Autumn Semester Snapshot 2025
Autumn Semester Snapshot 2025
August 8, 2025
If you’ve been following any length of time, you know I’m a homeschooling mom. Part of our educational philosophy is that learning never ends, so we don’t officially take a break from learning in the summer like “school” does. Instead, I slow my “required lessons per week” from four (pre-reader) or five (reader) lessons a week to two or three lesson per workbook, respectively. This allows for a lot of getaways with relatives, fun days with friends, water day at WGV Gymnastics summer camp, tie-dye day at WGV Gymnastics summer camp, beach early mornings or late evenings, all-day building projects, collecting and observing the tadpoles from the drying up ditch turning into frogs (or accidental duck food), and other creative life learning events.
We also don’t junk last year’s textbooks (we use all of the books, because they are chosen for their continuity with the “next up” book). Our official family “School year” runs from May 20th to May 19th on paper. My logbook records our new year start as the day after our end of year evaluations (usually May, but sometimes June or July depending on scheduling).
I do use this time to reevaluate each student’s goal, our family goals, and smile at our achievements.
This semester, I will have:
Kimberly, a senior in high school who is also a sophomore in college. She has shifted to completing 9 college classes over three semesters as her goal so she can graduate with her AA as she graduates high school like Christina did. She retired from competitive gymnastics team to focus on studies but has kept her work-study (fifth year of work-study!) in sports medicine, anatomy, injury prevention, and physical therapy. Kimberly has also joined a Bible study small group and has added theology to her courseload. Kimberly also excels as a tutor in pre-algebra.
Jaquline, a sophomore in high school who is also a freshman in college. Her goal is to complete at least 7 courses over three semesters while continuing to understudy with her lawyer teacher. She is consistently using the law reference books, writing her homeschool essays (grammar practice) about some legal case from her study, and randomly digging into the law books just to read. She is a very patient reading and grammar tutor. Jaquline is continuing her work-study program switching back and forth from psychology and early childhood development to human relations and human resource management as her focus; she is in her third year of work-study. She is also competing as an Xcel Gold gymnast this season with WGV Gymnastics.
Jillian, who is entering eighth grade on paper. She has added consistent volunteering to her schedule. The textbooks she is continuing are A Beka’s Vocabulary series (ninth grade level), Apologia’s “Exploring Creation with Biology” (high school), A Beka’s History series (tenth grade book), Master Books’ History (high school), Spanish (third year duolingo), Master Books’ Science with experiments (middle school level), A Beka’s Algebra 1, and redoing one of A Beka’s penmanship books (fourth grade level). She augments this study with Theology, Practical Science, Woodworking, Animal Husbandry, Botany, and Homemaking. She is competing as an Xcel Gold/Platinum (practicing Platinum, but repeating Gold level for meets) for this season at WGV Gymnastics.
Lucas, who is entering fifth grade on paper. He has finally conquered reading so that he enjoys reading the subtitles on his Epic History TV shorts when at gym trying to be quiet! He has finally come to the independent reader level. His textbooks are A Beka’s Arithmetic 5, A Beka’s Language 3, A Beka’s Penmanship (third grade level, repeating since this is a new edition that doesn’t have the same stories as the old one with all the animals), Master Books’ Science (middle school level – he LOVES the experiments), Apologia’s Land Animals of the Sixth Day (4th-7th grade level science), and Rod & Staff’s Reading Comprehension Series (second grade level). In addition, he has started a 2-year comprehensive Theology course (upper elementary, 4th to 6th grade, level), adds in Epic History TV, Answers In Genesis History & Science, and other select history and science video studies (we use them as comprehension, grammar, and writing practice as he does a report for each lecture), is responsible for two ducks he researched the care of and bought, joins in on woodworking projects, husbandry projects, and hires himself out to neighbors and friends for yard work and cleaning to make pocket money. He also practices gymnastics 2 hours a week at WGV Gymnastics.
Theadora, who is entering second grade on paper. Her textbooks are A Beka’s Arithmetic 3, A Beka’s Phonics and Language 2 (the last 26 lessons, then she will move to A Beka’s Language 3), A Beka’s Penmanship (K5 level, as she is working on basic cursive formation and training herself to move slowly, we switch to 3rd when they write with purpose), Apologia’s Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day (4th-7th grade level science), and A Beka’s Health, Safety, and Manners 2 (granted, that was my book, printed in 1978, so I don’t know if it’s still in print). Theadora has jumped into “big girl” mode with two feet and made huge jumps in the past six months. She has taken on responsibilities and thrived in them. She has grown from claiming to love gymnastics but never finishing a 50-minute class in her once-a-week schedule to attending 2 classes consistently and volunteering to be an extra in any class. Her goal is to make “Coach Thea’s Team” one day. Thea helps with woodworking projects, animal care projects, is learning to cook more complicated meals, she loves learning how to grow food plants, and she is learning how to do independent research to answer her many questions. She is an avid reader and loves to read to Laud.
If it all sounds overwhelming, just remember this is our plan for the start of the semester and is likely to change in some ways. Also, that was five students!
We may end up stalling in a subject until we fully understand the concept (usually math) so next year we may have the same book at the start and have moved 50 lessons instead of 180 lessons (personally, I took 5 years to master basic algebra! I worked In I don’t know how many Algebra 1 books).
We plan with life-skills training woven in with bookwork. Some weeks we will accomplish all 5 lessons in each of the basic books. Some weeks we will only accomplish 2 or 3 of the base lesson work but have let something else (National Park trip, Gymnastics Meet area exploration, hatching baby chicks, building a duck pond, rescuing tadpoles, etc) take up a few days of compact instruction.
Another part of our educational philosophy is that learning is a lifelong task. God has given us an amazing brain and the curiosity to want to discover about His world. For this purpose, we harness that curiosity to our advantage and when someone has what I call a “bug” about a subject, we dive full into it and explore. I teach them how to explore in order to answer their questions. I usually learn alongside them. I never knew there was one general (Charles O’Hare) who surrendered to both Napoleon Bonaparte and George Washington until Lucas went down his rabbit hold of battles and generals (of which we are in his third year of videos, books, reports, and crazy trivia knowledge).
Jillian plans to start work-study of some kind in the spring semester. Lucas will do “Biblical Economics Through Comics” (the #1 best book I have found on economics, period) at some point this year, as he is growing an interest in the complicated world around him. Theadora is reading through books at a crazy rate and loves writing letters and reports – she has started journaling seriously.
Just our annual snapshot review. I like to review just after the new year for spring semester too, but honestly, I review each student’s progress as we work. When we get to the end of one book we roll into another. Sometimes, like Jillian last year, we roll through three years’ worth of math books in one year. Other times, we repeat sections as needed and move slowly until understanding each section. Lucas started in A Beka’s Phonics and Language 2 for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade years. .
We may slowly make our way through a science book or move quickly because we love it. I try to choose subjects within subjects that captures each student’s interest.
Anyway, that’s that for fall semester 2025 & future plans for the 2025-2026 school year!
Type at you later!
Nancy Tart
