When Little Man was born, I quickly learned I never wanted to miss any of his 'firsts', which made homeschool an easy decision for me when it came time. What was not easy, was how I would homeschool and what curriculum I would use. Choosing how to homeschool can be such an overwhelming thing, I thought I would share my journey through the years.
There were a few things I knew I wanted in a homeschool curriculum:
I didn't want a stuffy workbook.
I wanted lots of books.
I wanted things to be hands-on.
After researching (and doing a lot of Pinterest searching) I found Simply Learning. It was everything I had looked for! Great books, hands on learning, and most importantly-Fun!! I decided to use the books I had or could get at the library, and I filled in the rest of Little Man's 3rd year with my own unit studies using the same outline as Simply Learning's. You can see more about what I did for that year, in my older post How I am Homeschooling my Preschooler for *almost* Free.
During that amazing year of preschool, the lady at Simply Learning, started using a company called The Peaceful Press, and recommended it for those who enjoyed her material. After researching, I fell in love with The Peaceful Press curriculum. We used The Peaceful Preschool literature based learning, with emphasis on building motor skills for little ones. I talk all about how our preschool went here. When it came time for Kindergarten, I knew exactly where I wanted to go next.
Do you know that scene in the 1994 Little Women where Jo lovingly strokes a volume of Shakespeare and notes that 'some books are like going home'? That's how I feel about The Little House books. When they are read, I am transported back to my childhood with my mom reading while we ate lunch, and us begging her not to stop. I longed for that same experience with Little Man, so I jumped at the chance to use this amazing curriculum.
The Playful Pioneers is also literature based, with the curriculum being all including-Bible, Art, Language Arts, Science and History are all included, with the need to only purchase your core subjects (Math and Phonics). I go into more detail about our year with the Playful Pioneers here.
Here I am in our 4th year of homeschooling-teaching Little Man 1st grade. I knew I wanted to wait a while to do another Peaceful Press curriculum, so I was quite sad to see our amazing year end. Thankfully I have found some wonderful things through Timberdoodle! Many of you know I have been working with Timberdoodle on their Blog Team, and I have absolutely loved the products from them. My favorite thing-almost everything is hands on and fun! I can add the literature elements of curriculum, and use Timberdoodle as our hands on learning. Here is my most popular post on this blog, showing one of our favorite thinking skills game.
In a few years I'll go back and do The Playful Pioneers again when Baby Girl and Itty Bitty are ready for it. I love how we will be able to learn as a whole family. They also have a Chronicles of Narnia themed curriculum (one of my favorite series!) that I am excited to do when Little Man is a bit older.
I hope you enjoyed this look back into my homeschool journey. If you've been here a while, you may know all this, but I wanted to share for those who are new, or new to homeschooling. If you are feeling overwhelmed with boxed curriculum, know that there are beautiful hands on curriculum out there that help foster a love for learning. I would love to hear about your favorite literature based curriculum!
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