One of my side hustles every spring is to create a course of study for the following school year for our homeschool. Nathaniel is seven. There is a fourteen year gap between him and his closest sibling. So it’s been fourteen years since I picked educational materials for a seven year old. I loved looking through all the new materials that have been published in that time.

I am not a “one size fits all” homeschooler. At one point in my teaching career, I had two students in algebra 1 at the same time. They used different curricula because they had different learning styles and needs. I feel homeschooling gives opportunity for writing the ultimate individualized educational plan. Especially when homeschooling an only child. I enjoy the research process and combining a wide variety of resources. Our style is eclectic. We shy away from textbooks in favor of real books. Ninety percent of our homeschool budget this year was spent on children’s literature and bookshelves.

We are a Christian family. We start our homeschool day reading God’s Word, memorizing scripture, praying, and worshiping through song. While the focus of this time is not teaching Nathaniel to read; all of these experiences enrich his over all literacy experience and his exposure to letters, words, and language. Here are the resources I’ll be using this year for this time of our day together.

The Beginner’s Gospel Story Bible: We used this bible last year and I loved it. It contains fifty-two stories from the Old and New Testaments that all point to Jesus. Last year we read one story everyday for a week; a pace that provided bible reading for a full year.

This bible is a fantastic resource for modeling core vocabulary on an AAC device during reading. In fact, focusing on two words at a time, I have matched the first fifty words on Gale Van Tatenhove’s Clinical List of Core Vocabulary for AAC with twenty-five bible stories. We will use the Beginner’s Gospel Story Bible and list of AAC words to model again this year. Since we have been through the book recently, we will read each story just once in the week rather than daily.

Authors have been very generous with making their books available free through Covid19. A church in Washington DC got permission from Jared Kennedy to make videos of the Beginner’s Gospel Story Bible read aloud. Find that YouTube channel here. Watching these recorded videos with a young AAC user allows a parent to focus on modeling AAC words.

Interested in that list matching core words with the stories? Email me @kim.m.rankin@gmail.com

The Ology: Ancient Truths, Ever New: The other four days of the week, we will be read The Ology. We will read two chapters a week, spending two days on a chapter. Nathaniel is the perfect age to start transitioning to an actual bible and start to learn about bible book names, chapters, and verse numbering. This pace will give us time to read the referenced verses in a bible. I have chosen The Adventure’s Bible for Early Readers for this.

Nathaniel and I memorize passages of scripture and doctrines like the Lord’s Prayer and Apostle’s Creed using keyword signing. We are currently working on Psalm 100 with other children from our church. Here is a link to a You Tube video sharing signs we are using for the first three verses to give you an idea of how I go about this.

We will continue to use Happy Hymnody hymn of the month free resources for our daily hymn listening.

We focus on one character quality per month in our home. Our resources for this date back to our earliest years of homeschooling. The actual products we have are no longer in print, but similar materials can be found through Kids of Integrity.

We have found the early elementary years are a great time to focus on the following character qualities: attentiveness, cautiousness, compassion, contentment, determination, diligence, gratefulness, neatness, patience, and truthfulness.

I sometimes cringe sharing with the world what I plan to use. Just as soon as I do, I find something I want to add or switch out. But for now, these are the resources we will use to start our day, learn more about our faith, and worship our Savior.