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Homeschool Spotlight: A Week With The Little Thesis

4 min read

TL;DR

The Little Thesis fits naturally into a homeschool week. This post walks through a sample five-day schedule where each day pairs a chapter from the book with hands-on activities, discussion prompts, and creative extensions. By Friday, your child will have completed a mini research project - and had fun doing it.

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Why Homeschool Families Love This Book

Homeschool parents wear every hat - teacher, principal, librarian, and lunch coordinator. The last thing they need is a resource that requires hours of prep. The Little Thesis works because the structure is already built in. Six chapters, four characters, and 100 pages of guided activities mean you can open the book and go.

But the real strength is flexibility. Whether your child is five or nine, a reluctant learner or a science enthusiast, the framework adapts. Here is one way to use it across a single school week.

Monday: The Spark of Curiosity

Monday focuses on Chapter 1 and the simple act of noticing. Your child will color the opening pages with Curious Cat, take a short curiosity walk to gather observations, and pick a single question to investigate for the rest of the week. The goal is not to start an experiment yet. It is to give your child practice paying attention and turning what they notice into questions worth following up on.

Morning (45 minutes). Start with Chapter 1. Let your child color the opening pages featuring Curious Cat while you read the narrative aloud. Talk about what it means to be curious and how scientists start by noticing things.

Activity. Take a curiosity walk - around the yard, the neighborhood, or even the kitchen. Bring a notebook. Write down or draw five things your child notices and the questions those observations spark.

Wrap-up. Choose one question to investigate for the rest of the week. It can be anything: Why do ants walk in lines? Which paper airplane design flies farthest? Does music help you focus?

Tuesday: The Library of Leaves

Tuesday is background research day. Your child will color Chapter 2 and then practice the habit every researcher relies on, which is finding out what other people have already discovered before testing their own ideas. You will visit the library or look at age-appropriate websites together, gather a few facts related to Monday's question, and finish by summarizing what you learned in your child's own words on a simple page.

Morning (45 minutes). Move to Chapter 2. Color the pages, then discuss the idea that researchers find out what other people already know before testing their own ideas.

Activity. Visit the library or search age-appropriate websites together. Help your child find two or three facts related to their question. Practice summarizing what they read in their own words.

Wrap-up. Create a "What We Learned" page - a simple summary of the background research, decorated however your child likes.

Wednesday: The Great Guess and The Adventure Kit

Wednesday combines Chapters 3 and 4 because forming a hypothesis and planning an experiment fit naturally together. Your child will color the relevant pages, write a clear if-then prediction tied to Monday's question, and then build a materials list and a step-by-step plan for testing it. The day ends with everything gathered and ready, so Thursday's hands-on experiment can start without any last-minute scramble for supplies.

Morning (60 minutes). Cover Chapters 3 and 4 together. Color the hypothesis pages and talk about what a prediction is. Then move into planning - what materials will you need, and what steps will you follow?

Activity. Write a hypothesis together using the sentence frame: "I think ______ because ______." Then make a materials list and a step-by-step plan. Let your child take the lead on decisions.

Wrap-up. Gather all materials so everything is ready for tomorrow's experiment.

Thursday: Experiment Day

Thursday is the hands-on heart of the week. Your child runs the experiment they planned on Wednesday, records observations through drawings, tally marks, measurements, or photos, and then colors Chapter 5 while results settle. You will talk together about what the data is showing and whether the hypothesis was supported, then organize the findings into a simple chart or graph that your child can refer back to on Friday during the writeup.

Morning (60-90 minutes). This is the hands-on day. Run the experiment according to the plan from Wednesday. Encourage your child to record observations - drawings, tally marks, measurements, or photographs.

Activity. While data dries, settles, or finishes growing, color the pages from Chapter 5 about counting and analyzing. Talk about what the results mean. Was the hypothesis right? Wrong? Somewhere in between?

Wrap-up. Organize the data into a simple chart or graph. Even a hand-drawn bar chart on construction paper counts.

Friday: Telling the Story

Friday wraps the week with Chapter 6 and the often-skipped final step of real research, which is sharing what you found. Your child will color the closing pages, build a simple one-page research poster covering the question, hypothesis, results, and what they learned, and then present it to a small audience. This is where the week's coloring, walking, reading, and experimenting comes together into a finished mini research project.

Morning (45 minutes). Finish with Chapter 6. Color the final pages and discuss how researchers share what they find so others can learn from it.

Activity. Create a one-page "research poster." Include the question, hypothesis, what happened, and what your child learned. Decorate it freely - this is a coloring-book-based curriculum, after all.

Wrap-up. Present the poster. This can be to a parent, a sibling, a grandparent on video call, or even a stuffed-animal audience. The point is practicing the skill of communicating findings.

Tips for Making It Your Own

The five-day plan above is a starting point, not a script. Every homeschool family has different rhythms, ages, interests, and other subjects competing for the same hours. The four tips below show small ways to flex the schedule so it fits your child instead of the other way around. Use whichever ones serve your family this week and ignore the rest. The book itself stays useful no matter how you pace it.

  • Stretch it out. If your child needs more time, spend two weeks instead of one. There is no rush.
  • Combine subjects. The research question can tie into any topic - history, nature, cooking, art, or math.
  • Use the characters. Let your child "be" one of the four characters each day. It keeps engagement high and gives younger children a way to role-play the research process.
  • Connect to Subthesis.com. Visit Subthesis.com for additional resources, printables, and community support from other homeschool families.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are the questions homeschool parents ask most when planning a research week with The Little Thesis. They cover age range, what to do if your child blasts through the experiment too quickly, how to combine the schedule with other curricula you already use, and what supplies you actually need beyond crayons and a notebook. The answers below are short on purpose so you can adapt the plan to your family in one sitting.

What ages does this schedule work for? The schedule is designed for ages 4-8, but it adapts easily. Younger children may need more coloring time and shorter activities. Older children can write more detailed reports and tackle more complex questions.

What if my child finishes the experiment quickly? Encourage them to test a variation. "What happens if we change one thing?" is the start of a second experiment - and a great lesson in how real research works.

Can I use this alongside other curricula? Absolutely. The Little Thesis is designed to supplement, not replace. Use it as your science block, or weave it into language arts by focusing on the writing and presentation components.

Do I need special supplies? Crayons, colored pencils, a notebook, and whatever materials your child's experiment requires - usually household items. The book itself provides all the structure you need.

Start Your Homeschool Research Week

More from The Little Thesis Blog

If a research week with your child went well, these companion posts will give you ideas for what to try next. The first is a narrative case study from a second grade classroom that used The Little Thesis to win a district science award, and the second is a list of five kitchen-based experiments any kid can run with everyday ingredients. Both pair naturally with another spin through the six chapters.

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