Meet Offshoots

A New Path for Learning

Multi-age unit studies designed for the whole family to learn together.

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Browse Individual Units

Secular Homeschool Curriculum for Elementary Families

The Offshoots program emphasizes discovery subjects—science, social studies, the arts, and more—through knowledge-rich, interactive family unit studies.

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Wonder

Encourages curiosity and questioning, emphasizing the process over end result.

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Explore

Lessons, discussions, and activities emphasize hands-on learning and discovery.

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Connect

Deep thematic learning across subject areas weaves families and knowledge together.

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Browse Individual Units

Explore Offshoots

Engaging, individual family unit studies for all elementary ages.

How Offshoots Works

Thematic Units

Knowledge-driven unit studies designed to be used individually or as a full year program.

Fully Planned

Lessons are fully planned with step-by-step guidance and support. No more guessing what to teach your children.

Multi-Age

Each unit covers all elementary learners in a family through a thoughtful, open-ended, multi-age design.

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About Susie Allison, M. Ed

Susie Allison is a former elementary school teacher with a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education. She’s also the author of the popular Playing Preschool curriculum and the creator behind the renowned Instagram account “Busy Toddler” with more than 2 million followers. Susie has been a trusted voice online in parenting and education for more than a decade. She homeschools her three children.

Meet Co-Author Erica Spear | Learn More About Us

  • “I just wanted to say THANK YOU for this program. This family unit style learning is what we have been missing. Complete GAME CHANGER for us on our homeschooling journey. We love it!!!”
    Stacy
  • “This program has been fantastic and the music playlists are being well loved (especially the dinosaurs one). You can tell there’s been so much love put into it and that it was planned out by actual real parents with real kids.“
    Katie M.
  • “My kids are already asking about ‘mommy school’ this summer. I teach full time and we did two units with my kids over the summer last year. It was incredible! They still talk about all the fun things we learned together.”
    Kelly M.
  • “I really appreciate how easy it is to follow and the varying levels. The multimedia aspects interwoven with the hands-on work is absolutely perfect. It’s everything I loved from Playing Preschool all grown up.”
    Amanda B.
  • “My son has learned so much and looks forward to the activities every day. I love the units, the structure, how thorough the information is, the variety of activities and the Spotify playlists. Such a great curriculum!”
    Tracy
  • “We adoooooore your curriculum! We homeschool our youngest (8). It has been, as expected, fabulous and magical!! Congrats on such an incredible project/creation.”
    Michelle B.
  • “We’re wrapping up Landforms, and it’s been SO WONDERFUL! We homeschool and have tried so many different curricula and nothing has stuck. I literally cried tears of joy when you released it.”
    Jessica A.
  • “The detailed supply lists broken down by unit/week/day were a huge help in planning. We are having so much fun already, and my girls are literally waking up and asking to do it while on vacation!  Thank you so much for creating such a fun and engaging program for our whole family.”
    Colleen L.
  • “The shrieks of excitement and awe when they realized just how big Jupiter is was completely worth getting the supplies! It was so clear to me how much these little hands-on moments can really impact their understanding of the topic.”
    Ashley Z.
  • “THANK YOU, thank you, thank you!!!! For all your hard work on these units! The first 8 have been the highlight of our homeschool year and all of us- parents and kids- have learned so much!“
    Megan A.
  • “After finishing Playing Preschool years ago, we were sad we couldn’t find a similar elementary homeschool curriculum. Thank you so much for creating this! It’s been such a fun year working through each unit.“
    Janette S.
  • “This is our dream curriculum: creative, comprehensive, and ideal for kids who learn by doing/moving. We’re a week into the Solar System unit with my K and Year 2 kids. They’re powering through reading and maths to get to these activities. They’re retaining so much information!”
    Amy M.

Frequently Asked Questions

Offshoots is a multi-age elementary curriculum built for the family to learn together, designed especially for kindergarten through 5th grade. The author of Offshoots, Susie Allison, wrote Playing Preschool for families with children age 2.5 to 5 years old.

If your oldest child is entering kindergarten, Playing Preschool Year 2 might be a better fit for their first year of homeschooling.

Offshoots is a unit study program designed for families with elementary learners. Each unit includes 4 weeks of detailed daily lesson plans, engaging printables, and vetted multimedia resources to enrich learning. There are also suggested books, board games, and a playlist for each unit. Learn more about all the features included with Offshoots here.

Offshoots is an ebook and the files are PDFs. You can find your downloadable files in the Offshoots Dashboard, which you will receive access to at checkout. The downloads for Offshoots do not expire. You are licensed to print one copy of each unit for your use.

Yes! Of course! Please check out our samples page to see interior pages of Offshoots and a full week of the program.

Yes! Offshoots was written with homeschooling AND traditional schooling families in mind, because all children deserve access to foundational knowledge and hands-on learning. Each unit is full of skills and concepts to support children in the school system and those learning at home. Whether you choose to do a few units of Offshoots over summer break, 6-8 units during the school year as homeschoolers, or anywhere in between, this program is for you.

Offshoots focuses on the discovery subjects—science, social studies, the arts, and more. We always recommend you check your state/local homeschooling laws to ensure you are meeting those requirements. Offshoots is designed to be done as a family in addition to separate, leveled math and reading. This program does not include any explicit reading or math instruction. We recommend finding math and reading programs that work for your children in addition to learning together with Offshoots. Depending on the ages of your children, additional language arts (grammar, writing skills, and/or spelling) may also be helpful.

Offshoots is a secular home learning curriculum. It is “evergreen” and does not follow a calendar, season, religion, or hemisphere.

Offshoots is a unit study program. Units are sold individually or in bundles for a discount. They can be done as singles or consecutively for a richer learning experience. We recommend doing 6-8 units over the course of a school year for homeschooling families.

Offshoots is not aligned with Common Core standards by grade level. If you are required to, or choose to, align with Common Core standards in your homeschool, please see the skills list under each unit. You can compare those skills with the Common Core requirements for your state to determine whether or not Offshoots will be a good supplement to your other learning materials.

Offshoots is built on flexible routine and designed to take about 45-minutes to 1 hour per lesson. This will vary family-to-family and day-to-day, depending on the age of your learners, the suggested materials you use (books, games, etc.), and how many extensions or offshoots you take inside the daily lesson plans. Each lesson can be done all at once, or broken into pieces to best fit your schedule. Discuss the guiding question at the breakfast table. Listen to the unit’s chapter book as an audiobook in the car. Do a hands-on experiment after dinner. Offshoots supports all learning styles and schedules.