October Study Guide Update: 2020

Here is a look at what I have planned for our family learning-wise this month — my Study Guide for October 2020. I plan like this for my future self. Taking the effort to plan things out is a huge time and sanity saver. Even if we don’t get to “all the things” we sure have a great list of inspiration to work from. And if you’re like me, I love getting new homeschool curriculum ideas.

For reference, both my kids are roughly at a first and third grade level. Many of the resources I’ve linked to reflect that. This post contains affiliate links. Things I have linked to, our family has purchased and use all the time.

How do I come up with these lists? I take into account:

• age and grade levels
• the season
• what we’ve done before this time of year (and loved)
• what everyone is into currently
• what the kids want to learn
• what is outlined in our curriculum
• what I’m interested in
• what I find on social (follow me on Pinterest and Facebook for real time updates of my finds)
• requirements of subject areas from WA state home school law (read more here)

How do I structure our week?

This is a general overview of how I structure our typical home school week. Note: we start every day with calendar work (and sometimes time with a general workbook) but then we launch into these subjects.

• Monday: Music, Movement, Social Emotional, ASL
• Tuesday: Language Arts, Social Studies, Health
• Wednesday: Math, Science, Social Emotional
• Thursday: Language Arts, Social Studies, Health continued
• Friday: Math and Science continued

How do I structure our day?

This is a general outline of how I loosely structure our days. It varies depending on work schedules, commitments, emergencies, etc.

• quiet time
• breakfast
• morning work
• free play
• lunch
• quiet time
• afternoon lessons
• free play, crafts, outside time
• dinner
• family time
• prep for next day
• rest

Fun things about October

Fun fact! This month has two full moons (October 1 and 31). More moon facts.

Check out my October Family Fun Inspiration post.

October 31 is Halloween.

What curriculum(s) are we using for each subject?

Over the years, we have used a lot of different learning tools. Currently, our kids are around first to third grade. Many of the resources I’ve linked to will reflect that.

General Curriculum

We purchased Oak Meadow a few years ago and have three years worth of curriculum. It covers everything: art, health, science, math, language arts, music, science and more. It’s secular and Waldorf-inspired. We like it because it’s an all-in-one option for us and it was really helpful in the beginning. Since, our first foray into homeschooling, we have found other complimentary tools that work for us.

Language arts

I purchased the Dart program from Bravewriter for the year. Every month, we will read a different novel targeted for the 8-10 range. We will discuss the book and do select copy work passages.

We like read-alouds (short stories, poems and chapter books) for Poetry Tea Time. If you’re new to the idea of “Poetry Tea Time” – it is AMAZING. Want an excuse to light candles, bake brownies and snuggle up with a cup of tea? Look no further.

Other than Oak Meadow and one of our favorite podcasts from WBUR, “Circle Round,” we are in our second month of Dart from Bravewriter.

This month, we’re reading “Finn Family Moomintroll” by Tove Jansson. At the end of the month, we are planning on participating in a virtual book club with other families also reading the novel.

We’re continuing our study of cursive this month. I found this book on Amazon and copy pages for easy writing practice. 

I also found this Cursive Writing Bulletin Board set to put up on our wall to help with memorizing what cursive letters look like.

Music

Our family has always promoted a general appreciation for music. We play guitar, flute and piano as well as all kinds of music from our collection. We started with the recorder in Oak Meadow and have started to dabble more with playing by ear on the keyboard and music theory principles from Education.com.

Movement

Ballet is our choice for studying dance this year. We are participating in online classes with a local dance studio.

Besides hiking and getting loads of physical activity daily, we also like Go Noodle.

I found these cool yoga ball chairs for the kids. I think they will help with the wiggles.

Arts and crafts

Our “art studio” is packed with all kind of arts supplies. That’s another blog post. A lot of what we study here is based on what the kids are into and what the seasons dictate.

Social emotional

While not a subject requirement for the state of Washington, SEL or social emotional learning is a very important topic we cover. We write in gratitude journals almost daily and work on our empathy skills on a consistent basis. It takes effort but I truly feel like it makes a difference.

Fred Rogers’ teachings has been a huge influence in my life and his work has inspired a lot of our social emotional learning.

Video: Arthur on Racism: Talk, Listen, and Act

Social studies

Other than Oak Meadow, every day we refer to our monthly printable calendar (we also track weather patterns with it.)

New: The Molly of Denali Podcast

Health

I am taking the structure of Oak Meadow’s resources with my own spin and we’re covering: challenges, decision making, public safety and emergency situations. We’re aiming to cover this twice a week.

Science

My youngest loves science. I’m continually looking for new classes and projects to engage his interests. To keep things lively on the weekends, we’ll most likely do a Kiwi Crate box and or science experiments from the Magic School Bus Chemistry Lab.

We are also starting up our Exploring Nature with Children curriculum again. In the coming weeks we’ll learn about Autumn Leaves, Autumn Pond and Tree Study and Pumpkins.

My youngest also recently rediscovered an old PBS KIDS show called “Design Squad“. The premise of the show was to inspire and engage kids in engineering principles. While there aren’t many episodes, we’re planning on watching the ones they have and possibly doing a deeper dive with some of the curriculum we found on their website.

NEW: Let’s Graph Our Fall Favorite Leaves (Education.com)

NEW: How Pumpkins Grow (Education.com)

NEW: Pumpkin Math and Science (Education.com)

NEW: Halloween Hundreds Chart Race (Education.com)

Math

Update: not much has changed here.

The kids love math and get a lot of practice in their workbooks. For a focused study, we’re aiming for twice a week. Multiplication is getting easier which means more fun quizzing each other at random times of the day.

We still love:

• Prodigy is an adventure-based math learning platform.
• Bedtime Math has been a fun way to teach practical applications and story problems. Each story ends with several math questions geared toward different age groups. They have an app, as well.
• LEGO challenge cards
• Math dice game – practice number combinations
• Moose Math – basic operations practice

Other things:

We love learning about American Sign Language. Our favorite tool currently is this simple deck of learning cards.

For more family fun inspiration, check out my October list.

Download my free traceable calendar (plus a grid to chart the weather) for the month of October.