The Wild Learner

One of the tremendous challenges for homeschooling families is finding suitable curricular resources. In jurisdictions with stringent requirements for student progression, choosing resources acceptable to the authorities remains key to successfully navigating the bureaucratic elements of the homeschool experience. However, even in rigid environments, homeschooling families frequently utilize a wider variety of materials, with a learner-centered focus, than a traditional school environment provides.

During the Covid-19 pandemic immediate response in Spring 2020, many tremendously valuable curricular resources became suddenly available. These resources may or may not continue to be readily available, and in some cases, there may be substantial costs to maintaining access to them. However, the richness of materials that suddenly flooded the internet has been priceless for our family, and many of the items shared on this website, or that we have adopted, only recently became available.

We select curriculum in both English and French. We try to use resources from a variety of sources, and you’ll find links to sites that are Canadian, French, British, American, Belgian and more on thewildlearner.com. As a result, I’ve had to learn a bit about the grade equivalencies for primary education across a number of jurisdictions. Here’s a chart that illustrates some of the equivalents at the primary level:

Knowing these equivalencies helps in selecting appropriate materials in the event that a placement exam for a particular resource is not available. We’re currently starting cycle 2, year 1 (grade 3) under the Quebec progression of learning requirements. On our Learning Resource page for AY2020/2021, the linked materials are specific to that grade level. Many of the linked items also have materials at levels above or below that class level. 

I wish you all the best as you seek out the rich resources that best serve your own wild learner!

-Aimee