Something beautiful about homeschooling is how it is tailored to fit just right for every kid. This turns your living room into a classroom that grows with your kids, where curiosity reigns supreme and lessons unfold naturally through exploration.
Child-led homeschool learning will empower your kids to explore their natural curiosity, allowing them to take the reins of their educational journey. By including things that your kids love, it will help encourage better learning!
We asked our vibrant community of homeschool parents how they customize their curriculum to their child's interests and what they do to keep the kids engaged with their learning. They have shared some amazing tips and tricks that you are going to love! Here are a couple of our favorites (though spoiler, we loved them all)!
Themed Morning Time
"I do themed morning time. Right now my daughter is super into wolves, so each morning this week she has woken up to a note explaining what we’ll work on that day along with themed books, artwork, crafts, and activities all about wolves. We used banangrams to spell important vocab for the subject and talk about them, and our copy work is often themed too (maybe using a poem or line from a book).
When possible we incorporate a trip to a related spot - for this theme, I’m working on a tour to a local wolf sanctuary." ~ Whitley Baxter
Make A Math Game
"I created a number line out of Lego and my son could move the minifigure up and down the line to learn addition and subtraction. We use Pokémon figures as math counters and made our own board game with boss battles to learn math skills too.
My son illustrated the monsters in the game and came up with the rules. He doesn’t realize I’m taking the workbook math problems and incorporating them into the games we make up." ~ Kim Petty
Learn From Life
"My kids learn so much from life and their interests. (They're googling if squirrels can gl.) After all our explorations and interests, we don't have time for curriculum." ~ Ashley Wright
Creativity Hour
"We started doing creative hour and they have really expanded their interests that way! I put no limit on them during that time EXCEPT they cannot play video games. They can make video games though." ~ Stephanie Box
Nature unshooling
"Our unschool is student led and nature based. We move with my sons in whatever direction they take us. One day, they made Venn diagrams about pigeons. Another day, it was creating their own island which includes biomes, plants, animals, people, food sources and more. That project has been still going for over 6 months.
We also use our community and field trips for inspiration. We have a bird sanctuary in our yard, a sensory area, a native seed library and are preparing our hydroponic garden. We share our resources with the community and sponsor events. My children are thriving!" ~ Danielle R Ward-Hynes
Homeschooling & Superheroes
"My son really likes superhero’s so for art I got him a book of how to draw his favorite superhero…he loves “ pizza taco” books so for his writing I had him write and create his own comic book series. It’s fun to be creative with him" ~ Alisha Rogers Derksen
Themed Days
"We have special theme days. For example, my daughter wanted to learn more about penguins so we bored penguin books from the library, made penguin crafts, penguin snacks, watched March of the Penguins and visited our local aquarium!
We've done this for all sorts of special interests! Space, tractors, animals, careers, etc! I'll usually plan for 1-2 theme days a month." ~ Natalie Pinkston - Johnson
Get Their Input
"Start by asking them what they want to learn about and pay attention to what they do in their free time. Each year I ask my kids what they want to learn about. I choose the curriculum but follow their lead and where interests are. My son is interested in welding so I will look for a class for him.
My daughter loves writing her creates books on Shutterfly so I found a writing curriculum where she will create a magazine throughout the school year. When I find curriculum I like I show them to get their input. I want them to enjoy it too." ~ Melissa Campbell Lopez
Night Time Learning
"Tell them it's time for bed, but if they get ready for bed before x time, we can read from a book for 15 minutes. These kids will do anything to avoid going to bed on time. And you know they'll ask a million questions to prolong their bedtime." ~ Jenna Edwards
