Curriculum Choices 24-25 School Year

It’s every homeschool mom’s favorite time of the year: curriculum-buying season! Okay, in reality some of us have begun the process of choosing curriculum months ago; I usually find myself in March beginning to think about the next year, dreaming about all of the wonderful resources we could use. This year, we were so busy with multiple rounds of sickness in the Spring that I hardly even thought about it until almost the end of April, and even then I did minimal research, especially compared to previous years where I have pored over curriculum choices non-stop for a solid month. 

I felt like this year I really got clear on what sort of homeschooling works best for our family, and that makes it a lot easier to plan. I’ll be diving into this more on my substack, but for the sake of clarity we are “unit study homeschoolers.” That means we pick a unit study (tied to either literature or a topic), and build out our curriculum from it. Usually, science, social studies, and some extracurriculars will be covered by it; language arts and Bible are sometimes covered as well. Math we do a separate curriculum, although most unit studies are going to incorporate small amounts of real-life math practice. 

Two caveats before I share our curriculum picks:

1. This list is extremely simple. In fact, I hesitated to share it online, because it seems minuscule compared to what most homeschool bloggers share. Two things to remember (that I have to remind myself of often): 1) you don’t need to (and can’t) DO EVERYTHING. I heard Sarah Mackenzie say once in an episode of the Read Aloud Revival podcast that homeschool moms ALWAYS over-plan at the beginning of the year. So make your list, let it sit for a couple days, then see what you can whittle down to make it more manageable. 2) I still have small children (my youngest will be three at the start of the school year). It makes sense that I’m going to be able to do less with my four children ages 9-3 than the mom of one six-year-old is going to be able to do. That’s not a knock on only-child families (I guarantee the mom homeschooling an only child has a totally different set of challenges than I do); it’s just a reality that we all have different situations and circumstances, and we need to homeschool accordingly. So I share my highly simplified curriculum choices in hope it brings you comfort in keeping your own planning simple.

2. This list can (and most certainly will) be subject to change throughout the school year. Don’t be surprised if in January you hear me talking about a different unit study or resource that wasn’t on this list. If you’re new to homeschooling that may surprise you, but it’s fairly common amongst homeschooling families. I like to incorporate my children’s interests into our homeschool, so sometimes we will take a break from what we have been doing to follow a rabbit trail; other times, a resource simply isn’t working, and we need to switch gears to something else.

Okay, now let’s dive into our plans for the 2024-2025 school year! This year we will have a fourth grader, third grader, kindergartener, and a three-year-old preschooler. I shared recently on my Substack our family’s vision statement for homeschooling; you’ll notice that each of the sections below correspond to the points of my vision statement. As someone who struggles with the overwhelm of wanting to DO.ALL.THE.THINGS in our homeschool, I’ve found it helpful to filter my curriculum choices through these specific points, so that I don’t over-plan or neglect any of our family’s values.

1. We strive for progress, not perfection.

This value is my cue to remember that we really aren’t “behind” as homeschoolers. Each year I try to pinpoint one particular area where I feel like we need to focus on slow and steady progress; most years, this area is math 🤷. This year we are continuing using Simply Good and the Beautiful Math, working towards the point where my kids will be at grade-level. Each of the older two do math for twenty minutes a day; sometimes this means they only get one lesson done (or even a half of a lesson), but most days they get two or even three lessons done. I don’t start formal math lessons until my kids are reading fluently so that we can focus our efforts in the younger years on reading instruction; this means my kindergartener won’t be doing math lessons this year, although she receives plenty of exposure to math concepts through everything else we do throughout the day.

1. We strive to learn in community as a family.

The primary way we do this is through unit studies. This year I’m super excited to study American history with our kids! We have leaned a lot heavier towards science in years past because of my kids’ interests, but history has always been one of my favorite subjects. We are using Little School of Smiths’ unit studies Adventures To the New World and Adventures Through America. We have used several of her unit studies in the past (including her fabulous American Girl units), and I find that we really like their structure.

1. We refuse to value a textbook over experiential learning.

I’ve noticed recently that we have drifted away from doing a lot of hands-on learning and arts and crafts; some of this is because my kids are getting older and are doing more “sit-down” work, and some of this is because we have had a crazy toddler often wreaking havoc during any attempts at science experiments and crafts. I’m hoping that this year we can begin slowly adding these things back in. One science topic we haven’t really studied is weather, so I’m planning to get the book Professor Figgy’s Weather and Climate Science Lab For Kids and do one experiment a week. We usually have one day a week where we don’t do all of our normal studies and have time for more creative pursuits like this (in the past we’ve taken this day on Friday, but I think I may move it around this year). Our unit study only has 3-4 lessons a week, so this will be a nice filler on the other day(s).

1. We strive to work creatively whenever possible.

I am not naturally artistic, but my children are, and I want to make sure that they have plenty of opportunities to nurture those skills. The reality is that I am not equipped to teach our children art skills, so this is a great opportunity to outsource part of our schooling. This year we are going to use Lily and Thistle’s Watercolor School. Again, this will probably be something we do once a week on our “flex” day. I would actually love to do these lessons alongside my kids, but I think I will first see how crazy the three-year-old is during them 🤣.

1. We strive to nurture our God-given talents.

This value always feels a bit like the opposite of #1. Here I’m usually asking what strength does our family (or individuals) have that I want to make sure we are giving plenty of time to this year. The temptation is often to throw all of our efforts to our weak areas, but we also have a responsibility to nurture our children’s gifts. Our family’s strong area has always been in language arts, but this year I’ve seen it take off by leaps and bounds. One of my daughters is currently rewriting all of the first two Harry Potter books into comic books, completely of her own initiative. Both of the older two write some sort of story almost daily, and they are always reading (my husband’s pet peeve is books at the dinner table, which is an almost daily problem 😬). Last year, our unit studies all had a lot of language arts built into them, so I only added minimal resources for this area. But this year’s history units are pretty light on creative writing and other similar skills, so we will be diving deeper in this area through other resources. Language arts can be tricky because it really contains a bunch of mini subjects (grammar, spelling, handwriting, creative writing, formal writing instruction, literature study, etc.), and we have never had good experiences with trying to juggle a bunch of these resources at one time. So instead we will start the year with one resource and when it’s finished we will move on to another one and so on as time allows. We are starting with a Dart Literature Single from Brave Writer; I picked the one for Sarah, Plain and Tall to do. Each Literature Single is supposed to take a month, but we will just do the one then move on to other resources for grammar, spelling, etc.

1. We strive to create a book-rich atmosphere in our home.

Read alouds are (after reading the Bible together) what I consider the most important part of our homeschool. Yet I’ve found that our rhythms around them have changed in the past year as my oldest two are ready to listen to longer and harder chapter books, but I still have two young kids who need to be hearing lots of picture books and possibly beginner chapter books read aloud. I honestly don’t have a specific plan to combat this this year; I think it’s just going to take being aware of our overall reading picture and making sure that everyone is getting what they need. We do a lot of reading connected to our unit studies, and you’ll notice several other categories on this list that include read alouds. I also want to read through several nonfiction books on science topics this year since our unit studies include very little, if any, science. We are going to start with the Dk Encyclopedia of Animals, then move on to other DK books on various topics.

1. We strive to speak and act in love, and serve Christ and others.

I am so thankful I have this reminder on my vision statement, because I GUARANTEE it would not be something I would naturally think of when choosing curriculum, yet it’s one of the most important things on this list. My hope is always that we are teaching our children this in day-to-day life; this is why homeschooling is so important to me– I want to have the opportunity to shape my children’s character every single day, helping mold them into people who love God and love others. I also want my children to see and understand the importance of missions, and to see themselves as a vital part of the mission field, no matter what their futures hold. This year we are using World Watch News to help with this. It occurred to me earlier this year that my kids are NEVER exposed to any news sources. In some ways, that’s a good thing; they’re still young, and I don’t want them hearing and seeing all of the yuck that goes on in our world today. But I also have found myself thinking back to my own childhood. My parents had the evening news on faithfully everyday, and my siblings and I grew up hearing it even if we weren’t sitting down with the express purpose of watching it. And because of this, our family naturally had conversations around what was happening in the world on a regular basis. These conversations shaped my worldview more profoundly than anything else, even the “Christian Worldview Class” I had to take in high school. All that being said, news sources obviously aren’t the same today as when we were kids. That’s where World Watch comes in! Their content is all presented from a Biblical perspective; they stay true to what is happening in the world, yet nothing is presented in a way that is too intense for my children; and they show wonderful glimpses into other cultures for my land-locked Midwestern kids. We have great conversations after each video, and regularly pray together for the things that are shared on it.

1. We strive to create an atmosphere that continually points back to God and His Word.

This year for our family devotions we are going to be using The Word Studies from Idlewild and Co. These devotions take things found in nature and use them to point back to the truths found in God’s Word. I love this pairing of specific revelation (God’s Word) with natural revelation (God’s Creation); nature is a powerful testimony of God’s character, and I truly believe we are doing our kids a disservice if we don’t show them that.

1. We strive to view learning as fun instead of something to be checked off a list.

All of my kids are “technically” school-age this year, but I’m not planning any formal lessons with my three-year-old this year. I have some preschool workbooks saved and I can always print worksheets I have on the computer if he begins asking to do “school,” but so far he really hasn’t shown interest in sit-down work, and I would rather him spend his time playing (the best form of learning for a preschooler!) and join us for read alouds and crafts when appropriate. My youngest daughter is starting Kindergarten; I have found myself having to resist the temptation to pile on all the “Kindergarten-y” things for her to do. Most of what my older two do she can easily join us on (like our unit studies and read alouds), and, just like with my youngest, I want her to still have time in her day for play. So her main work this year will be pre-reading and reading instruction. She did not finish the pre-reading level from All About Reading this year, so she will start with that. Then we will use The Good and the Beautiful Kindergarten Prep level for language arts, and only if I think she is truly ready, will we start All About Reading level 1 (where she will actually learn to read). I also like to use a morning menu with this age, where they can practice basics like calendar work and writing their name, but we will just use it at the beginning of the year, not the entire year. 

1. We strive to spend time in nature as much as possible.

For nature study, we are going to use the book Slow Down: 50 Mindful Moments In Nature by Rachel Williams. I’m hoping to do 3-4 of these a week, then move on to The Good and the Beautiful Little Hearts and Hands nature units, but I’m also okay with it taking longer if that seems like a better fit for our schedule.

There it is, all our picks for this school year! I like having this planning done so now I can go into the busiest part of our Summer without all the planning questions and ideas taking up my brain space. I hope you’re having a great Summer!