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It’s that time of year again, you guys- time to think about homeschool curriculum, routines vs. schedules, gameschooling, and all the homeschool things.

Today, I am sharing our curriculum choices by year, our absolute favorite homeschool resources by academic subject, and our homeschool routine. When you have finished reading, I’d love for you to leave a comment with your family’s favorite homeschool curriculum and resources!

Table of Contents

Homeschool Curriculum: How to Ditch the Schedule and Embrace a Lifestyle

Our homeschool curriculum choices, by year

I get a lot of questions about our curriculum choices. You can read more here:

Our favorite homeschool curriculum resources, by subject

I don’t know about you guys, but I love to find fantastic homeschool resources. I love when I find a new resource that I just cannot put down.

Our family’s favorite homeschool curriculum resources, by subject:

How to gameschool academics and electives:

Do you want to add more JOY to your homeschool routine?

If you want to see what our homeschool looks like each day, follow us on Instagram

This year, I have switched from a traditional year-end homeschool portfolio to an electronic portfolio and I love it. If you love to see those ‘homeschool day-in-the-life’ posts (I sure do!), be sure to follow us on Instagram.

I record our homeschool days via Instagram stories and then I upload our daily story to a free app called Seesaw.

You can read more about what that looks like here:

How to Make a Digital Portfolio with the Seesaw App

Coffee and Books: Our favorite homeschool tradition

Coffee and Books is our family’s version of morning time. It is a tradition that developed during a rough patch in our homeschool. You can read more about how it happened here, and you can also follow our daily Coffee and Books on Instagram.

I am continually amazed by the growth I see in my children when I add high-quality picture books to our existing curriculum.

Here is why I love Coffee and Books:

We start our day with what we love, setting a tone for the day
It allows us to add extra read alouds, and we all know how important reading aloud is!
With Coffee and Books, I can sneak in any subject. If we’ve been slacking on geography or science, I can cover the subject first thing in the day.
It allows you to have “focus” days: art appreciation, music, poetry, family movies, nature study, etc., and I will often choose books that correspond to the theme that day.
If I’m having a bad day, for whatever reason, I can just grab any ol‘ book and my coffee and read aloud. (That counts as homeschooling, mamas!)
Books always lead to great discussions!

Our weekly homeschool routine in a nutshell

I’d like to show you what our homeschool routine looks like in our homeschool each week. We cover all the core subjects, but each day has a unique focus. No two days are the same. There is no schedule, no rules, just a rhythm and routine filled with wonderful conversations, connections, and written language.

Monday: Music Discovery

In our homeschool, Mondays are for Music Discovery. This year, we are taking 10-weeks of ukulele lessons together. My oldest two also take piano lessons. In addition, we enjoy the following:

Read fantastic music books
Occasional composer and/or song studies
Kitchen Dancin’ (a.k.a. Kenny Hour)

Tuesday: Poetry Teatime

There’s something special about gathering at the table together, with fancy china and treats, and reading poetry. Poetry Teatimes make poetry less intimidating, and they build relationships and create memories in the process.

Wednesday: Nature Exploration

Our family loves to be outdoors and so nature exploration happens, on some level, almost every day… but on Wednesdays, we clear space to lose ourselves in the world around us.

Thursday: Art Appreciation

Thursdays have an art focus. Once we finish our homeschool must-dos, we immerse ourselves in art.

This might include the following:

Outdoor art
Doodling in our Doodle Diaries
Visiting art exhibits
An online art course
Art-themed read alouds

Friday: Freewrite

On Fridays, we write together. It is so important for children to see you writing too! My kids and I sit down with our journals and write. Sometimes it is for ten minutes, sometimes it is for thirty. We don’t put pressure on ourselves, we just enjoy the moment.

Saturday: Movie Night and Games Galore

Last year, we had trouble squeezing movie night into our weekly routine so we decided to add it to our weekends this year. Whenever possible, we love to watch movies based on books we’ve read aloud, but we watch other things too!

And, because I am game-obsessed, I’ve added games to our Saturdays, too.

And that brings me to…

Gameschooling

When parents play alongside their children, they have the opportunity to work on a host of skills… while having fun and making memories!

The many benefits of gameschooling

Children learn how to navigate their world through play. Board games can help children develop the following skills:

Verbal communication
Self-regulation
Turn-taking
Sharing
Listening
Cooperation
Focus and attention
Following directions
Creativity
Social skills
Learning to lose – and win- with grace
Logic skills
Critical thinking
Problem-solving
Strategy and planning

Gameschooling allows you to work on academic skills through play

There are some fantastic games on the market today. Is your child struggling with reading? Does your kiddo cry over his math workbook? Guess what? There’s a game for that, and I can guarantee you’ll have fewer power struggles when you swap out the workbook for the game board.

A post shared by MyLittlePoppies (@my_little_poppies) on Apr 26, 2018 at 7:05pm PDT

Games do not:

Judge
Correct or critique
Leave red marks
Give homework

Put simply: Games give children a safe space to learn, to fail, and to try again.

Gameplay offers children a chance to practice and build skills in a no-pressure, non-judgmental way. If the game doesn’t go the way you wanted it to, you can start over and try again.

Check out our homeschool “day in the life” posts

If you’d like to see an actual day in our homeschool life, check out these Simple Homeschool posts:

Our favorite homeschool subscriptions:

The Best Subscriptions for Your Homeschool

Do you want to see our homeschool in action?

Be sure to follow My Little Poppies because we share snapshots of our homeschool day… and all of our favorite resources!

Do you love to homeschool with books?

You are invited to join the {Virtual} Family Book Club at My Little Poppies, a private Facebook Group for parents who love to read fantastic books to their children… and chat about them!

Do you love to homeschool with games?

You are also invited to join the My Little Poppies Gameschool Community, a private Facebook Group for parents who wish to add more play to their family and/or homeschool routine.

Now, it’s your turn. Tell me: What are you using for curriculum this year? Share here.

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