Havice Academy 2025-26 recap and what we are doing differently in 2026-2027

We have made it through our second year of homeschooling, and soon we’ll be starting our third year!

This past year, I learned so many things as a homeschool mama of 3. Learning curves, expectations met, and some that definitely needed to be changed.

We had a full year of not only using BJU (Bob Jones University) Homeschool, but also our co-op and field trips. We were beyond busy all year, but it was a full year of learning and, honestly, looking back, such a fun year!

We began our school year in a transition. My husband was working in Columbus at the time, and we were starting our new curricula down there. In August, we came home, but he was still down there finishing his job. September, our Co-Op started, and that was such a nice addition and needed!

As our year continued, we plugged on through the kindergarten and preschool curricula from BJU and Preschool from the Good and Beautiful.

Homeschooling brought a level of normalcy that my family needed while we anxiously awaited my husband’s return! Which in October, he FINALLY did! Having him home was another transition to finding our normal again with two parents every night and not just on the weekends.

Our lessons during the week really helped keep me sane and brought routine to the kids that they needed.

As the school year continued, I could sense a shift in my kiddos – mostly my older two. They were getting cranky every time I said that it was time for our lessons. I tried having fun transition music, morning binders, and having more breaks, but nothing seemed to help them want to do their schooling. They were extremely active and only sat still when I was reading to them, or we had an audiobook playing, or had a lesson video on.

I never wanted our home education to be a plugged-in one, so I tried to minimize it as much as possible. But we still struggled to stay excited for the lessons…eventually, even I started to dread teaching because I knew I would get a fight.

It was at this point that I started researching other curricula. Ones that were low prep and not as much video-led. More reading-based since my kids love to be read to. And I was reminded of Charlotte Mason. I rediscovered that her approach to education was not just sit-down lessons, but life education. Incorporating lessons from every aspect of life. Instead of forcing 4- and 5-year-olds to sit down for 2 hours doing book work, you do short 15-minute lessons, read-alouds, and hands-on learning.

I began looking at the various Charlotte Mason-inspired curricula, and I started getting more and more excited at the possibility of becoming more family-oriented and relaxed in our education. Relaxed but no less rigorous!

This year’s homeschool will look a little differently than last year. We are still using curriculum; we are not using curriculum like BJU Homeschool, where we are sitting for several hours and several hours of prep per child (if you are using the textbook version). We are switching to Simply Charlotte Mason.

This method has family-style teaching and learning with rigorous mathematics and literature. We are learning about composers and artists, and I chose Latin for my first grader!

Below is the schedule we have planned out! No more than 2 hours all day, but it won’t be so much sitting down and lecturing like BJU was. It is literature and read-aloud teaching.

I am beyond excited for this new switch, and I look forward to what the new year holds!

Check out Simply Charlotte Mason’s Homeschool Style Assessment to see what would fit your family best!