Tuesday Tips: Choosing Curriculum “What is Best For Me, Might Not Be Best For Thee”

I love helping families transition to homeschooling, and I could talk about curriculum for hours. As a mom who has been homeschooling for ten years, runs an online book store, and reviews curriculum, I have seen and tried a lot of different programs.

Almost always, one of the first questions people ask me when they decide to transition to homeschooling is, “which curriculum is the best?”

Sometimes I wish this was an easy cut and dried answer. However, what works best for your family (and sometimes each child) will vary based on many factors. My motto when dealing with curriculum is, “What is Best For Me, Might Not Be Best For Thee.”

When deciding on the right curriculum, you must consider various factors.

Questions to Consider When Choosing Curriculum:

What are the goals of my homeschool?
How much parental input is needed/desired?
What are the learning styles of my children?
What is my budget?
Does this align with our family values?
How much time will this program take?
Is the program paper/pencil or computer-based?
Will I need additional materials?

How Do I Decide?

Now that we have established that there is no one size fits all solution to homeschool curriculum, you might be feeling more lost than ever and wondering if you will ever find the right fit. This news should be freeing. You can choose, and there is not necessarily a right or wrong answer.

Too often, parents feel like they are failing when a popular curriculum is not working for their child. Other times, parents feel frozen in indecision because they are unsure if the curriculum they are looking at is “best.”

My advice is to talk to people you know and look at reviews, but also make sure you look at each program through the lens of the questions listed above. Then choose the one (or ones) that you think will work best for your family.

Try the curriculum for a while and if it works, keep doing it. If it isn’t working, do not be afraid to sell that one and try something new. It may take a couple of tries to find the right fit. You are not alone, and that is not a failure.

Other Curriculum Resources:

Remember, you can’t do everything, and just because it is a good program does not mean it is suitable for your family! Find out more about that in my post about getting rid of our Latin curriculum.

You can also learn more about picking a curriculum and see our curriculum reviews using the links below!

New Years Curriculum Reevaluation and Nature Study

Changing Up Curriculum Without Overspending!

High School Credit for Morning Time Studies

Reviews

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on.

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This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. As always I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Deals and Freebies

Not Consumed is having their annual Back to School Sale! (They have great family Bible studies)

$10 Off for Amazon Prime Day

Pre-Order the Brand New Tuttle Twins American History book for a big discount and some awesome bonuses.

Try Journey Homeschool Academy’s FUN and Free summer courses this week! Check out the Stargazing Astronomy Course and the Backyard Bugs course.

Also, check out the FREE Unlocking the Bible course for teens!

Also, get a 15% discount on Thinkwell Math by using this referral link.

Schoolhouse Teachers Review 2022

Disclosure: I received this complimentary product through the Homeschool Review Crew. There are affiliate links in this review, see below for full disclosure.

Often I review products that are new to our family or something we tried because of the review. However, we have been using the Ultimate Membership (aff) from SchoolhouseTeachers.com (aff) for several years now, and I love sharing all of the new features each year.

Schoolhouse Teachers Overview

The Ultimate Membership (aff) with SchoolhouseTeachers.com (aff) is an online subscription that provides access to over 400 courses ranging from preschool through twelfth grade. Classes are set up in a variety of different formats.

Some courses are video-based, some have online grading, some use PDF documents, others utilize digital books or library resources. Your membership gets you access to all of the courses, and you can pick and choose which course works best for your family.

You can bookmark the course you select for easy access. Some parents have students access the courses through the website, and others download the course materials and print or add to google documents for their students.

In addition to classes, there are many different resources included with the membership. One significant resource is access to World Book Online, and this has been quite helpful to us for research papers.

The membership also includes access to lots of educational streaming programs. We have enjoyed the movies for both educational purposes and family entertainment.

How We use Schoolhouse Teachers

Our family uses a variety of courses from SchoolhouseTeachers.com. (aff) While it includes all of the classes needed for a complete curriculum, we use it for selected courses for each child.

Right now, both my eighth-grader and my sophomore are using it for literature courses. I appreciate that it provides questions and answers so that I don’t always have to re-read their literature choices. However, I also enjoy the flexibility to choose which selections we will use and adapt the courses to meet our needs.

History is another subject that we often utilize in SchoolhouseTeachers.com. (aff) We have loved their Drive Thru History courses, and currently, my sophomore is enjoying the Modern history course.

I also enjoy using the extra holiday-themed resources with my younger children. There are videos, activities, and literature studies for many traditional holidays.

Grade Level Boxes

While we enjoy using the program as a pick and choose approach, I know many parents like to have a program that has everything selected. The SchoolhouseTeachers.com (aff) membership offers school boxes with all the courses selected and planned out for each grade level. These are currently available for Kindergarten through twelfth grade, but Pre-Kindergarten is coming soon!

The school boxes have a curriculum guide for each subject, and the lesson plans are broken down by day and week. You can still adapt as you see fit, but it does the planning for you.

Fun New Features

SchoolhouseTeachers.com (aff) has rolled out a few new features that are lots of fun and add in some interactive opportunities for students.

Preschool and kindergarten students are offered a virtual storytime and show and tell each month.

Older students are offering a virtual science fair and a virtual art contest.

Moms should not feel left out; they also offer virtual meetings for moms through the Hey, Mama! Chats.

Conclusions

I think that SchoolhouseTeachers.com (aff) is an excellent option for many homeschool families. It is not the program for you if you want to sit a child down in front of the computer and have everything happen automatically. However, it is full of great courses and resources.

It is very reasonably priced (and the price includes all of your children) and can be a complete curriculum or a supplement.

Be sure to click on the graphic below to see what other reviewers are using from SchoolhouseTeachers.com. (aff)

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

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New Years Curriculum Reevaluation and Nature Study

*Some links are affiliate links, see disclosure below*

While our school year runs from September to May, I always like to use our Christmas break as a time to reevaluate our curriculum choices and make any changes that might be needed. (I fully respect that you can revaluate and change the curriculum at any point during the year.)

Most years, I find that I need to change several parts of our curriculum, and a few years, we have done a complete overhaul. Typically, there are one or two things that I started the year planning to use but let the ball drop for whatever reason.

What is Working

This year, we are honestly keeping most of our curriculum the same. We have made good progress, the children are doing well with the programs, and it has been a manageable load for me.

As homeschool moms, we sometimes forget that keeping it manageable for us is just as important as having it be a good fit for our children.

I am seeing great improvement with my son’s reading and he is getting ready to move into the next level of All About Reading. He loves his math and science programs and is overall doing great.

My older two children are doing a great job being more independent with their courses and staying on track! It is hard for me to believe that my oldest will be able to start taking college courses next year through dual enrollment.

Changes

The one area that I wanted to change was adding more nature study. We have been doing nature study for years, but I had let that ball drop this year. However, my children, particularly my seven-year-old son, missed that part of our studies. I set up his science to be very low maintenance for me, and he loves it, so we left that intact and are just planning to add in the nature study at least twice a week. (He would do it every day if I let him, and I will try to work it in as often as possible, but I want to be realistic in what I can add to my day.) The three-year-old will also join us for nature study because he loves being outside and he loves learning.

My thirteen-year-old daughter is taking a rigorous science course that is beneficial but also challenging. So we decided that we would let my daughter alternate between her regular science curriculum and nature study. This change will allow her to keep learning while taking a bit of a break from her more rigorous curriculum.

Adding Nature Study

When we first started doing nature study, we found many great resources to use. Then as time went on and I became more comfortable with nature study, I began to create my lessons. However, at this stage in our homeschool (1 in high school, 1 in middle school, 1 in elementary, and a three-year-old), I recognize that I need something laid out for me to make it easier for me to get it done.

Just a few of the courses included in the homeschool nature study membership.

Thankfully, I found a program that will make it easy for me to implement nature study on our schedule and based on our interests. Years ago, we used the Outdoor Hour Challenges and other resources from the Handbook of Nature Study website to learn about nature study. As of last month, my friend Tricia Hodges is the new owner of that material, and they are revamping the materials and offering some great resources.

We are excited to use the new homeschool nature study site to make nature study easy in our home. There is a daily calendar of ideas and access to materials on a wide variety of topics. We plan to combine the daily calendar and courses that are interesting to my children or fit into our other studies.

For example, my son loves birds, so we will be spending some time using the Birds course. Some of it we will do together, but there are also activities like studying a feather that he can do independently.

As an added bonus this will make it even easier for us to combine our art lessons with our nature study.

Reviews and Questions

Other than going back to our regular scripture and Bible plans after having paused those in favor of Advent studies for December, we are not making any other significant changes in the curriculum this year.

I am sure we will be adding and supplementing as we get back into various reviews beginning in February, but our curriculum is working well. We are enjoying the progress that we are seeing in each child. This year is our tenth year of homeschooling and probably the first year we haven’t needed to make significant changes mid-year. So if you look at your homeschool and need to make substantial changes, please know that you are not alone, and it is perfectly normal to need to make changes and not a sign of failure.

Are you making any changes in your homeschool? What programs are working well for you, and what is not going great?

Other Helpful Resources

If you are needing to make changes, these resources might be helpful.

Reviews

Our 10th Grade Homeschool Curriculum (2021)

Our 8th Grade Curriculum Choices (2021)

Our Second Grade Choices (2021)

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

When you sign up for the Schoolin’ Swag free resource library, you will get a link and password to the library. You will also get a monthly newsletter email to keep you updated on what we have going on.

Resource Library

This post may contain affiliate or referral links, including Amazon affiliate links. I will never recommend a product that I don’t believe in, and you will never be charged more for purchasing through our links. It does help pay for the costs associated with the blog.

Last Minute Back to Homeschool Solutions and a Giveaway

Every year, sometime in August, I get at least one family who decided last minute to homeschool and wants to know how to make the switch. Maybe school starts in a couple weeks (or days) and you just know it isn’t right for you or maybe you started back to school and really want to bring your children home.

You CAN do this!

Take Your Time

First, take some time to breathe. Do what you need to do to register as a homeschooler in your state, bring your child home, and take a few days to enjoy time as a family and get prepared to start. You do not have to keep the same schedule as the school system and it is OK to take a few weeks to prepare.

Spend some time making goals for your homeschool, researching homeschool styles and philosophies to see how you want to set up your curriculum. Talk to your students and get their input. It might make you feel like you are getting behind, but the time you spend preparing will save you time and frustration moving forward.

Curriculum

I am often asked, “What is the best homeschool curriculum?” There is no single right answer to that question. The best is the one that works for your family. I have spent hundreds of hours reviewing curriculum and I can tell you that there are many wonderful programs available and what works for one child may not work for another.

When you are getting started, I recommend buying used curriculum. When you buy used, you can resell and get most of your money back if you find it does not work for you. This often helps give families flexibility as they determine what will or will not work for them. I also highly recommend doing a little research into homeschooling philosophies to help you narrow down your options. There are some great free tools to help with that in our How Do I Get Started Homeschooling? post.

Find a Flexible Program

Another great option is to try a program like Schoolhouse Teachers. We love Schoolhouse Teachers because with only one membership we have access to a wide variety of courses (over 400 from preschool to high school). If we try one course and it is not a good fit for us, we can simply switch to a different course with-in the membership.

The membership is also good for the budget because it covers all of the students in your household. There are text based courses, video based courses, grade specific courses and family style courses all included. We are using our membership for several courses for each of my students this year.

Final Thoughts and Encouragement

There are links to some great homeschooling resources at the bottom of this post, but mostly I want to leave you with the knowledge that you can homeschool. If you are being called to homeschool, God will provide you with what you need to make it work. You taught them how to eat, speak, and walk and you can teach them academics.

Reach out if I can be of any help getting you started and make sure to click on the graphic below to read the posts from all of the other Crew Members and enter the giveaway for a free Schoolhouse Teachers Membership.

Resources:

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

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Deals and Freebies

If you have not tried SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you don’t want to miss this sale: Buy One Year Get A Second Year Free!

Our 10th Grade Homeschool Curriculum (2021)

*Some links are affiliate links, see disclosure below*

My oldest will be in 10^th grade this year. It feels almost unbelievable, as it feels like just a few years ago he was in first grade and we were starting our first year of homeschool. Last year we learned a bit about what worked well for us and what did not for high school level courses.

As always, there are many great options, you just have to find the ones that are right for your family and your child’s strengths and goals.

Math

First, we were blessed with the opportunity to review Thinkwell Math for geometry last year. This went really well for us and I loved that he could go to office hours to get help each week if needed. They also allowed for a flexible schedule so that we could take our breaks on our schedule.

We enjoyed the combination of support with flexibility and are signed up for Algebra II with them this year. I purchased the self-paced course and we will add in the office hours if we see that he needs the additional help.

I love that while I am available to answer questions, he can complete this course with very little input from me (it has been a few years since I have taken upper level math courses.)

Literature

We used Schoolhouse Teachers last year for literature after our original plan did not work well and plan to continue that for this year. Last year he took a course focused on Tolkien and this year he is doing a course that covers a variety of British Literature. For literature, he will read and answer the questions that come with the course. We will then discuss the questions together.

History

He is going to take a Modern World History Course from Schoolhouse Teachers. We did ancient history last year and wanted to make sure he had a good foundation in modern history before we move on to US History and Government. This course is set up with readings, writing assignments, maps, and activities.

He will complete most of the assignments on his own and I will grade them. We will also have some discussions about what he is learning and add in a few documentaries.

Electives

He wanted to take Horticulture and Animal Science for two of his electives. These courses tie in very well to the hobbies and extra-curricular activities he was already doing. They also fit well with his college goals. To facilitate this, I am using 4-H and FFA materials as a guide.

We will also be adding hands-on projects including raising animals for the livestock show, growing a garden, and doing a 4-H presentation about one of those topics.

In the spring, he will be taking Culinary Arts. We are still working on the exact syllabus for this course. However, I know that we plan to use some of the course work from the Home Economics course at Schoolhouse Teachers and some episodes of Good Eats with projects based around the different techniques that he learns.

Music

Last year he took Music Performance I and he really enjoys his music so we are doing Music Appreciation and Performance II this year. We plan to continue using Practice Monkeys for his guitar lessons. Last year he did guitar and violin but is planning to focus on guitar this year.

In addition, we will be using Schoolhouse Teachers Advanced Music Theory and SQUILT Music Lessons for theory and music appreciation. He also has the opportunity to play with our youth group band which gives him the opportunity to perform for other people.

Science

Last but not least is chemistry. Last year we reviewed the biology course from Journey Homeschool Academy. My son really enjoyed it, so we decided to try their new chemistry course this year. The videos were interested and easy to understand but also thorough.

There were tests that they graded and discussion questions and lab reports that I graded. It was so simple and required very little time on my part, which was important with everything else we had going on.

They have elementary, middle, and high school level science courses. All of their courses are done from a Christian world view. (If you are interested in Journey Homeschool Academy science courses their open enrollment ends at the end of August.)

Family Studies

He will be joining us for our Bible and hymn study time in the morning, but that will not count as a course. I still feel the family time is an important part of his development.

Overall, we are looking forward to a great year. Since my son wanted to be able to take a few extra days off this fall for hunting and fishing, he has already started some of his courses. We will stay flexible throughout the year as always and change if needed but I think we have a good plan for the year.

What courses or programs do you love for high school? Anything you are trying to find or need suggestions for?

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

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Deals and Freebies

If you have not tried SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you don’t want to miss this sale: Buy One Year Get Another Year Free!

Not Consumed is offering 15% off everything in their store! Great Bible studies, hymn studies, missionary curriculum and more. Use Code: 2NDCHANCE

Evan-Moor is having a 25% off sale one all of their resources!

Use this link to get 15% off at Thinkwell Math! It was a lifesaver for us for Geometry and I look forward to using them for Algebra II next year.

Journey Homeschool Academy is offering a FREE Virtual Open House August 24 at 9pm. This is a great way to find out more about this science program and see if it is a good fit for your family. Get signed-up today!

Our Second Grade Choices (2021)

Some links are affiliate links, see disclosure below*

I love sharing with you what we are using in our homeschool each year! No two years ever seem to be totally the same for us as we adapt to current circumstances, grade levels and interests.

I hope this gives you some great ideas as you plan your year, but always remember that these are not the only great programs. There are many wonderful curricula to meet the needs of your individual students.

Language Arts

For my rising second grader we are going to be finishing All About Reading Level 1 and moving into All About Reading Level 2. He was not yet ready for phonics during his kindergarten year, so we stopped and waiting until his first grade year.

During his first grade year he completed All About Reading pre-reading and about half of All About Reading level 1. We are really enjoying the program and he is making great progress.

We are adding in spelling this year with All About Spelling level 1. Both of my older children went through the All About Spelling program and it made such a huge difference for them. I am excited to do it paired up with the All About Reading program.

Math

For math he will be continuing with Math for a Living Education. He did their first grade level book last year and it worked really well for him. This year he will be in the Math for a Living Education 2. I love that it incorporates real life scenarios for the math and has a Christian worldview. It has some review and practice but not so much as to feel boring.

Science

Our family enjoys the Apologia elementary series and my son has requested to do the Swimming Creatures book this year. This was a favorite for my older children and I am excited to work through it with him. (At the time of this writing it happens to also be on sale!)

We are blessed to live close to the coast and plan to take several field trips to the river, ocean, and aquarium to supplement this curriculum.

History

We will be doing Story of the World Volume 2 for history. This volume covers some great topics including castles and knights as well as the Lost Colony. He will be doing this with my 8^th grader and we will be incorporating food projects and discussions as a family.

I highly recommend both the book and the activity guide for Story of the World because it makes it so easy and fun. I also have a book list for extra book ideas: Story of the World Volume 2 Book List

A Lady Bug from his You Are An Artist Lessons.

Art and Music

For art he will be doing lessons with our You Are an Artist Chalk Pastels membership. Some of the lessons he will choose and some will go along with our history lessons as well as books that we are reading together. We love these fun and easy lessons with Nana.

There are so many to choose from and they can be tied into many different curriculum areas such as history, literature and science. We are looking forward to doing castles and knights as we cover those in history. She even has some great lessons to accompany our hymn studies.

For music he will be continuing his violin lessons from Practice Monkeys as well as doing some music appreciation lessons from SQUILT music. We love the live lessons as well as the monthly listening calendar.

Bible, Physical Education, and Spanish

We will be doing Bible lessons together, but I am still finalizing what we are going to use. I want to do something that my three-year-old can listen to as well. There are several great options and I just have to decide which one I want to use.

For physical education we are going to be doing a combination of kids workouts from Fit2B and some lessons on Schoolhouse Teachers. I love that I can turn on the Fit2B workouts, especially on rainy days, and he can do it right in my living room.

The Physical Education course on Schoolhouse Teachers has some great resources for teaching age appropriate physical skills. I am hoping these programs help him to get the extra energy out before we start our other programs as well as making sure the he is using his body in ways that help him to grow strong and healthy.

He has also requested to learn Spanish. I am not sure how much time I will have to devote to teaching him, but we are going to try using Elementary Spanish from SchoolhouseTeachers.com. It is a video based course that should not require a lot of time on my part. We will also supplement with the free Salsa: Spanish for Children videos.

Final Thoughts

In addition, we will have a morning time where we work on scripture memory, hymn study, read aloud and more together as a family. I will be sharing more about that in a few weeks when I have finalized my selections.

Have you tried any of these curricula? What are your favorite options for 2^nd grade?

Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure

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Deals and Freebies

Use this link to get 15% off at Thinkwell Math! It was a lifesaver for us for Geometry and I look forward to using them for Algebra II next year.

SchoolhouseTeachers.com is running an amazing BOGO sale, 2 years of over 400 courses for the entire family for only $179. If you want to know more about SchoolhouseTeachers.com you can check out our review. SchoolhouseTeachers.com Review 2021