Are you curious about The Precious People curriculum for older elementary aged homeschoolers? This review shares our first few weeks with the curriculum, how I’m organizing the materials, and our thoughts so far.
Watch The Precious People Review on YouTube!
When I chose to switch up curriculum this coming school year, I struggled with what curriculum to use that would feel slow and steady and yet challenging enough for my middle kids. I happened upon The Peaceful Press in the spring, and was impressed with The Peaceful Preschool (Read my Review of The Peaceful Preschool here.) After getting a free sample of The Precious People, I decided this was exactly in lines with the gentle, Charlotte Mason style approach I wanted to take with school this year.
Get a FREE SAMPLE of The Precious People!
Related podcast: Making Major Changes in Your Homeschool
The Precious People is a world history survey with elements of church history, art study, copywork, and good old fashioned family activities and read alouds. The download for the curriculum comes with several files: The Parent’s Guide, Readings, Student Sheets, Recipes, and you can add on the Saints Cards and Timeline Cards as well.
Check out The Precious People here!
I chose to send the The Parent’s Guide and the Readings off to The Homeschool Printing Company to be printed, covered, and spiral-bound. I printed the Art prints at home and laminated them, and will be doing the same with the Saints and Timeline cards.
Get the laminator I use HERE:
After much contemplating, I decided to do this curriculum first thing in the morning as a Morning Basket daily activity as the author suggests. I wanted to incorporate some other Charlotte Mason lessons into the plan as well, and I wanted to include all my children in most of the curriculum. That means everyone from age 3 through 17 gathers at the table to start the day out! It was a little rocky at first, but after a couple of weeks of tweaks, it all worked out seamlessly!
READ: Making Morning Time Easy
READ: Morning Basket Time with Multiple Ages
Like the other Peaceful Press curricula, The Precious People has a Supplies List, a Weekly Lesson Grid, and then a Daily Schedule in the Parent’s Guide. These are a guideline, not a rule or written in an order you must follow without deviation. In fact, I often switch things around, remove entire lessons, and add in other things to suit my style (as you will see from the sticky notes scattered throughout my daily lesson plans!). That said, you can simply use the curriculum “as is” and never touch a thing.
I mention in my video review of The Precious People that some activities may seem beneath your older kids, and you can choose to simply put those at the end of Morning Time and dismiss your older children before you continue with your younger crew, or remember that sometimes even “little kid” activities can be fun for older children! My older kids love to reminisce about when they did some of these activities years ago, and as I mentioned in my review of A Year of Playing Skillfully, my middle children missed out on a lot of these “little kid” activities and I have enjoyed giving them some of that childhood back.
In the grid above, you’ll see that the Bible reading comes from The Gospel Story Bible. This devotional is definitely too young for my 12 – 17 year olds, so I chose to put the Bible reading at the end of Morning Time, so I could dismiss them and send them off to do their own Bible Study. You can see the order I have chosen for activities on the sticky notes in my Daily Lesson Plans below:
These sticky notes also include the other Charlotte Mason elements I have added into our Morning Time. If you are doing the curriculum without a lot of variety of ages, you can follow the order in which it is written, but I needed to change things up to accommodate my older kids. You may also want to split things between a Morning Time and an Afternoon Tea Time or do it all in the afternoon like I talk about in my book Flexible Homeschool Planning.
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Flexible Homeschool Planning$10.00
I did not chose to flag this curriculum the way I did The Peaceful Preschool. Instead, I just have the paper clip (from my Grace Notes Scripture Memory Subscription) to hold my place in the book. You could flag the weeks to make it a little easier to find your place, but I still recommend using a paper clip to keep track of where you are in the daily lessons.
What I love about The Precious People curriculum
*It’s open and go. There is very little planning that needs to be done. The supplies list rarely includes anything but household supplies you probably already have on hand. The only reason I have any real planning to do with this curriculum is because I’m adding in extra things like Shakespeare and Hymn Studies, so that’s on me.
*There are lists of books to help stretch the curriculum for multiple ages. I use the book list to give my older kids books to read to supplement what they are learning, and there are books for all the other ages as well. I like that Jennifer thought to include these!
*The recipes! One of my favorite parts of the curricula from The Peaceful Press are the recipes you get to make as a family!
*The gentle and relational approach to schooling this curriculum takes. I have never been much for rigor in our homeschool. I believe the best education comes from long conversations and engaging with the material being taught. The Precious People does just that.
Don’t buy The Precious People if…
*You want a boxed curriculum with all subjects and books included. If you need everything delivered to your doorstep, this is not the curriculum for you. You will need to add in Math, Phonics, and potentially some Science. It is a pdf download, so you will need to either use it from your device or print it out or send it off to be printed. No books are included, so you either need to borrow or buy the suggestions (and you do not need to use only their suggestions – the curriculum does not depend on a certain book being used). I found some great deals on many of the books at Amazon, and you can get many of these titles at your local library.
*You don’t like downloadable curriculum. Although this curriculum is VERY printer friendly (other than the Art Study pages), not everyone likes pdf’s. However, the price is right ($49), and for just a bit extra, you can have it bound like I did.
*You don’t want any extras this coming school year. You might be in a place where you need to focus solely on Math and Phonics. If that’s where you are, then I recommend you spend your money and energy there, and wait a bit to add in anything else.
*You want a rigorous homeschool schedule. The Precious People is not the curriculum for you if you are looking for a lot of memorization, writing, and deep studies of world history and the church. It’s more like an introduction or survey, and is more focused on relationships and activities than rigorous seatwork.
Learn more about The Precious People here!
Frankly, I am very excited to have found this curriculum, and the more we dig in, the more I like it! The children have really taken to it, and just feels like a good fit for the slower pace I wanted to take this year. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, and I’ll do my best to answer or point you in the right direction!
Anne says
Hey Amy,
We are in our first couple years of homeschooling. My two oldest are 6 & 5. They are beyond the peaceful preschooler, though still learning to read. I really like the playful pioneer. It is really my style, and might be what we need as we are still trying to get into the structure and rhythm of homeschooling. I don’t want a curriculum that is so much stuff I get overwhelmed and quit it all. My question is, can the playful pioneer only be used for one year or do they have enough material or even more than one curriculum for this age to do it for multiple years?
Amy says
I chose not to do The Playful Pioneer this year (I’ll probably go to it next year), but I have heard you can do it for 2 years very easily.
Serita Watkins says
So glad you did this review! I am in the thick of planning and trying to decide between Pioneers and People for this year! I have 1st. 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th graders ( plus a 3yr old, 2 yr old and newborn) My middle schoolers like their independence and momma still wants a little together time before high school. Being together, reading aloud, discussing and doing copywork and illustrated narrations has been my favorite parts of the day! I have been concerned that I need to get everyone more independent though since I have so many littles so I love seeing that you are doing it anyway!
Amy says
Everything they do after morning time is on their own, so they are getting plenty of that little nudge, but we also get to start our day as a family – which is the best part of homeschooling!
Tar says
I’m curious about the saints as part of this study. Is it catholic?
Amy says
I was wondering that same thing when I was first looking at it, so I emailed Jennifer (the author) and she said it is not catholic. That part of the curriculum is early church history much like the book Trial & Triumph.
Kate says
Hey Amy! I was just curious why you decided to change from Tapestry of Grace…Ive been researching curriculums for my young elementary kids and have been considering TOG Primer, can you tell me what you didn’t like about TOG?? Or why I didn’t work for your family? I realize you probably didn’t use the primer but Im curious why you have decided to switch!
Amy says
Hi Kate! I needed a break after years of using TOG. I knew a move was in our near future, and I just needed to use something different – call it burn-out-prevention if you will. 😉
MacKenzie Limesand says
We’re an ambleside online family normally but I want to wait a bit before starting my third grader in year 4 even though we school year round. My one question is that it looks tied into a calendar. Would it be odd to use it starting in March/April? Either at the beginning or just whenever that part of the curriculum is and finishing then moving on to beginning to complete the year?
Amy says
While it won’t flow quite as nicely, we did just that. We started it in the summer and then saved some projects for Christmas. But honestly, you could call it Christmas in July! 😉
April says
Curious how you have liked the curriculum now that you have used it for awhile. I actually have it in hand and still have a little bit of a hard time seeing what we will actually cover. Do you think this is a good option for 7th/8th, 5th, 3rd, 1st with additional booklists if I am wanting a year if ancients with a biblical perspective? So many wonderful options out there hard to decide! 🙂
Amy says
Hi April! We have really enjoyed The Precious People! I do have to say I wish there was more in-depth history, but frankly, I was looking for a bit of a break, so I’m ok with this “gap year” gentle approach to history. I would call this curriculum more of a survey of history. It’s a great Morning Time resource and could easily be supplemented for a meatier history.
Hope Bussell says
Would it work to add in a few mire history books from a list like from Tapestry, Beautiful Feet, etc, or is that too much?
Amy says
Yes, you could definitely do that!
Courtney says
Hi Amy, I’m considering purchasing the Playful Pioneers for my son’s first grade year. My only hesitation is the cost once I get all the books. I haven’t had much luck with their availability at my library and trying to find them all on discount sites seems tedious. What am I missing? How do you use the curriculum without breaking the bank on the book list? Thanks!
Amy says
Hi Courtney! I have not done Playful Pioneers yet, but I have done almost all of the others. I was able to get quite a few of the books listed via Inter-Library Loan (does your library have that program?). I also did not use ALL of the books and purchased the ones I really thought I would want. I was also able to substitute books because it’s the topic more than the actual content you are teaching on. Your core is going to the be the Little House books – everything else is icing on top.
Sarah says
Hello! I am confused/overwhelmed by the booklist, it seems so big! I know I might be able to find some books at the library but our library is usually not very reliable source. I am wanting to use this mostly for history is there a way to know which books are a must have for the history element.
Amy says
Hi Sarah! Go to The Precious People Facebook group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/364889640704573 Everyone has really great insight and can help you figure out exactly what you need.
Brooke Hopkins says
Good morning, I’ve been looking into this curriculum for this year and was trying to budget for all that we’ll need. I am curious if you knew, for the Precious People how many pages in both the teachers manual and students sheets there are so I can have an idea for printing costs. Thank you so much for you help?? Or do you know about how much you spent in printing.
Thank you so much for any help!
Amy says
The Parent Guide is around 250 pages. I don’t usually have anything else printed.
Mariana Torres says
Hi Amy!
I’m looking into using the Kind Kingdom curriculum I purchased as our Morning time and came across your post. Do your older kids then go and continue their studies after morning time or is this pretty much all you are doing with them? I already have something else I use for my 10 year old for grammar and history, but she wants to also be involved with this, which I love!
Amy says
Hello! Yes, my older kids continue their studies (independent work) after Morning Time. You can find a lot of posts here on Raising Arrows about our Morning Time and Independent work. Just type it into the search bar and enjoy the ride! You won’t regret for a second that your older kids joined you! And Kind Kingdom is so much fun!