Our Favorite Homeschool Curriculum For a Vibrant Year

I love researching and reading reviews, sometimes it can be paralyzing, of course, but a majority of the time it pays off greatly! So when it comes to homeschool curriculum I definitely do my research before I buy. Maybe I should be embarrassed to admit this, but I spend hours researching curriculum. Everywhere from homeschooling blogs to reviews on YouTube, as well as talking to friends. I think it’s important to say, too, that woven into all the research is constant prayer. I am always looking to God for direction and peace as I am narrowing down our homeschool curriculum choices.

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Our Complete Lower Elementary Homeschool Curriculum

This is everything we will be using throughout the entire 2021-2022 school year for my 3rd grade daughter. However, my 2nd grade daughter will be using this curriculum as well, just some books will be in a different level for her. My Kindergarten son will do a little language arts, math and handwriting with us and my Preschool daughter will do a short language arts lesson a few times a week. I have our homeschool broken down into 5 week terms with a week off in between terms, along with additional extended breaks for holidays and summer. Some of this curriculum we will use throughout the entire year and others we will only use for one term. We definitely do not use all this curriculum at the same time and most of it will be revisited in coming school years.

READ: HOW TO HOMESCHOOL WITH A TODDLER

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, if you click through and make a purchase, I will earn a commission.

BIBLE

We incorporate Bible into our homeschool in a few different ways. First, we just read the Bible. My kids each have a Bible, my daughter going into 3rd grade uses the Adventure Bible, and along with that I have the Hands On Bible and The Bible Made Easy as extra Bible reading resources. The Hands On Bible has activities that correlate with Bible passages and The Bible Made Easy has wonderfully detailed information about the passage of scripture you are reading. I always include a page from one of our character building books into our day, such as Kids of Character, Our 24 Family Ways and I Am, I Can. Something that we do, that I also get a ton out of, is learning more in depth about specific things about God or the Bible. We really like the Answers Book for Kids set because it is full of questions kids usually ask that can be difficult to answer, so these books help your kids learn how to answer tough questions. In the evening we try to read from one of our devotionals. We have been enjoying the Louie Giglio series, the kids especially like learning how God and science work together, and, new to us are the Promises of God and the I Am devotionals. Every evening the kids work on their memory verses for the week. Then, of course, prayer. I feel like as a busy homeschooling mom I am always praying, mostly for sanity, but nonetheless, we incorporate prayer into our daily life.

Fine Arts

I really enjoy learning about and teaching fine arts, so I was extremely excited when my oldest daughter took an interest in photography, filmmaking and dance this past year. For this upcoming school year we are going to spend an entire term on photography and filmmaking and then another term learning about the history of dance, as well as the history of music. Also in the mix we have art, which my kids have always enjoyed, but we are looking forward to opening up the Teach Art to Your Kids book and going beyond our normal weekly art projects. This book goes through all the elements of art and has a project for each one. This year I will also be adding in A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories, which is Shakespeare rewritten in a way children can understand. I am hoping this will be a good introduction to Shakespeare.

Languages

Last year we used videos on YouTube to learn Spanish and Sign Language, and while those videos were awesome, I decided to purchase books this year. We will still use the videos from time to time, but I am way more likely to teach languages if I don’t have to first get my computer out and find a video. New to us this year is Greek and Latin. I found this roots book and think it will be a great introduction for the kids.

Games

Have you heard of gameschooling? I was introduced to this idea a couple of years ago and haven’t looked back. Gameschooling is just that, using games to learn. Most of the games I have are for my younger kids, but I have a few that are geared towards my older kids. The reading comprehension cubes are nice to use during read alouds, especially if it’s a more challenging book. The kids just roll the dice and we discuss the question they rolled as it pertains to the read aloud. Other language arts games are Last Letter and Word on the Street. Last Letter is a quirky picture game where you find an item in the picture, figure out the last letter in the word of that item and then find a new item that starts with that letter. It’s really fun! For Word on the Street, we use this game for spelling. You line up the letters of the alphabet and as you spell words you collect letters. Sometime we play the game with the cards provided, but mostly we use our spelling words. Money Bags is a fun math game that teaches counting money. My kids have definitely learned money skills from playing this game. Another fun math game is math war, it’s played like your typical war card game except with math facts.

Geography

I am really excited about this curriculum from Master Books. Last year I had great plans to put together my own U.S. and World geography curriculum, I had lots of ideas rolling around in my mind, and, that’s where they stayed. I had to be honest with myself that having four young kids and a house to run left little time and energy to put together this curriculum I was dreaming about. So, for this year we enlisted Master Books and I couldn’t be happier. Their program is broken down into easy to digest lessons and completely laid out as an open and go curriculum.

Health

Here are some of the books we have read and will read again this year. Each year I also buy a health workbook for the kids and this year I went with Healthy Habits for Healthy Kids. It covers many health related topics and comes in different age appropriate levels. I also plan to have unit studies on nutrition, safety, and mental health, which I will write a post on once I have them planned.

History

This is the first year we will be using Master Books for history. Previously we have used The Good and the Beautiful and have really liked that curriculum, but I decided to give Master Books a try this year and see what we think. I like that there is an interactive workbook as well as an awesome timeline full of information. America’s Story is also available on Amazon.

Home Economics

This is another favorite subject in our house. Since my kids love helping in the kitchen I decided to buy cookbooks just for them. This is something we have been doing for the past few years and my goal throughout the years is to have my kids know how to make dozens of meals before they go to college. Along with cooking we also learn meal planning, grocery shopping and meal prepping skills. Last year I introduced sewing to my oldest daughter and since then she has made blankets and purses for her dolls. New to us will be the financial book. Over the past couple of years we have implemented a family economy where the kids have jobs and receive a paycheck, where they learn how to tithe, save and spend. I like this financial book because it will take the learning one step farther, and there is a budget in the back of the book, and I have a soft spot for budgets!

Instruments

I grew up playing the alto saxophone so I was thrilled when my oldest daughter said she wanted to learn how to play it. She is still in the honking stage of learning to play (sorry to my husband who is trying to work), but she will get it soon! As far as piano goes, we are both slowly learning how to play. I know I should sign her (and me) up for piano lessons because it would make learning to play way for efficient! We are also thinking about trying out Master Books Academy for guitar lessons.

Language Arts

The Good and the Beautiful has been our go to language arts and handwriting curriculum since the beginning. It’s very academically sound and really is beautiful. If you wanted, you could just use that curriculum for all the aspects of language arts, but for my kids we needed a little more practice in spelling, vocabulary and writing. We have used Wordly Wise, All About Spelling and Essentials in Writing since we started in Kindergarten and will continue to use them. For independent reading, I am a huge fan of The Good and the Beautiful library. All their books are wholesome and ones you don’t have to worry about your kids reading.

Literature

Last year I was searching for a literature curriculum and stumbled across Teaching the Classics. It comes with a set of dvd’s that teach you as the parent all about literature and how to teach it. I learned so much! I also purchased the Ready Readers book because they have recommended books to read with your kids and walks you through how to implement the program while you read the book. A new purchase we will be using in the upcoming year is A World Full of Dickens Stories, which has 8 classic stories that are rewritten in a way that children can understand and enjoy.

Math

We have used Math U See since the beginning. It’s a mastery math program which has worked beautifully for us. My husband teaches math in our house out of necessity because math is definitely not my thing. He said the program is easy to teach and he feels the kids are learning well. The first time you buy this curriculum you will need to buy the set with the blocks, but after that you just need to purchase the level up option.

Nature

I could buy all the nature books, and I’m pretty sure my husband thinks I do! I just think they are so beautiful and I love anything that helps us get outside. It’s also a joy to see my kids excited about nature, even if we never learn every detail in these books, it’s enough to just be in nature and take in its beauty. Another one we love that I forgot to take a picture of is the Creative Nature Walks download. There are pages of creative and easy activities for your kids to do while on a nature walk.

Science

I rotate through which science curriculum we use because I love all the companies we have tried. This year we are starting with Master Books Adventures in Creation and then will move into Adventures in the Physical World. I also have the Life Science book from Master Books that we might get out, too. Master Books does a great job of delivering the information in an easy, yet detailed way and there are activities for the kids to do throughout the curriculum. Master Books Science level 1 and level 2 are also available on Amazon. We went through the Apologia Botany book last year, which is more textbook style, and I will pull some information from there for our gardening unit study. We have also used many of the science units from The Good and the Beautiful, too.

Social Studies

Social studies was one of those subjects I was a little lost on how and what to teach. I was happy to find the 180 Days of Social Studies book early last year because it covers all the topics and is interactive. We also used My Story from Master Books which takes the kids on a trek around the world. My Story is also available on Amazon. When taking these pictures I realized I didn’t have the next level of these for my oldest daughter yet, but this is what she used for 2nd grade.

Technology

I bought this last year and we never used it, so it’s on the schedule for this upcoming year! We also have plans to introduce the kids to the world of computer coding.

READ: SIMPLE HOMESCHOOL ROOM WITH FUNCTIONAL AND PRETTY CURRICULUM STORAGE IDEAS

Subjects I Don’t Have Curriculum For

Art Projects

My art project curriculum is Pinterest. At the beginning of each new school year I pre-plan all the art projects we will do for the year by printing off the instructions with a small example picture and gathering all the supplies. I am not a very artsy person, so if I didn’t pre-plan art projects we would never get to them.

Daily Walks

Every morning before we start school we get outside and go for a short walk. Rain or shine! Sometimes we just play in the backyard and other times we walk through the neighborhood.

Field Trips

My goal is to go on a field trip at the end of each term that ties in with something we learned about. We will also do smaller outings on some Friday’s and Saturday’s. Click HERE to get some fun homeschool outing ideas.

Home Economics

While I do have some curriculum for this, I also plan to continue teaching things like, laundry, cleaning, hospitality, etc.

Physical Education

Along with our health curriculum, we will be doing lots of running and playing outside, as well as participating in organized sports.

Poetry

In the past we have done a weekly Poetry Tea Time, but this year we are going to try and read one poem every day. However, during our Fall Term we will focus more on poetry with memorization and writing our own poems. Click HERE to see our favorite poetry books.

Presentations

Each term the kids will pick a topic, gather research, put together a board and present their topic to family and friends. My oldest daughter has decided on horses for her topic for our first term.

Read Alouds

One of my favorite parts of our day! I read anywhere from 10-30 pages per day, so knowing that, I can roughly calculate how long a book will take us to get though. We have so many we want to read this year! Click HERE to read our list of books we read this past year.

Storytime

Another favorite part of the day is snuggling on the couch with some great picture books. Click HERE for a list of our favorite books! Also visit my Pinterest page for more picture book ideas. I just want all the books… can anyone else relate?!?!

Unit Study

We reserve Friday for our unit study day. The first one for our school year is going to be either a garden or a mental health unit study.