Inside: Sharing our unschooling ideas for the upcoming school year – unschooling five kids in 9th, 7th, 5th, 3rd, and Kindergarten. Read on for resources, thoughts and tentative plans as we enter our tenth year of homeschooling.
Every summer, I take some time to sit down and think about the upcoming “school year”.
I know, I know, “school year” doesn’t sound very unschooly, but it is our school year according to the state of Pennsylvania.
Every year, I turn in documents mid-June in order for us to continue homeschooling. So it seems only fitting that I use the last half of June to think about and share with you what we will likely be up to this year.
These are plans I hold very loosely. They are based on what my children’s interests are currently, and what they keep coming back to over and over again.
Will they change mid-year? Probably! Is there room for new interests to emerge? Absolutely!
With that in mind, here are our current “plans” for the upcoming school year, ideas I have and things we want to try.
Read Last Year’s Unschooling Ideas: Unschooling Plans & Resources – 8th, 6th, 4th, 1st, and K
Unschooling Plans and Ideas for 2024-2025: 9th, 7th, 5th, 3rd, and Kindergarten
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This year in particular, I started to feel the itch for something to change in our homeschool lives.
As my oldest three kiddos are moving into the teen and tween years, I’m realizing there is not the same dynamic in our home that there was five years ago.
The youngest two have widely different interests, and they play together far less than my oldest three did at this same stage. It’s definitely not the same as when my oldest three were young.
Most of my kids prefer to learn from video content these days, instead of reading books like Story of the World or Life of Fred together. We still play board games sometimes, more so in the winter, but far less than we used to.
Also one of my kids started struggling with mental health this year, and supporting and advocating for that child has taken a lot of my mental and physical energy as we try to figure out what they need.
So I knew that something needed to be different this year in order for everyone to thrive, including me, we needed to try something new.
The main new thing is…
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1. Inclusive Secular Co-op
Last year, I heard about a new inclusive, secular co-op that is only a 35 minute drive from our house.
(In the land of the rural, that is called “nearby” or “not bad”. For real.)
The co-op meets once a week September through April. Classes are 45 minutes long, and most of them cost around $150 each for the year.
Three of my kids want to participate. I showed them the class list, and they chose the ones that interested them (3 classes each).
Some classes they are taking…
- Physics
- Baking
- Comic Book Making
- STEM Experiments
- Theatre
Why this co-op?
While we do have a wonderful local park meet-up that meets mostly weekly, as my kids get into the teen years, they are looking for more friends who share their interests and values. This seems like a place they can potentially find them.
Also, my youngest keeps asking about school, so this is our last ditch effort to “scratch the school itch”. If it isn’t enough, she will likely try first grade the following year.
It will be a long day – 10am to 4:30pm – but I hope it will be worth it. We won’t know if we don’t try!
2. Foreign Languages
If you read my post last year, you know about our disappointment over Duolingo’s demise.
Having used it with my 8-year-old to learn Dutch last year, there are only so many times you can be asked to say, “I am an apple,” in another language before you start to question its quality.
In my opinion, it’s an AI hot garbage mess over there. The only upside was that I’m pretty sure it helped my 8-year-old learn to read.
We did try Talkbox.mom last year. While I was impressed with the program itself, it was VERY hands-on from the parent, and I just didn’t have it in me to drive it forward last year.
This year, my oldest asked to try Babbel, and so far, she’s loving it! It has everything Duolingo used to offer, and it’s so much better.
We bought a year-long subscription, which includes one account with access to twelve languages.
My 14-year-old will be working on French, and my 10-year-old has expressed a desire to try Danish and/or Dutch.
3. Science
A few of my kids have a strong interest in science, primarily Snap Circuits and hands-on Science experiments, although my 12-year-old is taking physics at the co-op this year.
We have almost every Snap Circuit kit, except THIS one, which I want to buy this year.
My 10-year-old has asked to progress to Arduino, so we will invest in that this year as well.
We bought THIS science experiment kit a couple Christmases ago, and it sat around unused. I asked my 8-year-old if he wanted to work through it with me and he said yes.
We also bought a Paint Lady caterpillar kit from our local Butterfly museum and are currently waiting for them to emerge from their chrysalises!
Finally, my youngest still loves SciShow Kids, and my 10-year-old recently introduced me to a Youtube channel called Nile Red, where a chemist transforms things like cotton balls into cotton candy. It’s pretty fascinating!
Related: Unschooling Science – 8 Easy Ways to Nuture Natural Curiosity
4. Read-Alouds
We do still read-aloud, if less frequently with my 14-year-old and 10-year-old. It takes us much longer to get through a book these days.
(I read aloud to my youngest two daily as part of their bedtime routine.)
After discussing with my older two, we plan to read:
- Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
- The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
- The Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger
- The Legend of Greg by Chris Rylander (a book we didn’t get to last year)
- Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan
Many of these are the first or second book of a series. If they like these, we will continue with the series.
With my 8-year-old, we recently finished The Land of Stories series by Chris Colfer, which he loved, and we are going to read The Tale of Magic prequel series this year. We’re also reading Half Magic by Edward Eager.
With my youngest, I’m currently reading the Henry Huggins series by Beverly Clearly and The Kingdom of Wrenly series by Jordan Quinn.
Sometimes you need to be willing to try a few different books and stop after a few pages or a chapter before finding the right book for the right kid. Keep trying!
5. Sports
I’ve heard some homeschool parents complain that sports are too often the go-to source of socialization and community for homeschooled kids. What about art or computers or puzzling or just about anything else?
While I do agree that sports are far from the end all be all, they have been a huge blessing for our family!
The soccer fields are two minutes away from our house. Local sports are a cheap, low-key activity where someone else is facilitating movement and socialization and mentoring for my kids.
Two of my kids play soccer right now, and my 12-year-old loves to volunteer in the snack shed on game days (great customer service experience!).
Two kids also want to try wrestling this year. Their dad did wrestling in high school, so he’s enthusiastic about spearheading this activity, which is another huge win for me.
6. Cooking & Baking
Everyone enjoys cooking and baking in different ways.
My oldest kids enjoy learning how to cook meals we make regularly and baking yummy treats like cheesecake (THIS recipe is so so good!) and blueberry pie.
My middle kids enjoy experimental baking, and they are starting to branch out into cooking and bread-making.
The youngest tags along for the ride whenever someone will let her join in and help.
7. Politics
For better or for worse, it’s an election year in the United States, so we will spend at least the first half of the year following some of the election coverage. As much as we can tolerate anyway.
We’ve already had some great discussions about how laws are made, how much the president actually impacts law-making and everyday life in our country, and whether or not you can be a politician and a good person.
We are also discussing how social media affects our feelings about politics. How the algorithm feeds us content designed to make us feel afraid and angry, so we keep on scrolling.
We will likely play Election Night at least once. We will also watch the presidential debate(s) and discuss/evaluate political ads (my 8-year-old can quote them to me!).
The challenge is to steer clear of negativity and anxiety about the potential election results.
8. Board Games
Last, but not least, board games are still a big part of our lives.
We bought several new board games and card games last year, the most popular of which was Organ Attack and Prime Climb.
Old favorites resurface like Scrabble and Clue. We mixed our Ecologies decks to make new ones, bringing new life to the game.
I’m considering getting Mastermind for Kids and Anxiety Attack this year.
Related: Our Favorite Educational Board Games – Updated Annually!
Individual Interests by Age/Grade Level
Here are more examples of individual interests by grade level.
This is by no means prescriptive. Every kid is different.
Ninth Grade
We are unschooling high school this year!
It felt intimidating at first, but I’m realizing it’s really not that different than unschooling the younger years. You just need to categorize the information differently/better in order to create a high school transcript.
I am planning to write an entire post dedicated to how we are approaching unschooling high school in Pennsylvania, a state that seems to have a lot of red tape but isn’t as scary as it seems.
My ninth grader still loves art. She also adores all things Taylor Swift. And she still loves a good jigsaw puzzle and New York Times word games.
We are planning to do a “books with movie adaptations” study together. We are also going to work on personal finance this year, including following her Acorns investments and our family budget.
She plans to volunteer at the library once a week reshelving books. (She tried this a few times, and it wasn’t for her.) She also spends a lot of time learning how to manage her energy and mental health (life skills/psychology).
We will categorize the rest of her learning throughout the year and create a transcript based on her activities and interests.
Related: Perfect Drawing Gifts for Sketch Artists – Ideas for Every Budget
Seventh Grade
My 12-year-old still loves all things astronomy and astrophysics, subjects that have fascinated him since he was 8-years-old when he watched every astronomy documentary Curiosity Stream had.
He is excited to take physics at the Co-op this year. He has talked about wanting to study Algebra 1 using Kahn Academy.
He still enjoys playing Minecraft and making videos for his Youtube channel. He knows far more about video recording and editing than I do!
Recently, he’s gotten into computer-building content. We are currently discussing his plans to build a computer and flip it.
He also enjoys cooking and baking. Basically anything hands on, he’s in.
Fifth Grade
Last year, we visited the National Air and Space museum, and my 10-year-old adored the planes section of the museum.
I thought it inspired a new interest in building planes, but now that I think of it, he’s always been interested in planes. When he was 5-years-old, he would build the most creative planes with our LEGO collection.
Now he builds them with cardboard and hot glue, testing different designs and throwing them off the back deck to see if they stay upright.
When he’s not building planes, he enjoys playing video games with puzzles (Zelda is a big deal in our house). Last year, he enjoyed using Game Builder Garage to build video games for his siblings, so we’ll see if he comes back to that.
He has talked about becoming an electrical engineer a lot in the past year. He loves Snap Circuits, especially building puzzles for his siblings to see which switches turn on the lights or motors.
This year, we plan to buy him an Arduino starter kit, which comes with 15 different projects.
Third Grade
My 8-year-old recently fell in love with making animations.
He started out using a paper animation kid, but it was so tedious and difficult to make it work with the finished product that we switched to the iPad.
He uses a free iPad app called Flip-a-Clip to create his animations. Highly recommend!
He also enjoys writing short stories. I type for him while he dictates. I am gently introducing key story elements as we go.
He also enjoys cooking and baking – experimental baking and regular baking.
Related: Unschooling Language Arts – A Guide for the Elementary Years
Kindergartener
My 5-year-old loves playing at the park, climbing, listening to chapter books, playing LEGO, asking for way too many free iPad games, playing video games and doing whatever her older siblings are doing.
She has been asking to learn how to read for a couple months now. We tried THIS curriculum that I used with my two of my kids, and she quickly rejected it.
We gave Reading Eggs a try, and so far, she is enjoying it! She asks me to do it with her, so every day or every other day, we sit down and do the activities together.
Is she really ready to read? Mayyyybe?
She is definitely less ready than my other kids were when they learned to read. Words don’t always stick in her memory, and sometimes it feels like she’s guessing.
But she is definitely eager, so we will keep at it until she asks to stop. Maybe she’s a “slow and steady wins the race” kind of reading learner.
Read Next: 7 Ideas for Unschooling Kindergarten (Have an Amazing Year Without School)
Do you have any unschooling ideas for the upcoming year? Share in the comments – I’d love to hear what your family is up to!
