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Our Interest-Led Homeschool Curriculum: 2020-2021

Today, I am happy to share our interest-led homeschool curriculum choices for the upcoming homeschool year. 


This is one of my favorite posts of the year. 

I love reading other mom’s plans for their homeschool and seeing how they’ve crafted a curriculum plan for their family. It’s a privilege to share mine. 

There’s something about it that makes me feel hopeful. It’s like a fresh start. 

It’s the same way I felt on the first day of school when I was a child.

Anything’s possible.

interest-led homeschool curriculum choices

If you have been following along the past few weeks, you know that this year, my approach to back to school planning has been very different.

In fact, this type of curriculum share post is usually something I do no later than the end of July.

I am happy to say that I finally have a bit of a game plan in place for our new school year (and just in time – our scheduled first day of school is in less than two weeks).

interest-led homeschool curriculum choices

As always, I want to stress that while I am sharing our curriculum choices for the year, I want you to know that we will not do all the exercises within them. We may abandon them mid-way through and move on to something else.

Most importantly, I want you to know that the curriculum choices below are not the main driver of what and how we learn in our homeschool. 

Let me explain.

I have found that the very best way my children learn is through strength based, interest-led learning. Typically, they do best with hands-on, interactive and video based learning with a ton of audio books and maps.

This means our primary “curriculum choices” do not look like curriculum at all. 

interest-led homeschool curriculum choices

Our Interest-Led Learning Resources For 2020-2021

Here are the resources I consider invaluable and plan to use as a part of our daily learning:

YouTube – Mark Rober, Mythbusters, Geography Now, and Oversimplified

Audible – every single car ride involved listening to an audio book

The world map on our dining room wall

Current events discussions each day

Library trips and Barnes and Noble gift cards from family

Cooking

Allowing the boys to order things online, themselves, to understand how it works and see a budget in action

Watching documentaries together at night

Guitar Lessons

 

While these are not standard curriculum choices, ten years in, I know that most of what my children learn this year will come from these resources. 

We use actual curriculum almost as a supplement, and a way to keep a little bit of structure and routine in our learning.

interest-led homeschool curriculum choices

Our Interest-Led Homeschool Curriculum Choices: 2020-2021

This is what I have selected for each of my boys:

8th Grade:

Bookshark Science

CTC Math

Bardsy Writing (with accommodation)

Celebrate A Book

Beautiful Feet History

Learning Language Arts Through Literature

You Are An Artist

No Sweat Nature Studies

12th Grade:

Teaching Textbooks Math

Apologia and Oak Meadow Science – Advanced Biology/Anatomy and Physiology

Celebrate A Book

Classes at his hybrid private school – economics, government, language arts, life skills

Interest-Led Curriculum Choices

As I said above, we use these programs mostly as a supplement and a way to keep a little bit of structure and routine in our learning. 

They will not be the driving force in our learning, but they will be helpful tools in creating an overall plan that works for my children and their needs. 

Here’s to a wonderful school year, filled with love and learning for us all!


For More Curriculum Ideas, Resources and Support:

A Real Life Look At Curriculum For Children With Special Needs

Interest-Led Learning When Your Kids Have Totally Different Interests

Homeschooling High School: Our Interest-Led Curriculum

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3 Comments

  1. venetia greenhalgh says:

    You, and this column, are just the best. That is all.

    1. No, you are the best! Thank you for your kind words and encouragement. 🙂

  2. Hi Shawna,
    First I want to say that God knew who your boys needed as a parent and you’re amazing! Our adopted daughter is 23 now. I wish your blog had been around when she was 3! A friend told us we weren’t choosing a child to adopt, but God was choosing parents for that child. I was an NICU nurse and hubs was a music teacher.
    I really like your posts on explosive behavior. Hannah has Cerebral Palsy, IDD, a seizure disorder and is on the spectrum. I know for us, getting an ABA on board via our school district, seeing a counselor with experience with kids with explosive behavior really helped. Also, once she got on Abilify, her outbursts went from 3-4 times a day to 1-2 times a week and lessened in intensity. I think you are blessing other parents greatly with everything you are doing!

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