Curriculum Choices for 2020/2021

Trying to plan school for the fall while having no idea what will be going on in the world is confusing. Last year we went to a hybrid twice a week. I taught kindergarten, and Chaosman was in class with me. Animal Lover was in 1st, and Purplelicious was in the pre-k room. Our plan would have been to return in the fall, but I’m not sure what will happen now.

We still haven’t gotten an official word on what will be happening for school in the fall, and it is stressing me out. My anxiety does not like when I cannot control things, and clearly, this is something I cannot control. I have been trying not to worry about it and plan as if we will be home, but I wish I knew, one way or the other.

I am assuming that the school will open, but everyone will have to wear masks, in which case we will stay home full-time until they aren’t required. We are not anti-mask, but we also don’t want the kids to wear them all day when we have another option.

The hybrid uses mostly the Mother of Divine Grace curriculum, so we’ll be mainly sticking with that, in case we can go back to the hybrid this year, but I’m changing a few things. I’m swapping MODG Science for Noeo Biology and adding Story of Civilizations for History. Animal Lover especially loves Science and History, and these, I think, will add a bit more for us to do.

For Chaosman, I am swapping Abeka math for Beast Academy. He did both the Kindergarten and First-grade Abeka book last year and complained that both were “too easy and boring.” Hopefully, this will be a better fit for him. I still haven’t decided what Animal Lover will be doing for Math. The Abeka that we did last year was painful to get through with her. I think we were both dreading math last year, so I am thinking about going back to Math U See for her which had worked well for kindergarten, or I might see if she thinks the Beast Academy book looks interesting to her since it would be helpful for me if they were both using the same math.

Here’s my plan so far of what we’ll be using:

	Animal Lover	Chaosman
Religion	Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism, The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism	St Joseph’s First Communion Catechism
Math	Math U See? Beast Academy?	Beast Academy 2
English	Little Angel Reader Book 2, Explode the Code 3, Seton Second Grade Faith and Freedom Readers	Little Angel Reader 1, Explode the Code 1, Seton First Grade Faith and Freedom Readers
Geography	MODG Second Grade Map Skills	MODG First Grade Map Skills
Handwriting	MODG Writing Our Catholic Faith Grade 2, Read Write Now 1	MODG Writing Our Catholic Faith Grade 1, Read Write Now 4
History	TAN Books Story of the Civilization: Ancient Civilizations	TAN Books Story of the Civilization: Ancient Civilizations
Art	MODG Second Grade Art, beginner crochet book	MODG First Grade Art
Music	First Book of the Recorder, Music Theory Made Easy for Kids Level 1, Zeezok Music Appreciation	Music Theory Made Easy for Kids Level 1, Zeezok Music Appreciation
Science	Noeo Biology I	Noeo Biology I
Poetry	Harp and Laurel	Harp and Laurel

It’s making me feel a bit better to have something semi-planned, even if we have to change it.

If we aren’t able to go to the hybrid, there will be some benefits to staying home. Part of the beauty of homeschooling is that your kids can work at their own pace, and I felt being at the hybrid changed this. I always felt like we had to make sure we got everything done on the class’s timeline, instead of our own. So it would be nice to be able to move at our own pace again.

However, I will miss the break it gave me. Well, maybe not really a break since I was teaching, but it was a change of pace and gave me adult interaction, which felt like a break. On those days, I was able to go to the bathroom by myself and eat lunch with a bunch of other moms. So it felt like a vacation. And I’ll miss the friends we made and the school community. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.

How are your plans for the fall going?