Welcome to our widely popular new project: The Sterling Spectacles Homeschool! Join the Sterling Family (as featured in the popular Sterling Spectacles book series!) as they take on the giant and exciting task of building their homestead from scratch. 

You will get to join them as they buy their property, think through electricity options and water sources, buying animals and building barns, planting a garden and preserving the harvest, cooking, baking, and so much more! And your family gets to learn along the way. 

Throughout the units, not only will you learn all about modern day homesteading, you will also find an emphasis on real life, real world skills that can be passed down to future generations. Let's dive into this exciting new project:

As homeschoolers, we want to provide our children with a rich, deep, and vibrant education. 

We want them to learn their multiplication tables and how to write a solid paper. We hope they fall in love with reading and learn biology.

But another huge part of my educational goals for my children is helping them to learn real world skills. To learn how to pick up a hammer and some nails and make something new. To know how to bake bread and start a garden. Real, essential skills that they can carry on to the next generation one day. We want their vibrant book learning to meet rich real world skills that engage their mind and their hands.

But, with so much of our focus going to those essentials of reading, writing, and arithmetic, it can feel so hard to be intentional about the rest. As a homeschooling mom of 7 kids, I know this challenge well. You can have the best intentions but it can be so hard to figure out how to fit these additional skills in, or even know how to teach them.

Unit #1: Hands-On Homesteading

Each unit is broken down into 12 weeks (or 12 lessons). It’s designed to easily fit in with all your other homeschool endeavors.

Each week features 2 parts: The first part is the teaching, which is your lesson for the week. It has about 2-4 pages to read together, it features a brand new Sterling Spectacles short story about the family settling on their homestead, and includes a real life video, bringing the lessons to life! You will also get access to the full audio version of the story AND the teacher's guide so if you just want to hit play and have Jason read it to everyone while you drink your coffee, you can do that too!

The second part to each week is your project. You will get a fun project to work on each week to really tie the learning together. For example, week #2 is all about building off grid, and you’ll get to make your own DIY solar panel! In our first aid lesson, you’ll get to make your own herbal salve.

We include step by step pictures along with the tutorial, a supply list, AND a video of our family doing that project. So if you want to set your kids up with the video and let them work on the project themselves, you can!

Our aim is to be able to go deep into these essential topics, but also engaging and fun while being soo easy on the parents. It would also work excellently in a co-op setting!

The student notebook will give you a coloring page and an additional project for the week that your kid can work on throughout the lesson!

Table of Contents: 

Week 1

• Lesson 1 - What is Homesteading?
• Project - Homestead Diorama

Week 2

• Lesson 2 - Homestead spotlight: The Off-Grid Homestead
• Project - DIY Solar Oven

Week 3

• Lesson 3 - Homestead spotlight: The Urban Homestead.
• Project - Small Container Garden (Mini Painted Pots) 

Week 4

• Lesson 4 - Homestead spotlight: The 2 Acre Homestead
• Project - DIY Seed Markers 

Week 5

• Lesson 5 - Homesteading Climates
• Project - DIY Weather Vane Craft 

Week 6

• Lesson 6 - Building on Your Homestead
• Project - Build a Mini Planter Box

Week 7

• Lesson 7 - Tools and Tractors
• Project - Build a Tool Box 

Week 8

• Lesson 8 - Work, Chores and Play for Kids
• Project - Homemade Soap

Week 9

• Lesson 9 - The Problem of Water
• Project - Water Filtration Experiment

Week 10

• Lesson 10 - The Problem of Shelter
• Project - Basic Lean to Shelter

Week 11

• Lesson 11 - First Aid
• Project - Herbal Salve 

Week 12

• Lesson 12 - You Can Be a Homesteader Too! (Tips for Self Sufficiency in Your Community)
• Project - Organize a Local Co-op or Farmers Market with Friends 

How it works:

The teacher's guide is all of your teaching for the 12 weeks. This is what you will read out of and guide the learning. You'll get access to the digital PDF (to print to read on any device you want, many people screen cast it to their TV), and you'll get the eBook version that Jason reads if you want to enjoy your coffee and let Jason do the reading for the day!

The Student notebook is meant for each individual student. With unit #1, you will get digital access to both the teacher's notebook and the student guide. Then you can print off as many student notebooks as you need (for your household). 

The student notebook is designed for students K-6th grade. It has some fun additional activities to reinforce your students learning. They work very well to have your students color in while they listen to the teaching. READ ON for older students. 

Download a sample of unit #1! You'll get access to all of Lesson #1 to try it out!

Download it here: https://sterlingspectacles.mykajabi.com/Unit-1-Lesson-1-Download-Sign-UP

Adult Version:

A fun addition to this new curriculum is the Adult Version! This version is designed for grades 7th and up and adult. If you are an adult who just wants to learn more about homesteading, this is for you. Or if you have a 7th-12th grade who wants to follow along, they can use the 7th-adult guide to follow along (it follows the same lessons). 

When you buy the digital curriculum, you get access to it all! You'll get:

• Teacher's Guide K-6th (older students will enjoy listening in as well)
• Student Notebook K-6th (Print out one notebook per student)
• Teacher's Guide 7th-Adult (This follows the same lessons as the student, just a bit more advanced and less cutesy kid looking)
• Student Notebook 7th-adult (Contains a homesteading planner and journal to actually plan out your homestead! Print out one notebook per student.)