We hope to raise wild and free kids… and give them freedom to pursue and explore their unique purpose with a Life School Curriculum
What does a life school curriculum for wild and free kids look like?
Many times I’m told that I’m qualified to homeschool because I have my Masters in Education. Honestly, in my opinion that degree didn’t give me any extra edge on homeschooling my children. If anything, I had to “unschool” myself when it came to teaching my kids. I believe that every child is given a unique purpose by God and it’s our duty as their parents to give them the freedom to learn about their interests. Let them be wild and free kids to find who they are in this world before the world tells them differently. Set boundaries that embrace their childhood. You don’t need to be an “expert” of teaching to homeschool; they are your kids and you know them best! Life School curriculum is about learning beside your kids while you do life together!
Learning is a lifestyle… with real life experiences
I can’t emphasize enough that academics and learning shouldn’t be boxes to be checked off! The reason we refer to our kid’s education as “life school” is because we believe that learning happens in real life and it gives meaning and context to learning. We do life together and so you won’t find us doing busy pencil and paper work. You will find us reading great living books, playing games, working at the table together, at Forest School, or traveling to a u-pick flower farm and then journaling in our nature notebooks! Learning happens in everything you do or anywhere you go! The best gift of homeschool is time.
When people ask if we take summers off from school
No, we are learning year round! It gives us more flexibility on certain days to travel, to spend more time outside exploring, or visiting with family. We keep our rhythms and checklist of expectations for most days and then our kids know the routine! Also, keep in mind that we can plan our days, but interruptions happen. Unexpected circumstances come up! Maybe it’s a visit from a family member or neighbor, a calling to volunteer, or a diagnosis in the family. Our first year of homeschool God called us to downsize our house and move! We had no idea where we were going after selling our house in record time. We spent our homeschool days packing, looking at homes, and prayerfully trusting God as we moved around; a lot!
It was a season full of valuable lessons for our kids as they witnessed us live out our faith right beside us! During this season they became wild and free kids!
The myth of Curriculum and Wild and FRee Kids
I’ve found over the years that the most asked question I get is, “What curriculum do you use?” I think it’s easy to find a false hope in curriculum to equal homeschool success. I believe it’s the first lie that we believe as homeschooling parents that we have failed when it didn’t work, it wasn’t what we expected, or it was too rigor and it was exhausting for everyone! It’s easy to let the curriculum we choose rule the day. Then we loose connection, confidence, and our purpose for bringing kids home. We also stifle our kids and their natural joy for learning. Their minds want meaningful and engaging work. Learning comes naturally to kids and that is why a life school curriculum is beneficial.
I see a lot of parents struggle on breaks or during virtual learning and tell me, “ I could NEVER homeschool!” What they don’t realize is that their frustration is likely from a lack of rhythm and routine or from a curriculum that is too rigor or has no meaning or context; it’s not because they aren’t qualified or capable!
Life School curriculum Ideas for wild and free kids
Notebooking
One of my kids favorite learning activities is notebooking. There are so many options to notebooking with your kids. I can’t tell you how many times my kids have started pondering or questioning a topic and then after finding out more information they would document what they learned in their notebook along with a diagram, illustrations, or a watercolor image. Notebooking is great for nature study, science, history. My kids love to look back at what they have included in their notebooks over time too! Notebooking gives them an opportunity to be creative and document what they found most interesting about a topic. Every kid loves to have a set of Prisma colored pencils or watercolors too! If you prefer, you can even use more graphic organizers to help your child get their thoughts down on paper easier or dictate for them!
I highly recommend a recipe holder to prop the books and keep them open when your kids are working!
This week we took a trip to a flower farm and picked an assortment of wildflowers. When we got home the kids worked on identifying the flowers, diagraming the parts of the flower, and writing a little bit about their experience and what they learned in their notebooks. We used some of our favorite books to guide our learning, discussion, and diagrams. You can find them at the bottom of the post!
Invest in Books for Wild and FREE kids
I encourage you to invest in books. We have a room full of books and they are the foundation of our learning. You have the unique opportunity to use living books over textbooks. Living books bring learning to life and make you wonder. Jim Trelease’s Read-Aloud Handbook is a great resource for learning about the value of books. We love to gather and read and drink tea. My home library has a wide variety of books that work for every kid, every lesson, they are reusable, and they’re a consistent resource in our learning! I’ve included some of our favorite living books below.
Life school Curriculum for teaching Math
We’ve done a lot of different math curriculum and I can tell you that your choice depends on the child! Get to know your child’s learning style and struggles before you purchase. You can do this by playing math games. We love Check the Fridge, Prime Climb, Clumsy Thief, and Qwixx.
Curriculum we’ve used for math: Teaching Textbooks, Saxon, & Master Books. If you aren’t ready to purchase a curriculum and are looking for more pencil and paper work to get a better understanding of your child’s needs I highly recommend the Humble Math products!
Gather ‘Round Homeschool
This year we are trying Gather ‘Round Homeschool! We’ve done a variety of different Language Arts programs and we’ve enjoyed them, but I wanted a curriculum that brought my kids together for learning and encompassed more overlapping of content. Gather ‘Round aligns with more of our beliefs of life school curriculum and focuses on exploring specific units of themed content as a family.
Brave Writer
Julie Bogart is the creator and owner of Brave Writer writing and language arts program and has written a book called The Brave Learner. Julie emphasizes that learning should be enchanted and a magical time for families. She has been an inspiration and an encouragement in my role as a homeschooling parent. Julie also teaches families the value of a poetry tea time. Starting this in our home was the first experience I had with bringing my kids together to read and enjoy learning together. You can find her Poetry Teatime Companion as a great resource. I’ve added some of my favorite poetry tea time accessories below! My kids get so excited about our assortment of cute tea mugs and hot tea is a staple in our day!
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