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The further into homeschooling we get, the more I recognize the value of group subjects. Especially with three kids officially school-aged. Covering as many of our school subjects together as a family frees up time, makes conversations richer, and helps create a full and beautiful learning environment.
Just a heads up, as you read this keep in mind that several of these subjects will be on a loop. This means we rotate through them. So while this is a lot of information, not all of it is covered every day of the week. I share more about how I do loop schedules here and also on my Instagram page.
Also keep in mind, what works for our family may not work for yours!
We’ll be covering our group subjects along with our morning basket this year.
Bible is always first and I don’t really even consider it part of our “school time”.
It’s simply part of life. A morning Bible routine is a habit I want to establish early with my children. This year we’ll be finishing up The Kingdom of God Bible Storybook set. We finished the Old Testament at the end of last school year and have nearly finished the New Testament over our school break. Both have been very good. As I said in my review of last year’s curriculum picks, I wish it had gone a little more in-depth. Really, I’m just splitting hairs though. It’s a great resource, did a fantastic job of showing how the entire Bible points to Christ, and the discussion questions were very helpful.
Once we completely finish the New Testament, we’ll move on to The 10 Minute Bible Journey. I’ve had this book for a while and have been waiting for my kids to be old enough to grasp some of the content. I think we’re finally there and I’m excited to work our way through this study. From the book description- “Filled with vibrant, full-color illustrations and exciting “faith facts” that confirm the Bible is true, this apologetics-infused book is designed to help Christians of all ages achieve a new level in their understanding of God’s Word and their relationship with Jesus Christ!” Good stuff!
We will also be diving into our first Kaleidoscope Kids Bible book and reading through Shadows Of The King. My friend, Elizabeth Santelmann, wrote this volume and I’m thrilled to not only support her but also find a fun and solid Bible resource to add to our shelves. Shadows Of The King goes through first and second Samuel, so it’s full of amazing stories, plus great illustrations, and helpful facts and vocabulary mixed in to help us dig a little deeper. I’m sure this won’t be our first Kaleidoscope book.
Catechism is a constant for us.
I’m sure if you’ve been here long, you’re sick of me mentioning New City Catechism. It’s as normal as goldfish crumbs in our house. A given. New City is not the only Catechism option but it’s been a great fit for us. Catechise your children or the world will. I’ll say it over and over.
While I read during Bible time, I’ll have the kids work on their morning menus.
We use our Morning Menus for simple calendar and personal info practice. It’s mainly a review for Squeaks but she still enjoys it. It includes practicing the date and time, recording weather, address, and phone number memorization, copy-work, and more. The pages can be personalized for each kid and age. As a bonus it helps keep their hands busy and their ears listening.
The Morning Menu set is customizable for your needs!
Poetry is next!
This is a quick topic for us. With a nine, seven, and six year old I don’t feel the need to get too deep here. I simply read the poem once or twice, then ask if they enjoyed it and why. I’m just getting them familiar with the rhythm of poetry and the imagery and imagination it can encourage. They’re just fun! Plus it will offer a nice little rest after our potentially heavy conversations during Bible time.
Here are some of the poetry resources I plan to reference this year:
Here’s where I generally add in some quick skip-counting review.
It might seem like an abrupt change of topics, but somehow it works. I’ll pick a number for each child to skip count by, have them give it a try from memory, then let them read it off from my skip counting cards. Super quick and simple. This usually takes us less than five minutes and the consistent daily practice has been so helpful.
Our next group subject will be Latin.
About halfway through last school year, I realized how much ahead Squeaks was in Latin compared to the boys. She and I had been working our way through Prima Latina and loving it, although it occasionally felt like a lot in addition to her other individual lessons.
I wanted the boys in on it too, so we slowed way down. I modified Prima Latina and started using it verbal style as one of our group subjects. The curriculum comes with a workbook, but I set that aside and started asking questions out loud, and slowly working through the vocabulary cards. No writing. Squeaks didn’t mind the review and the boys are loving it! It’s so fun to be learning this as a group and it almost feels like our own secret language. Again, we’re moving super slow and didn’t even get through all of the material, but I believe we’ve formed a strong base.
I plan on keeping this verbal-style strategy this school year too. But out of pure curiosity, l purchased Latin For Children from Classical Academic Press. I read some great reviews and the activity book looks way more fun than Prima Latina. There are crossword puzzles, word searches, mazes, and activities that I think might be fun for Squeaks. If the boys show interest I’ll just photocopy the pages. There’s a group game, similar to Bingo, included in the activities too that looks like a blast! Perfect for our new group learning strategy.
Latin isn’t a grade-specific subject so I’m in no hurry. We’re enjoying it so much!
Story of the World continues to be a great addition to our group subjects.
I started reading the The Story of The World history books out loud about a year and a half ago and they have become one of my favorite parts of morning basket. There is a workbook option but I’m not quite ready to add that in. I read a chapter a day out loud and ask questions when I’m finished. Simple! I usually include questions specific to the topic covered, ask their opinions on the subject, and have them retell parts in their own words. When a topic is particularly interesting to us, we enjoy looking up YouTube videos, finding coloring pages, or pausing the main book to add other storybooks on the topic. We love a good rabbit hole!
Our last group subjects this year are a bit out of our comfort zone.
We’re going to add science and art to our morning basket! I know I want to loop the two, so we’ll alternate to keep our morning from getting too long-winded. But I’m not entirely sure what these two subjects will look like this year. I’ve been at this just long enough to know that adding new things is always a bit chaotic at first.
Science was a bust for us last year (you can read my year-end review here).
I just can’t seem to get a grip on this subject so I’m heading in a new direction for us. Unit studies. Eeek! Again, since I know new things are uncertain I only have our first one planned. Squeaks showed a huge interest in learning about birds so I got the Burgess Birds study from Charlotte Mason Simple Studies. It looks very doable and I think it’ll fit into morning basket easily one or two times a week. The Burgess Bird Book For Children is the spine of the curriculum and looks so fun. I’ll read it out loud and we’ll have fun with it!
For art, I’m also taking the Charlotte Mason route.
I ordered an artist study on Vincent Van Gough from Simply Charlotte Mason. They offer many different artists but we’re doing just the one to start to be sure this is something we enjoy. I’ve over-ordered too much curriculum over the years to jump into new things too fast now.
The set comes with a simple guide and a set of gorgeous printed examples of the artist’s work that I know the kids are going to be fascinated by. I’m looking forward to having the kids attempt to copy some of his work in their own style!
Next, I’ll be sharing individual subjects. These are the subjects that are more grade specific to each child.
Annie says
Thanks for all your ideas! My goal is to start by morning basket for the first time this year, and these are great!!
We tried a science curriculum our first year of homeschool, and it was a bust too. But the second and third years, I let my girls tell me what they wanted to learn about. And most of the things have fit into science or social studies! We do a four-day curriculum for things math and language arts, and keep Fridays for our themes/unit studies (though we make time for some of it during the week too). We’ve done country studies, learned how ice cream is made, learned all about teeth (and what kids do with teeth that fall out around the world…that ended up being one of my favorite things we’ve ever done in homeschool!), about coral reefs and plants and insects…it’s been a lot of fun! I usually find a bunch of library books and search for ideas on Pinterest and go from there. And they love it because they’re learning about what interests them. It’s been a great way to do science and social studies together without needing to slog through a curriculum that’s not working for us.