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What's Working and What's New? Mid-Year Curriculum Update for 2025-26 (with an 18yo and a 15yo)

  • Writer: Sarah
    Sarah
  • 3 days ago
  • 7 min read

Here's a peek into what is and isn't working well in homeschooling my 18yo and 15yo, plus our new curriculum and areas of focus for the coming semester.


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Although I do the bulk of our homeschool planning in July, by January it is time for a mid-year review. The intent of our mid-year review is to look at the following with regards to our home school:

  • What has been working well?

  • What needs to be improved?

  • What needs to be removed from our curriculum?

  • Is there anything new to focus on?

  • What specific needs does each child have over the next few months?


The whole process of our mid-year review takes about 2-3 hours. For more info on how we do mid-year homeschooling planning, go here:




2025-26 Midyear Review: Things That Are Working Well

The following things have been working especially well over the last semester.


Paring Down My Commitments to Focus on Homeschooling

Clearing out some time commitments from my schedule has made the biggest positive impact on our homeschooling this year. I am still working part time as a homeopathic practitioner and Vice President of the Raw Milk Institute, but I made a decision during the summer to pull back from some of the local advocacy work I have been deeply involved in since 2020.


Our homeschooling has been going much more smoothly because I have the time to focus keeping things going in the right direction.


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Smith School 3 Days Per Week

For years, our general homeschool routine has included doing Smith School time together 2-3 times per week. However, with our many other activities and time commitments, it was becoming more and more difficult to make this happen.


For the last semester, I've made it a priority that we will do school together 3 times per week, even if it means getting up extra early to do it before other activities. This is working very well and allowed us to complete our Conceptual Physics unit study a few weeks before the end of last semester. The exact schedule for our school time still has to flex each week, depending on everyone's other time commitments.


Scholar Mentoring Check-Ins and Weekly Meetings with Both Kids

Because they are in self-directed high school, besides our all-together Smith School time, my kids are each responsible for self-directed independent studies throughout the week. By clearing out my own schedule, I have been able to make it a priority to have frequent one-on-one mentoring conversations with the kids to keep them accountable for their independent studies (aka Scholar Time).


Both kids keep a log of their daily studies. Currently, it is working well to have daily check-ins with my 15-year-old son Ian and weekly check-ins with my 18-year-old daughter Alina. Once a week on Sundays, we have more in-depth meetings to discuss goals for the coming week in terms of study hours, assignments and due dates they may want to take on, etc. (I will blog more about how we do mentoring meetings soon.)


Technology Boundaries and Rules

Since both of my kids have smart phones now, it was becoming far too easy for them to get distracted by their devices when they needed to be studying. So, a couple months ago, my husband Ryan and I implemented some new rules with regards to usage of cell phones, computers, and other devices.


Our two main rules are:

  1. No devices are to be used from 8:30am-2pm daily, Monday through Friday.

  2. No devices are to be used from 9pm-8am daily, 7 days a week.


These rules are working well to create distraction-free time! There are a few more-detailed rules and nuances to how we are implementing this. Watch for an upcoming blog post with more information about our technology usage rules and implementation.

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Liberty Scholars Program for Teens and Moms

In 2025, I created the Liberty Scholars program for my kids and other local teens. My goal with this program is to help teens be prepared for adulthood and leadership, with a solid foundation in US constitutional principles. The class is full and thriving with 11 teens, ages 14-18! 😀


Overall, the program consists of:

  • Reading two classic books per month (generally one non-fiction and one novel)

  • Participating in online discussions about our readings in a private discussion forum

  • Attending in-person book clubs twice a month

  • Fun group activities such as movies, field trips, and hikes


I have also started a Liberty Scholar Moms bookclub, where we meet once a month to discuss the two readings that were assigned to the teens. This allows teens and moms to discuss the readings together throughout each month.



My Own Studies Alongside the Kids

In our homeschool, we are purposely building a family culture of lifelong education. To that end, during our 3 weekly Smith School sessions, I am pursuing my own studies alongside the kids.


We do science and history all together, by reading out loud or watching video lectures. Then we each work through any problems/assignments before discussing it all together. During our Smith School time, I also work on my own math book to shine up my rusty skills and write in my commonplace book.


2025-26 Midyear Review: Things That Need Improvement or Adjustment

We successfully use Math Antics for basic skills practice during our Smith School time 3x/week, but both kids struggled with their independent math studies this semester. For Ian, we needed to try out a few different curriculums and have finally settled on Saxon Math as a curriculum that works well for him. For accountability, he needs to have specific weekly due dates when he turns in his math to me, I check his work, and then we work through any missed problems together.


For Alina, Danica McKellar's algebra and geometry books are continuing to work well, but more accountability is needed to ensure that Alina makes math a priority during her independent studies. We will try having specific weekly due times for her math work in the coming semester. Alina checks her own work, but having due times will hopefully help her stay on track to get her math done every week per her own goals.


2025-26 Midyear Review: New Areas of Focus

Below are some new things we'll be focusing on for the coming semester. Please keep in mind that my kids are both in Scholar Phase, so they are developmentally ready to set goals and work hard. Younger kids will not generally be ready for this level of rigor until their teen years and pushing younger kids academically can harm their educations overall. All in due time.


Dave Raymond's Modernity World History Curriculum

Each semester, we alternate between focusing on science or history. This reduces the stress of trying to fit it all in and allows us to dig deeper into specific topics. We completed our Physics unit study last semester, so we will be switching to focusing on history for Jan-May 2026.


Rather than returning to America: The Last Best Hope by William Bennett as originally planned, we are going to use Dave Raymond's Modernity world history curriculum. We already completed the first couple lessons and are loving how this resource will take us deeper through excellent video lectures, reading original source documents, and writing assignments that hone critical thinking skills.


I am taking this class right alongside the kids, so that we can discuss everything for deeper learning. This curriculum has a strong Christian viewpoint, which is giving us much to discuss since we're not Christians. It is fascinating to see how much Christianity has underpinned so much of our modern civilization.

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Liberty Scholars Jan-May 2026 Readings and Activities

This program is going very well and there is a waitlist of teens who would like to join, but I have capped the class size and will not be accepting any new students. That way, the current class of 11 teens will be able to continue advancing through new material and building upon prior concepts.


Here's a snapshot of our readings and activities for the coming semester.


January

February


March


April

 

May

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Young Teens Classic Book Club

To be able to mentor more teens, Alina and I are starting a young teens bookclub in January 2026. We will co-lead this monthly bookclub for teens (and mature 12-year-olds), thereby giving Alina the opportunity to start learning how to mentor youths.


Our reading list for this semester will be:


Dual Credit Geology Class for Alina

Alina is enrolled in a Geology class at New Mexico State University for Jan-May 2026. This class includes a lab and will be her first college-level science class.


First Robotics Competition Team for Ian

Ian will be participating in the First Robotics Competition Team for Jan-Apr 2026. This will include meetings 3-4x weekly, leading up to two out-of-state competitions in March and April.

Family Bible Study

Although we are not Christians, as a family we want to learn more about the Bible as the foundational document of Western civilization. So, this semester we will be doing a Bible study as a family.


That's a snapshot of our mid-year review! Go here to see the kids' updated Scholar Contracts and Goals for their independent study time.



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I hope this gives you some ideas and inspiration for performing your own mid-year educational review with your children, whether they are homeschooled or attend school outside the home.



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