The Homeschool Curriculum We Use and Love

If I had a dollar for every time I was asked in the past three months, “What curriculum do you use?” I would buy myself a Tacos4Life franchise. JK but wouldn’t that be great.

Here’s our top choices. ps. DON’T GET OVERWHELMED!!! These are things we have used over the years, not all at once! I’m sharing them all because different people may be looking for different things.

• Preschool: I am OBSESSED with these workbooks. I have done them for all my little ones and am weeping tears that I have no more little ones to do them with. They are absolutely great. If you have a pre-K child at home you can do these and then talk and play outside and they will be just. fine!!!! Plus they’re super cheap.
• Math: We use Saxon except for in kindergarten because I don’t like that level of Saxon (I find it too easy). I recommend Saxon for kids who learn best in a “traditional” way. If I had a kid who was struggling with math, I would use Math U See. Another good option is Abeka. I am actually doing Kindergarten Abeka for my daughter this year. Not sure if I’ll keep her with Abeka in first, or resume Saxon 1.
• Learning to Read: For kids learning to read, we have always done Sing Spell Read and Write. However, that curriculum is very expensive. If I were teaching a child to read and didn’t want to use SSRW, I would probably order the Abeka kindergarten package. Disclaimer that I have not gone through this with a child, but I have friends who have, and it seems similar to the Sing Spell program. Both of these curricula only include a limited amount of “Readers” but the idea is that once your kids has mastered, you could add books from the library or the house to continue reading.
• Handwriting: For beginning, we have used Handwriting without Tears. Once they know letter formation, I have my kids work through a fun handwriting workbook, one page a day. Like Handwriting Jokes and Riddles or Handwriting For Boys. Both of these have cursive options as well, so once my child knows cursive (through Handwriting Without Tears) they will do a cursive workbook instead.
• Independent Reading: Once you know how to read, you read every day around here. 😉 I choose the book, generally a classic or something I want them to read, and they read a chapter or two a day. That’s part of school. If you want to read more or other books for fun, go ahead, but you will definitely read what I say as part of your school day. For my boys in grades 3 and 5, this year they actually had three books they were reading mandatory. One a work of literature, one a non-fiction science book and one a non-fiction history book, like a biography or a “Who was…” or a Magic Treehouse “Let’s learn about….” This sounds like a lot but it really probably took 20-30 minutes. *If you’re feeling like Super Homeschool Mom, you can add written narration or oral narration. This means that my 5th grader wrote a few sentences summarizing what he read, and my 3rd grader told me a few sentences of what he read. This is very beneficial but if it stresses you out then don’t worry about it. 😉
• History: We love Story of the World. We read it together as a family (even my kindergartener) and then the kids do some of the projects in the activity book. I don’t do everything!! Just a few things here or there. I definitely like the coloring pages and maps which they can do while listening. There are also audio CDs so you don’t even have to read!
• Science. We love Apologia Science. Same method as above: we read it as a family and then add some activities for the kids who need them. I would recommend starting with one of their animal books (either land animals, birds or fish). Then I order the Jr. Notebooking Journal for activities. If you do a chapter over two weeks, it takes a bout a year to finish.
• Geography: I really love the app World of Where. My kids work through different continents on the app. I have also added these workbooks if I felt like a kid was needing something more in a particular year.
• Spelling. Okay I sound like a heretic teacher here but I kind of feel like good readers turn out to be good spellers so I don’t stress too much about a spelling curriculum. There are definitely exceptions of kids who need extra help. I have also at times wanted to add a weekly spelling test because I felt like they were getting careless in their spelling. These are the workbooks I have used, if you’re looking for a conventional “here are your words, take a test on Friday” kind of thing.
• Grammar: We have done the virtual Shurley Grammar and it’s a lot but really, really good.
• Writing: We use IEW with our co-op for grades 5-6 but you can purchase the teacher’s guide and do it at home as well. It is a fantastic program and I can’t recommend it enough.
• Bible. I have loved Old Story New and can’t wait to do Long Story Short. Very well-done. We read it in the morning as a family.

Speaking of, here is how we structure our day. We gather first for morning time, where we read things together. We will do:

• Our Bible story from Old Story New
• A Scripture we’re memorizing
• sing a few praise songs or hymms (lots of the times I am singing to myself — this is normal)
• We will pray together briefly
• Then I will read the things we all do together – our science, our history, and a read aloud book. While I’m doing that, they will keep themselves occupied. Here are things they do while I am reading: have a snack, play legos quietly, play with a wooden train, play with this Slime they love, play with mazes, fidget spinners, Rubix cube, anything quiet and not distracting. A lot of times we are in the living room but if it’s a messy activity then I’ll read at the kitchen table to them.
• Then they will split up to do their other work. My kids get a worksheet for the week which you can download here. It made my life 1000x easier because I didn’t have to keep asking, “Did you do your …..?”

Other things to add:

• If you need some other things to fill your day, check out YouTube Art Hub for Kids, Tinker Crates kits, “How It’s Made” videos, Scratch coding, Fender guitar lessons, Mango languages, listening to Adventures in Odyssey while doing LEGOs

What if this feels totally overwhelming?

If you want to be told what to do every single day and you have plenty of time to read together, I recommend Sonlight “curriculum in a box.” It is what we did the first few years.

If you just want a basic workbook kind of schooling, I would order the Abeka grade level packages.

Whatever you do, allow plenty of time for bikes and coloring and reading and other childhood things. This is so important! And so much happens during these simple everyday activities. If you want more encouragement on that read my book 🙂

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