When sharing about our homeschool rhythm a few weeks ago I mentioned that I wanted to write a post about how I plan our year without a curriculum and I got a few online and in-person questions and comments on how I do it so here it is!

When people find out that we homeschool and that our school division has zero curriculum requirements I can see the looks of concern and worry start to creep up on their faces. If I know homeschooling is not something they are interested in ever doing I’ll usually be quick to appease their fears by letting them know that I have my degree in education and am qualified to teach K-12. Those looks instantly change and I can see they feel confident in my abilities immediately.

But can I tell you a secret that I don’t tell those people?

My university degree taught me nothing about how to follow a curriculum. Honestly, I feel like my university education was, just as I feel like the school system is, a complete joke and waste of time (and money).

I have learned so much more in my three years as a homeschool parent than I ever did in university and if I ever decided to teach in a classroom again I would teach like I homeschool, at least as much as I could get away with in the school system.

 

 

WHY WE DON’T FOLLOW A CURRICULUM

I do understand why school systems have a curriculum, in that kind of setting you do need a standard for teachers to follow and there needs to be consistency from school to school.

But I do not think that homeschoolers need to follow a curriculum.

No child is at the exact place the school system thinks they need to be in every subject for their grade.

Both of my kids are a few grades ahead in a couple of subjects and a bit behind in others.

This is completely normal, even for kids that are in the classroom.

But, as a homeschooling parent I have the benefit of being able to create a custom educational plan for each of my kids that will serve them in the best way so of course I am going to take advantage of that!

Even the idea of an all-in-one homeschool curriculum rubs me the wrong way because who is to say that is all going to work for your child? If you do go ahead and purchase a homeschool curriculum I would strongly suggest being okay with not getting it all done because that curriculum was not made with your particular teaching style and your child’s particular learning style in mind. Most all-in-one curriculum end up recreating school at home, which is not my homeschool goal.

 

 

HOW I PLAN OUR HOMESCHOOL YEAR WITHOUT A CURRICULUM

Okay, so now you know a little about why I don’t like curriculum and I’m assuming you at least agree with me a little since you are still reading so I want to share how I go about planning for our year when we aren’t using a curriculum.

There are a few steps involved:

 

 

#1 VISION PLANNING

I always start with a lot of vision planning. I ask myself (and my kids and husband as well) a series of questions that remind me why we are doing this, what our priorities are, what the kids’ interests are, etc.

I actually have a free Homeschool Vision Planning Guide Book which you can go here to download. There are a few pages of questions that will help you with your vision planning and will help you with many of the following steps as well.

 

 

#2 WRITE OUT YOUR SUBJECTS

After I have gone through all pages in my Vision Planner I grab a piece of paper and start writing down all the subjects we will be covering in the year. Some are the regular school subjects and some are less so.

To give you an example, here’s what I ended up with for this year:

• Bible (together)
• Scripture copywork
• math
• read alouds (audio)
• art
• language arts
• free reading (for my fourth grader) and reading practice (for my first grader)
• Bible reading (independent) 
• current memory verse
• character study
• artist study
• composer study
• handicrafts
• creative writing
• Spanish
• verse for the year
• science
• history
• nature study
• poetry tea time
• geography
• fairy tales and Aesop stories

Honestly, when I wrote it all out I got a little overwhelmed so don’t be worried if you feel the same way.

Remember: not every subject has to be done every day.

 

 

#3 WRITE A FEW THINGS YOU WANT TO STUDY IN EACH SUBJECT

Using what I all figured out from my vision planning I like to take some time to write down what I kind of want to cover in each subject for the year. This is not an exhaustive list, I usually just write down the first things that come to my mind.

To give an example, here are some of the things from my list:

• Bible (together) – reading plan & Bible journaling
• Scripture copywork – a verse or passage a day depending on child’s ability
• character study – using the Book of Virtues, Bible verses and maybe Learning Through Literature’s Character Study
• artist study – approximately one artist a month
• composer study – approximately one composer a month
• science – grade one: animal science, human body & plan science – grade four: physics, mainly through simple machines
• history – listen to Mystery of History, possibly journal through it
• poetry tea time – weekly on Tuesday afternoons

 

 

#4 FIGURE OUT HOW OFTEN YOU WANT TO DO EACH SUBJECT

This is the first year I’ve created a bit of a rhythm for our homeschool days and I gotta say, I’m loving it. Yes, even this rebel-who-doesn’t-like-routine is enjoying a rhythm to her days.

I decided there were some subjects I wanted to do each day (our priority subjects) and then I wanted to add in two loop schedules into our day. You can read the full details here but here’s the general breakdown I created:

 

DAILY (AKA TEA TIME)

These are the things I would like to do “every day” (but, here’s a secret: we only do “school” about three days a week):

• Bible (together)
• Scripture writing
• memory verse
• language arts
• math
• independent Bible reading
• independent reading/reading practice

 

OUR MORNING LOOP

Ideally we do one or two of these each morning after our tea time.

• artist study
• composer study
• handicrafts
• creative writing
• character study
• Spanish
• fairy tales & Aesop

 

OUR AFTERNOON LOOP

These subjects are a little more intensive and we will only do about one an afternoon:

• science
• history
• nature study
• geography

 

 

#5 CREATE A MONTHLY OVERVIEW

From there I went and created an overview for each month of the year. I generally make one for August-May but should really adjust to September-May because we don’t really do a whole lot in August. I’m still learning what works best for us.

All I did was write the month at the top of the paper and then write out each subject and one or two things I would like to get to that month in each subject. For me this is not a list to cling to with everything in me, it’s a guide.

I don’t even fill out all the months for the year. I only went to December and then for January through to May I only filled out a few things because I want to leave room to make some adjustments as needed.

 

 

#6 KNOW THAT YOU CAN CHANGE THINGS

On that note, one of the benefits of homeschooling is the flexibility we have if we notice things aren’t working for us or for our kids. Don’t be afraid to change your plans halfway through the year or even halfway through the first month!

Last year I really wanted to follow the Charlotte Mason method but quickly realized it wasn’t right for us for that year.

As a homeschool parent you have the benefits of looking at every moment as a potential learning opportunity and kids naturally learn so much in that kind of environment.

 

I’m happy to share what does (and doesn’t) work for us in our homeschool but just because things work for us don’t mean they will be right for you. We are all unique creations raising unique creations and there is no one-size-fits-all method, which is why following a curriculum is often not the best for anyone.

If you are a fellow non-curriculum follower I would love to hear how you plan your year in the comments below, who knows, the way you approach your year may help another homeschooling family that is looking for a rhythm that works for them!

As I was planning our homeschool year it became clear to me that this was the year to finally get on board with loop scheduling!

My oldest is in grade four this year and I’ve really noticed an increase in the amount that I want her to learn this year and have decided that this is the year we start sitting down and having more focused “school time”. After our first few years being more on the relaxed/semi-unschooling side this is definitely a change.

I’ll be honest, there has been a bit of push back on her part, especially since we “started” a light version of our rhythm a couple of weeks before the school system here but I keep reminding her that we take lots of breaks (even our first week had two days off), plus this will take us maybe three hours a day if we do all the things I have planned for the day as opposed to the six hours kids are in school.

That all being said, I am contemplating running one day like the school system, making sure the kids are up, dressed, eaten, etc for the day, make them walk the distance of the bus stop and then make them do a regular school days work, have recess only at designated times, eat only at regular times and not talk while working. Ha, I think I may have the hardest time getting through the day! But I do think it would be an interesting experience.

Anyway, on to our rhythm for our year and the loop scheduling!

 

 

WHAT IS LOOP SCHEDULING?

Before we go any further I need to break down loop scheduling, thankfully it’s really simple.

For loop scheduling you just make a list of the subjects you want to cover and each day during your loop time you will go down the list and spend time doing the subjects until your loop time is over.

So, let’s say you have artist study, composer study, nature study and art on one loop and you spend one hour each day doing that particular loop.

On Monday you would start with artist study and let’s say it takes you 45 minutes, then you will move on to composer study.

Then on Tuesday you will continue down the list, meaning you are on to nature study. Let’s say nature study takes you the full hour.

Wednesday comes around and you’ve planned a play date for the afternoon, so you don’t do anything off your loop.

On Thursday you continue on where you left off: art. Let’s say art takes you half an hour, you still have half an hour left so you start back at the top with your artist study.

Friday the kids are really interested in your composer study and you spend the whole hour on it.

 

 

WHY LOOP SCHEDULING IS GREAT

The nice thing about loop scheduling is that it can keep you from consistently missing a subject like you may if you were doing a weekly schedule. For instance, if you always wanted to do nature study on Friday afternoons but that turned out to be a day when you end up planning a bunch of play dates you would “fall behind” in your nature study.

With loop scheduling, even if you miss a day there is not one particular subject that suffers since you just pick up where you left off.

 

 

OUR THREE-PART HOMESCHOOL RHYTHM

I did some research on loop scheduling because it had been awhile since I had really thought about using it and I came across this 3-part homeschool routine that really resonated with me (though not the word routine, there’s a word I don’t like!).

There were a lot of changes that I wanted to make to have it suit our needs but the bones of the three-part rhythm (that’s a better word!) would be perfect.

I already knew there were some things I wanted us to do each day in our homeschool and then other things that we could loop. I wanted to start with the daily tasks to make sure they actually got done, but, let’s be honest, tea time sounds way better than tasks.

After we were done our tea time we would do some chores around the house and then do our morning loop (couch time), after that it would be lunch and then time for our afternoon loop.

 

 

TEA TIME

Tea time is how we kick off our homeschool morning. Truthfully, for my son this is actually breakfast but for my daughter who likes to eat at the crack of dawn this is usually second breakfast, and this is when I have my daily cup of homemade, dairy-free hot cocoa (so it’s not really tea time at all).

Here is what we cover during this time:

1. Bible reading and journaling (check out how we do that here)

2. Scripture writing

3. memory verse

4. language arts

5. math

6. independent Bible reading

7. reading (independent reading for my fourth grader who reads one of the books off of the list I’ve given her and reading practice for my first grader)

 

These are the most important “subjects” I want to hit each day and if we only get the tea time portion of our day done I am okay with that.

I plan on writing a separate post for exactly what we are doing for each of these subjects and will come back and link here when I do so.

 

 

MORNING LOOP/COUCH TIME

The next portion of our day is our morning loop/couch time, this is the shortest portion and we will generally just do one of these a day, which means it will take us a little more than a week to go through the loop.

1. artist study

2. composer study

3. handicrafts

4. creative writing

5. character study

6. Spanish

7. fairy tales & Aesop stories

 

Once again, I’ll share these more in-depth in the upcoming weeks.

 

 

AFTERNOON LOOP

Our afternoon loop has less subjects on it but we won’t be doing it every day. On Monday afternoons I’m blocking that time for our “Monday unit” (more about that later in the post) and Tuesday afternoons are poetry tea time, though we may also do one of our loop subjects that afternoon as well.

1. science

2. history

3. nature study

4. geography

 

 

MONDAY UNITS

One thing I wanted to try out this year was very, very short unit studies. So, I got creative and I decided that on Monday afternoons we would take some time for a mini unit study and then if the kids were interested we could continue learning about the topic throughout the week.

If I’m being honest, a big part of the reason I want to do some unit studies is totally because I’ve been suckered in by all the beautiful unit study flat lays I see on Instagram all the time.

Thankfully that’s not the only reason though, I also wanted some time in the week to be able to add in learning about topics that aren’t really in the “schedule” for the year. I’ve been creating a list of random things that we may use for these mini units including: owls, constellations, print making, Canada, spies, colors, mountains and more!

You can check out our completed unit studies here.

 

And there you have it, a bit of an overview of what our homeschool rhythm will (hopefully) be looking like this year! We started things off easy last week by “homeschooling light” meaning we’ve just been doing the tea time portion and are slowly adding in our loops.

Now, over the next few weeks I hope to share more details about what each of our “subjects” all entails and I’m also planning to write a post about how I plan our year without a curriculum. I wish I was able to be a little more ahead of things because I feel like that probably would be more helpful for people if I could share it before the school year started but hopefully it will still be helpful to some this year and others in years to come.

You can check out my step-by-step process for how I plan our year without a curriculum here.

 

Yesterday morning I officially declared our homeschool year “over”.

The truth is, we never stop learning (and I actually have some intentional learning planned for the summer) but it’s nice to have an official start and stop to the year. Plus, I like to start after the regular school kids and stop before them -because why not?! #benefitsofhomeschooling

I am really excited for the plans I have for our learning this summer (and into the fall) I’m making some changes and I think it is going to be so good. But before I go into them I wanted to do a review of the last year. This review is good for myself and it’s a good place to point people to when they have questions as to why we are making a few changes.

Whether you had a stellar year or a much-less-than-stellar one I think taking time to review the year is always a good idea. As you may be able to tell by the name of this site my goal is to be intentional with our learning and part of being intentional is taking time to think about what is and isn’t working.

 

 

Our school year actually started out with an attempt at following Charlotte Mason’s method but that quickly went by the wayside and by the end we were pretty much unschooling. (Though I still really love a lot about the CM method and do hope to follow it more closely one day.)

Let’s get into the details of what worked and what didn’t:

 

THINGS THAT WORKED WELL

I want to start by sharing some things that worked well this year, unfortunately I could only come up with two things for this list:

LUNCHTIME AUDIOBOOKS – we continued to listen to our audiobook almost every weekday at lunch. There are a couple of reasons we listen to audiobooks at lunch, one is so we can add more books into the day and the second is because my kids are big talkers and it’s nice to have them quiet for a bit. #momconfessions

WEEKLY RECORD – a few months ago I created a mini planner for myself and I have been using the weekly planner sheets ever since. They have been great for documenting the stuff we actually do (since I don’t like to make a big plan ahead of time).

 

 

THINGS THAT DIDN’T WORK WELL

During most of the school year this year things felt really good. We were quite unschooly and it felt like it was working for us. I even chose to not go to our homeschool convention because I didn’t want to feel like I needed to teach my kids in a different way, but taking time to look back on our year at the tail end of it I realized it was not the kind of year I want to be the norm.

A lot of my struggles this last year are my own fault, this winter felt long, dark and cold and felt like a true spiritual winter. It was hard to motivate myself to do the necessities, never mind teach my children well.

A few other struggles in our homeschool this year (most of which I am sure were directly affected by the place I was in):

TOO MUCH SCREEN TIME – it was a record breaking cold winter so I feel a little justified but it was still too much, I wish I would have done more intentional activities instead of just taking the easy way out and letting them watch something or play on screens.

THE KIDS BICKERED A LOT – prior to this past winter both my kids have gotten along very well, I mean, they are siblings so there have been squabbles but this winter was excessive.

 

 

READING STRUGGLES – my one goal for kindergarten for both my kids has been for them to learn to learn to read and so this was my goal for my son this year but it was a real struggle. He is a very smart kid and can tell you all about what a gyroscope is but when it comes to reading . . . I understand that he just turned six and boys are often later to learn to read but there have been some major red flags popping up so I’m currently doing some research to see how I can best help him.

LACK OF INTENTIONAL GET TOGETHERS – while we still saw lots of people this winter through church and hosted 20+ people in our home most weeks I do wish I would have been more intentional with getting together with more homeschoolers throughout the winter. This has picked up since it started getting warmer and made me realize how much I missed it.

 

 

ALL IN ALL

While there isn’t much in the “things that worked well” category and the “things that didn’t work well” is a bit depressing, I still feel like we are called to homeschool and I am looking forward to starting a new year.

I can see now that a lot of what didn’t work was that we left out some things that we really love and I have been working on creating some changes and have a bit of a summer learning plan I hope to share next week!

 

How did you school year go? What worked and didn’t work for you?