A Stable Beginning

Friday, July 4, 2025

2025 ~ 2026 Plan of Study: 6th & 10th grades

My final two...my baby girl and baby boy! Not sure how we have gotten to this point, yet, here we are! I am excited for this new season in our homeschool. It's been an extremely busy year...I feel like I have just come up for air and being able to process everything that is forth coming. Our courses have been picked since the beginning of February, but I just have not had the chance to breathe and sit and put this blog post together until now. I do love this time of the year though! Seeing what everyone is planning to use is exciting to me. Once again I am grateful to be able to take advantage of the a la carte courses from Veritas Press Scholars Academy to continue giving my children a classical education model.

Without further ado below you will find the Plan of Study for my two youngest, McKenzie & Micah, who will be going into 10th and 6th grade.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, once you hit high school the time flys by so quickly! How is my baby girl heading into 10th grade!? Nevertheless, here we are and we are going full steam ahead with sophomore year. McKenzie will be taking three online courses, Honors Comp II, Honors Chemistry, and German I. She is most excited about finally officially starting to learn German. She has been self teaching herself with Duolingo and speaking/practicing with Mikayla who also is learning German. I guess this means I need to up my German language too because Micah has hinted that he may study German instead of Spanish too. McKenzie will take her first ACT in October to give us a baseline for where she is at. She still has her eyes set on being a collegiate gymnast and has expressed an interest in The Ivey's or a small D2/3 school so I want to make sure academically she is ready if we go that route. Her co-op courses this year will count as part of her electives to round out her course of study. She will continue to train during the morning for gymnastics which has been working for her. I hope to implement a better evening schedule so we are not up too late studying, especially because she is going to be doing Chemistry.

McKenzie's 10th Grade Plan of Study:

Bible {1 credit}

~ Sonlight Bible 320

Math {1.5 credit}

~ Saxon Algebra 2 with 1/2 credit of Geometry with Nicole the Math Lady

Honors English 10 {1 credit}

~ Composition II, online with Veritas Press Scholars Academy

~ Rod & Staff Grammar, 9/10, Book 2

Article of the Week {current events only - oral discussion}

~ SAT / ACT Vocabulary study

Honors Science {1 credit}

~ Apologia Chemistry, online with Veritas Press Scholars Academy

Honors Literature {1 credit}

~ Sonlight Core 300 20th Century Literature

Honors History {1 credit}

~ Sonlight Core 300 ~ 20th Century World History

Foreign Language {1 credit}

~ German I, online with Veritas Press Scholars Academy

Electives

~ Home Economics {1 credit}

~ Home Economics Household and Personal Management Skills

~ Home Economics Kitchen Skills

~ Create & Publish a Children's Book @ co-op {1/2 credit}

~ Theater @ co-op {1/2 credit}

~ Personal Finance @ co-op {1 credit}

PE {1 credit}

~ Level 9 Gymnastics, 28 hours a week

Extras

~ ACT Prep (30 minutes/day)

Total yearly credits: 10.5 credits

Wowzers my baby boy is heading to middle schooll! Sixth grade is when we start our college prep course of study with science and Latin and it's no different this year for Micah. I didn't think he would be ready when we started 5th grade but he has grown leaps and bounds over the past year and I am excited to be at this point with him. This year will be a little different as he has requested to do more online classes with Veritas Press Scholars Academy. At first, I was a little bit in my own feelings, but I also understand that he works better not being fully accountable to me. We did compromise and say that we can try it out, but I still want to do our history together because even if he decides to stick with online classes I don't think I am willing to give up our Sonlight for Omnibus. Especially since his 4 older sisters are proof that Sonlight H/B/L "works" and fully prepares a child for university (not to say Veritas does not either). If six live courses turn out to be too intense and stressful we can and will drop a few. Honestly though I think he will be fine and this year I will be helping him manage his time and courses by checking his work and fully making sure he completes all components so he is prepared for class meetings. He is excited to have a male teacher this year for General Science and to be able to be in his Grammar & Writing course with a close family friend. For our weekly co-op we will continue to use those courses to bring the beauty and enrichment to our homeschool.

Micah's 6th Grade Plan of Study:

Bible

~ Veritas Press Gospels Self-Paced Bible

Math

~ Saxon 7/6 , online with Veritas Press Scholars Academy

Language Arts

~ A Reason for Writing, Book F

~ Linguistics 6 online with Veritas Press Scholars Academy

~ Shurley Grammar 6, online with Veritas Press Scholars Academy

~ IEW Structure & Style Writing, Year 1-Level 1B, online with Veritas Press Scholars Academy

~ Veritas Press Literature 6, online with Veritas Press Scholars Academy

He will read:

The Yearling, Fahrenheit 451, Little Women, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Call of the WIld, A Christmas Carol, The Jungle Book, Kidnapped, White Fang, and The Fellowship of the Ring: The Lord of the Rings: Part 1

History/Geography

~ Sonlight Core G – Ancient History, we will complete the 2nd half of this curriculum

~ Veritas Press Self-Paced History – Middle Ages, Renaissance & Reformation

Project Passport ~ Middle Ages Homeschool in the Woods

Science

~ Apologia General Science , online with Veritas Press Scholars Academy

Latin

~ Latin Transition 1 , online with Veritas Press Scholars Academy

Baseball – Fall: Select training program, Spring: Middle School baseball team

Weekly Co-Op

~ Missions & Geography

~ Myths & Legends

~ Lego's

~ Middle School PE

It's going to be a great year!

http://astablebeginning.com

Saturday, June 7, 2025

Montana graduates high school!

We celebrate the blessing

of our home schooling journey by announcing

the High School Graduation of our daughter,

Montana

We thank God for the privilege

of investing in her life and education!

Montana will be attending Delaware State University as a USDA 1890's National Scholar

majoring in Animal Science ~ Pre-Veternarian

http://astablebeginning.com

Friday, May 23, 2025

Another year down!

We made it! Another year of homeschooling is done. I cannot believe I have been homeschooling my children for 16 years and I am down to my final two come August sine Montana graduates this year. I look forward to enjoying and soaking in these last 7 years.

Montana walks in her graduation ceremony at HEAV in a few weeks.

McKenzie just finished her first year of High School!

Micah is officially out of elementary school!

http://astablebeginning.com

Saturday, May 10, 2025

Mikayla graduates

Bachelor's of Science in Criminal Justice ~ Magna Cum Laude

So proud of Mikayla for her graduation today! This last year was so uncertain and full of new things with her switching schools because Lindenwood dropped the gymnastics team. I am so incredibly grateful for Coach Lisa at Texas Woman's University for giving a spot in their gymnastics family.

She fit right in with all the girls and worked double time to get all of her required courses completed so that she could walk across the stage this month. For two of the three semesters Mikayla finished with a 4.0 GPA, including the last semester which is during gymnastics competition season.

Just missing our Madison who was unable to attend...duty calls.

Three college graduates down, three to go!

http://astablebeginning.com

Monday, August 12, 2024

Here we go with year 16!

Can you believe it? We started year 16 of homeschooling today! Wow, never in a million years did I think we would be in this spot doing life, living and learning under our roof. You want to know what's equally impressive? We have lived in this same house for 15 years! What was once just supposed to be a quick tour on the east coast has turned into an extended stay with two children added to our family. And you know what...I am so glad that God has placed us just where we needed to be.

Montana started her last first day of high school this morning! So bittersweet. I can't believe we have another hgh school senior. She will be our 4th graduate from ASBCA in May and our first graduate to be fully home educated. That alone is a huge accomplishment in my book.

Montana has a pretty loaded plan of study this year and I am really excited that she has the opportunity to knock out some of her general education requirements by doing dual enrollment. The local community college has lowered the tuition to just $25.00 per credit! Currently she is set up to take three dual enrollment classes in the fall semester. She will also start her college applications process in September. As of right now, she is qualified for the full tuition/fees scholarship at her first choice school. She doesn't want to go too far and she is familiar with the campus as she did a summer intensive last year so she may only apply to this one school. In my mind that is scary for some reason. But, the school has the major she wants to study and it's close so maybe we will just sit back and see how it plans out.

McKenzie is officially a high schooler! I don't know if I am ready. The high school years fly by so fast. I know she will be prepared to fly the nest when it is her turn, but man, my baby girl is a freshman!

She too has a jam packed schedule, but I do think it will be manageable even with her busy training schedule. She is set to compete Level 9 again and she is hyper focused to stay healthy so she can qualify for Eastern's next May. McKenzie is taking three courses online with Veritas Press and she is looking forward to them. She was wanting to start her modern foreign language this year but we held off to finish the Latin series with Latin II. I know it will pay dividends down the road and at most schools it is now an accepted foreign language. She is hoping to start Russian but we may settle for German because it is offered more widely online and she would have the option to do dual enrollment German in 12th grade. Thus earning 5 foreign language credits for high school, 2 Latin and 3 German. I know that will make her stand out come her university application season as she has her heart set on a highly selective school.

Our Micah is in 5th grade! If you are a long term reader you're probably thinking that that went by super fast...because it did! He's 10 years old now and knows it all and can already argue his point about all things. Which honestly sometimes all I need to hear is "Yes, Ma'am". But in all seriousness, he's a good boy and we are super proud of the young man he is becoming.

Micah has spent the summer playing baseball on All * Stars and his travel team. The boys had a good run even after all the adult stuff that interfered with them playing. When I tell you it was H-O-T, I definitely mean it was HOT on the fields. Some had trees to shade the grounds but many did not. Fall ball is starting up in a few weeks and Micah has invited to a new training program just across state lines. It's only 45 minutes and he is looking forward to the training to improve his batting and overall game play. He took lessons this summer and we have already seen huge improvement so we think it is worth the time and drive commitment.

I know I have been absent from this blog for awhile...I do hope to get better at that this year. Like I really want to try and write something weekly. I don't even know if anyone but my Grandma will read it, but it's okay! {Hi, Grandma!} So, stick around and see what is happening in our neck of the woods.

Until next time friends!

http://astablebeginning.com

Monday, April 8, 2024

2024 ~ 2025 Plan of Study: 5th, 9th, & 12th grades

Morning friends! It’s that time of the year again. You know the one where I share all the grand plans we have for the upcoming school year. I don’t know about you, but I am super excited to share our plans with you. It’s very freeing getting the plans out of my head and onto paper and the blog. Once again, I have had all three kids enrolled in their upcoming online courses with Veritas Press Scholars since the beginning of February. Our initial plans went from Montana only taking two courses to her enrolling into five! More on that in a minute. Veritas Press has been a huge blessing in our schooling since we started utilizing their a la carte courses when Madison was in high school. I am grateful to be able to take advantage of a classical education model and come alongside the amazing teachers to give my children an amazing classical education.

I’ve been planning for next school year since last December when I had a consult with our fabulous VP Consultant, Jen. She really helped me see the big picture of things for the rest of McKenzie and Micah’s schooling. I was <this> close to enrolling McKenzie in the Veritas Press Diploma program. I didn’t for several reasons, but mainly because I don’t want to give up our way of doing history or math. What’s the saying? “If it’s not broke, then don’t fix it”.

I am excited to say that we are entering our 15th year of homeschooling! For you Mama’s in the trenches with littles or those in the middle, keep going! Bottom line… it is worth it! Every.single.minute. There will always be doubt that you’re not doing enough or doing something wrong that will mess up your child for life, but you’re not! “Do the work of homeschooling” and you will reap the benefits down the road. As always, I want to note that any links below are not affiliated links. I just put them in for my reference and yours if you want to check the curriculum out. Also, because we have been schooling for so long and I am coming up on my 5th time through high school, I already own most of the curriculum listed as I try to shop our shelves first before investing into something new.

Without further ado, here’s our 2024 ~ 2025 Plan of Study.

Micah, is rising to 5th grade! He started his online learning this school year for 4th grade, and it has been the best thing for him. He is finishing up Latin 3, Linguistics 4, and Saxon Math 3 (Saxon 5/4) online. I made a mistake and had him enrolled in Linguistics 4 instead of Linguistics 5 which would have been a better fit challenge wise. But the silver lining is that he now knows the spelling rules and his spelling is even better. For 5th grade we are going to go back to our beloved Rod & Staff Spelling because he now can read cursive which is the reason why we switched last year. For 5th grade Micah will take two courses online including Latin 4, Grammar & IEW Writing 4. We will continue using Sonlight for History for him, but I am going to tweak it to fit us as I have done with the girls for 5th grade. He will also use the self-paced history course from Veritas Press to round out our study. It's a biology year in science for us but I’m still up in the air about which curriculum we will use for Micah. I have narrowed it down to three programs, Elemental Science Logic Stage Biology, Real Science Odyssey Biology 2 (minus the evolution chapters), or BJU Homeschool Life Science. I have done both Elemental Science and RS Odyssey with his older sisters, but I am thinking he will need something different to fit his learning style. Plus, I would like something that is Christian based, so I am leaning towards BJU’s Life Science.

Micah's Plan of Study for 2024-2025 will be:

Bible

~ Veritas Press Genesis to Joshua Self-Paced Bible

Math

~ Saxon 6/5

Language Arts

~ Shirley Grammar 4 online with Veritas Press

~ IEW Structure & Style Writing, Year 1-Level 2A online with Veritas Press

~ Rod & Staff Spelling, Book 6

~ Script and Scribe Truth Traveler

~ Veritas Press Literature 4

He will read:

• Mary Poppins

The Hobbit

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory

Twenty-One Balloons

Faerie Gold

Leepike Ridge

Dangerous Journey

History/Geography

~ Sonlight Core G – Ancient History, we will spread this Core over two years

~ Veritas Press Self-Paced History – Old Testament/Ancient Egypt

Science

~ BJU Homeschool Life Science

Greek Myths

~ Memoria Press D'Aulaires' Greek Myths

Latin

~ Latin 4 w/ Latin for Children, B online with Veritas Press

Baseball – Sunday Select team, off season training

Weekly Co-Op

~ Magic School Bus Science

~ Around the World Geography

~ PE

~ Blood & Guts

McKenzie is officially heading to high school! I am excited and a little sad at the same time. Sad because it means she just has 4 short years at home. However, I am preparing her to soar when the time comes so we are going to make the most of each of the years we have left homeschooling. She has done an amazing job at handling her course load for 8th grade. As I said earlier, I was going to sign her up for the diploma program with Veritas Press, but decided against it and we will proceed with our course of study that I know will pass the NCAA Clearinghouse and keep her competitive for USAFA (Not that Veritas Press is not competitive for highly selective universities). McKenzie will earn 6 high school credits for her 8th grade year to count towards high school. A combination of three core classes and three electives.

McKenzie's Plan of Study looks like this for 2024-2025:

Bible {1 credit}

~ Sonlight Bible 210 with Westminster Catechism

Math {1 credit}

~ Saxon Algebra 1

Honors English 9 {1 credit}

~ Composition 1 online with Veritas Press

~ Rod & Staff Grammar, 9/10, Book 1

~ Rod & Staff Spelling 8

~ Wordly Wise, Book 9

Honors Science {1 credit}

~ Apologia Biology online with Veritas Press

Honors Literature {1 credit}

~ Sunlight Core 210 Classical Literature

Honors History {1 credit}

~ Tapestry of Grace, Year 1(Rhetoric level) – Ancient World History

Foreign Language {1 credit}

~ Latin II online with Veritas Press

Electives

~ Apologia Health {1 credit}

~ Drawing basics @ co-op {1/2 credit ?}

~Yearbook / Photography @ co-op {1 credit}

~ Theater @ co-op {1/2 credit ?}

PE {1 credit}

~ Level 9 Gymnastics, 28 hours a week

Extras

~ SAT/ACT Prep (30 minutes/day)

Total yearly credits: 11 credits

Montana will officially be a high school senior in August! Remember how I said time flies once they hit high school? She will continue to take dual enrollment courses to finish out her high school years. This year she will take four courses that will count for 5 dual enrollments. She is still undecided on what she wants to study at university in the fall of 2025, but these courses will give her a jump start on her general educational requirements. Montana is going to take the ACT one more time over the summer to try and raise her score a little more. She is on the bubble to going up one full point, which translates more merit money or full ride depending on which university she attends.

Montana's Plan of Study looks like this for 2024-2025:

Bible {1 credit}

~ Sonlight Bible 510 Worldview Studies

Math {1 credit}

~ Calculus 1: Early Transcendental Functions online with Veritas Press (AP exam)

Honors Science {1 credit}

~ Apologia Physics 1 online with Veritas Press

Honors English 4 {1 credit} (DE)

~ Sonlight Core 630 British Literature (AP exam)

Honors History {1 credit}

~ Sonlight Core 500 World History

Honors Foreign Language {1 credit} (DE)