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How are the girls liking Little Women? It’s in my ‘25-26 plan

I purchased blossom and root as well as torchlight both kindergarten level to see which we liked best. Right now we are 3/4 of the way through blossom and root. It's not my favorite, but it's not terrible. I'm hoping we vibe better with Torchlight. We started with the good and the beautiful because it was recommended by a homeschooling friend, and while it is both good and beautiful I no longer want it to be our main curriculum. I purchased through second grade (so much for getting ahead) and we will use them, but at a much slower pace. Their math is super rigorous and my daughter needed some supplementing. We tried Eureka math, and that was fine for a month or so. She started complaining about the number of problems/videos for each concept, and so we changed to Math with Confidence level 1. She asks every day to do the "tree math". It's a great program and we will definitely be continuing on with that. Thanks for posting your videos and curriculum hits and misses. It's really helpful. I know not all kids learn the same, but it's really helpful to hear the reasons why/why not the curriculum worked.

It won’t let me comment under your response, but in terms of the trello… ​​⁠it’s super easy! You go to the three dots in the right upper corner and go down to visibility. I currently use it for ONE class, but doing it all together for everything would be so great!

Also, we’re doing so much of the same curriculum for your second graders, are you able to share your trello board so I can get an idea of how you set it up?

Oh I love that elemental science has a “what should you know”. Do they offer this without purchasing their curriculum??

Nice video! Very informative. I need that gold binder in my life. Where did you find it? I don't see a link.

Well just twist my arm 😂 We definitely already have enough curriculum, but I love everything that you mentioned! I believe we follow a more secular Charlotte Mason approach with a lot of other eclectic-ness thrown in. Can't wait to see your future videos!

One of my best thrift finds to date was Kaya's World for $30!

chopin and monet are my favorite. there is a seurat painting and an edward hopper painting that are my favorites over all though.

New to your channel! 😁 Thank you for sharing this tutorial. I’m also a visual person, and paper planning is great but has its limitations… I’ll definitely try it out this summer for our homeschool planning. Question about the limited boards on the free account (I think that’s what you mentioned): do you just delete previous boards to add more? Or can you just archive to create new boards? Thanks for your help!! 😊

i like wildwood curriculum because its secular

Awesome pics, Mary! I hope it’s a wonderful year for you guys.

Oh, so interesting that you're from Buffalo -- my mom's family is from Buffalo, and you've always reminded me of some of our relatives, haha! We're secular homeschoolers who also don't eschew religion in our home. We appreciate good people in our home, and good people can come from any background, and, too, as you said, it's important that we teach our children to be able to get along -- and work well (at the very least) -- with/alongside people whose viewpoints may be different. As for AO specifically, some of the literature selections are just good, wholesome books, books that, even though the author was Christian, I wouldn't really consider as being Christian books. Understood Betsy is such a beautiful book, and I haven't seen it on any secular booklists, even Wildwood, which aims to blend classic and contemporary literature in a secular curriculum, and which we also pull from. 💚

Another thing to look into, particularly for language arts, English Lessons Through Literature. We have loved it so much this year, it meshes Charlotte Mason and Classical Education together so beautifully!

Your channel has become a fast favorite of mine! Can you please do a video of your Trello board again of this upcoming year? I’d love to see how you schedule your week with all this amazing curriculum. Thank you for all your content, it’s so helpful!!!

OMG, are we the same person?!??! 😂 I read SO many educational philosophy books before I started homeschooling… and I always just felt “eclectic” but then I just recently realized that I naturally really align with Charlotte Mason and Classical! So I just reread A Well Trained Mind and Modern Miss Mason for more inspiration!!!! So I clicked on this video so fast!! 😂 We already use and LOVE Build Your Library which makes sense because it is a cross between CM and classical, but this year I’m also adding in Paddle to the Sea(and more geography)- I’m actually looking at Beautiful Feet- they have a Holling C. Holling resource and big beautiful maps to go along with the books and they also have a US geography curriculum that I might try out… And then something else I’m very inspired by is doing more Shakespeare!! We started memorizing Shakespeare last year and my kids loved it so much!! So this year I want to read more of his works in story form to the kids! I was also going to mention Wildwood, but someone beat me to it!! 😂 That’s a great resource!! I also really enjoyed watching The Alveary’s book talks on RUclips- I already ordered a few of those!!! 🙈 Anyway, just excited that there’s other people as crazy obsessed with homeschooling as me!! 😂😍🥰

I hate to show you one more thing - Wildwood is similar to AO but secular.

100% the reason(s) I homeschool my kids, beautifully said!

I really love the live G free penne and fusilli and now it seems that they are discontinuing it

Thank you for sharing.

Is Elemental Phonics enough on its own to teach a child to read? Needing something very simple and non overwhelming for myself and my upcoming first grader to learn to read.

Yay. Kindergarten and second grade homeschool here too!

Love the space!!

🎨I believe those little white treys in the water color set are extra paint pallets to keep colors you have mixed together. Pop them in flanking out like butterfly wings while using then pop them the other way when you pack up to go. 💜

Thanks for the links! I snagged alot of the same things for our nature studies and art lessons!

Thats how I plan also! Glad to know Im not the only one!

Now I need to know if you organize your construction paper by color, I feel like you do 😅🤣

Great haul! I’ll have to buy the fiskar scissors lol we have the up & up brand we used this past year as well 😅

Overbuying in your first year of homeschool… Preach mama!

This is so beautifully put. Your Why really resonates with our Why and I just can’t thank you enough for this video! Felt like I was sitting and talking with a friend. Love your videos ❤

Thanks so much for the shout out!! ❤ great video- tons of great information and resources

This is the first video I’ve seen of yours and I found it incredibly helpful. I’m on our 6th year of homeschooling. We started with Torchlight years ago. I have decided to look back at level K for my 2nd graders for geography. I never would have thought of looking at it again if it weren’t for this video. Thank you! 😊

I’ve been homeschooling for going on 8 years and I still found this video to be so helpful and informative! Thank you!

Aww, thanks for the mention! I'm so glad you tagged me and found your channel. Love hearing you speak! I'm going to check out some of the channels you mentioned that I haven't heard of... great video! ❤🎉

Thanks for the shout out, Mary! Been loving your channel as well. I agree, it’s helpful to have go-to channels with similar age kids! It does feel like we’re doing this together🙌🏻

Great tips! Thanks for sharing. Another thing could be to laminate those smaller squared ones. And use the dry erase markers. Or cheaper maybe a piece of clear tape.

Lots of good info! Just fyi, HSLDA isn't always accurate (their forms for my state are complicated and ask for more info that you need to provide). I also don't agree with a lot of the things they lobby for, so I usually recommend local advocacy groups instead (I'm in MA, so I use AHEM and MHLA for everything). Thanks for the shout-out! 😊

Yess!! 🎉🎉 this is such an awesome video!!

Another great video Mary!! We are sooooo similar in our approach and use so much of the exact same curriculum (I have soon to be 7 year old twins)! I follow (and LOVE) almost every RUclipsr you mentioned! I also highly recommend @projecthappyhome (she’s a MD/JD turned homeschool mom that has a great channel) @raisingatoz (teacher turned homeschool mom. She’s got kids our age but she’s in Canada so some curriculum and standards aren’t applicable to us here in the US but she’s great) and @makingeveeydaymagic (Amazing resources and she tells it like it is)!!

Can you just do the checkpoint’s to see where your child is at? This is my first year of homeschool and my child’s school wanted my child to redo kindergarten due to the lack of math skills, however I don’t want him to get bored by starting with him too easy.

Yes! I knew I was going to home school when I was pregnant (1986) with my first child due to my own school experiences. (Not many people were home schooling in the 80's and 90's.) My children are all well adjusted interesting intelligent adults who graduated from college (and two have post graduate degrees) and good jobs. Now I am home schooling my granddaughter (almost age 6) for all the reasons you mentioned and others. :-)

I can't tell you how helpful this is! We're just starting out on our home school journey (I have an upcoming 2nd grader and kindergartner as well) and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and this is totally something I could see myself using. Binging all of your videos for more tips! Thank you so much!

Also, fun fact about Frixion pens.... don't leave your planner in a hot car! Your ink will be GONE😅 Dont ask how I know...😒

I use the same calendar printables as well! Inused ger floral design last year. I'm using the watercolor design this year as well! 😀 This was great! I'm super visual and love seeing HOW someone does something.🥰

Hi! I’m new to your channel! I am a secular homeschooler and part of a group collab with other secular homeschool mamas on RUclips ❤ we want to invite you to our group! Do you have IG?

Can it be 2 infant stroller?

My husband and I decided we wanted to homeschool while I was pregnant because we were youth pastors and we saw how insecure the public school kids were compared to the homeschoolers. They were so self-assured and resistant to peer pressure. It was actually sad to see how the social pressure of fitting in from 4 and on harmed these kids self worth.

Totally agree. Most teachers are doing their very best to meet most of the needs of most of their students. And a solid public education system is so necessary because not every family is equipped or ready to homeschool, but where it's possible, it's almost always going to be a far superior experience (not counting cases of just blatant neglect or abuse) if for no other reason than "the numbers game" as you put it. One person (or even two) cannot effectively teach 20+ children at all their different levels. Crowd control is their primary objective - with some learning happening somewhere - hopefully. Scheduling is huge too. And I just can't even with lockdown drills for young children, much less "this is not a drill" scenarios.

It says a lot that you mentioned several times that it wasn't the teachers fault. Teachers receive a lot of grief from parents who forget that their child is one in a sea of kids in that classroom. I cannot imagine the amount of stress a public school teacher is under, and I have to remind myself those people who are teachers are doing it because they love the profession and the kids. I pulled my son out of his charter school after 6th grade. He had continued to advance in grades even though he was well behind with learning the material. My daughter will be a kindergartener this year, but will not go to a public school - she is going to a micro-school two days a week starting in the fall.

Hello Mary! New subscriber here. Thank you for sharing your whys. These resonate with me as a mom of 3, pregnant with #4, and my oldest is 7 going into second grade, then next up is my son who is 5 going into Kindergarten this year. She goes to the charter school and my son is going to go there too, but the things you've stated in this video have been going through my head as well. The problem is...I work full time. My job is virtual which is nice. How did you make working from home work with home schooling? Or did you quit your job to homeschool? I am very curious about this and I appreciate any insights you can share.