The toughest part of homeschooling is choosing your homeschool curriculum. The right or wrong curriculum will have the greatest impact on your homeschool year.
There is good news. If you pick the wrong curriculum, you just change it up for the next year. When you pick the right homeschool curriculum, you can hear the angels sing.
That Time We had the Wrong Homeschool Curriculum
Our first year of homeschooling was a disaster. I really didn’t know if I was going to continue the following year.
I started our first year with excitement and optimism. We were finally living our impossible dream. For ten years I was wishing and hoping that I could work from home and homeschool our kids. And we finally made it.
I am a second-generation homeschooler. I was homeschooled from 5th grade through 12th grade. Nothing was going to surprise me. I was fully prepared for whatever came my way. That is until I actually started.
Since I had just been laid off from my job, money was tight. I heard about a local school district that offered a homeschool program. You enrolled through them, and they provided all the curriculum. This was perfect…right?
The boxes arrived. It was Christmas in July! I opened them with enthusiasm. But when we started the year, my heart quickly sank. This curriculum was not designed for homeschooling. It was created for a classroom setting. This was not homeschool curriculum!
The disappointment was harsh and overwhelming. What I thought was going to be a glorious year turned into a disaster. All because of the curriculum. We couldn’t change it that year because we didn’t have the budget. So we trudged through it.
Almost Ten Years Later We are Still Homeschooling
Yes, we made it through that first year. It could only improve after that. Never judge your entire homeschool on one year.
We’ve gone through a lot of curricula over the years. Some worked great for one kid, but not for another. It worked great for a certain grade level, but not so much for another. Then others we found were a perfect fit, and we haven’t changed it.
It is ok to try a different curriculum. Give yourself permission to change it up. If it is really bad, you can even switch homeschool curriculum mid-year. We homeschool so we can tailor learning to each individual child. This is one of the greatest strengths of homeschooling. Embrace it.
Homeschool Curriculum We are Using
We’ve used a lot of curricula over the years. I give the full low-down in The Momtrepreneur’s Guide to Curriculum: 55 pages of sanity saving tips. If you are a working mom, then it is imperative that you choose the right curriculum that will work for your kids and your schedule.
While I can’t share all the curricula we’ve used over the years (get the Momtrepreneur’s Guide), I want to share the ones we are using this year. I am homeschooling the 5 oldest kids this year. Yes, kindergarten was a success despite my terror of teaching kindergarten. The 3-year-old pretends she is homeschooled right now.
For this year, I will have a high school senior and sophomore (they really grow up fast), an 8th grader, 4th grader, 1st grader, and a 3-year-old. That is a lot to cover. They are all different and have different learning styles. So that means we use different homeschool curriculum.
Homeschool Curriculum for High School
This year I will have two high schoolers again—sophomore and a senior.
For the sophomore, we will use Monarch for the core curriculum (history, Bible, English). For science we will use Masterbooks Forensic science. This is a new subject for Masterbooks and I am excited to see it. I think physics and chemistry are much more interesting when it applies to figuring out the trajectory of a bullet. We use Christian Light math. This year he will do geometry. He will also need a foreign language, which is still up in the air. We are planning on a college level video editing course.
The senior will do all college courses this year. He did the majority of college classes last year, and that is all he will do for his final year. He will still need one more year to complete his associate’s degree.
Homeschool Curriculum for Middle School
For my middle school daughter, she loves Abeka DVD curriculum. She has been doing it since 2nd grade, and she told me never to change it. We are making one slight change. She will also do forensic science with her brother. Her big plans are to complete two years in one. So we will see how far ahead she gets.
Homeschool Curriculum for Elementary School
Finally, I will have two elementary students—first grade and fourth grade.
For the first grader, we are using Timberdoodle again. He is a hands-on learner, so this is a great fit for him. The curriculum incorporates a lot of learning and logic games. He really enjoys playing the different games. Even playing them outside of school hours.
My fourth grader is doing Abeka DVDs as well. I really needed to find him a curriculum that he could do independently. He craves doing things on his own and needed a curriculum that enables him to do it. His first year with Abeka was for 3rd grade. We had some ups and downs, but he found his groove. At the end of the year, he was so proud to show off his grades. I think we were both surprised at how well he did with the homeschool curriculum.
Conclusion: You Get to Decide
Mom, this post was not meant to be prescriptive. It was simply to give you an idea of how we homeschool with a big family. Since I also work, I need a curriculum that will work for my schedule and for them.
If you want the low-down on all the curriculum we’ve used over the years. Then grab your copy of The Momtrepreneur’s Guide to Curriculum. It will give you the inside scoop on the good, the bad, and the ugly.
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