschool and try to do like a day in a life It's so hard to film with the kids because they're so fickle And uh, you guys with toddlers you already know It's like one day they they want to do it in the next day They don't so hopefully I can get them into a better routine and hopefully closer to either the end of this month Or next month. I will show you guys How it's going and like a day in a life of my preschoolers and uh everything like that. So, um Yeah, now as far as like a little mini life update I want to add some things that's been going on personally just to share with you guys Um, a little a little heart to heart a little mom moment. Um This month you guys I actually took away the pacifier from my two year old I know it was long overdue when I went to her pediatrician's office. They told me it was time and uh You guys I have been having like a rough couple of weeks With that transition of taking away that binky from my uh, my two year old alana. Um, she's doing fine now However, it was a very hard transition. She was very clingy And uh, it kind of made january a little bit harder in that sense. Um Is as far as like homeschooling because I really had to like cater to her I knew it was something that I had to do. Um, but I went ahead and did it Um, and as far as me you guys like this month I definitely been having like a january like type of blues It really took us a long time to get back into our full Homeschool flow a lot of days. I was only doing like math language arts And then some days it was like math language art spelling So I we were kind of just like taking our time building up slowly our schedule just because January is like a really I guess dreary month for me. I just really was feeling like the january blues this month I'm starting to feel a little bit better going into february. Um, I'm really excited about black history month um, so yeah, but I definitely was on the struggle bus as far as january kind of like Uh, picking up my feet and and you know doing all the things. Um, you guys I was rolling into homeschool with like pajamas on and you know, I was barely doing my hair the month of january I just was kind of like in a slump, but hopefully I can get back into being more consistent getting ready in the mornings And showing up for my kids. So, uh, yeah, that is definitely something I'm going to be working on As we roll in transition into the month of february So you guys I love making these updates. I hope you guys enjoy. Please. Let me know how your homeschool is going Uh, if you had the january blues or if you guys were very productive in the month of january So you guys, thank you so much for watching today's video. I look forward to seeing everyone in my next one. Bye