 How you guys my name is Brittany and welcome back to my YouTube channel you guys in today's video I will be giving you my February homeschooling update I know I am a little bit late to make him like my homeschooling update for last month But I had to go ahead and film it for you guys because so much stuff has happened in February And I kind of want to recap you on like where we're at in our homeschool how things are going So hopefully you guys don't mind that my update is coming out a little bit later than usual But um, here we go. We're gonna go ahead and get on into this thing So I'm gonna go ahead and start off with the highlights that I had in the month of February So my first biggest highlight that we had in my homeschool Was that my sixth grader was able to take a 3d printing class at our local library This class was specifically for age group like the age group range of 10 to 14 so she was really among a group of her own peers and She really really enjoyed learning how to use the 3d printer She learned how to do like animation and it was like a week-long workshop She did it for three days and at the end of the 3d printing session She was able to print out like a bookmark a little whistle She had like a whole bunch of little trinkets that she printed out at the end of her 3d printing session And she had so much fun But the biggest thing that has happened for her is that she formed a deeper connection With one of the kids that was at the workshop with her And I was so proud of my daughter If you guys don't know my oldest is an introvert. She's kind of shy and I typically don't really push her when it comes to certain things I just make sure that we always are Doing things to allow her to you know, I guess practice her Social skills and things like that because she is shy So this event in particular she met a friend She was talking with her and having fun the whole event and of course she didn't tell me It wasn't until the last day of the event that The mom she like ran and found me and was like our daughters had a connection less to exchange numbers Let's continue to meet up and I'm like so happy that she has formed, you know, a good friendship And hopefully by us continuing to go to these events She will continue to form more friendships and things like that. That's like my sole purpose Of going to like all these hangouts and I'm so proud of her for you know, stepping outside of her shell and making new friends So that was like the biggest highlight Um this month we definitely were more social birds than we were last month in january We didn't go to like any homeschooling events or our hangouts at our local library But this month you guys I feel like we were just social butterflies. Um They had a really cool homeschooling event for black history month where My kids learned about black artists and then they had like a cool tutorial that all the kids follow to Replicate some of these different styles of these black artists Then they had a cute valentine's day homeschool hangout where the kids played a lot of games with like the little Candy hearts and they had they played charades and family feud and it was really really cute. So We really really enjoyed ourselves doing all of like the social events. Uh, this homeschooling month Another big thing that has happened for me personally in the month of february is I have officially like completed all of like my curricula planning for the 2024 2025 homeschooling year I purchased all of my curriculum as of now you guys all of my curriculum for the upcoming homeschool year is here I am gathering and piecing things together because at the end of this month You will see my homeschooling curricula picks for my rising seventh grader first grader and my pre kinder Students here in my homeschool. So I'm so excited. I'm happy that the planning phase is over for me But I definitely want to let you guys know if you're not quite at the point where I'm at as far as like planning and prepping For your upcoming homeschool year, please take your time It's no rush. It's really different for me as a content creator and sharing my curriculum picks versus someone else Like you know, you guys, um, I definitely will say Take your time read the samples do your research sleep on it Pray on your upcoming homeschooling year and don't rush Because you feel like you're seeing everyone getting things together I have rushed homeschooling years and I feel like if I would have taken my time I wouldn't have had mistakes that I had in the past So I definitely will leave that advice with you We are about to hit like homeschooling super bowl season where we're going to be seeing curriculum picks and things like that and I definitely will say put your blinders on focus on you your homeschool your family And make sure that you're taking your time and vetting out quality resources for your upcoming homeschool year That's just a little you know piece of advice as we're hitting into like curriculum season here for like the homeschooling world. So, yeah So i'm going to go ahead right now you guys and give you like an individual update on all of my individual kiddos I'm going to start off with my sixth grader my kenny gardener, and then we will finish off with my pre-k Four or as far as like their individual updates So as far as my sixth grader, um, I received a few comments on my channel asking how is Pre-algebra going for my sixth grader pre-algebra is actually going really really well for her We are about to start uh lesson six And then at once we get to lesson eight. We will be completing like the first unit in pre-algebra Um, so i'm really proud of her. She's doing really really well Some of the lessons we've had to take it a little bit slower than in the past Like when we were working with like zeta or epsilon I feel like she was going through the lessons faster. She was really mastering concepts faster But in pre-algebra, we're just taking our time and i'm really allowing her to uh be To get a lot of practice so she can really feel confident in these concepts because I know pre-algebra Like she definitely has to have it. This is like the foundation for all higher levels of math And I don't want to skip or rush through anything So i'm happy time is on our side when it comes to um mathematics right now So we're definitely taking our time and i'm taking advantage of it. I'm finding with pre-algebra She's not as independent. She meets me a lot more than she has in the past with math I don't mind i'm strong in math, but I will say I don't know if I feel confident after pre-algebra to be this hands-on With her when it comes to mathematics So as we go through the course I will continue to be here for her because like I said I feel pretty confident with pre-algebra, but after this level. I think i'm done. I think this mama is tapped out I will have to continue to use uh resources for High school math where I can outsource it a little bit more and have a little bit more uh like parent support for me But other than that it's going good and i'm so proud of her. So i'm so happy I just let her continue to truck along when it comes to like math and kind of like just follow her lead Now another thing for our homeschool What's been going on is in history and in english because they're connected with our Curricular that we're using which is oak meadow. We have been going over middle ages. We actually completed middle ages the first week of march and um my oldest daughter middle ages wasn't really her thing Which is okay. Like they're not really going to enjoy every single aspect of history We kind of got through it and you know, it was what it was I she found like the things with the knights in the castles to be the most interesting as far as medieval times or Middle ages, but other than that. She really wasn't feeling it. Um, she did enjoy the reader She's finishing up this reader, which is the adventures of robin hood Was the independent reader that went along with the english for like this middle age term. She did enjoy it She's almost completed with it. She will have this book completed next week As we're going into like the renaissance the age of the renaissance is kind of like where we're going to be headed into And then from here we're going to go into early explorer the Mayans early explorers And then that's what's going to be wrapping up the oak meadows ancient civilizations for this semester or for this school year. So Yeah, so it is what it is. Um, i'm happy it's over with. Um, she really enjoyed some of the art pieces that she did I'm going to share them with you guys. This is a drawing she did She used pastels when uh, we were going over like stone hedge and like Celtic tribes and things like that So she really enjoyed that aspect and then also she uh, drew a castle when we went over like the medieval times and things like that She did a really really good job. So that's a few of her art pieces that she did She did write a huge research paper on um, nighting crusades for this unit And she did an awesome job on her research paper. It had to be five paragraphs She had to cite her sources and she had to add illustrations So that was like her big writing assignment for um, the middle ages and she did really really well I'm so proud of her. Um, her writing definitely has came a long way from fifth grade until now. So she's doing really really well So that was like history and things like that now as far as like our curriculum progress and um, I guess us figuring out or me figuring out goals to end off our homeschooling year kind of seeing where we're at in all of our pieces What pieces we're going to be able to fully complete and what pieces are going to kind of spill over into the summer And or the next homeschooling year. I went ahead and took my time and I counted the remaining weeks So for our oak meadows, um History and english because those are combined. We have a total of 10 weeks left We have 10 weeks left of school So we're right on track when it comes to that as far as math Of course, we are ahead because I really only wanted us to finish Matthew C zeta and we already finished that so we're kind of like trucking along when it comes to that As far as like her supplement. She's using fixic grammar Um, I believe she's going to be finished fixic grammar at the end of april So we're right on track when it comes to that. It's about 30 weeks in fixic grammar We do one sentence a day and she's doing really really well with that. Um, so Fixic grammar. We're definitely going to complete as far as iow structure and style We didn't start iow structure and style until october And I made a goal during that time for us to only complete half of this this school year because She is writing papers as you guys heard in her um oak meadows um english and history So we have been only uh picking up iow every other week or the week She doesn't have a writing assignment in oak meadow So every week she is presenting me with some type of paper Which uh for this kiddo is perfectly fine. I really enjoy that challenge when it comes to her So I made a goal for us to only complete 12 weeks of this program this program has a total of 24 weeks So right now we are on week eight. So we have about four more weeks to go of iow and then we'll be at the halfway point I'm still trying to decide if we're going to finish off iow over the summer And or if i'm just going to spread out this one beep since this level is really for sixth to eighth grade through our Um next school year through seventh grade So i'm still trying to uh determine if we're going to finish it over the summer or just uh take it into our next home Schooling year, uh, but overall we are like at the goal mark where I want us to be at with iow structure and style this semester Now as far as science, we did make a mid-year curriculum switched in science Um, I just used what I had already here at home. Um, which was the apology as um chemistry infinite and chemistry and physics Um, so we have been doubling up on science. So instead of us doing science two days out the week We've been doing it four days out the week. It's been going really really well The the break up of the science is really doable when it comes to um It so it's really easy for us to kind of squeeze in science Sometimes we're able to squeeze in those four day lessons into only three days of science So it's been going really really well. We are actually almost at the halfway point We're on lesson six right now the halfway point is lesson seven because it's a total of 14 lessons So we're right on track. We have about 10 more weeks left of science Um science has always been my week subject But for some reason we have been doing so well in science right now and i'm so proud of us My daughter's been learning so much. She's been enjoying all the experiments with the chemistry and physics and she's been Having a ball or a blast with it. So It's been going well. So i'm really really proud of us So if we don't finish the science, I definitely will go ahead and spill science over into the summer So we can complete it because we probably will we have 10 weeks left of it And if we don't do science every day as strict as I have us us to do it We probably will have like maybe four more weeks of science remaining for the summer for us to do So that's like my goals as far as her when it comes to her curricula So for the most part we're right on track for most of things and other things I'm just going to spill it over into the next homeschool year and or summer I'm definitely not going to stress out about it. Now as far as my kindergartner you guys She is doing so well and i'm so proud of her Something big that happened with my kindergartner is that um in the month of february she had her speech evaluation every like um Every year they do an evaluation to kind of like see where she's at as far as her progress with her speech They create her a new IEP which is like her individualized plan and goals And where they want her to be at as far as her speech and speech development So when they did her speech evaluation you guys The speech pathologist our homeschooling coordinator that works with me And also we speak with like a kindergarten teacher And it's another admin person that comes into like the meeting They told me that my daughter will potentially be graduating speech therapy In may and you guys like I had like a lump in my throat And I like was almost about to cry when I heard that because we've been doing speech therapy now you guys for about Four years and like it's just crazy to see them out of progress She has had since we started speech therapy and just to think we're at this point I'm just like so proud of her and all of the hard work that she's done So, um, I believe in april they're going to like retest her where we have to go to like this big facility They test her for about like an hour you guys and they kind of see like where she's at And they're going to figure out if her speech is um at like age development where the things that she's like, um Saying or the enunciations in certain words is like developmentally appropriate versus an actual delay Um, and we're kind of going to go from there after the test to see if she officially graduated from speech therapy So i'm so proud of her and I definitely have noticed that she's doing since she's doing so well in speech You guys phonics has been going so well with her I'm so proud of her and i'm so happy you guys that I stuck it through and I didn't say oh Well, because she has a speech delay. I'm not going to teach her how to read. I'm so happy That even though we have been going slow We've been making progress And I didn't give up on my baby or didn't think or and say like oh well because she has a speech delay She can't do this. I'm so happy that I gave her the opportunity because like she's reading like these little Bob books and she's doing so well and she's working hard And i'm so happy so all about reading i'm so happy I didn't give up on that program because it really is going well And I really like the user friendliness of it and I really feel like I can't Uh, I guess a claim that a program is not working based off of the progress being slow because progress is being made And I think that's all that matters one thing that I did have to adjust with our all about reading for my um Kenny Gardner is that we were using the letter towel app and you guys she begins like play with the letters and You know kind of fool around with the lessons So I had to go back to old school you guys So I got my dry erase board and I put the magnetic letters on it So we can kind of like use this one right here as we're doing her all about reading lessons because The app was becoming a distraction for her. So, uh, I got I got um the board out We're doing it. Oh the old school way and it's going really really well It's really helping her remain focused and center In our lessons now, I do appreciate the app still because when my oldest order was taking her 3d printing class Um, I took school with my younger two to the library While we were waiting for her and we did use the letter towel app when we were you know on the go So it definitely has its place, but as far as right now, we're using the letter towels And it's been helping her stay more focused. So I'm proud about that So, um, my goal for all about reading was for us to get to lesson 27 by the end of the school year And I think right now I'm just going to mix that goal I think as long as we're getting through lessons and we're making progress I think that's all that's going to matter to me. Um, if it takes us another year to complete this level one I think I need to be okay with that I need to be okay with following my child's lead and following her progress And I think that's where I'm going to take it at. Um, so we're definitely going to stick with all about reading And we're going to get through this level and she's going to do great as she already has been So I'm so proud of her when it comes to that now as far as math for our kindergarten math of confidence you guys We're on week 29 and I I anticipate us completing this in the next two weeks because The last unit is unit 10, which goes over the months and the days of the week time Clocks and it has like a review We've been going over the months of the year and the days of the week and clock and time since august So she really has learned all of those skills and has been practicing those skills throughout this whole year But I still want her to do the lessons and we kind of like speed through them And we do like the workbook pages when it comes to like the last unit So we are like going to be finished with this and you guys I have loved I mean, I love this program and um I don't think I really have been able to say that like officially that I really really have completely and Fully loved a curricula as much as I have loved math with confidence Um, I'm going to share with you guys. We went over like numbers to a hundred and my daughter learned how to count to um Hundreds by tens they did this cute little assignment where we had to put like 10 We I had to make this frame and she had to put 10 stickers in each of the boxes in order for her to count by tens So it just has like all of these like cute little activities When it came to like time for her to be learned how to count like from tens fives and twos Here goes another activity that we did where she had to use like tally marks And we made them in order for us to learn like how to count by five and what counting by fives actually means So it's like all of these cute little like simple I mean, this is like paper and markers you guys and paper and stickers So it's like all of these like simple but effective activities that we have been doing in kindergarten math with confidence Has really allowed my daughter's number sense to be really really deep her conceptual and mental math It just blows my mind the way she's able to um Do like her facts like her uh ones and her five facts and things like that in her head So I really have been enjoying this program So we're going to be headed into first grade math with confidence at the end of march And I'm so happy uh for her. So that is her update Now as far as my pre-k four girls you guys she is doing so well as well She has actually already finished her preschool math at home Um, it's a few concepts in here that I feel like she hasn't completely mastered Which is okay because since I have done kindergarten math with confidence I know that those concepts are not going to be mastered until um, you know, kidney garden So I'm okay with us like saying that this is done even though I you know, even though some of the concepts I feel like she didn't get them as mastered as I would have liked them. So it's okay Now as far as like another math that I did I also used the jda's uh preschooling math This is the pdf and it's really really cute the little simple worksheets that they have the kiddos doing and My daughter really really enjoyed using this simple, um jda preschooling math workbook Um because she was seeing everybody had like a workbook and things like that She definitely wanted to have like a workbook when it came to like her math as well And I already had this on pdf out because I used this with um my middle daughter last year So I just printed off a new book for her and she really enjoyed using the jda preschooling math So now that she's finished with her math, she's going to be starting kindergarten math of confidence too so I'm really going to be like um pulling in some of our new curricular for My kiddos and kind of like just starting it and just going to the next level as they have completed things And not necessarily wait until august to start with them because they are doing so so well and i'm so proud of them My uh baby girl. She's even writing letters. So um when my kids do really really good in school And uh, they had a really really good week one of the incentives that I do for my younger two Is I take them to dollar tree and I get to pick out two things If they had a really really good school week, we typically go to dollar tree like twice a month And I surprised them when they had a really really good week So when we went to the dollar tree my uh youngest daughter picked up this little cute um etching sketch And the other day she was using this and she began writing letters and I was like, oh my gosh Like I did not teach this girl how to write letters and she's already writing them. So um, she's doing really really good writing letters and she knows how to write a few numbers too. So um, it's so cute seeing her learn more so inadvertently because sometimes I feel like I'm not necessarily spending that much time directly teaching her but Because she's in this environment like she's soaking it up like a sponge So she's definitely ready to continue on with her like schooling journey And I definitely want to continue to give her a seat at the table and make it fun for her But she definitely enjoys her one-on-one time when it comes with me with her school my youngest So I'm excited to begin more of her like pre-k4 kinder work really really soon with her Now as far as my plans for march you guys, uh, my plans is to stay focused I'm trying I'm trying my best not to be distracted even though I have my new curricula. It's here I have put it away in my homeschool closet. I have not like started like planning or trying to prep or organize anything Literally after I make my curriculum pick videos for you guys I'm putting it back in the closet and I'm shutting the door because I have a school year to finish off And I want to remain consistent and focused to complete this school year really really strong Um, so that is one of my goals for march another one of my goals You guys is I am going to do my best to keep my head down And to focus like I said before. Um, I don't want to get distracted with again, uh, the curricula season and Seeing all the new curricula and thinking I have to have it all here in my homeschool because even though I am You know, I'm a youtuber. I do get influenced as well. I am human So I'm going to do my best to keep my head down I already have a plan and I'm going to focus on the plan and the goals that have set in place for my family and for my kids Um, another thing I want to definitely work on to is a personal goal Is that I really feel like I began to be really lax in february with my morning time routine I was like getting up late and Really starting off the day, uh, not to the best of my ability So I'm going to hold myself more accountable and making sure first of all, I get a proper rest at night So I'm able to wake up early Get things settled and prepared for the kids and not be in that like rush in the morning because I'm dragging my feet So I definitely want to get back on uh, like my morning routine and being more Disciplined when it comes to that for the remaining month of march. So you guys, I hope this video wasn't too long I hope you enjoy being here and chatting with me as we talked about everything that happened in My homeschool for the month of february. I really hope all you guys are doing well in your homeschools Um, I hope that things are just flowing and you're not necessarily in that winter slump spring is around the corner You guys um, and the end of our school year is almost here So, um, I just really want to encourage you guys all to be blessed and uh to continue to Work and be consistent in your homeschools. So as always you guys, thank you so much for watching I look forward to seeing everybody in my next one. Bye