Planning Out the School Year (with lessons learned): Our Homeschool Journey, cont.

It’s been a while since I last wrote here, but as we gear up for another homeschool year, 

I thought I would share my reflection on last year and how I am planning to adjust for this year. I also link to all our unit studies (free) and our full schedule (day/week/year) at the end of this blog post).

We began with unit studies from Campfire Curriculum. The first ones we tried were so engaging it changed our family’s whole dynamic—my daughter was genuinely excited to wake up and learn each day. Open Ed allowed me to say yes to more opportunities (so much more fun to be "Yes Mommy"), and it was magical how things seemed to fall into place. Our first studies were on island life and the “Real” Pirates of the Caribbean. One of the projects was to make a treasure map of our property. That same week, I stumbled on a guide to making feather pens. As luck would have it, while out and about, we found a perfect feather for our pen project just sticking up out of the ground next to our car! Our homeschool co-op hosted a marketplace, so we made a batch of quill pens for my daughter to sell. I had the strange idea of boiling down beet peels to see if it would make ink, and it did! Best ink out of all the things we tried and totally just a random idea. We paired little ink wells of beet ink with the pens at the marketplace. In another co-op class, she researched and presented on her favorite pirate, complete with a costume and Caribbean foods we cooked together for her classmates. Around that time, a friend from Puerto Rico visited, cooked traditional food with us, and connected my daughter with her Puerto Rican neighbors to be her homeschool pen pals. None of this was really orchestrated—it just happened, almost magically. We did not using text books, workbooks or tests. I have an aversion to text books and my child was burned out on worksheets from her last school experience. For my own reassurance, I kept a printed list of the common core standards and checked in periodically. To my surprise, we covered nearly everything naturally, supplementing with free lessons where needed. I had a total peace about it. 

Later in the year, though, I was stretched thin planning events for Options for Education. The unit studies lost their spark, my daughter’s favorite cooking class was paused, and cold weather made outdoor co-op less appealing. Frustration crept in—especially around math. My daughter wanted to play, not work, and we started clashing. By spring, I was just trying to make it to the finish line and rest for summer.

Then I read an early manuscript of Open Education book by Matt Bowman and Isaac Morehouse, which reignited my passion and fueled my imagination. We finished strong, and I made a commitment not to spread myself so thin in the future. Being present for my daughter’s growth is the greatest privilege of my life, and I got to know her in ways that wouldn’t have been possible if she were in school all day.

Here’s what I learned that I am taking into the planning for the 2025/26 school year:

• Keep commitments to my child above all else. If I expect her to be present and engaged, I need to do the same.

• Stick to a rhythm. While I’m not a person who loves schedules, I see now how much comfort routine brings to my child. We can adjust routines seasonally to balance her need for stability with my need for variety.

• Follow her passions. This year, we’re enrolling her in two local art classes and setting up a dedicated art space at home. Culinary arts are woven into every unit study, and I’m exploring local options for kids’ cooking classes. Since she loves reading, we’re integrating books into all our unit studies.

• Adapt curriculum formats. I’m paying attention to what she enjoys most—more books, less screen time—and making changes to keep learning joyful.

• My kiddo does not like large groups of kids, so we are seeking out a new PE class. I have a meeting this week with Club Northwest, to see if they want to include Open Ed families in their new PE class for REACH and Baker homeschooled kids. We are also talking about making Club NW a meet-up spot for year-round gatherings of Open Ed families (swimming, volleyball, obstacle course, basketball, etc.)

Looking ahead, we’re making a few changes in the curriculum and unit studies:

• Switching math curriculum to Beast Academy, which uses graphic novels and also has video recorded lessons and an online game —much more her style than the app based-math we used last year (Teaching Textbooks which I loved). We’ll start at level 3C, which matches her current skills.

• Adding a writing curriculum (Write Shop Jr. E). While I’m comfortable teaching writing, she sometimes felt criticized by my feedback. Using a curriculum will let me support her without being the source of pressure.

• Embracing AI. We’ve used AI for everything from writing funny songs for family to practicing Spanish and making typing practice really fun (you can ask AI any funny questions you want or to tell you jokes, etc.). 

  • We loved unit studies, but the ones I found that others had written didn’t quite fit what I was looking for:

    •  I wanted the lessons to be more specific to my child’s learning level (as opposed to family style where it fits the needs of multiple kids at different levels). 

    • I wanted it to incorporate art and culinary (things I discovered are huge passions of my child - we would not have know this had we not homeschooled this past year!). 

    • I wanted to do a unit study on each holiday. I wanted them to include books that my child would enjoy reading writing challenges, math and science. 

    • I also wanted to do field trips. 

    • Oh, and I wanted it all to be free (other than the field trips). 

    • The last thing I wanted was to be able to match it to the year calendar (weeks off for holidays, travel, etc.) and matching it to other priorities, seasons, and opportunities. 

  • A couple of weeks ago, I had the bright idea of asking AI to write me a unit study to fit all of these criteria. I started with chatgpt because that is all I knew. It was ok, but not great. Then, I found perplexity, which was a much better experience. I love the end result, but it was still too vague, still requiring much planning by me. So, I asked included very detailed instructions, links and examples with estimated times, etc. And it did it! Not all resources were free online, but it told me what books I needed to get from the library, etc. AI produces gorgeous grab and go unit studies tailored to my desires. And it happened in seconds! Here is the prompt (and how to use it) that I have been playing with: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sTMvg5pEh5wIQnyqw9VHpa80mJ1H7TKl8dv2DdWE7NU/edit?usp=sharing

  • When we have some unexpected free time or when we need to throw in some variety, I will pull up the list of national days of (Snow, squirrel appreciation, chocolate, etc. or black history, foster kids, etc.) and ask AI to produce a short unit study on that subject.

I’ve organized our year in a spreadsheet, with links to all the unit studies we’ve created. This approach prioritizes creativity, connection, joy and deep diving while leaving plenty of space for spontaneity and connection with our community. Here is also a link to our weekly/daily schedule.

Here’s to another year of adventure! 

Snow Homeschool Plan 2025/26

(Link to google spreadsheet with live links to unit studies)

Here is a link to the folder of unit studies I have created with AI so far

MONTHLY SCHEDULE/THEMES

DAILY/WEEKLY SCHEDULE