Our Homeschool Curriculum

I've gotten a few questions about which curriculum we plan to use, and where we got our resources for teaching the Auchlings this year. Well, I'm happy to share!

First off, for those who are new to the homeschooling world, there are a lot of philosophies considered when determining how to teach your kids. Some range from very free thinking like "unschooling," to more traditional and maybe even rigid "traditional schooling" methods. Many people have written books, made systems, and experimented over the years, but the philosophy that resonated most with me was something between Unit Studies and Traditional Schooling.

I like to plan things out (BINDERS!), so I knew that I would need a system that allows me to make a plan in writing (preferably with sheet protectors), but would still be flexible enough for my brain, which has commitment issues with the idea of organization. I fall in love with organization, but I often cheat on it with spontaneity, and "me days."

I settled on Unit Studies, which is the concept of using themed units throughout the year to cover all the "educational bases" through activities, worksheets, and exploratory learning. For example, we are currently doing a "Creation" unit, where we cover each day of God's Creation for one week. Last week was Sun, Moon, and Stars, and we studied space. As the year progresses, I will let the kids choose from a pre-determined list of units I have already put together. If they want to learn about the ocean, then we'll learn about that for however long we feel like doing that.

How do I determine which units to study? How do I fit all the core information needed into those units? How does that get divvied up?

Great questions.

This is partially where the "traditional school" part comes in. Most schools (High School mainly, but it applies) follow a 4 year rotation of subject focus. That's why you might take biology during Freshman year,

and Chemistry during Junior year. It's just an area to focus on. I planned our own four year rotation for subject study that will help me give them the best variation on subjects as we go through each year. And even though this year, for example, we will be focusing on Biology and Ancient History, those aren't the only subjects we will cover. This week (The Creation being Ancient History) we are actually learning about weather, which uses some chemistry demonstrations. Even though biology is our focus, and all our "science units" will be biology-based, we will still cover other subjects within those units.

It sounds complicated, but it's pretty simple once it all gets put on paper! Here is the general rotation we will follow:

Unit Cycle Plan

Based on that, I look around for the best biology and ancient history units that we might all be interested in, and I gather them together before the school year. I have pictures of each unit in sheet protectors so the kids can flip through them and choose which area interests them most. This way they feel like they get to choose, but really, they're just playing right into my fabulous school plan!

Once I know what our areas of focus will be, I start applying the grade-appropriate objectives to the units. Here is a list of objectives I have for the kids for this year. We will make sure to cover all of these comprehensively! But I get to choose where, which is cool.

2016-2017 Objectives

Imagine how fun it will be to learn about Roman numerals during the Roman unit when we are play acting as Roman scholars! Or learning how to tell time by studying farm animals and recreating a farmer's daily schedule. These are the kind of basics that I can throw into a unit to make it feel like they're playing, when in actuality, we're learning!

However, since I can't rely on themed units to teach them everything, I do have core subjects covered with "real" curriculum material. These are crucial especially if something happens and the creative units just aren't possible--we will always have the most important stuff on hand to grab really quickly to complete.

For Daisy Duck, I am using Saxon Math, Spectrum Math, K-12 Reader Spelling, and since she can already read very well, we are doing a unit-based reading schedule with journal entries to practice penmanship and summary skills. I also have a whole host of workbooks that cover every topic you can think of, just in case I'm having a really bad week and need to fall back on something!

For Brother Duck, we are working through Spectrum Math, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and the Brain Quest K Workbook to fill in any gaps.

Curly Duck isn't even technically in preschool yet, so we are doing fun things like number and shape games, and she joins in on the unit study fun.

Baby Duck takes delight in destroying the school room while we work.

And that's pretty much it! I won't go into exactly how I plan lessons, or schedule our days (that's a whole other duck pond, if you know what I'm saying!), but I hope you found it interesting to see how we plan on doing things.

So far, we are having a great time, and I'll post an update on our first couple of weeks soon!