Episode 22 What Worked This Year and What Didn’t Episode Description

As the homeschool year starts winding down, this is the perfect time to reflect. In this episode, we’re sharing what worked, what totally flopped, what surprised us, and what we’re learning from this school year. This is an honest conversation about wins, failures, flexibility, and giving ourselves permission to learn as we go. Because not every good homeschool year looks perfect from the outside.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Welcome to homeschooling and life unfiltered with Court and Jess, where real talk meets real life. Court and Jess are two friends, fellow moms, and business partners who live in different time zones and juggle homeschooling alongside motherhood and entrepreneurship. Jess is a mom of eight and Court is a mom of seven, and together they're raising 15 kids and navigating the wild, wonderful world of homeschooling, each in completely different ways. Every week we invite you to pull up a chair for honest conversations, practical tips, and uplifting encouragement. You'll hear from moms across the country who are homeschooling in a way that works best for their families. Whether you're a veteran homeschool mom just getting started or somewhere in between, this is your space to feel seen, supported, and inspired. Because no matter how different our past may look, we are all in this together. Hey everyone, welcome to homeschooling and life on filter with Court and Jess. Today we're talking about what worked this year and what didn't, right? It's that time of year where we're all kind of wrapping up, maybe, or thinking about wrapping up, right? Like we might not really be quite there. Um my children are chomping us a bit, right? Like, hey, what are we done? And I was like, well, it's only April. Although April, guys, it's May next week. Holy cow. Or this week, when this post, no, it'll be this week. So in May is next week. Anyway, so let's let's just kind of like think back and look. Um, what where did we excel and where did we not excel? Jess, do you want to go first or do you want me to go first or what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, I can go first. Um, so it's funny when we decide on this topic, and I think it might be because I think when do you start your year generally?

SPEAKER_02 1:42

Um, we start at the beginning of August. Like normally, like the second because Arizona starts way earlier than probably you do, because you're not starting after Labor Day.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Our co-op, like our main co-op, classical conversations, that starts in the beginning of August. But our regular, like our other homeschool stuff, we don't start until September after Labor Day. So um it's kind of delayed. But so then all of our, oh go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Well, I was just gonna say, so when do you end then?

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Yeah, so all of our classical conversation stuff is ending like my um youngest Hannah just finished this week, and then my uh older kiddos are finishing in the next couple of weeks, and then our venture work, our venture school or venture upward um work with our school here in Minnesota ends not for a while yet. So we've got a so we've got like a couple different, like a scaled ending, right? So different things drop off at different times, but so I'm mostly focusing on our stuff that we really do on our own. Um and it's funny when we came up with this topic because it's hard to believe that we're at the end. And I don't really feel like we are at the end because our homeschool work, we will take that into June. And so we're we still like I'm still in the mode of like that panicked mode of okay, what else do I want to fit in before the end of the school year? But I can still talk about what I think has gone pretty well. Um our um, I I think math is probably the one that traditionally goes the worst for us, but for two of my kids in particular, math has been really awesome this year. And we did outsource it. Um, not the all of it, but a big portion of it we outsourced, and it's gone really, really well. And I'm really grateful. It's my least absolute least favorite subject to teach. Um, so I'm so glad that it's gone so well. And we will continue one of the kiddos through summer break, not because they're behind or because we didn't get enough done, but because we're ACT prepping. Um we'll continue math just because you don't want to go into the ACTs having had a full summer off of math. Like that's just not what you want to. That's not what I want to do about that. Um, and so we'll continue math. Um, and then everything else that we'll drop pretty much for the summer, except for like read, we still require the kids to read and things like that over the summer. And I say require, my my kids love to read, so it's not really requiring anything, right? I'm just acquiring new books for them that they are interested in. That's all that it takes. Um and so that's probably what went the best for us this year. And then social studies always goes really well for us because I feel like we just live history lessons at our house all of the time because we just are a history family. So whether it's my husband chiming in with something or a documentary we watch or a book we read or a conversation we have, we're just always in the throes of history all the time. Okay, so I have a question.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

So do you not use like an open, like a curriculum for history? Are you just okay? So how are what do you what did you use?

SPEAKER_01 4:55

So this year we used um the good and the beautiful for some kids because I have different kids doing different things. And then all of the kids used the classical classical conversations history, so we did that. And it's interesting. So my two, two, three of my kids who are still in classical conversations, um, right, because I'm only homeschooling four right now, because um I have kids that are either my baby or the ones that are grown and gone and one in college this year, just still doing some homeschool work. But the three main like the bulk of my homeschooling responsibilities for my three kids, they did CC, and they all have their so, like my fifth grader, for example, her, we have social studies that we do on our own. Yeah, social studies that we do at classical conversations, and then her uh ELA, which is it's called Essentials. Um of her writing is done on history topics, so it's history and ELA combined. Um, so we get so even without being a history family, we just we get so much of it. Um and so that's what we've done. My older son did um we did the free classes out of Hillsdale college. Really, really good classes. Um, and so we did those history classes for my oldest. My oldest still homeschooled the child, yeah. And then yeah, so that's what we did there, and that's probably it's always our most successful just because we live and breathe it, and I mean it just is part of our family culture. Um and then we also the morning time was rough for me this year, and I don't know why, but it was super rough. Um, it's not that we don't enjoy it, it just I think there's there's too many deviations like in our standard schedule. So we just had to be flexible. We still got all of our core work stuff done, but that was just really a tough one because kind of opposite to you, I think ours is more like some extra stuff. It's not as core based. Um, so it just was easier to let that if I'm gonna let one thing go, it's not gonna be math, it's not gonna be our, you know, our science lesson or social studies, it's gonna be um the morning, our morning time, which was unfortunate because I think in reflection, I think that's probably our favorite time together. So I definitely want to try to spend these last couple months of school being more diligent on that since we pretty much finished all of our core work now. As of it within two weeks, we'll have finished all of our core work.

SPEAKER_02 7:35

Do you find that it's because like you don't have a consistent time for it? Is like is it have you problem solved out like how to make it better? Like, is it a time thing? Is it just uh Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 7:45

I don't you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, no, for sure. I think that it is mostly a timing thing. And so uh we we have you know, our one daughter who has to get 12 hours of sleep, otherwise she can have a seizure. And so we have to be really careful with her sleep. And so I never wake her up, right? Like she has to she has to wake up on her own, or we could lose an entire day and she could have um you know an episode and all those things. So she oftentimes will wake up at um like 9:30. And so then I feel like that prime time has passed. Um, so I think we just need to set like a new time for it. But it's hard because as you know, if you get engrossed in your regular studies, it's hard to pull away from that. Like they have their schedule of like, okay, boom, boom, boom, this is what I'm gonna do. So I thought about also turning it into more of like a wrap-up activity. Like we do this at the end of the day, like we work hard and then we have like this fun time together. Um, so that might be what we try here in the next little bit, um, and see how it goes.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

That's just hard because I don't, I mean, for our afternoons are crazy, like because then somebody's got sports today and somebody's got dance today, and then I have a late meeting, or you know what I mean? Like I I tried for a long time doing it at lunch, like tacking it on to lunch.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

That's a really good idea.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Like, because you guys like to do your lunches together, right? So, like that might be a good time. Everyone's already sitting, yeah, yeah, to you know, tack on World Watch and then let's talk about this, or you know what I mean? Because you're already there, it's a a natural breaking time already.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

That's a really good idea.

SPEAKER_02 9:23

I did morning morning time, I see that in quotations, right? Um, around lunchtime when I had tiny little kids and I was exhausted, right? Like in the morning.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

And we would tack it on because normally there was like the baby was napping during that time eat also.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

So it kind of Yeah, no, that works great. Well, and also I've thought I I'm just thinking about this now. Um, I usually put the baby down right after lunch, like at two o'clock. And that would also be a perfect time um to do it then to before sport because like our sports stuff starts about 3 30.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Well, three three to three thirty, it depends. Um, so that would be a really good time to do it. But I like the lunch idea, that's brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

I've always found as much as I can attaching it to a meal when we're all sitting at the table starting, which is why I start morning time at breakfast, right? Because we're all there anyways.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

You're locked in, you're not stuck in high chairs anymore, but you're still there, right? Everybody needs to eat.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Well, yeah, one stuck in a high chair, but yes, no, that's a great idea. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Just little bits. Yeah. Okay. What out um, what about like how'd your language arts go?

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Oh, great.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

Is language arts attached to your co-op too?

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Um, yes, it is. Yep, and it goes great. Yeah. We I am very fortunate to have kids who love to read and love to write. So I have one daughter who will be publishing a short story at the end of this semester and is just wrapping up her ending. Um, another daughter who just did her final big paper, um, and it was combined with history. So hers was on um um Mary Queen of Scots.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

So did you ever find a costume? Is that the one you were looking for a costume for, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Yeah, let me show you a picture um for everybody. So this is so it's like a wax museum. They all have to dress up, and um it's just such a fantastic time. So this is how she ended up. Well, actually, you know what? I told her that I wouldn't share the picture. So I'm not gonna share the picture. I just remember that. Um, but she turned out so cute. She had like this big, like a very um cute dress, uh, and then the big, the white, I can't remember what it's called, but that white ruffle thing that you have and then a big like um almost like you see like an archbishop, I think they were those, like those big fat things. Um yeah, she she looked super cute in it. So um, and it was just an Amazon find. It was so easy. So I had to piece a couple things together, but um, so yeah, our ELA, I feel like always goes really well, and I'm so grateful for that ELA and history. But um Yeah, yeah, how about you?

SPEAKER_02 12:05

I love that you like it's attached to your co-op because I have found that like I do so much better for things like that. Like science went great this year, but I put together a science co-op. So every Thursday at 12 30, we had science because three other families came over and did it with us, and so that that to me helps me so much. Like I have just found even 20, oh my gosh, I don't know, homeschool in 20 something years. I I need the accountability for things like that, like oh for sure language arts, math. We can do that every day, right? But science and social ideas to me are for sure the ones that always like hit the back burner. Um, so science went great. We had that great co-op, and so and that was for my eighth down. My high schoolers did science as part of like their curriculum, like they have um we transition to a lot of online curriculum for high school, like that's just what my kids so they can work at their own pace and they can get those like college prep prep classes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

And some of them go back to tech high school classes too, right?

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, we do that their junior and senior year.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Okay, so when they get to their junior and senior year, then are they done with all of their required like their cores for so I could like your daughter that went into nursing? Did she have to do her nursing classes at the tech high school or CNA classes at tech high school and then also do language arts, social studies, all that at home?

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Yeah, so those were technically her electives. The tech high school is counted as electives. Okay, okay, because they're only there for two hours. So um, like my couple daughter daughters did um like cosmetology and aesthetics, and so they had a lot of science as part of theirs, and so I incorporated that as part of their science when they were their junior or senior year because they were there for four hours, like it was a lot a long time. Okay, yeah, but they still had to do like their other core subjects at home.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Got it.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

I guess it never it's clearly elective credit.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Yeah, yeah, got it. Okay, and that's kind of similar, like my son, who is in um the automotive program at the college. Yeah, we are clepping his the rest of his credits so that he can graduate with an AA degree alongside that.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Sorry, I got something in the back of my throat today. Um, so anyway, so science went really great with my youngers. Like that one was fantastic. Language arts and math has done pretty good for us. Um, I but I I have somebody come in and help like to keep them accountable, like when I'm working Monday, like three days a week. Yeah. Um so that's going well. They're actually almost done. So I know there's like all these different things where people are like, well, they pick a day and like we're just done for school today, or you don't necessarily have to finish the curriculum, right? I typically do. We we tend to finish our curriculum. And then once they're done, then they're done with that subject. So, you know, like Grady only has, I think, two weeks left of language arts. Like he's been really up on his, and so he's actually gonna finish language arts significantly earlier than everybody else, but he just did it faster, right? Um, and Macy's gonna go a little bit into June and like math. Her math is gonna go a little bit longer because I like just went back. So part of our thing, like when we were talking about like editing or auditing, kind of like what our kids are doing. My kids use teaching textbooks for math, and so I went back in and I was like, Oh, okay, so everything that you got less than like you know, a 78 on, we're gonna erase and go back and redo it. So actually, Macy had a whole bunch that had kind of flown under my radar because I had been traveling quite a bit. I mean her go back and do it. So she's gonna be doing math in June, but she's still done math every day, but she has not been doing it to her fullest potential. And Grady was he math is one of his things, like he loves, so he's always in like the the you know, A's, like he misses one problem and then he gets mad. And normally they're like true or false things that he was like, Oh, I can't go back and redo it because you don't get a second chance on true and false. Um so I feel like we've been really consistent with language arts and math, probably the most consistent we've been in a long time. Oh, that's awesome. Because I've had somebody helping, right? Like it wasn't all relying on me. So like today she didn't come because the baby, she has a baby, it's my daughter, and he's sick, and so she didn't come. And so it's like we didn't do language arts, and I was like, Well, we'll do language arts on Friday, like because I don't have time today. I will have time on Friday, so that's one that does get pushed a little, but they can do the other subjects mostly independent.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Language arts.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

What curriculum is our son? So we're they're doing good and the beautiful, and that's why is it's much more you know, teacher focused, like it needs that extra person. Even my seven, I mean Grady's a seventh grader, but he needs somebody to like sit next to him. It's a lot, it's a lot to read, it's a lot to extra things graded.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

So we started um the good and the beautiful language arts with our fifth grader this year. I did, and it was just too much on top of her. I really loved it, but it was too much on top of her venture work and her um co-op work. So but she loved it, so we might dabble in it over the summer, but we did it. Um, but it was a I agree with you, you really do need a parent, even at those older grades.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Yeah, I I have even made the mistake. I had high schoolers use it at one point, and because it's in high school, it's great and it's literature based, it's great, and but it's they have like packets, right? So, like you have a packet and they're you know, so it's like seven packets, right? So like here it is, and but really it's like seven packets for the semester, so it's like two weeks, right? Or a little over two weeks per like per packet or lesson. I don't I can't remember exactly what it's called. Well, I naively was like, you're a high schooler, so here you go, you know. Oh and then you know, checked back in with them six weeks later and they're still on packet one and they're like, and I'm yeah, fail, right? There's there's one of my fails as a anyways, so live and learn. High schoolers still need accountability, they still need deadlines. And so that was that was at the point where I was like, Okay, maybe we should transition to like maybe some more online because like I don't have it in me to keep up with all these things all the time, right? On top of the grading, I love online because it auto grades for the most part. Um, anyway, so uh that was that was one of my fails of previous years, I've learned, right? Like we learn from our failures and we're like, okay, now how can we change this? Um, so I would say my biggest fail this year was totally social studies. And I love that it was your win, but it's because so like the last three or four years previous to this year, we have done social studies as part of our co-op. So we had like the whole co-op and we changed co-ops this year. Ah yeah, and so this co-op year was all like elective based. Um, so we didn't have the history, and so I was like, oh, well, we're just gonna put it in family school and we're gonna do story of the world. And we made it through like half of it. Like it didn't, and so previously the last few years before we've done kind of story of the world with um beautiful feet, like the literature base. Like I really like beautiful feet. But this year I was just like, we'll just do good and the beautiful or not good and beautiful, we'll do the world. Yeah, story of the world. Um, because it's super easy to add. And we hadn't we weren't doing a ton of the map work, we were just kind of reading and talking. And anyways, it got put to the back burner of like there's other more exciting, fun things that we want to do at family school, and so it kind of got pushed to the back. And I was like, ah, dang it. So that's one of my like, let's see, do I cram it in? Do we I'm like, well, so anyways, I have to rethink that one and how we're gonna do that in the future for next year. And like my high schooler, like Rory did family school with us, so like she did history with us, but then she also has her like world history class, like what she's taking for freshman, you know what I mean. She's taking so she did get hers. So it's really just my my seventh and fifth grader that got the gip a little bit. But we read a lot of really great books and a lot of really so we've read a lot of really good literature that we obviously have history attached, but we didn't finish, you know that whatever history, the third book in Story of the World. We didn't finish that, yeah. Um, so it's kind of like this, you know, we they already they did geo, but there's also a lot of history within good and the beautiful, right? Like there's geographies in there. All of the books they read are you know historical, taking place in different countries that they're learning about. So I mean, they got some, but I would totally chalk it up to a failure that I didn't accomplish what I was going to do. I haven't looked at the Good and Beautiful history though in years.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

It's so good. It's my it is my favorite, favorite, favorite history curriculum, and we have a huge history buff. We love it so much. Um, okay, so they revamped it a couple years ago, and um I have still used the old stuff, so I don't know how the new stuff is. Um, but I loved it so I I mean it's one of my favorite things. It's so good.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

I also like um I did their US history like a long, long time ago when it very first came out, like Good and Beautiful's US history.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Got it.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Yeah, I that was a really long time ago, and I think it's completely different now.

SPEAKER_01 20:53

I also like um there's a book if you're doing US history. Um, and I can't remember what curriculum it was associated with, but it's Patriots History. And it's real I think I have two copies of it. I should just give you one. Um and it was through a boxed curriculum. I don't know if it was um what's another really popular one that everybody uses?

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Um for his or um time for no is it time.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Is it the I think it has the word good in it too. Um or oh his father's world, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Oh, my father's world.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

My father's world.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

Um oh I did that for kindergarten with all my kids. I think I don't do a lot of box curriculum, like that's really not kind of I'm more eclectic and just kind of like pull pieces from here and there and whatever, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Well, that's what it was. It was my father's world, and it's called American Pioneers and Patriots. And so we only did them when we first so we did My Father's World when we first started homeschooling, right? And I felt really ill equipped to to to be eclectic. I felt like I had to use a box set. And the reality looking back is is I really I did need to use a box set because I just I didn't have it didn't have the experience yet to to just kind of to be eclectic and fulfill what I kind of defined as success in my homeschooling not saying that other people can't.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

Yeah. I love that my father's over kindergarten. I did it with all my kids. It's fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

But this is the book that I love so much that is still on my shelf and I have two copies of this American Pioneers and Patriots. It's a really good history book. It's a really easy read, great pictures. Yeah maybe I'll we haven't done that in several years. Maybe I'll pull that out and we'll do that over the summer.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

So I should go look I'll have to look at the Good and beautiful. And I do really like beautiful feet. It's one of my favorites. It's all literature based. It's so good. I love it. And I should have probably just done another year of that like gotten another and not I don't know stories are real I love it, but it's it's not as engaging like you're not into it. Like it's not as they're all just like little standalone like little pieces right that you're learning. The stories are great but it's not like a a historical fiction novel that you're going to be like wait what's going to happen next right you're not invested in the characters because it's just all I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Yeah. I really like it though. We did not finish it this year either and we probably still will but um it was definitely like icing on our cake it wasn't required. One interesting thing I've found as I've become more eclectic and I wonder if you've run into this is that I have one kiddo especially who's a real smarty pants and um she will call out contradiction contradictions. And so we were working through one like one book it was really just more of like a sticker book workbook because I have you ever seen like those like Roman history sticker books and then you were doing a um uh an ancient history sticker book alongside the story of the world while we were listening and she's calling out contradictions like well they said it was this and they said it's that so then we'd get really diverted and have to then go explore the contradiction and figure out which one was true. And what we found out often was that they were both true but they both are talking about different sides of the story or slightly different interpretations. And I think that's why we didn't finish the book is because we were just getting so sidetracked. And I love it, right? That's what I want my kids to do. I want them to pause the book and be like wait a second that's not what I learned in this book or wait a second that's not what we discussed in co-op last week you know so I love that we do that but it's also kind of exhausting like can we just can we just listen to the book do our speaker books and not pause it every seven seconds to have rabbit trails right that's what they call them rabbit trails. So I paused it because I didn't want my own attitude of frustration to like shut down their curiosity. So I'm like okay I need to get a better attitude about because they're not disruptions right this is what learning is all about um but I was trying to multitask right during the listening of this book and things like that. So I just needed to get myself in a better spot about it.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

And so did you listen to the audio of Story of the world not read it? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Oh I've never done that it's really good. Like I I am very particular about the narrators on our books. Like I will not listen to a book if the narrator is bad. I will just immediately shut it off and they do a good job. Yep. You like it. So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

I was just thinking one of the things that we did previously which I really enjoyed which I don't know why I've gotten away from but we notebook history. So we would like listen to whatever we listen to and then we would make a notebook page about it every time. And I was like oh I should go back to doing that. Like that was I loved our history notebooks and we did that.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

That's a really good idea. We should do that too I I really love that idea. Um we put that for next year so we keep a timeline and they keep it they get it in I cheated this year and gave my fifth grader it because she's just ready for it but normally we give it in seventh grade and then they keep it their whole high school year.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Do you keep it on a long one or do you keep it like in a notebook?

SPEAKER_01 26:08

Well I wanted to show it to you it's so good. It's a it's a it's a I it's a it's something that I purchased and it's spiral spiral bound um and it's card like made out of cardstock. I I think I got them at a bunch of them at a homeschool conference once and it is the most beautiful timeline because it's page after page and it starts right at the very beginning creation and goes all the way to fairly recent right now well actually I think it goes even further than when the print date is so I think it's even still goes to now. And then as they go through their high school year so the way that we do history is we do from the time that they're four years old all the way through they all the way through the time that they are in sixth grade we do we do some work in the whole timeline but we focus on a different three different cycles right of you loop it through. Yeah we loop it through they have like a focus every three years. But and then in high school then it's even more focused right they're doing like US history and government things so they'll just keep adding to this timeline for six years. So it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 27:18

Yeah yeah that was one of my things that I loved about the beautiful feet like when we did the medieval history we did the ancient history they have this fantastic timeline with like pictures and it was just really fun. It was like a map and a timeline.

SPEAKER_01 27:31

This is completely blank it's just a timeline.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

Yeah and you have to fill in the times yeah yeah we I mean we added to it but it came with the things to put on it.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

So like oh like it came with stickers.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Uh they were we glued them like you cut it was like a color like a little tiny coloring thing like they could color it or not color it with the title and the time. So when we studied it we would go put it on the timeline. So we had this beautiful like timeline at the end of the year. You froze oh there you go are you back yeah anyways I really like that so I just I I think I just need to now I know like looking back right I need to revamp how we do history and sure if we're gonna do it by ourselves and or maybe I need to get some friends and we need to do co-op together for history like that's also okay like I just know that about myself we're doing science again with the same co-op we picked what we were going to do. So that's awesome it just works.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Have you thought about doing so one of the reasons that I feel we were pretty successful in science this year I wouldn't say it was my you know my best one but really pretty good is the STEM boxes that we get as well. Have you thought is there a history box that you guys could be getting like a subscription box?

SPEAKER_02 28:40

Oh I don't know I've never looked I know that there's the mystery of history right I've I've seen that I've never done it but I've seen that one before I thought about that geography ones that are really good um really good geography ones which kind of fits into social studies but I've never looked on the geography boxes before.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Yeah us too and they're pretty good but I don't know about history so it might be worth looking too just to make it more fun and interactive.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

Yeah no I know so like that's I always go into like homeschool conference season like we're gonna go to homeschool conferences over the summer like with uh this is my need for this year. Like I need to revamp this little thing or I need to come up with something and so um I that's just like after you know I always evaluate what do we do this year and like oh that's my need a social studies is like or history because history is so much fun and I just I didn't do it the way I wanted to do it. Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Like and that's how I feel about like the morning time or the family time family school it's so much fun. And I'm sad that you know that that one is the one that got cut so many days and so I need to reevaluate that as well.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

So yeah I love it. But everything else I'm I'm feeling pretty good about this year so far. Like good just kind of like looking at what everybody's done and what everybody's doing and we're I'm pretty I'm feeling good about it other than like that. And I can I just it goes back to revamping morning time a little bit and just like being a little more focused and like more structured. Not structured but like I I had an idea of like what I wanted but I didn't like write my loop out as much as I should have and like kept it in visual so that it was super easy when we were done with you know we did our scriptures we did our world watch let's just listen to our book and play a game or let's you know what I mean let's do the fun things and not I didn't do as much of the other thing. We didn't do very much art this year but I feel like the good and beautiful has so much art built into it like I don't even feel that bad about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

No I in our ELA that started this year for the good and beautiful with our fifth grader had watercolor painting in it right right off the very like right off the bat.

SPEAKER_02 30:37

Yeah they have a lot of art built in really good. So then I'm like I don't really feel bad that I didn't do too much of that. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Yeah. So I don't even do more than you think you do. Like it's not every mom sits down and has this brainstorming and and you know can say well but actually we had some art in here and we had did some art there but we I encourage all of our listeners to do that because when you sit down and really start thinking about what you did and have conversations with your kids or friends you did better than you thought you did. Even the things you failed at you really didn't fail at you just maybe failed at your idea of how it was going to go but you didn't fail your children in that subject very likely.

SPEAKER_02 31:12

I actually taught a class like a parent class for our for venture upward all about kind of like how to evaluate your year and like how to do it. We should totally post it as one of our things. Let's write down like I would be like oh we didn't go on very many field trips this year but actually like let's think back let's look at our pictures I normally use my pictures right look back and like write down all the field trips we did and what are all the books that we read and what are all of the countries we studied or when you think of it like that and you actually put it to paper we did a whole lot more than I'm giving myself credit for right now.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

For sure do you sorry a lot I know we're getting close on time here but do you keep a list of the books you read during the school year like as a like you keep a list for yourself of how many you read. Do you do that for the kids too?

SPEAKER_02 31:57

I keep it in mind because if I read the book to them or we read it together it goes in my Goodreads. And so I normally will look back and be like oh yeah we read this together we read this together we read this together. So I normally do like here I'm gonna grab it. Yeah I have a notebook that I keep everything in and I'll do my um let me just scroll through here and find one but I do like a year in review and I put in here look see this is May this one's 2023 it's the first one I found but it's school year in review. I'm glad it's this comes from Read Aloud Revival this it came from a training that she did that is where I'm I get the bulk of it but it's I'm glad we took time to something I want to make happen again next year. I wish we'd had more or made more progress in um something I want to change next year. I'm a bit worried about my own favorite reading experience this year. One of my favorite memories from the year and then I do accomplishments like what are all the books that we've read what are all the countries we studied what is um what field trips do we go on? We did poetry tea time we did art and then I ask the kids what's something that they um like what did they like the most what did they not like the most what do they not want to include and then I also do what is something that worked well that is working well right now and what is something that surprised me. And then I interview each of the kids like and ask them the things but it's really nice to go back and look like I have them all in here like this is this is like my homeschool whatever so I can scroll back and find them all but um it's really nice to like go back and look and be like oh look here I had the same problem like two years ago didn't do social studies or you know what I mean like whatever it was. It's kind of like here's my 25 2026 thoughts like what do I want to remove what do we want to add what do we want to um yeah oh that's awesome I love that so it's kind of um it's kind of nice to go back and do and I apparently should do I'm going on a mom's retreat coming up at the end of like our co-op has one. Yeah and so I'm like this is what I should take to do because it takes you have quiet time right to like sit and actually like look back and think and I do use a lot like I'll look at pictures because I never remember what field trips we went on.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:12

Um like I know that I don't think we did very many this year. Like I can I'm I I know that's that's one of the things that we want to change for next year. So we're gonna do a field trip year next year. Um you know things like that. So I love that review. That might be something it would probably be good to put on the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

Yeah I think that'd be great. And if you're gonna lead Venture Out to new uh field trip program then it'll kind of be built in for you. That'd be great.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

Yeah there you go. But all right I love it. I would love to hear what do you you guys put on the comments tell us what what are your wins or what are your struggles this year as we start to look back. And remember it's okay. Like we're gonna pull out our struggles and then we're gonna figure out how we can fix it for next year and revamp and we have lots of years with our kids so it doesn't even matter that I didn't do history this year very much. So it's okay. We'll do it again next year.

SPEAKER_01 35:01

And you actually did more than you probably think you did.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

And I guarantee we all did more than we actually think. All right I love it. What a great conversation and we will see everybody next week. Bye