Homeschool: Handwriting and Typing and Miscellaneous

If you did not see my previous post about our 2020-21 school plans, read that here! This week I will be sharing a separate blog post for each school subject, detailing my plans for which curriculum we will be using. For reference, I will have a 5th grader, a 3rd grader, Kindergartener, and a 3-yr old preschooler this year. Honestly, I do not have any formal "school" plans for Andrew this year. He is an energetic 3-yr old boy and not yet ready to sit and follow directions. He even refuses to color with a crayon!  So any curriculum I list is for my 3 older kiddos.

Also, I feel like I should preface all of this by saying I reserve the right to change my mind about any of this! Haha. Seriously, I will not know if this is the right fit for my kids until we actually use it, so I'm giving myself full permission to switch curriculum if at any point I know it is not working.

Handwriting: Cursive writing seems to be a bit of a lost art. With technology taking over the world, it almost seems pointless to learn. However, the kids' Grandpa Nullmeyer had very beautiful handwriting (and probably other grandparents as well). And that is just one of the reasons I have decided to assign handwriting to my kids. We will use the Handwriting books from The Good and the Beautiful. I have heard excellent things about these books, and I think they will be fun for the kids. Each page contains writing practice, as well as some form of art to draw or color. Ryan will use level 5, Lucas level 3, and Jenna level K. (It doesn't contain cursive, but it gives her extra printing practice while the boys work on their handwriting) Jenna has already started on her book and she LOVES it.

Typing: While my boys were doing distance learning at home, it became abundantly clear to me that they need some serious help with typing. I haven't picked out an online program yet, but I plan on alternating handwriting with typing days. Typing is obviously an important life-skill to have, so if you have any suggestions for a good online typing program for kids, send them my way!

Miscellaneous: In addition to their basic core curriculum, we will make time for things like arts and crafts, Bible (the best story Bible and a fun science devotional), field trips, music lessons, poetry, sports, logic (using these), volunteering, and anything else that sparks their interest. (Assuming these activities are open!) I think homeschooling will give us a lot of freedom to pursue things the kids otherwise wouldn't have had time for. 

I also have a small list of topics I want to focus on for each child. For example, I plan on teaching and testing Ryan on the 50 states and their capitals, outside of his basic history curriculum. I would also like Lucas (and Ryan) to learn how to give an oral presentation.

And one final note. I plan on keeping things very simple, at least to begin with. We will not be doing every single subject every day. And if there are days we need to focus more on life skills, such as the value of hard work (chores!), then I feel like that is completely fine. Educating my kids isn't just about bookwork, although we will be doing plenty of that.