A World of Adventure - Unit Study Curriculum

The mailman has made my day! Our brand new curriculum for next school year has arrived, and we are beyond excited! Big Brother and I both broke into cheers of excitement, and I am sure the neighbors were scratching their heads...oh well! :)

In my last post, I shared that we would be making the switch to a year-round homeschooling schedule and listed our reasons for doing so.

I also left a few unanswered questions about exactly what we are going to be doing in our homeschool next year!

First of all, as you may have noticed if you've been reading this blog for very long, Big Brother has been working one grade level above his age. He started Kindergarten at age 4, and up to this point I have allowed him to continue advancing grade levels each year. He has done extremely well, and I am very proud of his academic accomplishments.

However, I sense the need to slow him down. Home education should not be a race to see who's child can graduate the earliest. Although I could send him on into the 4th grade level ABeka and R&S textbooks, I do not honestly think it would be fair to him to do so just yet.

I have always said that we would probably at some point need to take a year to just let him mature before going on. And I believe we have reached that point. Childhood is so short as it is, and I see no need to rush him through it.

So what "grade" will Big Brother be in next year??

GOOD QUESTION!

He will be completing his 3rd grade work on May 20th (or so), and then starting the new school year in early June 2016. Then (unless we decide differently) he will be progressing on to 4th grade ABeka and R&S textbooks in June 2017! BUT the curriculum he will be using next year (2016-2017)...is usable for PreK-8th grade!!

So...I'm not sure we are going to worry about assigning him a "grade level" at all next year! Just way too confusing! :)

Now for the big announcement! What curriculum are we so excited about using for the 2016-2017 school year??? Drumroll please...



We are going to be using a complete unit study curriculum for the first time! We have done short week-long unit studies in the past (like "LEGO week" and "Cowboy Camp" the past couple of years before school started), and Big Brother has LOVED them! He enjoys having a unifying theme to explore while covering different academic subjects.

We have purchased Volume 1 of the Learning Adventures curriculum called "A World of Adventure!"

Big Brother is a history buff, and he loves hands-on learning. This curriculum seems to be perfect for him!

A World of Adventure is a full 180 day unit study based on world history. It is Christian based, and it covers all subjects (except math...we will be reviewing his 3rd grade R&S math and using games, etc.).

There are 6 units, and each unit will take about 6 weeks to complete.

These are the historical time periods we will be studying in each unit:

Unit 1 - Ancient Egypt
Unit 2 - Ancient Greece
Unit 3 - Ancient Rome
Unit 4 - The Middle Ages
Unit 5 - Renaissance and Reformation
Unit 6 - Age of Exploration

The science topics covered during each unit relate in some way to the historical time period being studied. These include:

Unit 1 - Deserts & the Nile River
Unit 2 - Human Body
Unit 3 - Geology
Unit 4 - Botany
Unit 5 - Astronomy
Unit 6 - Oceans

Each unit also includes Bible study and memorization, language arts activities (grammar, spelling, writing, etc.), fine arts (hymn singing, hymn studies, classical music, art projects, art history, etc.), and literature for read-alouds that are all related to the specific history or science theme!

The main curriculum is geared toward students in grades 4-8, and I also ordered the supplement books that give more ideas for including younger children in the unit study activities. I am so excited to be able to include Little Brother as he adventures through world history along with us on his own level!

This curriculum is very different from the textbook approach as there are no actual...umm...textbooks. The author, a veteran homeschool mom named Dorian Holt, has written out detailed daily lesson plans to guide parents as they choose their own learning materials (library books, videos, encyclopedia, internet research, etc.) to use with their students as they dive head first into learning about each topic.

The guide is huge! I am going to have to purchase a large binder to keep it in! You can see sample lesson plans on the Learning Adventures website. Everything is very well planned out for me, but there is still plenty of room for any adjustments or supplements we may want to make as needed.

Another awesome aspect of this curriculum is the really neat learning game called "Worlds of Adventure" that we can play to regularly to review and reinforce skills and concepts that are covered in each unit. I ordered this game extra, and it looks like it will be well worth it!

There are so many great projects, crafts, cooking ideas, games, field trip suggestions, and more! We are going to have a hard time waiting until June to get started!!!

We are looking forward to 2016-2017 for a fun, exciting, and refreshing school year for us! I hope to share it with you right here!

Be sure to Follow me on Pinterest as I have already been busily pinning lots of things to use with these unit studies!

I am not affiliated with Learning Adventures. I am not using any affiliate links in this post. I urge you to check out and purchase this curriculum directly from the publishers on their site. All opinions are my own. Thanks!

Year-Round Homeschooling (and New Things Ahead!)

I dropped a hint at the end of my last post that we had some new plans for next school year. Actually I have several things to share! I will probably spread this over a few posts, so please be sure to stay tuned!

Yes I am fully aware that this is just February and I am already making plans for next school year. But this is really the best time for me to think about it. We are over halfway through our current year now, and I can see pretty well what works and what does not. It also helps avoid burnout and keep up the excitement level at this otherwise blah time of the year if we are making interesting plans for the future.



In this post, I wanted to explain one of the major changes we will be making. Once we complete our current school year (somewhere in the neighborhood of May 20), we will be joining the ranks of year-round homeschoolers! We will probably take a couple weeks off to decompress and get new materials and activities ready then start our new school year in early June!

Why are we making this switch? I'm so glad you asked! 😉

We will have an entire calendar year (June-May) to complete 180 school days rather than try to cram them all into the 9 months of a traditional school year. This means we can take a slower pace with our studies.

We will have the freedom to take more frequent breaks when we want or need them. We will have so much more flexibility with our schedule! Since we have a whole calendar year to fulfill our attendance requirements, we won't have to feel so stressed and rushed if we need to take a few days (or weeks) here and there off for sickness, travel, or just to rest.

And of course no super long summer break means we won't have to deal with that dreaded "summer slide" where the child promptly forgets and looses a month's worth (or more!) of what they learned the previous year.

When I was homeschooled, we also followed a non-traditional schedule. Our school year usually started sometime in June and we would finish somewhere in April. We would have most of the Spring off when the weather was just right, and we were able to take a break for our family vacations in the Fall when places were cheaper and much less crowded! I would get a week off to go to Bible camp in the Summer several years (although I am pretty sure that was counted as school time!).

I am going to try to stick with a June through May schedule, taking breaks as needed throughout the year.

Thankfully Big Brother is in agreement with this plan as he likes the idea of taking stress-free breaks as we need them.

Next post I will be announcing a couple more exciting new things: why Big Brother is going to have no clue what grade he is in next year and what totally different curriculum and homeschool method we are going to be giving a try! You won't want to miss it! 😀