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.
Taking more of a family approach this year, we are using the following curricula together:
Campfire Curricula, Not Consumed Bible Studies, and the Bigs will be working through Literature Genre Studies from our Simply Language Arts Resources.
Campfire will be our primary curriculum, as it is all-inclusive (except for math). Because I am a little extra, I have added the other things, plus some electives we have already been using and that are not too time-consuming for us to complete. I have picked out the following units for us to complete this year:
Through the Eyes of a Zoologist
Through the Eyes of a Professional Chef
Through the Eyes of a Paleontologist
With the Skills of Home Defense
In the Season of Independence Day
Through the Eyes of ER Life
Through the Eyes of a Veterinarian
Novel Study: A Christmas Carol
Thumper originally picked all of these units out, as I was only going to switch her and Bird to these studies, but halfway through last year, Mouse found the idea of joining us appealing and asked to do them along with us. I have a goal of making a unit wrap-up post on our Facebook Page or Instagram as we finish each unit, and then writing a mid-year (June) review and a year-in-review in December of how our year went.
Even though Campfire Curriculum includes a faith talk in most of its units, I still wanted to be more intentional this year about completing some Bible studies together as a family. Not Consumed Bible Studies has been on my radar for a few years, and after a few squabbles and adjusting to having the dynamics of Bigs and Littles in the house, My Brothers Keeper seemed the optimal bible study to begin with the kiddos. Once we finish with the Bigs, we will complete the Sibling Challenge Journals on their own. Then we will pick up the Faithipedia New Testament Flipbook: Daily Apologetics for Families.
As mentioned, the Bigs will be completing Literature Genre Studies from our Simply Language Arts Resources. They will be doing Doodle Notes, Select Lessons and Activities, and Summary Questions, as well as reading a book from each genre we picked to cover this year. We will be studying the following genres:
Fantasy
Mystery
Science Fiction
Coining-of-Age
Adventure
Historical
Dystopia
I am also hoping to have us complete an Edgar Allen Poe Unit study (similar to our Sleepy Hollow Unit Study we completed last year). Follow us on our Facebook Page or Instagram account to see what we are all reading each month in our Monthly Bookstack Posts.
As a family, we once again adopted a calf from the Discovery Dairy program. We will do lessons as we get our monthly updates on our calf, Oreo, until June.
And, as I said, because I am extra, we will be taking some other electives throughout the year.
Because Campfire does not include math, the Bigs will be continuing with the levels of Math-U-See they were in last year and go on to the next as they complete the book (which is how the Math-U-See mastery concept works). Mouse will be completing Pre-Algebra and moving on to Algebra I. Thumper will be continuing Zeta and then moving on to Pre-Algebra. Bird will be new to the Math-u-See group, and I plan to work through Primer with her. I anticipate this book will take us most of the year, unless she surprises me and advances well; I don't foresee her starting Alpha until next year.
The Bigs will continue to use IEW's Fix It Grammar, and Thumper will continue using All About Spelling. Bird will be continuing All About Reading Level 1 from All About Learning Press.
Mouse will also complete Apologia Biology, which she studied last year, and Music Masters from Not Consumed, and continue Spanish with Rosetta Stone.
Thumper will be doing a keyboarding course and using Duolingo for Latin and Music.
Bird will also be learning to write and will have some copywork from IEW's Pal Writing Program. I just haven't completely decided how I want to implement it yet.
While all of these extras seem like A LOT, they actually aren't. We won't do all of them every week, as we will break from grammar and spelling when it is included in our Campfire units, and then take natural breaks with others, as I have scheduled some catch-up weeks into our calendar.
I am really looking forward to next year, and I hope to find the peace and magic in our homeschooling journey again by slowing down and being more intentional about spending family time learning together.
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