Journal Me Organized was the first book I wrote and published through a publisher,
and it happened completely on accident. I was just dabbling in the world of bullet
journaling when this opportunity kind of dropped in my lap.
I was a total beginner, but I learned fast, and I am passionate about the message
that anyone can do this. If you have been feeling like there isn't a planner that
fits, it might be time to start thinking about making your own.
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Quick Facts
Format: Book
Focus: Getting started with bullet
journaling and personalized planning
Origin: Rebecca Spooner’s first
traditionally published book
Designed for: Anyone who feels like
standard planners don’t fit their life
Core message: Anyone can learn to build
a planning system that works for them
Pre-Reader: Designed for preschool and kindergarten ages.
Early Reader: Designed for emerging readers (or around 6-8 years old).
Early Elementary: Designed for 8-10 year olds or struggling readers/writers who need more support. Has minimal writing.
Upper Elementary: Designed for 10-13 year olds—requires sentence-length written responses.
Middle School: Designed for 13-15 year olds—requires paragraph responses and some guided research.
High School: Designed for 15-18 year olds—requires full page and essay responses, research, and personal reflection and application.
If you are between levels, we recommend leveling down in order to build confidence and focus on quality over quantity—especially if you are new to Gather 'Round. Each unit only lasts about a month, so you can always adjust as you go.
If you still feel lost, take the quiz here. This quiz is focused on the levels listed above.
If your student is younger or still struggling with basic reading and writing, select 3-6 years old on that quiz to help place them in our Letters and Numbers (PreK to K) or Ready to Read (K - Grade 1) Programs.
What about math or Fifty States?
Some of our other series have different levels. Take a look at what they mean for our mini units with levels below.
Level 1: Pre-Reader and Early Reader levels
Level 2: Early Elementary and Upper Elementary levels
Level 3: Middle School and High School Levels
Math levels can vary by unit. For example, measurement concepts are expected to be mastered by grade 6, so we slowed down and had our first two books both apply to the kindergarten level. Alternatively, Decimals and Percents are concepts not taught until older grades, so our youngest level starts at grade 4 for those two. That being said, most of our units follow the guide below:
Foundations: Kindergarten equivalent
Step 1: Grade 1 equivalent
Step 2: Grade 2 equivalent
Step 3: Grade 3 equivalent
Step 4: Grade 4 equivalent
Step 5: Grade 5/6 equivalent
Step 6: Grade 7-9 equivalent
Why some love digital:
Most of our units are available in both digital and print format. Some larger families prefer digital because they plan on recycling the units and using them over and over again or passing them down to younger siblings.
Digital:
Single Student Bundle: These bundles include one student notebook level of your choice and the Teacher's Guide. If you only have one student, select the digital format and then the level that best suits your student.
All (full family bundle): If you have more than one student, the full family bundle is your cheaper option. This bundle includes all levels of student notebooks as well as the Teacher's Guide . . . everything you need to get started.
*Digital is licensed for individual use only and cannot be shared outside your immediate family. Lessons can be taught only to students whom you are the legal parent or guardian of. If you want to do this unit with a group, it's easy! For small groups (such as friends or family), all we require is that each family own their own materials. For larger groups or groups that have money exchanged (such as co-ops, hybrids, or schools), we require printed materials—but we do offer a discount!
How your files are delivered: Your files will be available immediately after your purchase in your account right here on the website. They are in PDF format and locked to restrict editing in order to protect the integrity of the content. We recommend downloading and storing your files on your computer or a cloud storage service such as Google Drive or Dropbox for long-term access. You can use these digital files over and over again for your students, allowing you to redo units down the road in an older level!
Why some love print:
Most of our units are available in both digital and print format. Many of our families try print and never turn back for a few reasons:
Print is usually cheaper than buying digital and printing through a printing service. Even if you print at home using the cheapest ink, it is often cheaper once you consider paper, ink, and binders. None of this accounts for the time of setting it all up for all your kids on a monthly basis, and time is money, right?
Our print is also high quality and beautiful. We print on 32 pound paper. Our larger books (such as Teacher's Guides and full units) are coil bound with plastic (not wire) on the left and our smaller books are often printed as stapled booklets. We have an industrial printing press named Ivan that prints using ink—spraying over 1,000 dots per inch for vibrant color that is true to what you see on your screen!
What you need:
If you choose print, you will need to purchase a Teacher's Guide as well as one student notebook for each child.
In a nutshell
Gather 'Round is designed to be minimalistic, open-and-go, beautiful, and contextual so that learning is purposeful. It is Charlotte Mason inspired which means we focus on "less is more" and providing a feast of education.
How does this cover all subjects?
Our full units cover all your subjects but math. They are 20 lessons long and the Student Notebooks have 5 pages per day. We use contextual learning in Gather 'Round. This means that learning actually sticks! It might look like reading about a birds migration patters in the Teacher's Guide and then turning to an art lesson in the Student Notebook, a geography page, or even a Social Studies page about the difference between migration and immigration.
Mini units are less intensive. They usually only have 2 or 3 pages in the Student Notebooks and are more focused on that particular topic. Many families mix up full units and mini units to break up the year, reach certain topical focuses, or even add mini units on top of their regular units!
Math is covered through our Modular Math program, which goes from K-grade 9.
How long does it take?
Each lesson will take 30-60 minutes to read from the Teacher's Guide and then 1-2 hours to complete in student notebooks. Some families use the free video resources we have for our units to extend the lessons, while others move through it quicker so that they can add in their math or other electives. The time it takes can depend on the age of your students, the unit you are doing, and how many conversations you have or "rabbit trails" you take.
Gather 'Round Homeschool is a complete Christian curriculum that covers all your subjects for all your grades through inspiring topics you can fall in love with! It is open-and-go, Charlotte Mason inspired, minimalistic, and simple. Bring the family together and see just how amazing your homeschool can be!
Is it complete?
Yes! Many Gather 'Round families use this curriculum on its own for all their children and all their subjects—right through high school! We have testimonies of many grad students who have successfully made the leap to college or university, fully equipped to think for themselves and read the subtext of what is being presented.
That being said, we also have some families who choose to supplement based on their student's needs or because they have a curriculum that they just love and don't want to give up.
While there are some reviews online that question whether we are enough, it is important to note that those were often done in the early years when we were still a startup. We have created many more resources to help close gaps, beef up our content, and find the elusive balance between "enough" and "too much".
Our style is different, we focus on less quantity and more contextual learning—which can feel too simple especially if you are coming from a more traditional curriculum. However, many of our parents say that their students actually remember what they are learning and the results speak for themselves over time.
What do I need?
Choose a unit/topic that either interests you or meets a need (such as if you are working toward certain credits).
Purchase either the digital full family bundle (which includes both the Teacher's Guide and all levels of student books), the one student bundle (which includes the Teacher's Guide and one level of your choice), or the printed books. If you decide to go with our beautiful, high-end printed books . . . you will need the Teacher's Guide and one book for each student.
What do I need to add?
The units cover all of your subjects but math. Our Modular Math program is available to cover K-grade 9 math, but high school math is not yet available on our site (though we do have plans to create it).
Currently, you will need to get about 8 units per year along with about 8 math units per student in order to create a full curriculum year. Some families choose to add seatwork or our other Language Arts add-ons, fun holiday mini-units, and more . . . but these are not required.
How do I choose levels for multiple kids?
Our main units are designed to be used with the whole family. We have individual student books available in the following levels.
Pre-Reader: recommended for younger students who are not ready to read/write (preschool/kindergarten age)
Early Reader: recommended for emerging readers/writers (6-8 years old)
Early Elementary: recommended for students who are comfortable using a word bank to write some of their answers (8-10 years old)
Upper Elementary: recommended for students who are ready to write a sentence response (10-13 years old)
Middle School: recommended for students who are ready for paragraph responses and more personal application/light research (13-16 years old)
High School: prepares students to ask big questions, think for themselves, and apply topics to their own lives. This level is recommended for 16-18 years old and includes papers, essays, and more research.
Some of our units are shorter or more simplified into levels 1, 2, and 3. For these, Level 3 is designed for Middle and High, level 2 for Early Elementary and Upper Elementary, and Level 1 for Pre-Reader and Early Reader.
How Long does it take?
Each unit is designed to take about a month—which means you will never get bored! You get to create your year based on your students' interests, covering all your subjects for all your grades, through one cohesive program that all points to Jesus!
Each lesson is designed to take about 2-4 hours (depending on how many students you have, their ages, and whether you are completing the option rabbit trails or watching the resource videos available on our app). You will read the Teacher's Guide first to all students (which takes about 40 minutes to an hour depending on how many videos you show or the discussions you have) and then students will move to their student workbooks and complete their pages there.
Units that have 20 lessons can be done 5 days a week and therefore being completed in 4 weeks. Or they can be done 4 days a week and take a bit longer. Because of this, most families work through about 8 units in a year with breaks and co-op days mixed in.
How do you grade?
All of our units come with answer keys to help you mark your student's work. We have tried a bit of everything: including the answers in the Teacher's Guide, having them in the back of student notebooks, and eventually settling on including them in your downloads immediately after your order. You can use the answer key to help assign grades, but we recommend using a rubric for more accurate grading. To do this, you would assign points based on things like understanding (30%), completion (50%), effort (15%), and neatness (5%).
What is Modular Math?
Modular Math is our brand new math curriculum that covers K-grade 9 math—taking students all the way through Algebra 1. The units are topical and each step takes about 1 month. This means they can be used in either a mastery approach (staying on a topic and working on it through multiple levels) or spiral approach (completing one step of each topic throughout the year).
This program was created with steps instead of grades, allowing you to custom-tailor the program to your student without discouraging them with where they are at. It can be used as a remedial program or for gifted students who want to move faster.
Each day includes 2 pages. Day 1 teaches a new concept (and includes a devotional) and day 2 has practice that builds throughout the unit in a spiral approach.
All you have to do is take a placement test on a topic and jump in! It is open and go with no teacher's guide, no manipulatives or resources required, and written directly to the student so that they can work independently.
Yes, math can be this easy!
Is this accredited?
Curriculum itself cannot be accredited, only schools can. Accreditation means a school with qualified teachers, reporting, and grading that is following the government requirements for each grade.
That being said, Gather 'Round Homeschool curriculum can absolutely be used all the way through High School by you, the parent! Most schools use the Carnegie method to assign credits, this means that 120 hours of instruction in a topic = 1 credit.
We've made it super easy to you by training our very own Gather bot! All of our units cover such a wide variety of subjects that you can use the bot to help figure out how many credits have been covered (or will be covered) based on the units you have done or are planning on. We also have access to full high school plans, transcripts, and unit credit breakdowns on our high school page here.
What is the Online Academy?
The Online Academy is our new online school. We have about 600 students who tune in online to watch a lesson being taught live—complete with live polls, comments, reactions, and resources. Replays are also available for families who miss a class. Homework is assigned and families complete their student notebooks together—we are even looking at adding in grading and report cards!
There are currently three frequency options available (or three different levels of homeschool support):
One day a week (join us every Tuesday at 10am EST)
Two days a week (join us every Tuesday and Thursday at 10am EST)
Four days a week (join us Monday-Thursday for every single lesson!)
Currently, these lessons are being taught by the founder, Rebecca Spooner, though we hope to expand to hire more teachers and offer more class times and options in the future.
Gather 'Round is licensed for individual family use only (which means to a parent/guardian and the children they are legal guardians of).
If you want to use this in a small group (with your sister, friend, or a few friends), you will need to make sure that each person owns their own materials, as file sharing and copying (or teaching to student's outside your home) is not allowed.
If you want to use this in a co-op or hybrid model to a large group of students, we do require that you purchase print and sign an agreement stating that you will not photocopy or share. With this option, we also do have a group discount available. Learn more here.
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