When I was young my mom read aloud the Little House on the Prairie series to me at bedtime . Later I graduated to the Anne of Green Gables series and my mom and I read every book in the series. I was fascinated with the one-room school houses. I played school with my unwilling, but eager-to-please, younger brothers. As an adult that fascination is still with me. I read Understood Betsy a few months ago and was lapping up the ideas being served in that book — how children moved up in grades depending on their level of that subject and weren’t doomed to stay in the same grade based solely on their age.

As I’ve learned about one-room school houses and how they worked I’ve discovered that there are two types of subjects: content-based and skill-based.

Content-based Subjects

Content-based subjects can be studied as a family. Subjects like history, literature, nature study, art, music, and Shakespeare. Your fourth grader won’t be studying state history while your 7th grader is studying ancient history. As a family you can study the same time period and events, while each person is diving as deep into that topic as they are developmentally capable. You don’t need a foundational knowledge or skills to follow the story of the Revolutionary War, or to appreciate the beauty of Frederic Church’s paintings. These subjects are based on truth, beauty, and goodness. And every person, no matter how small, can learn from well-written books and contribute to a discussion. 

We do these subjects first thing in the morning as a family before we do skill-based subjects, which I’ll talk about next week. If you printed off my weekly schedule during Week Four you can reference it while I talk about each subject. In this video I’ll go over each subject briefly and how I use the three teaching tools to teach them. I’ll also share some tips for picking curriculum as well as my recommendations. I’ve actually made in-depth videos and blogposts for each of these subjects, so if you want more details you can watch those (see links at end of post).

And If you haven’t watched Week Five videos you need to do that before continuing with this one. I’m going to reference the three teaching tools and how I use them, so you’ll need some background knowledge on those to understand what I’m talking about.

Family Gather

Instead of doing a one on one lesson for each subject with each child (which would take all day and burn me out after a week!) we study the same topics for content-based  subjects. Each child reads his own book based on his level. Then we come together once a week to discuss and have a lesson together. Each child may study history for his individual learning time, but we come together as a family to narrate and discuss what we’ve learned, ask questions, and enjoy learning from each other. Here’s how I use the basic teaching tools in our family lessons:

Retrieval

A lesson in scriptures, history, nature study, geography, and literature consists of retrieving past knowledge, from their readings last week and from past weeks and even terms. I like to keep small pieces of paper with “captain ideas” or “big questions” on them in a basket.  Each lesson we pull one or two of these papers out and retrieve what we know about that topic or question. In the book Powerful Teaching this is called a BBQ (Big Basket of Questions).

Interleaving

We study paintings of one artist each term. Since learning about interleaving I’ve creates a game of taking the paintings of the three artists from the year and asking my boys which artist painted the painting. If they don’t get it right I tell them the correct answer and move to the next one. After doing it a few times they start to get a feel for the style of each artist from that genre. 

You can do the same thing with composer study. Show 30 second or longer clips of songs they’ve listened to over the year and see if they can correctly match the composer.  

I do something similar with nature study — show them pictures of birds or listen to their calls/sounds, ask them to sort tree leaves, flowers, etc. based on similarities. 

Questions/Generation

One simple way to nurture creativity and ignite curiosity is to ask questions. There’s a few ways you can do this:

The first is the simplest – at your family lesson ask your kids to tell you two questions they had while reading. “What do you wonder?” is a good prompt. 

Second, is the Question Formulation Technique from the Right Question Institute. The basic idea is this: Give students a question focus – a word or short sentence, a picture, or a sound then ask them to generate as many questions as they can. Write them down, don’t try to answer them right then, just brainstorm and write down every question for a few minutes. Next, decide if they are open or closed questions and practice changing them from open to closed. Third, change the wording of some questions to make them more clear, more effective. Finally, choose a few to pursue as you study this topic. 

Third, take turns asking questions as a family or class. After reading a chapter or passage, each person asks one question and answers one question. It helps to sit in a circle and one person starts by asking a question to their right, that person answers the question and then asks a question to the person on their right.

Always write down their questions and make them visible. I like to write them on our chalkboard so the boys can see them as we study the topic. During the upcoming week I ask them if they’ve found answers to their questions. If not, where can they find them? A book? Website? Is there someone they can call?

Stories

We always have a read aloud going as a family. Family Gather doesn’t have to happen all at once, or in the morning. Sometimes our read aloud is at night before bed, sometimes at lunch while we eat. These are the best books humankind has to offer, and they are enjoyable for the whole family. My list is a good mix of classics, historical fiction, modern fiction, and award winning books.

I always start with a short story about an artist or composer before we begin studying them for the term. If my child is really interested in them they may choose an artist or composer for their biography in history, but I don’t try to read a longer biography as a family. Just a short story will do. There are plenty of picture books and stories in Vincent’s Starry Night

Homework Assignment

This week you will decide which content-based subjects you’ll study as a family, pick a curriculum for each one, and then learn how to teach them. I highly recommend downloading my Family Gather 12-year rotation! I made it for my own family to simplify my planning and I’m giving it to you for FREE. It has 12 years of hymns, folksongs, poems and scriptures to recite, read alouds and resources. If you want to try your hand at creating a custom learning plan (curriculum) for any of these subjects, I will show you how in Week Nine.

Extra Credit

If you want to learn more about teaching each subject you can find details and resources in the following blogposts. Finally, I have recorded lessons with my boys to show you how these look in application with real kids and a real mom. Those are in Patreon, my monthly membership.

• Scriptures
• Singing
• Artist Study
• Composer Study (still in the works!)
• Recitation
• History
• Nature Study
• Geography

Family Gather Resources

Scriptures

Come, Follow Me (click on “Previous Years” to see all manuals)

Hymns

Folks and Hymns (YouTube channel)

Churchofjesuschrist.org (also available as an app: “Sacred Music”)

Folksongs

Beth’s Notes Plus

American Folk Songs for Children by Ruth Seeger

Miss Mason’s Music (for family solfa lessons)

Folks and Hymns (YouTube channel)

Composer Study

Amblesideonline.org (free; song selections)

Tillsberry Table ($11; complete study guide)

Artist Study

A Humble Place ($13.99; complete study guide)

Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories: A Child’s History of Art by Michael Bird

Recitation

Recitation Cards by Year 

Poetry

Poetry For Young People series

Favorite Poems Old and New: Selected for Boys and Girls by Helen Ferris

Shakespeare

Tale From Shakespeare by Charles Lamb

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig

Folger  (to listen and read for free)

Plutarch 

Plutarch guides by Anna White (available on Amazon)

Nature Study

The Handbook of Nature Study by Ann Comstock (the original book has been reprinted as a series)

Sabbath Mood Homeschool Nature Explorers