Homeschool Curriculum Top Picks

I'm finally ready to share our homeschooling agenda for the year. It's taken some time this summer to figure out what was going to work best for all of us. I've looked through a dozen catalogs, read several books, talked to the kids about their interests, and done a lot of praying. So what curriculum best suits my family, was the question. I didn't find a quick and easy answer, however I did find and put together the best curriculum and activities for us this year. So here is what we have planned for the boys.

The two older boys do most of their learning together. Blakey is 8 this year and Blazey is 10. Even though they might be at different levels for a few things, it has worked out great keeping them together. We really enjoy learning together as a family. (This post may contain affiliate links, which means we will get a small percentage to go towards purchasing new books and items used in our homeschooling journey. Thank you so much). 

To start with we decided on Beyond Five in a Row because we love that hands on, see where your interests lead you feeling. FIAR (short for Five in a Row) has wonderful classic stories, and like unit studies, it includes Literature, Social Studies, Fine Arts, Geography, Vocabulary, and more into each book study. It also gives us the freedom to explore their interests. The interests that they find while reading the books.

For Math the boys are really liking Teaching Textbooks. This is our first year purchasing a math curriculum and so far, so good. I love everything about it. If you are interested in seeing some of the other fun math books and manipulatives we have at our house for the kids to enjoy Click here.


For Science that will be all me again this year. I love putting unit studies together for the kids. I make sure to include a lot of hands on learning and various scientific activities. A few of the Unit Studies I have planned are Jellyfish which you can see part 1 here, Anatomy, Animals, Frog Life Cycle, Rocks, Plants/Planting, Weather, and The Little House Series. I am sure there will be more. I usually plan for at least six and let the other units be delight directed. If you missed what we did last year, you can see some of them right here.

We will be studying American History this year and finishing up our Continent studies. I've bought several books for our American History study and again we are winging it (otherwise known as unschooling/unit studies/project based/delight directed learning) I like to call it a lifestyle of learning. Blaze is very much into American history this year so I am letting him take more of an active lead to see how much we get into. Some of the books we've choose are the Heroes of Historyseries and the DK History Books. We will also work through our Montessori Continents boxes.

The boys love getting their Little Passports each month and will continue using it to go a long with their lessons. You can see how we incorporate it in to our learning in part 1 of our Traveling through Asia. You can also see how we used it in our Egypt study.  

Art and Music we will all do together. I choose Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists and Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers. We love all of the Mike Venezia books, they offer great information in a kid friendly way. That makes them perfect for us. We are also including the Artist lapbooking from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
Little B's favorites are the Draw Write Now books and Draw and Write Through History Series. So we will definitely be using them.

Draw Write Now Series

Draw and Write Through History Series

We have baskets full of new books we will be reading, and as always I will let you know what our favorites are. Oh and I have to mention Skrafty. My boys LOVE Minecraft and having a safe place to play and the option of tons of fun classes. It's a Huge Winner!!! Check out SKrafty Homeschool Minecraft Server.

We aren't done yet...

I think learning different languages is very important, even if it is just touching on several different ones. So far we have been enjoying Signing Time Collection Cards, Cd's, and Dvd's and Rosetta Stone. We also incorporate different Languages into all of our geography.  

My goal is to establish a love for learning and a passion for many different things. I try to keep our days full of activities and books that the whole family enjoy. Every day is a gift, and to watch the children grow and thrive in the world is the most rewarding gift of all. 

Thanks for joining us. 

Some of our favorite things from the past.

The boys Top 10 Books from 2012-2013 
Top Ten Unit Studies 2013