A Midyear Homeschool Check-In: Planning the Rest of the School Year

December always feels like a natural pause point in our homeschool. The holiday break gives us a chance to step back and decide what we want to carry forward into the rest of the school year. By this point, we’ve settled into our routines and learned a lot, not just academically, but about what’s actually working for our family, which always tends to shift from year to year as my children grow older.

In today’s post, I’m sharing a brief check-in, along with a peek at how we’ll finish out the school year through the end of our spring term.

What’s Working (And What We’re Keeping)

The biggest anchors in our homeschool continue to be:

  • Morning time
  • Family-style learning
  • Literature-rich studies
  • Geography, culture, and history as our connective thread
  • A dedicated block for independent math work

This combination has given us enough structure throughout our days, while still allowing flexibility when life gets busy (which it often does, especially as we head into the bulk of the gymnastics meet season).

Where We’re Adjusting

A midyear check-in always brings a few small shifts. I don’t like to add a lot, but it’s always a good time to pause and assess what’s working.

Right now, that looks like making more space for notebooking. My children are always so proud of the entries they create (drawings, maps, written reflections) and it feels important to make more room for that.

A student's notebooking page on Mahatma Gandhi as part of the Global Explorers Club's India unit study.
Here, my third grader asked me to transcribe her notebooking entry, and then she chose to copy it into her notebook.

We’re also making a small adjustment to our science plans. We’ll continue exploring science organically through our country studies, but we’re setting aside BFSU, Volume II for now and will be using The Wizard’s Guide to Magical Experiments during this season instead. It offers a lot of simple and fun experiments that feel like a better fit for us right now.

As for our morning basket, I stumbled upon A Year in Story and Song: A Celebration of the Seasons by Lia Leendertz, and I can’t wait to add it to our rotation.

Looking Ahead: Countries We’ll Explore Next

As we move through the rest of the school year, I’ve also mapped out a tentative sequence of countries we’d like to explore next. This isn’t a rigid schedule, just something that helps me plan ahead while still leaving some room for flexibility.

Here’s the order we’re working toward:

We’ll continue moving at a pace that allows us to linger when interest is high and simplify when life is busier. Most countries take us a couple of weeks, others longer. However, for us, the goal isn’t completion; it’s learning and exploring together and making some good memories along the way.

A student's mapwork activity for China Unit Study, with added illustrations and drawings.

A Quick Look at Our Family Read-Alouds

Read-alouds continue to anchor our days and quietly shape so much of our learning together as a family.

Right now, our family reading includes a mix of:

  • Global stories and folktales connected to our geography studies
  • Historical fiction connected to our study of Antebellum America and the Civil War
  • Nature-based and science-adjacent books that pair naturally with observation and notebooking
  • Some “just for fun” family read-alouds that simply let us enjoy stories together

Here’s a look at some of the books currently on our upcoming Global Explorers read-aloud list:

Alongside these, they’ll continue selecting their own independent reads with each country study.

Some Observations & Reflections on Preparing the Environment

Each year I’m always reminded how so much of homeschooling is rooted in observation, noticing what types of things interest my children, what activities help their confidence grow, and what makes learning feel the most enjoyable. As we head into the final months of this school year, I’m focused on preparing an environment that continues to encourage their curiosity, honors the work my children are proud of, and allows learning to continue at a pace that feels sustainable for us.

As you move through the remainder of the year, I hope you’re able to notice what’s working in your own homeschool and make space for more of that, too. If you feel like sharing, I always enjoy reading what that looks like for other families.

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