Do you find doing any language year-round is more helpful for purposes of immersion for 2nd language French, Spanish etc?

Have a fabulous month off!

Comment the items on the store

We did TGTB for our first grade year- I went all out- 3 science units, LA, math, Nature, Handwriting, Readers- the price near made me faint with the shipping but I thought, oh it'll be worth it! GIRL, after paying the conversion rates to Canada plus the shipping I was THEN hit with a customs fee 😆 It was like an extra $75!! The best part......we didn't end up using it for very long before switching curriculum 🤦‍♀

Awesome

Thank you

I love all your videos. Check out Dr. Anthony Chaffee on the carnivore diet.

Love this ❤

I agree that is the best schedule for kids. Besides your children always need a schedule and routine.

How do you decide which unit studies? I know you let your kids help but is there a list that goes along with the area schools that you look at also?

It seems to me like the same people that tell me "I could NEVER homeschool in the summer" are the same ones asking "What learning should we do to prevent the summer slide?" Make it make sense. But hey, we all run things how we want to run things, which is something I think we all value about home education.

Great video! We started off homeschooling year 'round because my oldest didn't want to stop for the summer. I quickly saw the benefits and now wouldn't want to do it any other way.

Im considering year round homeschooling, but maybe a much more relaxed schedule. I’m conflicted with exactly what you said, about preparing them for the future and little chance of them having summers off as an adult. Wouldn’t that mean it’s even more important now for them to have a childhood with summers off? The majority of people have had those fun carefree summers and then as adults we go on to working knowing the expectation is that we will have to work through the summer. Having had free summers for all those years doesn’t change that. The memories I have of my childhood summers are so wonderful. I’m conflicted that I’d be taking some of that away from my kids. Perhaps more of an unschooling approach would work for us during summers because we do love to learn everyday and find it happens organically. I do like the idea of being able to be more flexible throughout the year though.

I couldn't imagine not teaching my kids over the summer. Thank you for the info.❤

I plan a year-round school schedule (3rd Day of the new School Year!). I do a "sabbath" schedule of 6 weeks on and one week off with adjustments over November and December. I plan for a 40-week academic year, 4 days a week, for 160 planned educational days. Where I live I need 180 educational days per school year (Albuquerque, NM, USA). Field trips fill the last 20 days. It works for us, and most school days average 4 hours.

I totally agree! It’s really hard to teach work ethic and a love of learning when they believe they are owed the summers off with no school!

For kingdoms and classifications, there is a new David Attenborough series called The Green Planet. Like The Blue Panet series but newer. It is amazing!

I’m so happy to finally have found a Canadian from Ontario. I love all your content. I wish I could find this kind of content for homeschooling high school.

You can get their language arts and math for free as a PDF download.

I used the old version of this unit with my 4th grader at the beginning of this year. We liked it. We watched the videos, read the extra books etc. We also added books from the library & we read more in-depth information from other sources. We liked the experiments. That said we don't only rely on TGTB for all our science. Some units can be supplemented but others cannot. Next year we'll be doing Geology and since they won't comment on the age of the earth we will be using another program.

Thanks so much for this walkthrough. I’m actually using the marine biology for our secular family and have found it very refreshing and you are right, light on the Christian content. Did you find a lot of religious references in the bird videos? My daughter really wants to do that one next.

You can actually get both their math and LA programs for free via PDF. 🙂

I have homeschooled 3 kids, we’re on year 11. I had a different opinion on their science units, but you’re coming at it from a former educator and I am/was a scientist. I got one for free and bought 2 others. In general GATB is priced fairly low comparatively, they also give many units for free, so it’s a good place to direct someone who wants to “try” homeschooling. Their materials are gorgeous to see and touch. High quality paper, great art. Academically I find it below grade level, a lot is busy work for homeschool, and very religious. The lack of rigor comes from such a large grade span they aimed for, and yes they have suggestions for making it more difficult, but I could just purchase something more difficult ready out of the box. If you have kids that are fine arts bent their materials would be a great fit. I have bought all of their handwriting books, well worth the price shipped (in US). They also have a large selection of reprinted historic fiction, which are at greater lexile levels and not full of trash. So yes, definitely check them out, but if you have a highly motivated mini scientist I wouldn’t use GATB.

I pray your father-in-law feels better soon and that your family has a great summer! If you could please share where your kids go for soccer, that would be awesome. I'm in the richmond hill area and would love to put my daughter in as well if they have something around this area - $30 sounds like a really great deal. Thanks!

Mine just wanna play games and have fun so they see school as competing with time for that.

I purchased your book along with another Canadian homeschooling mom and i have to tell you that both were a wealth of information. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with others. I plan to follow your term planning because i have a daughter the same age as your eldest daughter and im going to be new at the homeschooling experience so i would like to follow someone who's been at it for sometime. Heading now to purchase your planner! 😊

I will be going on my 5th year homeschooling, and I have incorporated unit studies alot over the years for science/social studies. Our first year homeschooling we did an Oceans unit from GR and an Asia unit. We enjoyed it so much. I enjoyed the Asia unit a lot and learned a ton myself. I think it is a fun way to capture their attention, and foster a love of learning.

Have you shared what the writing unit you did in January was before? I’ll go back and look For a link if you remember Sharing it. Goad your father in law is doing well 🧡

Thank you for sharing, Amanda. I’m glad to hear that you’re ending the term on a positive note despite having a couple of rocky months. Enjoy your summer! You deserve it. 😊

Thank you for sharing the ups and downs of your homeschool and personal life. It is good you are being a support to your family during your father in law's health trials. Wishing you the very best!

I love your Unit Study lesson plan pages. I don't do as many unit studies, but with your lesson plan tips, I might add more!

The fantastic mr. fox is heisty… also have you thought of a series of unfortunate events? I am thinking about Canadian history as well and don’t know how to do it. Have you(or anyone else) heard of or used Headphone History? Im intrigued by that! Also, we do 15 minute piano practices and I work one on one with a sibling while they practice. It’s one of their independent tasks. We have a keyboard so they use headphones so they can be near without disrupting learning with the other kiddos.

The fact that Canadian phonics exists cracks me up but I love it 😂

For BNA ideas Look up the Canada Story of Us (CBC but KZfaq has it). Big project could be a play reenacting the different battles. I used a textbook when I was in school so can't help with the book part sorry.

This was so fun! Lots of neat books!!

Purchased your undated planner from Amazon. Great product 👍🏽

How do you do quiet and clean up time? X

I always knew I would homeschool, but you've given me the confidence. This was our first official homeschool year and it could not have gone better (a big thanks to your planner!) Love the new citrus print 🍋 Thank you, Amanda! ☺

Very helpful as I have been going back and forth on purchasing this! Thank you

My kid turned 7 in March and we are starting second grade next year. Would you recommend it for second or third grade?

I would love to know which read aloud chapter books you’re planning to use with these unit studies!!!! Please!!! ❤

Simple machines is so much fun (physics teacher here). Can be fun to make into a scavenger hunt. Make a spoon catapult and pelt marshmallows at each other. Create balloon rockets with yard sticks and string at an angle (attach balloon with a straw) and will create a zip line. We did the zip lines across the whole room. Great way to end simple machines is a fun trip to an amusement park as it’s all simple machines ❤

Also my kids ended up loving simple machines (and me too) . We had so much fun finding examples in real life and building our own!

Always love it when you share the resources you use to teach Canadian history!

If you want, to help you look for resources: Space (Grade 6), Simple Machines and Forces (Grade 2 and 3), Human Body (Grade 5), Colonizers (Grade 7/8)