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

Kidztype

Dance Mat Typing - Fun Way To Learn Keyboarding

Living Waters Spanish

Living Waters Spanish offers a Christ-centered curriculum that includes Bible study, discussion about what God is doing in our lives, Scripture memorization, praise, prayer and an optional Mexico mission trip. We offer a controlled immersion approach, spending most of our time in Spanish during our live online classes and in the homework, in a way that is understandable all the way along. Immersion is effective for teaching Spanish well and quickly. When we take students to Mexico in March or June it is thrilling to see how much Spanish they know.

Moby Max

Find and fix learning gaps covering Common Core, NGSS, and State Standards.
Complete K-8 Curriculum - Close learning gaps in 27 subjects. MobyMax finds and fixes learning gaps with the power of personalized learning. MobyMax’s adaptive curriculum creates an individualized education plan for each student, allowing gifted students to progress as quickly as they like while simultaneously ensuring that remedial students get the extra instruction they need. You’ve never experienced differentiation like this in the classroom. Free version available. Paid version is very inexpensive.

My Father's World

Teaching is easy with pre-planned lessons
Learning is fun with thematic hands-on projects
Includes all subjects; with a Christian view throughout. -A hard-core Christian program. Their curriculum is history, literature, and geography. They help guide new school starts as well.

Life Print

Free sign language curriculum with videos

MEL Science Kits

The fun way for your kids to learn real science. Spark a love for science in your kids with monthly hands‑on kits and educational digital experiences.

Moving Beyond the Page

Curriculum for creative, hands-on, and gifted learners.

National Sexual Health Standards (k-12)

2nd Edition standards - A must read - but be prepared - you will most likely want to leave public education if you read through this :)

Life of Fred Mathematics

Life of Fred (LOF) is an unconventional series of math texts that seem accessible and friendly, especially for students who dislike traditional programs. According to Dr. Schmidt, the author, this series is designed to teach you the math you need to know without repetition, redundancy, and a multitude of problems to work. LOF follows the storyline of Fred's life while incorporating solid math concepts and skills. Motivated or independent students will appreciate this series, as well as gifted math students who might need a challenge. Written to the student and intended to be self-teaching, the author prefers that students use these with very little help from you, so they can learn to study and understand on their own. Even the solutions (found in the text) are addressed to the student. In fact, there's a lot of actual instruction in the solutions, which students should read after trying to solve problems on their own. Math in a story context can sometimes make more sense to students than stand-alone math concepts - especially if it's an entertaining story! Students do two books per year up through pre-algebra; beginning with algebra, one book per year.

See the Cathy Duffy review here: https://cathyduffyreviews.com/homeschool-reviews-core-curricula/math/grades-k-6/life-of-fred-math-elementary#

Makes You Fluent

Unlock Your Language Potential with AI-Powered Mastery
Talk the most popular languages without the fear of speaking. Improve your fluency by having real-life conversations.

MusiQuest

Students easily enter Musi, our world of lessons, stories, and music creation. This immersive environment has been constructed with a deliberate process and mission of delivering comprehensive, authentic, and creative music education.

Night Zoo Keeper

Make Reading & Writing Fantastically Fun
Award-winning reading & writing program for kids
Improves spelling, grammar, punctuation & vocabulary
Personalized feedback on your child's writing