Our 2024-2025 Homeschool Curriculum, Schedule Plans, Resource Links, and Daily Routine – Lots of FREE resources!

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog

It’s that time of year again for us… time to get the next school year planned out. We finished up our 2023-2024 school year before Easter and I’ve been busy gathering supplies and making schedules as I coordinate with everyone for vacations, holidays, and special trips that we have planned.

It is always SO TEMPTING to take a few months off to just focus on this house but I know from past experience that this doesn’t go well and that it takes FOREVER to get a couple of the kids back into the school routine. You can read more about last year’s curriculum and routines HERE.

We switched to more of a Charlotte Mason-style approach and it was GREAT for the most part. We still have a couple of kids who just hate anything to do with math so that’s been a little challenging but we’re making progress. We’ve also really enjoyed using some of the FREE courses with Under the Home Homeschool.

FREE Homeschool Planning Scratchpad

Shyanne has absolutely loved being a part of our school routine and she completed the Easy Peasy All-in-One Preschool program… she was so EXCITED. She’s also been loving the printable packets from Living With Eve.

We have a wonderful all-in-one printer that we use to make copies of the work so that we can use/reuse the books/materials multiple times which helps to cut down on the cost of books every year. Our old one lasted for several years so we just bought an updated one to replace it. We also try to stock up on school supplies when they go on sale and/or on school tax holidays to help save money. Check out this post for essential supplies.

FREE All-In-One Homeschool Portfolio Notebook

Please note that it is not necessary to purchase any of these materials to give your child/children a good education. We happen to have a lot of them on hand already and many of these we have been able to find for FREE or discounted prices online or on our local FB groups. You can also find lots of used books on eBay, thrift books, and Amazon. Your local library often has many books on various subjects that you can use for lessons too!

**This post does contain some affiliate and/or referral links to products and/or services that we use. If you happen to click through a link and make a purchase we may earn a teensy-weensy small commission (at NO EXTRA cost to you) if a purchase is made through these links. These links help to support our family, our blog, and our homeschooling mission. This means that we can keep bringing you great recipes, ideas, and tips for FREE! Click HERE for a full disclaimer.  –Thank you!

I love using Homeschool Manager for keeping records of grades, and assignments, and printing out documents. We technically don’t need to keep all of this information but I like to have it neat and organized. The biggest issue I had was trying to keep the subjects in order so that I could copy them to everyone’s schedule in the same order. By using ‘numbered courses’ I have been able to simplify this task and make it a little less stressful for me. Please excuse the Kajillion open tabs but that’s how I roll!

See our post on Homeschool Planning for more information about these subjects.

Here is a rough schedule of the books/materials that we have chosen for this year:

The Girls are in High School. The boys are 4th – 8th grades and Shyanne will still be doing some Pre-K and Kindergarten level work.

**We will also be using this FREE Book of Centuries to record different events from our various studies. Here is a cover that we made for ours if you’d like to print it out. DOWNLOAD Cover Here

Check out our FREE All-in-One Homeschool Portfolio Notebook!

This notebook has been a GAME CHANGER here in our homeschool and I now wish I had NEVER quit using it!

Our Daily Schedule

We’ve been using this schedule for a few weeks now and it seems to be working out pretty good. I’ve been updating this over the past few weeks to reflect any changes that we’ve made as well.

7:30-8:30: Morning Chores, Breakfast, and Cleanup

We have a checklist that we go over during Morning Circle so if anything gets skipped or ‘forgotten’ then they can go back and work on it while I finish up Preschool with Shyanne or work with someone else.

Each kiddo is responsible for helping out in a designated area for the day and they will check their areas to make sure they have been tidied up. This has changed from weekly chores.

  • The kitchen person and their helper will get breakfast ready on most mornings
  • Our Morning Routine helps keep us on track.
  • The bathroom helper is responsible for helping get the toothbrushes ready after breakfast for everyone who needs help.

Easy Sourdough Quiche

8:30ish School Starts

While the older kiddos are finishing up chores and such I try to spend a little time with Shyanne to fill her little ‘Mommy Time cup’ first thing in the morning

(00) MORNING CIRCLE

Time to put on my ‘teacher hat’ and get started

  • Pledge of Allegiance
  • Morning Prayer
  • Memory Work (goes along with Thinking & Educational Skills)
  • ASL (included with Communications Development)
    • We love using Signing Times DVDs for ASL and there are numerous FREE videos on YouTube.
  • World Watch News – this usually touches on a variety of subjects and they jot down a summary in their notebooks.
  • Plain Values Magazine – I usually read an article for them – we don’t do this every day.
  • The Book of This Day in History – this will probably be included in our Morning Circle – updated book

(1) Religion and Character Development

We try to include this with our Morning Circle as I feel this is important and needs to be touched on EVERY DAY!

Other things we may use in the future:

We will also continue our studies on Biblical Feasts and Holy Days.

Once we finish with our Morning Circle and Bible Studies then we move on to our ‘Loop Schedule’.** Reading and Math are included in our daily schedule but some other subjects are rotated throughout the week.

**We have switched to EVEN/ODD days again for a bit as I’ve been really busy with the garden. I still try to review the Loop Schedule as well to make sure that we aren’t skipping any areas as we don’t always get to EVERY SUBJECT on EVERY DAY due to LIFE.

EX:

We’ve had a really busy week with a Solar Eclipse, multiple errands to run, and appointments so we’ve not had time to ‘do’ a ‘full day’ of school at all.

If it is an ODD DAY we will do our Morning Circle, Bible, Character, Reading, and Math and then I will look over the ‘ODD DAY’ subjects like Prose/Poetry, Current Events, Story of Our World, Science, PE, Music, and/or Culinary.

When the next ODD DAY comes along we will make the skipped subjects our top priority for that day and we will skip the others if we don’t have enough time. This keeps us from getting behind in any area. Same with EVEN DAYS.

Sample Loop Schedule for this method at the end of this post!

(2) Communication Development (LA)

American sign language

We will continue to learn and review our ASL as part of our Communications Development.

Reading/LA: (EVEN DAYS)

We are alternating reading lessons with our Prose/Poetry Lessons because it just seems to go a little simpler that way.

We will be incorporating Narration, Dictation, Copy Work, Grammar, and Spelling into our lessons. Most of this will be pulled from their current lessons. Check out this handy dandy bookmark!

Each child will read 3-4 books a month on their own as well. They will record these in their individual notebooks.

See our Grade by Grade Reading List for more book ideas!

spelling:

We honestly haven’t incorporated any spelling into our lessons yet as they have been doing a lot of dictation work and we check spelling and punctuation when we do that.

Spelling words will come from their reading selections and this is the schedule we use for studying them:

  • Mondays: Write them 3x each
  • Tuesdays: Write them in ABC order
  • Wednesdays: Look up the definitions
  • Thursdays: Write them in sentences
  • Fridays: Spelling Test

Poetry: (ODD DAys)

The kids will choose one of the current poems to work on – the goal is to be able to recite 3-4 poems for the year. We will work on one verse/stanza at a time until everyone has mastered it. We usually have it included in our Memory Work Box at Morning Circle.

prose: (Odd days)

  • Prose Lessons from UH – I like to do these during lunch if we don’t have a book that we are reading.

penmanship:

We have been using the copywork and dictation for penmanship although I do plan to introduce some cursive at some point… baby steps!

For Handwriting Practice, we have also been using this wooden board but there are more resources available HERE.

10:30ish Snack/Quick Break

I will have to spend a few minutes of one-on-one time with the kiddos for their independent studies so I may have one person playing with Shyanne while I am working with another person. I will also have them rotating between computer work and other areas, as needed. Some of the kiddos may have their snack and break while I work with others.

(3) Thinking and Educational Skills Development

(4) Arithmetic

I’ve been alternating the younger boys’ math lessons with flashcards and other activities to help strengthen some math skills that they have been having a little trouble with.

Older Kids:

  • Algebra 1 from Complete Curriculum/Ray’s Arithmetic
  • Culinary Math with the Culinary Course they are taking – Linked below

Younger Boys:

  • Ray’s Intellectual Arithmetic (EVEN DAYS)
  • Flash Cards/STEM (ODD DAYS)

Links to FREE Math Resources:

Shyanne uses the Spielgaben set as part of her ‘math’– well worth the initial investment that I put into it!

Just part of what is included in the Spielgaben set which comes with a sturdy wooden box with drawers for easy access. This set is suitable for ages 1-12, with proper adult supervision for kids under 3.

(5) Social Studies

The older kids will be doing extra research and reports on subjects that we are studying with our Group Work.

geography (EVEN)

American history (EVEN)

World History (ODD)

**We will also be using various Famous Figures books to go along with lessons and this FREE Book of Centuries to record different events from our various studies. Here is a cover that we made for ours if you’d like to print it out. DOWNLOAD Cover Here

(6) Natural and Scientific World Studies

The kids have mysteriously misplaced our Science book but we are working through the Plant Study and Botany right now as those go really with the gardening we are doing… if we can’t find that book I will use another one from that set because I know where the rest of them are… lol.

We do have these books that we may also incorporate into our science lessons:

(7) Languages

Photo by ArtHouse Studio on Pexels.com

(8) PE, Health & Safety

  • We will continue to use Swedish Drills and Syllabus of Physical Exercises 1909
  • Emergency Preparedness and First Aid lessons – especially important as they have been predicting a busier than usual hurricane season this year!
  • PE 1 on EP – (ODD DAYS) If we finish this course before the end of the year we will go on to the next.

(9) Cultural Arts Appreciation

We have been doing Art on EVEN days, Music on ODD days, and Shakespeare on Fridays.

Art Appreciation (EVEN)

We will continue to use these Fine Art pages we found many years ago. You can find some HERE and HERE.

Studio Art (EVEN)

MUSIC APPRECIATION (ODD)

Shakespeare (FRIDAYS)

Dance (FRIDAYS)

  • We will continue our weekly Square Dance Lessons

(10) Life Skills Development

Personal Development Skills

All of the kids do chores around the house, help to care for animals, and have been helping out in the garden which are all IMPORTANT LIFE SKILLS that we need on a daily basis but we also add in a few lessons to make sure that I haven’t forgotten anything.

The Girls are using:

The Boys are using:

We will choose from some of these links:

Life Skills

Miscellaneous

  • HANDICRAFT 
  • Gardening
  • Scrapbooking/Notebooking
  • Chores

FAMILY READ ALOUD

  • Sometimes we may use books from the kids’ studies or we may choose one from this list HERE.

12:00 Lunch/Quick Clean Up

Each kiddo is responsible for helping out in a designated area for the week and they will check their areas to make sure they have been tidied up.

  • The kitchen person and their helper will get lunch ready on most days

On Mondays, we finish school at lunchtime and then use the remainder of the day for our ‘Home Blessing’ and Free Time. With this new schedule, we are hoping to finish up before lunch every day.

Fridays are usually a short day as well as we have Square Dancing to go to.

– YAY! I get to take off my ‘teacher hat’ for the day and just be Momma!

1:00 – 2:30ish Naps/Quiet time/study time

  • William and Shyanne usually go down for naps/quiet time right after lunch.
  • This is when the kids can use the computers for school assignments, if needed but a lot of our work will not need computers. My kiddos don’t have FREE ACCESS to electronics and they must ‘earn’ electronic privileges through good behavior/chores. They do not have INTERNET ACCESS unless supervised… there are too many predators out there looking to steal away the innocence of our children and I try my best to protect them.
  • We can also use this time to complete any activities that we couldn’t do while little Ma’am was awake.

2:30 – 5:00 Snack/Afternoon Chores/Free Time/Dinner Prep

  • Free Time when schoolwork and chores are completed
  • They can play, read, go outside, or do whatever they want to do during this period.
  • We have also been doing the majority of the garden work during this time but that may change when the weather gets hotter and we may swap school and outside times.
  • Whichever kiddo is helping out in the kitchen will come to help with dinner between 4:00 and 4:30.
  • The Kitchen Helper will also come help get out plates and such before dinner is ready.

Put your Meal Planning on Auto-Pilot with the Perpetual Meal Plans

5:00ish Dinner/Cleanup

  • Each kiddo is responsible for helping out in a designated area for the week and they will check their areas to make sure they have been tidied up.

6:00 – 8:30ish Family Time/Baths

  • Everyone will get their baths/showers, finish cleaning up, and then we can watch a movie, read a story, or play a game before bedtime.
  • The bathroom helper is responsible to help get the toothbrushes ready before bed for everyone who needs help.

8:00 – 9:00 Bedtimes

Remember that there are numerous FREE Homeschool Resources available and we have some listed under the Homeschool Tab at the top of this blog! We also have a new page full of FREE Homeschool Printables! If you need a way to keep track of your homeschool schedules and grades check out this post HERE for the app that we use and love! We hope you all have a wonderful summer and that maybe you find this list helpful when selecting your new curriculum.

We hope that you may have found something useful to help you with planning your next year!

Here is the Sample Loop Schedule:

loop-schedule-daily-2024Download

2 thoughts on “Our 2024-2025 Homeschool Curriculum, Schedule Plans, Resource Links, and Daily Routine – Lots of FREE resources!”

  1. Pingback: Flea Market Finds and a Special Delivery from Zoe’s Toolbox! – Pollywog's Place Blog
  2. Pingback: Our 2025-2026 Homeschool Curriculum, Schedule Plans, Resource Links, and Daily Routine – Tons of FREE resources! – Pollywog's Place Blog

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