Gather Round Homeschool: Careers & Trades - Free Resources for You!

I can’t believe it’s already the end of the school year again!

We are closing out our second year of homeschooling with the Gather Round Homeschool Careers and Trades unit study. This is the first unit we’re doing from the Year 2 units and are looking forward to it!

It’s also the first time I gave the girls a say in the unit topic. So far I’ve been going in order through year 2. I had just kind of decided to do it that way when we began with Gather Round last year and I’ve kept with it….however, due to taking a detour in our North America Unit Study this year to study the 50 states, that unit went very long, and I wanted to make sure the girls were into the last unit so we could finish out the year strong!

(On a sidenote, Notgrass History’s Our 50 States is a lot of fun to go through!)

I gave them some choices from the year 2 units and they had to pick their top 3. Careers and Trades was the only unit that made the top 3 of all three girls…so that was the winner. 🙂

Up to this point we’ve done every unit in Year 1 except for Human Body and South America. You will find links for reviews and resources for each of those units at the end of this post.

As always, if you’re new to this curriculum, be sure to check out this post that tells more about it and head over to their website to see everything they to offer and try out some sample lessons for free!

gather round homeschool careers and trades

The Resources:

These “extras” are the things that I love about doing unit studies! It helps make the lessons even more immersive!

I’ve also found that our lessons go so much more smoothly when I have everything that I want to introduce to my kids all organized and ready to go. Sometimes we may not get to everything or even go down a different rabbit trail of learning, but it’s so helpful to have what I want readily available.

I understand how time-consuming this is, though! So, I’m sharing with you some of the playlists and resources I assembled for the Careers & Trades unit study so that you can have what you need without all the planning!

Can these resources still be used alongside other curriculums or studies of jobs and careers? Of course! You can even use these in your own unit study.

My playlists are mostly geared toward elementary and under because that is where my kids are. There are lots of other videos/books/etc you could add if you have older kids as well.

While I’ll use many of these resources with my kids, I likely will not watch them all. I always recommend that you preview them before using with your kiddos to make sure it’s a good fit for your family.

Gather Round Homeschool: Careers & Trades – YouTube Playlist

This is the playlist I plan to use with my own kiddos. The videos go in order from Lesson 1 – 20 to make your life easier! Use what you like, leave what you don’t, add what you need.

They can be used during the lesson, after the lesson, or anytime really! How they are used is entirely up to you.

Gather Round Homeschool: Careers & Trades – Pinterest Board

Gather Round Homeschool: Careers & Trades – Book List and More!

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Book List

This curriculum already has an amazing book list in the front of every unit’s teacher’s guide. It’s even divided up by levels to make it easy! I am able to get most of the ones I want from our local library and then use Amazon and Thrift Books to get any that are remaining.

I also plan on using a few additional books not on that list:

My First Computer Coding Book Using Scratch Jr., by Usborne Publishing
Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy Town, by Richard Scarry
Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy World, by Richard Scarry
Berenstain Bears and Mama for Mayor!, by Jan Berenstain
Fix-It Duck, by Jez Alborough
Jessica’s X-Ray, by Pat Zonta
What Happens to Our Trash?, by D.J. Ward

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Shows and movies

Here’s a list of shows and movies for added entertainment that can further reinforce the theme!

Curious George: there are LOTS of episodes that touch on different jobs!
The Deep (Netflix): Marine Biology
Doc McStuffins
Mister Rogers Neighborhood
Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood
Special Agent Oso
Handy Manny: Fix-It Jobs
National Geographic: Best Job Ever (Disney+)
National Geographic: Critter Fixers, Country Vets (Disney+)
National Geographic: Secrets of Zoo Tampa (Disney+)
National Geographic: Lost Cities with Albert Lin (Disney+)
The Imagineering Story (Disney+)
Shark Tank: Entrepreneurship
Mythbusters: Special Effects
The Voice: Singing/Music
Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe (older kids)
Food Network: Kids Baking Championship, Chopped Junior, any cooking shows!
HGTV: lots of construction and design jobs
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: Meteorology and Science

And there you have it! I hope these pre-planned resources help save you time in your unit study planning! Enjoy!

Resources for other Gather Round Units:

Reviews of Some of the Units We’ve Completed:

If you’d like to follow us through these units in real time and also get some homeschooling encouragement in your feed, then hop on over to Instagram and find me @theleadlearnermom.

Thanks for stopping by and happy planning!