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Curee Schoolhouse Recap & Onto Our 2022-2023 School Year
Written by Bethany Curee, God’s Daughter – Freckled & Free

Welp we skipped right over reporting on the 2021-2022 school year with all the madness that occurred. Soooo many things took place that continued to set us back farther and farther that I can’t even remember what all happened!? I do know we did it and survived the whirlwind with my 1st grader, 3rd grader, 6th grader and Pre-K. It’s been a hot minute since I have posted on this subject, so excuse the longer update.

Let’s just say it was the year of reminding myself, “this is the reason that we homeschool—flexibility in our home life and school life.” I can tell you from 8 years of experience doing this now, flexibility is key to committing to homeschool amongst an already crazy busy life. After set back after set back we officially accomplished finishing our 2021-2022 school year at our latest record ever of July 25, 2022. Just in enough time to get a little over a month for an official summer break. Yikes.

And, let me tell you, they didn’t waste anytime getting right to summer. Despite my unfortunate accident of a trimalleolar fracture we have made the most of this short lived summer.

Before you feel sad like they missed out on summer vacation…just know these kiddos did not miss out on anything. We hopped along as many trips as we could with my husband (Tom’s) work travel during the school year. From Chattanooga, TN, witnessing Lookout Mountain and Cloudland Canyon State Park to Orlando FL where we witnessed an eagle’s nest up close and personal. Visited Legoland, experienced the Pirate Water Ski Show and Downtown Disney. Visited Lake Wales and several beaches including Vero Beach, Clearwater and Destin, several of which had red flags that created all sorts of seaweed, shells and jellyfish to explore ashore. In Destin we got to experience a Bay Cruise on a stormy day, which was quite the experience. We drove through winding roads and mountains, ate backroads barbecue, stayed in Gainesville, Georgia at Lake Lanier where they got to ride and experience jet skis and swim in the lake and infinity pools. All of this plus the regular field trips along the way last school year. Yeah, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say they got a pretty good life. Sometimes we would pack along homeschool and sometimes not.

They were able to participate in several vintage pickings as well as the opportunity to serve alongside our friends and kiddos at Charm at the Farm, Vintage Market Days and the first launch of the newly created Mustard Seed Market. See my post here, here and here to read more on that.

Along with all that travel, with Real Church, we participated in several outreach and community events including the Community Kickball Tournament, Goshen’s Vintage Baseball Game, Light Up Goshen Parade, Homecoming Parade, Goshen National Night Out, Goshen Ready Fest and many Real Church hosted events like our monthly service, monthly drive-in movie nights, The Gathering Free Community Dinner, and several other outreach events. With all those adventures it put us behind on our academic work but ahead on our world experience and exposure.

It’s been an eventful season in more ways than one and we found ourselves desperately needing a season of rest amongst lifes’ challenges. One of the hardest decisions ever, and I have shed more tears than you would believe, but we have currently stepped down as the pastors of our beloved church we planted from the ground up as of the end of July. Perhaps I will share more another day, but for now we are pressing forward and onward, savoring the memories of what we have accomplished with God since He first planted the seed of Real Church into our hearts. Onto a new journey of searching for rest and working to have a season of being “still” with God until we know what’s next?

Enjoying our last summer days eating from our charcuterie style lunch on the back deck

While He molds us on the potter’s wheel we are cherishing much needed time with our family and aiming to experience life in the now. Embracing it one day at a time, not knowing what our future holds but trusting in God’s plans to paint this painful yet beautiful picture called life.

On that note, that’s a wrap on our 2021-2022 school year recap and summer. Time to move on to this new school year.

2022-2023 SCHOOL YEAR CURRICULUM & STUDENT LINEUP

We are continuing to use My Father’s World for all shared subjects: bible, history, geography, science and art. This year diving specifically into the Exploration to 1850 package with my kindergartner, 2nd grader, 4th grader and 7th grader. Details in the photos below.

While we still may be doing some of the God & the History of Art lessons that are a part of this package, this year I’m hoping to do some of my own lessons to add to the mix being I’m an art girl myself. I also picked up a few extra art books to incorporate or reference this year. You can see we get a little excited about our art.

We also added some fun additional books for our book basket time as part of My Father’s World Curriculum. I typically try to find books that have the creationism perspective but there isn’t always a ton of options out there. I will then just spend extra time explaining to my kids the worldview versus the biblical perspective we teach. I also find it very important to have inspiring graphics and illustrations to fuel their creative art time.

On a side note, I love this vintage book holder we found during our antique picking trip to Round Top, Texas a few years ago. It’s serving perfectly as our book basket.

Antique book holder we scored

STUDENT #1: NAKODA TAYLOR, 7TH GRADER

INTERVIEWED ON THE SPOT:

WHAT SHE WANTS TO BE WHEN SHE GROWS UP: Paleontologist
MOST EXCITED FOR THIS SCHOOL YEAR: Science
GOALS: Get better at math
BEST AT: Art, good with animals, cleaning and being a leader
FAVORITE FOOD: Mexican
FAVORITE FRUIT: Melons
FAVORITE VEGGIE: Potatoes
FAVORITE SNACK: Salsarita/nachos
FAVORITE OUTFIT: Overalls/Tshirt
FAVORITE COLOR: Blue
FAVORITE PERSON: Shammah (our dog)
FAVORITE ANIMAL: Chocolate lab/horses
FAVORITE CAR: Baby Blue Bronco
FAVORITE MOVIE: Spirit
FAVORITE SHOW: Lucky Dog
FAVORITE STATE TO VISIT: Chattanooga, TN
FAVORITE MUSIC ARTIST: NF
FAVORITE THING TO DO: Dig for dinosaur bones
FAVORITE CHORE: Feeding Shammah
LEAST FAVORITE CHORE: Overwhelming messes, otherwise loves cleaning
HOW WOULD YOU SPEND $100: Paleontologist Tools
HOW WOULD YOU HELP THE WORLD IF YOU COULD: Help recycle more and help improve diesel trucks to be safer on the environment WHAT COULD YOU DO FOR GOD AT YOUR AGE RIGHT NOW? Give money to missionaries

My creative beauty, working hard at her math

7TH GRADE MATH, SCIENCE, LANGUAGE ARTS & READING CURRICULUM

Nakoda is using mainly My Father’s World, however she prefers the math program we used with Sonlight curriculum which is Math-U-See‘s Zeta Program. She loves how it comes with a DVD of a teacher who teaches each lesson. Since she is a visual learner, she finds that most helpful. As Nakoda gets older, more is being added to her plate, I can’t believe it, feels like yesterday she was learning to read. Due to her 7th grade status, she now also has her own science separate from what I am studying with the other kiddos and she couldn’t be more thrilled to begin it. Nakoda’s 7th grade specific curriculum looks like this

STUDENT #2: JUDAH MICHAEL, 4TH GRADER

INTERVIEWED ON THE SPOT:

WHAT HE WANTS TO BE WHEN HE GROWS UP: Actor
MOST EXCITED FOR THIS SCHOOL YEAR: Finishing It
GOALS: Get better at drawing
BEST AT: Building legos, making people laugh and caring about others
FAVORITE FOOD: Mexican
FAVORITE FRUIT: Watermelon
FAVORITE VEGGIE: Cucumbers
FAVORITE SNACK: Salsarita/nachos
FAVORITE OUTFIT: Pants/Flannel/Jacket or Shorts/Muscle Shirt
FAVORITE COLOR: Silver
FAVORITE PERSON: Jesus
FAVORITE ANIMAL: Dogs
FAVORITE CAR: Black Bronco
FAVORITE MOVIE: Jurassic World Dominion
FAVORITE SHOW: Lego City Adventures
FAVORITE STATE TO VISIT: Georgia
FAVORITE MUSIC ARTIST: Brave by Big Block Sing Song
FAVORITE THING TO DO: Build legos
FAVORITE CHORE: Feeding chickens
LEAST FAVORITE CHORE: Cleaning rooms
HOW WOULD YOU SPEND $100: Save for Jurassic World Lego Set
HOW WOULD YOU HELP THE WORLD IF YOU COULD: If someone was getting frustrated and needed help with something I would cheer them up and help them do it
WHAT COULD YOU DO FOR GOD AT YOUR AGE RIGHT NOW? Tell them about Jesus

My handsome boy & math whiz right here

4TH GRADE MATH, LANGUAGE ARTS & READING CURRICULUM

Judah is also using mainly My Father’s World, however he is also using Math-U-See‘s Delta Program. I’ve also added some additional reading I will have ready for him throughout the year. Judah’s 4h grade specific curriculum looks like this:

STUDENT #3: NAOMI EZRA, 2ND GRADER

INTERVIEWED ON THE SPOT:

WHAT SHE WANTS TO BE WHEN SHE GROWS UP: Firefighter & Lifeguard
MOST EXCITED FOR THIS SCHOOL YEAR: Math
GOALS: To draw better
BEST AT: Helping people & being hilarious
FAVORITE FOOD: Bacon Egg Sandwiches
FAVORITE FRUIT: Blackberries
FAVORITE VEGGIE: Corn
FAVORITE SNACK: Gummies
FAVORITE OUTFIT: Ariel T-shirt
FAVORITE COLOR: Red
FAVORITE PERSON: Alexa the lifeguard
FAVORITE ANIMAL: Toad
FAVORITE CAR: Red Convertible
FAVORITE MOVIE: The Little Mermaid & Playing with Fire
FAVORITE SHOW: Fireman Sam
FAVORITE STATE TO VISIT: FL
FAVORITE MUSIC ARTIST: Part of Your World
FAVORITE THING TO DO: Play Ariel
FAVORITE CHORE: Washing dishes
LEAST FAVORITE CHORE: Cleaning my room
HOW WOULD YOU SPEND $100: Large Ariel Doll
HOW WOULD YOU HELP THE WORLD IF YOU COULD: Call the ambulance and tell them about their heart
WHAT COULD YOU DO FOR GOD AT YOUR AGE RIGHT NOW? Love people

My spicy wildflower working hard at math

2ND GRADE MATH, LANGUAGE ARTS & READING CURRICULUM

Naomi is also using My Father’s World for her shared subjects, but is still using Sonlight Curriculum for her math, language arts and reading, which is the first curriculum I ever purchased when Nakoda was just starting out. Because I have invested in that curriculum from Kindergarten to 2nd grade, I’m making sure to get my money’s worth by keeping all my littles on that curriculum until they get to 3rd grade. This will be Naomi’s first year moving to Math-U-See‘s Beta Program. Naomi’s 2nd grade specific curriculum looks like this:

STUDENT #4: HARVEST DAWN, KINDERGARTEN

INTERVIEWED ON THE SPOT:

WHAT SHE WANTS TO BE WHEN SHE GROWS UP: A “maker” aka chef at chick-uh-lay (we know as…chick-fil-a) or a cop
MOST EXCITED FOR THIS SCHOOL YEAR: Explode the Code Workbook
GOALS: Wants to be able to count to 200
BEST AT: Being a princess
FAVORITE FOOD: Lemon noodles
FAVORITE FRUIT: Strawberries
FAVORITE VEGGIE: Carrots
FAVORITE SNACK: Tomatoes
FAVORITE OUTFIT: Dress
FAVORITE COLOR: Pink
FAVORITE PERSON: God
FAVORITE ANIMAL: Penguin (like Peso from Octonauts)
FAVORITE CAR: Motorcycle
FAVORITE MOVIE: Tangled
FAVORITE SHOW: Octonauts
FAVORITE STATE TO VISIT: FL
FAVORITE MUSIC SONG: When will my life begin? From Tangled
FAVORITE THING TO DO: Dance to “Call Me Maybe“
FAVORITE CHORE: Doing dishes
LEAST FAVORITE CHORE: Putting up the dishes
HOW WOULD YOU SPEND $100: Large Rapunzel Doll
HOW WOULD YOU HELP THE WORLD IF YOU COULD: Call the doctor for someone if they needed it
WHAT COULD YOU DO FOR GOD AT YOUR AGE RIGHT NOW? Either give CPR to someone who needed it or give someone food & clothes

Sweetie bear, working hard on her handwriting, this week the letter “Ff”

KINDERGARTEN MATH, LANGUAGE ARTS & READING CURRICULUM

Harvest will tag along as much as she can handle for My Father’s World with the shared subjects. But we will be focusing mainly on her grade specific curriculum. Like Naomi, she is also using Sonlight Curriculum for math, language arts and reading, due to me utilizing the curriculum I had already purchased for kindergarten-2nd grade. Harvest’s kindergarten specific curriculum looks like this:

Somehow in all of this we did managed to finally design and execute our Curee Schoolhouse homeschool room which I plan to give a full-on design update soon. We are about 95% complete. So stay tuned for a loaded design detailed post all about it. For now I will give you one small peek.

If you made it this far, thanks for sticking around to finish my huge update.

As always I pray you have an excellent year learning however you are schooled, or teaching, or wherever you are in your journey of life. I pray that you grow closer to God this year and get into His word for YOU. May you allow Him to mold you everyday. I pray you do everything as unto Him in ALL things. In Jesus name, Amen.

Written by Bethany Curee, God’s Daughter – Freckled & Free

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