I’m guessing you had a similar experience in school. It makes a lot of sense, really. How else can you manage teaching that many students, that many subjects? It’s a very logical solution based on logistics though, not on how students learn best.

Learning doesn’t really fit into neat little boxes… and that is good news! When we stop seeing education this way, we can skyrocket our children’s learning while cutting back on how long they spend “doing school” each day.

All we have to do is tap into the power of connection.

This may surprise you, but the first time I heard about a more integrated, connected approach to learning was as a public school teacher. Several of us middle school educators were sent to a workshop about it. We bought the resources they wanted us to use and started working on implementing the ideas. And it didn’t work. It wasn’t long before we were back to doing things the way we always had. Why? We just weren’t set up in a way to make it successful.

But your home is the perfect place for this type of learning.

Let’s explore a couple types of connection—curriculum and content—and consider the implications each will have on how you homeschool your children.

Curriculum: Too Much

We use the term curriculum to refer to everything from a particular subject to a textbook or resource, but technically it’s defined as the subjects comprising a course of study in a (home)school or college. (Yep, I added home to that!)

Here’s the problem: we often try to cover too many subjects each day and each year. We “over-curriculumize” our kids because we’re so worried they will be behind or not prepared or their grandparents will set up a scavenger hunt where they have to answer school-type questions in order to find their Christmas presents (true story) or…

But here’s the crazy, upside-down truth about how kids learn. When we do more, they often learn less. How often do our kids get overwhelmed—and shut down—simply because they are trying to study all the subjects all the time?

You’ve probably experienced this yourself. Personally, I have an optimal number of things I can juggle before I start dropping balls all over the place. That old saying “dropping the ball” for me usually comes in the form of completely forgetting about something I do on a regular basis. (Just ask Ashley, my patient and kind and forgiving co-executive editor. 😬)

Content: Too Random

Add to the fact that we’re trying to study too many subjects at once. Those subjects are also often unrelated, too random—at least in the way we present them to our children.

Consider the study of language arts. You might have a grammar program, a spelling workbook, a writing curriculum, and vocabulary exercises. Growing up, I definitely did! And guess what? I often didn’t make the connections between all of that and my actual communication.

Then, we were assigned reading and writing in language arts classes and separate reading and writing in history. Science, math, geography… everything was taught in isolation from the others. But education shouldn’t be treated as a big game of trivial pursuit! We want to help our students make connections, which is crucial in developing critical thinking skills.

What About Gaps?

But wait! If we do less curriculum and don’t do all the subjects each day, won’t our kids have gaps? (I mean seriously, that’s what we’ve really been afraid of in the first place!)

No matter where they go to school, no matter how much they study, they will never know all the things. It’s just not possible. But don’t let that scare you… We have this thing called Google now, so finding information isn’t the problem. There are so many incredible resources available online, at the library, through community centers, and more. The problem isn’t a lack of information today or resources to learn anything we want. It may even be the opposite: we have too much information bombarding us at times.

So instead of trying to do more curriculum and cover more content, we need to focus on the most profitable pursuits to equip our children for whatever God calls them to do: encouraging their curiosity, teaching them to think critically—helping them learn how to learn.

As you consider the following strategies for doing less, keep in mind that cultivating a love of learning is key to long-term success, not trying to do it all.

Strategies for the Natural Learning Home

So how can we find freedom by doing less? How can we optimize the time we spend “doing school”?

1. Remember that education happens all the time. Young children learn so much through play and real-life experiences. And that doesn’t end as they get older; it just looks a little different. A home filled with books, games, art and craft supplies, and music, a home where children can ask questions and you explore the answers together—that is a home where learning will happen naturally.

Leave room in your family’s schedule—do less—so your children have plenty of time to think, dream, and imagine.

2. Teach them how to learn. There are many ways to do this, but here are some of my favorites:

• Encourage their curiosity.
• Help them identify their learning styles or preferences.
• Show them how to responsibly access information.
• Find the many resources available together.
• Cultivate an “I CAN” mentality.
• Explore passions and interests.
• Teach them strategies for problem-solving.

3. Identify key skills lifelong learners need and be sure to emphasize them in a variety of ways. The ability to communicate clearly, engage in critical thinking, and develop discernment and wisdom are incredibly important skills that grow over time.

4. Decide what your priorities are each semester. Set priorities according to ages, developmental stages, individual needs, and interests. You truly cannot do it all—yes, I’ve said that more than once!—so choose depth over breadth. Focus on a few things at a time. Ask yourself, “What do my children need right now?” Too often we treat education as a sprint instead of the marathon it really is.

5. Think outside of the box. You chose to homeschool because you wanted something different for your kids, so why try to do it the same way as public schools or even your homeschool friends? Here are some ways to get out of a traditional mindset and open up to so many other possibilities.

• When it’s logical, combine subjects. There are two different types of subjects: skill and knowledge. Okay, so it’s not quite that simple, but in broad strokes we can consider language arts and math to be skill-type subjects—the skills you learn in them are used in a variety of other subjects. History, science, geography are knowledge subjects.
  
  Skill subjects can sometimes be combined with knowledge ones. For example, instead of reading one book for language arts and writing a paper about it, then turning around and assigning another book to read and write about in history—you can make a language arts writing assignment based on what students are already reading in history. Or give your children a historical novel to go along with their history studies.

  On the days your science class is filled with mathematical equations, you can skip doing math as a separate subject! When they are doing a lab for science, there’s no need to write a how-to paper in language arts. You get the idea!

  Doing this is actually critical to understanding that it’s all connected. “Why do I have to learn this?” is answered, naturally.

• Be a blockhead like Charlie Brown. Lucy may have meant that as an insult, but you can give the term new life. Blocking is a concept of grouping similar tasks in order to be more focused and productive. When it comes to homeschool, blocking can take many forms.You can block subjects together that have a lot in common. Language arts with history, math with science, music and art.
  
  Instead of doing all of the “classes” each day, you might work on some subjects one day and others the next. Or, you might study some subjects each day, while others just two or three days a week.

  Just think in terms of what goes together and how often your family really needs to cover subjects based on your kids’ ages, needs, and interests.

• Try a done-in-a-day approach. Do you have experiments you’ve been skipping in science? Have you neglected art or music? Then choose a day each month and get what you’ve wanted to do, done in a day! And remember, this doesn’t have to be “class work.” Go to the symphony, visit an art museum, or explore a science museum. There are so many ways to learn.

6. Take advantage of thematic learning. Thematic learning is exactly what it sounds like: learning around a particular topic or theme. Doing so helps your children make connections so much easier.

You can definitely create your own curriculum around a theme or topic. A great place to start is to ask your kids what they are interested in, then grab your library card and start digging into the topic. Think in terms of how you can integrate your language arts, history, science, and more with the topic.

If you are too busy to do that or don’t enjoy putting your own things together, there are some incredible homeschool resources out there. We loved the Trail Guide to Learning series as it looked at American history through the threads of exploration, settlement, and progress. Our journey took three years, and it was such a great learning experience for us all!

Unit studies are also a great option. With unit studies, your children can dig into the topics that interest them most—and being interested in something is a great motivator to learn. Consider trying one of the studies at UnitStudy.com if you’ve never tried one before. These are one to four week studies, so it’s easy to work some into your regular curriculum.