About Me

Homeschooling during the early years.

Hi! Welcome to Curriculum Hound. My daughter and I embarked on our homeschooling journey together when she was four years old. It has been nearly twelve years now, and we are still at it. We have long used The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home by Susan Wise Bauer as our go-to guide for classical homeschooling. This includes following the four-year cycle for studying history and science.

As you may or may not know, the idea of the four-year cycle is to study history from the beginning. That means starting with ancient history and then studying medieval times, early modern history, and modern history in subsequent years. Students who begin the cycle in first grade will be able to repeat it three times by graduation. Each cycle allows students to learn the material in greater depth. Science is divided into life science, earth science and astronomy, chemistry, and physics. The divisions correspond with history by order of discover.

We adore the four-year cycle and hope to continue with it through graduation, but it turned out to be a little tricky to implement in the early years. There simply weren't (and still aren't) a lot of four-year cycle friendly resources available for young learners, particularly those that allow students to create meaningful output without copious amounts of reading and writing. I had to dig to what felt like the far depths of the earth to find hands-on activities for my daughter to complete at that age, and much of what I found, I had to modify.

The struggle to find accessible resources for my young daughter and my passion for helping others is what lead me to open Curriculum Hound via Teachers Pay Teachers in 2018. It's also what this blog is all about. While not all of my resources cater to the four-year cycle, many do. (Plus, there are many more on the horizon.) The custom categories in my Teachers Pay Teachers store make them easy to find. Simply click on the appropriate historical time period or science division. Regardless of whether your students follow the four-year cycle, you'll find my resources to be homeschool and classroom friendly.

If you happen to be a Girl Scout leader or your daughter is a Girl Scout, you may also be interested in my Growing Girls Scouting Helpers store. It sprang from a similar problem I faced as a Girl Scout leader. I couldn't find accessible resources for my Brownies to use in earning their badges.

My Educational History: I hold Bachelor of Journalism (Magazine Design) and Bachelor of Arts (Religious Studies) degrees from the University of Missouri - Columbia, Mo.

Why Curriculum Hound: The name very much encapsulates how I feel when I'm on the trail sniffing out the best curricula and books for my daughter each year. It's also a nod to our late pooch, Sweetpea. Although she wasn't a dachshund as depicted in my logo, she was the third member of our homeschooling class for many years.