Included in every Timberdoodle Curriculum Kit is a Timberdoodle Handbook, which provides the structure and framework of your school year. In a second we'll show you what's inside each of those, but first let's chat about why.
Why Weekly Schedules?
Homeschoolers want to stay on task all year long, but we rarely want to be micromanaged. Tell us to do a reading lesson at 8:15 on Wednesday, and we will balk, or we'll miss our time slot and be overwhelmed trying to catch up for the rest of the week. Instead, Timberdoodle gives you a list to finish each week. Do your work in the morning or the evening, or in that ever-moving slot when the baby is actually down for a nap. Skip Tuesday because it's a busy farm or OT day, or finish everything up Monday - Wednesday so the whole family can go on a special camping trip. You decide!
Independent Learning
We're huge fans of teaching children the vital skill of learning how to learn. For your pre-readers, you'll be working up to giving them a STEM project, Smart Game or the like to finish independently. (This is a great chance to help another child one-on-one.) Your readers will be able to do much of their work and checklist themselves, and high schoolers can work independently and rely on you as a coach and parent, not a full-time teacher.
So what's inside a Handbook? Let's look:
The Planning
First up are all the details on planning your year, including your annual planner and sample weekly checklists.
You'll also receive access to our online custom scheduler for your grade, so that you can add/remove items, tweak your schedule or even convert it to a daily list if that works best for you.
Item by Item Details
We include short bios of each item in your kit, ideal for refreshing your memory on why each is included or what you will be covering this year. This is where we've tucked in any tips or tricks on specific courses for you.
For instance, which pages of Math-U-See are ok to skip and why would you? Do you need to do every assignment in Mosdos? Which Famous Figures correspond to which chapters of Story of the World?
Articles and Resources
In this section, you'll find our favorite articles and tidbits amassed in our more-than-30 years of homeschool experience.
Depending on the grade, you'll find such treasures as:
Specific Item Resources
Many grades include additional resources such as:
Upgraded Reading Challenge
Last but not least is the reading challenge. In the back of your handbook you'll find a list of hundreds of suggested titles (985 to 4,501 books) to jumpstart your imagination and get your child reading widely this year.
Exploring My World
Ages 0-K
Read about animals, life skills, transportation, nature, language, community...
Exploring the Globe
1st-3rd Grades
Explore life around the globe with a huge range of suggestions for each continent, alongside other critical subjects.
Exploring the USA
4th-6th Grades
Focus on the USA with book ideas for each state and president along with critical subjects.
Exploring History and Literature
7th-12th Grades
You’ll read widely on critical subjects such as world areas, health, STEM, nature, history, war, and so much more.