More on Sprittibee’s Homeschooling Series

This post changes each year as I add each year’s homeschool accomplishments, memories and favorite photos. It is currently under construction!!!

This post is an ongoing project for me and I’ve been often too busy homeschooling and working and living to update it. I’m doing my best, so please be patient. I wanted to chronolog our journey here for myself, my kids and other homeschool moms looking for ideas in their own homeschool journey. This post is especially helpful for those who are just starting out – with younger children, because all of the early years have completed lists and links to resources, books, enrichment ideas, unit studies and more. If you are needing ideas for elementary school, they are linked near the bottom.

The rest of you with Junior High and High School kids are going to have to wait a bit – until I have time for myself to go back in and update the links… however, using a keyword search on Google with “Sprittibee” next to it is another quick way to search my archives for adventures I blogged about, but haven’t linked here yet.

Looking for homeschool resources? Click my Homeschool drop-down category up top and visit my Big List of Homeschool Links. You can also click the homeschool category in my sidebar and a running list of recent posts that I have tagged as ‘homeschool’ related will appear for you to scroll through.

Each link below is a detailed post about that particular topic. For more info about each of these years, see the homeschool timeline below! This is a record of our homeschool journey. I hope it blesses you. Feel free to click a few links and browse through our past homeschool experiences!

Links to all my homeschool record posts are below…

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 1st YEAR…
PRESCHOOL (2001-2)
Some favorite posts from Preschool in 2001-2:
Post #1 – First Year Homeschool Field Trips (PK/K)
Post #2 – First Year Homeschool Book List (PK/K)
Post #3 – First Year Homeschool Computer Games (PK/K)
Post #4 – First Year Homeschool Curriculum (PK/K)
Post #5 – Learning Enrichment Ideas for Kindergarten and Preschool
Post #6 – Favorite KONOS Memories from Kindergarten and Preschool
Post #7 – KONOS Indian Unit Fun

A favorite image from Preschool in 2001-2:

Teacher notes about Preschool in 2001-2:

– My first year to homeschool was 2001-2 (when they were 4.5 and 2.5 years old). We began homeschooling the same month that 9/11 happened. We began Preschool and Kindergarten materials at home that year.

– After financial difficulty and some unforeseen natural disaster events that forced us to move out of our home, we placed our kids in private school for the 2002-3 school year. My son had to do Kindergarten over that year due to him being so much younger than the First Graders. My daughter (quite obviously) did Preschool activities or napped! They ended that school year at ages 6 and 4.

Note: We started preschool again in 2013 with our younger two boys and I’ll be adding those posts to the list here even though they are not the same year.

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 2nd YEAR…
KINDERGARTEN (2003-4)
Some favorite posts from Kindergarten in 2003-4 :
Post #1 – Kindergarten Homeschool Year Book List
Post #2 – Kindergarten Homeschool Year Curriculum
Post #3 – Educational Computer Games
Post #4 – Kindergarten Homeschool Year Field Trips
Post #5 – Learning Enrichment Ideas for Kindergarten
Post #6 – Favorite KONOS Memories from Kindergarten
Post #7 – KONOS Kings and Queens Unit Fun

A favorite image from Kindergarten in 2003-4 :

Teacher notes about Kindergarten in 2003-4:

After a year at private school, my husband and I decided to bring the kiddos home again to homeschool. I gave a little background in my ‘Why I Homeschool‘ post previously. We started off our second year of homeschooling (in 2003-4) doing Kindergarten for Morgan and First Grade for Kaden (they ended the year at ages 7 and 5).

Note: We started Kindergarten again in 2014 with our younger two boys and I’ll be adding those posts to the list here even though they are not the same year.

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 3rd YEAR…
1ST GRADE (2004-5)
Some favorite posts from 1st Grade :
Post #1 – My First Grade Book List
Post #2 – First Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Post #3 – First Grade Field Trips
Post #4 – First Grade Learning Enrichment
Post #5 – Favorite KONOS Memories from First Grade
Post #6 – Government-President-Election Unit Fun!

A favorite image from 1st Grade :

Teacher notes about 1st Grade :

During the summer of 2004, we moved (in our early homeschool days we moved a lot due to my husband’s job). We started the new homeschool year for 2004-5 in a new city and a new house. It was fun making new friends and joining a wonderful co-op. The kids also had a great time in an all-homeschool choir. Kaden completed 2nd Grade, and Morgan completed 1st Grade (ending the year at ages 8 and 6).

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 4th YEAR…
2ND GRADE (2005-6)
Some favorite posts from 2nd Grade :
Post #1 – My Second Grade Book List
Post #2 – Second Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Post #3 – Second Grade Field Trips
Post #4 – Second Grade Learning Enrichment
Post #5 – Favorite KONOS Memories from Second Grade
Post #6 – Memories from our KONOS Rock Unit!

A favorite image from 2nd Grade :

Teacher notes about 2nd Grade :

We sold our home the same month that school began in the 2005-6 homeschool year. We moved yet again (this time out of state to Arkansas) for my husband’s job in the fall of 2005. We began co-oping with a group of KONOS moms in our new state and homeschooled until the late summer of 2006. The kids were 9 and 7 at the end of the school year and had completed both 3rd (Kaden) and 2nd (Morgan) Grades.

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 5th YEAR…
3RD GRADE (2006-7)
Some favorite posts from 3th Grade :
Post #1 – Third Grade Homeschool Book List
Post #2 – Third Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Post #3 – Third Grade Field Trips
Post #4 – Third Grade Learning Enrichment
Post #5 – Favorite Memories from Third Grade

A favorite image from 3th Grade :

Teacher notes about 3th Grade :

We began 2006-7 in August. The children were 8 and 10 and we were still in our little apartment in Arkansas. Kaden was in 4th Grade. Morgan was in 3rd. We had quite a few memorable vacations and field trips for our school year. At the end of the year (June 2007) we packed up and moved back home to Texas.

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 6th YEAR…
4TH GRADE (2007-8)
Some favorite posts from 4th Grade :
Post #1 – Fourth Grade Homeschool Book List
Post #2 – Fourth Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Post #3 – Fourth Grade Field Trips
Post #4 – Fourth Grade Learning Enrichment
Post #5 – Favorite Memories from Fourth Grade

A favorite image from 4th Grade :

Teacher notes about 4th Grade :

Back in Texas in 2007, we found a house and moved in. 2007-8 school year began at the very end of August. My kids were 11 and 9, and 4th and 5th Grades. We joined our old co-op and did Robotics for Kaden as an extra curricular activity. Kaden’s team won regionals and we went to Nationals in Michigan, driving on a cross-the-country ‘field trip’ from TX to MI and back. What a fun and memorable experience that was!

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 7th YEAR…
5TH GRADE (2008-9)
Some favorite posts from 5th Grade :
Post #1 – Fifth Grade Homeschool Book List
Post #2 – Fifth Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Post #3 – Fifth Grade Field Trips
Post #4 – Fifth Grade Learning Enrichment
Post #5 – Favorite Memories from Fifth Grade

A favorite image from 5th Grade :

Teacher notes about 5th Grade :

2008-9 school year began in August and fizzled out in March with the edition of a new baby, born March 17th. It was a thrilling and educational process for the kids to learn about pregnancy and childbirth. They also participated in choir all year and did many concerts, and played in a fancy piano recital. At the end of the year, Kaden was 12 and Morgan, 10. 5th and 6th Grades kind of blended in to the next school year since we carried over some of our leftover work when we started up the next year July 2009.

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 8th YEAR…
6TH GRADE (2009-10)
Some favorite posts from 6th Grade :
Post #1 – Sixth Grade Homeschool Book List
Post #2 – Sixth Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Post #3 – Sixth Grade Field Trips
Post #4 – Sixth Grade Learning Enrichment
Post #5 – Favorite Memories from Sixth Grade

A favorite image from 6th Grade :

Teacher notes about 6th Grade :

Our hardest year to prior to high school… they say that there’s usually one or two years that test a homeschool mom’s resolve. 2009-2010 was one of those for me. There were tears shed and much feelings of failure trying to adapt to being mom of a wee baby and teacher to tweens. Our 2009-2010 school year not only was difficult, but it stole away our summer and exhausted us. This was the year that turned us in to Accidental Unschoolers (very unwillingly). Because of our difficulties and also some health problems that my daughter endured, we ended up falling behind in math, so I made the difficult decision to hold my oldest back a grade (he’s was light-years beyond in all other subjects, but you can’t get in to college without strong math skills). Both of my kiddos (age 11 & 13) finished Sixth and then began 7th without much more than a few summer days off. Mama was pregnant again and our fourth child was due the following February.

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 9th YEAR…
7TH GRADE (2010-11)
Some favorite posts from 7th Grade :
Post #1 – Seventh Grade Homeschool Book List
Post #2 – Seventh Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Post #3 – Seventh Grade Field Trips
Post #4 – Seventh Grade Learning Enrichment
Post #5 – Favorite Memories from Seventh Grade

A favorite image from 7th Grade :
Teacher notes about 7th Grade :

2010-11 … by the end of the year Kaden was 14 and Morgan, 12. They finished 7th Grade that year. I wrote a lot about the journey through this blog as we went along and about the lessons I learned along the way. I wrote this at the end of 2011 in a post entitled “Bad Homeschool Year Blessings“, and it kind of summed up the past two years of very difficult and emotional terrain:

“In simple terms: my joy was gone. I knew this all along deep down. Lost joy was the crisis that my perfectionism and inability to transition from ‘mom of two tweens’ to ‘mom of two tweens and a baby’ had caused. It was a long, hard, two-year lesson. There were many tears… and more frustration than I care to admit or remember.”

In the middle of my biggest joy crisis, God sent yet another tiny soul in to our lives. A bundle of joy and a new life. We began counting our blessings and learning to adjust to being a family of 6.

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 10th YEAR…
8TH GRADE (2011-12)
Some favorite posts from 8th Grade :
Post #1 – Eighth Grade Homeschool Book List
Post #2 – Eighth Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Post #3 – Eighth Grade Field Trips
Post #4 – Eighth Grade Learning Enrichment
Post #5 – Favorite Memories from Eighth Grade

A favorite image from 8th Grade :
Teacher notes about 8th Grade :

2011-12 was a thrilling and educational process for the kids to learn about pregnancy and childbirth. It was also a very hormonal and crazy few of years from 2010-12 with me either pregnant or nursing, and my daughter developing into a little woman. Kaden (15) and Morgan (13) also participated in choir during 2011 and 2012 and did many concerts, and played in a fancy piano recital. At the end of their 8th grade year, Kaden was 15 and Morgan, 13.

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 11th YEAR…
9TH GRADE (2012-13)
Some favorite posts from 9th Grade :
Post #1 – Ninth Grade Homeschool Book List
Post #2 – Ninth Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Post #3 – Ninth Grade Field Trips
Post #4 – Ninth Grade Learning Enrichment
Post #5 – Favorite Memories from Ninth Grade

A favorite image from 9th Grade :
Teacher notes about 9th Grade :

2012-13 – FRESHMAN … We made it to high school! 2012 was the hardest year of my life. Ever. I can’t remember anything so difficult since before I met my husband. It was a spiritual crisis… and somehow God miraculously pulled our family through it. I wrote a lot of things during 2012 and 2013 on the tail end of that trial to encourage other moms (there’s a lot of good stuff in the Accidental Unschoolers series along those lines). I will eventually link them up there in the 9th Grade year for you to read if you need encouragement dealing with difficult teens. I’m so glad it’s over and that God didn’t allow me to surrender. I know I was on the edge of all I could handle. He is so faithful.

Ninth grade complete – and hearts mended, mama began to create her first transcript for the teens. Kaden was now 16 and Morgan was 14. I realized I should have started earlier with all the high school planning… like in 7th or 8th! Now that we are in tenth grade, we’re plugging along with a HEAVY 4-Year High School Plan and are gearing up for COLLEGE (even some possible dual credit or CLEP. Yikes!

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 12th YEAR…
10TH GRADE (2013-14)
Some favorite posts from 10th Grade :
Post #1 – Tenth Grade Homeschool Book List
Post #2 – Tenth Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Post #3 – Tenth Grade Field Trips
Post #4 – Tenth Grade Learning Enrichment
Post #5 – Favorite Memories from Tenth Grade

A favorite image from 10th Grade :
Teacher notes about 10th Grade :

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 13th YEAR…
11TH GRADE (2014-15)
Some favorite posts from 10th Grade :
Post #1 – Eleventh Grade Homeschool Book List
Post #2 – Eleventh Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Post #3 – Eleventh Grade Field Trips
Post #4 – Eleventh Grade Learning Enrichment
Post #5 – Favorite Memories from Eleventh Grade

A favorite image from 11th Grade :
Teacher notes about 11th Grade :

HOMESCHOOLING – OUR 14th YEAR… This school year!
12TH GRADE (2015-16)
Some favorite posts from 10th Grade :
Post #1 – Twelfth Grade Homeschool Book List
Post #2 – Twelfth Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Post #3 – Twelfth Grade Field Trips
Post #4 – Twelfth Grade Learning Enrichment
Post #5 – Favorite Memories from Twelfth Grade

A favorite image from 12th Grade :
Teacher notes about 12th Grade :

Come back and visit to hear more as we write our homeschool history – and as I fill in the blanks and link this post up!

Subscribe to Sprittibee by Email