 Hey you guys! My name is Brittany and welcome back to my YouTube channel. You guys, I changed up some of my curriculum and I cannot wait to share with you guys the changes that I'm going to be making within my home school this year. So let's go ahead and get on into this video you guys. So if any of you guys are new here to my channel you just click on this video for the first time. Hi, I'm Brittany. I am a homeschooling mom to three girls ages 10, 4 and 2 and I'm about to start my third year of homeschool. So you guys, like I really have had a lot of time during my summer break, you know, while all of like the homeschooling curriculum is kind of like put away and I just really have been able to have a lot of time to really self reflect on how and what I want my homeschool to look like now and in the future. I feel like my first two years of homeschooling I was just kind of like stressed out to really be honest. I was just wanting to keep my daughter on par. I was just trying to make sure, you know, I was checking off all the check marks that in my eyes crossing my T's and I was really just looking at homeschooling from an academic point of view. I wasn't really looking at my homeschool until like really my second semester of my second year. So this January was really when I started to look at my homeschool in another light other than just academics and performances. And to say all that to say, I really want to make some changes in my homeschool, especially as we are going into like our soft start of our homeschooling year. I don't want to look back at, you know, this year of homeschooling, especially since this is going to be my last official, you know, homeschooling year, homeschooling only one of my kiddos. Because next year I'm going to have a kindergarten and it's just, it's so crazy for me to say that right now. But I really want to put things into perspective, especially for my oldest daughter. I don't want her to look back at our homeschooling journey together. And she feels like or she ever would feel like she didn't have an opportunity to do those interest let things to really do things outside of the box. As I'm growing and I'm getting comfortable in like, you know, my skin in my homeschooling journey, I know that my homeschool is going to continue to evolve and change. And I don't want her ever to regret our time that we had together. So in our first quarter of our homeschool year, I really want to focus on interest let learning specifically for Brielle. Like I said before, this is going to be our last year together, just me and her. I do do things with my four year old and my two year old. But to really be honest, you guys, I really only do things with them about three days a week of focused learning. And they're learning it so quick. I mean, my four year old's attention span is like 10 minutes. My two year old, she doesn't have one at all. So you know, their time that I spend with them doing things is really, really short. So I still have this focused time just for Brielle. So in saying that I'm going to show you guys everything that I have selected out. And not only am I going to show you everything I selected, but I'm also going to turn the camera around after I show you everything and show you how I'm going to fit all of this stuff in in our first six weeks. Now I don't know what's going to happen in our next six weeks or the next six weeks after that, because you know, we have six six week terms. All right now, I'm going to focus on this my first six week term that's going to be starting pretty pretty soon. So yeah, let me stop rambling you guys. But I'm going to show you the core, which is going to be like her math and language that we're going to start off with this school year. She is going to be finishing up Saxon Math 65. She's at about lesson 77 right now. So Brielle, she is killing this Saxon right here. So I know more than likely going into probably our second or our third term, she's probably going to be on the next level of Saxon Math. So we are going to continue with Saxon. Now for our language, the main things we're going to be focusing on is just Fixit Grammar. So we're going to be doing Fixit Grammar, a town mouse and country mouse for her grammar. Now for her vocabulary, we are going to continue using her vocabulary notebook. Where she's going to be utilizing the vocabulary from Fixit Grammar. Also these cards that you guys are seeing right here, these are my Sullivan fifth grade vocabulary flashcards that she utilizes this school nest notebook for. And she's doing an awesome job with vocabulary. So this is going to be our vocabulary. Now our main core that we're going to be trying out and I'm so excited about this because this is really where I see my daughter's future as far as the things she is interested in. We are going to be doing Gather Around Artist. And I'm so excited about this unit. You guys, we are going to be learning all about what is it? We're going to be learning about composers, artists, novelists, screen rights. We're going to be learning about so many things. And I'm so excited to do a Gather Around Unit. I tried to gather around unit in my first year of homeschooling but I really don't think I gave it like the attention that it needs. So we are going to be doing this unit study and I'm so excited. So I cannot wait for us to gather into or to do this like interest-led learning. These are all topics and things that Brielle is interested in right now. And I really feel like this is going to be a fun unit for her. So Gather Around Artist is what we're going to be doing. Now as far as a literature study we're going to start off with, we are going to be doing a Brave Writers Literature Study. We are going to be doing The Lemonate War by Brave Writers. So this is going to be her literature study. You guys, they've always been interested in Brave Writers, especially like her method in which she teaches the kiddos about the different literary elements, how she teaches grammar. I really have been interested in doing one of these arrow guides. So I'm so excited to do this one, especially on this really cool book, The Lemonate War. This is actually one of our summer read-alouds that we are going to be doing anyway. So I really feel like this is going to be a fun way for us to do our literature. So Brave Writers, The Lemonate War Literature Guide, the Arrow Literature Guide. Now as far as history goes, we are going to start off our school year doing our Heritage Pack Heart and Soul History. So I'm really excited about this one. The core books for the Heritage Pack Heart and Soul History is of course Heart and Soul. Also the novel that we're going to be reading, we're going to be reading two novels with this unit, which is 40 Acres and maybe a Mule. And this one is, I don't have the cover, but it's called Stella by Starlight. So these are the core books for the Heart and Soul Heritage Pack. So this is going to be our history. We're going to be starting off with this school year. Now as far as music, you guys, because we are going to be focusing all on like the arts, our music curriculum, we are going to be doing the Heritage Mom Hymn Study. I actually have both volumes of it, but I really only see us going through the first volume this school year. And then we'll probably do the second volume next school year. My daughter is actually learning how to play the piano. And I really feel like this will be a great way to introduce her to hymns and things like that. And who knows, she may be able to play some of these hymns as we are, you know, diving in about the history of these hymns. And I'm really excited about this one. So this is the Hymn Study Volume 1. Now another music curriculum that we are going to be doing is going to be Living Harmonies by Thistles and Biscuits. So I'm really excited about this one. This is actually a new release. And from Thistles and Biscuits, I was thinking about doing their Wolfen melodies. But when I seen this one, they just released, I figured this will be way more age appropriate for her. The grades for this one is fourth through eighth. And I really like how they are diving deep in all of these different types of music styles. So they actually are going to be covering a lot of music styles all around the world. The first two units we're going to be doing is the Flamenca and Jazz. They are going to be the first two forms of music we are going to be going over. So this is the Teacher's Guide. And this right here is the Student Book. So if you guys want to see like a flip through of Living Harmonies, just let me know. And I can definitely do that for you on my channel. Along with that, I went ahead and I printed off the little, what are these called? These are called the Three-Part Living Harmony Cards that goes over all of the different musical instruments that Brielle is going to learn. This right here is a full-gear music study. It's broken up into three terms. So I am so, so, so excited about this one. So this is going to be our music. Now, as far as art, art didn't really change. We are still going to be doing living art lessons, the seven elements by masterbooks. This was something we started last year and we are just going to finish learning about the seven elements of art. Now, as far as poetry goes, I love to stick to like one specific poet. Last year, our poet was Maya Angelou. However, this year, we don't have a specific poet, but I do have a new poetry book we're going to be using for our poetry time, which is going to be Out of Wonder, Poem Celebrating Poets. So this one is so exciting because she's going to be able to get a variety of poets within this book. So I'm so excited for us to use this as our main poetry book. Now, as far as nature study, you guys, we are going to be continuing with exploring nature with children and I'm so excited about this one. So far, I have been doing okay with this. I do want to go ahead and get out there a little bit more and really challenge myself, but we had an awesome time doing the caterpillar in a butterfly week. And this has been a great tool for me. It's really been helping me when it's coming to like me getting out of my comfort zone when it comes to nature and nature study. So this is going to be our nature study curriculum. Now, as far as like references and books that I'm going to be using as like resources to go along with everything, I picked up this DK ARC, a visual encyclopedia. You guys, this book is beautiful. It goes over all the different forms of art. It goes over music. It goes over poetry, jazz. So this is going to be a great tool for me to use, especially as we're doing our artist unit with gather round. And my last reference book that I have is the timeline from black histories, leaders, legends and legacies. And one thing I love about this book is that it focuses on a lot of artists, composers, different things like that. And I'm really excited for Brielle to still utilize our timelines for black history, especially as we're going over different artists, different forms of art. This is just really, really amazing that I still can pull out this black history timeline as well. So you guys, like this is what I'm going to start off my school year with. So I'm going to flip you guys around. I'm going to show you how I have scheduled everything out. As you can see, I am really, really getting out of my comfort zone. I am really, really focusing on our first six weeks within the arts, our nature study, all those different types of things. I feel like all of these things in my home school, they were lacking last year. And instead of me kind of like just saying, Oh yeah, I'm going to get to these things. I'm really starting off my school year by putting all of these enrichment things to the forefront because I don't want to end off my school year saying, Oh yeah, we didn't get to do this. We didn't get to do that. I want to start it off doing all the things and really getting my daughter like pumped up and excited. So let me flip you guys around. I'm going to show you our schedule and how we're going to pull this baby off. Okay, you guys, I have everything laid out here on this desk with numbers on it. So I can show you guys like how I'm going to pull this baby off. So we'll start off with the core. So for math, we're going to be doing math five times a week. And that's what this number five means. So that means Monday through Friday, she's going to be doing math. As far as gather round, she's going to be doing that four times a week. So that means Monday through Thursday, she's going to be doing gather round. As far as grammar, we're going to be doing this four times a week. So Monday through Thursday and vocabulary is Monday through Thursday. So this means that for the core, this is going to be the core we're going to be doing every single day along with our literature study four days a week. So that is how that's going to go. Now on Fridays, Friday is going to be our enrichment Friday. And that is where like all of our history, nature, art, and our music is going to come into play. So the living harmonies lessons, we're going to do this once a week, living art once a week. And our nature study and our living art lessons, I think I'm going to rotate these two out because I still want to do nature stuff. But I don't think I can do both of these at the same time. So I'm going to interchange art and nature. As far as our HEM study, I just have the one right here because we're going to be going over our HEM study every single day when we do our Bible time, we're going to be just going through one HEM a week. So I just have one because we're only going to be doing one HEM at a time. So whenever my daughter has mastered or learned that HEM, then we will move to the next one. So this is just going to be incorporated into our Bible time. As far as about learning like the history and things about the HEMs, that's just really going to be only on the first time we go over that. After that, we're just going to be practicing it and listening to different forms and variations of the HEMs from the links that the Heritage Mom has put in her pack. So that is how the HEM study is going to go. So as far as like poetry, I don't have anything here for poetry because we're just going to be reading this as we go. And then these right here again are my reference books. So that is how I have everything scheduled out for us to do. And if you guys ever wonder like how to schedule out and fit things in, this is just such a great way for you to do it, to be able to visually see all of the things you want to do, put a number by it so you don't feel overwhelmed, but you do get an opportunity to touch on all of the subjects and things you want to do. So yeah. Okay you guys, I forgot to mention and I forgot to show you as far as my four-year-old Leia, things have not changed with her just in case you are wondering. We are main core for her is the Gentle and Classical Preschool and preschool map at home. I really enjoy this program. We do plan preschool, but we're not as consistent with that program to really be honest. This one we are consistent with and she loves and it's so easy for me to implement this in our home school. As far as phonics practice goes, we have just started this elemental phonics level one by JDA, which has been going pretty good so far. So this right here is my four-year-old's core for her school year. So nothing really has changed with her. You guys, thank you so much for watching today's video. I really hope you leave this video feeling like inspired and feeling like it's okay. If you do change your mind before the start of your school year, I was really, really nervous to try out all the things that I showed you in today's video. I was really nervous to kind of like let go, but I'm so happy that I'm going to try this out and see how it works for my home school. I don't want to have any regrets. I want to bring in natural learning and I want to bring in all these enrichment and fun things and I want to bring it to the forefront in my home school. If not any time, I think this is the best time, especially because this is the last year of my daughter's elementary year. So instead of me bumping up the rigor, I'm happy to just really sit in her interest and what she's interested in and I cannot wait to start off this school year. I'm so, so pumped and I'm so excited. You guys, thank you so much for watching today's video. I hope you enjoy and as always, I look forward to seeing everybody in my next one. Bye.