Never let your schooling interrupt your education.

Q&A Friday: What curricula do you plan to use next year? (2012 curriculum fair)

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Written by Jamie Martin, editor of Simple Homeschool and Steady Mom

Over the past month we’ve heard from all of our contributors, each sharing the resources we’ve found helpful (or not helpful!), along with our homeschooling plans for the upcoming school year.

I hope you’ve found this helpful as you begin your own planning. Personally I’ve bookmarked a few resources and recommendations to keep for future years. Now it’s your turn to share!

Each homeschooling family makes unique choices each year based on our educational philosophies and priorities, but we can always learn from each other.  So please feel free to jump in today!

If you’ve written a post on your blog about the curriculum you use or will use, please leave your link in the comments.

Even if you don’t have a blog, you can still leave a comment letting us know about your favorite resources.

Enjoy browsing through the links–I’m looking forward to it!

About Jamie C. Martin

Jamie is an introverted mom of three, who loves books, tea, and people (not always in that order), and avoids answering the phone when possible. She co-founded SimpleHomeschool.net in 2010 and began IntrovertedMoms.com in 2020.

Jamie is the author of four books, including Give Your Child the World (reached #9 on Amazon's Top 100 Best Sellers list), and her latest release, Introverted Mom (an ECPA bestseller). Her work has been featured by LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow, the Washington Post, Parents, Today Parenting, and Psychology Today.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Chocolate on my Cranium

    I’ve been busy today trying to find shelf space for all the books that came in our Sonlight order. We are doing American History – Core D for the younger set of kids {ages 5-9} and Core 100 for the older set {ages 11 and 13}. My high school aged daughters will be doing an online high school.
    Chocolate on my Cranium’s latest post: Meal Planning for a Large Family

    • Sarah

      We are using Core D and Core 100 this year too! I am excited about using Sonlight again. I am interested in the online high school classes, will you be blogging about them?

  6. Truly Rich Mom aka Teachermama Tina

    I don’t know if this counts, because we JUST finished a period of discernment whether to continue homeschooling or not (which I wrote about here: http://teachermamatina.blogspot.com/2012/05/when-god-calls-you-to-homeschool-hell.html). 🙂 I mentioned in my post that we’re actually praying about curriculum now. 🙂

    In the meantime though, I plan to continue using Catholic Heritage Curricula’s Kinder Core Curriculum (though not all of it); Sing, Spell, Read, Write Raceway series; and supplement with Five In A Row (especially on lazy days {which is most days for this delinquent teachermama! LOL}). 🙂 Lots of read-alouds and more focus on character development. 🙂 Praying about whether to go with Mater Amabilis, Seton or Kolbe in the near future. 🙂

    Love and prayers from the Philippines! 🙂

    P.S. I LOVE Simple Homeschool! 🙂 Just sharing. God bless you all for this site! 🙂
    Truly Rich Mom aka Teachermama Tina’s latest post: Do you want a FREE PASS to the 4th Philippine Homeschool Conference?

  7. Jessica Brammer

    We will be using Math U See Primer and Alpha along with The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. We will also be continuing the Narnia series as read alouds.

  9. Anne @ Modern Mrs Darcy

    We’re continuing our classical-ish curriculum, which has Rod and Staff Math and English at its core. We only started using Susan Wise Bauer’s Writing With Ease curricula for our first and third graders two months ago, and I just love it–we’ll be continuing that next year for sure! And I’m ready to teach my 4yo to read starting this summer with her book The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading, which worked great for my first two. We’ve got fun stuff to supplement, but that makes up our core.
    Anne @ Modern Mrs Darcy’s latest post: I’m Speaking at the Influence Conference! And 5 Surprising Things I’ve Learned About Blogger Conferences

  13. Elisabeth

    My children are 10, 8, 5, 2, and yet to be born. We are using Heart of Dakota and Beautiful Feet for History (each child at own level). For Science, Exploring God’s Creation with Botany all together. MathUSee, All About Spelling, and Understanding Writing are my pics for the 3 Rs.

    I can’t wait to get started! We’re going to school through the summer so we’ll have the freedom to take time off in the fall when our new daughter comes along.

  15. Jennifer Castro

    We will be continuing with All About Spelling. I write about it here: http://sparksoflearning.blogspot.com/search/label/curriculum
    We tried it mid-year and it is the best curriculum for spelling I have ever seen. We are also awaiting Life of Fred books to supplement our math curriculum. I can’t wait to introduce my kids to it. Thanks for all the great links through this series of posts. They have been very helpful!
    Jennifer Castro’s latest post: Confetti Jars

  16. Erin

    I’ll have a kindergartener and two in PK4 (twins). We plan to use Five in a Row, along with Handwriting Without Tears, Phonics Pathways, and MEP math (reception level). We’ll keep it loose and fun, with lots of play time and lots of outings.

  18. Julie C

    We are using Verticy Learning from Calvert again next year. My 8 year old will span somewhere between 2nd – 4th grade in skill/ability level as she learns differently. We have loved the 3rd grade curriculum this year and have the 4th grade standing by, it will be a while before we are ready for the next level. I have also use Shiller Math to help her grasp concepts as well as CalcuLadder to help her with daily simple equation practice.
    Our circumstances our different as we have a learning disability to contend with in our daily routine. Lydia has Executive Function Disorder that affects Working Memory and Processing, she also seems to have some type of dysgraphia or OT related issue that affects writing ability. So for us, Verticy and the support from Calvert has been great. We are looking forward to another good year with Lydia. My 3 year old may be going out to pre-school so I can have the quiet time Lydia needs.
    I hope everyone else has a good year, too. I love the curriculum fair.

  19. jess

    This year, which we will begin in June (our first foray into year-round schooling — yay! — the plan is to do six weeks on, one or two weeks off), will be with My Father’s World. DS 14 will be in 9th grade, doing Ancient History and Literature. He will take a biology class through our local co-op, a logic elective, and hopefully a foreign language. DS 12 and DD 8 will be in 7th and 4th grades, respectively, and I’ll do Countries and Cultures with them. DS 12 will be adding Apologia’s General Science and the other middle grade coursework from MFW. We also have DD 3 and DS 2, tremendously active preschoolers, who will be going to school in the fall. With these two littles there is no sitting-quietly-playing-with-special-school-time-only-toys-while-I-read-to-the-older-kids! I love them dearly, but they have worn me out, and my husband and I feel this is the best way for me to give the older kids the attention they need. I hope only to do that for a year (maybe two for the youngest), then bring them back home. This year I needed the structure that the MFW plans give (I feel they are less intense than Sonlight), and that the plans would be particularly helpful to the older kids. I’m very excited by the Bible coursework and focus on people groups around the world — I think it will open my kids’ eyes without reducing God and His word to mere schoolwork. Oh, and I hope to actually do algebra with my oldest!
    Jess

    • Katherine Barron

      I have three boys (9, 6, 3) and the youngest will be attending a church-run preschool two blocks from our house, 4 mornings per week. The older two also went to this preschool. I am very much looking forward to having this time with the older two. Hopefully, I will use it wisely! DS#3 will be at that preschool for 2 years, until kindergarten age. This is a wonderful time, I think, because for these it gives them an opportunity to have fun (and preschool really is fun) while giving mom some time to focus on those older ones who need some more one-on-one. I hope that this time will actually help the homeschool day go by faster as I won’t have to stop every 10 minutes to deal with the 3 year old who is very mischevious and constantly getting into trouble.

  20. Kelly

    I write my own curriculum for our homeschool but we mostly follow Waldorf methods and I’ve found some beautiful resources to help me. I especially love Kindergarten with Your 3-6 Year Old by Donna Simmons (Christopherus) and Seasons of Joy by Annette Frontz.

  21. Heather Brandt

    We still haven’t finished the first level of “All About Reading” from this year so not sure if we will finish our son’s ABC book or not before we start k in July…we’ll see… We’re going to use Oak Meadow’s kindergarten curriculum as our main curriculum with our son. We belong to a classical conversations-style co-op that meets once a month (starting in August). We’re going to share the different weekly info. learned through that and let our son’s interest lead us…We have Mystery of History Volume 1 to use if our son is interested in learning more about some of the history. IF our son is interested in learning how to read and wants more than offered in Oak Meadow’s language arts, I will supplement with “An Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading” by Jessie Wise. We have Getty & Dubay handwriting (level A) to use with him but I’m not going to be very strict about it because Waldorf-styled teaching is more of my aspiration for this year. Basically, the Oak Meadow curric. will be done every week and everything else is just frosting or sprinkles on our cupcake of learning. I have signed up for Waldorf Essentials’ Thinking Feeling Willing year long program to help me with implementing some Waldorf philosophy into my teaching and daily life/rhythm (I need more rhythm & order in our home so this mentoring program is great!). I have “The Big Picture Bible Timeline” from veritas.com & flashcards & some CDS from them to help with the Classical conversations component as desired. I have “Plants Grown Up” from Doorposts to use as desired to do for our devotionals/Bible studies with our son.We also have felt board pieces to use with our Bible stories.

  22. Brandi

    I spent many hours coming up with our curriculum for a preschooler who will be three and a five year old who will be doing kindergarten this year. We will have a very eclectic education with lots of influence from Charlotte Mason, the classical model of education, and a literature based approach. I threw in a few montessori ideas, which actually aren’t listed in this post but will take place in the classroom. We are going to be using Sonlight cores, Winter Promise, and Singapore among other things.
    http://uncommoncommonness.com/%20/our-homeschool-curriculum/
    I am looking forward to reading all of the other links posted. I love curriculum fairs and classroom posts. 🙂
    Brandi’s latest post: Submitting as his wife

  27. Lacey Prewitt

    The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading, My 1st book of questions and answers, free resources from the internet!

  28. Lisa

    We will be using Ambleside Online year 9 (sophomore) and years 5/6/ (modern history part) and then a bit of pre-7 for my eighth grader. We are also exploring Thomas Jefferson Education.

  29. Sacipriya

    I am using K12 again for my soon to be 3rd grader and for my kindergartener will try out the Calvert system. I am using both free through different Kansas public schools. Eventually I will move toward making my own curriculums, but this year was my first ever for homeschooling, so I’m still gettin’ my sea legs.

  31. Lise B.

    This is our first year to “officially” homeschool…very excited. My 10th grader will be finishing Math Relief Alg. I (we started homeschooling her 1/2 way through the year this year) and beginning Math Relief Alg. II, MFW Ancient History & Literature, SOS Spanish II, Apologia Biology and a few electives along the way. My twin 7th gd. boys will be using TT Pre-Algebra, MFW ECC, Writing Strands and The Rainbow Science. The hours spent researching curriculum was exhausting, so we’ll see how it goes…

  33. Jennifer

    My daughter is in public kindergarten this year.
    She is well behind according to their standards.
    She reads a handful of site words independently.
    I am unsure the direction we will take next year,
    public or homeschoo. This summer I would like to
    work on her reading with a curriculum unlike the
    public school approach. Any suggestions?

    • marnie

      I’m not sure what you mean by “unlike the public school approach” but we used “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” with our 4/5 year old. You might be able to find it at your library for a test run before buying.

      • Jennifer

        Thank you Marnie!
        In school she is taught to sound out each letter then combine
        to say the word. She does this and seems to forget the first sounds
        by the time she reaches the end, making it hard to combine
        and read the word. I thought maybe there is another approach.

  37. marnie

    Next year we will be in “Whatever We Can Afford – Make Do With What We’ve Got & Find It Free Online Academy” – i.e. when we get some extra money for curriculum we’ll pray about where it is most needed at the time. We’ll be trying out a 6 wks on/1-2 wks off schedule for the 3R’s & likely do bigger art/science projects on the off weeks. At this point the plan (using the resources we have) is to do a world history/geography overview using Hillyer’s “A Child’s History of the World” as a starting point – Bible reading/discussion together – All About Spelling/Explode the Code/First Language Lessons/Write Ease – Teaching Textbooks 3 (for 3rd grdr)/Math Lessons for a Living Education (for K/1st grdr) – some Five in a Row reads – lots of reading and exploring. Our 9 yr old wants to study more about animals so I’ll be providing her with resources to do some of her own research and exploration in that area throughout the year. We’ll do some kind of focused “adventure” with our 5/6 yr old as well, but haven’t found just the right theme with him yet.

  39. Debbie

    We are doing K and preK3 this year, likely “officially starting” August 13th. My 4 y/o (turns 5 in late August) is an eager learner and has already started her reading and math K curriculum, but we don’t do it on a regular basis. She will enjoy having an official school start date, and my husband will feel more assured if we have a bit of structure.

    We have done preschool at home all along, but we are very relaxed. For more formal K work we are focussing on reading, writing, and math. We will be using Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading, Horizon’s K math, and Getty Dubay book A for handwriting. We also will supplement with BOB books/early readers, math games, and writing/fine motor activities.

    We will be studying science and social studies naturally. I am science and history oriented so we often talk about these things as we drive from place to place, work in the garden, look at the clouds, bake cookies etc…. I also try to include a lot of non-fiction childrens books on our book shelves and from the library.

    My just turned 3 y/o will not have formal curriculum. But I know she will want to “do school” too, so she will have pages from our wide variety of prek workbooks. Plus she will be welcome to participate in all activities, reading times and discussions as she has interest.

    We also really like the Leap Frog Letter Factory videos, and my girls watch Sid the Science Kid and Word World several days a week. While these aren’t the heart of our education they are fun supplements and give mom a bit of “free time”

  43. Fran

    Thanks for hosting this curriculum fair! Thanks to it, we are going with Trail Guide to Learning as our main spine for my 2nd-ish, 4th-ish, and 6th-ish graders. I knew I wanted to do American History this year, and I was leaning toward Sonlight, but TGTL gives me more flexiblity to include all three children than a single Sonlight Core does. I am going to use Sonlight’s 3rd grade, 4th/5th grade, and Core E reader packages to enhance TGTL. I can’t wait to dig in to both!

    I will also use Apologia’s Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day for my girls and Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology for my son. I’m going with the Jr. Notebooking Journals for the girls, and the regular Notebooking journal for my son (who hates cutting, coloring, and crafting of any kind!). My kids love the Apologia science series, and they pick up the books just for fun sometimes.

    We will continue to use Math-U-See. I can’t say enough great stuff about this curriculum. I am using now with my nephew (Pre-Algebra) and he has gone from an “F” student to an “A” student. Even *I* understand this stuff! 🙂
    Fran’s latest post: Married to Medicine, Part 2

  44. sarah

    We will be using Oak Meadow 3rd grade curriculum for our 8.5 year old daughter and doing a mix of K/1st grade with our soon to be 6 year old daughter. For our K/1st grade will do a lot of hands-on simple addition/subtraction, “teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons” as she shows interest, and I’m sure she will want to follow her older sister in what she is learning, but tweaked a bit for K/1st grade. Both our girls are coming from a Waldorf school, so we will try to stick with a lot of Waldorf-inspired methods. We also have a 2 year old son to mix things up quite a bit! I would love to hear some tips with homeschooling and those with active toddlers in the mix!!

  45. Angela

    Teaching Textbooks will continue to be our math curriculum of choice, though I’m going to start supplementing more and taking a bit more time to make sure the lessons are fully understood, not just completed.

    I’m going to try the Handbook of Nature Study program to flesh out our science curriculum – the hands-on approach not only gives us more quality time together, but it’s also far more interesting than straight book or video learning.

    We’ll be doing more critical thinking, and I’m looking forward to the discussions: moral and ethical questions that might not come up otherwise.

    It’s probably time to integrate some spelling, too, since we’re on to first grade. I really like what I’ve seen of First Language Lessons and will probably try them first.
    Angela’s latest post: Afternoon smoothie.

  46. Jennifer Perez

    It’s hard to believe that this will be my seventh year homeschooling. My kids ages are 2, 6, 8, 10. We send my two year old to day care right now bc he was in the foster system and needs to stay in until the adoption process is complete. This is what I’m doing with my other three kids.

    WE are doing a unit study on elections using love of learning lapbooks. We will also be reading fictional and non fictional living books on this subject.
    We are also doing a unit study on the Human body using many different resources and living books.
    WE use Gallopping the Globe for Geography and we will be finishing this year by studying Europe, South America, and Antartica.
    Then after Christmas ( we take December off since we homeschool year round.) we will be continuing our Galloping the globe, and continuing in our Us History study. We use different living books, historical fiction, history pockets, etc. We will also be studying nutrition.
    For spelling, reading, grammar, and vocabulary we use Spell to read and write, explode the code, First language lessons, and wordly wise and we just use it according to each child’s level and learning style.
    For math we use Singapore Math according to each child’s level.
    We also let each child pick an extra curricular activity and they take a pe and art class through our support group.

    This may seem like a lot but we don’t do this all at once and def not all in the same week. We also homeschool year round so we take weeks off whenever we need to or want to.

  48. Kaight

    We have 5 children ages 11-2 and we’ll be using Moving Beyond The Page. I really like MBTP. We’ll also use HWOT, Teaching Textbooks for math, and Dance Mat Typing from the BBC ( free). I will add in Writing Strands and also Sequential Spelling but that’s really for me, I don’t need to with MBTP. But our kids really like to write and I want them to have a solid foundation.

    It’s so fun to see what everyone has planned.

  49. Ashlee

    We are embarking on our first year. We have a PK3 & a baby. We’re looking at Sonlight 3/4 then possibly adding all about reading pre-level 1 and Pre-k handwriting without tears. We are going to go one step at a time, especially since we are mid-move and won’t order anything until late July.
    Ashlee’s latest post: Weekend Goal = Accomplished

  56. se7en

    We wrote a post in response to this one, listing a list of lists of the school materials we use. I must say I have never written a full list before and the whole thing is quite daunting. Especially since our attitude to school is really relaxed and go with the flow and a one day at a time approach!!!
    Anyway we have eight kids and six of them will be in school this year: grade 9; grade 7; grade 5; grade 3; grade 2 and grade K (the year before grade 1). The two littlies will trail along behind us, seeking their own adventures as we go.

    http://www.se7en.org.za/2012/05/19/se7ens-school-curriculum-fair-a-list-of-lists
    se7en’s latest post: Se7en’s School Curriculum Fair… A List of Lists…

  57. Lari

    This will be our first year to homeschool. I have 15 yo (10th), 13 yo (8th) 9yo (4th) and 3 yo (hanging out and learning through play) boys. Here’s the list we’re working from for now…. TT Algebra II, MathUSee Algebra, Horizons Math 4. Queen Homeschool language lessons for each age group, Apologia Physical Science for the oldest 2 and Apologia Zoology Flying Creatures for the 4th grader. Mystery of History for all…planning on adding in some US w/ the election this year and probably review some Olympic stuff this summer w/ the Olympics in London. Dad will be doing our Bible curriculum. Working on our reading list and finding some extras based on their interests. Looking forward to leaving the craziness of our public school schedule behind.

    • DadeCro

      I am interested in your progress up t know. This is my first year with all my kiddos in homeschool very similar and close in age to your family. Please share your best practices and how you manage a schedule to keep all engaged at the same time. I have a 11th grader, a 9th grader, 7th grader and 3rd grader and I struggle with time management (we are spending long hours each day) in addition to selecting the best curriculum. I have not decided on one yet that works best for us. Any suggestions?

  58. Andrea @ No Doubt Learning

    This will be my first “official” year homeschooling my 5 year old daughter. I have a 3 year old that will be with us as well. We’re planning on using Math U See, Handwriting without Tears, Explode the Code, and then doing daily calendar on our own. We’re hoping to get a science co-op going and a Mommy and Me BookClub as well. I haven’t posted anything about curriulum on my blog yet, but probably will start as we “officially” begin in a few short weeks! Thanks for all the ideas…and a chance to check out what others are up to! 🙂
    Andrea @ No Doubt Learning’s latest post: Veggie Taste Test {Freebie}

  59. Erin

    I have a 6 year old going into first grade, a preschooler and a 2.5 year old. We are going to start Classical Conversations next fall. Reading will be 100 Easy Lessons and I need to figure out a plan for math.
    Looking forward to it!

  65. Catherine

    We’ve loved the books from the Sonlight curriculum and will use it to study Eastern Hemisphere this year and the second part of World History. The booklist is on their website. We also use Fountas and Pinnell’s leveled readers for beginning reading and their Phonics program. For writing, we adapt Lucy Calkins K-2 and 3-5th grade writing curriculum. We use the Pearson Math curriculum for my three kids.

  69. Cindy

    We are already beginning and this year I am doing more unit studies…elections and Westward Expansion. As we begin our 4th year I have more confidence in pulling together materials myself. We also are using Mosdos Press for literature, Saxon for Math, and Nancy Larson Science for younger science with Rainbow Science for upper middle school. Fun year ahead with a field trip to tie it all up!