Harbor and Sprout

It’s August. I know this because it’s finally hot enough outside to drive us in for long stretches of the day, because the lightning bugs are dwindling, and because the Back to School countdowns I hear on the radio for our local public schools are down to a handful of days.

Normally, I make a concrete “First Day” but this year, things have just slid into being, a few days here, a few days there. We’ve completed 10 of the 180 days required by the state, but not in two solid weeks. Somehow I’m ok with that.

This being a decidedly unique year for us— no high schoolers, Jem transitioning to Challenge, a new baby— I had the chance to pray about how this season should look. And while I settled quite easily on Sonlight for my bibliovore Birdie, I knew I wanted something different to give Phin, Simon, and Jude one of those delicious years of adventure and learning that lights excited fires in little minds.

My boys love books. They love being read to, and slipping into the stories that bubble up in their minds after being fed on literature. But they also thrive on getting their hands dirty, and uncovering fascinating facts, and living out the details that excite them. Pulling all of that together is usually my job but, I’m not going to lie— I’m not up to it right now. I’m not.

Five years ago admitting this would have disappointed me. Ten years ago I would have assumed I was a failure. But now? Now I know it’s just life, and I should do what homeschoolers do best: take advantage of the creativity and expertise of others. In other words… buy some curriculum.

Harbor and Sprout basically fell in my lap. I’ve never done a monthly subscription, full curriculum before. I honestly don’t know how many of them are out there. But what I do know is this: when I downloaded the sample and tried it with my guys, I fell in love. It was 100% absolutely what I was looking for, even though I didn’t have the words for what I was looking for, if that makes any sense.

You could allllmost call Harbor and Sprout a unit study. Almost. But that concept has been so wrung out in the homeschool world that I hesitate to use it. Instead, I think of it as monthly themes— and the themes are absolutely the kind of stuff that thrill young minds, allow for deep learning, and would take so much time for a single homeschool mom to curate that you’d maybe pull it off once before completely retiring the idea as unsustainable.

For example, the sample week was Freshwater Ecology. And guys, the music —the extremely well-thought out, carefully prepared, deep music unit— was on Telemann’s Violin Concerto in A. You know… “The Frogs”? Yes. How amazing is this?

 

It’s details like that that sold me.

And it’s resources like beautiful, winsome watercolored games and geography that covers the globe and a focus on historical figures that are outside of the normal sphere or discovery that will keep me. Well, that and the nature focus. If you know my kids, you know that you can’t lose if you’re tying an outdoor adventure in to anything.

Ok, one final gushing little note: each theme has a character guide. August’s theme is Botany, and Hana, a Japanese botanist, will be leading the way. Now, all of my kids connect better with a personality than a fact. I don’t think that’s unusual in the least. But Phin? If you want him to remember something, it had better have some humanity. I foresee Hana being his new friend, and giving him a reason to see the plants and leaves and gardens are worth stopping to observe.

So yes, I’m kind of excited about Harbor and Sprout. I can’t wait to see how the year unfolds here, from Birdie swallowing books whole to Alice learning to crawl, from John Mark finding his legs with Challenge to my little explorers collecting all sorts of treasures and absorbing the beauty of the world.

What are you looking forward to this fall? What plans are on your horizon?