Our new school year is here. While most families are settling back into their home school rhythms from before the holidays, we begin our first official school day of the new school year. Curious as to why? Well, if you're new to following us, it is because we adopted a year-round homeschool schedule (which I go over in more depth HERE). Basically, because our yearly schedule is often unpredictable with travel, staying within a traditional school-year calendar (August to June) wasn't working out. While one shouldn't feel "behind" in one's homeschooling journey, I did, and it was overwhelming. I switched to a year-round calendar and began our year in January almost 6-7 years ago now, and haven't looked back. While we are no longer new to year-round schooling, we have decided to take a different approach to our school days this year. We have been (and I still am) a big fan of Sonlight History/Bible/Literature. It is no longer sustainable or a workable option for us. With three kiddos now needing instruction and time with me, and a 2-year-old running chaos amongst us, I was being pulled in six different directions, and our homeschool magic learning atmosphere was missing. Enter in family unit studies, a new approach to learning for us that I am excited to share with you as I share our curriculum choices for the 2026 school year.
In many homeschool groups on the online space, parents are asking for the best curriculums out there. Very rarely will a whole collective group of homeschooling parents agree on what the best curriculum of all time is. Because really, there isn’t the best curriculum for everyone, but there is the best curriculum for your particular family unit. No homeschooling family is alike.
There are literally thousands of curriculum choices out there. From all-in-ones, piecing together, hodge-podge, you name it, and it is out there, with technology, homeschooling curriculum, and choices have become a lot more readily available than they once were.
In case you are new to following us, I thought I would take the time to introduce Momma Bear School Resources to you. As a former teacher wannabe, I missed lesson planning and resource creation, so since 2018/19 I have dabbled in creating lesson plans and resources for our girls. In 2020, I began creating and offering to others the things I have been making and using in our homeschool journey.
Our new school year is here. While most families are settling back into their home school rhythms from before the holidays, we begin our first official school day of the new school year. Curious as to why? Well, if you're new to following us, it is because we adopted a year-round homeschool schedule (which I go over in more depth HERE). Basically, because our yearly schedule is often unpredictable with travel, staying within a traditional school-year calendar (August to June) wasn't working out. While one shouldn't feel "behind" in one's homeschooling journey, I did, and it was overwhelming. I switched to a year-round calendar and began our year in January almost 6-7 years ago now, and haven't looked back. While we are no longer new to year-round schooling, we have decided to take a different approach to our school days this year. We have been (and I still am) a big fan of Sonlight History/Bible/Literature. It is no longer sustainable or a workable option for us. With three kiddos now needing instruction and time with me, and a 2-year-old running chaos amongst us, I was being pulled in six different directions, and our homeschool magic learning atmosphere was missing. Enter in family unit studies, a new approach to learning for us that I am excited to share with you as I share our curriculum choices for the 2026 school year.
It's here, and I'm eager for us to get home and officially begin this unit. I've created a few multi-level unit studies for our Christmas School over the last few years. Still, around the end of August, I realized Thumper would be finishing up our core curriculum by the end of September, so I knew I needed something to fill up her time until we began the Thanksgiving unit I had already planned to use for November. I had had the idea in the back of my mind to do a Sleepy Hollow Unit Study in a year or two, but I decided to give it a shot and complete it this year once we returned to our home base for the winter holiday season. I worked some early mornings, took advantage of nap times, and seized work time whenever possible to complete this unit for us and others, with the goal of finishing it by October 1st. I met that goal, with a few days to spare.
I know I have a few high school essays I would like to add, and possibly some preschool materials to include, but I'm happy with what I've been able to accomplish and feel it will make for a pretty rich unit with what I currently have done.
The Big-Whole Family or Multi-level Classroom Unit is a 15-Day Unit study that breaks down the Reading of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow into 10 days, so that we can dive deep into the literature with profound family-group-centered lessons, end-of-lesson wrap-up activities, and multiple extension activities that have several (90+) optional worksheets available. Older students will challenge themselves independently using the Reading Journal portion of this study, where they will engage with journal entries, discussions, comprehension questions, and literary element reviews and extensions.
The learning doesn’t stop once we finish reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Students will then complete a study guide tailored to their age level, which correlates with the final test at their respective level. To celebrate the end of the unit, students will watch Disney’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and compare it to Irving’s text with a comparison guide. If that wasn’t enough, students can also let their creativity shine in one of the FIVE available projects with this unit. Elementary students can make a diorama of their favorite scene. At the same time, middle schoolers can choose to retell the story in a comic book or picture book remake, or they can become Sleepy Hollow tour guides with the Creepy Tour Guide Project. High schoolers can be challenged to build a Cold Case File for the missing Ichabod Crane or create a Modern TV adaptation.
To tie this unit together, I’m including a BONUS Legend of Sleepy Hollow-themed dinner with a Menu and recipes inspired by the story.
You can choose to purchase this complete family-group unit study or purchase some of the individual components instead/
Items Available Individually:
Look for an update/recap of how the unit goes for us at the end of October.
For now, this unit and any of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow projects can be purchased for 10% off using code SLEEPY25 on the website or with no code needed on my TPT storefront.
I announced this arrival WAY earlier on our Facebook Page and Instagram pages, but I still needed to do things properly and announce it and dive deep into what's available here on the blog.
I have been creating resources for our Christmas School since 2020 (see what it is HERE). Initially, I started making it mainly for our older girls. Still, it has evolved and become significantly more over the last five years. This year's theme is Santa Claus. I have created two literature Studies, Two Essays, and one writing project around this theme for the 2025 school year.
As I have added Bird slowly to our homeschool time over the last two years, I have been feeling incredibly overwhelmed, and things have just not been clicking as they used to. I spend much time redirecting and trying to keep the older girls quiet during my read-aloud and instructional time. We have lost some of our magic within our homeschooling day. It is not at all Brid's fault, nor Baby Bee's fault, as he helps add to the chaos most days, too. Bird is very different from her sisters, and that is what makes her beautiful. However, it is time to reevaluate our homeschooling plan moving forward.
For part of 2025, I have decided to do blog posts centering around frequently asked homeschool questions. I have been asked these questions or seen them in various online spaces. While I am sure there are plenty of questions I haven't answered, I am wrapping up this series for the year here.
I began the series by discussing how to get started with homeschooling. I have discussed this before (HERE), and there is even a small series of helpful videos available HERE on my webpage. We no longer need to be qualified to teach because, as your children's parents, you are uniquely qualified to teach them, having done so from the moment they were born.
For part of 2025, I have decided to do blog posts centering around frequently asked homeschool questions. I have been asked these questions or seen them in various online spaces. This question surprised me, but yet it doesn't either. I see this question a lot when people have had little experience with homeschooling and pose it almost as an objection to homeschooling. How can homeschoolers stand to be around their kids all day?
While this question disturbs me somewhat, as I said, I have seen it more as a reason people don't want to homeschool. So I sat back and thought about it; I see these questions in plain sight in stay-at-home mom groups and mom groups all the time, in some form or another. I have also seen it asked in the form of "What do you do with your kid outside of school time?". I have also seen "I'm not here to entertain my kid all day."
For part of 2025, I have decided to do blog posts centering around frequently asked homeschool questions. I have been asked these questions or seen them in various online spaces. This post will dive into the "needs" of homeschooling. With public school, you often have a list of two or three school supplies to buy, while homeschooling requires fewer items. However, as the years have gone by, we've found that some things have become very handy for us. I have taken the time to compile our list of things here.
The most basic thing you need in your homeschool is STUDENTS (ha ha…). But more seriously, you need a plan; even if you're unschooling, you still need to plan —that's what you're doing so that you can track what's going on at the back of your mind.
For part of 2025, I have decided to do blog posts centering around frequently asked homeschool questions. I have been asked these questions or seen them in various online spaces. In this post, I will discuss the various types of homeschooling, just as there are different types of learners and even different types of public schools (such as charter, Montessori, STEM, etc.). I have found that there are nine common types of homeschooling.
