A Year by Year Plan
Many families are writing to ask which resources they should use for each grade. We believe in family-centered homeschooling, choosing as few resources as possible, and combining grades so that we can savor homeschooling instead of stressing over it. We want you to have plenty of time to read aloud to your children, bake together, and take a nature walk, without feeling like you are falling behind.
“I think this was wise; the greatest service we can do to education today is to teach few subjects. No one has time to do more than a very few things well before he is twenty, and when we force a boy into mediocrity in a dozen subjects we destroy his standards, perhaps for life.” ~ C.S Lewis
Preschool and Kindergarten
If you have children four or under who don’t know their letters, use The Peaceful Preschool. With the Peaceful Preschool we help you create gentle daily rhythms of reading, counting, and motor skills so that in the busy days of mothering young children you are still helping your preschoolers with important development.
If you have children five and under who know their letters, choose Nourishing Nature Kindergarten. It includes phonics, math, art, motor skills, a checklist of first grade skills, and a handwriting guide. It's a perfect, gentle introduction to formal school while still helping with the important development necessary for reading and writing.
Elementary Students
If you have children who are six years old and above who know their letters and have well-developed motor skills, use The Playful Pioneers as your first year with The Peaceful Press. It's a lovely introduction to American history and literature based learning.
You will also add a math and phonics program for your students. We recommend Right Start Math and All About Reading. Our resources include lots of literature, copywork, and poetry so you don't need a full language arts curriculum.
Just focus on one or two extra skills each year, such as reading, spelling, and grammar instead of loading up on all of them at once. Busy parents could also add an Explode The Code or Easy Grammar workbook so your child has some work they can do while you are working with another student.
Starting The Peaceful Press in the Elementary Years
If you have children between ages 6 and 12, we recommend looping through The Playful Pioneers, The Kind Kingdom (European History), and The Precious People (World History) in that order. These Charlotte Mason inspired resources include poetry, art, practical skills, handwork, history, science, geography and more!
If you are part of a homeschool community that is doing history in a different order, or if your children are intrigued by a different time period, you can start anywhere. We are currently finishing a Volume 2 of The Kind Kingdom for families who have already done the first three cycles, and will eventually have 6 elementary resources to choose from.
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What Else Do I Need?
With children in grades 1-3, we add phonics and spelling (the elementary resources include writing and notebooking or narration prompts so you don’t need added writing). We recommend All About Reading and Explode the Code.
With children in grades 4-6, you could add grammar and writing. We love Fix-It Grammar and History-Based Writing Lessons.
For all elementary ages, you will add a math resource. We have found Right Start Math to be the most comprehensive and concrete, but many families have used Math U See and love it.
What About After Elementary School?
Once you’ve gotten through the elementary school years and developed a love of learning with your child, there are a million beautiful choices for the junior high and high school years. We have kept our junior high students learning with our Peaceful Press resources, simply adding in extra reading and writing. Later, we create a course of study based on what our older child is interested in, and what their educational goals are.
We have loved resources from James Stobaugh, Apologia Science, Teaching Textbooks, Khan Academy, and have heard great things about the Classical Conversations Challenge Program, Veritas Press, and Ambleside Online. We also recommend finding co-op classes or tutors in the junior high and high school years for subjects such as lab science or foreign languages.
Click to read more about our recommendations for older students
Do you have more questions about homeschooling with The Peaceful Press? Our course The Peaceful Path to a Living Education is a wonderful resource for gaining confidence in literature based learning, but we also love hearing from you! We understand how overwhelming it can be to make curriculum choices and we want to make it easy for you.
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