Tips For Choosing Homeschool Curriculum

2 old school deals against a black wall under a wooden shelf full of books.

Today I am sharing my best tips for choosing homeschool curriculum. I am writing this with new homeschoolers in mind, but it may be helpful to those who have been homeschooling as well. When it comes to homeschool curriculum, we could all use a refresher sometimes!

If you are totally new to homeschooling and aren’t sure at all where to start, check out my post on How to Start Homeschooling where I walk you through the exact steps you need to take before shopping curriculum.

In this post I’ll be sharing my favorite curricula by grade level range for Pre-K/Kindergarten, Elementary/Middle School, and Highschool. I will also share a few links for other curriculums that may be helpful and free resources as well!

This is not a comprehensive list by any means, as there are a ton of curriculum choices available for homeschool parents now! This will hopefully just give you a good starting point for choosing the best homeschool curriculum for your family.

In my 13 years of homeschooling, I have used a variety of different curriculum in our homeschool. I have learned over time what approach works best for our entire family and what my favorite overall curriculums are for different subjects and ages. As a homeschool mom of 9 kids, I also want to share my best tips on things to consider before purchasing curriculum.

Things to consider:

State Requirements:

You will obviously need to follow your state’s laws regarding homeschooling. This is the most important thing to look at first. They may have a list of required subjects that you must teach and other criteria to follow, but ultimately, you will get to make the final decision on the specific curriculum. I recommend going to the Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) website to check the laws and your specific state’s requirements.

GOALS:

Do you have great academic goals to get your child into collage? Are you wanting to meet your child where they’re at? Maybe your goal is to prioritize more family time and relationships. Whatever your reason is for homeschooling, considering your long-term goals will help you make better decisions when it comes to picking the right curriculum for your needs.

BUDGET:

Before shopping curriculum, you’ll need to know what your budget is for materials. It will help steer you in the right direction and help you to be intentional with your choices. There are many affordable and even free resources available to homeschool families that are on a tight budget.

Homeschooling Style:

This is of course hard to know before you even begin homeschooling, but it’s worth doing a bit of research on the different approaches
and styles of homeschooling. It may better prepare your mind for how to approach buying curriculum and how you might want to structure your day. It will get you started thinking on what your teaching style may be. Do you desire to set up a schoolroom at home or would you rather cozy up on the couch to read alongside your child? Or does a nature walk appeal most to you? I recommend checking out this post from Wander Homeschool for a better understanding of the different homeschool styles.

LEARNING STYLEs AND PERSONALITY:

Knowing your child’s learning style is important before choosing curriculum. Is your child more of a visual learner or auditory learner? Do they like to touch with their hands? They might be a kinesthetic learner. Does your child have special needs that requires a unique approach? Obviously, you have to consider your own personality as well. Are you more type A and thrive off of a schedule? Or would you rather “wing it” for the day? If you need help figuring out your child’s learning style, you can go to LearningStyleQuiz.com and take a quick quiz to see what learning style you are. You can answer for your child. Bottom line, you’ll need to choose curriculum that will work for both you and your child and their unique needs

SCHEDULE:

How much time will you realistically have? If you are a working parent trying to homeschool or if you have babies and toddlers, you may be more strapped for time. Try not to purchase curriculum that is too teacher intensive in every single subject. There will be some things they need more of your help with, but other subjects that they can work on more independently.

VALUES:

Not all homeschool curriculum is made equal. There are many different curriculum resources available that accommodate different worldviews and religions. Whatever your beliefs, you’ll want to make sure when choosing homeschool curriculum, that it aligns with your values.

WHO’S IN CHARGE?

Don’t be a slave to the curriculum. You are in charge of the curriculum; the curriculum is not in charge of you! It is a guide for you, not a rule book that you must follow exactly! There may be a math lesson that is too long and redundant, and you know your child knows the information. Skip it! You, as the teacher/parent are allowed to make that call.

WHEN CURRICULUM DOESN’T WORK:

The curriculum you choose may not end up being the best fit in your home or for your kids. There is no such thing as the perfect curriculum. There are many great curriculum options out there, but what may work for one child’s needs may not work for another. Not only that, but what works for homeschool parents one year may not be the best curriculum choice the next year! Sometimes what seems like a good fit at first will just simply not work and that’s ok! It happens to the best of us. It may be wise to start out with free or more affordable curriculums so you can get your feet wet a bit and learn what works best for you and your kids. If you don’t spend too much, you can throw it out and try again without too much guilt.

A wooden bookshelf full of books and curriculum with wicker baskets against a black wall.

my top picks for Homeschool curriculums:

Preschool and Kindergarten:

For the preschool years, you don’t really need a curriculum. At this age, they really benefit mostly from play, and you can easily introduce and teach things at this age without purchasing a curriculum for it. With that said, every child is very different. While one may not be ready to read until 7, another will be ready and willing to start at 3 or 4! Don’t feel pressured to purchase anything at all. You know your child best and will know when it makes sense for them.

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons: If your child is ready to learn to read, this is hands down the best, simplest, open and go approach out there! It’s also super affordable. I have used this book to teach all of my kids to read.
The Peaceful Preschool: A literature and project-based curriculum for early learners. It’s hands-on learning and it’s exactly as described, peaceful. I’ve used this with one of my boys, and he loved it. It’s perfect for those that don’t want to sit down to a workbook or coloring sheets. You will need to download this and print yourself.
The Good and The Beautiful: This is perfectly paced for a preschooler that is excited to “do school”. My girls have been more workbook savvy, and this worked great for them. They also have a great math curriculum that is fun for kindergarten!
Five in a Row: This is another gentle approach to homeschooling little ones. You will read a different book every week or so and throughout the week there are suggested activities that go along with the story you read. Some of the activities will cover art or science, while others may touch on geography and history. This is essentially what a unit study looks like, but for very small children. I love it because it keeps you engaged with them while you read together and allow them to be little.
Christian Light Education: This is another workbook style that works great for preschool and kindergarten. My kids absolutely love this! Again, just perfect for those kids that want to sit down with a workbook. It’s age appropriate and keeps them entertained. They also have a “Learn to Read” series that would pair perfectly with a child learning to read. I’ve used it after we’ve finished 100 Easy Lessons.
Explode The Code: This is a basic phonics workbook, but it is very gentle and works great to enhance reading skills. It is great for independent practice. It’s perfect for starting when they are young, but the workbooks do progress to different levels.
Handwriting Without Tears: This is my favorite handwriting curriculum to start young kids out with. It’s another gentle approach. It will not overwhelm a small child learning to form letters. You can follow the program with a teacher’s guide and chalkboard or just use the student workbook.
The Gentle + Classical Press: I adore this preschool curriculum! It’s perfect if you have a child that isn’t quite ready to sit still, but you still want to instill some structure and rhythm into your day. There are lots of components to this! Some of which you will display for your child to see and switch out once a week. It’s a precious and well-organized curriculum that is worth taking a look at!

a wooden board with chicken wire displaying paper components of a preschool curriculum. — A glimpse of our display of the Gentle + Classical Preschool curriculum.

Elementary and Middle School:

This age is such a special time. You may be tempted to purchase curriculum that your students can complete totally independently, but I suggest making sure you don’t give up time with them too soon! Enjoy reading aloud with them still and sitting together as a family to read history and science! Play geography or math games together and make sure to carve out special time every day for learning together in some way.

First Language Lessons: This is hands down my favorite curriculum for teaching grammar! It’s a teacher guide scripted for the teacher or parent to give oral grammar lessons. It’s gentle, quick, fun and effective. There are 4 levels in this series, the first two are mostly done orally. I think it’s recommended to have a notebook for the student to use along with it. The last two books have a workbook companion. It’s recommended to start in grade 1., but I think waiting longer would be fine. I personally have used it to pair students up. I wait until I have a couple of kids old enough to do lessons at the same time.
Writing With Ease: This is perfect for pairing alongside the First Language Lessons. It also comes scripted for the parent and is a gentle approach to teaching writing. You’ll read excerpts from classic literature to your student(s), and they will copy a passage from the excerpt. They will also practice narration (telling back the story in their own words). You will want to get the student pages workbook for each student as well. The teacher guide comes with one set of student pages in the back. You can also order straight from The Well-Trained Mind website and purchase a PDF version to print at home.
Christian Light Education: This is my favorite for math curriculum for the elementary & middle school years. It’s also a great resource for a complete language arts curriculum. They have workbooks in every subject, but we mostly love them for math. It’s written to the student and is easy for them to understand the instructions for new lessons. There are also daily math drills built into every lesson.
Guest Hollow: They have a great Grammer and Language Arts course that is written almost comic book style with the character, “Beowulf” which is a dog that talks them through grammar. Guest Hollow also offers Early American history as well as geography and science.
The Good and The Beautiful: This is another great option for Math or Language Arts and even Science or History. We also love their handwriting workbooks. It’s an open and go curriculum that makes it easy on the parent/teacher. They offer quite a few of their grade levels for free in math and language arts. You would just need to be able to print them yourself.
Teaching Textbooks: I haven’t actually used this myself, but I think it’s worth mentioning here because of its popularity in the homeschool world. It’s an online math program that grades math for you! It’s perfect for those students that hate math but would love a computer game! It goes all the way through high school as well!
The Mystery of History: This is a fantastic history curriculum with a Christian worldview. There are 4 books total that go through history in chronological order. Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, and then Modern history. There is an audio version on Mp3 that you can turn on for your kids to listen to instead of reading from the textbook yourself.
America’s Story: An American History curriculum. We loved this! There are 3 books total in the series. It is full of great photos and is written in a very conversational manner that makes learning history fun!
Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW): “Structure and Style” video instruction for writing. I love to start this in upper elementary. They have a unique approach to teaching writing through a style of modeling first. It’s gentle and takes the pressure off of the parents.
Evan Moor Workbooks: I love to use their Skill Sharpeners Science workbooks and their Daily Geography Practice workbooks. My kids enjoy these. If you have a child that hates workbooks, Skip these. They are fun supplemental materials, but not totally necessary.
Spelling Workout: Spelling can be a tricky thing, and every child will need to approach this differently, but so far this is the best that I have found, and we love these workbooks. I tweak a few things to make them work for us, but they have worked great for my kids.
Writing and Rhetoric: This is a great writing curriculum that I would recommend for upper elementary or middle school students, although I think you could use all the way through high school as well. I loved using this with my kids! It’s best if used alongside your child, (in my opinion) but after some helping your child along, they could work through it independently. It uses the modeling approach to writing, where they will read excerpts and expand upon the stories using what they’ve been taught or write an original story using a similar approach to what is shown as the example.
Simply Charlotte Mason: This is a wonderful website that offers lesson plans with book lists modeled around the charlotte mason method. I recommend at least perusing the website a bit to see what all they offer. You can also check out their online bookstore to purchase curriculum materials. I personally love their picture study portfolios for art appreciation. They are packets organized by artist that come with a short biography of the artist and sample art pieces for you to display in your homeschool.

Da Vinci art print displayed on wooden bookshelf with many books. — Da Vinci art print of The Last Supper from Simply Charlotte Mason.

High School:

Choosing the right curriculum for high school can seem daunting, but I promise it’s not as scary as you may think. High School is also quite special. Your children will likely be doing most of their work independently now, but you can still choose to join them for some subjects, such as history, science, or geography. Again, these are precious years that you won’t get back. Enjoy them! These are the best years for having great conversations with your kids. Watch the news and discuss important topics together. Speak into their lives and take advantage of still having great influence in their lives. Plus having them join you for some of their subjects may even lighten their daily load a little bit, so they don’t feel too overburdened. High School can be a lot of fun!

Dive Shormann Math: This is an online math program for highschoolers taught from a biblical worldview. It’s student lead and they do all of the grading for you. They offer Pre-Algebra through Calculus 2. It’s thorough and so far, we love it!
Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW): “Structure and Style” video instruction for writing. They have a unique approach to teaching writing through a style of modeling first. It’s gentle and takes the pressure off of the parents.
Fix-It Grammer: This is a quick daily instruction and review of grammar skills to keep them fresh in their mind, without taking up too much of their time. Perfect for the high school years.
The Good and The Beautiful: They offer English for 3 years of high school along with options for English with honors. I like that this curriculum weaves geography into the lessons. My daughter really liked using this.
Guest Hollow: This is hands down my favorite literature-based curriculum for teaching history, geography, and science in the high school years. They have created an in-depth online schedule that includes books to read, You Tube videos and tons of other resources to enhance the learning experience. I have learned so much myself going through this alongside my high schoolers.
Not Consumed: We love their “Thrive” curriculum for health. I would also recommend checking out the other curriculums they offer for high school students, along with their amazing bible studies!
Masterbooks: We love to utilize master books for electives. They have wonderful resources for apologetics and many other topics.
BJU Press: We love their online video courses for Foreign Language. They also offer other subjects as well You can stream the lessons or order DVD’s, but the DVD’s will need to be returned after a year.
Science 101 DVD Series: This is a high school level set of DVDs that cover science. You print the tests and accredited part with a schedule that will make it a complete year of science for high school. It’s a simple approach for those especially not science minded or for parents that are intimidated by teaching high school level science. We use these in conjunction with our Guest Hollow science for high school., but they can totally be used on their own!

Curriculum Websites:

Here you can browse a variety of different curricula by publisher/brand, subject or grade level.

Free Curriculum Resources:

Check out these websites that offer totally free curriculum! Some of these companies may also provide grade level assessments that you can have your child take if you aren’t quite sure where they’re at in a subject.

All-In-one by Grade Level:

This is a list of companies that you can shop all of your child’s curriculum for the entire school year by grade level and it will show up in one big box! Pre-packaged curriculum like this will usually cover the most important subjects or your core subjects, such as math, language arts, science and history. I have never personally homeschooled this way, as I like to pick and choose curriculum, but this can be a great option for some families. It can be especially helpful that first year to help boost your confidence in homeschooling. Or even if you’re going through a tough season of life and you just need something to lighten your mental load.

If you are curious about other homeschool curriculums or have questions about any of them, you’ll want to check out Cathy Duffy’s website where she reviews tons of homeschool curriculum!

You are also welcome to reach out to me any time if you have any questions! You can also find me on Facebook and Instagram.

Homeschooling can be so much fun, and I want to welcome you to this journey! I hope this post is helpful in your process of choosing the right homeschool curriculum for your family!

2 old school desks under a wooden shelf full of books against a black wall with text overlay on choosing homeschool curriculum.

If you found this post helpful, please rate it, share it and leave me a comment below! I love to hear from you!
Xo,

Amy