A Modern Approach to Learning - My 3 Favorite Family Style Homeschooling Curricula

As an adult in the workforce I spent most of my career after college working with teenagers - That is all another story (or a lot of them) for another day. Working with kids in today’s society, one thing became abundantly clear to me very early on in adulthood, I wanted to homeschool my kids if a time came when I had children of my own. That’s not to say that there is no value in a public education, there absolutely is. I mean, it did great things for me in my time, but it was not something I wanted to do for my own family if I could provide a home-based education for them. Fast forward many years later, and here I am with two children, I left my career job a couple years ago, started focusing on my in-home handmade business, and I have begun my pursuit to homeschool my kids.

It is absolutely mind-blowing and overwhelming how many resources and curriculums there are to choose from. A simple Google search of “homeschool ideas” or “homeschool curriculums” is enough to leave anyone feeling like they are spiraling out of control. I did a lot of research, and a lot of a kind of soul searching to really determine what I wanted to provide for my kids, and myself. What kind of education and experience I want and hope for them to have. Now, of course, what we do now in our early stages of our journey may very well change as everyone gets older, as we gain more experience, and as we really dive into our passions and interests…and I hope it does change, because that means we are all growing. In the meantime, I wanted to share a few of my favorite curricula that I have found (so far) and incorporated into our version of school.

While there may be some affiliate links included, I am not affiliated with all of these programs, I just really, truly love them and find value in each one of them for the homeschool experience we are building in our home.

The first Curriculum, which was actually the second curriculum we found, has become our primary choice, and it comes from For the Love of Homeschooling (FLOH).

Their striking visuals first drew me in, and the excellent value of what you get for what you put in pushed me to take a chance on this one. FLOH is a nature study based curriculum which focuses full units around a singular topic, then works all the various subjects into that single topic. I love this focus on nature and the world around us, and learning from what we see and experience in our daily lives. For my kids, things are so much more interesting when they are interactive and relatable. I could just tell my kids how a plant grows from seed to maturity, read a book about it or something like that - at PreK-2nd grade ages, that will only keep their attention for about 2 minutes, maybe less. OR, I could print out the visual lifecycle charts of different plants from our Nature Study Units and we can plant our garden together, then watch the plants as they grow and compare them to the lifecycle chart to observe and identify where our garden is in the various cycles at any given time. We can count seeds and plants, we can watch how everything reacts to water (or lack of) and sunlight, we can watch and participate in the pollination process as we work in our garden. Then when the season comes to an end, we can harvest the fruits (and vegetables) of our labor and learn about harvesting and preserving seeds for the following year so that we can do it all again…and we get a lot of really great meals out of it too, which the kids can also help with. Doing it that way keeps my kids much more engaged, and for an ongoing period, because it’s about day to day life, and learning lessons from the things we are already doing and seeing. FLOH builds their curriculum around this idea, and that is a big reason I was so drawn to it.

FLOH has a number of different curriculums available now. They are set up on subscription plans or pay for individual units, however you definitely save money by subscribing to one of the monthly programs. All resources and files are digital downloads, so you will need to print your own copies (another post to come on where to print for cheap!)

Nature Study Club is a monthly FULL curriculum which is a family style curriculum, meaning in that one unit you get a teacher’s manual and 4 different versions of the student workbook ranging in ages from Pre-K up to about 12/13 years and older. It all comes to you in a single PDF that you can save and print whatever you need when you’re ready. What I LOVE about this is that I can buy one unit for my Pre-K student and then I can continue to revisit that same topic as they get older, each time building upon what we previously learned in earlier years and taking different and more analytical approaches as they grow. Essentially you get 4 different full unit lessons for the price of one. Also, each month of Nature Study Club also includes a free watercolor video lesson for art!

They recently started offering a Bird of the Month Club subscription along with a World Explorer’s Club monthly subscription which are the same basic principle of being fully encompassing unit studies, though not quite as in depth as the Nature Study, but still exceptionally valuable. You can also now subscribe to the site for an annual or lifetime membership. Each of these allows you full access to the entire digital library of curriculum and resources for the life of the membership. That level of membership is expensive, but may be worth it to you if you have multiple kids, or plan to use this as your primary curriculum and really take advantage of the unlimited access to the digital resources.

Definitely, if you are interested or especially if you’re not sure about this one, check out the “freebie” section of their site. They offer a TON of free or very low cost resources and samples (they also run sales all the time) for you to check out and see if it feels right for your family’s homeschooling rhythm. I also encourage signing up for email lists or follow on social media to get updates on all the great sales they run regularly! It’s a great way to check out the product for little to no cost.

The next Curriculum we really enjoy is from Harbor and Sprout (H&S). You will notice right from the beginning, they have a number of unique lesson topics that you don't see everywhere else, and I love that.

Again, visually, their lessons are very eye-catching and feel very organic. Similar to FLOH, H&S offers Unit Study style curriculum for users. Each unit study covers a variety of 9 different “core” subjects within that single unit theme. Each Unit features 4 weeks of lesson plans and materials and printouts, really taking a lot of the guess work out and giving you a solid outline and plan you can follow - for us right now, I love this, because planning out the day to day of what to do when and where is a daunting task when you’re just staring out, so the detailed lesson plans really take a lot of stress out of the equation…will we always do it this way? Maybe not, but starting out, I love this aspect. - A really fun aspect of the H&S unit studies is that each one also includes supplemental thematic activities and has a “character kit” where you learn about someone who does a job within that Unit’s theme. (Example: in the Beekeeping unit study, we meet Alberto, who is a beekeeper, and this character accompanies us through the lessons in a fun and engaging way while learning about them, where they are from and what they do).

Core Subjects covered by H&S Curriculum are: Science, Nature Study, Language Arts, Writing, History, Geography, Music, Art, and Math with additional supplemental activities. While H&S Curriculum is very comprehensive, and one Unit can be used by the same student again as they get older to revisit themes previously learned, their units are broken down into 3 levels, plus morning baskets (Elementary (now called Patchwork Studies) [3-12], Primary [6-12], Secondary [12-18], Morning Baskets [2-6]) which do need to be purchased separately. If you are looking for a more cost efficient plan for schooling multiple children of drastically different ages and abilities at the same time (i.e. Elementary and HS level), this may not be the right curriculum for you (however I fully believe the cost is worth what you get!). I personally love how they are working to add a diverse variety of Secondary Units to continue into those high school ages, and all building upon what's already there in the earlier units. It is also necessary to note that the Elementary Units (spanning ages 3-12) are broken down into four distinct levels of learning within each unit, so multiple kids from 3-12 can use the same unit - This is currently what we use so we get many years of progressive use from one Unit. If you have two or more students who can learn from the same level of unit study, then you can print as many copies as you need of everything from that one level and Bob’s your uncle.

If you want to check out their selections, they have a great “freebie” section where you can get samples of unit studies, lesson plans, and activities to get a feel for if this is a good fit for your family. I recommend following them on social media as well, or signing up for their email list as they frequently run sales on their unit studies and that can be a great time to stock up on units you’ve been watching. H&S does also offer a membership that can be paid monthly or annually which allows exclusive access to an entire support community and discounts on their resources and lessons.

The third, which is actually the first curriculum I found a few years ago (before our journey really began), is Gather Round Homeschool (GRH).

First thing of note about Gather Round, this is a religious based curriculum and relevant scriptures are documented and included throughout the lessons. That being said, I have found that it is fairly simple to work around the scripture pieces if that is not something you want to include. There will still be some mentions of religious components in the writings and readings, but you can really make it as involved as you’d like it to be or not.

This is another family style curriculum in which all ages can be taught out of the same unit. GRH uses a unit study approach, again, meaning that all subjects are taught through the lens of a single topic. It allows for you to select units based on your child’s specific interests and allows the opportunities to see how it all connects through the various subjects. They offer full units - 20 lessons each unit - which can be found here, or mini-units (2 work pages per day and do not cover all the subjects, but are a great supplement), which are available here. When purchasing full unit bundles you are getting the teacher's guide and the student workbook of your choice for the desired grade level (Pre-reader up to High School). If you have more than one student at varying levels you may opt to purchase the family bundle which will give you access to the manual and all grade levels of student workbooks. This tends to be more economical if you plan to reuse in future years to revisit as your kids get older, or if you are schooling more than one child at different learning or grade levels.

One thing to note, GRH does not cover Math in their lessons, so if you choose this curriculum, you will need to supplement with math from another source. One thing I do really like about this program though is that they offer (for a slightly higher cost) all their curriculum in printed format as well as digital. So if you do not have the ability to print the numerous pages required for these curricula, through GRH, you can order hard copies to be printed and sent to you. This is the one Curriculum I have experienced difficulty printing through my printing resource due to password protection. Depending on where and how you choose to print, there may be some workarounds required to print. If you are printing from home this is a moot point as the password protection does not alter your ability to home print.

Again, as with the others I’ve discussed here, check out their sample section. They offer free samples of many of their units so you can get a feel for if they’ll work for you.

I would also like to add an honorable mention to My Texas Homeschool.

which offers a variety of bilingual and Spanish unit lessons. A perk of the FLOH nature study is the bonus of getting frequent related units from My Texas Homeschool for free to use as a supplement to our current nature study unit. The bilingual lessons are easy to navigate and teach, and a fun add on to introduce kids to a second language.

Lastly, when I was just finding my way through all the ideas around homeschooling and trying to figure what I wanted that to look like, I stumbled upon this video somewhere, I can’t even recall where now, but I found it helpful the way it explains the foundations of and the core philosophies behind the various styles, or flavors, of homeschooling. So, if you’re like I was and have no idea where you want to start, this video can offer some great insight and info!

Of course, there are so many more options out there (so, SO many), and what you choose for your homeschool will depend on what kind of rhythm or style you're going for and how your child learns best, which you are the best judge of. These programs may not work for your family, and that's okay, but if you try them, I would love to hear what you think!

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Ready to build your interactive homeschool or playroom space? Check out my post on 8 styles of Montessori toys and games to build your perfect space.

Want to learn more about the common (and some less common) styles of homeschooling philosophies? You can read my breakdown of 12 homeschool methods here.