The Mom Syllabus: building out my summer personal curriculum as a mom trying not to lose herself

because learning doesn't stop when you grow up

Photo by Jaeyoung Geoffrey Kang on Unsplash

I used to love learning.

As I am sure a lot of my Substack peers can relate, my favorite Disney princess growing up was Belle (we both had brown hair and loved reading, so it just made sense, obviously!), I stayed up way too late reading books, and I spent HOURS building out character profiles and plots for the million story ideas I had in stacks of journals.

I gathered bits of trivia and knowledge from things I read, fiction and non-fiction alike, and a lot of my vocabulary was built on learning about the meaning of words through context clues in stories vs. classroom learning.

As I got older, though, reading became something I HAD to do for school, in subjects I deemed uninteresting, and in volumes that felt overwhelming. Tragically, my declining interest and ability in leisure reading coincided with the rising availability and prevalence of technology and social media, until not only was my love of reading replaced, but my desire to write and learn was snuffed out as well.

But as my oldest has finished kindergarten this last week and I see how hungry she is to continue learning, paired with my desire to eventually homeschool, I have noticed the fire of learning being rekindled in my own spirit. Not only do I want her to love learning, but I want to learn alongside her and my youngest and let them see me love learning. It’s so sweet how our kids can inspire the child within us!

So, I made myself a mom syllabus!

The Set Up

Quick side note: I love aesthetically pleasing, beautifully organized things. However, this workbook is not one of them. The binder is cute, and that is about it lol. I love having things that are pretty and purposeful, but my goal is to always showcase what's realistic for my journey as a mom.)

As this is just the beginning of what I hope will be an evolving journey, I have kept it simple. Over the last few weeks, I made a list of things I want to research or practice (things that would normally keep me on my phone for chunks of time and divide my attention) and grouped them into “subjects”. I also made it as low-stakes as I could by printing things out or putting them into binder sleeves. I have tried to knit with my kids around or read a physical book, but my yarn got tangled beyond repair when my oldest tried to help me knit, and my toddler likes to aggressively turn pages or YEET my books at her sister, so printed paper articles or worksheets are a safer bet for the time being lol.

The Subjects

To prevent myself from cramming my binder with anything and everything that has ever interested me, I thought up the “subjects” I wanted to go deeper into and organized my interests into said subjects. It was easier to do as well because I had just done the same for my oldest when thinking of what areas I wanted to focus on with her over the summer and I plan on doing the same in a week or two with my youngest as we find a good summer rhythm!

My June personal curriculum subjects are as follows:

Bible class (theology/apologetics)

Math

Science

English

Elective

Bible Class

For this section, I wanted to go deeper into theology and apologetics. When I was homeschooled, my mom had me go through some apologetics books, and I definitely didn’t appreciate it as much as I would now! With my oldest making the decision to follow Jesus this year, it seemed like an appropriate time to learn how to “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15)”. And what better way to do that than to include some reading from Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ?

I also included some Bible verse coloring pages to weave in my hobby of coloring but with verses I am trying to memorize!

Math/Science

This section was a little bit harder as I am trying to put things in the binder that doesn’t require a lot of supplies or focused attention. Because of that, I’m starting with a “Cooking from Scratch for Moms” article and a deep dive into sustainable gardening. While not technically math/science in terms of how it academics, they are both things I want to venture into in the future. And it is kind of funny how much learning happens when doing daily activities like measuring ingredients for a recipe or figuring out the best way to nourish the soil in our garden beds. This mindset shift takes things from being just facts and turns them into experience and one thing my parents always taught me is that knowledge + experience = wisdom. Now how is that for math?

English

This section is where I am really letting my inner writer come out to play. I’ve incorporated some creative writing prompts to keep my gears turning on days when writing inspiration is low, specifically to help me finally get the pages of my second children’s book out of my head and onto paper. I also saving it as a place to print out articles from my favorite Substack writer! There is something so much more intentional about reading their words on a physical page rather than scrolling through them on a screen while hiding in the closet for a five-minute break lol!

Elective

Last but certainly not least, I included some watercolor workbook pages for my “art” elective this month. I recently got a “on the go” water color kit and I wanted a way to practice being creative that didn’t feel high pressure.Since they’re just printed pages in my binder, I can do this at a time when I break out the paints for my own kids or even just for a 10 minute creative burst at quiet time!

A Gentle Encouragement

I am so excited to see how this little binder evolves over the coming weeks. The whole point of this project isn’t to create a perfect, rigid curriculum for myself, but to have something actually tangible that is ready for those little “nooks and crannies” of the day.

As my kids and I do “trial homeschool” this summer, I hope this binder ensures that when my girls see me, they see a mother who is learning right alongside them.

It may seem incredibly simple, but that is entirely by design. If a page gets ripped, crumpled, or covered in stray crayon marks from an enthusiastic toddler, it doesn’t matter. It is a low-stakes, high-reward tool that lets me step away from the glowing screen of my phone and reclaim a bit of my own mental space.

If you are a mom who feels like there is never enough time in the day to pursue your own hobbies and interests outside of caring for your family, I want to encourage you to try this! I hope it can feel like a way to give yourself permission to pour into yourself mentally and spiritually all while remaining present with your kids.

Sometimes motherhood can feel both incredibly overwhelming and painfully understimualting. I wish I had thought about something like this in my early days of motherhood.

It turns out, we don’t have to choose between nourishing our children’s minds and nourishing our own.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in doing, please send to a mom friend and make a night of creating your mom syllabus binders together! And be sure to let me know what you would put in yours!

Love,

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