Enrolled in one of the Todos Santos public schools full-time, and homeschooling part-time, our girls’ are clocking in a fair number of academic hours. Because of this, I have chosen to take a more relaxed approach to our homeschooling curriculum this year.

But yes, we are still doing both.

I am a bit of a homeschooling nerd. I enjoy researching the different curriculums and finding what will work best for our girls’ learning styles and for my teaching style. Also keeping in mind that they are in school every day learning most subjects there, IN SPANISH.

What Their School Days Look Like 

From 8-12:30, Monday-Friday, the girls are at school. At a desk. With classmates. And with a teacher that is not me. They learn all the core subjects one would expect in elementary school.

-Language Arts (Spanish)

-Math

-Science

-History

-Geography

-Social Studies

-Physical Education and Health

-Art

 

 

After School

When they get home from school we eat lunch and then it is nap time for an hour and a half.

YES! HOORAY! TOTAL AMAZINGNESS! OUR GIRLS STILL NAP!

During that time Ellia sleeps the entire time (which she truly needs or she gets overly emotional at the end of the night). Arias, we have given permission to read for half of that time and nap the second half.

Once they wake up and have taken a few minutes to truly wake up, that’s when we attack homework and prep for afternoon extracurricular activities.

Right now the girls are enrolled in Theatre, Dance, and Art. They have afternoon classes 4 days a week.

 

 

Where Homeschooling Fits In

As I mentioned, I am taking a little more relaxed approach to our homeschooling this year.

Given that the girls are learning most subjects at school, I don’t feel the need to be redundant and homeschool them again in those same subjects. And given that they are already behind a desk for those school hours of the day, if they have homework, I don’t feel the need to make them sit at the table for more time after they have finished their school assignments.

If the girls come home without homework, or if for some reason they don’t have school, that’s when we homeschool.

My main focus for their homeschooling is English. They are not taught English in their school, so that subject falls on me.

Arias devours books. And Ellia is what I would call a reluctant reader. So I figured having a literature-based curriculum this year would fit both their needs nicely. Giving Arias a curriculum that she can excel in because of her personal interest in reading. And allowing Ellia and I to focus on her reading, Language Arts, and Spelling skills.

 

The Curriculum I Chose

For their core curriculum this year I decided to go with the FUNSCHOOLING program. We went with a literature/journaling style of program.

It’s giving the girls a lot of freedom in the general theme that they want to be learning.    

Arias chose to go with a Mythology theme. Ellia chose animals. So with those themes, we get reading material along those lines, and then they must follow along in their curriculum journal, sometimes writing essays about what they read. Some times working on spelling with words out of their reading books. The journals have found ways to incorporate math, history, science, geography, world news, and even cooking into them.

I am really enjoying the program so far, although it is more laidback than how I was used to teaching them in the past. I have to keep reminding myself that they go to school and don’t need to be going to school full-time and homeschooling full-time!

 

 

Funny (not so funny) side note: I got Arias 3 mythology books. Children’s encyclopedia-style. Greek Myths, Norse Myths, and 50 Goddesses. So that she could use them for her core curriculum. They were meant to be for her semester of work. She read all three within the first two weeks of receiving them. Devoured them. I’m like…”Now what!?”

 

Supplementing the above, because of course, I supplement, self-proclaimed learning nerd here, I can’t help myself! We also use:

–Story of the World. This is an amazing resource for world history, geography, reading and reading comprehension, writing, map work, art, cooking. It covers a lot and I just love it.

–Singapore Math. Our girls both enjoy doing math, and both are good at it. We throw in some math work every now and again (on top of what they are learning in school) using these workbooks.

–BrainPop and TedEd. When the girls ask for screen time we make that educational too. Both BrainPop (subscription needed) and TedEd (free) are great online resources. They never complain when we tell them it has to be one of those two options.

 

It All Works Out

The girls’ education is of top importance to us. We never want our traveling and lifestyle to hinder their education and their futures. And right now, I don’t believe it is. I feel like it is all working out.

At school, the girls have two very dedicated teachers who are doing great work with their students. At home, they get a very dedicated set of parents, a homeschooling mama or two homework helpers, whichever the day calls for. Then they have their extracurriculars with a fun and talented crew of teachers. And then there are all the other hours in the day where they are learning life skills from …the world around them.

All in all, I think they are getting a very well rounded education. I am super happy with how it is all going on their “educational front”.