This is my first year sharing our curriculum plans publicly. We’ve now done a year and a half of the new curriculum I came across, so I feel like I’m ready to share for sure. Our kids are thriving with it. And it’s been so nice and simple and slow for us. Today on the blog, I’m sharing (most of) our curriculum picks and supplies with you for our 9, 7, 4 year old and tagalong 1 year old.
What curriculum are we using?
We are using an online free Charlotte Mason curriculum called Ambleside Online. I take things very slow with their suggested schedule. It’s all tweakable. You can also read more about our routine here (also bearing in mind that we change our routine up sometimes too). We pick a few different things outside of the laid-out curriculum like certain religious books, history, and some literature.
What are the resources we’ll be using?
Here are some of the books my boys will be using and reading for the most part for their curriculum:
4 year old:
Jesus Story book Bible
Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young
Beatrix Potter Series
The Gingerbread Man
Make Way for Ducklings
Aesop’s Fables
Mary Engelbreit’s Nursery and Fairy Tales Collection
Fables
Thornton Burgess stories
Listen Buddy
Please and Thank You Book
7 year old:
A Child’s Garden of Verses
Paddle to the Sea
Math U See (Alpha level and moving into Beta)
9 year old:
The Little Duke
Tree in the Trail
**He’s almost nearing the end of his current year for his curriculum above. I’ll be updating his resources again by the late fall.
Everyone:
Nature study Handbook
French: we use duolingo.com
There are other aspects to our homeschool that I didn’t share about too such as poetry, language arts, and music, but it’s all within the free curriculum we use and would take way too long to type everything out. There are also a lot of things we do combined as well such as readalouds. Everything we do is short and sweet though!
What supplies are we using?
We use traveler’s notebooks and inserts that are lined or blank for nature journals, little drawing books, and writing activities. As well as basic composition notebooks as catchall books.
Menu folders: we use these during our morning time. It holds recitation poetry, prayers, song lyrics, math facts, homeschooling motto. These change up every month or so. These menus withstand a lot of abuse, which was one of the reasons why I chose them. Plus I think they’re too sweet.
My binder is what I use for all homeschool planning and notes for myself. I take it out during school time or planning time. It’s super duper durable and it flips backwards like a notebook, which I love.
I bought a pack of 25 recyclable duotangs/ folders from Amazon that I use for things that I mostly touch like poetry reading and drawing programs. I leave the plastic duotangs to the kids.
We are using this devotional right now and are about halfway through.
Art supplies.. This is not all encompassing, but it’s the majority of what we use:
Pastel pack
Water color colored pencils
Washable crayons
Paint pucks (No spilling will happen. A win in my books)
Charcoal pencils
MP3 player for audiobooks
Portable keyboard for typing practice with a tablet (or I use it for work time with my phone)
Pencil sharpeners that we use and love
Other resources I recommend:
- Minimalist homeschooling Facebook group - this group helped me find our current homeschooling curriculum that we’ve been loving. It’s saved a lot of brain space for me too to have a lot laid out for me.
- Ambleside online once again (the free curriculum we use – more details about what we do is on their website)
- My Amazon shop US shop - Canadian shop (under kids’ school and planning)
- Pam Barnhill’s course on planning your homeschool year (I am affiliate of her course, so this would mean I’d make a small cut if you liked the look of this course too! She’s a wealth of knowledge in this area).
- The book Teaching From Rest that I recommend to everyone starting out. It’s so encouraging and helpful.
PS I guest blogged over on my friend Jessica’s blog titled “All Your Homeschool Questions Answered By Guest Blogger Kelly Briggs” if you’d like to read that too!
PPS If you’d like to take a look at how I use flexible routines with all of the things above and more, feel free to email me at simplehomemom@gmail.com if you’d like me to send that along to you or if you have any other questions.
Hi, I’m Kelly! I’m a mother of four children - three boys, one toddler girl - and our family lives on the beautiful east coast of Canada. I’m a past elementary teacher, turned stay at home, work at home mom eight years ago after I had my second child. I’ve found that the busier I’ve become and as my children age, that it’s become even more important to figure out what is most important to me and us as a family. Living a simpler lifestyle has helped us in so many ways in our home life - from better routines to faster tidying up times. It has been through my children that I have been inspired to learn how to effectively manage my time and to simplify in all areas of my home and life. I enjoy helping busy moms simplify home life by teaching flexible planning methods and skills. Enjoyed this blog and think it would be helpful to others? I'd love if you shared it. Thank you!