Choosing Curriculum

I had a friend tell me recently that curriculum is not necessarily a set of homeschool books. It is whatever tools you put in your toolkit to guide your kids through meaningful learning experiences. That description reminded me that we are teaching all of the time (as all parents are), so doing so with specific intentions and resources (curriculum) is what we call homeschool!

That being said, it is probably the most asked question from prospective homeschool parents, "What curriculum do you use?" I have blogged about my journey (scroll all the way down on this page) in choosing our homeschool resources. How did I come to those choices? I did three basic things: I asked myself what mattered to me, what my priorities are, and what sort of lifestyle I wanted to create through homeschool. Then, I paid attention to my kid, spent time over a summer exploring local resources, "shopping" online and requesting demos to play with, and paying attention to when and how she got excited about learning. Lastly, I found a few parent vloggers and curriculum reviewers that I resonated with, wrote down their recommendations, and dug deeper. I have added those to the teacher/admin resources page under the topic "homeschool advice."

When we tried something we both loved, we stuck with it. When either of us didn't, we tossed it and tried the next thing on the list! To make your online "shopping" easier, at the bottom of this page, there is a curriculum resource library that I have curated. You can filter it based on approaches, subjects, etc.

Curriculum Resource Library

Click Here to See Resource List (or scroll down for filters)

Quick reference spreadsheet: Public $ for Homeschooling

NOTE: Click on the tags below - the more you click, the more narrow your results.

Go To List

1 2 3 Teach Me

Free Spanish lessons, games, practice and more

Adventures Academy

From the creators of ABC Mouse, for kids 8-13, reading, math, science and more. Multiplayer game based learning.

All about Reading & All About Spelling

All About Learning Press offers effective, fun, and affordable reading and spelling programs to help your homeschool student become a proficient reader and speller for life.

Autio by Hear Here

Stories covering various subjects: history, entertainment, geography and more. Download the app ($35/yr) for unlimited access. The app uses your location to share with you stories about the location you are in. Perfect for road-schooling adventures!

7 Sisters

7Sisters Homeschool providing curriculum, coaching, and encouragement for homeschooling all the way to high school graduation. NO BUSY WORK! They have developed some curriculum, psychology, consumer math, etc., and also courses for homeschool parents! They offer a 33% discount for co-ops or other group learning sites. They have a ton of great advice organized by subject or age group.

Aleks Math

ALEKS is a research-based, online learning program that offers course products for Math, Chemistry, Statistics, and more. Rooted in 20 years of research and analytics, ALEKS is a proven, online learning platform that helps educators and parents understand each student's knowledge and learning progress in depth, and provides the individual support required for every student to achieve mastery. (OE note: Aleks is available for free through most charter schools)

Alpha Omega - Ingitia Curriculum

Ignitia is a versatile online Christian curriculum and learning management system with dynamic, Christ-centered lessons and interactive features designed to serve teachers and students in elementary, middle, and high school. They offer multiple products for different age groups and environments. From homeschool packets to online (recorded) school. Their ignitia program is used by schools across the nation including Enlightium (see resource).

B's Sexual Health Program for High School

Written by Brettani Shannon for REACH charter school in effort to better serve families who choose to opt out of other sex ed programs. Free to use by homeschool groups, private schools, etc. Contact Options for Education for more info

Acellus Academy

Acellus Academy is the official accredited online school of Acellus. Acellus is used by REACH Charter School as their virtual option k-8 (which means free of charge). Acellus also has homeschool programs available. See the listing as a curriculum.

Alison

Free classes, degrees and certifications. For high school students, Alison could be very helpful in career exploration or adding some value to your resume to get that first job or internship. For teachers, take a course in special education, classroom management, or a plethora of other topics to help you be the best teacher you can be.

Ambleside Online

AmblesideOnline is a free curriculum designed to be as close as possible to the curriculum that Charlotte Mason used in her own PNEU schools. Our goal is to be true to Charlotte Mason's high literary standards. AmblesideOnline uses the highest quality books and costs no more than the cost of texts. The curriculum uses as many free online books as possible, and there is no cost to use this information or join the forum.

Barry Setterfield (Science)

In response to a number of questions asking us where a good creation science page for kids could be found, we had to admit we did not know. There are lots of pages for adults, but none we are aware of for kids.

So we told those inquiring that if the kids wanted to send us questions we would respond and get the questions and answers up on our webpage in its own section. We have no idea how large this section will be. If it gets too large, we will start dividing it up into either areas of science or by grade and age. A local (his wife is Penny, who runs a one-room schoolhouse) scientist and researcher who shares his insights for free!