Homeschool Group Subjects for 2023

*This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Choosing what to do for our homeschool group subjects in 2023 was a little different from years past. 

I really streamlined what we are going to use for 2023. In previous years I’ve used a lot of different curriculum and really put together my own resources to create our group subjects and what we study.

This year I’m using mostly one curriculum that covers lots of the subjects that we’re going to be studying as a family.

For reference, this year my kids will be 7 going on 8, 6. and 4. So those are the ages that I’m going to be spreading this across for all of these subjects.

You can read all about what we’ve chosen in this post or just watch the video on Youtube.

What Exactly are Group Subjects?

Group subjects are any school subjects that can be studied together regardless of grade levels. Homeschool parents are often limited in time and so having the opportunity to teach one subject to all of their children at the same time is very appealing.

This isn’t going to be an option for every subject, but often, things such as history, science, and geography can be taught to children who span several grade levels.

Now, this may not be a good fit for families who have one child in kindergarten and one in high school. However, if you have several children fairly close in age, this is a wonderful option.

Older students get the opportunity to help out the younger ones, and younger ones can be included and learn too.

We also often decide on our field trips based on these group subjects.

Learning that happens in a group setting has its own merits.

Our Homeschool Group Subjects for 2023

This is not an exhaustive list of all the subjects that we will study. Think of them as our core subjects. However, things like social studies, history, and geography often overlap. Plus, there are many other subjects that are inadvertently studied during our homeschool day. For instance, we may bake together, go for a walk, or head to the library.

Homeschool families tend to use a homeschool curriculum as a jumping-off point, but it is certainly not all that we use to study a specific subject.

However, for the sake of keeping things simple and helping you to understand what we’ll be looking at this year, here is a list of the subjects that will be at the core of our group learning and the curriculum we plan on using.

History Bible & Literature

This year we are going to be using Sonnlight Core K for our history, bible, and literature.

I went on a whole long rabbit trail looking at different curriculum because I wasn’t super happy with the science curriculum that we used last year. Therefore, I was looking for something different.

Instead of just finding a science curriculum I ended up also switching our history, bible, and literature to a completely different curriculum, which is Sonlight.

History

We’re using core K this year which studies US history. We are not American but I want my kids to know US history. This is because America is a big player in the world.

A lot of their history affects us, the laws that are made around the world, and just different discussions that take place.

I really want them to know and understand American history.

That said, Core K is a very gentle introduction to American history and we will revisit US history in the future when the kids are a bit older.

I also opted not to purchase their timeline figures book as we already own a book of centuries. Our book of centuries is from Anna Vance Paper Co, and just so lovely.

Bible

There is also a Bible aspect where we’re reading from a children’s bible every day. We will be supplementing that with our own additional resources. We have scripture memorization and discussions, but this will be good for a jumping-off point.

Literature

The literature aspect is one of the things I’m most excited about. There are so many wonderful read alouds that we are going to be reading together this year.

I did look through them and found that most of them are actually a little under the level that my kids are used to having read to them. I think they are going to really enjoy it because it will be a bit more easy reading.

The one thing that was holding me back was that I also really love Story of the World (which we used last year). Upon further research, however, I found that Sonlight uses Story of the World in their higher levels, and so I was sold.

Also, there’s just something really nice about having a whole bunch of brand-new books sent your way even though it’s super expensive. I will talk a little bit more about that further on in this post

Science

The science we are using is, you guessed it, Sonlight.

I have seen Sonlight science recommended many times over in homeschooling groups on Facebook. The thing that held me back from using it was the cost. However, in the end, I decided that it was worth spending that money for the experience that it would give my children and the enjoyment that it would give to all of us.

We’re also using Sonlight Core K science but I did not get the science kit. However, I did get the science experiment videos and so we’re going to go ahead and watch those instead of actually doing the experiments.

The reason I didn’t get the science experiment kit was not that I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t get it imported into New Zealand due to biohazard risks.

We may still do some of the experiments, but I think that my kids are going to enjoy watching the experiments being done just as much.

Last year we used units from The Good and the Beautiful for science. While we enjoyed them, I really didn’t love them and there was a lot of prep work. This was because I bought the digital download version. I really just do not want to have to repeat that.

So, I honestly went for an open-and-go curriculum, but I also love that it is literature based and the books that are included look like so much fun.

I’m really really looking forward to doing this homeschool program with my kids this year. It should take less time and will span across all of their skill levels.

Hymn study

One of the things we did last year was hymn study using the book Then Sings My Soul. I’m planning on continuing to use the same book with my kids this year.

We would just pick a hymn and read the story about it. Over our 6 week term, we would just work on memorizing the first verse and chorus. I really liked it and so did my children.

If you have older children you could totally try different ways of learning more about the writer of the hymns. You could also expect them to memorize more than just the first verse.

Geography & Art

Last year I did separate curriculums for art, nature study, geography, and a bunch of different things.

This year, I’m simplifying it quite a lot because a lot of these are covered in their other curriculum.

For instance, their math and language arts cover a lot of these subjects. I’m going to leave it up to those books to teach those this year.

Bible

I know that I already talked a little bit about the bible curriculum that we’re going to be using this year but I also wanted to include the fact that we will be using our scripture memorization system. It is from Simply Charlotte Mason.

It worked so well for us last year and I really want to continue that with my kids. It’s so important to me that they memorize scripture. I know what a blessing it’s been in my life to have scripture memorized. I want the same for my kids.

Bible is not something that I just have as a checkbox thing in our curriculum. It’s something that is constantly a topic of discussion in our house. There is lots of talking and mentoring and just open discussions as a family.

So, we will have our main core, then scripture memory and the bible is just a constant conversation with me and my children.

Character Training

Last year we used Simply Charlotte Mason’s Laying Down the Rails for our character study. I’m not going to continue that this year. There is nothing wrong with it.

I just feel as though we’re going to focus more on strictly Bible and then the natural discussion points that come from that as opposed to focusing on specific character traits.

Music

I don’t have any specified music curriculum that I’m going to be using this year. For the past couple of years, I have taught my son piano on and off. However, I have yet to be super disciplined about teaching him.

Hopefully, I will be able to pick it up maybe in the next year or so. I think my younger daughter will be interested in that very soon but otherwise, I’m not planning on anything formal.

I was offered a free subscription to try out an online music course. We’ve yet to begin but once we’ve tried it out a bit then I will happily share my thoughts. I’m totally fine with using outside teachers to help with our homeschool days.

In fact, I can see this happening more in the future, not necessarily with my younger children, but as my kids get older.

Extracurricular Activities

Last year my son did gymnastics and really really enjoyed that. My middle daughter did ballet which she also really loved. She did so well in her end-of-year show.

This year my daughter is going to continue with ballet. My youngest daughter is also going to start ballet. My son was given the option of trying martial arts this year, but he has decided he would like to join the boys-only gymnastics class.

Local Homeschool Co-Op

I’ve used the term co-op here because it is quite easily recognized now, but it’s not really a co-op at all. Local homeschool groups are a real godsend for many families, ours included.

We do not have any kind of formal lessons or teaching at ours.

We simply meet up as friends once a week. The children play for upwards of two hours as we moms catch up.

There are all types of homeschool support groups. Different homeschool co-ops will do things how it suits them. However, we love this weekly catch-up, and it definitely enhances our homeschool experience.

One day we may add in some formal classes, but that’s not part of our homeschooling journey right now.

What’s for certain is that our homeschooled children certainly don’t lack socialization. In fact, I’ve been having to scale back of late!

There are many benefits of homeschool co-ops. In our case, it’s more about support and socialization than it is about education.

Final Thoughts

It should be noted that I’m not putting every tiny little thing that we study as a family into boxes. For instance, poetry and read alouds haven’t been given their own categories because I just picked from books here and there that we love.

There are lots of other subjects that we can attach on without it being a formal curriculum.

This is an overview of what I’m hoping our year will look like and the resources that we’re going to be using.

I’m really really excited to get stuck into using Sonlight for our group subjects this year.

It’s gonna take a bit of getting used to cause a little bit different from what we’ve done in the past. However, I’m very excited about the simplified aspect of it all.

Choosing Sonlight

Using Sonlight was a decision that took me a lot of thought. It was very very pricey, especially having it shipped to the bottom of the world here in New Zealand where I live.

However, when I thought about how little I spend on other curricula, which are either cheap or free, it made sense to invest in good books and literature for my kids. Plus, it’s a really solid curriculum that will hopefully reduce my workload.

Another reason I like Sonlight is that there are other curriculums out there like it but they call for a book list that heavily relies on local libraries.

Unfortunately, nine times out of ten my library has maybe one of the 50 books that are listed. This can be incredibly frustrating.

Well yes, it is expensive to have all of the books sent straight to me, it is really nice that I don’t have to go hunting for them and it’s all done. We just get to enjoy reading it all.

Those are our group subjects for 2023 homeschool and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in!

I’ll have updated posts on the independent work my kids will be doing this year as well. Plus, I plan on sharing how I’ll be setting up our day. I’ve tried several homeschool schedules now and plan on taking the best things from each to make ours truly ideal.