By Request: the homeschool curriculum we're using this year
Through the years, readers have asked about the homeschool curriculum I use, and though I've written about that a little, I haven't done a thorough list.
I'm gonna fix that today!
So. Here's what we're using this year.
(disclaimer: Just because I like a particular curriculum doesn't mean that I think it's the best for every family. We'll be us and you can be you and all that.)
Math
All of my kids are using Saxon math. It's not the most colorful curriculum ever, but it is THOROUGH and I love the constant, cyclical review.
I splurge a little and buy the solutions manuals rather than just the answer key because I want to spend as little of my life as possible painstakingly figuring out where math problems went wrong.
And we use the newer version of these books, mainly because I really really love that next to each problem is the lesson number where that problem was taught. This makes it super easy for the student to know where to go in the textbook for help.
This year we're in Math 65, Math 76, and Algebra 1, and Joshua's just reviewing Algebra 2 in preparation for a college algebra class in the spring semester.
(There IS a newer, revamped version of Algebra 2 available, but I read that the solutions manual has some errors, and after having a terrible experience with the errors in the first edition of Saxon geometry, I'm gun-shy about buying a brand new version of the book.)
Grammar/Vocabulary
All of my kids use Easy Grammar and Wordly Wise. These are consumable daily workbooks and none of them take a ton of time each day.
Handwriting
Only Sonia and Zoe still do a handwriting curriculum, and they're using Handwriting Without Tears, which is what I've used with all my kiddos.
(Disclosure: all four of my children cried about handwriting at some point. So, just because it says no tears....well, that doesn't necessarily mean your kids will be dry-eyed.)
Spanish
Luckily for me, my mom teaches all of my kids Spanish. Sonia and Zoe are doing a middle school curriculum, Como Te Va, and Joshua and Lisey are using Spanish Now.
Plus we use the free DuoLingo app. 😉
Composition
My mom also does this with my kids. She's been teaching composition for a lot of years, and for some grades, she does her own thing and for others, she's used the Wordsmith books.
History
I love, love, love Story of the World. I've always thought history was an ok subject, but oh my soul, I really, really have loved doing history with Story of the World.
The books are so engaging and interesting, and reading the chapters aloud with Sonia and Zoe has often inspired me to go learn more about whoever we've read about.
We got started on the Story of the World train at a weird spot, so Sonia and Zoe and I did the last two books first, which means that this year, we're starting with Story of the World 1, which is ancient history.
(I've never been wowed by ancient history, but I'm optimistic that SOTW can change that for me.)
Lisey did ancient and medieval history the last two years, so she's doing SOTW 3.
And Joshua is doing an ancient history book by the same author, but it's meant for high schoolers. I ordered the teaching guide to go along with the textbook. This is my first year using that curriculum, so I don't have much of an opinion formed about it yet.
Reading
I've never been a huge fan of reading curriculums per se, partially because they usually seem like a lot of busy work and also because I feel like they tend to suck the fun out of reading.
Plus, since my kids have all been good readers (such a sweet mercy!), the phonics that go along with these curriculums has been largely unnecessary.
That said, I know that in standardized testing, there's some workbook-ish reading comprehension type of stuff, so I've had my kids do the BJU reading curriculum through grade 6.
I'm not generally a fan of BJU, and I've come across a few things I don't agree with in these books, but overall, these books are ok, and they allow me to check off the reading requirement for grade school.
But for super-duper fun reading that is actually way more educational than reading curriculum...well, we read books.
We've always got a full library bin, and I've actually found Story of the World to be really helpful here. Every chapter comes with literature recommendations, so I always put those on hold at the library, and those books keep my kids pretty busy.
Science
We've been using Apologia's titles for the last few years, and I really like the conversational tone of the books.
(The tone isn't very textbook-y, which is almost always a good thing in my mind!)
Sonia and Zoe are doing Anatomy and Physiology, Lisey's doing General Science, and Joshua's doing Marine Biology (complete with a dissection kit. We currently have a preserved shark, along with other marine animals, waiting for dissection.)
P.E.
The kids and I do a martial arts class together, and Sonia and Zoe do ballet. Plus there's plenty of informal activity like trampoline-jumping, bike-riding, scootering, rollerblading, and whatnot.
Music
Reader Molly reminded me to add this! I teach piano to all four of my kids. I use the Alfred basic piano series and then after that I typically pick and choose the songs I teach, not using a specific curriculum.
Joshua also plays guitar, and Lisey plays a little ukelele and bass on the side. 😉
_______________________
Alrighty! I believe that covers the basics of what we're doing for school this year.
(Although I'm sitting here wondering if I've left out some super obvious subject that we do. Ha.)
Let me know in the comments if you have any questions!
_____________________
P.S. You may have noticed that we don't currently use a spelling curriculum. I did use one when my kids were younger, but eventually I decided it was unnecessary. Spelling is not a big challenge for any of them, and they get enough spelling practice through their other subjects (especially vocabulary and composition.)
P.P.S. I'm not affiliated directly with any of these curriculum companies, I've bought all of our books myself, and my choices are made completely independently. I've used Amazon to link to some of the resources, which means that I get a small kickback (at no cost to you) should you purchase through Amazon.
I didn't home school my kids, but we did use "Handwriting without Tears". It was recommended for kids without good fine motor skills (my boys). It was much easier and more logical than what was being taught at schools. However, these days handwriting is not a subject in the schools in my county any more. I guess that relates to the use of mice and touch screens and word processing. That's a shame because handwriting was an important activity for brain development whether or not you would use it all the time, and I'm not sure if the void is being filled by anything else.
We use HWOT at work (I teach preschool) and I love it. I like how the young ones are fun, so they don't realize what they're practicing! (Tracing lines, coloring certain things/shapes one color, stuff like that)
About that history: have you heard of The Cartoon History of the Universe? It's the real deal but with funny cartoons. The bibliography is the real deal as well. I urge you to check it out - it's fun and educational all at once. Here's his Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Gonick
I know that you do art with your children but it is something that you didn't list. Have you considered art history that goes along with the time period that you are currently studying? Every culture has it's own philosophy about art and it usually explains much of what is going on in that time period.
I've been a major history buff throughout most of my life, wading through dry tomes voluntarily, and I LOVE Story of the World. It's the way history should be taught, in my not humble opinion. We also use Saxon and Apologia, and I occassionally bust out my LLAL curriculum to make sure grammar/spelling/whatnot is being covered, although I also prefer that they just read. I've got an art history book that we're reading in correspondence with Story of the World, and our local library is absolutely replete with science DVDs so we're watching all the stuff they have on planets currently. Handwriting ... I'm a calligrapher, so my oldest was copying me, but my youngest wasn't interested at all, so I bought the Getty-Dubay books to teach that. Oh and I hand out writing assignments throughout the year as I see opportunity. I love swapping curriculum info!
I didn't homeschool my now-grown kids, but if I had it to do over again, I would. We are in a highly-thought-of school district,that, at one time, was the fastest-growing in the country and I feel they received a good education, but it certainly lacked any one-on-one and attention to specific stumbling blocks. Not to open any controversy, and anyone is free to disagree with me here, but I feel that kids just grow up too fast as it is, and it seems like that is accelerated when they enter school. I was a stay at home mom and I could have done it, but I was just not as enlightened about it back then. I really felt I needed a teaching background to do it.
This is good to hear. My kids are 2 and 4, and I'm going around and around with the idea of homeschooling. We do have really excellent public schools, so many pros and cons on both sides. One thing I keep coming back to, though, is that I don't think I'll ever regret having spent more time with my kids. (Maybe in the short term, ha! The days are long, but the years are short.)
Could you share your library lending list? It's hard to find good history books that are neither too mature or childish for kids (middle school age).
Also, if you want to post about science projects that you have done with your kids, I'm looking for ideas for my son who is struggling to come up with an idea for his (mini explosion idea did not go over well with his teacher for obvious reasons).
Thanks!
Jumping in late, here, but for a good list of real books that teach history, and divided by age groupings and historical timeframes, check out Sonlight.com. You can purchase curriculum from here (we used it for years) but it is also a great list of really good books, including reading and read-to levels. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the Handwriting Without Tears recommendation! My daughter is in public school and I didn't make handwriting a priority at home in kindergarten (reasoning that typing skills were more important in this modern age), and I am paying for it now. We have been doing lots of extra at-home practice in grade 1 and 2 to build up those fine motor skills.
We've used Mead Writing Fundamentals (we're on Lower Case Letter Stories right now), and while I do very much like the program, we're getting close to finishing it so I think we'll try HWT next.
One subject you didn't mention which I know you do is Religion. I was raised in a rural part of Canada where basically everyone was protestant and our elementary school taught exclusively Christianity in religion class. Religion class was formally taught inbetween Math, Science, and Language, like any other class. In high school the focus was on different religions around the world and their beliefs. My daughter attends a Catholic elementary school (her father and his family are the Catholics, mine are mostly non-practicing protestants) where the class attends Mass once a month, recites grace at lunch, and prayer is said along with the morning and evening announcements. Their approach is more integrated into the day than religion was at my elementary school.
Don't forget piano!! 🙂
Oh, right! I should add that in.
Interesting. I grew up using most of this curriculum and I think I did ok for myself 🙂 I will say that Saxon math, wonderful as it is, caused me a lot of tears.
I would like to know more about composition: I wasn't exposed to that in school so I'm curious what it entails.
Also, I'm curious how you taught your kids to read. Great post! Very interesting and informative.
I am also curious what you do for art? I thought years ago, you had posted about some books that you were checking out at the library that taught about the different artists?
Yep, we've used Mike Venezia's series about artists, although we haven't read those for a few years now. We should probably brush up on them again!
Joshua is doing a lot of art work, mostly on his own, reading books and tutorials and doing lots of practice. Sonia and Zoe also do a lot of drawing using online tutorials. Lisey's not as into drawing...she enjoys papercrafting (quilling and origami) more.
This is my exact point in my post above. They do what they are interested in. Quilling and origami? That sure wasn't offered at my kids' schools. Of course this can be extra-curricular, but it's what I meant about one on one, actually, tailoring your child's education to him or her.
We use Handwriting Without Tears and Wordly Wise, too. For math, I use Singapore (grades 1-6) then Teaching Textbooks. I love history (my major in University.) We used SOTW, too, and it was adequate, but I like to delve deeper. 🙂 For me, history is the reason to do school.
Yeah, SOTW only goes so deep, but I think it's because of the age range it's intended for. But even as an adult, I found it to be interesting and I learned a lot that my childhood history books never told me.
It probably is because of the age range. We've used SOTW to supplement other years, and spent one year going through all 4 of the books. (And we still finished before the end of the year. We love history around here!) I love that homeschooling gives so much flexibility.
And I forgot to add that we've been using Apologia for science & Bible. I really like their books.
I'm also interested in how you taught your little ones to read. I have a 4 year old who is ready and I'd like a curriculum to follow.
Here's a post I wrote about kindergarten that goes into pretty good detail about the method I used for all four of my kiddos. https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2009/08/kindergarten-basics-on-the-cheap/
Thanks so much for the book listings. My granddaughter is in public school, but she is getting a woefully inadequate education in a "C" school -- and in our town, there is only one choice: one elementary, one primary, one middle, and one high. There is a small, new Christian school, but we are not confident in their educational programs yet, although we wish them success as they mature and will consider them as an option later. I'd like to provide my granddaughter, who loves to play school after she gets home from school, with great learning tools. Her mother is divorced and works a demanding job, so although she helps out all she can, she has little time, and only gets my granddaughter every other week. Her dad, not to be unkind, was never a good student (he admits it himself) and is little to no help with schoolwork. These will be great help.
I will have to check out Story of the World (even without homeschooling!) It sounds fascinating.
Definitely pinning this!!!! I'll be homeschooling next year! My mom only homeschooled us in our elementary years, but my husband and his siblings homeschooled through high school.
Thank you!
Your curriculum sounds great! I wonder if you would consider introducing Computer Science and algorithmic thinking along with traditional course work. I recently learnt about code.org and it has lots of resources like lesson plans that you can download or online exercises that the little ones can do themselves once in a while.
Hope that helps!
Poonam
I didn't read all the comments but...you left out music! I know you do that And what about art? Also, do you incorporate church history/devotions/any type of "formal" religious education as part of the school day?
Haha, I added music in after a reader reminded me about it!
I do a gospel story Bible with Sonia and Zoe every day, and we do family worship together with Mr. FG in the evenings.
Gotcha. I figured you did family stuff too, I was just curious. 🙂
Thank you so much for this post!! I'm so looking forward to homeschooling my toddler and baby and I totally appreciate the realistic picture you portray as to what to expect when I do it. Thank you!
I was wondering about your daily and weekly schedule. How do you manage to get it all done? 🙂
Thank you for posting this! I so look forward to your homeschooling posts!!
How is Joshua's history going? Does the series for high schoolers offer reading suggestions like SOTW does? I just found out about the high school/adult books, and I want to find out more before I buy one. Thanks.
It's going ok. We don't love it as much as SOTW, and the teacher guide doesn't have literature suggestions like SOTW does, at least not that I've seen. But it is still way better than those awful history books that are just a bunch of facts slammed together into chapters.
How often do you do your martial arts class? Also, do you do the activities that are in the SOTW activity book?
Our class is once a week during the school year and multiple times per week during the summer.
We do some of the activities in the SOTW book, but not all. I pick and choose based on what I think would be a good fit for the kid in question.
I am curious if you do any read alouds and what type of literature you use for high school? And I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to know what your daily schedule looks like when you homeschool. I am homeschooling four kids, two in ninth grade, one in fifth grade & a kindergartner. I feel I am very good at time management, and yet I am TERRIBLY struggling to get everyday life things done around school these days. Thanks so much!
We love Saxon Math. I researched the newer versions since Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt purchased Saxon. The New Geometry book (which I found brand new at a used curriculum sale) was not written by John Saxon and the recent (in the past few years)4th edition versions of their other books are not either. We were not impressed and went back to the 2nd and 3rd editions.
Hey Kristen! So, can I ask a question that may be too controversial to discuss here? You should feel free to delete if you feel like it'll open up a can of worms that you'd prefer to keep off your blog. 🙂
Does the fact that you use Apologia mean that you pretty much solely teach your kids creationism? My understanding of their textbooks is that they mention evolution, but in a very dismissive way. I personally have been struggling in my faith over the past few years, and part of it is that I just can't get behind a lot of the politics, etc, that it feels like mainstream Christians are 'supposed' to believe, especially considering my extensive public school/college education (ie. evolution theory). Like if I recognize evolution and believe people can love who they want, then I'm a sinning non-believer to a lot of the Christian community - so what's the point?
I'm sincerely not trying to start an argument - I've just respected a lot of your take on faith, environment, etc, so I'm curious to hear your view.
Haha, I did have second thoughts about making a list of curriculum for this very reason.;) We teach our kids creationism, but they do also know about evolutionary theory. And creationist resources are not all they are exposed to (nature and science shows and books, museums, etc.) And while I am not convinced about evolution on a large scale, I do think that microevolution within a species is valid.
I think that the validity of one's faith depends on recognizing, confessing, and depending on our need for Jesus' sacrifice in our place. All of us will be wrong about other things here and there, but that is what is bare-bones essential to me.
Totally understand not getting behind a lot of the politics in Christendom. I really, really don't think Christianity is either Democratic or Republican and I hate it when people try to put Christianity in either camp. Or when people try to equate being a Christian with being an American (vice versa). I think all too often we Christians put so much time and energy into trying to change the world through politics instead of trying to reach people, and gosh, I just don't see a whole lot of precedent for that in the Bible. We should want to reach people's hearts, not create white-washed tombs, yk?
I don't know if that's a helpful answer or not!
Thanks - I appreciate the thoughtful response. I think what you're saying makes sense overall, without getting into a debate over evolution vs creationism (because debates like that are totally always resolved through online comments sections 🙂 ).
Esp. if you're talking about the comments section on a news site. Heh. SO productive.
This is a super old post but now that my kids are doing remote learning I went back and read it. I was wondering what you did for spelling ( you mentioned you had a curriculum when your kids were younger.). Thanks!