10th Grade Homeschool Recap

Peter's birthday is right before mothers day, so every year I remember that first mothers day when he was a newborn and I think: How can my little baby be this old?!?! This year he turned 16 and within days has a learners permit and a checking account. I watched a recorded presentation he was a part of recently for a state competition and I was blown away by how mature and grown up he seems.

Peter had a great homeschool year. There were a few bumps in the road that led to detours to plans but it all came out to be a wonderful learning journey for him this year. I'm delighted to see him growing more into himself and taking on tough challenges and excelling. He has high standards for himself and I have to remind him to be satisfied with good work. 

So let's take a look at what Peter worked on this year.

8th Grade Homeschool Recap, 2025-2026

Homeschooling John is such a pleasure these days. He is a hard worker and I can trust him to (usually) remember to do everything and stay on task. He took an online Spanish 1 class this year and I was so worried about having outside expectations and all the reading and writing and memorizing. And I had nothing to worry about. John did need some help with a fraction of assignments, but for the most part, he handled all the responsibility on his own and it was a great learning experience.

Moreover, he is an incredibly helpful and thoughtful child. He almost never complains when asked to help with something, whether physical help or his mechanical know how. He is also so open to trying new things and receptive to my advice. I know that some of that receptivity may change in the next few years and that is ok. I am raising adults after all. 

Here is what homeschooling looked like for John this year:

5th Grade Homeschool Recap, 2025-2026

My one and only daughter brings so much joy and creativity and caring into our lives. And she is the most different learner I have. I constantly feel like I am not doing the best to reach her and help her grow. But she continues to grow and learn regardless. 

This year she traveled to Italy, started the practice of written narration, learned to knit, and colored our lives with hundreds of beautiful works of handiwork.  Here is a snapshot of what her schoolwork looked like this year. 

2nd Grade Homeschool Recap, 2025-2026

Another year is in the books. Harry had a great year of learning and maturing. I finally have a verbose narrator and it is a lot of fun to hear his colorful descriptions and commentary on what he has read. He has gained so much confidence this year about trying new things and enjoying new experiences. 

9th Grade Homeschool Recap, 2024-2025

I have a high schooler! I'm not going to lie, it made me a little anxious this year. Peter has to earn credits. We can't just say, oh well, we are going to drop that and switch to something new. I mean, we can if we really have to, but he does need to earn a certain amount of credits. 

After I did a ton of research, we had a working lunch date in May of last year where I presented his options, answered his questions, and hammered out his first year of high school plans. And, although we did have to make some changes to our plans, everything has worked out very well.

Probably, the hardest part was that he had more hours of work per day than he was used to, but he adjusted to it and has grown up quite a bit this year. Here is a run down of his 9th grade coursework and credits.

7th Grade Homeschool Recap, 2024-2025

Homeschooling John is a lot of fun! Despite his love of sleeping in, he has become a very dedicated worker and handles all his school responsibilities with a great attitude. It is a joy to see his interests and aptitudes continue to develop. 

John went deeper into a lot of subjects and interests this year from battle bots to Magic the Gathering to programming to math. He is always open to try to new things and loves to be helpful, especially to his younger siblings and to his Grandma who lives down the street.

Here is what John worked on for his 7th grade year. 

4th Grade Homeschool Recap, 2024-2025

Sylvia is my only daughter and sometimes it feels like homeschooling her is unlike homeschooling my other children. Her talents and personality differ enough that I have had to be more flexible and take a slower path toward my educational vision. 

Like every year, this year Sylvia showed amazing growth both in her areas of greatest interest and her areas of greater challenge. She was able to read several of her own school books this year and be a lot more independent which works well for her. But she also seemed to enjoy our work time together more.

Here is what Sylvia accomplished for her fourth grade year.  

1st Grade Homeschool Recap, 2024-2025

Every year brings new excitement as we try new things and revisit some family favorites. But this year was extra exciting because it felt like homeschooling round two. My oldest son began 1st grade in 2016 and I added a child to our homeschool every two years as my three oldest children eased their way into our school routines. I learned on the fly while very busy with babies and toddlers. 

With Harry I got to do first grade again with the benefit of a little hindsight. But I also was managing three older homeschooling students and spending time with a preschooler. So it was both new and old.

Here is what we did this year for Harry's first grade year. 

6th Grade Homeschool Plans, 2023-2024

After last year's strengths-based approach, John is ready to take on a few more challenges, especially in terms of reading, spelling, and language mechanics. We've been easing into our new schedule and so far so good.

Here is what I've planned for John this year.

8th Grade Homeschool Plans, 2023-2024

Long gone are the days when I would have all my homeschool planning done at the beginning of summer and write these posts out way in advance. Haha! As the kids get older, our lives are so much fuller of activities and plans and travel and just talking to each other. 

I don't mind, really. It is good for me to embrace letting go of doing things perfectly. Or even doing things imperfectly but on my ideal schedule. 

But I thought I'd see just how quickly I could sketch out our homeschool plans for this year. First up, plans for Peter who is in 8th grade.

Second Grade Homeschool Snapshot, 2022-2023

Sylvia learns best when she learns on her own. I often wish she was more open to learning from me, but she has grown more open to it this year so progress is being made. I have gotten the best results by relaxing and encouraging her rather than trying to control her school day. 

I did require math and reading daily in small amounts, plus morning time. Before and after those were done Sylvia either played or crafted. Every day she would enroll her brothers in fort building, dress up, or some other kind of imaginative play for hours and hours inside and outside. When she tired of that, she worked on her many projects. 

Fifth Grade Homeschool Snapshot, 2022-2023

John loves to play and think and build. When he has the day to himself, he stays in bed until 9am or later daydreaming, plays with his younger siblings for several hours, then tinkers with his many projects while listening to fiction audiobooks.

He is a methodical thinker and likes to work at his own pace without rushing. This year, he took responsibility for a simple daily schedule that revolved around math, reading, and morning time plus his many projects and some audiobooks. Although the relaxed pace sometimes seemed too minimalistic, it provided a lot of space for the play and tinkering that he loves. 

Seventh Grade Homeschool Snapshot, 2022-2023

Since I never got around to posting our plans or even finishing my normal homeschool planning in the summer due to life happenings, I decided to list out the major things accomplished and books read instead of my usual recap and review post. 

Our homeschool theme this year could be described as non-coercive. I have always been very influenced by unschooling but Charlotte Mason's writings had previously reined in those tendencies. This year, I doubled down on my vision of the adults I'm trying to raise (self-motivated lifelong learners) and stopped pushing. I can see many ways that this has worked well for us. But this looked like getting rid of many practices that have born wonderful fruit in years past.

What I've learned from this year will influence my plans for next year. But always, it is trying to meet the children where they are at given my abilities that will play the biggest factor.

Recap and Review 1st/2nd Grade Charlotte Mason Homeschool Plans, 2021-2022

Sylvia started the year as a very young 2nd-grader who just turned 7 (the age I turned 3 months into my 1st-grade year). If I could go back in time, I would have given her a second year of kindergarten before starting 1st grade. But we did start early and so she thinks she just finished 2nd grade, but I feel like she did 1st-grade material. 

So I'll call this year we just finished 1st/2nd and next year 2nd/3rd and just see where she is at when its time to decide if she needs to take our state-required standardized tests for 3rd-graders. This year her reading took off in a big way so she may "catch up" in another year or so. Homeschooling is flexible which allows for that. On to the recap:

Recap and Review Fourth Grade Charlotte Mason Homeschool Plans 2021-2022

Another year is in the books for John! When I made this plan for him, I knew that I would have to be flexible and adapt depending on how his reading progressed. This year it feels so good to say that John is a reader. He can and does read recipes, instructions, signs, and even Shakespeare. But it isn't an effortless pleasure for him yet. 

So while my plans provided many opportunities for John to read, we didn't get to all of them this year. We also added some things that were a great fit even though I hadn't planned for them. I'm already thinking about how to provide the atmosphere and resources for John to continue to grow as a reader while supporting his interests in science and tinkering.

Recap and Review Sixth Grade Charlotte Mason Homeschool Plans 2021-2022

We have just wrapped up another fruitful year of homeschooling. My plans for Peter worked well, but of course, we all grew and changed throughout the year (including me) and so adjustments were made. I'm going to recap mostly what we did accomplish, but you can check out my original plans to compare all the things that we didn't get too this year!

2nd Grade Charlotte Mason Homeschool Plans, 2021-2022

Sylvia is the only girl in a house full of boys. She is so creative and is always sewing or finger knitting or folding paper or making something! The house is full of her creations. She also loves animals and will sometimes list all the animals she is going to own someday. Recently, she really has her heart set on getting rabbits to care for herself, but I'm not open to that for at least another year!

She loves being out in nature, although long hikes are still not her favorite. She caught and kept crickets again this summer and we got to observe all kinds of cricket behavior. She has a big heart and sometimes nature's way can be very overwhelming to her. We both cried yesterday to find that two large robin nestlings we had been observing since their hatching had died . . . maybe from the remnants of Ida?

Sylvia is a very young 2nd-grader who just turned 7 (the age I turned 3 months into my 1st-grade year). If I could go back in time, I would have given her a second year of kindergarten last year, but there was a recent change in PA education law and I wasn't sure how to interpret it at the time. 

So, last year was 1st grade and this year 2nd grade. But I have determined that she still needs a very gentle year. We are continuing to work on big feelings and fears and perfectionism that interfere with learning on some days. I have faith that if we continue forward with consistency, she will "catch up" to her numerical grade in another year or two (just as her older brother has almost "caught up" with peers in reading). 

Here is the very simple year I have planned for newly 7-year-old Sylvia. 

4th Grade Charlotte Mason Homeschool Plans, 2021-2022

This year feels very different with John in a good way. He is reading with so much more ease than ever before. In a momentary place of insecurity, I googled phonics instruction for older children a month or so ago and found this article which just reaffirmed what I already knew. John needs to practice reading. He needs to see himself as a reader and he needs to build fluency through reading books, not phonics. Period.

Every year I try to intuit what is the right balance of subjects and pages and reading levels for each child. And this year, I cut and simplified for everyone. For John, this looks like doing many of the typical form II subjects and practices while skipping ones like grammar, map drill, and written narration (for now, at least!) because they just don't meet up with his reading ability. 

We are also not including any foreign language. It isn't in my wheelhouse and John doesn't enjoy any kind of rote memorization. He is more of a free-spirit creative type and we love him for it. 

Sixth Grade Charlotte Mason Homeschool Plans, 2021-2022

It is August and I finally feel like myself again after surviving one of the strangest years and my most difficult year of homeschooling yet. I'm so glad that we had a LONG break from early May until early August that we filled with two out-of-state camping trips, our usual cottage camping at a state park, and lots of trips to the pool, playgrounds, and state parks nearby.

But we did have to return to "official" homeschooling eventually and I would rather start in early August, take many days off, and finish early than be slogging away at our 180 days come June. So we started last week and even though there are going to be some small tweaks to come, it went very well. Here is what I have planned for my 11-year-old sixth-grader:

1000-1650 Living Book History Plans for Second, Fourth, and Sixth Grade Charlotte Mason Homeschool

Every year I feel like I am refining what the best books for our homeschool look like. I'm learning new things while unlearning or correcting some of the defects of my own history education (that officially ended in high school because I took zero history courses after that).

This year I combed through MANY possible choices for history books and additional or supplemental books for studying a very difficult and lengthy historical period. The books I was seeking needed to be

1. Living books, that is full of living ideas and told in a narrative style that doesn't talk down to the student
2. Written in a way that represents native people of the Americas, explorers, colonists, and African Americans in a way that I feel good about sharing with my children and matches our family values (aka has the ideas that I want to nourish my children)
3.  At a reading level that my 2 older students can read (nearly) independently, even given that my middle student is not a strong reader yet.
4. Affordable