How do you create a homeschooling curriculum that captivates and educates? Join us for an insightful conversation with CJ from Homeschooling Through High School, who shares her experiences with the flexible and comprehensive resources provided by Guest Hollow. CJ offers a firsthand look at how she successfully navigates history, science, and government lessons for her three children using Guest Hollow's varied materials, including literature, videos, crafts, and recipes. She highlights the personalized support from Guest Hollow's creators and explains why she finds their curriculum a perfect fit for different learning styles.
Get ready to explore the fascinating world of high school geography and cultures with our thorough review of Guest Hollow's dedicated curriculum. Multiple authors contribute to this rich educational resource, ensuring diverse perspectives on geography concepts, geopolitics, and ethnic foods. Supplemented with interactive tools like board games and online map skills games, this curriculum is both engaging and educational. Tune in to discover why this curriculum has become a favorite among homeschooling families and how it adds an enjoyable twist to learning complex subjects.
How do you create a homeschooling curriculum that captivates and educates? Join us for an insightful conversation with CJ from Homeschooling Through High School, who shares her experiences with the flexible and comprehensive resources provided by Guest Hollow. CJ offers a firsthand look at how she successfully navigates history, science, and government lessons for her three children using Guest Hollow's varied materials, including literature, videos, crafts, and recipes. She highlights the personalized support from Guest Hollow's creators and explains why she finds their curriculum a perfect fit for different learning styles.
Get ready to explore the fascinating world of high school geography and cultures with our thorough review of Guest Hollow's dedicated curriculum. Multiple authors contribute to this rich educational resource, ensuring diverse perspectives on geography concepts, geopolitics, and ethnic foods. Supplemented with interactive tools like board games and online map skills games, this curriculum is both engaging and educational. Tune in to discover why this curriculum has become a favorite among homeschooling families and how it adds an enjoyable twist to learning complex subjects.
Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my Curriculum, a series where we talk all about curriculum. I've been interviewing homeschooling families for over a year now on my main podcast, the Homeschool How-To, but I really wanted to zero in on curriculum. There's so much out there. How do I know what would work best for me and my child? How do I know what works for one child would work for the other? I might like the curriculum I'm using now, but how do I know there's not a better one out there, especially if I don't know all the curriculums? And what about supplemental curriculum? Should I be using that too? This series is to help you decide just that. I'm going to interview parents who are using all the curriculums so that you can decide the absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey. The absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey.
Speaker 1:
Welcome and with us today on our curriculum series. I have CJ with Homeschooling Through High School. Hi, cj, thank you for joining us. Hello, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. So you're going to talk today about Guest Hollow, which I have not heard of. So I'm really excited to hear about this curriculum.
Speaker 2:
Yes, for sure. I have been using Guest Hollow for just a couple of years now and I cannot recommend them enough, so I'm happy to speak about their company.
Speaker 1:
All right, let's get into first how many children you have that you are homeschooling.
Speaker 2:
Okay, so I have three that I've been homeschooling since kindergarten, and my oldest will be entering 11th grade, and then I have another entering high school, so that's my second child. She will be entering ninth grade and I still have one in middle school and she will be entering ninth grade, and I still have one in middle school and she will be entering the eighth grade. So I have tweens and two teens, or actually now three teens, because she just celebrated a birthday, my youngest.
Speaker 1:
Oh, so you've been at this a while. Huh, yes, I'm so curious. I should have you back on the main podcast to just talk about what got you into homeschooling and all that, because I'm thinking of all these questions now and I'm like, nope, we're on the curriculum series, so I'm trying to redirect. But that's cool, I will come back. Awesome, all right, why don't you tell us what ages, uh, you use guest hollow for?
Speaker 2:
okay. So I started when my youngest was in the sixth grade and my next was in seventh and my son was entering high school, so he was in the ninth grade and guest holo is good for even some elementary ages. They do have some history and science and language arts for those ages and stages. But I personally used it when my kids were in middle school and my oldest was entering high school.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so we're not looking at the elementary level a little bit older, middle and high. What subjects does Guest Hollow cover?
Speaker 2:
Wow, they have a plethora. The majority is in history and science and I have used so far their world geography and cultures. And I have used so far their world geography and cultures. I've also dabbled in their american history, which they just released. A little kids early american history to walk alongside their junior edition in high school, so that just means that you can teach family style, because now they have all grade ranges for that. I I have dabbled in their chemistry in the kitchen and I am going to be using their government and economics and personal finance course coming up this upcoming year Boy, if that's something that kids need.
Speaker 1:
I'm just thinking of you know my sister's kids all graduating from high school and they are taking out loans here and there and buying a car and selling a car. I'm like, oh my God, they don't. I'm just thinking of the closing costs and all the taxes associated with it. They don't see that Exactly. So important. So, okay, what about this curriculum? Makes you happy using it? Have you used other curriculums? What sets this one apart?
Speaker 2:
all right. So I have a long list. Gather my notes quickly. I have a long list of why I prefer I highly suggest guest hollow, and I have to begin with their customer service. So I cannot speak highly enough of the customer service. I feel that that really enhances a company. Obviously, we all want great customer service, so if that could be the first thing that I mentioned, it would be that they are a mom and pop operation. You will actually feel as if you are part of their family. They answer in record time Whenever you have a question. They're very active on their Facebook accounts and they really listen to what the customer is asking of them or requests or suggests. So I'll start with customer service.
Speaker 2:
Now, as far as the curriculum is concerned, their curriculum to me is stellar and it involves a plethora, or a buffet, they like to say, of videos and great literature, nonfiction and fiction videos and great literature, nonfiction and fiction, classical literature videos, arts, youtube videos I mean a bunch of things, crafts, recipes and the buffet allows you to kind of pick and choose from their suggestions Some recommended things, of course, but pick and choose to kind of customize it for your family, and it's not a dry history course we're talking about here. It's not a dry chemistry course or any of their other subjects. It's very, very rich and there's a little bit of everything in the curriculum for each family's learning style and preference, I feel, and so my kids have enjoyed it thoroughly. It can appear to be a little overwhelming when you first look at it. Right, just with anything new.
Speaker 2:
I remember when I looked at it first I thought I was going to have a heart attack. It was a bit much. But as you dive in and you see that the authors walk you through exactly how to use the curriculum, like word for word, and then you go and you visit the message boards and you see that the authors are answering questions and I when I say in record time, I mean it is, you know, within an hour, sometimes minutes. Right, then you can appreciate using this curriculum and not feel so overwhelmed because you have the support from the owners because you have the support from the owners.
Speaker 2:
So you're saying it's not AI answering your questions? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, not, not at all, not at all. You're getting that. You are getting the, the author of the curriculum, and then which is the wife? And then you are getting the husband that is diving in and answering in record time. You know now, mind you, if you ask a question in the middle of the night, you might not get a response, because you know we all need to rest at some point, but they are timely. They are timely and I don't work for the company. I've never met them, you know. I just I cannot speak enough about this curriculum.
Speaker 1:
Now can you walk me through what a day, or you know a couple of days in your week looks like doing that like from morning till evening with the kids, because I feel like that's that was my issue. I didn't know what homeschooling looked like. People would talk about their curriculum or the playing outside and I was like, but I still don't get, what does it look like? So I try to paint that picture for the audience.
Speaker 2:
Right, no problem. And are you? You're still referring to this particular curriculum, right?
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Okay.
Speaker 1:
I mean, you can add in like what, what you add in for supplements? You know, if you add in a supplement, you can throw that into your walkthrough as well.
Speaker 2:
So for world geography and cultures, we would start with a sitting together at the dining room table. I had my ninth grader and, at that particular time, my seventh grader. They were using the same curriculum because at that moment, guest Hollow didn't have a junior's edition, and so I would pick and choose some different things from the high school version to then share with my youngest, who was in sixth grade at the time. So from there, we would all sit down and there's an online workbook that we would use together and some of the items in the online workbook excuse me, textbook my youngest would not be involved in, but the older two would. So we'd go through the textbook and in the textbook online there are embedded links, youtube links and in the textbook online there are embedded links YouTube links mainly, sometimes articles, and we would read through that together to a certain point. Then, from there, I would assign them assignments for the week and they would, on their own time because I taught them at a young age to be in control of their time and their workload they would sit and go through the workbook, go through the online text, go through the books, the assigned books that are to be read and the pages, and they would work through all of those things together, unless we had a recipe of sorts or some small craft that we did together and that my son told me. That would take him about an hour over a spread of three to four days, and then we would regroup a week later. Sometimes we did it twice a week, but for the most part we would regroup a week later and did it twice a week, but for the most part we would regroup a week later, and then we would come back and just talk about what we learned, go through the workbook, do the you know right and wrong answers, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:
There were some quizzes available through the TED talk videos. Some of the videos were TED talks, so that was very interesting and we would um go over the quizzes for that. Some of the videos were more information, you know, uh, informational videos, and so we would go over specific notes for that, because I would have them take notes on the videos that they watch, not anything extensive, but little bullet points, um, and we would review some of that. I would do some read alouds, because in the curriculum there are there's a lot of books, a lot of books, and they're ranked with rankings of one to two, three to four. So number one and number two books would be highly recommended, and so sometimes, depending on the book, I would read it aloud. Sometimes they would read it on their own, and that would be a typical week. There are also some let's see big box movies that were in the curriculum, and sometimes we would use those movies and watch them as a family for family movie night.
Speaker 1:
Oh, how sweet. Okay, so how much does this curriculum cost? It sounds like there's a lot involved to it.
Speaker 2:
Yes, so the current one that I'm referring to, the world geography and cultures curriculum with the schedule, is $47. And just a note on that, there are several sales throughout the year and so that could be cut down with cost, but $47 for the curriculum and it is a PDF as well as a Word document, as well as the other one I forgot what the other one is. That is available, but it comes in three formats, and so that is available. However, you want to use that particular schedule as well as the workbook that you can print, so PDF and document.
Speaker 1:
Okay. So when you were saying, the books that you read, where do you get those? Would you get them from the library, okay. So when you were saying the books that you read, where do you get those, would you get them from the library?
Speaker 2:
Okay. So a lot of the books you can get from the library, depending on your location. I just did an extensive search for the government, economics and personal finance that we were just chatting about by Gastalo, and many of those books are at the library and then some aren't. So I just searched online bookstores and that sort of thing. Um, used bookstores and got those shipped to me. So, you, those would be books that you can purchase, but a lot of people find them on line for free, whether it's a purchase through Kindle, which I guess that's not free, but, um, there are other resources online that you can get online. You can get books online for free and read them, and so, yeah, there's a variety of ways to obtain the books. But it is an extensive book list, especially the world, geography and cultures. There's a lot of books that it entails, which I feel just makes the curriculum that much richer.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. So once you get past the hurdle of where do I find these and is it going to cost me money to get all of them? You're hearing different authors put this information together, so that does have to be. You're not just getting one narrative in it, so I love that idea. We often don't get that. You know when you go to school, whether it's public or private, you're getting a textbook that was written by pretty much one person or one publishing company, so that's really cool. So what does it cover for geography? Are you getting like world history from, like from the beginning, and you know the whole world? When I think back to my history class, you know they teach a US history and like the Incas and Mayans, but there was probably some other stuff in there. I didn't pick up on it. What does it cover in that arena?
Speaker 2:
OK, so this high school world geography and cultures curriculum covers geography, concepts, geopolitics, people and the animals that are in the world, countries, the culture, a little bit of world history so that you can understand some of the current events that are brought up ethnic foods and things like that.
Speaker 1:
Oh, that's cool. So does it have you cooking? And you talked about chemistry in the kitchen, so that sparked my interest there. Oh, that's cool. So does it have you cooking? And you talked about chemistry in the kitchen. So that sparked my interest there?
Speaker 2:
Yes, it does. This curriculum has you cooking for sure. It's a lot of fun, a lot of fun. A lot of map skills are in there as well.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, Now do you add supplemental things to the curriculum to fill in any gaps?
Speaker 2:
What I found in all of the Guest Hollow curriculum that I have used. Is that anything that I could have thought that I could add as a supplement? They already did it and so they have just done yes, they have done their research. Let me tell you, on finding all of the fun extras, there are board games in there.
Speaker 2:
There's an online map skill game that I don't know you could look at it as if it's a video game, but it's really not. Get it as if it's a video game, but it's really not and so it teaches you map skills and where, where, um, the different cities are that are in these countries, and so you're, you know, you're moving around, like, oh, this is do, do, do, do, do, do, do. So that's fun for you know, the, the child who likes something a little bit more interactive and that is more online, whereas you might have, like my daughter, she loves to read, so she's more of the book person, you know. And so, um, the only thing that, yeah, I can't think of anything that I that I added to this. They had passports, they had sticker options, um, maps, globes, all sorts of things. So I'm going to say no, okay.
Speaker 1:
Did you say that they also have a math curriculum with this as well? No, there's no math curriculum. Okay, so you, you do add in math for your kids. Um, any other subjects that you have to add in? Okay?
Speaker 2:
I see what you're saying. Yes, this is strictly a history um history curriculum that I'm referring to as far as world geography and cultures and then so it's a subject Right, and then I do have to add the language arts or if there's an elective like Spanish, or Bible or science, or what have you?
Speaker 1:
Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, but no, that's great to know that you don't have to add any curriculums to fulfill the history and geography part, and economics you said that it covers that as well.
Speaker 2:
Yes, so this coming year they have a government economics and personal finance curriculum that I will be using, or I should say subject right, that's on their website that I'll be using awesome, all right.
Speaker 1:
So do your children like doing this curriculum? What do they like about it?
Speaker 2:
yes. So I believe that their favorite part of this curriculum was the geography now videos that went along with this subject course, and I think it was just the deliverance of those videos, as well as some of the other videos that are intertwined into this world geography course. They really enjoyed the videos a lot. Course they really enjoyed the videos a lot. And the um. Let's see the there are. There's a lot of um tabletop books that you can display. They're just beautiful and they're just really big. You put it on you know your favorite um table and display them. And those books I'm thinking of the one for France, I'm thinking of another one I can't recall the name, but when you open it up it's you know. They're about 11 by 14, the size of the book and they're just gorgeous. The photos are gorgeous. We really enjoyed looking through some of those books as well. The pictures were just, you know, just makes you want to travel to these different continents and different places, oh awesome.
Speaker 1:
And is this um a secular curriculum, does I mean? It's history.
Speaker 2:
So you, you must talk about the different religions yes, so they share this as being neutral because, yes, there's um quite a bit of secular items in there and then you have to talk about religion, because that's part of history and especially when you enter, you know you exit the United States and you go elsewhere. There's a lot of different religion out there and so it's more neutral. Now for the person who is religious and wants to add on um religious books, they do have some options there and they also have um some videos and that sort of thing, and they make it very clear these books are for those of you who are Christians that want to add on, or some of the books that they recommend are Christian, and they just they just make it very clear that if you are of a secular stance, then maybe you want to skip these books or skip this particular video, wow. But in general, the curriculum is neutral.
Speaker 1:
They really thought of everything.
Speaker 2:
Everything, yes.
Speaker 1:
Well, thank you so much, CJ. Can you tell people where to find you?
Speaker 2:
Yes, thank you for that. You can find me at homeschooling through high school and that is my YouTube channel, as well as Instagram. I operate the YouTube channel a little bit more and on Instagram I plug in a few things here and there from my YouTube channel, which is primarily for the homeschooling family that is interested in middle school and high school. I have a little bit. A little bit of everything on there. I love to encourage, I love to answer questions, I love to share what we are doing as far as our curriculum is concerned and how the school year is going, and then I share just a little bit of this and that. You know, the other day I did an Amazon haul for a not Amazon haul for where you can find books, so online bookstores other than Amazon.
Speaker 1:
So sometimes I do some fun things like that every now and then a vlog or two, but yeah, mostly for the homeschooling family who would like to have a little bit of encouragement, especially in the teen years Awesome, I'm going to put a link to your YouTube channel in the show's description and I do invite you to come back onto the main podcast just to walk us through kind of what got you into homeschooling and how it has gone, because I love hearing the perspective from the mom who started with the kindergartners and now has high schoolers Like it is possible.
Speaker 2:
It is possible and I never saw this coming, but I'm so happy to be in this season. I really am.
Speaker 1:
Awesome. I look forward to having that chat with you. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much for listening. Please consider sharing this podcast, or my main podcast, the Homeschool how To with friends, family on Instagram or in your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. The more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it going and the more hope we have for the future. Thank you.
