Our Current Homeschool Curriculum Choices (For 6 Kids Kindergarten to 9th)

Each year I am asked what we’re using for homeschool curriculum. I’m always happy to oblige because, let’s face it, talking about curriculum is fun! 😀 I keep this updated post with our most current curriculum choices and make note of any resources that were particularly great from past years. As always, feel free to ask me questions about the picks!

This year (2022-23) we have kids in Kindergarten, 3rd grade, 5th grade, 7th grade, and 9th grade. 

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The Context: How Our Homeschool Works

One thing to keep in mind: Every child, every family, and every homeschool is different. Actually, every year is different, too! The best thing you can do when choosing curriculum for your homeschool is to pray over those choices and remember that there is no magical, perfect curriculum out there that everyone should be using. 

Go ahead and choose what fits your needs best for now, knowing that it may (and probably will) change over time! That’s totally fine. Flexibility is one of the many blessings of homeschooling! 

What Our Homeschool Looks Like

Before I launch into our choices, it’s helpful to know a little bit about our homeschool.

For 4 days we have a regular academic day and on the 5th day we are doing a fun day with games, playdates, and field trips. 

Favorite homeschool curriculum choices for multiple grades

Here’s our basic schedule: 

  • We have “morning time” during breakfast with Bible lessons, memory work, and a kids’ news program.
  • After chores the 7th and under kids gather at the table again for a rotation of resources/subjects.
  • Then the kids do independent work and take turns doing 1:1 work with me. 
  • The older kids have a daily task list and a loop schedule to rotate through. 
  • During lunch I read from history literature or spine selection.  
  • During dinner, we listen to an audiobook or read aloud if Daddy’s not home.

That should give you a context for the resources we choose! 

Our 2022-23 Homeschool Curriculum Choices 

Group Work

I really value group learning with my kids. We learn and discussTOGETHER and it builds our relationships. I find that especially important for Bible and history, but we do several things as a group. (Note that we don’t do this all every day.) 

Teach kids theology and sound doctrine with Sound Words for Kids curriculum!

  • Bible Road Trip – Our staple Bible curriculum that we’ve used for years. It’s excellent and can be used for pre-k through high school.  My older kids also do the notebooking journals. 

Bible Road Trip

BiblioPlan history for 6th grade homeschool curriculum
This photo is of year 3 but we’ll be starting year 4 (Modern) this coming year.

 

  • World Watch for Kids Each morning after Bible lessons we watch the latest World Watch news, geared toward older kids. My youngers will often hang around but I don’t require it. My oldest kids (upcoming 7th & 9th) enjoy it the most. I do, too!

Not a photo of my bookshelves. 😆 But it does make me realize I need more bookshelves… 🤔

 

Group Work on Rotation for Younger Kids:

  • Music in Our Homeschool – We’ll be focusing on using their membership program (Music in Our Homeschool PLUS) this year and we’ve really enjoyed the easy calendar of lessons they provide. My high schooler will also be doing a 1/2 credit of 20th Century Music Appreciation with them. Fantastic resource! 
  • Masterpiece Society ArtWe’ve loved all their courses for every age as well as their seasonal art projects and artist studies.  You can use the membership like we do or individual courses.
  • Science with Journey Homeschool Academy We’re still working our way through their elementary Experience Biology course and my kids are enjoying it so much they asked to do another one. 
  • Homeschool Choir – For at least one of the terms available each year we try to participate in the local homeschool choir. It’s a fantastic way to make new friends, stretch musical skills, and learn a little self-discipline. 😉 It is about 3-4 months long with a performance at the end. Homeschool choir
  • Family Spanish – I am SO excited to see that there is now a family-style Spanish Course by Master Books! It’s just what I’ve been looking for: designed to be done as a family, affordable, video-based, and Christ-centered content. This is the first time I’ve found something with all those qualifications! ❤️ The classes aren’t live (which is better for us anyway) and there are optional printables included with the lessons. We’re also enjoying the recordings of live online classes done through Sarah’s Spanish School. 

 

Grade Level Homeschool Curriculum Choices

In addition to our group work, here is what each of my kids is doing in their homeschool this coming year:

9TH GRADE CURRICULUM  – 9th grade? High school, ack! 😆 It’s going to be great. Here are the 9th grade curriculum picks my son and I decided on together. You can read more details about each 9th grade curriculum choice here

  • Student Work & Habit Tracker for managing his work and time.
  • Bible Road Trip – Notebooking and additional reading (in addition to our group time).
  • Writing Mechanics Course – online course by FundaFunda Academy, aimed to help him start strong with high school writing.
  • BiblioPlan (Year 4 – Modern History) – In addition to our group work, he’ll have his own reading, notebooking, essays, and map work. 
  • Additional literature resources – BiblioPlan includes a lot of literature. We’ll also be using Generations and may bring in some things from 7 Sisters Homeschool as well. 
  • Algebra 1 – From Christian Light Education.
  • Apologia’s Biology – He’s doing the self-paced online version this year.
  • 20th Century Music Appreciation for High School – A great course to give him exposure to different music of the time period.
  • Spanish 1 – Online course from FundaFunda Academy. 
  • Exploring Creation with Health and Nutrition – 2nd edition from Apologia, we’ll be doing this as a half credit along with some other things for a full year’s PE credit.
  • And more! Read here to see everything he’s doing plus additional details on the above resources.

7TH GRADE CURRICULUM – My upcoming 7th grader is my big reader. She asked to study animals this year and also to do writing lessons with her younger sister. Below our our main 7th grade picks, and you can get more details on them here

5TH GRADE CURRICULUM CHOICES  – My 5th grader will mostly be doing what she did last year, except that she wanted to study animals with her older sister now that her bird unit has wrapped up, and she’ll be getting into more writing. Here’s what we’re doing for 5th. Read here for more details on these picks and other things we’re doing.

4TH GRADE CURRICULUM CHOICES  – Our son going into 4th grade (technically) but has been going at his own pace with several subjects as we accommodate his dyslexia and some signs of dyscalculia. Here are our picks for 4th grade for him! Read here for more details on these picks and other things we’ve done for 4th grade.

  • Math-U-SeeAlthough we usually use Christian Light Education, we discovered that this kiddo needs some extra math support. We’ve been working on math facts and will be moving forward with Math-U-See levels starting in the fall. He’s enjoying it and thriving so much better so far!
  • AIM program for addition and subtraction – from Math U See, for learning math facts
  • All About Reading – This has been SUCH a win for my kiddo. We’re continuing on at his pace and his reading is taking off. 
  • All About Spelling – We waited to start this with him and it’s proving to be really good for him as well as a review of what he learned in All About Reading. 
  • A Reason for Handwriting – I love this resource for letter formation, handwriting practice, and Scripture copywork. They continue through each level at their pace.
  • And more! Read here for details on these curriculum picks and a few more resources we’ve used for 4th grade.

2nd GRADE CURRICULUM CHOICES – Our 2nd grader is actually in the middle of 3rd grade math and is reading at about that level as well. He really enjoys doing activity books (like crosswords, multiple choice, etc.) that go along with chapter books, so I’m trying to add some of that for him again this year. Here are our 2nd grade picks for him. (You can also learn more about them and see what else we’ve used for 2nd grade.)

  • Christian Light Education – for 2nd grade math
  • All About Spelling – Not all my 2nd graders do this but my upcoming will continue with it from last year.
  • Henry Huggins Activity Pages Chapter book series activity pages from Teachers Pay Teachers. (This particular kid loves those kinds of workbooks!)
  • A Reason for Handwriting – I love this resource for letter formation, handwriting practice, and Scripture copywork. They continue through each level at their pace.
  • And more! Read here for details on these curriculum picks and a few more resources we’ve used for 2nd grade.

KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM CHOICES – Just like with preschool, we keep Kindergarten pretty casual. If my 5 year old shows more signs of reading readiness we’ll start that, but he’s not quite there. So for now our kindergarten curriculum picks consist mostly of tagging along in the group work, lots of read alouds, and some workbooks on hand for when he wants to “do school.” 

Top Curriculum Picks Past for All Grade Levels (So Far)

Wondering What Other Curriculum We’ve Used in the Past and Enjoyed?    

This isn’t a complete list. I’m working on it. 🙂 

  • Character
    • My two repeat character studies: Heart of Obedience and Anger vs. Self-Control  
    • Character Concepts (love it all) – Great resource for learning about godly character through engaging stories.
    • For Instruction in Righteousness –  for addressing behavior issues and Polished Cornerstones for girls and Plants Grown Up for boys. All from Doorposts. We still actually use these.
  • Science
  • Bible / Worldview
  • Language Arts
    • Writing Strands (the Master Books version) – This alternates weeks of writing (with gentle/natural grammar and other LA elements introduced throughout) with a reading assignment.     
    • Note Taking Skills – This is a workbook that teaches kids how to take effective notes from various writings. 
    • Word Up latin and greek roots – This is a video series that is in a game show format, from Compass Classroom
    • Jump In by Writing with Sharon Watson this is a 2-year middle school writing course. It’s a Cathy Duffy top pic, has great reviews, and is Christian. 
  • History / Geography
    • Around the World with Picture Books – This is a wonderful resource from Beautiful Feet Books that uses literature, activities, and additional resources like recommended videos to learn about geography and culture.
    • Tapestry of Grace Year 1 We tried this for 2019-20 and really enjoyed it. I love the multi-level history, geography, and literature. We ended up switching to BiblioPlan because it was much easier to use. 
    • Prairie Primer (Little House Unit) SO much fun. This is a year-long unit study that corresponds to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House series. We are actually still using this through the summer and love the activities, Bible studies, and more.  
  • Math
    • Teaching Textbooks – We enjoyed this for the older kids but our internet connection tanked and was unfixable. I greatly preferred the online version to CDs (I lose CDs) so we ended up switching back to our previous curriculum. However, I think it’s a great option for kids struggling in math or upper grades. To maximize it, I recommend having your kids write out their solutions and answers before entering them into the system, deleting and re-doing any problems that got them below an 85% on a lesson, and be sure to check into the system yourself once a week to make sure things are going well.   
    • CTC Math Another good online option. Less review and less interactive, but one subscription covers all kids all levels.   
  • Other
    • The Homeschool Garden Morning time sessions (4- to 6-week themes) include artist study, music, brushwork, nature study, poetry, tea time, and more. Kids of all ages enjoy the activities that come with each theme. Fun way to incorporate a Charlotte Mason approach!

Looking for More Curriculum Reviews? 

Other Homeschool Moms Whose Curriculum Picks *I* Enjoy Browsing

 

This Post Has 7 Comments

  1. Carla

    Hi, great list, thanks for putting it together. I see innovators tribe online says grades 6-12, how is your 4th doing with it? Wondering if my 4th could start now or would it be better to wait until older? Thanks!

    1. Tauna Meyer

      She’s doing fine! She just goes slower and needs more of my help for the more challenging things. She’s doing the Thinking Like an Engineer one – hasn’t tried the others yet.

  2. nashae pena

    HI! I was wondering after reading this article and listening to your video on homeschool summit, how do your children learn on their own without doing online courses? like does the curriculum you choose for your children provide a simple way of learning a new concept for example like in math or even in your writing curriculum??
    I do Singapore math so it comes with a teachers manual, how will my daughter do “independent learning”? Would she read the teachers manual and teach herself?

    1. Tauna Meyer

      Once my kids get to about 3rd grade, I only use the teachers manual for helping them troubleshoot or when grading papers. We use CLE math and they are able to do their work on their own and then if they hit a rough patch or I see while checking their work that they are struggling with a concept, we pull out the teachers manual and go over it. That doesn’t happen often, really.

      For writing it depends on the curriculum. My oldest is using Writing Strands from Master Books and I think he is able to do it fairly independently and I guide him through any issues. Another child of mine is using the writing curriculum that comes with Tapestry of Grace and it is much more hands-on. But even then the instruction is short and most of the rest of the time she is working on the assignment on her own.

      I hope that helps!

  3. Lori

    Hi Tauna! I love this, it sounds like a really great homeschool year! It is also encouraging to see your schedule. I have 2 less kids than you do, but it seems like I’m on the right track with how we’re scheduling things. (I have a 5th, 3rd, 1st, and preschooler this year). I LOVE the “Devotions with Mom” idea, and am just wondering how you incorporate that in? Is it daily? Weekly? I’d love to add this (I have some of the Doorposts books and have been wanting to incorporate them for a long time). I do rotate through working individually with each of my older kids every day, so I’m guessing you do something similar? I look at all this and wonder how you have the time and energy to implement all this and WRITE a lot of your own curriculum, ha! You’re amazing!

    1. Tauna Meyer

      Hi Lori!

      So, many of the resources we use are on a loop schedule. I have a list written out and posted on the wall of things we loop through as a group (so I just pick the next thing on the list and do that for the day). My older three kids also have many of their things on a loop. They have a short list of things they do each day and then they do one item (the next thing) on their loop list. It’s how we keep making progress on all the things without doing too much in a day!

      I only write the Sound Words curriculum, but that is so kind of you! 🙂

      Devotions with Mom is on their loop schedule. So it gets done about once a week. Being more consistent with using the Doorposts material is exactly the reason I started doing that!

      I hope that helps! Have a fantastic homeschool year! 🙂

  4. Jessica

    Thank you for posting your curriculum choices and how you approach homeschooling! We have close to the same approach so it was very helpful.

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