Homeschooling help and encouragement from experienced homeschoolers - find out how homeschooling works and how to start, get tips & ideas for when things need adjusting, read curriculum reviews before buying, learn how online schools work, gain confidence about homeschooling high school, and more.
ABCmouse is an online preschool-kindergarten curriculum that teaches letters, letter sounds, counting, math, art, science, music and phonics. The child starts out at the level that you choose and progresses through various areas by working virtual puzzles, singing songs, visiting the zoo and farm, reading books, virtual coloring, etc. A fun bonus is that the Continue reading »
Abeka provides a complete line of traditional Christian educational materials that have been developed and refined over a period of 50 years in the classrooms of Pensacola Christian Academy. The resources are available in physical and digital format and include textbooks, workbooks, readers, and videos. Products can be purchased individually or as grade level kits. Continue reading »
All About Reading is a multisensory, mastery-based program that starts with essential pre-reading skills and continues on to teach all five key components of reading. This complete program teaches phonics, decoding, fluency, and comprehension in a fun and engaging way. Suitable for all ages and learning styles!
The program is multi-sensory and is mastery-based rather than grade-level based, so when students master a specific concept, they move on. If a child needs more practice in a certain area, the program allows for that so the child can really master each concept. There’s no sense building on a shaky foundation, because that will Continue reading »
BJU Press offers both curriculum for purchase and a distance learning solution. The texts cover all core subjects with a Christian worldview, critical thinking, and hands-on learning.
Blossom and Root is a secular homeschooling curriculum that focuses on Nature, Literature, STEM, and art. Program levels are for Early Years (ages 2-5), Kindergarten (ages 6-7), Elementary (grades 1-4), and 2 science-based stand-alone mini-programs called "Book Seeds". The Book Seeds series is recommended for ages 2-12. Continue reading »
Bob Books are simple readers that start with 3 letter words. They allow the child to complete an entire lesson by him or herself, thereby developing confidence. The books are sized to allow children to hold them comfortably as they read. Parent’s guidance is included within the text of the books themselves. The books come Continue reading »
BookShark offers students from Pre-K to Age 16 the chance to learn all the required educational subjects through the engaging lens of books. BookShark’s curriculum is designed to develop creative and academically successful minds in children by teaching them to view the world and historical events not through rote memorization but through unforgettable stories that Continue reading »
The Brave Writer program is designed to help parents teach their children writing. Brave Writer offers both self-teaching guides and online classes with instructors with programs available for students ages 5-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, and 15-18. Online classes are taught by coaches who are published authors and experienced homeschool teachers. Brave Writer offers a homeschooling Continue reading »
Build Your Library is a secular Charlotte Mason inspired homeschool curriculum created by Emily Cook that takes a literature approach to educating children in art, history, literature, science, and language arts. Full-year general homeschooling grade level products are available for Kindergarten through grade 12. Build Your Library also offers multi-age unit studies using well-chosen popular Continue reading »
"The Core Knowledge Curriculum Series™ provides comprehensive, content-rich learning materials based on the Core Knowledge Sequence. Student readers, teacher guides, activity books, and other materials are available for Language Arts, History and Geography, and Science. Materials for Math are in development." The downloadable curriculum is available at no cost with free registration; teacher guides are Continue reading »
Draw Write Now is an eight-book series with step-by-step drawing instruction and short sentences for writing practice. Each Draw Write Now book is a unit study with 21 directed drawing lessons presented on two pages showing a colorful drawing, four sentences, and step-by-step drawing instructions. The units explore history, geography, natural science, and social studies. Continue reading »
"Easy Grammar texts use the prepositional approach combined with effective strategies. This helps students to understand grammar, a tool for speaking and writing properly." The courses are for grades 2 – 12, and involve student texts, workbooks, a teacher’s guide and a mastery review intended to be used at the beginning of each days’ instruction. Continue reading »
This phonics based reading program for grades 1-4 has two components, one based on workbooks and the other, online. The book based instruction has workbooks, study guides, and other supporting materials. The online component is a multi-sensory phonic program, based on the latest literacy research. The online materials provide immediate feedback to students as they Continue reading »
This eight book series, spanning K-6 and including a teacher’s guide, has been designed with what the publisher calls the unique "Look-Plan-Practice" approach to self-assessment.” This program teaches italic handwriting with no loops which makes the program legible, logical, easy to write and easy to teach. Each book is $8.75, the entire series is $65, Continue reading »
Grammar Galaxy is a secular language arts program for elementary students in grades 1-5. Concepts are presented in an entertaining easy-to-understand story format, with literature, vocabulary, spelling strategies, grammar, composition, and public speaking covered in the stories. Students are then asked to save the galaxy from an evil gremlin by completing activities in a workbook Continue reading »
This program uses fun, entertaining, and educationally sound instructional methods to teach handwriting to all students: pre-k through cursive. The lessons require minimal preparation time. According to publisher’s materials, the program "follows a developmental teaching sequence by teaching easy letters first, beginning with capitals and then teaching letters in groups of similar stroke sequence. When Continue reading »
Horizons is a brightly illustrated, engaging workbook curriculum filled with consumable lessons and hands-on activities. Designed with fast-paced lessons, Horizons uses a spiral learning method to help your student master concepts through the process of introduction, review, and reinforcement. This learning method allows students to quickly grasp difficult concepts in a colorful, motivating format. Available Continue reading »
Institute for Excellence in Writing is DVD based instruction that provides videos of actual writing instruction. The course includes workbooks. Each level is good for one to two years of instruction. Courses are offered to train instructors to teach students, actual writing instruction for students or combination packs.
K5 Learning offers an online math and reading program for kids from kindergarten through grade 5. Kids complete an online assessment of 8 key reading and math skills, and then work independently and at their own pace through over 3,000 lessons and activities. The lessons are animated, interactive and simple enough that even a 4 Continue reading »
According to the publisher, Learning Language Arts Through Literature "is a fully integrated language arts program that teaches grammar, reading, spelling, vocabulary, writing mechanics, creative writing, thinking skills and more. For example, a basal program may teach adjectives separately from other skills. The student may be asked to fill in blanks with adjectives and circle Continue reading »
Logic of English is based on the Science of Reading and includes instructions for reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and handwriting. The program offers a range of options that include printed books, PDFs, video instruction, active learning games, interactive online practice, music, and more.
McRuffy Press creates and publishes curricula for Preschool to grade 5 for Language Arts (with phonics, reading, spelling, and writing skills), Math, Science, and Handwriting. McRuffy Press provides complete subject area packages with teacher's guides, workbooks, reading books, resource material, and manipulatives for an integrated and hands-on approach.
Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts includes Grammar, Vocabulary, Poetry, and Academic Writing with a heavy emphasis on root words and deep LA content. It is written especially for gifted learners (but usable by all). Lots of author and publisher online support with user forums.
Moving Beyond the Page is a comprehensive homeschool curriculum that covers science, social studies, and language arts. Its project-based curriculum covers preschool through about 10th grade and is designed for gifted, creative, and hands-on learners with an emphasis on critical and creative thinking. Continue reading »
"Pinwheels [by Rooted in Language] is a comprehensive literacy program for new readers and writers . . . Within each level of Pinwheels, children learn to use their verbal language skills to strengthen their new literacy skills, layering speaking, listening, reading, and writing for a comprehensive understanding of language arts. "Across Pinwheels, students will develop Continue reading »
Reading Eggs is an online reading resource with hundreds of online reading lessons and thousands of e-books for 2-13 year olds who are learning to read. The content contains interactive animations, fun games, great songs and lots of rewards. It supports each child’s learning by offering individual, one-on-one lessons that allow children to progress at Continue reading »
Saxon Phonics provides comprehensive solutions to teach reading that target foundational skills using a unique research-based method. The curriculum includes a multi-sensory approach that engages the visual, auditory, and tactile senses. Saxon Reading is based on current research that indicates that the most successful phonics programs include daily oral language activities, phoneme play, immediate follow-up Continue reading »
Sequential Spelling uses spelling lists which build on words to help children spell bigger words. For example, if they can spell stand, they can spell understand and misunderstand and misunderstanding. The sequences are not based on grade level curriculum. The sequences are based on building from easy words to advanced words as from all, tall, Continue reading »
This curriculum was specifically written for Homeschool students K through 7. Materials for each grade level are sold in a kit package. A kit contains everything needed to teach one child for an entire school year. Each kit contains a Teacher's Manual, a Student Workbook and a Audio CD. Bible-related activities, writing assignments, and sentences Continue reading »
Sing, Spell, Read and Write is a learning-to-read curriculum that uses a 36-step program of carefully sequenced systematic, explicit phonics instruction to build fluent independent readers. Using look, listen, point, sing-along, and echo routines along with gross motor and fine motor activities, the program actively engages the senses and effectively reaches all types of learners. Continue reading »
Spectrum offers supplemental workbooks in the following subjects: Math, Early Childhood Reading & Language Arts, Science, Social Studies and Testing. The materials are grade appropriate, but there are not materials for every grade.
SpellingCity offers a fun and easy way to practice spelling words and vocabulary. Teachers and parents can create their own spelling lists, save lists, share lists or use those already provided. Students enjoy the benefit of hearing the 43,000+ words and sentences spoken by a “real” human voice. Users have a variety of options available, such as the ability to see spelling words in flashcard format, hear them spoken by a real human voice, play games with the words, and even take practice spelling tests. With each created list, a student has the option to: Teach Me, Test Me, or Play A Game. The "Teach Me" option allows students to reflect on each word of their spelling list while the list and coordinating sentence are being read aloud. The "Test Me" option allows students to take a test from any spelling list at any time. This test option gives the students the ability to hear just the word or have a sentence read. The "Play A Game" option allows students to play a variety of learning games with any spelling list. SpellingCity offers learning games such as HangMouse, Word Search, Unscramble, and many more. Continue reading »
Spelling Power gives your children the opportunity to master the 5,000 most frequently used words at their own pace — in just 15 minutes a day — using research-proven strategies. Everything you need to teach your entire family is found in the one "Big Orange Book". Spelling Power is written by a home educator for Continue reading »
This is a series of books designed to teach spelling using the Charlotte Mason method. Both British and American versions are available. Each book gives dictations out of what they describe as 'the writings of great men and women of history' using 6000 of the most frequently used words in the English language. The child Continue reading »
Starfall offers both a free online phonics/reading program and a (fee-based) reading/language arts curriculum that is "magical, creative, sequential, integrated, and combines content area instruction in Social Studies and Science - that's kindergarten, the Starfall Way. Starfall uses fantasy as a springboard for motivating children to use their natural sense of wonder and curiosity to Continue reading »
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is a complete, step-by-step program that shows parents simply and clearly how to teach their children to read. Twenty minutes a day is all you need, and within 100 teaching days your child will be reading on a solid second-grade reading level. It's a sensible, easy-to-follow, Continue reading »
This writing curriculum takes an original and highly creative path to teaching elements of literature and creative writing. In this course students learn characterization, plot, setting, theme and conflict--all the traditionally taught elements of literature, but not taught in the traditional manner. These elements are learned in the context of writing their own adventure novel. Continue reading »
Time4Learning.com is an online education program that teaches preschool through twelfth-grade curriculum in an interactive, online environment. Time4Learning combines 1000+ animated lessons, printable worksheets and graded activities to teach math and language arts lessons correlated to state standards. Science, social studies, and art are also provided as bonuses for most grades.
Torchlight is a literature-based, secular curriculum for learners ages 4-13. The curriculum is delivered digitally, with each PDF including daily and weekly lesson plans with prep pages for 36 weeks of instruction. Torchlight also uses specially curated books that can be purchased online, at a local bookstore, or borrowed from your local library. Parents are Continue reading »
Under the Home offers studio art, art history, music, mathematics, reading, writing, prose, and poetry for grades K-1 as well as science, geography, and history for grade 1. They will be adding grades 2-5 over the years 2017 & 2018. As of January 2017 the price is $30/year.
Working from the idea that literature communicates powerfully to young minds, WinterPromise developed a curriculum that is strongly literature-based. This offers parents the opportunity to do less teaching and more "learning together" with their children. This "Learning Together" method has the additional benefit of requiring almost no preparation for the parent, preserving as many moments Continue reading »
