Today I want to discuss ways you can make our eclectic, family-style curriculum, The Simplified Feast, work for your homeschool family.
What is The Simplified Feast homeschool curriculum?
The Simplified Feast is a curriculum created by Cherelle German of Embracing Homeschool (hey, that’s me!), and it’s a 6-week enriching + eclectic family-style homeschool curriculum that spreads an abundant feast of education, simply!
The Simplified Feast curriculum redefines the way you approach education, offering a diverse range of subjects and activities that will ignite your children’s curiosity and love for learning.
The studies are geared towards grades kindergarten through eighth grade, making this a wonderful family-style curriculum to use with almost all of your children.
Each week runs on a 4-day school week, with 8 learning blocks each day to complete.
When following the schedule as-is inside The Simplified Feast, you will be able to get all of your day’s homeschool studies completed within a 3-hour school day.
And let all the homeschool mamas say, “Woohoo!”.
Now today, I wanted to dive a bit deeper into some frequently asked questions about The Simplified Feast and give you ways and ideas to make this eclectic, Charlotte Mason-inspired curriculum work for your family when you may need to make some tweaks. Let’s go!
How flexible is the schedule? Will I feel behind if I miss a day?
Because of the simple and diverse layout of this curriculum, you can easily choose what time of day to start school and even what days to homeschool. With The Simplified Feast, you are NOT assigned to homeschool days of the week, and you will NOT find days of the week listed on the weekly schedule or daily lesson plans. I believe that it is solely up to you as the homeschool mom to decide which days you’d like to do your studies, and because of this, I have created a schedule that is super flexible for all homeschool families. With that being said, when the kids get sick, or you go on vacation or miss a day, you won’t feel behind because the daily lessons are not set to a specific day of the week. Simply just pick back up where you left off the next time you homeschool.
You can adapt The Simplified Feast curriculum to fit your family’s schedule, allowing for flexibility in daily routines, and adapt learning times based on your children’s optimal learning hours.
I have multiple kids, and homeschooling can get stressful. How does The Simplified Feast aim to solve this issue?
When I created The Simplified Feast, I knew I wanted a curriculum that was family-style, so I personally could homeschool all three children at the same time. (At the time of The Simplified Feast’s original creation, my children were ages 7, 10, and 12.)
Jumping from curriculum to curriculum, topic to topic, depending on the ages of my kids was stressful and not practical for a busy mama like me. I truly needed something simplified.
This is why, inside The Simplified Feast, you’ll be able to teach your children, grades K-8, all together, without having to bounce around to multiple things per child.
If you have one child or multiple children of varying ages, you’ll find that The Simplified Feast is a breath of fresh air when it comes to homeschooling.
With The Simplified Feast, you will be able to embrace a family-style approach to homeschooling by involving multiple age groups in joint learning activities. Not only is this practical for busy homeschool moms, but it also encourages older siblings to help younger ones, challenges younger ones to stretch themselves, and fosters a sense of community and shared learning within your family.
Is Nature Study included, because I feel a bit lost on how to do Nature Study?
So many Charlotte Mason-inspired homeschool moms want to embrace nature study in their homeschools but feel a little lost on how to get started or implement. Inside The Simplified Feast, you will have a weekly nature study activity to complete; however, you can always feel free to substitute the assigned nature study activity for one of your choice.
Take advantage of nature-based learning opportunities by incorporating outdoor activities, nature walks, and exploration inside the curriculum to align with Charlotte Mason’s emphasis on nature study. However, you can always use the nature study block to do any nature study activities you would like to add yourself if you have something else in mind.
Some of my kids love arts and crafts, and some don’t. What should I do?
The Simplified Feast includes handicrafts and art blocks inside the simple weekly schedule, but I realize that some children may not love doing this sort of thing. If you happen to have a child who hates doing art projects, simply use these time blocks to allow your children to do another interest of theirs. Music, woodworking, independent reading… the possibilities are endless, really, since these blocks are the last blocks of the day.
I do, however, always encourage moms to have their children try a few art activities before completely swapping them out for something else. But if you do have a child who absolutely loathes anything artistic, give them something else to occupy that time block that brings them more joy.
The Simplified Feast integrates art and handicrafts into the curriculum to help foster creativity through hands-on activities. However, if you have children who aren’t interested in the arts, you can swap out this work block for something else that interests your child, such as another art form, music lessons, or independent reading.
My children all learn differently. One child is very visual, the other is an auditory learner. Does The Simplified Feast cater to a variety of learning styles?
YES! Being a mom myself, I know firsthand how all of our children can learn differently, and this is why you’ll find many different approaches to learning inside The Simplified Feast.
One day you may be listening to a podcast or audiobook for the history lesson, another day, you may be watching a short video or slideshow, and another, they may be researching themselves.
One of the core values of The Simplified Feast was to cater to many different learning styles, keeping things very eclectic and diverse for all the different learners out there.
What if I want to do the subject blocks in a different order?
When I created the weekly schedule for The Simplified Feast, I did a lot of planning and research to make sure that our kids wouldn’t be using the same parts of their brains back to back. For instance, I didn’t group a writing block alongside another writing block. This would tire our children out.
However, I do realize you may have ideas on ways to bounce the subjects around to best suit your family’s needs.
With that being said, feel free to bounce subjects around as you see fit for your family. However, just remember that I strategically placed the subjects in their places for specific reasons. It was important for me to make sure that your kids weren’t using the same parts of their brains back to back, as this can cause fatigue and loss of interest.
I have some kids still learning to read, when should I fit this in on the weekly schedule?
What I do is I take the writing block (Block 2) to help my youngest with her phonics. So, while my older ones are doing the writing assignments, I’ll sit with my youngest and do her phonics with her.
What about spelling?
Again, such as above, feel free to fit it in during that Block 2 time block. Once your kiddos finish their copywork or writing assignment, have them complete some of their spelling words from whatever spelling curriculum you choose.
Closing thoughts
Remember, mama, The Simplified Feast curriculum is a simplified framework. Feel free to adapt and modify it to suit your family’s unique needs and preferences. At the end of the day, the main goal of bringing The Simplified Feast to your homes and homeschools is that I want you to embrace the joy of learning together as a family in a way that aligns with eclectic, Charlotte Mason-inspired principles of simplicity and abundance. Just have fun with it!
