SAVOR: Recap of our Homeschool Year (3rd & 7th Grades - 2022/2023)
✅ 3rd and 7th grade done!
After realizing last school year that I needed to reclaim some things, I restructured a lot for our 2022/2023 school year.
Things seem to be flying now that my girls are getting older, and it’s important to me that I seize and savor the days with them, perhaps more than ever. My oldest daughter especially needs me in a different way now…giving her freedom at certain times, and then my dedicated presence at others. After releasing my book in spring 2022 and all the increased workload/interviews that went with that, I was ready for some time spent more rooted, more focused on the internal rhythms of my life and home without so many external focuses. This is another reason I started my podcast this fall - it’s my own thing, so I can control how much time and effort I put into it.
For the 2022/2023 school year, I really wanted to add more emphasis to outside/physical activity, field trips, and a regular rhythm of time spent in the Bible together. I also needed to build reading confidence with my 3rd grader and build on life skills with my 7th grader. I kept these goals at the forefront of my mind during this school year and returned to them whenever I felt like we were slipping into spending our time on things that weren’t our main goals. Of course, other subjects like math and language arts were important too, but I knew I wanted to strengthen these particular areas.
It felt huge to have my oldest entering 7th grade this past year! Where I grew up in New Jersey, 7th and 8th grade were middle school, and they were two of the most awkward years of my life. I wanted more for her ~ I wanted to be able to really talk through the natural transitions, challenges, friendship conflicts, and make sure her girlhood was staying alive in a healthy way, that she wasn’t growing up too fast…while also transitioning to an older tween. It’s such a fine balance at this age. I knew this was going to require more of my energy and attention this year. And it would be time so well spent.
Here are a few memorable highlights of our 2022/2023 school year:
MORNING TIME
If you asked all three of us separately, we’d probably all say our favorite part of homeschool is still Morning Time. Every school morning around 8-8:30am, we gather around our farm table with candles and tea and coffee, and it sets the tone for the morning. I look forward to this peaceful, stable time with my girls so much - especially living on a farm when the day can take an unexpected turn into chaos or tasks that have to be done right now. During Morning Time, we read from the Bible (New Living Translation), I read aloud from our fiction book and biography selections, and the girls do their handwriting books while they listen or draw in their school journals.
This year at Morning Time, we read The Little Pilgrim’s Progress, Courageous World Changers, The Hiding Place (Young Reader’s Edition), and Alice’s Farm. We also regularly read from our favorite seasonal poetry book, Outside Your Window.
All of these books will last in our memories in their own ways. The Hiding Place is one of my favorite books of all-time, and I was excited to share the Young Reader’s Edition with my girls. I ended up stopping it and finishing it with just my 7th grader, because it was a little too intense still for my 3rd grader. Alice’s Farm is such a gem! It made us laugh out loud multiple times and was just delightful.
Outside Your Window by Nicola Davies
Here are some more picture book biographies that impacted us this year…
This Louisa May Alcott biography showed how much Little Women is based on her real life. The book on the right is one of our spring favorites, SPRING, An Alphabet Acrostic.
Alice’s Farm ~ just delightful.
Memorizing Scripture is something I haven’t fostered enough in my girls, and I wanted to fix that this year during Morning Time. We started out the year using Ellie Holcomb’s devotional, Fighting Words, to memorize some key Bible verses. Then I got both girls the Inspire Journaling Bible for girls, and this added so much to our time as they got to color and write in their Bibles and share excerpts that stood out to them.
Other Favorite Subjects
My 7th grader developed a love for Spanish lessons on the DuoLingo app and is very serious about not breaking her daily streak! My 3rd grader decided to learn French on DuoLingo. I took French all the way from middle school into college and traveled to France twice, so it was really fun to use French phrases with her around the house to reinforce her learning and brush up on mine.
Per usual, both of these creative girls loved their art classes at our tutorial. Luci Belle worked for days drawing an eyeball 👁️ that was insanely realistic - I was truly shocked. Norah also enjoyed learning sign language began theater classes!
Science was neither of their favorite subjects this year, unfortunately, but they both learned to push through challenging classes at our tutorial. The Good and the Beautiful saved us once again with math, language arts, and handwriting. So very grateful for their curriculum that’s colorful, engaging, and extremely thorough!
HAPPY MAIL+ HOBBIES
We brought back the art of letter-writing this year, and - BONUS - it was a way for my super-social 3rd grader to practice her writing and reading confidence! Both girls loved writing and mailing letters to friends back in Texas and even friends who live across town from us in Tennessee. There’s nothing like the feeling of opening the mailbox and finding a real bonafide letter addressed to you. It’s few and far between these days, and it’s worth it to me to preserve this! Special shout-out to our kind Santa Fe, TN mail lady who we keep very busy!
My 7th grader continues to love cooking and made this incredible berry tart this spring. She also loves getting her Annie’s Creative Girls kit in the mail every month and immediately heads outside or to her room to start working on the projects. The photo below is when she got a Tshirt tie-dye kit. She also has a subscription to Wildflowers Girls Magazine, and I almost want to fight her for it when it comes in the mail every month - ha! I wish there’d been a magazine like that when I was her age.
We’ve finally found a monthly subscription box that works great for my 3rd grader - Doodle Crate! (Sign up for a subscription box through this link and get $10 off your first month!) The projects are seriously amazing - such great, original projects that she actually wants to keep. Good-quality materials, and well-thought-out instructions. I can’t say enough good things about it! Her most recent one was making animal face masks out of plaster of Paris, and it took my straight back to elementary school art class, making marionette puppets. So nostalgic.
I know these subscription boxes can be costly, but these are a great idea for gifts from family members or grandparents. They’re a gift that keeps on giving all year long.
first book club with friends
The girls ended the year with a Secret Garden book club with some sweet friends, tucked away in a real-life “secret garden” in a friend’s backyard. They had tea and cookies and discussed the book, and we learned again how stories connect us in all kinds of ways.
LAST DAY OF SCHOOL
Our 3 kittens (Simba, Paco, and Oliver) were the star of this year’s “last day of school” photos! Looking back on this year, I’m happy with the changes I made to remove some things that were stealing time from us unnecessarily. Honestly, I think the most valuable things we learned this school year didn’t come from books or lessons but from walking out our faith in tangible ways like engaging with nature...communicating with each other…living life closely as a family and in community. So many hard lessons and transitions this year.
Mamas, I know we’re all tired.
I feel exhausted and stretched in all kinds of ways.
There are so many things trying to pull away our kids attention and hearts right now.
But we must keep drawing them in.
We must keep fighting for freedom and connection.
It’ll never stop being worth it. ❤️
