There is no enrollment. We keep no records. We are not a school. We are just a curriculum resource. The curriculum is open and available for anyone to use. The parent is responsible for creating, maintaining, and providing records.
Click here to donate to Lee and her family. This is Lee’s income. Learn about their ministry.
Click here to make a donation to the site. This donation money goes to work expenses for curriculum and sites. Alternative to Paypal
Here’s the Shop Amazon link for EP. I get a bit from purchases made when you get to Amazon from this link.
This is my attempt at putting my children’s school assignments online. I wrote it to make it available to other families as well. While it has made our school days run very smoothly, my grander goal is to enable other families to homeschool, especially anyone feeling like they couldn’t because of time or money pressures. Other families use the curriculum because it gives them confidence in homeschooling. Others use it just because their kids love it! It’s easy for mom and fun (yet challenging) for kids.
My children (as of 2022) are 9, 11, 14, 17, 20, 22, so you can see we have plenty of years of schooling ahead of us.
This curriculum is great for anyone who needs/wants to save money or time. As for money, the curriculum is free. The materials are online and free. You will need to have basic school supplies such as paper and pencils, but it requires no books or major supplies. In this way it is also good for those living overseas who have limited means of access to English books. As for time, this is a way for your children to work independently and to free you from planning. There are EP families who are successfully using the curriculum while the homeschool parent is working, having health issues, or even in school themselves. If you serve overseas, you don’t need to put your kids in school so that you can learn the language; there is another option.
Your children will need access to a computer and the internet and to you! The children are often instructed to tell a parent or older sibling about what they just read. Be available or assign an older child to be available. Occasionally they may come to you and say they earned a high five or a hug. Please oblige! About once a week the kids also get a little something extra, just for fun, tucked into their school day.
The schoolwork is intended to be college preparatory. They will read challenging books and will always be reading something. Most of the books are chosen from the Robinson and Ambleside curricula. You can read the book lists and specific course descriptions on the individual course pages.
I have sought to make this curriculum comprehensive, but not intensive. The lessons are short, intended to keep the school day short. At one point I had three children doing school on one computer and they were able to take turns and finish before dinner without a problem. Also, children in the same age bracket (first through fourth -L- and fifth through eighth -M-) can work at the same time on half of their school day. My children spend their extra time reading, writing, exploring, experimenting, programming, drawing, creating, working, doing chores, helping others, and PLAYING!
This is a Christian curriculum. Most things are not overtly Christian, but I do point to the Bible from time to time in literature, science, history, etc. and seek to promote a biblical worldview. I also believe in a literal six-day creation. I do choose to use materials that talk about millions of years because it is what’s available, and it’s useful for our children to know what’s taught out there so they can be intelligent in a response to it. I do address it to varying degrees when it comes up.
The school year lasts 180 days because that is my state’s requirement. Beyond that I believe children should continue schooling the rest of the year with reading, experimenting, and exploring their interests and passions and the world.
I am not going to charge for use of the full online curriculum. If you are using this curriculum, please consider giving a donation. The books were not all created by me, so I can’t give them away. There’s also a considerable expense in getting them printed and shipped out, so they do have a cost, but we try to keep the price down.
Also, please consider following the blog (click on “follow” down below on the right-hand side bar) or joining our facebook page (choose “show in news feed”) to help me communicate with you. You can also join the Easy Peasy Facebook Support Group to get your questions answered and to connect with others using EP. They can help point you toward others in a similar situation to yours in our over 80 facebook groups.
Our Easy Peasy logo was created by: Leah Hendershot, leahshot at yahoo.com, facebook.com/leah.hendershot
In 2019 we started My EP Assignments, which is a new way to access lessons that tracks where the student is in each course and allows for building your own unique levels.
In 2020 I started putting up lots of Bible teaching apart from the regular curriculum.
My Learning to Read Philosophy
When you read, you use sight reading. You don’t sound out words. You see them and know what they say. That’s how you can read quickly. Phonics is a tool for reading words you don’t recognize. I teach my children the letter names and sounds, and then I teach them to read by sight words. It’s after that I teach phonics. Phonics is simple at that point because they can already read. All of this takes two years. I do this before they start “school” so that they can do “school” more independently and more effectively. All of my children so far are very successful readers and can read faster than I can, I who learned with phonics!
We have many testimonies from families that had great success with teaching to read with this method after having struggled with other programs. There are also a lot of EP four- and five-year olds out there reading on second and third grade levels.
******
I follow broad schedules I established before my firstborn could even walk, for what would be included in each grade level and a four year rotation through history and science themes. I use material that is available online for free. In some ways it’s true that what has materials gets studied, though I’ve made my own materials sometimes when I can’t find what I’m looking for. Beyond that I wanted to add that I am careful about what I teach my children and put before their eyes. There are many videos I didn’t choose when studying WWII for example because I didn’t want those images in front of their eyes, even if they are truth. I also don’t study false religion. My children know the basics about it, but you won’t find me teaching them about the gods of Ancient Egypt for example. They will know they had a false religion and worshiped other gods, but we don’t need to learn all of their names and what they looked like. It also makes me careful around things like Native Americans and their spirit guides, etc. Not all literature the children will read is pure in every way. But, that’s a way to talk about the world and choices and consequences and how we should react in certain circumstances…
My four-year rotation is:
- world history and biology
- early American history and animals
- geography and cultures with some history of each country and earth science
- modern American history and physics and chemistry
I grew up in a Christian home and have been following the Lord since I was 10. I never have had a time where I fell away from the faith. My family and I served the Lord overseas among Muslims from 2002 to 2016. I do not teach any denominational teachings. I believe that denominations fracture the body of Christ, so I consider myself only a member of the body of Christ. I believe in walking in holiness and the fullness of the Spirit. Overseas I’ve worked with everyone from Baptists to Pentecostals. I cannot be called by any label.
I try not to teach too much in the Bible curriculum, but at the same time there are things I want to point out to my own children using this. I try to ask questions and give them the reading to find their own answers, but I can’t help myself sometimes. I do try to hold my tongue when I know it’s a point where people disagree and have even put in, “Go ask your parents about what this verse means” instead of giving my point of view.
There are a couple things I do bring up repeatedly as it comes up in Scripture. I do warn about false teachers (Christian labels and appearance don’t automatically mean it’s from God) and the occult (supernatural signs don’t automatically mean it’s from God…) Another thing I teach repeatedly is living by faith. It’s something I’ve learned and am learning. I want my children and yours to know that God’s word is true and that they can take Him at His word. It’s the main theme as well of the novel I wrote, The King Will Make a Way. God is trustworthy and faithful and by faith He will save us in every sense of the word.
One final note about the Bible curriculum: I don’t have them read everything. For example, when I put up Sodom and Gomorrah, they read that it was destroyed because of their great sin, but they don’t read the part about what the people there did. And I stopped before Lot’s daughters decide they need his help to continue the family line. You can’t avoid it all; I mean, Jacob has twelve sons, but it’s not hard to skip over what happened to their sister Dinah.
Thank you thank you thank you. This is exactly what I need! You are being such a blessing to us.
I’m so glad! 🙂
Thank you so much for offering this for free!! I have to go back to work and this will make it so easy to be able to continue to homeschool. Thank you and God bless!
I am so glad you will be able to continue to homeschool.
Thank you so much! My daughter is 4 and I’m new to all this. You have made it so much easier. God bless you and your family!
Thank you so much for these plans and resources. I had no idea that some of these existed. I am “homeschooling” my daughter during the summer to fill in what I don’t see her getting from the Public School and to keep her mind fresh. This is extremely helpful to have it laid out day by day and with links to all the resources! I have ideas of what I want to teach her and what I want to have her practice but have struggled to know how to actually have a plan for each day, even though I do have my teaching degree.
My daughter will be in 4th grade in the fall. We have done a box curriculum up to this point. She has done an intro into World History. What year would you suggest we start with for her?
I cannot thank you enough for what you have done here! We are not able to spend the money to continue her current curriculum and have spent several weeks looking at free/ cheap curriculum and resources. I “had” to get back on the computer tonight and couldn’t explain why. The Lord took me directly to a link on facebook for you! What an awesome God we serve!
Only you can know what your daughter has already learned. Year 1 covers ancient history up through the middle ages and early explorers. The science for year 1 is biology–human body and plants. Year 4 is modern history starting after the Civil War. The science that year is physics and chemistry. You can choose either one. You can choose what’s new or choose what she’s interested in.
this is amazing, thank you!
You are welcome. It was a process getting here, but the Lord brought us to the point of being able to do this step by step. The first year was really tricky trying to figure out how to organize it all, but now it’s pretty smooth going and makes our own school days easy since I have everything planned and their assignments laid out for them so that they know just what they need to do, whether I’m napping or not 🙂
So excited about this English. HUGE blessing!! How do I join the site and get a password? Starting school on Monday. Just found this and we are switching a few subjucts to this cur.!!!
You don’t have to join, although I’m considering a forum in the future…but I’ll email you the password. I didn’t want to post it on the site.
This is FANTASTIC!! Started “getting ready 1” with my 2 and 3 year old and “getting ready 2” with my 6 year old. They LOVE it! I also started doing Khan Academy with my 10 year old and he enjoys it so much he asks for more “playing” time (usually getting him to do his math assignment is like pulling teeth, so this is HUGE!!). I cannot even imagine the amount of time you must’ve put into this. You are truly a blessing to our family and many others!! May God bless you immensely in return!!
I would love to have the password as well, if that’s okay! 🙂
Thanks so much for all that you have made available. I sent a message in the box above requesting the password. Many blessings to you and your family.
Veronica
Is there a way to make the McGuffey Reader any clearer? Sometimes we can read it pretty well magnified and other times it is too blurry to read. We are all loving your curriculum! Thank you so much!
Wow!!!! I have been prayerfully searching for a new routine for the last week or so. We are going to be moving out of the country to be full time missionaries and I will no longer have access to libraries. I’ve been a little stressed thinking about what to do!! I just discovered your site about an hour ago and cannot seem to get away from it. I believe this is my God-send!! You can’t even begin to imagine how excited I’m getting the more I read and look over it. I’m so grateful for the hard work you must have put into this!! I will be schooling my 6/7 grade girls and will look forward to the coming grades. Thank you ssooooooo much!!! You’re an answer to my prayers.
Are you going to Honduras? Our family has been overseas for more than 10 years. I know what it’s like to miss the library and to try and to have school books packed into everyone one of your ten suitcases 🙂
Yes we are!! So excited! We will be moving in about five months so its coming down to the wire!:) so you’re overseas now?! Where? Is it missions or military?
I just found about about this site. This is amazing!! Thank you for all you have done to help other homeschoolers!!
Oops! My typo! It should have read…I just found out about this site. I’m excited to start using it with my children! What a blessing and answer to prayer for me!
Thank you so much for all the time and energy that obviously went into this. I received a link from one of the forums that I belong to yesterday and when I checked it out I was amazed. My 17yr ds kept saying,”Someone put a lot of effort into this.” He was greatly impressed. My 3 yr ds is loving the abc things,he already knows them but he’s really enjoying all the videos and the alligator. My ^yr ds started on lesson 172 whispered and wanted to know if you could hear him read the words to you.:) If you do a forum I would love to join.
There is no forum yet. Some day… You can join us on facebook if you have an account. It has taken a lot of time to put the curriculum together. I work on it a lot right now, but it is just my children’s assignments. I used to write them out by hand for them to check off each day. I used to bookmark links for them to use each day. I realized I was just going to have to do it all over again. I wanted to put it in a format that I could use over and over. I purposely made the effort to make sure everyone could use it. I no longer download “freebies of the week” or whatever because I need to use things that will always be available to everyone. I have done things only for others like all of the phonics lessons. My family already had a phonics book, but I knew it needed to be part of the curriculum to be complete. It’s more work to make it available for everyone, but for all the work I put into making the assignments, I’m glad more than just my family can use it. (And super cute that your son was reading to me.)
He was excited that at the 2nd reading that he knew all the words. I’ll do the last when I’m done with this. I also wanted to tell you what an added blessing this is for me. Last year. I was in the hospital for 26 days and relied on my 2 wonderful teen boys to take care of the then 5 & 2 yrs. and the house. I’m much stronger now but am on o2 24/7 and some days my energy just isn’t there making talking let alone teaching too much. Knowing that this is here has just emotionally takes a burden off of the dreaded what if I get sick again?
Again thank you
You are someone I had in mind in working to make this available. I want people to be able to continue homeschooling despite life’s circumstances.
What a blessing you are the homeschool community!! Thank you so much for all the time and effort that obviously went into this curriculum.
This is just exactly what I needed!! I honestly cannot thank you enough.
This is an amazing curriculum. I was trying to do this for so long and now I have found someone who has figured it out for me. Thanks! I will pray about this and maybe try it soon. I’m definitely going to add it to my free homeschooling tab on my website.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to have found you. I am in the Dominican Republic, and am at my wits end. I work full-time online, and homeschool my 3 girls, my son is done.. and I am so overwhelmed with lack of resources here.. I can’t wait! Thank you so much! Thank you, Thank you!!!