When I first say the concept of a Personal Curriculum on YouTube it was like something clicked in my head and I finally had a name to what I was trying to accomplish in the next few years. I have been trying to find things to learn while I am unemployed as I do not function well without new and exciting things to learn. I was roughly planning out what I would work on for 2026 when I came across a video on something called a Personal Curriculum and everything fell into place.
The concept of a Personal Curriculum was first coined by TikTokker Elizabeth Jean at xparmesanprincessx and has become more popular this fall. I do not have a TikTok account but it has made its way over to YouTube where I first heard about it. The idea is similar to homeschooling where you pick a few subjects to study over a period of time and complete projects or “assignments” that you have created. Some people do monthly or quarterly and I am going to go with quarterly because following the seasons seems wildly appropriate and is what I am used to with the colleges in the United States that I attended. I am not going to be very serious with it and assign large projects as I am doing this more for personal growth and I don’t want to stress myself out to the point of abandoning the project entirely but I do want the accountability of it so I will keep track of what I work through and post regularly on the Cozy Oscoey channel.
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For November and December of 2025 I am going to continue with the French studies I started in September by adding in a couple of more formal textbooks such as the one pictured above “Learn French Fast for Adult Beginners” and Short Stories in French for Beginners. I will be working on a few chapters a week for the main book and reading one story a week from the short stories book. I am hoping to push hard through the end of 2025 with French so I can learn it pretty fast. I do need a lot of repetition though and I am absorbing it very slowly. We are thinking of visiting France at some point in the next couple of years and it would be very helpful to know some of the language.
I also got a copy of the dual language version of Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll with both French and English next to each other so we can practice our reading out loud. We have been casually taking turns at dinner once a week or so just for practice and it has been super helpful. Sometimes we run it through Google Translate afterwards to see if we were correct. We will eventually go to the library and check out a bunch of books in French to practice but I thought this would be a good beginning or us. Fun fact I learned when we started reading this book was that my kids have never read Alice in Wonderland or seen the movies! We are also going to read it in English as I am sure this in an abridged version.
We are also as a family taking French Lessons with a tutor once a week through the Preply app to help with pronunciation and boy do I need it! My kids are both taking French in school now so they get plenty of pronunciation help there but I really need to work on it. The sounds definitely do not come naturally to me at all and we are very lucky to have a fabulous tutor that has embraced the chaos of our family trying to learn at all different levels. I do have a sharable link for it and do get a small amount back if you subscribe to lessons but it gives you a coupon code for 70% off your first trail lesson linked with the following link: Trial Discount for Preply Lesson. I highly recommend finding a naturally speaking French teacher and checking out the reviews before you settle on someone. We picked someone based on the reviews and it has been such a good fit for us!
This site participates in affiliate links and receives a small fee for affiliate recommendations at no cost to you. As always we only recommend products we have tried ourselves. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Another class I decided on for the end of the year was Art. In November and December I will be working on creating original diamond painting art for these blank notebooks I bought from Amazon. I have the blank diamond painting canvases I bought over a year ago to use and tons of extra diamond drills from projects I have already completed so I am super excited to get started on it sometime next week. I have already started taking French notes in this book but it will still work to add some sparkle to it! I picked these notebooks because the outside paper is a little rough and I was hoping the glue would stick better when I glue my finished pieces onto it. I will post updates to this project both here on the blog and on the Cozy Oscoey channel as I work through it.
The last class I want to focus on for the end of 2025 is Fitness or Physical Education. I am still taking it slow through the end of the year with my fitness as I continue to recover from my many foot and knee issues along with leftover asthma issues from our run in with Covid last June. It will probably be spring again before I can fully get back into the swing of things and return to my triathlon training but for now I am just going to continue to do slow gentle exercise and maybe add in some core work. My eventual goal is to do a small triathlon and I will be focusing on swimming this winter with possibly some stationary bike riding and snowshoeing. My goal is to check back in with myself mid-January prior to starting to intensify things or start running again but I am an impatient person so we shall see if I make it that long!
Looking ahead to 2026 I will be continuing with French, reading through a list of books, working through some of the above Historic Sampler book, learning some sewing and working on my piano technique. I would love to eventually learn the cello but that is pretty far out there in terms of time commitment. There are so many topics and directions my 2026 learning could go it is going to be hard to chose. I may end up just choosing something for the first quarter of the year and then adapting as needed.
What types of things do you want to learn in the future? How are you going to make that happen?
Great Videos to Inspire you to Start a Personal Curriculum:
Building a Personal Curriculum for Fall by Liane Likes
My Personal Curriculum: Books, Cooking & Cozy Projects by BIBLIOLIFESTYLE
Planning a personal curriculum for September by Ruby Granger
Self Education: Your Best Defence Against Brain Rot by Thought Couture
Thank you for reading and I hope you find something you enjoy to learn about this year!
Links:
Check out our video on Cozy Oscoey: Introduction to Personal Curriculum
Preply: Get 70% off a trial lesson: Preply Trial Discount
Elizabeth Jean on TikTok: xparmesanprincessx on TikTok
Books:
Learn French Fast for Adult Beginners by Speak Abroad Academy
Short Stories in French for Beginners by Olly Richards
Dual Language Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Author),
Items I Bought:
Blank Notebooks for Added Sparkle
Blank Diamond Painting Canvases
