‘Tis the season for all things back to school. I’m seeing LOTS of new homeschoolers around here over the last year or so (thanks to COVID) and getting lots of questions about our homeschool curriculum.
We are officially into our 11th year of homeschool which means we have tried a lot of different curriculum over the years. When we first began homeschooling, I was all for the combined, boxed kits where everything arrives together in a box on your doorstep and you don’t have to do anything else to prep except open the book on the first day of school. While there is nothing wrong with the preassembled boxes and kits, there’s so much more out there I’ve found.
Now that we are eleven years in, we have learned what has worked and what doesn’t work for our family. Each child is different, enjoys different things, and learns differently, so after those first few years we branched out and tried other options and pieced together our curriculum. It worked for a few years but not as long as I had hoped.
Three years ago, we tried something different. We were at a homeschool convention and looked through MasterBooks curriculum for hours. We fell in love and thought our kids would love it too. So, we tried Masterbooks for a year and everyone loved it! Since then, we’ve used Masterbooks curriculum for everying but a couple of electives and our Math and it’s worked wonderfully!
This year, we’re using Masterbooks for all core subjects except Math & Writing (for our older two) and they’re already loving it. No one wants to change to something else and I love how easy it is for the teacher (ah-hem, me) to use. There’s very little planning involved. Each subject has plans laid out for you and your student in the front of the book. The only thing you really need to do when it comes to planning is to take a look at what supplies you need ahead of time and gather them.
Masterbooks is also a good curriculum for families who would like their children to do some independent work as well. Independent works prepares them for later on in their schooling. Let me tell you how wonderful it is when your children can do all their school on their own and you’re just there to check the work and answer questions.
So what are we using this year? Here’s a line-up of our curriculum for our 10th, 7th, 4th grader – as well as our PreK(er).
10th GRADE CURRICULUM:
- Bible/Elective: Adventures of Missionary Heroism
- Science: Master Books Astronomy
- Literature/Writing: IEW Structure & Style Year 1 Level C Premier
- History: Outschool A Young People’s History of the United States
- Foreign Language: Rosetta Stone – Spanish
- Math: Teaching Textbooks Algebra II
- Elective: Computer Applications/Typing: The Good & The Beautiful Typing 2
7th GRADE CURRICULUM:
- Science: Master Books General Science 1 – Study of the Earth & Sky
- Literature/Writing: IEW Structure & Style Year 1, Level B Premier
- History: Master Books World’s Story 1
- Art: Creating a Masterpiece
- Bible: Not Consumed – To Every Nations Missionary Bundle
- Math: Teaching Textbooks Math 7
- Typing: The Good & The Beautiful Typing 1
4th GRADE CURRICULUM:
- Math: Teaching Textbooks Math 4
- Typing: The Good & The Beautiful Typing 1
- Art: Creating a Masterpiece
- Science: Master BooksAdventures on Planet Earth Level 3
- Social Studies/Geography: Master Books Passport to America
- Language Arts: Master Books Language Lessons for a Living Education 4
PREK Curriculum:
September & Co Little Learner Bible Bundle
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
If you order anything from September & Co, use the code meghan15 for 15% off your order at September & Co.
A few notes: Masterbooks has a great Math curriculum and thats what we use until they are old enough for Teaching Textbooks. When our kids start 3rd grade, they switch to Teaching Textbooks because they love doing some of their school on the computer, this helps me in not having to really teach Math (unless they need help of course), and it does the grading for me (so easy). So, it’s a win-win for everyone.
I love talking all things homeschool and curriculum and am here to help you, so please don’t hesitate to reach out on social media or by commenting on this post.
Also, make sure to check out some of our favorite homeschool supplies + books and follow me on the LiketoKnowIt app for more of our favorites. You can also check out some of our other homeschool posts HERE and follow me on Instagram + Facebook.
I hope each of you has the best homeschool year yet!
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