 Hi you guys my name is Brittany and welcome back to my YouTube channel. You guys in today's video I will be sharing my March homeschooling update. I really have a lot to catch you guys up on that has happened in our homeschool for the month of March. So you guys go ahead and stay tuned for today's video. So if any of you guys are new here to my channel again my name is Brittany. I'm a homeschooling mom to three girls ages 11 five and three and I'm wrapping up my third year of homeschool you guys. I'm so excited we are like kissing the finish line right now. We have officially six weeks left to end off our homeschooling year. We started off our homeschool on July the 18th and our end date is May the 12th prayerfully nothing happens and we can really wrap this baby up. This mama you guys like I am tired like I am so ready to you know really start summer like I'm just going to be honest with you guys but I'm excited my kiddos they really have accomplished a lot and I'm really proud of them. So you guys this will actually be my last homeschooling update video that I will be making for you guys because my next video that I will make will be my end of the year homeschooling update where I will really recap all the things that we got up to in our homeschooling year. So I'm really really excited to make that video for you guys in the month of May. So I'm going to give you guys like a little mini update on each of the kiddos and what they have been up to. So for Alana my three year old you guys we are officially potty trained. We are out of the trenches. We are back to normal everyday life. We can get in the car. We can run errands like she got that thing you guys. So I'm really really proud of her. So I have officially potty trained my last kiddo. As far as Leia my five year old you guys she recently had a birthday on March the 28th and I'm really really sad you guys like she is officially a big girl. We went to Chuck E. Cheese for her birthday and then we came back home and we celebrated a little bit more with some family and she really really enjoyed her birthday. Leia also had her end of the year speech evaluation and she did awesome you guys like I'm so just surprised of all the progress that she has made as far as like her speech and you know I'm really really happy for her speech therapist and just all the team members that we have connected with this homeschooling year and I'm so happy that her speech therapist isn't going to change and we can stay with the same one because she definitely has been amazing for us. So I'm really really happy that we have already made our plan for the upcoming homeschool year. They already have set out her IEP so we are ready to go in August when we kick back start um her speech therapy. So right now Leia's speech therapy is going to end around the same time our homeschooling year ends and I'm happy about that you guys. So it's a summer break from speech uh that commitment of doing speech therapy you know it's a lot you know committing to those sessions weekly and um I'm so happy that we both can kind of like get a break. So um speech therapy Leia great improvement progress great I'm so proud of her. Now as far as Brielle you guys Brielle has been very motivated these past um a couple of weeks in particular like she is really dragging her mama along. It was a few days you guys in March that I really was like okay Brie I need a day off and Brie was not letting me take a day off. She was like come on mommy let's just do this come on let's just do that and she really towards the last week of March you guys she was like pulling me to do homeschool with her because I was just done I needed a break. Now while I don't encourage you guys to continue to homeschool when you're tired but if you have a motivated kiddo like I do especially that first born you guys like sometimes I just have to let her drag me and uh go ahead and continue off homeschool especially like when she's motivated. So um that is Brielle she is seeing like her curriculum pieces being finished and she's seeing like her being at the end of her workbook so she's really really being motivated uh to finish off her homeschooling year strong so um that is what Brielle has been up to. So you guys me what I have been up to uh these past couple of weeks really has been like I've been in the thick of this homeschooling planning for my upcoming homeschool year. Now you guys like I know I say it and I promise myself that I was not going to get caught up in next year before I finish off this year but you guys like I'm completely caught up like I for the past two weeks I definitely have been more distracted when coming uh to like our curriculum planning for uh next year um if you guys want to see like my brain dump and my thought process as far as me choosing our curriculum for next year I will go ahead and link that video down below but I will say this as far as Leia and Alana who will be like my kindergartener and my preschool pre-k ish um curriculum they're all of their curriculum you guys has already bought purchased ready to go I can actually sit down and film those videos for you guys uh like now but Brielle has been the most challenging in picking up our like homeschool curriculum. I have narrowed it down and I narrowed down some choices that I necessarily didn't want to narrow down. So you guys um we actually my number one choice really was to kind of like go online with Brielle like uh really supplement her education but as we were looking at all of the online platforms that I selected I was showing Brielle was kind of like starting some free trials and kind of like getting excited about our homeschooling year. Brielle came to me a couple of days later and she really expressed that she didn't want to do online learning and you guys like that was really like it was hard it was a hard pill for me to swallow because I really was choosing online because I was feeling like uh the subjects that I was choosing online for her was the subjects that I felt like I was lacking in my homeschool but you guys I really have to respect her decision and not really wanting to go online with uh most of her subject she is already doing like IEW and her math online and I really had to respect that um I think she still wants a little bit more time working with me. So you guys I have narrowed it down to two choices which has been Oak Meadow um which you guys like I don't know if I'm going to pull that off on my budget this homeschooling year I'm going to try my best but if I can't pull it off I really am going to continue to do some of the curriculum that we already are doing now just like the next level up and I really have to narrow down my history and science picks. Now for history it has to have an audible book because like I'm not committing to all of the real outs that I have done this homeschooling year while it was so much fun and we had a rich history year reading all of like the picture books and stuff like that I cannot do that next year. I really have to simplify history so I definitely need to read it out when it comes to like our history curriculum. Science one of my criterias for our science curriculum um is it has to have a lab kit you guys like I cannot skip out on science because I didn't do my part in planning like um I definitely know I'm going to invest a little bit more in science in particular because I feel like that was the subject I was lacking the most this year and I definitely know I need a lab kit so those are like my two criterias as far as her history and science because the rest of her core I feel like I'm pretty solid on it for Brielle so I'm still kind of like narrowing this thing down so hopefully I will have my curriculum picks ready and out to you guys by the last week of April first week of May hopefully I will finally have it all together um so that is kind of like where I meant where I am at as far as like our curriculum planning now you guys as far as our month of March let's go ahead and get on into this update so books books highlights I have a lot of books to share with you guys because we read a lot this month so as far as Brielle's independent books that she's read she right now is reading just write Jillian which is another cute story about a young girl named Jillian who is very very shy and she is working on breaking out of her shell you guys I love Brielle reading these books because she is very shy and um while we have been going to like our home school hangouts and things like that um Brielle hasn't necessarily made like true connections just yet but it's so funny because the last time we went to our home school hangout you guys it was a girl who was all the way across the room she literally like moved her spot to sit right next to Brielle so as much as I do worry about Brielle really making true friends and connections and things like that I'm not worried now because I know it's going to be some extrovert out there that's going to like be friend Brielle and she's going to make friends that way so I'm not you know worried about her but I definitely know her reading more books about like these young girls breaking out of her shell um it's perfect for her because she is really really shy I know you guys see her here on camera but she is like in a comfort of her home uh but if you ever was to see Brielle in person she's very very shy so um she's really really enjoying this book and I think it's because she can relate to Jillian in this book so as far as her independent readers you guys Brielle has really been reading a lot of historical fictions this upcoming month she has read all of the American Girl series for the Meet Addy and the Meet Felicity so this is the Meet Addy series I actually purchased these I think a while ago I think I purchased them last summer so I already had them on my shelf so she read uh Meet Addy she read Addy Learns a Lesson Addy Surprise happy birthday Addy Addy saves the day and changes for Addy and then she also read all of the Felicity series so I have the last book that I checked out from my library which is Changes for Felicity but she read the same six books from the Felicity series as well and you guys for someone like Brielle who Brielle doesn't necessarily enjoy history but she's like you know she's kind of getting into it I definitely will say when she read these books the Addy and the Felicity series I've never seen this girl so caught up and interested into history and I'm so happy I challenged her and I had her read these books um because we are just now entering in like the American Revolutionary War into our in our history curriculum we're like about to start it she's already read the Felicity series so she's already like taking in some of the key events that happened during the American Revolutionary War just from reading like the Meet Felicity series and then the Addy series she really really enjoyed though especially going over like the Civil War and Reconstruction time period so she definitely has gotten her like kick into history and now she's more excited when we do do history so this was definitely a great addition and she definitely told me as we go into different time periods in the future she does want to read uh all of the other American Girl series so I enjoyed these series as a kiddo so it's really really fun and cool Sam Brielle enjoyed them as well so that is all of her independent reading that she got up to in a month of March which was a lot so that's like 12 13 books all together so I'm really really proud of her now as far as our read aloud you guys I made a change to our read aloud because in a river voices which is our history curriculum we went over the triangular trait the cell in which trials and then we also are talking about Fort Moses and Benjamin Franklin right now so those are like the lessons that we have done for a river voices so when we went over the cell in which trials we read this book what were the cell in which trials and Brielle was like into it you guys so I already had this book on my shelf which is the Witch of Blackbird Pond so this is our last read aloud that we're reading for the end of our homeschooling year and Brielle you guys she is in this one so anything that excites my kiddos I definitely don't mind switching up our read aloud so we are reading this one to end off our homeschooling year and then I added in uh from Rachel from Seven and All she has a shop where you learned that I added in her literature guide the Witch of Blackbird Pond this literature guide you guys is so simple the discussion questions are really really uh they're really great they're very thought provoking you can tell she really took her time in doing all of the like study guides and the study questions Brielle is able to answer the questions about the chapters we read independently and I'm really seeing if she's like really grasping what's happening the setting the plot um I'm really enjoying this literature guide you guys Rachel you did a really really good job on this one I definitely have to get more um it's really simple it's effective and I definitely think if you are concerned about your kiddos comprehension and reading like a bigger chapter books this is definitely a great way to see if they are really comprehending and hearing all of those undertones that's happening in the story in the plot in a setting and I'm really enjoying using this literature guide with it and it's really allowing her to like really think about what we're reading in and what's really happening so I'm really enjoying this one so you guys since we're kind of already talking about history I'm going to go ahead and give you guys a brief recap on our history I will at the end or I will in this month of April I will be making all of like my curriculum reviews so stay tuned you guys um I will be reviewing each of these pieces of curriculum individually um so it's going to be like curriculum review month for me on my channel so I hope you guys enjoy um watching all of the reviews and I will make a review video of blossom and root of river of voices because while I am enjoying this curriculum I have had to make tweaks to it but overall I have definitely enjoyed the book list of this one and I'm going to share with you guys some of the books that we have read this month when it comes to um blossom and root of river of voices so again like I said we study the triangular trade and during that time period where we studied it um or that lesson where we studied it we read this book which is called the village that vanished and this book right here is like a folktale or a folk lord about a village that was able to pretty much um they was able to vanish during the process of like the slave hunters and a bounty hunters that was capturing all these african americans and taking them you know two ships during or two ships in the process of the like the middle passage so this was definitely like a great one to read especially as we were talking about that deep topic of the triangular trade it really uh put in like a sense of hope during that you know time period that or that not that time period but during that specific topic that we were going over so um this was definitely a great addition to add especially when we're talking about a deep topic as the triangular trade so I'm really happy that blossom and root added this one and um this was a great picture book so you guys as far as the other reads that we're reading right now with blossom and root we are reading uh fort moses so these are two books right now that we are reading about fort moses which is a story of the first black free settlement in colonial america so this one definitely has been great briel's really enjoying this one as far as benjamin franklin you guys we have been in me and then I also have the remarkable benjamin franklin which are two great books that we are going to be concluding in the next couple of weeks so uh we definitely have enjoyed blossom and root and all of the book selections is really really been great and I cannot wait to do a review for you guys now as far as that's finishing this curriculum you guys my goal is really just to end off on part three which goes over the american revolutionary war um I may pick history up in the summer I really don't know like I'm still trying to figure out like my summer homeschooling plans but uh as of right now out of the four parts to blossom and roots we are only going to be finishing up the third part so not too bad so I'm really really proud of us so you guys you are going to be so proud of me so as far as science goes I definitely have up my game in science um in my last update I talked about that I was really just going to do the 180 days of science but I wasn't like a hundred percent sold on just doing that workbook for science I really felt like because I was lacking in science this homeschooling year I really felt like in March I was just gonna hit it hard and step it up and I really feel like I did so the units that we did in um the month of March was book sharks free a weather unit this is a two week weather unit and I stretched it out to three weeks and we've really really enjoyed this unit it's so funny that I actually purchased a science curriculum and I actually stuck to a curriculum that was completely free we also paired it along with core knowledge their reader which is the weather and climate reader I think this reader is for the fourth grade but I feel like for core knowledge a lot of their topics you can kind of do across multiple grades so even though this was a fourth grade reader we definitely enjoyed adding this in as like one of our spines to the book sharks weather unit these are the books that we read with the book shark weather unit which was uh what is a tornado twist we also had our DK uh weather book that I checked out from our local library and then also this book right here which went over the water cycle so we did all of the experiments in the book sharks uh weather unit and I'm so proud of myself you guys like I got all of the materials out and I really dedicated and focused myself to science and like I said before it's just so crazy how I purchased a science curriculum at the beginning of my homeschooling year and the curriculum that actually worked out is like free resources so it's like I really want to like knock myself on the head right now because it's like um it's so many good quality free resources out there and I'm going to start taking more advantage of them so to end off our homeschooling year I do have two science units picked out one of them I definitely know we're going to do in the summer but you guys I'm going to give core knowledge another try and do another unit um by itself not just reading the reader so I actually picked out modeling earth systems which is going to go over all of like the spears biomes and things like that I actually have a new DK encyclopedia which is DK earth uh to pair along with our um core knowledge earth spear so hopefully Brielle will enjoy this last unit we're going to be finishing off to end off our school year and during the summer I already made up my mind that I am going to be doing the cure the core knowledge um human hormones and reproduction unit I look through this unit and it's so great so you guys I do have this unit right here from the good and beautiful that I thought I was going to do I actually did like the first lesson of it but I think I'm going to use core knowledge and I'm going to pair it along with this book it's so amazing and this is the science that we're going to work on over the summer I really feel like it's time and um I'm really excited if you guys want me to like do a review after I finish off using these resources in teaching about human reproduction and things like that for my oldest I definitely will so I'm so excited to do this one over the summer so that is like my science and the things that I have uh selected for science as far as my younger kiddos you guys I actually paired them along with Brielle doing science we actually did our plan preschool water and weather unit and you guys we read so many cute picture books with them so it was really cool um pairing all of my kiddos along when we did science and it was easier than I thought like um so I would read the picture books with Leia and Alana while like Brielle was working on some of like her independent work or like her science no booking pages and it was really cool kind of like all being on one topic my kiddos they learned about the different seasons and the weather and things like that more like age appropriate for them for Leia and Alana my five and my three-year-old and of course you know we went deeper with Brielle so it was kind of cool being all on one topic and I definitely can see myself doing that um in the upcoming years and really simplifying it especially when it comes to science kind of like seeing if Leia wants to go in with uh Brielle on some of the science topics and I just like cater it to like a kindergarten level so um that is what we did for science you guys and like I said I'm so proud of myself we actually did science experiments and everything like that so yeah okay you guys now as far as like our other pieces of curriculum that I plan on finishing off to end off our school year uh we definitely will be finished with Matthew C Epsilon for Brielle um we are actually on lesson 23 of 30 she's averaging about two lessons a week in her math you see curriculum so I definitely see us finishing off Epsilon for IEW you guys like Brielle has worked so hard in this curriculum we have three more weeks left of IEW so two more papers and then the timed essay to complete off the IEW and you guys like I said before at the end of this month I will have my IEW end of the year um curriculum review for you guys really breaking down everything that we have done um just our experience just everything like that so um as far as uh those two pieces of curriculum she definitely will have finished we will finish Heart and Soul and like I said hopefully we will finish one more science unit so that isn't like my goal to finish off the next six weeks um everything else like as far as like our supplemental things our supplemental workbooks like our spelling reading things like that I definitely know those workbooks are not going to be completed from start to finish some of them I might even carry over into our upcoming home school year so um I'm really not worried about those my main things that I want to finish off is definitely uh to really be honest is math and IEW are the ones that I'm definitely like concentrating on more finishing off to end off our school year Brielle finished uh Fixed Grammar Robin Hood so she's officially finished off her grammar curriculum and since she's finished this off we actually picked up uh Rodin staff six again in January and like I said I think I forgot to mention it in my last update but we actually picked this baby back up in January and we are actually at the halfway point of this Rodin staff curriculum she's doing so well in this English curriculum right here we actually pull out the writing and we just focused on like the grammar Brielle loves diagramming sentences and that's what this focus is on and if you guys want me to make a review of Rodin staff since we have completed level four and more than likely we may be like a good 70% of the way completed with this curriculum as well I will make like a Rodin staff video showing you guys inside of books four five and six because I actually have all of those books here to show you so you guys uh this is my update I really hope it wasn't too long I really had a lot to like update you guys on for the month of March like I said before my main goals right now is really to try to keep my head down and focus you guys I'm gonna try my best like I'm going to put off the planning it's gonna get done and I'm really gonna try my best to stay focused because I feel like I was more focused in the month of March and I feel like we were able to accomplish so much more because I was focused so um you guys uh when we take off our week break in April for spring break I'm gonna focus that time on planning but after that I'm gonna do my best to stay focused that's my advice to you guys out there uh as much as we are seeing curriculum pick videos and you guys like I've been watching your videos too I see your curriculum fix and I've been caught up too um I'm gonna do my best to um really continue to focus on this homeschooling year as well so you guys as always thank you so much for watching um and I look forward to seeing everybody in my next one bye