When I started homeschooling my children, my older two children were close in age. Naturally we enjoyed doing many things together in our homeschool, like reading picture books, doing hands-on crafts and projects, and coming together for different school subjects. As they grew, my two younger children joined the mix and we just continued to do our lessons as a unit. I learned that despite a large span of ages, there is a lot of overlap and opportunity for siblings to learn together. 

In this blog post I am sharing all about family-style homeschooling and how we do this in our homeschool, plus my favorite subjects for learning together. 

 In this blog post:

• What is family-style homeschooling?
• Benefits of family-style homeschooling
• Family-style homeschooling daily rhythm
• Best academic subjects for family-style homeschooling
• Tips for family-style homeschooling
• Family-style homeschool curriculum from Treehouse Schoolhouse

What is family-style homeschooling?

Family-style homeschooling, or family-style learning, simply means using the same theme, books, or curricula for multiple children at different ages. While children will learn through the same books and resources, learning is still tailored to each child’s learning level. By learning together, despite being at various levels, lesson planning is streamlined and fosters sibling bonding as we come together for lessons.

I love family-style learning because it encourages collaboration and bonding between my children. It also encourages deeper understanding with siblings of different ages, helping younger children grasp advanced ideas and reinforcing knowledge of older children. Of course, it also saves time by combining lessons for the whole family, making learning more efficient and leaving plenty of time in our day for other activities like time in nature and free play.

Benefits of family-style homeschooling

Learning as a family unit is such a fun and sweet dynamic to have in your home. This style offers ways to practice patience, cooperation, and creativity alongside academics, teaching how to respect others at their own levels. As children learn together, you create an environment where children are encouraged to cooperate and learn together – learning not just from curricula and assignments but from one another.

In a family-style learning setting, younger children have the opportunity to gently become exposed to advanced ideas earlier through listening and participating with their older siblings. As they observe, they are picking up advanced vocabulary, ideas, and concepts. They are also learning how to focus, be patient, and interact in conversation as they observe their older siblings learning.

Older children have the opportunity to learn by including and teaching younger siblings. Older children can help guide younger kids through concepts they already know, or pause to retell facts in another way that young children can understand. Not only are they learning to listen to the needs of others, but children are testing their own knowledge by explaining and narrating or re-telling concepts out loud.

Our current family-style homeschooling daily rhythm

This year we have ages 5, 7, 10, and 12 in our homeschool. We start our days with Bible lessons over breakfast using Rooted Family Bible Curriculum and Flourish Family Bible Curriculum. During this time, my children read Scripture together, sing a hymn, practice memory verses, discuss Bible passages, and pray together.

After Bible lessons, the kids have their personal morning responsibilities. When that is completed, I gather them for Morning Time. For this part of our day we will use various resources to gather all of the ages together for family-style learning. We don’t do everything in one day, but move through these studies weekly or seasonally. 

These are of the resources we are using for Morning Time this year that are suitable for family-style learning.

• Beautiful Feet Books Art Appreciation – This curriculum introduces children to the rich world of art history and visual culture, featuring carefully curated lessons on famous artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, and Georgia O’Keeffe. This study uses detailed lesson plans, hands-on projects, and guided art observation to develop critical thinking, creativity, and a deeper understanding of visual expression. 
• Beautiful Feet Books Music Appreciation – This study features a curated collection of lessons on famous composers such as Bach, Beethoven, and more. The study uses detailed lesson plans with fun music activities, and exploration of basic musical elements like rhythm, pitch, and melody. My children will be notebooking what they learn throughout this study.
• CM Simple Studies: English Fairy Tales – We will study classic fairy tales with this curriculum that uses illustrations, discussion questions, narration prompts and more to encourage children to form personal connections to folklore and develop each child’s imagination. We will also use this as an opportunity for notebooking.
• A Treasured Thanksgiving – This study teaches the meaning of Thanksgiving, and teaches historical perspectives like the Pilgrim’s voyage to America, the Wampanoag people, the First Encounters, the First Thanksgiving, and the relationship between the Pilgrims and Native Americans in the first year.
• A Connected Christmas – This study connects hearts to the meaning of Christmas through festive carols, stories, poetry, art, baking, and handcrafts. Keep an eye out for a new volume coming this year.
• A Virtuous Valentine’s – Through Scripture readings, beauty subjects, picture books, hands-on activities, and a look into the history of Valentine’s Day, this study provides an invitation to delve into the profound depth of God’s love and how it shapes our relationships.
• An Expectant Easter – This study focuses on the newness of Spring, the sacrifice that Jesus made, and the power of His resurrection.
• Treehouse Nature Study – While we are not using Treehouse Nature Study for Morning Time, we will continue to use nature study throughout the year. My younger two children will use Treehouse Nature Study, Primary Years and my older two children will use Treehouse Nature Study, Intermediate Years, focusing on science experiments and advanced language arts assignments. I love that we can all study the same nature theme, but do activities at each child’s learning levels.

After Morning Time, the children break into smaller groups to do lessons or do some of their work individually. We gather again for “Lunch & Literature” where I use Treehouse Book Studies for more family-style learning. The younger children will listen and be a part of discussion and activities, while the older children will complete writing assignments, book reports, research, and projects through the themes in the story. We may also have some book club meetups with the books with friends. 

Lastly, we will do history this year using Story of the World by listening to it on audio and doing projects or notebooking at various levels. 

Best academic subjects for family-style homeschooling

These are the subjects that I recommend for adapting for family-style learning.

Bible

One of the best ways to practice family-style learning, whether you homeschool or not, is to make a habit of reading and studying the Bible together. Engage your children by studying the Bible together in your home to teach and learn Bible stories together. The goal is to encourage genuine and authentic faith from a young age. Children will enjoy reading stories together, talking about what passages mean, brainstorming how to live out a Christian life, and praying and singing together.

Rooted Family Bible Curriculum and Flourish Family Bible Curriculum were designed to be adapted for family Bible study, and can be used as a menu so you can meet both the learning levels and interests of your children as you study the Bible together. Rooted focuses on building an identity in Christ and Flourish explores how to live out a Christian life and develop the fruits of the spirit.

History

History is a subject that naturally lends itself to family-style learning. Children can learn historical narratives together and then do projects, writing assignments, and chase their own interests within the subject. For example, after you read about or discuss a historical event, young children can color or draw a picture, and older children can write a paragraph or do further research on their own. Children can re-enact a historical event, cook a recipe that would have been in an earlier time period, create a hand-craft from a different era, or join together for presentations on what they have learned. To bring children together, I recommend making history as interactive and fun as possible.

Read-alouds

Family read-alouds are one of my favorite ways to learn together. At first glance you may think that young children should only read books at their level, like beginner books or picture books. However, reading aloud is a fun way for children to hone in on the habit of attention and learn by listening. Read-alouds strengthen children’s vocabulary, introduce them to the rhythms of reading and poetry, and involve them in fun and engaging storytelling. 

Make read-alouds meaningful and interactive by exploring natural learning opportunities in the stories you read. Spend time talking about the meaning of new vocabulary words or discussing the character’s emotions in the stories. Think collectively about ways you relate to the story, or if similar events have happened to you. Use the story to inspire STEM projects, baking projects, games, and arts and crafts that your children can spend an afternoon doing together. Treehouse Book Studies include reading schedules, discussion activities, notebooking prompts, and hands-on activities that coordinate with the read-aloud books. 

Nature study

Nature study is a great subject for family-style homeschooling. As children learn by observing the natural world around them, young children can focus on simple observations, such as the colors and shapes of leaves, while older children can delve into more complex topics, like plant identification, ecosystem dynamics, and scientific classification. All children are able to gather knowledge from nature and have a unique, meaningful experience. Nature study encourages hands-on exploration and curiosity, and can be an engaging and memorable learning experience for the entire family.

As we go through the seasons of the year, we love using nature study as a jumping-off point for learning. Treehouse Nature Study, Primary Years includes learning opportunities through seasonal picture books, hand rhymes, art study, and poetry, and is suitable for kindergarten through third grade. Treehouse Nature Study, Intermediate Years follows the same format for 4th-8th grades, but focuses on science experiments and advanced language arts assignments.

Art and hands-on projects

Doing art projects together is another simple way to join children together in fun and learning. All children can participate in doing art together, whether that is setting out water colors and oil pastels and seeing what they create, doing an art project that reflects something you have learned together, or doing a tutorial online together and practicing a new skill. 

Notebooking

Notebooking is a simple method of learning where children can take what a lesson they learned together in academics and explain it in their own words. This is the main way we implement family-style learning in my own homeschool. After we study together, each child will summarize what they learned in a sentence or a longer paragraph, and then illustrate their notebooking page. Over the school year, we compile these notebooking pages into notebooks on different subjects. This is both an engaging project to create, but also a fun thing to refer back to as you learn throughout the year as it creates a portfolio of learning.

Tips for family-style homeschooling

As you join children together for learning, here are some helpful ideas to encourage sibling bonding, working together, and meet individual needs.

Tips for engaging older children in family-style homeschooling

• Encourage responsibility with your older children before you get into lessons. Talk to your older children about how your younger children are watching and learning from them and look up to them.
• Give older children opportunities to teach the younger ones during your lesson time. Mention how your older children have done a good job learning a subject, or learned that when they were younger, and can show them. Give them the opportunity to take the lead when you can.
• Carve out one-on-one time for more complex subjects, or if you sense your child is feeling overlooked.
• Have resources readily available to help older children chase rabbit trails within the subject. 
• When you notice your older child stepping in to help a younger sibling, let them know you notice their actions and praise them.

Tips for including younger children in family-style homeschooling 

• Include picture books that relate to your learning topic so small children can engage with the story and see beautiful illustrations.
• Print coloring pages to correlate with themes your older children are learning.
• Invite young children to draw or trace pictures in their notebook. Have them narrate what they are learning and write down what they say. Instruct them to copy it if they are able.
• Lean into hands-on activities that relate to your lesson plans and include them in any baking and crafting activities.
• When little children are restless, have hands-on activities on hand to keep their attention instead of forcing them to show up in formal learning. We love LEGO, Magna Tiles, and Play Doh to keep little hands busy and engaged as older children work through their lessons.

Family-style homeschool curriculum from Treehouse Schoolhouse

Treehouse Nature Study, Primary Years

Treehouse Nature Study, Primary Years is a seasonal nature study curriculum designed with family-style learning in mind for children in kindergarten through 3rd grade. It is a gentle guide meant to invite various ages to connect with each other and the world around them through living books, nature notebooking, hands-on projects, and beauty subjects such as poetry, picture study, and folk songs. 

From preschool through upper middle school, it appeals to every age and is easily used with multiple ages at the same time. 

It would be a great fit for your preschool or kindergartener’s core curriculum or your whole family’s home education Morning Time and Nature Study. It also provides supplemental work for your children’s language arts through poetry memorization, recitation, copywork, and notebooking.

Treehouse Nature Study, Intermediate Years

Treehouse Nature Study, Intermediate Years is geared towards upper elementary, grades 4th-8th. Experience a seasonal study that invites your older children to connect with each other and the world around them through living books, nature notebooking, hands-on projects, poetry, and picture study. Deepen your child’s learning through advanced language arts and scientific experiments.

It would be a great fit for your upper elementary or middle schooler’s science curriculum or your whole family’s home education Morning Time and Nature Study. It also provides supplemental work for your children’s language arts through poetry copywork, creating an Illustrated Science Dictionary, creative writing prompts, notebooking, and internet research.

Treehouse Book Studies

Cozy up with a read aloud for your family this fall with Treehouse Book Studies. Treehouse Book Studies are digital download book studies of children’s literature for ages 5-13. Use in your homeschool as literature curriculum or as book study with a small group. Create lasting connections through rich stories while you study themes such as science, nature, geography, history, and language arts. Each download includes: Book Study with weekly lesson plans, recipes, Book Report Template, Extension Book List, Multimedia Reference Materials links, and Book Club Meet-up Guide.

Do you do family-style learning in your homeschool? Share your experience in the comments below.