Homeschooling doesn’t have to break the bank! You don’t need to purchase an expensive curriculum, especially for grades K-6. It takes a bit of planning, but it really isn’t hard.

Using a few basic elements, you can pull together resources and come up with something wonderful. I promise it isn’t that difficult. Remember that it doesn’t have to be done all at once for the entire school year. I like to plan in 6 week chunks, so that it is easier to adjust things as we go through the year. But do whatever works best for you.

A major bonus of building curriculum yourself is that it allows you to ask your children what they want to learn about, then plan for their interests. This makes it much more meaningful and they actually retain what they learn because they chose the topic and are excited about it.

I want to show you how easy it is to create your own curriculum plan.

The Plan

A well-rounded plan could include the following elements to help the kids engage in discovery and remember what they learn.

• Main Book (often called a spine) : this is what you will base your study around
• Stories : the most powerful way to help the topic sink into children’s hearts
• Visuals : art, photos, videos, movies, etc help them picture it in their minds
• Hands-on : projects, acting it out, crafts, field trips, art; get them moving and doing something with their hands
• Jot-it-Down : write or draw what they learn in a journal or notebook, this will become a treasure
• Share : at least once a month have them share with someone what they have been learning; Daddy, Grandma, friend, each other, etc

Let’s walk through the planning process with nature study as our subject. I will add in a couple ideas for other subjects as well.

Main Book

For the main book that will guide you through your study, choose something engaging that will grab their interest. Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman is an excellent option! The book is organized by topic, so you could just move through it in order. However, if you want to do nature study seasonally, then make note of which sections of the book you want to study in the proper months for your area. Or to save time, search on the internet to see if someone wonderful has already done this. Happily, there is already a seasonal schedule for Nature Anatomy at SparrowandLilies.com made by Calli.

For other subjects, look for a main book that is well-written and enticing. A book with a good overview of the subject will work nicely. Then you have a point to begin from and something to come back to, after jumping off into specific topics of discovery as desired. For instance, George Washington’s World is an excellent book to build your own American History curriculum around, for upper elementary through middle school. (to save money, check bookfinder.com for used books)

Stories

Next, go to the Forgotten Classics at Well-Educated Heart for beautiful stories from the Nature Series. There is a book each for Stars, Rocks, Ocean, Plants and Trees, Insects, Animals, Birds, and Gardening all available for FREE online and they can be printed at home too (but if you want to buy her books to have a nice physical copy, click here). If you have any picture books such as Diana Aston and Sylvia Long’s beautifully illustrated books, or story anthologies such as My Book House or Childcraft, you can add them into your plan as well. Don’t forget to check the library too, library apps such as Overdrive, and then Archive.org and Librivox.com have thousands of books for free.

The stories can be shared with your children during your morning time together, or whenever you have planned in the day/week to do nature study. It doesn’t take much prior planning, just find a story that goes with your chosen nature topic for the week and read it aloud. Stories are powerful, they help kids make connections and teach beautiful lessons straight to their hearts. Hundreds of stories are available at Well-Educated Heart for free: world and American history, geography, character-building, beautiful literature, and more.

Visuals

With the book Nature Anatomy or the Aston/Long nature books, you already have beautiful visuals and that may be all you need or want. However, you could find some YouTube videos that show things like; the life cycle of a butterfly, trapdoor spiders, salmon leaping upstream, leaves changing color, the phases of the moon, etc. I like to look for these ahead of time, take a few minutes and find a couple of options and then email myself the links so I have them when we need them. We live in a glorious age, where literally anything we want to learn is at our fingertips. (Obviously use caution with YouTube, lots of amazing things but also lots of yucky things.)). And there’s always the option of nature documentaries. Some of our favorites have been; The Privileged Planet, God of Wonders, Planet Earth, and Disneynature.

We love our family movie nights each week on Saturdays. It’s a great way to extend the learning and promote discussion. For instance, if you are learning about the moon, planets or stars, you could watch October Sky, Hidden Figures, Apollo 13 or The Martian. There are lots of lists online of movies that go along with different subjects you are learning together. (I always check on kids-in-mind.com or dove.org or commonsensemedia.org for reviews on movies).

Hands-On

This element is easy with nature study… simply get outside together! Discover, observe, delight in the wonder and beauty all around us. Nature truly feeds the soul! Use the prompts, “I notice… I wonder… It reminds me of…” to discuss what you are seeing and experiencing. If you are in the city, you may have to get creative, but even a small patch of soil or grass will still have something to observe. There are so many inspiring groups on Facebook, Exploring Nature With Children Curriculum Ideas is one that has been super helpful to me. If getting outside isn’t an option because of weather or other factors, then pull out the nature documentaries and YouTube.

For other subjects, hands-on could look very differently depending on what you and your children enjoy. If crafts fill you with glee, go for it! However, if you are not super crafty, it’s totally okay! Ditch the guilt and know that your kids will be just fine. Crafty fun is definitely not my strong suit. My younger kids like to draw and color, paint watercolor, play learning games, try new recipes from around the world, act out stories, or try science projects from Janice VanCleave’s books, etc. Currently most of this is child-led, I have the supplies and the idea books and they ask to do these when the fancy strikes them, usually with an older sibling to help them.

Once upon a time, when my kids were all under twelve, I would plan a hands-on activity about once a week, for history/geography and science. (That’s just two hands-on activities a week, and my kids are just fine, so don’t overdo it and make this stressful!) Now days, my high school age teens don’t usually seek those kinds of activities, they are more occupied with their classes and then spending time on their individual interests and talents. I do try to regularly spend time with the youngest kids doing hands-on activities in the morning, before we do our circle time all together, and they love that. We also do field trips several times throughout the year to go along with what we are studying.

Jot-it-Down

I’ve found that the greatest way to hold on to what we learn is to write or draw about it. For nature study that’s simple, create a nature journal. You can take this with you on nature walks and draw in the field, or you can take photos of what you find and draw once you get home. You can draw while watching a nature documentary or YouTube videos, or you can sketch what you find in books. Hands-down the best resource I have found for nature journaling is John Muir Laws‘ videos and books. Just recently, he released a three-part video series on how to teach nature study, it is excellent!! He is the one who made the prompts, “I notice… I wonder… It reminds me of…” popular. The Private Eye is where it originally came from. We use The Private Eye loupes on our nature walks so that kids can get down close and magnify bugs and other things as they find them.

A learning journal or notebook is something you can use for every subject. Recording a short summary of what has been learned (some call it narrating), and capturing the favorite things they want to remember, is such a great tool. History, geography, science, literature, every subject can benefit from this. It can be as simple as a 3-ring binder with tabs for each subject, moving to separate binders for each subject as needed. You can use a composition notebook for each subject, a blank notebook from Amazon, anything will do.

Share

This is a powerful way to help children retain what they learn. One idea is to have a monthly showcase with extended family or friends, whether they homeschool or not. Everyone brings something they have created over the month, that represents what they have learned. They display, perform or present it. This gathering can be as elaborate or as casual as you want. Another idea is to have a portfolio for each child of their best writing and work, pictures of projects, art, etc. can be kept and shared often with Daddy or Grandma, or a friend. You can have a shelf to display the treasures they found in nature. Establishing a tradition of sharing, in whatever way works for your family, helps create an atmosphere of learning in your home and shows your children you value their work.

In Summary

• Main Book : Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman, along with the seasonal schedule at SparrowandLilies.com
• Stories : Nature series from Well-Educated Heart
• Visuals : YouTube videos or nature documentary
• Hands-on : Nature walk, ask “I notice… I wonder… It reminds me of…”
• Record : Nature journal (be inspired at JohnMuirLaws.com)
• Share : Showcase with family or friends; or show/tell with Daddy, Grandma, a friend, etc.

See? Hopefully that wasn’t overwhelming. Once you do it a couple times, you will become more confident. I’m making a planning sheet soon, to help you with this process, subscribe to be notified when I add it to the website. You’ve got this!!

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