It’s just about that time again…school is almost back in session. Our homeschool tends to start a little later than our local county schools. But most of our kids will be hitting the books again in 3 short weeks! This is also the time of year that questions start rolling in to my texts and dms about our homeschool curriculum choices…
“What are you guys using for homeschool curriculum this year?”
“When would you suggest introducing cursive writing?”
“What is your favorite math curriculum?”
“My kiddo hates reading…what should I do?”
We’ve tried many homeschool curriculum packages over the years; some that work better than others. Some are great for one kid but is a total bust for another. Sometimes I teach a curriculum for so many years in a row that it’s ME that needs a change! That’s the exciting (and sometimes frustrating) part of schooling 9 children at home. They all have different learning styles, preferences, and personalities. And sometimes you’ve just gotta change things up.
History/Bible/Literature Boxed homeschool Curriculum
Our family mainly used My Father’s World boxed curriculums for the first years of our homeschooling journey. Between our 6 oldest kids, I have taught Kindergarten through 10th grade using My Father’s World. And I LOVED those years! This homeschool curriculum is great for big families because so much of the History/Bible/ Science/Geography/Music/Art can be taught to a wide range of ages together. Which is a huge win for big families! The company is so helpful answering questions about where to get started if you are planning to group multiple ages. And they still call me quarterly to ask how they can be in prayer for our family! My Father’s World also exposed my children to missionaries and people doing incredible kingdom work around the world. I believe this curriculum shaped my children’s hearts for the nations during very formidable years.
The Best math homeschool curriculum for our family
Early on, our family fell in love with Teaching Textbooks. This is a computer based math curriculum that we have used for 11 years with all our kids in 3rd through 11th grades. Completing math lessons on the computer takes the relational pressure off me with my kiddos who aren’t as “math minded”. It also allows my kids who like math to go at their own pace. In fact, 4 of my kids have worked a year ahead in math using Teaching Textbooks. While 2 others have worked on their grade levels. My two oldest both passed their college algebra Acuplacer tests after using Teaching Textbooks for middle and high school math, which speaks volumes considering one likes math and one does not. Also, Teaching Textbooks is self-grading for both lessons and quizzes. Mic drop.
Language Arts homeschool Curriculum
Language Arts over the years has been a more meandering path. In the younger grades, Language Arts was included in the My Father’s World curriculum sets. Once the kids hit 3rd grade, the curriculum that was recommended by My Father’s World didn’t work as well for our crew. We switched to Rod & Staff English early on, which I felt gave the kids a great foundation but was a lot of writing work. A few years ago we switched to The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts, which I still highly recommend. It’s a very Charlotte Mason approach to learning, combining phonics, reading, spelling, writing, grammar and punctuation, literature, art, poetry memorization and appreciation, and geography. My middle 4 kids used this curriculum for 4 years with a lot of success. It uses a spiral approach so each year teaches the same concepts, going more in depth every year. This insures concepts are truly understood year after year.
Faith based Science Homeschool CURRICULUM
For Science, I’ve always taught my 3rd-6th graders together with our boxed curriculum. My two oldest kids used Jay Wile General Science, Physical Science, Biology, & Chemistry for 7th – 10th grade. For 3 of my middle kids, we discovered Science on Demand with Catie Frates for their middle school years. This is an EXCELLENT faith based curriculum (though a little pricey) which allows the student to watch lectures on the computer after doing their own research/answering questions from their assigned reading. Because 3 of my kids are very close in age, I purchased one course per year and let them watch the lectures together after printing them each their own notebooks. Mrs. Frates encourages large families to save money by grouping kids together if at all possible. She is a little on the goofy side, but her teaching is theologically sound and kept my kids engaged.
My Dream Homeschool CURRICULUM – Not the best fit after all
The last two years we used Sonlight boxed curriculum, Kindergarten for our youngest son (and his sister with Down syndrome tagged along when she was willing) and American History Year 1 & American History Year 2 for our four 9-13 year olds. Can I just say, I’ve DROOLED over this curriculum since we started homeschooling in 2014. It’s so rich in the very best literature and living books. The biggest downside is that it’s PRICEY. I was able to justify the cost of the American History package because it was being shared among 4 children. But the kindergarten set was WAY more than I have ever spent on one child in one year. Thankfully, the books have decent resell value and are in high demand.
Other than price, the biggest issue I’ve found with Sonlight is the amount of hands-on teaching time for the parent. Because there are so many read-alouds, it can be cumbersome for a parent with a lot of littles. In fact, 2nd semester of our second Sonlight year, I handed the books over to my 5th-7th graders. They completed the majority of the reading and assignments on their own.
Even though we stretched Kindergarten over 2 years, Sonlight was too much sit down work for my VERY active 5/6 year old son. So, we boxed up my beloved Sonlight and sold the books to a missionary school overseas who will hopefully have more success with their Kindergarten students than I had.
Honorable Mentions
- We’ve used Life of Fred as a math supplement and really enjoyed the unique way it’s taught in narrative form. Fred’s stories are so fun and they definitely keep my kids entertained. It’s not advertised as supplementary, but I always felt it was best used as a deeper dive into hard math concepts alongside a more traditional curriculum.
- We used The Good and the Beautiful history for a year with our middles. I didn’t DISLIKE it, but I definitely didn’t enjoy teaching it like I thought I would. And the kids seemed bored with the content.
- Last school year, my 14-year-old daughter used Power Homeschool with Acellus as her 8th grade curriculum. She prefers a more self paced method and was no longer a fan of sitting down and doing school with her younger siblings, which is fair. Power Homeschool allowed us to pick her classes a la carte while she continued math with Teaching Textbooks and science with Science on Demand. This is the first secular homeschool curriculum, but it is inexpensive and a good test to see if this style of learning works for her before she starts high school in the fall.
Nature Clubs, Field Trips, Co-Ops, Oh My!
This blog post is specifically about the various curriculums we’ve used over the past 11 years. But curriculum choices are only a small part of the homeschool life. My oldest kids thrived in a once a week co-op for the first years of their homeschool journey. They took various electives that enriched their core home curriculums. And co-ops gave them opportunities to learn from other teachers alongside their peers. My oldest son did a formal writing class (IEW) one year. Our oldest daughter took 9th grade science with a licensed teacher. And the two oldest took guitar lessons through the same organization.
We did nature club for a year with 5 of the kids. This was before I remembered that I’m not really a “nature mama”, haha. Though I thoroughly enjoyed the community we formed with some precious friends! And for quite a few years we devoted a day a month to traveling around North Georgia, going on super fun field trips.
We’ve had yearly memberships to the Children’s Museum in Atlanta, Zoo Atlanta, Atlanta Botanical Gardens, Fernbank Museum, Tellus Museum, the Georgia Aquarium. Memories were made in spades through those memberships!
Coming up…School Year 2025/2026
Some of my homeschool curriculum ideas have been home runs while others needed tweaking. And we quit some before we had hardly begun. The key is to keep relationships at the forefront and to make learning as fun as you can. I’ve learned more homeschooling my kids for the past 11 years than I ever learned as a student myself! I pray my kids are lifelong learners as well!
All of that being said, we are making some pretty big changes this fall. Changes that will be challenging (especially for the Mama) but tailored to be the best fit for the 7 children (grades pre-k through 10th grade) I still have at home. We will give our new plans 100% effort and, if all happens to go sideways, we will pivot and try again. Because that’s the true beauty of this homeschool life. No one knows and loves my kids like my husband and I do. And we will fight to achieve the best for each and every one of them. Whatever it takes.
If you have more questions about our families homeschool philosophy, check out “What Every Homeschooling Mom Needs To Know”. I also shared more about the concept of “Morning Time” (a topic too rich to go into in this post) in, “What is Morning Time and Why Do We Do It?” and “Morning Time Plans for Fall.” Happy Homeschooling!
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