Gather Round Homeschool Curriculum Review
This is a much requested blog post, so as we're about to start our second year with Gather Round Homeschool I figured it was about time to get this put together! This post is in NO WAY sponsored; I do not work with them, have purchased all materials myself for personal use, and am not getting paid to make this post -lol so let that serve as a weighty intro to this post because let me just say; bloggers don't usually give social media coverage for free!
So, you catching the hint yet that we're loving it? Here's why 👇🏻
Why we Love Gather Round Homeschool Curriculum
1) It fits our family during the season we're in.
Let's face it; motherhood ebbs and flows with your children's age and stages, but if you have young kids, it's pretty much crazy all the time 😅🤷🏻♀️ Since I have a lot of little in my home I knew I needed something that was flexible, fun, and dare I say easy for me as the mama/teacher to be able to facilitate? My brain constantly feels like it's being pulled in millions different directions, so being able to just sit down and do school without much prep or planning is huge win for me!
2) Little-to-no planning necessary.
Speaking of planning....Did I mention that the Gather Round Homeschool curriculum is open and go? Not only that but it includes all your main subjects except for math. I love that it artfully combines all the major subjects around one common theme! It makes learning feel very fluid and I feel like it causes all the subjects to cohesive. Rather than move from one subject to another ("now it's time for science, okay now we're doing geography") and having them all be unrelated and segmented it just flows.
3) Allows room for flexibility and fun!
One of my favorite things about the Gather Round Homeschool Curriculum is how it allows so much room for us to ad lib -or not! If something in the lesson sparks creativity we can roll with it, or we can just stick straight to the lesson plan. Depending on how much time we have to spend on school each day or what we're learning about there are endless possibilities to add to what we're learning.
4) The topics are constantly changing.
Because the Gather Round Homeschool Curriculum is a unit based approach I feel like it keeps things fun and fresh. We spend roughly a month on a topic and then we're on to the next one. I allow my kiddos to take turns choosing the new unit, so they also feel like they have partial ownership over what we're learning. Better yet, if the topic for a unit isn't our favorite *cough cough Antartica* we know we'll be done soon and be able to move on which makes it much easier to endure.
5) We are all learning together.
This 👆🏻 This right here friend was HUGE for me! The first year I decided to homeschool I really only had one child who I was working with; the rest of my kiddos could sit in if they wanted to, but were still pretty young to do much formal schooling. And I was spending hours, HOURS with just my 1st grader trying to get through the curriculum I chose for that year; it was miserable! We were both so burnt out by the end of the school year I wasn't sure if I could keep going; especially since the following year I would have a 2nd grader and kindergartner to teach. How the heck was I supposed to double the time we were already spending!?
Luckily I did my research and found Gather Round Homeschool! We are able to all sit down and learn together without having tons of individual work for each child.
Not to mention this allows all my children to have a common theme to talk about. I love hearing them randomly discussing things they learned in our lessons throughout that day!
6) Can be used over and over.
I think one of my favorite ideas of the Gather Round Homeschool curriculum is that if you purchase the digital packages, you can use them again and again. While I'm not ruling out considering other curriculums as my children get older, the thought that I can go back to these units and re-print them anytime I want is amazing! We had a couple from this year that we especially loved (Artists and Transportation) so if I wanted to we could do them every year or every year; whatever we want!
Closing Thoughts on Gather Round Homeschool;
If you're just diving into homeschool or are looking for more of a family-style approach to learning, I highly recommend you check out the Gather Round Homeschool Curriculum to see if it's right for you! They have a week of free material you can print out so you can get a feel for lessons before you purchase and have lots more info about how it works on their website.
They also have options to buy the material in hard copy (already printed) or digital (print yourself) like I mentioned above; so it's pretty flexible as far as ordering.
Oh, and here's my thought, if you're going to do it; go all in! I purchased Year 2 units last year and talked myself out of all the extras 🤪🙈 And I fully regret it! I wish I would have trusted my gut and went all-in! The extras -though not necessary- would have been really fun and I think they keep some of the coolest units as "mini units" lol
So there are my thoughts and that's my advice. Like I said previously this post is not sponsored in anyway and I'm writing it because people DM me on Instagram all. the. TIME! asking what my thoughts are; so, here they are! Take 'em or leave 'em 😉
Good luck on your homeschooling journey mama, I hope that you find the curriculum that fits you best and that you find joy in raising up your family!
Forever loving homeschool,
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