by Kendra
When we first started homeschooling I turned to the lovely book The Top 100 Homeschool Picks. Through the information inside, the self quiz and the results of that we were quickly and easily led to the Five In A Row Curriculum. We used that curriculum for five beautiful years. Then suddenly we were in need of new curriculum.
Our eldest had reached a point where a new curriculum was needed to challenge him and I wanted something that would be easy to implement into our suddenly busy schedule. I spent weeks sorting through stacks and stacks of curriculum. I was so overwhelmed I actually considered trying not purchasing something new! Yep, it was that overwhelming.
Eventually I made a list of everything I wanted in a curriculum and another list for everything that I needed. Then I combined my list into one putting the things with the biggest priority towards the top. Thanks to that list I was able to weed out a lot of curriculum that, while beautiful, was not going to work for my family. It was a wonderfully blissful moment.
Here at The Curriculum Choice we all use a variety of curriculum and books to educate our children. We love sharing what we are using with our readers and this month we want to share our most favourite curriculum with all of you!
From The Curriculum Choice Archives
Be sure to browse the tabs above to find curriculum reviews for Choosing Homeschool Curriculum. You might also enjoy these that we’ve selected from our archives.
Choosing High School Curriculum
Choosing Middle School curriculum
Choosing Elementary School Curriculum
Choosing Preschool & Kindergarten Curriculum
Choosing Homeschool Curriculum For Multiple Ages
How To Choose Homeschool Curriculum
The Ultimate Guide To Choosing Homeschool Curriculum
Back To Homeschool Curriculum Choices
Children’s Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum From Curriculum Choice Authors
The Curriculum Choice authors have active blogs where they regularly offer ideas and experiences about their homeschool adventures. Below are their very favorite Children’s Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum.
Betsy @ BJ’s Homeschool
At BJ’s Homeschool, we started homeschooling when my daughter was 4, and continued all the way through high school. She is now in college. I can’t believe my “baby” is a sophomore now! Here are my kiddo’s curriculum favorites, starting with preschool. It’s so fun to look back on those early years….
Top Picks (and Tips) for Preschool/Kindergarten – “Here’s what we did for those precious early years, and all the fun doing it, including Early Math Fun, and Early Science – Hands-On.
My daughter loved studying US History and English combined, in the Oak Meadow’s fifth grade curriculum. Oak Meadow is a hands-on, project based curriculum, from K – 12, which incorporates art and projects into all of it’s lessons. It is similar, in a lot of way, to an inspired-Charlotte Mason approach.
In middle school, my daughter developed a love of writing. Here are our favorites resources for Middle School Writing.
Our favorites for math are here, starting with preschool, and going through high school – Our Curriculum Choices for Math – Preschool to High School.
We enjoyed a number of Oak Meadow’s literature courses in high school, including Literature and Composition 2 . These courses made my daughter a strong essay writer, and their literary analysis assignments prepared her well for college writing.
After my daughter graduated, I compiled Our Favorites for High School Curriculum. I hope these give you ideas for your precious teens, too.
Eva @ EvaVarga.net
We started homeschooling nearly 10 years ago. My children are now in sixth and eighth grade – we’re fully immersed in middle school years. My favorite perhaps because this is the age group I taught before I became a mom and I made the decision to stay at home with them.
As a science educator, I have always relied on my own experience and the wealth of material that I have collected over the years to develop our homeschool science curriculum. Many of the lessons I have created are available for free on my website. I have also developed an inquiry based, hands-on science curriculum for middle level students, Science Logic Curriculum. Each unit incorporates background information, literature connections, and suggested long-term projects. The units can be used independently or combined for a complete academic year curriculum.
We’ve always integrated writing and journaling activities into our lifestyle. I enjoy creating unit studies around the novels we have read and learning grammar through a whole language approach – particularly when the kids were younger. Christmas in the North Woods is an example of a unit study I developed around the books of Jan Brett.
One of the new challenges we will be taking on this year is the National Mythology Exam in February. My daughter has also begun an in depth study of the history of English utilizing King Alfred’s English and she is absolutely LOVING it! This unique combination study of both English and history will provide a look at words, grammar, Shakespeare, the Bible, and language.
For history and geography, we loved Story of the World when the kids were in elementary school. As we read each chapter, the kids delighted in adding the historical figures and events to our history timeline.
As we now begin the cycle again we are using The History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer. We are also looking forward to taking part in the annual National History Day competition. We will continue to incorporate activities from North Star Geography as well as real life learning experiences.
Lastly, Better Chinese materials have worked very well as our spine in Mandarin (the kids’ second language). We are now using Discovering Chinese Pro which has both a printed version and an iPad app.
Tricia at Hodgepodge
Oh goodness. There are SO many of my children’s favorites! And they are usually changing with ages and stages. And, of course, our selections are a hodgepodge…
Homeschool Curriculum Choices at Hodgepodge – We are heading into our 15th year of homeschool – having homeschooled from preschool all the way up through high school. This is yet another big year of homeschooling our five children: our elementary children in second and fourth grades. A last year of middle school for middle girl in eighth grade (next year a high schooler!) Plus both a junior and a senior in high school. Yes, we will be having ‘senior moments’ for two years in a row! So much to be thankful for!
Our Homeschool Science Curriculum Choices for Multiple Ages – (my eldest son’s favorite curriculum!) in response to a reader question.
Right now my high schoolers are LOVING these video homeschool resources from The Compass Classroom – (My high school daughter’s favorite – Dave Raymond’s American History) For our family, we have found it is such a huge blessing to invite master teachers in each of these subjects – into our own home! We can tailor our schedule and pace. We can pause, take notes, go back and review. It may not be for you but it is perfect for us.
What I’ve Learned Homeschooling with Tapestry of Grace – (a favorite of us all – that rich literature and history) Today, I offer you a Tapestry tour. A top ten list of Tapestry of Grace resources, frequently asked questions and tips for the teacher. And if you don’t use Tapestry of Grace, I hope you just might find some of the advice for teaching multiple ages and homeschool planning helpful in general.
You might want to browse ALL our favorite curricula! Preschool (like Kendra, we loved Five in a Row), elementary, middle, high school and curriculum choices for multiple ages too. Plus organizational tips.
Sweet memories of life and learning
Annie Kate at Tea Time with Annie Kate
Throughout the years I have discovered that the top learning resources at our home are very simple: time, opportunity to explore, flexibility to add or subtract learning topics, our library, nature, and our various communities. But, of course, there are also top curriculum picks, and after almost 20 years of homeschooling, our five children (three currently in university, two still homeschooled) came up with quite a list. Fond Memories: Our 5 Kids’ Top 30 Homeschool Resources includes a lot of their candid comments and insights into their favorite curricula. Three resources that almost all of my children really enjoyed stood out in that list: ALEKS math, Seterra geography facts, and the BBC Historical Farm Series.
I constantly try—and constantly fail—to find resources suited to each of my children’s current interests and needs, but even making the effort to tweak what we are already using can pay huge dividends in learning. It is good to remember that children will learn no matter what, unless you manage to destroy their imagination, and that is pretty difficult to do. On the other hand, it is not that hard to nurture their love of learning. So don’t let all these lists of top resources overwhelm you; just keep on doing your prayerful best to make happy learning memories with your dear children.
Follow Curriculum Choice’s board Choosing Curriculum on Pinterest.
The Curriculum Choice Review Team Features
Our Choosing Curriculum Pinterest board.
Have you enjoyed this special post from our review authors? Our Curriculum Choice review team features a topic monthly. You can see all that our authors have shared on electives, math, curriculum choices and more under Review Team Features.
Be sure to SUBSCRIBE so you won’t miss any reviews from our team of veteran homeschoolers!
~ Hosted by Kendra
Download The Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Planning and Organization ebook today!