Guest Hollow’s Jr. Geography & Cultures Homeschool Curriculum Review

Have you heard of Guest Hollow homeschool curriculum? Want an inside peek into our experience with Guest Hollow’s Jr. Geography & Cultures? Here’s our open and honest homeschool curriculum review of Guest Hollow materials.

Choosing a buffet-style homeschool curriculum can be both exciting and overwhelming. With countless resources and learning approaches at your fingertips, this method offers unmatched flexibility and personalization. 

However, navigating through such a wide array of options requires thoughtful planning and strategy to avoid decision fatigue and ensure a cohesive learning experience. 

In this post, we’ll explore practical tips to help you make the most of a buffet-style homeschool curriculum, ensuring it works seamlessly for your family’s unique needs.

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Disclaimer: I received a copy of this product in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.

Guest Hollow provides what I would call buffet-style homeschool curriculum. This style lends itself well to many popular homeschooling methodologies. Families who gravitate toward Charlotte Mason, Classical, unschooling, or eclectic styles would appreciate the Guest Hollow approach.

Here’s our experience using Guest Hollow’s Jr. Geography & Cultures curriculum with our 6th grader.

What is Guest Hollow Jr. Geography & Cultures methodology?

Guest Hollow provides a buffet-style homeschool curriculum. That means, they give you more than enough options for learning the content and you can pick and choose what works best for your homeschooling style, your student, your time, and your schedule.

You could also call this approach a mix-and-match learning plan, customizable curriculum, or open-choice curriculum model.

Whatever you choose to call it, it works great for kids because it engages them on multiple levels and through various approaches. For example, while studying Europe, your child may do these diverse learning activities:

• Read the next chapter in “Where Is the Eiffel Tower”
• Read about the geography of Europe in Prisoners of Geography
• Continue reading the chapter book Heidi
• Memorize the countries in Europe through online Seterra games
• Cook a recipe from France
• Explore Western Europe on Google Earth
• Make a Monet Art project
• Listen to traditional German folk music
• Watch a National Geographic video on Switzerland
• create paper dolls from around the world
• make a France lapbook
• and many more options!

Here’s an example of the buffet of choices you’ll see for one week:

Want to see how we used it?

Inside Peek into Guest Hollow Jr. Geography & Cultures

Here’s how it’s laid out and how we used it. My daughter used this as her 6th grade social studies curriculum. Since we’ve mainly covered history in the elementary years, we decided to focus in on world geography this year. The hands-on and living book approach is what sold her on this curriculum – and especially the Global Feast cooking book!

What are the disadvantages of using a buffet approach to curriculum?

Using a homeschool curriculum with a buffet of options—where parents and students can pick and choose from a wide array of resources—can be flexible and personalized, but it also comes with challenges.

Here are some of the key difficulties:

• Overwhelm from too many choices – While it’s great to have options, some of you know that this will be a distinct challenge. You will have a hard time choosing what to do each day and that may lead to decision fatigue.
• Lack of cohesion – Since the resources are coming from varied sources, this approach may feel pieced together. Some of you will not mind this, and some of you will! Just keep it in mind.
• Time for planning – I’ve mentioned that this was a challenge for me specifically with just one student using this curriculum. I’m used to my 6th graders being far more independent with their subjects, but while using Guest Hollow, I needed to be more hands-on each week with implementation. Now, if you’re using this for multiple kids, the time you spend planning will be far less than if each one did a separate curriculum.
• Difficulty in monitoring progress – I guess we need to mention that progress looks different for all of us. What is your overall goal in teaching geography? Exposure to various cultures? Hands-on activities? Memorize all the countries and capitals? Enunciate your goal before you start, then find a way to track your child’s progress toward that goal. Every family will have a different measure of success.
• Risk of overspending – Yes, some of you will struggle because you’ll want to buy all the books mentioned in this curriculum! And while you certainly can do that, it’s not necessary. Plus, you can borrow many or find them at a discount. However, this risk of overspending is tempting.
• Lack of structure – The buffet approach can cause adaptability issues for some students. We know that some students will love the freedom and flexibility (and moms will too!), while some students thrive on structure and may find this approach disorienting.

These challenges don’t mean you shouldn’t use Guest Hollow’s buffet-style approach. It just means you need to be aware that these challenges might pop up with your student. Here’s how to deal with these difficulties and maximize its benefits.

1. Set Clear Goals: Define what you want to achieve academically, socially, and personally for your child.
2. Start Small: Begin with a few key resources and expand as needed.
3. Plan Ahead: Create a framework or schedule to ensure cohesion and track progress.
4. Reassess Regularly: Periodically review what’s working and make adjustments as needed.

What are the advantages to an open-choice curriculum model?

There are so many advantages to using this type of curriculum from Guest Hollow. Here are the top characteristics that will make Guest Hollow’s Jr. Geography & Cultures curriculum the perfect choice for your homeschool.

• Customized curriculum – The curriculum can be tailored to your child’s learning style, your homeschooling style, your budget, and your schedule. In other words, it’s completely customizable and personalized. This will help keep your kids engaged and they’re more likely to enjoy the material.
• Flexibility – Yes, you are always in charge of the curriculum! But when it’s presented as an open-choice curriculum model, the flexibility and freedom is even more available. You can swap out resources or approaches that just aren’t working for your kids (or you!).
• Love of learning – You can deep dive into topics that your kids are passionate about when you have a buffet-style approach. This interest-driven learning can lead to deeper engagement, better retention of the material, and the growth of a life-long love of learning.
• Thriftiness – While you can certainly be tempted to overspend with this approach (see the note on that above!), others will find a lot of freedom to make this curriculum align with their budget. You can prioritize free or low-cost resources and selectively invest in those you want to buy. Plus, if you’re teaching multiple kids at once, that’s already a savings.
• Various Learning Opportunities – A buffet-style curriculum allows integration of hands-on projects, field trips, and life skills into the educational experience. This provides a more well-rounded and enjoyable approach than a traditional textbook course.
• Encourages Independent Learning – Students can have more autonomy in choosing what and how they learn if you want to use this curriculum in that way. We personally found that I needed a bit more involvement than we originally thought. I think this all depends on your students!
• Accommodates Any Schedule – The flexibility of a buffet approach allows you to adjust the speed or pace that you work through the material. On days or weeks that are hard to find extra time for deep diving, you can just do your minimal required work (which is totally up to you!). For some of you, that will be to watch the video. For others, that will be to keep working through the chapter book. This curriculum is easy to use and will flex with your changing schedule.

Best tips for getting the most out of Guest Hollow Jr. Geography & Cultures homeschool curriculum

Now that we’ve had half a school year year to be able to use Guest Hollow’s Jr. Geography & Cultures homeschool curriculum, my biggest takeaways are these.

• Spend some time getting used to the layout and options before you begin using the curriculum. There is a very slight learning curve, especially if you’re coming from a textbook or done-for-you approach. Sometimes the freedom in this type of approach takes a bit to get used to.

• Set your goals and expectations from the start. Again, success will look different for each family. If you’re teaching three young elementary kiddos, then the exposure and general familiarity with various countries may be your main goal, along with enjoying chapter books along the way. However, if you’re teaching one sixth grader (like me!), you’ll want her to memorize where those countries are, and get a deeper understanding of the effects of geography on politics, history, and culture.

• Plan the first couple weeks out and find your main resources. Don’t buy every book right away! You’ll get a better feel for how you’ll continue using this curriculum after you get a few weeks under your belt. We started with a couple books, then bought a few more as the year progressed.

• Consider using a notebooking approach to bring a cohesive structure to the varied resources. Our friends at Notebooking Pages offer 3000 FREE notebooking pages to get you started. This is a great way for your older kids especially to record what they’re learning. Again, your really young kids may not need to write anything down. But if you want to establish a routine for keeping track of learning, using notebooking is a really easy way to do it. Plus, it challenges your kids to be active learners and takes the burden off you as the parent.

So, would I recommend Guest Hollow’s Jr. Geography & Cultures homeschool curriculum to other families? Absolutely! It’s what you make of it and is a great choice for families of multiple kids, families who want more freedom in their academics, and families who want to inspire that love of learning everyday.