Hi everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve written anything on here so I figured I’d just share what we’ve been up to.

Mason turned 5 in October and has officially started his kindergarten curriculum! He’s very excited to be doing multiple lessons like the big boys. He really enjoys overcomplicating things and explaining everything to me to show me how smart he is. It’s simultaneously annoying and adorable and I love him. He’s even reading now!

Rhett and Kender are working on getting their curriculum levels synced up with what their public school grade levels would be. When I started homeschooling Kender, we had a lot going on: Toddler, building a house, pregnant, etc. We took things nice and slow, so that’s why their curriculum levels don’t match the grade levels right now.

Normally that’s not something I’d worry about because they are doing amazing and their reading levels are way above average, but Kender has decided he wants to go to high school. So we have a couple of years to get him up to whatever that would be. It’s tricky to judge that kind of thing, but I figure if we can get him through the level 8 curriculum before then he should be good. He’s been working really hard, doubling up on lessons every day. I want to be like him when I grow up.

Rhett has only been doubling up on one lesson each day (language arts or math), so he can get caught up too in a way that’s not overwhelming. Rhett hasn’t decided if he wants to go to high school yet, but I want it to be a smooth transition for him if he does end up wanting to.

Up to this point we’ve been focusing mainly on language arts and math, because I believe if you have a strong enough foundation in those subjects, you can learn anything. But this year I finally feel like we can add a little more.

Kender is on his third year of piano lessons with his awesome Nana, and he sounds amazing. He’s also a stud in all the sports, especially football and basketball. Rhett is still our little artist and engineer, and is just finishing up his first season of flag football. He’s also learning how to play the ukulele.

We started a family unit study on the U.S. Constitution a couple weeks ago and that’s been great. It’s been a while since we did any all-together, family-style learning, instead of just one-on-one stuff. It’s been a fun change. Fridays are our history/music days now.

I’ve also been attempting to learn to play the guitar. It’s been a very slow process… I’m beginning to remember why I bought one and then didn’t touch it for 12 years. I know how to re-string a guitar now (because when your strings are 12 years old they break easily), and I have weird callused fingers, but I still feel like I can’t actually play anything. I can play one scale and a few chords, but it definitely doesn’t sound like music yet…

That’s pretty much it! Sorry if it’s super boring, but life is busy right now. I haven’t had much energy for extra stuff, so when I do write it will probably be more of this kind of thing. Art and school updates and whatnot.