2022/2023 Curriculum Picks
We started homeschooling when my now 6 year old was 3, with an amazing preschool year using The Peaceful Press’s Peaceful Preschool. A lot has changed since then, but we’re still going strong and this will be our fourth year learning at home! Aside from all the other learning experiences of daily life (cleaning, cooking, nature play, so many events and fun co-op opportunities with our local Wild + Free group, and just doing life alongside mama…) we are planning on this structure:
20-30 minutes total for my preschooler 3-4x/week.
80-90 minutes total for my 1st grader, 4x/week, with one day (Fridays) set aside for creating - piano lessons, art classes, writing, cooking, handcrafts, etc. These 90-ish minutes include components of: math, language art, history, and rotating science/unit studies.
We school year-around, with this schedule, and this gives us the freedom to keep our days fairly open in the mornings for other adventures, and to take breaks just about anytime (a week off for a spontaneous vacation, a month off for Christmas, a week off for visiting family, etc.) - we don’t sweat it!
Preschool:
Peaceful Preschool (Peaceful Press) We had a magical first year homeschooling with this same “curriculum” when my older son was 3.5; we will use it again for my 3 year old come fall. I say “curriculum” because of course, at this age, there is no want or need for anything much more than play - Peaceful Preschool is all about gentle play-based themes. During the course of the year he used it though, my now 6 year old happened to learn all his letters and letter sounds well and we had so much fun reading beautiful picture books, cooking, and crafting. Mr. 3 begs to “do school” and is so bummed when I have no “real school” for him to do (he’s not interested in sensory bins and coloring books anymore if big brother isn’t!), so we are both really looking forward to this. My favorite thing about PP is how much it fosters connection and spotlights play - truly cementing the idea that “school” is a fun adventure, where you happen to learn along the way! Mr.3 is a big-time participant in Morning Time and we’ll continue using my Morning Basket guides, just adding in special read-alouds tailored more for him. He’s been “participating” in this time since he was a newborn, and now loves to listen along to read-alouds and bible stories, doing the poetry, fingerplays, songs, and art study components alongside us.
Waldorf Alphabet Books We are big believers in Waldorf-style education for the early years - (we started out in a Waldorf school with my oldest and adored it! The inspiration for my Morning Basket guides come from putting together our favorite components of Waldorf and Charlotte Mason early childhood ideas) - and we like to incorporate it throughout our learning, via stories, songs, celebrations, art, and crafting. We’ll use this book and this one to bring additional richness to learning.
1st Grade:
Math: Singapore Math Primary US Edition 1B 4x/week.I had a tough time deciding between Dimensions and Primary! Purely content-wise this edition coupled with the extra and intensive practice books is very similar to Dimensions. Primary, however has more limited practice problems in the workbook, instead allowing the teacher to gauge the need for additional work to fulfill mastery, and using the extra practice workbooks as needed. We’ll see how it goes this year! We are transitioning from another math program and used the placement test to determine level, but may adjust as needed.
Language Arts: Bravewriter Dart Sprinkled in as desired 1-4x/week.. We’re at a point in our journey where Mr. 6 is a voracious reader (he is gifted in this area) and we will incorporate components of LA throughout our day and other curriculum choices (narration, notebooking, journaling, history - all will organically include mechanics) - for that reason Dart was such a good fit for us. Mr. 6 tends to prefer non-explicit teaching, and gets easily bored with repetition, so moving through fun books and learning along the way will be helpful. Instead of doing the full year of books, we’ll pick and choose which Darts to complete throughout the year, at whatever pace feels comfortable. Some of the older ones are some of our favorite books, so we’ll start with those!
Writing: Partnership Writing 1x/week. We are wrapping up Bravewriter’s Jot it Down program this year and had so much fun doing these. Jot it Down is primarily geared toward pre-writers - meaning your kiddo is the ideas guy and you’re the scribe. With PW, your kiddo partners with you as they work on the projects. This one is filled with fun projects like secret codes, making personal timelines, and more!
History: Playful Pioneers by Peaceful Press and Early American History by Beautiful Feet Books 4x/week. I’m not very good at following a curriculum as written, ha! I like to take my favorite components of multiple awesome curricula and slice and dice to create a custom fit. By far, my son’s favorite part of school is the books and these two are both rich with beautiful literature. A group of families who are also using these curricula, are putting together an Early American History themed co-op with me that will meet twice a month to engage with the themes, projects, and foods presented here, to celebrate and build community!
Geography: Geography Through Literature by Beautiful Feet Books. 1x/week rotating. Perfect accompaniment to early American history study, and light enough to add in just once per week.
Science: Exploring Nature with Children by Raising Little Shoots 1x/week rotating + monthly Nature Adventure and nature meetups with our local buddies. Many of our unit studies will also incorporate science units and concepts.
Unit Studies: I love leaving margin in our schedule to incoporiate fun unit studies that rotate every few weeks. Some of the units we’re covering this year include: Tuttle Twins Economics, Campfire Curriculum Natural Medicine, Homegrown Education Nutrition, Harbor and Sprout unit studies like Forensics, Engineering, Bees…Schoolhouse Curiosities, Thanksgiving, Christmas and other holiday unit studies from various makers, etc.
The Morning Basket: 5x/week. We’re using my Morning Basket guides for our morning time and will cover: Bible, composer and artist study, poetry, songs, read aloud, and more!
Extras -
Creating on Fridays: We’re starting the year with Waldorfish 1st grade painting and drawing and will incorporate units of sewing, finger knitting, woodworking, card and gift making, and other handwork. We’re also joining with some other local families to participate in an art class once a month.
Piano: We just started this summer with lesson once a week, and it’s been so fun!
Soccer (fall)
Baseball (spring)
French: he takes a live online class once a week with a teacher who teaches a small group of homeschool students, and we incorporate French throughout the week with TalkboxMom, Delightfully Feasting, and Speaking French with Miss Mason.
Leave a comment if you have questions, or find me on Instagram!
