January Resource Round up!

My January unschooling newsletter with full resource list

Welcome! Somehow the first month of the year is already done and dusted.

January was another full month for us starting with a trip to the coast with extended family, preparing for my sister’s wedding, attending said beautiful wedding and ending the month exploring our nations capital. With some free camping in between.  It’s been nice!

We have now been living in our caravan and traveling Australia for a whole year! With no plans to stop anytime soon. What a time it’s been, lots of ups and lots of downs but overall such an incredible experience for us all. Excited for another year of learning and exploring together.

We didn’t start the year with a new list of exciting resources, we haven’t thought too deeply about plans or goals. For us it’s a lot of keeping on with what we were already doing. We have been finishing off the books and resources we started last year or already had. We had an outing to Big W where everyone picked a couple of books and workbooks and happened upon a gaming conference where we picked up a whole stack of board games for $40 (some we’ve experimented with, others we haven’t had a chance to look at) but that’s it! I feel like there is often so much expectation (especially in the online homeschooling world) to write the perfect homeschool plan, buy all new curriculum (if you use them) or books and stationary and resources and “start the year off strong 💪🏻 “. You really don’t need to do that. Keep doing what works for you and your kids. I love a whole new bunch of books, stationary, games and resources as much as the next person (perhaps even more so honestly) but that’s not what makes or breaks the year. You can pick things up when you’re ready. When you have room in your budget for it or when your kid has a new interest that you want to explore together. You don’t have to go all out just because it’s the start of a new year.

Without further ado here is our January resource list. Some things we’ve used/watched/started before plus a few new bits and pieces.

📺:

Blaze (10 play)

Jazza Art Challenges (YouTube)

Izzy’s Koala World (Netflix)

Emily’s Wonder Lab (Netflix)

Life on Our Planet (Netflix)

Inbestigators (abc iview)

Hack my Home (Netflix)

Narnia movie series (Disney)

🃏🎲:

Settlers of Catan

Little Astronauts

Museum Suspects

Mental Maths Snap

Trouble

Slamwich

Sushi Go

Maths Snap

🎧:

Ladybird Audio Adventures (spotify)

• Ancient Egypt

• The Human Body

• Australia

• The Vikings

• On the Farm

• Volcanoes

• Dinosaur Times

• Deep Sea Dive

• Rainforests

• Lakes, Lochs and Rivers

• Ancient Rome

• Amazing Vehicles

• Cities Around the World

• Big Cats

• The Frozen World

• Incredible Inventors

Imagine This! (abc iview)

Simon’s Science Adventures (Spotify)

Curious Kid Podcast: Sibling Showdown (Apple Podcasts / Spotify)

Octonauts: The Great Algae Escape

📚🗣️:

Miss Mary-Kate’s Guide to Monster Hunting: The Bother with the Bonkillyknock Beast by Karen Foxlee

Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers

📕:

Usborne Flap Book: See Inside Trains

The Atlas of Ocean Adventures by Emily Hawkins

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles graphic novels

📖:

School zone maths & handwriting workbooks ($4 at Big W)

Yalbilinya Wiradjuri workbook

📱:

Otsimo Speech

Parents:

10 Minutes to a Better Homeschool

this podcast is based in the U.S. they did a series mid 2023 on planning for your homeschool year which I’ve dipped into as I vision, plan and source for our 2024.

I’m currently reading - A Place to Beling by Amber O’Neal Johnston which touches on homeschooling and diversity.

My homeschooling goals for February:

My planning is very basic and as mentioned above we’ve mostly just continued on with what we’ve been doing, reading and adventuring and getting on with it.

However, I did write up a new rhythm based on how our days are best flowing for us currently:

I also wrote up a few key areas we’d like to focus on this year:

Biggest - handwriting, reading proficiency and maths

Middle - speech, handwriting, reading basics, basic maths

Littlest - reading picture books together

Continue with Spanish learning audiobook

Will this shift and change? Undoubtedly!

And we’ll continue to supplement our learning with adventures and excursions out in the real world, following rabbit trails, critically thinking and having interesting conversations.

What have you been enjoying in January? Do you do a big plan at the start of the year or are you just plotting along like us?

Some past resource round ups if you need some more resource ideas for your own homeschool planning: