Here is a free homeschool plan for including the enrichment subjects that bring variety and interest to your homeschool day. For a complete school year plan, add the history time period of your choice and grade-level math, science, and language arts for each student.

Picture Study

Spend about 12 weeks studying the work of each artist. Read a living biography and enjoy looking at eight pictures by the artist. Find out more about how to do picture study.

Music Study

Spend about 12 weeks studying the work of each composer. Read a living biography and enjoy listening to pieces by the composer. Learn more about how to do music study.

Poetry

Get to know Henry Wadsworth Longfellow throughout the year by reading a living biography and enjoying a variety of his poems. Work on memorizing some of your favorites and practice reciting once a week. Here’s how to do a poet study.

Literature

These books are excellent read-alouds to enjoy with your whole family. If you would like, you can assign your older students to read some or all of the books on their own. Here’s how to teach literature.

Select one of the levels below to read aloud together as a family. The links will take you to our free CM Bookfinder to help you find a copy at your library or favorite bookstore.

Younger Students (Grades 1–4)

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing by Guo Yue and Clare Farrow
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
Stuart Little by E. B. White
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Wondrous Rex by Patricia MacLachlan
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Minstrel in the Tower by Gloria Skurzynski

Middle Students (Grades 5–8)

Little Britches by Ralph Moody
Man of the Family by Ralph Moody
The Home Ranch by Ralph Moody
Mary Emma and Company by Ralph Moody
The Fields of Home by Ralph Moody
Shaking the Nickel Bush by Ralph Moody

Older Students (Grades 9–12)

Watership Down by Richard Adams
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

Shakespeare

For grades 2–12, enjoy Shakespeare’s classic As You Like It. Follow a simple three-step approach to teaching Shakespeare by reading a story version, reading the play, and then watching the play.

Scripture Memory

Here is a list of memory verses that can be learned and recited together as a family. Hiding God’s Word in your heart is a wonderful practice. Here’s an effective way to memorize Scripture.

Exodus 20:2–17
Joshua 1:7–9
Joshua 4:24
Joshua 22:5
Joshua 24:14, 15
Joshua 24:24
Proverbs 3:21–23
Proverbs 4:24
Proverbs 9:8
Proverbs 10:19
Proverbs 10:26

Proverbs 11:13
Proverbs 11:24, 25
Proverbs 12:10
Proverbs 12:19
Proverbs 12:22
Proverbs 13:20
Proverbs 14:9, 16
Proverbs 14:26
Proverbs 15:1
Proverbs 15:16
Proverbs 15:23

Proverbs 16:32
Proverbs 17:17
Proverbs 18:13
Proverbs 23:17
Proverbs 26:17
Proverbs 27:1
Proverbs 28:13
Proverbs 29:15
Proverbs 31:30

Hymn Singing

Take one hymn at a time throughout the school year. For each hymn, sing together until everyone has learned each stanza. Here’s more about how to do hymn singing.

How Firm a Foundation
Holy, Holy, Holy
Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
Fairest Lord Jesus
Joy to the World

Handicrafts & Art

Learning to work with your hands and create art gives your children the joy of making something. Try a new craft or art media each 12-week term to provide plenty of opportunities for your children to discover what they enjoy. Here’s how to teach handicrafts and art.

Good Habits

Laying a foundation of good habits not only makes your days run smoothly, it also builds life-long character qualities in your children that will serve them in their adult lives. Take each habit one at a time and spend 6–8 weeks working together on growing in your specific area of focus for that habit. Here’s how to work on good habits.

Integrity
Order
Truthfulness
Mental Effort
Reverent Attitude
Music

Foreign Language

Spend time learning to speak in the language of your choice, growing in your ability to communicate with our neighbors from other countries. Choose a language that will be useful to your family. In the USA, Spanish is a good choice to help form connections with our neighbors who primarily speak that language. Here’s how to teach foreign language the Charlotte Mason way.

Nature Study

Spend at least 15 minutes outside each week to observe God’s Creation. Here are some nature study ideas.

Sample Schedule

Here is one way that you could spread these subjects throughout the week, providing variety and a change of pace from your other school subjects.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Scripture Memory (10 minutes)	Scripture Memory (10 minutes)	Scripture Memory (10 minutes)	Scripture Memory (10 minutes)	Scripture Memory (10 minutes)
Good Habits (10 minutes)	Hymn Study (5 minutes)	Good Habits (10 minutes)	Hymn Study (5 minutes)	Nature Study (15+ minutes)
Picture Study (10 minutes)	Poetry (5 minutes)	Music Study (10 minutes)	Foreign Language (15 minutes)	Repetition: Poem (5 minutes)
Literature (20 minutes)	Foreign Language (15 minutes)	Literature (20 minutes)	Handicrafts or Art (20 minutes)	Literature (20 minutes)
	Literature (20 minutes)		Literature (20 minutes)

Helpful Resources

You can source the materials for these subjects yourself, but if you would like some help putting it all together, we have many helpful resources that will save you time and make things simpler.

Guided Lesson Plans

If you would like guided lesson plans that walk you through all of these wonderful subjects, check out Enrichment Studies, Volume 2. We also have a bundle that includes almost everything you need to enjoy a school year full of beauty and truth through the enrichment subjects.