After you’ve determined your children’s learning styles and your teaching/homeschool style, it’s time to narrow down your curriculum options. In order to narrow down your curriculum options, you need to keep the information you discovered about your unique family’s circumstances from the first two activities.
For example, when I took the Learning Styles Quiz for each of my children, I noticed that all of them learn well kinesthetically – it was one of the top 3 for each of my children. Being able to find a curriculum that will enable everyone to learn is essential. So for us, that means the more hands-on it is, the better my children are going to do with it. I need to know that information to be able to narrow down my options (or how to adapt it to fit their needs).
When I took the Homeschool Philosophies Quiz to learn about my homeschool style, I know I’m going to want to look for curricula options that reflect those teaching styles. If the curricula doesn’t reflect our family’s lifestyle and my own personal philosophies, beliefs, and outlook on education as a teacher, it’s not going to be a good fit for our family. For me, this is the place that I start.
Other Important Considerations
As you’re looking at the list of some of the curricula options below, keep in mind some other considerations that may apply to your family, too. Every family is unique and has unique needs – if you don’t take those needs into consideration, it will be harder to find your family’s best fit.
Some things to consider:
- How many children do I have?
- Will I be working while homeschooling?
- What is my budget?
- What do I want it to look like?
- Books vs Workbooks
- Online vs Offline
- Worksheets vs Experiences
- What are the GOALS?
How Many Children Do I Have?
If your family has multiple children, you may need to look into curricula options that are self-led or programs that can be done independently. You may need to combine multiple subjects to do together as a family. We, personally, do a mixture of those two things.
If I am spending the entire day teaching, I feel spent and overwhelmed with everything else that needs done each day. If they are doing too much independently, then we aren’t spending time building those family relationships, which is one of my biggest convictions in homeschooling!
Subjects that are easy to combine are Bible, History, Science, and Electives. If you combine lessons for different subjects, not only does it make for less to keep track of, but it also encourages that time spent together as a family which is oh so precious!
If you have two children who are close in age, you may find it beneficial to combine Language Arts, English, and Math, too! There’s no reason to keep specific things taught during specific years consistent with the school system across the board – you will run yourself ragged!
Embrace the freedom of homeschooling by embracing the idea of knowing that you have 12 years to teach your children. There’s no rush – teach them in the way that will best suit you and your family!
By the time your children are in middle school, they are typically old enough that you could be able to teach them how to be independent with nearly any curriculum. It may just take a little training and patience for them to learn how and to understand the expectations. So don’t think you are limited, especially if your children are older!
Some Self Led Curricula Options Include:
- Accelerated Christian Education (ACE)
- Alpha Omega LifePacs
- Easy Peasy All-In-One-Homeschooling
- The Robinson Curriculum
Some Family Style Curricula Options Include:
- Gather Round
- My Father’s World
- A Gentle Feast
- Beautiful Feet
Will I Be Working While Homeschooling?
If you will be working while homeschooling, then having a program that can easily switch between caregivers might be a consideration. Looking for curriculum that says it’s “open-and-go” usually means that you can just open the book and start the lesson without any prep work.
Looking for curricula options that have smaller amounts of prep-work (like open-and-go options) or can be done independently (like self-led options) might be beneficial in the day-to-day hustle and bustle.
If your babysitter is willing to only do certain subjects, save those subjects for those days. If dad or grandma want to teach certain subjects, keep those subjects on those days. Audiobooks are a great way to help a struggling reader when you can’t be right there and there are many curricula options that have video teachings to help with the teaching leg-work.
Keep in mind that unless your state specifically says otherwise, you don’t have to do every subject on every day (think splitting up 4 lessons/week into two-day portions by doing two lessons on two days a week instead of one lesson 4 times a week) and your children do not have to learn during typical school hours.
You have the freedom to do what you need to do to make it work for your family. Delegate to your children and those helping care for them the things you can delegate. Save things you can do as a family for the days you have off or the evenings. Do whatever works for you – no limitations!
What is My Budget?
Before you start looking into curriculum choices, it is wise to set a budget for yourself. I used to think that “free” meant “not as much value.” Now that I’ve been homeschooling for several years, I understand that that’s certainly not true.
In homeschooling, usually the more niceties a curriculum has that are purely convenience the more it will cost. The more they do for you, and the more convenient it is, the more it usually costs. There is a LOT of fluff and busywork that schools, and oftentimes curriculum choices, include. Not EVERYTHING is of value.
If it’s taking up your time and not adequately adding real value, then you’re just paying extra for no reason. The good news is that even on the *lowest* budget, you can give your children a quality home education. Don’t get sucked in thinking the expensive one is surely the best… and don’t get discouraged, even if your budget is nilch.
Decide ahead of time what you are able to spend – some curriculum options go upwards into the thousands and nobody bats an eye! Knowing what you and your family are willing to spend on curriculum before you go into it will help keep you from jumping into something you don’t need.
Remember – if they are charging that much for curriculum, they probably have more money for advertising. That might be the only reason you’re even seeing them. Expensive does *NOT* equal better – I repeat – Expensive does NOT equal better. Phew!
Free Curriculum Options
- Ambleside Online
- Plain and Not So Plain
- Old Fashioned Education
- Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool
- Easy Peasy All-in-One High School
- Freedom Homeschooling
- The Classical Curriculum
Freedom Homeschooling isn’t a curriculum, per say, but rather a resource for FREE curriculum options. They do, however, give recommendations for which choices to make for each grade level so that you don’t get lost in a sea of choices. Different curriculum options are categorized by subject and nearly all of them are *FREE*. They even have things form McGraw Hill and other reputable publishers, so don’t discount it as a serious option.
One way to get around the costs of homeschooling is to put together your own curriculum using free curriculum choices from Freedom Homeschooling. If you buy a decent supertank auto-duplex printer, you can easily print your own workbooks and even print your own reading books! Being able to do it yourself can save a LOT of money.
Check out this post for more creativity in ways to homeschool for free.
What Do I Want Our Homeschool Days to Look Like?
The most important consideration is what do you want your homeschool to look like?
Maybe your homeschool dream is for it to look like you sitting on the couch reading with your children gathered around you listening, coloring, and playing quietly.
Maybe your homeschool vision is you and all of your children learning through playing and real life experiences. Maybe you want short lessons so your children can pursue their passions with the rest of their time?
Maybe you envision children scattered around the house, quietly doing their own thing? Maybe you think of everyone outside discovering nature together, drawing, singing, painting, learning together.
Maybe you’d like all of your children to have their own devices, spend a few hours doing their own schoolwork, and then all move on to more fun things as family time together for the rest of the day.
Everyone has a different vision for their homeschool. As you research curricula options, try to ask yourself: is this going to fit into my vision for my homeschool? If it doesn’t fit into your vision, it doesn’t matter how great and wonderful it is – it isn’t for you.
Some questions you should ask yourself might be whether you want their work to be online or with real books and paper. Does the schoolwork need to travel with us places or no? Do we want to learn by worksheets or experiences? Will we build family relationships through school time? Which subjects will be committed to growing those relationships? What are our goals as a family and my children’s goals as individuals? What does God say about this? Does this support a Biblical worldview and our family’s beliefs?
Knowing these things from the beginning will help you narrow down and weed out those tough curriculum choices. Instead of trying to focus on what’s best, shift your focus onto what’s best for OUR family. We are all unique and I believe each family and each individual has a different and unique calling.
Surrender your vision to God, then make a list of things you desire for what you want your homeschool days to look like before you get started. Doing it this way puts the goal in black and white, so it will be easier to put that shiny new curriculum that isn’t going to meet your family’s needs down.
I said PUT IT DOWN, lady!! FOCUS! Haha..
Before continuing on to the list below, I highly recommend you check out this post in order to determine your own homeschool style. The following list will leave you overwhelmed if you haven’t already done the leg work to find out which homeschool style you fall into.
So, without further ado… Here goes “the list”…
Curricula Options by Homeschool Style
Charlotte Mason Homeschooling Style
Curricula options that may be a good fit for a Charlotte Mason inspired homeschool include:
- My Father’s World
- Gather Round
- Five in a Row
- Heart of Dakota
- A Gentle Feast
- Living Books Curriculum
- Simply Charlotte Mason
- Masterbooks
- Life of Fred Math
- Math-U-See
- Right Start Math
- Apologia Science
Free CM Options:
- The Good & The Beautiful (free to print Language Arts & Math for grades 1-5 only)
- Tip: The “Kami” app/extension on Chrome web browser makes it possible to “write” and/or type on PDF documents without having to print them.
- Additional Note: Many Christians are uncomfortable using this curriculum as it was started by a Mormon woman (LDS). The curriculum claims to be Christian and states that it has been overlooked by more than 40 Christians of multiple denominations throughout the editing and review process of each item to ensure that it is in alignment with a non-denominational Christian viewpoint. Because levels 1-5 are free, however, it is easy to download and preview to see exactly what is taught for yourself.
- Ambleside Online (free online using Kindle resources & push-to-Kindle app)
Classical Homeschooling Style
Classical Curriculum Options:
- Classical Conversations
- Tapestry of Grace
- Veritas Press
- Memoria Press
- Classical Academic Press
- Story of the World (History Only)
- CTC Math
- Right Start Math
- Teaching Textbooks Math
Free Classical Options:
Eclectic Homeschooling Style
Eclectic Curriculum Options:
- Genesis Curriculum
- Easy Peasy
- Freedom Homeschooling
- Story of the World History
- Notgrass History
- Mystery of History
- Tuttle Twins books for Elementary Level Social Studies/Economics
- Math-U-See
- Right Start Math
- Generations Science
- Life of Fred Math
- Saxon Math
- Masterbooks
- Brave Writer
- Mix & Match Anything
Free Options:
- Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool
- Easy Peasy All-In-One High School
- Freedom Homeschooling
- Plain & Not So Plain
Traditional/School at Home Homeschooling Style
Traditional/School-at-Home Curriculum Options:
- Rod & Staff (predominantly used by Mennonite families)
- Bob Jones University (BJU Press)
- Abeka
- Sonlight
- Monarch (Alpha Omega Publications)
- ACE (Accelerated Christian Education)
- LifePacs
- Schoolhouse Teachers
- Generations Discipleship Curriculum
- Generations Science
- Christian Light Education
- Saxon Math
- Teaching Textbooks Math
Free Options:
Unit Study
Unit Study Curriculum Options:
- Gather Round
- Five in a Row
- Winter Promise
- The Good & The Beautiful
- Tapestry of Grace
- My Father’s World
- Weaver (Alpha Omega Publications)
- Konos
Free Unit Study Options (not all listed below are guaranteed as Christian):
- Giant List of 100 Free Unit Studies
- Faith-filled Free Unit Studies
- Free History Unit Studies
- Free Unit Studies
- Create Your Own Free Unit Study
Montessori Homeschooling Style
Montessori Curriculum Options:
- North American Montessori Center
- Montessori for Everyone
- Alison’s Montessori
- Montessori Services
- My Montessori House
Free Montessori Options:
- DIY Montessori – Free Montessori Curriculum & Resources
Unschooling Homeschooling Style
Unschooling Curriculum Options:
Free Unschooling Options:
Cathy Duffy’s Reviews
The first place you’ll want to go after you find a few curricula options to look into is that curriculum’s website. Print out this free Curriculum Pros/Cons worksheet if you want something pretty to compare your options on.
After narrowing down your options by going to the company websites, you’ll want to take your smaller list to Cathy Duffy’s review website to see what she has to say about it. Cathy Duffy has been a go-to source for curriculum reviews for years and years. She does a phenomenal job helping review curriculum so parents can make excellent homeschooling choices.
If you still aren’t sure which choices you want to look up reviews for, be sure to check out her “Advanced Search” option! You can narrow it down by grade level, subject, worldview, or even by homeschool style or learning style! If you’re still not sure where to start, this is the place, for sure. Start with her Advanced Search and start looking from there!
**Remember to filter everything through the lens of what you want your homeschool to look like. If it doesn’t fit your vision, then ditch it! Let go of what it’s “supposed to be” and embrace the vision God has placed in your heart for YOUR family.
Bookstores, Conventions, Facebook Groups, Free Trials
Once you have it narrowed down to a choice one or two (or few) options, it’s time to try to find a way to see it “in person”. Start looking up YouTube videos that will give you a sneak peak into the curriculum. Start checking out book stores that carry curriculum, looking for booths at conventions, asking for information in Facebook groups, or even contacting a local co-op and seeing if anyone there might have a physical copy you can look at!
Especially since COVID hit, there have been tons of companies that are now offering more free trials than ever, too. Take advantage of these free trials to do a trial run with your children to see if it’s something that will work, not just in theory, but for REAL for your family.
Trial & Error
The best piece of advice that I have on this topic is this: Try and Try Again.
When I went all-in with a Classical curriculum that had everything I thought I could ever dream of… a curriculum I had DROOLED over for 3 years… I was totally heart-broken when it didn’t work out (not to mention broke, also…yikes!).
It had everything my heart desired, but it was all a theory until my children were finally old enough to try it out for real. When we tried it, it turned out not to be a good fit for us – it was too strenuous, took too much preparation, and was wayyy too time consuming for me for that season of life (I had just had another baby and was really struggling with breastfeeding and all the new adjustments).
There was no way to know that it wasn’t going to work until we had tried it. I wasn’t wise enough to do the free trial because I was soo convinced that I would never find a better option. On the other hand, I know tons of moms I’ve met through the years who tried every curriculum they knew, and the one that *didn’t* work for me was the *ONLY* one that worked for them!
On top of that, the curriculum we chose after that, which DID work for our family, was totally FREE (because I had spent all our budget -haha), and my children tested several grade levels higher than their actual grade levels when we used it. Also, it only took us 2-3 hours a day at the lower grade levels.
It didn’t have all the bells and whistles. I quickly learned that what I needed wasn’t the bells and whistles, but a shorter school day, a loose guide, a mixture of independent study and family style teaching, and preferably something that was open-and-go and with no fluff/busywork.
What works for us in each season is not always the same. We are always changing, always growing, and always walking into new seasons of life and schooling. The things I needed in a curriculum last season are not always the things I needed in a curriculum this season.
Be flexible. Be willing to change. Be willing to pay attention to what’s working and what isn’t… then pray and see what changes need to be made. Better yet, pray throughout the whole curriculum choosing process! He knows what we need wayyy better than we do!
Don’t Be Discouraged
The point is this: Don’t be discouraged if your first choice doesn’t work out. Do a trial run, see if it’s a good fit, and if it isn’t do a trial run with something else. Finding what works for you and your family is a process.
It’s taken us years to start to truly discover the things that work best for us – and it’s still changing year to year as our family’s needs change! Give yourself the grace to know that choosing curriculum and learning HOW homeschooling works best for YOUR family is not a place you can ever fully arrive – it’s a continual process.
Choosing curriculum is not the destination – it’s the beginning of the next step of your journey. Homeschooling isn’t something you DO… it’s a lifestyle you CHOOSE. Lifestyles don’t just happen…
They’re created… one beautiful piece at a time.
Other Posts in This Series
#1 – How to Determine Your Child’s Learning Style
#2 – How to Determine Your Homeschool Style
#3 – How to Narrow Down Your Homeschool Curriculum Choices (this post)
#4 – How to Choose the Best Christian Curriculum
Do you have a favorite curriculum? Tell us about it in the comments!
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