 I'm not gonna lie while I do love Saxon. I really don't know if I'm going to continue with the Saxon series Hey, you guys my name is Brittany and welcome back to my youtube channel you guys in today's video I'm going to be sharing my mid-year curriculum review 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 4 and 2 and I'm in my third year of homeschool So you guys this is actually like one of my favorite videos to make especially when I'm reflecting on Just my first semester that I have completed in our homeschool year It is really nice for me to come back and kind of reflect on All of the curriculum that we have used what has worked and what hasn't I know a lot of you guys say of these videos that I make are so helpful for you in your homeschool So i'm excited yet again to make another video sharing all about our mid-year curriculum review Um, so you guys I have some notes. I'm going to try to make this video as short and concise as I possibly can So, um, let's go ahead and get on into this thing you guys So you guys this year I decided to separate out my curriculum videos for uh, each of my kiddos because now I am actually homeschooling Two of my kiddos. So in this video, I will be talking about all of my uh, fifth graders curriculum And what we have been using what we have switched what we've been loving and then in my next video I will talk about my pre cares curriculum and the things we've been enjoying and loving for her as well So you guys um in no particular order I'm just going to go ahead and grab some of the things that I have on my nugget and we're going to get started So I think I'm going to go ahead and highlight my favorite overall curriculum We have used this homeschooling year It was the priciest curriculum that I purchased this year. Um, it has to go to IEW you guys, um, I know I have so many videos on my channel about IEW And it's just because of how much I really have been enjoying These writing instructions led by Andrew Poudawa. You guys, I really love this curriculum It is allowing Brielle to be independent and it's really helping her become a stronger writer Um, overall this curriculum. I definitely will give it like three thumbs ups Like it's just definitely been amazing If I can add anything to IEW you guys the only thing that I would add to is I wish they had some type of online grading component for, uh, submitting in like your kiddos writing assignment So you can kind of get feedback from someone else about your kiddos writing, but um Maybe IEW might do something like that in the future. Who knows but um, you know, other than that you guys I definitely have been enjoying this video. If you want to know more about IEW I will link down all the videos that I made about IEW So you guys can kind of like follow up if you want to see us doing a lesson with IEW my initial reviews pros cons Um, just all of those things I will go ahead and link those videos down below But IEW has definitely been like one of our favorite pieces of curriculum this homeschooling year Um, along with IEW guys, we have utilized Fixit Grammar So Brielle has completed the Fixit Grammar booktube, which is town mouse and country mouse You guys, uh, we definitely really have been enjoying Fixit Grammar Another book we're on right now is the Fixit Grammar book three, which is from or which is called robin hood You guys like i'm fumbling over my words already, but um, we've been enjoying Fixit Grammar You guys at first like I said before I was not a believer of just only doing one sentence a day to really master and hone in those grammar skills However, after Brielle completing like the nose tree and she's completed the second book, which is town mouse and country mouse I definitely have noticed just overall Her skills when it comes to grammar is definitely has improved tremendously. Um, just the way she's able to identify these parts of speech She's learning about so many different things just by doing that one sentence a day It is very effective and thorough. I am a believer now and um, I definitely have been enjoying using Fixit Grammar in our homeschool this year Something else in a language arts component that Brielle has been doing that doesn't necessarily follow a curriculum has been creative writing And you guys I am going to highlight some of the creative writing stories. She has written This school or this semester so far not school year The first book she completed this school year She wrote a story and it's called the illusions of aunt artica All of these drawings right here that you're seeing Brielle actually illustrated herself on procreate She is really really getting good on that app So this right here is one of her first creative writing stories She made this year the second creative writing stories. She did was lost in disney world, which was so cute I really really enjoyed her reading this one to me and then the last story that she wrote was creative carer um, so brielle really really has been enjoying doing creative writing in our homeschool you guys and um I definitely have noticed an improvement like in her creative writing Especially as we have been doing iew and really focusing on her writing skills. Um, writing is just something she really really enjoys to do So I love uh, just allowing her to be able to have that space to be able to add in creative writing in our homeschool Um, so you guys that is just something I definitely wanted to highlight. Um, since we're talking about language arts Let me go ahead and pull out the rest of the components of language arts that we're doing for her Uh, we are doing 180 days of spelling and word study you guys and this definitely has been a great spelling program Spelling and vocabulary program I really have to say because 180 days of spelling does go over like the latin root words prefixes suffixes synonyms anonyms analogies Filling up links is so many activities that does help the kiddos focus on the spelling and the vocabulary of Just the words so I really really have been enjoying this in the beginning of our school year We was doing both 180 days of spelling and word study and wordly wise However, I felt that briel was retaining the vocabulary words a lot better by using 180 days of spelling and word study Not necessarily through wordly wise. So we stopped using this book fairly early on. It's nothing wrong with wordly wise. It's another, um Great vocabulary program I just find that briel is really mastering and holding in on those vocabulary skills by learning those root words And learning those prefixes and suffixes instead of just memorizing a list of words. So, um, this just has been working out better for us Another thing that has been going really really great in our homeschool has been reading comprehension We have been utilizing reading detective through the critical thinking company And you guys this is definitely a great book for reading comprehension. It goes over figurative languages Inference and skills. Um, I really love having briel actually have to write out some of her answers When she is doing, um, these reading comprehension tests I really like the higher order of thinking that is having her do And I know a lot of times she doesn't like the way that this book presents the questions However, I know is definitely going to help her in the future As she is going to be taking more standardized testing I do live in a state where I do have to test So having books like this is so beneficial For me in my homeschool and it's really allowing briel to be more comfortable in doing a test taken Especially within reading comprehension. So you guys, I really love the critical thinking company And I definitely think I will be buying more things from the company overall because this reading detective book has been just like great in our homeschool Um, another book we've been doing is handwriting without tears you guys Handwriting without tears is actually the only curriculum we have done since our first year of homeschool We started off with the orange cursive book and we went throughout the whole cursive series And this is the last cursive book in the handwriting without sear or handwriting without tears series I do have the yellow book which goes over like a print and it has a teeny bit of cursive in that book However, briel did say she wanted to do more cursive So I do need to pick her up another cursive workbook for next semester since she finished off the last cursive book And handwriting without tears, but overall you guys I definitely have loved this program and it's so crazy that now i'm going through the beginning of this program with my four-year-old it's so crazy how Great they teach the kiddos how to actually form Their letters and I really really have been enjoying Doing the print with leia my younger one and then a sam briel master and finish her cursive book So great handwriting book. I love it. Okay you guys um something else that I was doing at the beginning of our school year when it came to like grammar was using Rotten staff build an english series We use this build an english series in our second year of homeschool and you guys this definitely is a great and thorough English program It is teacher intensive. So you as a teacher you do have to go in and teach your kiddos The english lessons in here. However, um, I really have seen it benefit us in our second year of homeschool Really allowing briel to hone in on those like grammar skills It really focuses on like diagramming of sentences. This curriculum. You guys is the old school midnight curriculum But it's very thorough. It's very concise and briel has definitely learned a lot by completing Rotten staff. However, this year you guys I was really finding that because briel has a heavier writing year doing IEW structure and style. I really had to let some things go So, um, I had to let go rod and staff. Um, it is a great and thorough english program If you guys want to know more about it, I definitely will make a dedicated video to rod and staff because um, I really don't see that many people talking about rod and staff. It definitely is a great program However, I really had to like simplify things in our homeschool and by simplifying I had to take out an extra grammar program that it necessarily wasn't needed Especially since we are doing fix it grammar. It was just something that we were used to and we did in our previous years But uh, yeah, that is something that we have dropped this school year So you guys I still have a pile of stuff. We're gonna go ahead and keep on going with this mid-year curriculum review I guess we'll go ahead and go into history now So for history you guys we have definitely been enjoying history this homeschooling year I think history is another one of our highlights. Um in our first two years of homeschooling We really did focus heavily on geography. So it's really been fun diving into american history So the first history curriculum I'm going to highlight that we have been really enjoying has been our african american history Which has been through heart and soul and this is the heritage path We have been reading the book heart and soul And you guys this book if you just if you just grab this book, it's definitely suffice This is definitely a great book that I feel like every homeschooler should have Especially when going over um american history. It definitely has been a great addition. The illustrations are beautiful One of the chapter books that we have read with the heart and soul pack that has been amazing Was 40 acres and may be a mule if you are in like that reconstruction era, especially after the emancipation proclamation This book right here. You guys is a great addition for you to read as far as historical fiction in your homeschool I just love hearing the perspective of these african americans Slaves that were free and their journey through that reconstruction era It really really was a great and beautifully told story Uh, I think briel told me this was one of her favorite historical fictions that we read this whole semester And I definitely have to agree. So if you don't do anything But just get this book right here heart and soul and 40 acres and maybe a mule you guys You will not be disappointed. Um, these books have definitely been great in us doing our african american history Some of the other books that we read with heart and soul the picture books Was the escape of ani judge and this was another great picture book We read brick by brick, which is actually a powerful story of the building of the white house. You guys This was a great picture book Um, another one that we read was only passing through which is the story of sojourner truth Another awesome picture book and the last picture book that we read that concluded the halfway point of our heart and soul Was dave the potter again another great great great picture book So overall, we definitely have been enjoying our african american history Now as far as like our main history We've been using we started off our school year using a beautiful feats early american Intermediate edition, which is a literature based history curriculum You guys I have a separate video all about beautiful feats early american history my review my overall thoughts and opinions of this curriculum I'm just going to be short and sweet with it. I definitely will say this guy. I love it. It's great Um, the literature has been great with beautiful feet The only thing I didn't like about beautiful feet was their main spine that they was using for this overall curriculum I could have made it work However, it would have taken away from the aspect of a curriculum being open and go and with me being a busy mom of three I really need that aspect of being able just to open up a curriculum and for it to tell me like what to do Um, I could have pieced it together and made it work, but I just didn't have the time you guys Overall beautiful feet as a company. Um, I love all their literature studies And I may be using another one in the future, but this one just didn't work out for us in our home school So what we did was we made a switch to Blossom and root a river of voices and I will definitely have to tell you guys I have really really really been loving this curriculum I have a video on my channel all about us doing a lesson from blossom and roots of river voices I love just the overall setup of this curriculum. Um, it's not as structured as beautiful feet schedule So I love how I'm able to take a minimalist approach for that week If I want to and just stick to like the meat or if I want to I can add like the book baskets And we can add in the extra picture books and we can do like a activity or a project or something like that For that week's activity. So I love the Flexibility of a river of voices and how again like I'm able to do it either simple for one week Or I'm able to like add in all the fun extras for another week. So A river of voices has definitely been a great fit in our home school I love the spines that we're reading and again, I love all of the literature Right now we are actually reading alliance guard us which has been a great great great picture book I mean great great great chapter book We've read children of the long house and um, so far the chapter books We've been reading with the weeks has been great as well. So a river of voices great If you want to know more about it, I do have a separate video all about a river of voices Okay, you guys, um, let's go ahead and get into math So we started off our home school year finishing off saxon Six five we did a mid year curriculum switch in our fourth grade year to saxon So we actually started this off in January, so we worked from january until september with this level and briel completed it and you guys overall I mean, I love saxon. It's great. We utilized nicole the math lady Um, I did add in the nicole the math ladies grading when we moved into the saxon seven six level We moved into saxon seven six in october and you guys, um While saxon has definitely been a little bit more challenging for briel going into this level because She is working on the concepts a lot longer. Um I still love this curriculum. It works for briel. Um, wow Since we have been doing the on the line or since we have been doing the nicole the math ladies online grading I'm really able to get a better track of her grades and overall She's she's doing great with this program even though it does take time It's more lengthier at this level. Um, it's still working out for her Um, one thing I definitely will say is that since saxon is a spiral math program, I really feel like I have to um stay consistent and stay close in looking at briel's work Seeing the problems that she's getting wrong versus the problems that she's understanding and getting right because I feel like by Using spiral curriculums, especially at this level some concepts can like fall under the wayside and you can Form gaps if you're not really careful with saxon. I'm not utilizing this curriculum the way it's meant to use by doing Every single uh mix practice problem We're either doing evens or odds and then she's doing the lesson practice with this program To really make it a workout for us in our home school So I really have to make sure I'm honing in and watching and making sure She's mastering all of the skills and I'm not missing anything But I think that's overall uh with math in general So I'm really keeping a close eye, especially since this is the level before she gets to pre-algebra So you guys I'm not going to lie. Um while I do love saxon I really don't know if I'm going to continue with the saxon series for briel for pre-algebra I actually already have eight seven on my shelf for next year. Uh, but you guys I don't know Um, the only thing that I don't like about the program is the lengthiness of it And I don't know if I can take out any problems and briel still get a solid math Program by me taking out more problems and customizing it even more. Um, but overall, um, she's doing great Her test scores uh after using saxon has went up. So I know it's working Um, maybe I'm just not in love with it because of the length of time it is taking her But we're going to stick with it for the rest of the semester and the rest of this year And then we will make a decision going into our, um, next year of homeschool So you guys the last things I'm going to talk about is going to be science in our beauty loop So for science, we have utilized, uh, heaven and earth by god's design and you guys, uh, we used heaven and earth last year using the, uh, life Uh, the life part which went over like the human body animals and plants So this year we have started off using our universe and you guys we have not been as consistent with science this semester We've really been a heavy into writing history. We've been doing way way better with those subjects So I definitely know going into second semester. I do have to make sure I um beef up the science and I make sure We are able to at least complete two of these units in the science curriculum I'm really hoping to start our water and weather in february and finish up our universe in january. So Hopefully we can beef up science and we can be more consistent with it Um, I definitely love the experiments and god's design for life because they're definitely, uh, simpler They're just using household materials and it's nothing I really have had to Go outside of my house to get to do the science experiments Um, I really don't like the worksheets that the teacher's guide has in it And I really have been utilizing a lot of teachers pay teachers Worksheets, especially for briel to do like notebook and things in her science journal So that's another way I am customizing god's design for life But overall, it's uh been going okay. I just really feel like I need to be more consistent with this science program So you guys as far as our beauty loop, it really has been nonexistent Like I have chosen like a music curriculum Our art curriculum and a hem study curriculum Um, and I'm going to tell you guys what we actually have done this semester So we've actually completed the heritage mom's hem study this semester and we did this along with our Just bible and morning time and learning all about these different hems has definitely been a great Added addition in our morning basket. We love listening to the very the variety of genres with this curriculum It's definitely was was great. Um, so we did a little bit of a hem study and you know, we completed this Like I said, so it's definitely was good. Um, something else that we did in a beauty loop was briel She's still working on the piano. She's utilized in hoffman academy. Uh, which is a online Video lessons for piano. She's been doing really really well. She's on unit 10 right now Um, and again, uh, we've been utilizing hoffman academy since our second year foam school So this is briel second year Doing piano now you guys as far as our living art lessons and our living harmonies Which is our music curriculum you guys like these it just it just didn't happen I think we did one lesson of our living art lesson and we haven't done any lessons in our music curriculum And i'm really hoping that this second semester Because I am shaving off some of those like extra things that I did have in language arts that I can really make sure I find time for us to at least do one of these I asked briel if she could choose between art and music Which one she would want to focus on next semester to make sure we are more consistent with it And she told me she wants to try for us to finish Living harmonies in our second semester since we finished Our hymn study. So this year will technically be like more of a music year this year So hopefully by me like eliminating one of our beauty loops and really just focusing on music Hopefully we can add into like some of our enrichment and fun things So you guys this is my mid-year curriculum review for briel my fifth grader I really hope you enjoy hearing all the things that has worked out for us in our home school Some of the things that may not have worked out for our home school So you guys thank you so much for watching today's video and I look forward to seeing everybody in my next one Bye