"The Reading Journal is 168 lessons recommended for grades 2-8. Comprised of 28 unique lessons that focus on vocabulary, word study, comprehension, and higher-level thinking skills, the journal cycles through each lesson 6 times throughout the year, providing just the right amount of practice without too much monotony.

Whether you're a newbie or an OG Homeschooler, curriculum choices can be tough. Do you continue with what you've used before? Try something new? Do a box curriculum? Follow a friend's recommendation? There are SO many options! And honestly, there are way too many amazing options to choose from. I personally struggle with being able to narrow down our choices and actually stick to something. There are so many that I love that I find myself trying to squeeze in more than I should...

While it's a super exciting time and I'm incredibly proud of him, I'm a little sad. I absolutely love this program and am sad to see it end. I honestly wish they would extend it with further levels of challenging readers, attaching comprehension questions to them. My son absolutely loves the stories. I love that they're wholesome and funny. If we could continue on, we would! Unfortunately, that's a wish that probably won't come true any time soon, so we will have to move on to something else.



Since my son completed Level 4 right before summer break, my goal is to have him pick out books of interest and participate in local summer reading programs at the library, Barnes and Noble, etc. My goal is to allow him time to just enjoy the act of reading.


Beyond the summer activities, my goal is to move forward with Brave Writer. I'm working through reading The Writer's Jungle and Jot It Down and plan to incorporate various ideas into our 2018-2019 school year. I also want to do a set of Arrows. I have yet to decide if I'm going to order the standard set or pick out books individually, though.

Ultimately, after my son flew through All About Reading over the last two years, I want to take the next year and take a very relaxed approach and just enjoy the act of reading. My hope is that by going the Brave Writer route, we can have a stress-free, fun year of reading!

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Depending on where you're from, teaching your students the difference between short I and short E might be harder than you'd think! We have this problem. It wasn't until I found a great blog post giving validation to my struggle that I realized this is a legit issue -- it's not just me, ha!

Over the years, our family has lived in several different states (and even overseas). All this time, I never really thought that I had much of an accent. That was until I started trying to teach my son how to spell, ha! No matter how hard I try, I personally can't separate the sounds of short I and short E (in certain words). It almost feels painful to deliberately say pen instead of pin or men instead of min. Every time I ask him to spell pen or men, he immediately jumps to pin or min. The same goes for get being spelled git. I find myself slowing it down and deliberately saying "g-eh-t" if I want to ensure he understands what I'm asking him to spell. I can't help but laugh about it, but it drives us both nuts!



Well, in the frustration of it all, I started looking up ways to help remedy this problem. Luckily, I ran across a fantastic article that validated our struggle! It helped me realize I'm not crazy. It's not just me. It turns out, there's a whole section of the country that typically struggles with this! Who knew?!

Thanks to the wonderful people at All About Spelling, I found a great game to help my son work on the spelling of words with the short I and short E sounds! I highly recommend checking out this free printable if your student has a similar struggle. I think it's something we're going to continue to play once a week to really reinforce it.





I would also recommend checking out the other great tips given by All About Spelling to help with distinguishing between the two sounds. If you're like me, you'll take all the help you can get! Hey...anything to make it easier on both you and your student, right?!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!! I'll forever love and promote this program! If you've been following my blog, then you've read how I truly believe this program is what helped knock out my son's speech delay -- if not, click here to read about it. It has truly been a blessing to our family. My 6 year old now reads anything and everything and is excited to do so! He completed Level 3 in December and while we still plan on going through Level 4, he can now read chapter books without issue. It warms my heart hearing him read various things that I wouldn't expect. Just last night, he was looking at the book for his Rube Goldberg toy he bought and read (out loud) every little things on the box out of curiosity. It's so sweet hearing the inflection in his voice as he has little "ah-ha" moments as he reads. This is by far my favorite curriculum we've used!


LOVE IT! Even though we shelved our science textbooks and decided to just do interest-led science this year, this is still a winner. Sam loves every chance he gets to pull these kits out! After reading up on others' experiences though, I will only recommend getting the STEMdeluxe. We have only ever done the STEMdeluxe and it sounds like those that got the regular one received something much different (and not worth the cost). I love the experiment guide and parent booklet that helps teach the lessons. Plus, there are enough supplies to do the experiments multiple times -- total win!

Sort of LOVE IT! Overall, I love it. I continue to struggle at times with how long lessons can take, but this is a solid curriculum and for that, I love it. I continue to go back and forth on wanting something a little more bright and colorful, but every time I lean towards trying something else, I come back to this. Whether it's because the methods in which things are taught, or the lack the teaching assistance. I REALLY love having the script. I'm a math nerd and LOVE it, but I still don't want to have to worry about missing something on how to teach a method. I love that I can just open and go with Saxon. Sure, there are things it tells you to prep ahead of time, but I don't do that, ha! Who has time for that? ;) I love that no matter what distractions are around us (usually having to do with my 3 year old), I can read the script and know that all is covered and understood. I will say, once I know my son has mastered something in the Meeting section, we don't bother with doing it daily. We also only do Side A of the daily worksheets unless my son is struggling with something -- then we review that portion on Side B. Otherwise, the daily lessons would take MUCH longer. I think we'll be sticking with Saxon for the long haul...

LOVE IT! We've been using this for our social studies curriculum and Sam has really enjoyed it! After trying SOTW and hating it, I just decided to do People and Places and call it a day. Any other history lessons are interest-led and via library books that Sam picks out. At 6 years old, I figured this is sufficient. I love that we got it for $4 and can print all the worksheets for free from the website. I also love that it's at Sam's reading level, so he reads all the lessons himself and feels a sense of accomplishment as he goes through it. We have also been enjoying the crafts/activities that are suggested throughout the book. We'll definitely be using it again with Caleb!



While I really like this program (and will highly recommend it), I'm not going to put it in the LOVE it category for a few reasons. I'm still torn on how I want to approach spelling in our homeschool. The more I read about the Brave Writer lifestyle, the more I want to consider going that route with spelling. We haven't been as dedicated to this as we are All About Reading. With that said, I do still like that this program teaches the rules rather than just memorizing sight words or having a list and test every week. I love that my son can just sound out a word and know how to spell it based on the rules he has covered. This has allowed for him to figure out the spelling on words we haven't specifically covered. If you're looking for a specific spelling curriculum, I'd definitely use this one. The only decision I need to make is if we're going to continue down this road, or move towards the Brave Writer mentality with spelling -- I'm leaning that way...


This has been a good handwriting curriculum for us. My son has enjoyed this more than what we used last year (Handwriting Without Tears), and his handwriting continues to improve. I like that each week focuses on a Bible verse and that it encourages the student to produce their best work on their final draft of the verse to give as a gift to someone. Sam loves deciding who he's going to give his final draft to and works hard on making it look nice. Ultimately, for a specific handwriting curriculum, I'd definitely choose this one. The only reason it's not in the LOVE it category is simply because I don't think it's completely necessary. You could easily replicate it for free and make your own handwriting worksheets. However, if you want to buy something and not have to worry about preparing anything, I'd grab this...




I border between liking and loving this curriculum. It's very repetitive, which is sometimes a drag. However, I know that's also a good thing in the long run. Sam has retained much of what we've covered and the lessons are super short -- major win! Sometimes, we do multiple lessons in one sitting. I like that it's a very gentle introduction into grammar while still covering everything. We plan to continue with Level 2 next year...


I still like the idea of this curriculum, but we shelved it for now. I think we may try again next year when Sam's a bit older. I couldn't keep his attention with it, and I let myself get overwhelmed with the recommended activities -- trying to do them ALL. We ended up just doing an interest-led science this year. Whatever Sam's interested in learning about, we'll cover that via the library, Netflix, and Youtube. I'd still recommend this if you want a Christian-based science program, though. It's a very solid program...



HATE IT! I'm sorry...did I say that out loud? I feel like it's blasphemous to say that as a homeschooler. Most homeschoolers love it and promote it like crazy. We lasted less than a week. Sam was falling asleep. I was falling asleep reading it to him -- literally...in the middle of the day, a total snoozefest. We tried the audio version -- it's worse. I'd say our family loves learning history, but not with this curriculum. My husband is a total history nerd and he couldn't take more than 5 minutes of the audio version in the car. To each his own...this one was not for us. I still have the material and keep saying we might try again next year, but I'm only kidding myself. I will say, there is one perk...If I put the cd's on at bedtime, my boys are out in less than 5 minutes, ha! In all seriousness though, I won't say don't try it. There are SO many families that LOVE it! However, don't feel bad if it's just not for you. I would highly recommend checking with your local library before you buy it, though. Ours had it, but I was #7 on the wait list and it took all summer before it was my turn to check it out. Knowing it would take that long, we gave in and just bought it -- lesson on patience right there, ha! I'd recommend testing it out to see if it's the right fit. After our experience with this curriculum, we decided to just let history be interest-led this year, but I am looking into Beautiful Feet for next year...


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The most recent activity we've done -- and something that I plan to submit for his math sample -- is an activity at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. If you've been to Disney's California Adventure, then you might be familiar with their Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. It's my son's absolute FAVORITE!!! Anytime we're at Disney, that's the first place we have to stop. He loves everything about it!

A post shared by OurCrazyHomeschoolLife (@crazyhomeschoollife) on Oct 12, 2017 at 9:04pm PDT

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School has officially begun in our house! I can't believe I have a 1st Grader and a Preschooler! Time goes way WAY too fast!!! I feel like our summer break just started, and yet here we are...

Because the first day is always a day worth celebrating, we started it off right with a fun breakfast. Sam picked pancakes with strawberries + whipped cream -- can't argue with that!

Caleb was still asleep or else he would've been in the photo, too.

So, I wrote last week about lesson planners and how I was still debating which route I was going to take. There are so many options and great ways to approach it! Well, after my little guy "helped" me organize our All About Reading flash cards earlier this morning, I decided I had better get moving on the planner issue so that I could start making lesson plans. After all, school will be here before we know it and if it's on my mind right now, I had better do it. So, I decided to go ahead and print out one of the styles that I had created for Etsy. (see below)