Connecting Subjects to Encourage Learning

This resource will help you connect subjects to enhance your children's home school experience. Connecting subjects helps your children identify connections in the world around them. It also allows you to find creative ways to introduce new subjects and help your children enjoy learning about subjects that might not be their favorites. You can use this resource for children in all grade levels (including multiple children at once), and you can use it year after year.

Grade Level(s):

This resource can be used to create connected learning activities for home school students in all grade levels.

Why to Use:

Use this resource to create multi-purpose learning activities that connect both related and unrelated subjects. Connecting subjects has both short-term and long-term benefits. In the short-term, it allows your children to practice a number of skills at once, which is also beneficial when you home school multiple children. It can also help make disliked subjects more enjoyable. For example, if your child is less interested in writing but enjoys research, blending these together can help facilitate a new appreciation (or at least a tolerance) for writing. 

In the long-term, connecting subjects helps your children understand how each of the skills and topics they are learning fits into a larger context. This will be invaluable as they continue their learning journeys throughout their lifetimes.

How to Use:

This resource is designed to be added to your home school planner as a supplemental planning tool. If you don’t have a home school planner, it can also be used separately. 

First, list the subjects you are including (or want to include) in the home school year. List new subjects in one column, then list subjects you’ve already covered as ‘Liked,’ ‘Neutral,’ or ‘Disliked’ based on your child’s preferences.

Next, combine the subjects you listed in the previous step. A guideline for building connected learning activities is to combine disliked subjects with liked or neutral subjects, while mostly avoiding putting two disliked subjects together. The primary subject can be new or disliked, while the secondary and tertiary subjects should be selected based on the need for additional practice. To avoid overwhelming your child, avoid combining multiple new skills into one learning experience.

Finally, review the list of lessons in your curriculum or the common core skills that are guiding your school year to come up with learning activities that connect primary subjects with secondary and tertiary practice subjects. You can also create connected activities on your own, and we provide some examples at the end of this resource.

When to Use: 

Use this resource with your regular monthly or weekly planning. Incorporate connected activities into your daily home school schedule to add depth to learning experiences and help your child see the connections between topics and skills. 

Parent-Educator Tips:

This resource is designed to take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete initially. You can also add ideas for connecting subjects as you think of them or as part of your regular planning.

This resource is about being creative with how you approach learning. A key benefit of home school is the flexibility to present material and engage with your children in fun and unique ways. There is no right or wrong combination. Use your instincts to find balance; and, if you have a creative idea that you think might work, give it a try!

Connecting subjects is also a great way to combine the learning needs of multiple children. For example, if you are studying botany, plant identification can be easily adapted for different grade levels by having a younger child focus on collecting different types of plants, a middle-grade child focus on labeling the parts of each plant, and an upper-grade child identify and research each plant.

As your children grow, ask them for ideas about connecting subjects. Invite them to share their ideas in their daily log or at the end of the term.

Please note: All of our resources are for the purchaser’s use only. While we encourage you to use all of our resources as many times as you want to (including year after year), we ask that you do not provide copies to other people.