Simplifying Your Curriculum to Work For Your Family

EP224: Welcome to the Art of Homeschooling podcast! Today I’m addressing a common homeschooling question about simplifying your curriculum to work for YOUR family.

If you’re feeling lost, behind, or overwhelmed…you are not alone.

In this episode, I share three super helpful shifts that can transform how you approach planning and implementing lessons for Waldorf-inspired homeschooling.

Create a more joyful and sustainable homeschooling experience by approaching your curriculum like a beautiful buffet, focusing on the big picture rather than the daily details, and planning in blocks to craft a more natural learning rhythm.

Find the Show Notes here  https://artofhomeschooling.com/episode224/

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Get the Waldorf Homeschool Starter Kit here

Chapters

• 0:44 How to use a Waldorf-inspired curriculum without feeling completely overwhelmed
• 1:51 Why curriculum feels overwhelming
• 3:10 Curriculum is a tool, not a rule
• 4:09 How to approach your homeschool curriculum like a beautiful buffet
• 6:45 Focus on the big picture first, not the daily details
• 8:00 Plan in blocks
• 8:54 A roadmap for peaceful, simple, joyful homeschooling

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

You're listening to the Art of Homeschooling podcast, where we help parents cultivate creativity and connection at home. I'm your host, jean Miller, and here on this podcast you'll find stories and inspiration to bring you the confidence you need to make homeschooling work for your family. Let's begin hey there and welcome back to the Art of Homeschooling podcast. I'm so glad you're here today because we're diving into a topic that I know so many homeschooling parents wrestle with how to use a curriculum without feeling completely overwhelmed. I hear from parents all the time who say I bought this beautiful Waldorf-inspired curriculum but now I feel lost trying to make it work for my family, or something like I'm so behind because I can't keep up with all the lesson plans. Or even I love the Waldorf approach, but I'm not a trained teacher. How am I supposed to do this? If any of that sounds familiar to you, I just want you to take a deep breath. You're not alone, and today we're going to talk about how to simplify your curriculum so it works for you instead of you working for it. At the end of this episode, I'm also going to share something I've been working on that I think is really going to help you simplify your homeschool planning and get back to feeling confident and clear about what you're doing. So let's dive in First things.

Speaker 1: 1:53

First, I want to address why curriculum feels overwhelming and what to do about it. Here's the thing. So many of us start our homeschooling journey because we love the idea of creating a warm, nurturing, creative learning environment for our kiddos. Right, and so we do what most new homeschoolers do. We start researching what curriculum to use, and when we find a Waldorf-inspired curriculum, after asking in every Facebook group and forum we can think of, we have this thought this is it. This is going to solve all of my problems. But then what happens? The curriculum arrives, we open it up and it's so much. There are detailed daily lesson plans, there's main lessons nature walks, handwork, painting, storytelling and suddenly it feels like way too much. And here's the trap we all fall into. We start believing that, in order to do Waldorf homeschooling right, we have to do everything in the curriculum exactly as it's written. And I just want to say this as clearly as I can the curriculum is a tool, not a rule. You don't have to follow it exactly as written. It's there to inspire you, not overwhelm you, and your homeschool doesn't have to look like anyone else's. So now let's look at how to use curriculum without that overwhelmed feeling. How do you do it if you have a beautiful curriculum but you're drowning in overwhelm?

Speaker 1: 3:45

Here are three mindset shifts that can completely change the way you approach your curriculum, and by curriculum I mean a curriculum package that you bought, I mean if you have multiple curricula that you're trying to piece together, or even if you're doing this from scratch yourself. These mindset shifts are really going to help. So, shift number one treat your curriculum like a buffet, not a single recipe. I want you to imagine walking into a beautiful buffet. There are all these delicious foods laid out and you get to pick what you want to put on your plate.

Speaker 1: 4:28

Curriculum is like this.

Speaker 1: 4:29

You don't have to do everything in the curriculum.

Speaker 1: 4:33

You don't have to follow it exactly as written. You get to pick and choose what works for your family in this season of your life and your homeschooling journey. For example, if your curriculum has a beautiful watercolor painting lesson planned for Thursday but your kiddos are cranky and you're exhausted, you can skip it, that's true, or save it for the next week. You can even decide to focus on a different, lively art entirely like poetry or drama rather than painting. It's not falling behind. It's tailoring the curriculum to your family, customizing it to meet your needs. All right back to the plate analogy. Think about building your homeschooling plate the way we build our dinner plates right, with mostly nutrient-dense veggies and whole foods, a protein, a carb for energy, plus lots of water or tea to keep us in the flow. You can build a homeschool lesson like a meal by choosing a story as the main dish and then deciding on what you want to go with it A drawing, writing activity, hands-on activity or craft, song, verse, movement activity, even a review or reflection. Some days your homeschool lesson will be full and include lots of components. Other days you may just go for a story and an artistic activity.

Speaker 1: 6:07

If you haven't checked it out, I talk about the minimal, viable homeschool day in another podcast episode and I'll pop that episode into the show notes for this one, which you can find at artofhomeschoolingcom, slash episode 224. To be honest, I think one of the very best skills that you can develop as a homeschooling parent is learning how to adapt the curriculum rather than being a slave to it. And the best part, when you give yourself that freedom, that permission, homeschooling starts to feel so much better. All right. Shift number two focus on the big picture first, not the daily details. Another place homeschoolers get stuck is feeling like they have to complete every single lesson or they're failing. But I want you to zoom way out for a moment. What is the big picture here? Why did you choose Waldorf Homeschooling in the first place? It's really helpful to remember that it all starts with your values. It's probably because you wanted a learning experience that was hands-on, creative, connected to nature, rhythmic and balanced. So instead of stressing about whether you completed Wednesday's exact lesson plan, ask yourself did we connect today? Did my child engage with a story, art or nature? Did we have a moment of wonder and engaged learning? If the answer is yes, you're doing it, you're succeeding, even if you didn't check every single box. A basic homeschool lesson can be built around a story and then you add in the activities you think will be most helpful for carrying the learning and the skills development along.

Speaker 1: 8:00

Shift number three plan in blocks before days. One of the most helpful ways to simplify your curriculum is to start with a plan for your whole main lesson block before you start planning daily lessons. So instead of saying we have to do this math lesson on Tuesday and this story on Wednesday. You can say, for the next three weeks we're going to focus on a math block, or this month we're diving into ancient Egypt, and then you build a rhythm around that topic. Some days you do stories, some days you do painting, some days you take a nature walk and let it all sink in and you know what it works. Kids absorb so much more when learning feels relaxed and integrated, rather than rushed or crammed into daily lesson plans. So give yourself permission to breathe, and I have something that could help you. Honestly, this is exactly why I created the Waldorf Homeschool Starter Kit.

Speaker 1: 9:04

We're now in the third edition of this collection because we keep improving it to best serve the hands-on homeschooling community, with the goal of reducing overwhelm, because I know that what you really need isn't more curriculum. You don't need another 400-page binder to follow exactly. You don't need to do everything right, quote unquote. What you need is a simple, clear plan that's flexible and helps you personalize your curriculum, simplify your homeschool rhythm and feel confident teaching Waldorf without overwhelm. And that's exactly what's inside the starter kit. You get a full set of clear, step-by-step planning templates so you can create your own main lesson blocks and plan out your weeks. The homeschool simplicity guide helps you know what's most essential so you can adapt curriculum without feeling overwhelmed. And you get a practical video training from me walking you through exactly how to bring it all together and make homeschooling work for your family. It's like having a roadmap for peaceful, simple, joyful homeschooling instead of drowning in lesson plans. So if you've been feeling like you're behind or like you'll never do Waldorf right, please go check it out. It's going to give you so much clarity and peace of mind. You can find it at artofhomeschoolingcom slash starter kit.

Speaker 1: 10:38

Alrighty, my friend, I just want to close by saying this you do not have to do all the things all the time to homeschool well. Your kiddos don't need a perfect curriculum. They need you present, connected and curious, and if the curriculum ever starts to feel heavy, let it go for a while. Simplify, adapt, trust yourself, because at the end of the day, homeschooling is not about perfect lesson plans. It's about raising whole, happy, curious humans. So here's to simplifying and customizing your curriculum while finding joy in the process.

Speaker 1: 11:23

I recently heard this great quote from an educator friend whose grad school professor would say creating curriculum is like doing radical surgery because, inherently, there's always way too much to do and we have to decide what not to teach. So if you're ready to make it even simpler, don't forget to grab your Waldorf Homeschool Starter Kit. It's at artofhomeschoolingcom slash starter kit and I'll see you next time. You can find the show notes for this episode at artofhomeschoolingcom, slash, episode 220. Happy homeschooling, my friends. That's all for today, my friend, but here's what I want you to remember Rather than perfection, let's focus on connection. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you on the next episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast.