It feels like forever ago that we started homeschooling. We made some great memories that year. Before we started, I spent hours and hours researching curriculums to find that elusive “perfect curriculum”. While I didn’t find the “perfect curriculum” I did find the right curriculum and they’ve become our favorites that we loved and will continue using over the years.
We’re relaxed homeschoolers meaning we don’t stick to a rigid schedule or a rigid curriculum. When we need to take time off to go help dad or go on a day trip, we go.
I prefer a gentle approach to education. I don’t like to stuff facts down their throats just for the sake of learning more. I like them to read and color and play all while learning and growing their knowledge. Here are our favorite homeschool curriculums for a relaxed homeschool.
Read: How to Start Homeschooling: The Complete Guide for the First Time Homeschooler
Our Favorite Homeschool Curriculum for a Relaxed Homeschool
Story of the World– We used volume 1 Ancient History our first year and thoroughly enjoyed it. This is one we’ll be sticking with for the years to come. The activity books are chocked full of extra activities, coloring pages, and book suggestions. Last year we started using My Father’s World and thankfully they use Story of the World as a major part of their history.
My Father’s World– We love, love, love My Father’s World. Here is my review of Exploring Countries and Cultures.
We love that MFW directs everything to Christ and that they’re heavy on missions. MFW is very thorough and you’ll have no worry that your children aren’t ready for the next step in life using it.
Language Lessons for Today– This is My Father’s World recommended language. My kids love it. It incorporates grammar, writing exercises, copywork, and picture study into one. No more boring workbooks. Everything is done orally and written on notebook paper leaving me to pass it on down to the next kid in line.
Teaching Textbooks– My oldest used this in the 3rd grade. It was great. It was a good fit for him and we both loved the independence it offered ( for him and myself ). Their customer service was amazing, also.
We stopped using it after that year because of the price. At the time, Teaching Textbooks was $120 for his grade level. Wowza, I know. We couldn’t afford that for each child (or even one) for just 1 subject.
They now offer an online subscription, Teaching Textbooks 3.0, that varies from around $43 to $67. Now we’re talkin’. It gets even better.
They realized it’s hard for large homeschool families to afford their math program. Now they offer a large family subscription plan for families from 4 to 8 children for a little over $199. For a family with 6 kids that’s around $25 per year per child.
This is something I’m honestly considering switching to this year. But I’m definitely using it next year.
Read: 2 Easy Ways to Learn Multiplication and Division
Math Lessons for a Living Education- This is what we have used last year and are using it again this year. Our kids like that the lessons are short and colorful. I like that the math is taught using stories and math application in these stories.
Math Lessons for a Living Education uses a gentle approach, so if you feel like your kids need 367 math problems a day to get it to stick this curriculum isn’t for you.
Brave Writer– I can’t say enough good things about Brave Writer. Julie Boggart created this language arts program and it’s fantastic. Brave Writer is all about self-expression and helping your kids fall in love with writing.
There are several different parts of Brave Writer. The spine of the program is the Writers Jungle that equips you to teach your child language arts.. There is also the language arts programs that uses living literature to teach the mechanics of language arts and the various writing courses they offer. Trust me, you’ll fall in love with this program.
This program and Julie’s podcasts totally changed our homeschool experience for the better.
I came to realize that homeschooling doesn’t have to be a list of things to check off. It can be an experience that allows us to fully enjoy our kids and have those big, juicy conversations that allow us to really get to know our kids and grow closer to them.
Choosing the Right Homeschool Curriculum
Choosing the right homeschool curriculum is a gamble. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t. You gotta try it out to see if it’s gonna work. If you’re like me you don’t want to buy something to see if it may or may not work for your family. Here are a couple of ways to decide if a curriculum is right for you.
- Look at a friend’s copy. Look to see how much is dependent upon you, the parent, and if you’ll be able to do that. Check out how this curriculum’s method of teaching lines up with your child and your own methods. And you probably know the scope of what your child should learn from year to year, generally speaking, so check to see if this curriculum lines up with it.
- Check out review posts. Review posts can be hard to find on Google sometimes so I put together a post of over 120 curriculum reviews from various homeschool moms who have used these curriculums and gave their opinions of it. Keep in mind that every family and child is different.
- Go to your local homeschool convention. A friend and I went a couple of years ago and it was helpful and a lot of fun too. I seen a bunch of curriculum and books I had never even heard of and I was also able to look through the homeschool curriculum I was thinking about using.
- The thing that helped me the most was YouTube. I loved watching curriculum choices and reviews on YouTube because they were easy to find and they would go into detail what worked and don’t work for them. They would also tell you how they use the curriculum. I included a ton of them in my curriculum review post but here are a few of my favorite channels…
Finding the right homeschool curriculum isn’t easy. It’s time consuming and sometimes mentally draining. I hope this list is helpful to you in finding what’s best for your family.
Agreed! Choosing the right homeschool curriculum is a gamble. Sometimes we may get a good curriculum, sometimes we don’t. Without trying, it is really difficult to know how it is gonna work.
Great read!!!, Thanks for sharing such a great blog that would help each and every homeschooler in homeschooling their children in best possible way.