Our Homeschool Curriculum Picks! {2020-2021 Edition}
This is our first year fully and completely homeschooling.
Prior to this year, we had our oldest in a hybrid homeschool program (went to school 2 days a week, homeschooled 3 days a week with curriculum and lesson plans already decided by classroom teacher) and our middle in a private preschool. Before even that, our oldest was part of traditional kindergarten class.
So this was our first experience with needing to choose a curriculum! Part of me was so excited to think that I was actually going to have a say in what and how we learned, but the other more realistic part of me was COMPLETELY overwhelmed! I mean, have you seen how many amazing curriculums are out there? I had no idea there were so many.
Like many of you, I turned to online curriculum reviews. I watched the videos, read the blogs, devoured everyone’s curriculum unboxings…and researched until I had a good understanding of what was out there.
It’s a time consuming process, though, so I want to share our homeschool curriculum picks and what we love about them, in hopes that it might help guide you in your decision.
So without further ado, grab yourself a cup of coffee and let’s get to it!
Our Homeschool Curriculum Pick for Most Subjects:
What is Gather ‘Round Homeschool?
Gather Round Homeschool is a brand new (last year) faith-based curriculum with a “unit study meets Charlotte Mason” approach. If you’re not familiar, a unit study is just a curriculum that incorporates multiple subjects into one topic.
The creator and mastermind behind this curriculum is Rebecca Spooner, a homeschool mom of 5 kiddos, who wanted a curriculum that would make it easier to teach multiple kids in an engaging way without feeling like a human ping pong ball every day!
This curriculum currently has one full year of units available and year two is being launched for purchase currently.
Year 1 Unit Study Options:
- North American Birds
- Asia
- Space
- Europe
- Oceans
- Africa
- Earth Science
- North America
- Human Body
- South America
- Christmas Mini-Unit
- U.S. Government Mini-Unit
- Indigenous People Canadian Mini-Unit
Year 2 Unit Study Options:
- Antarctica (available as of September 2020)
- Australia and Oceania (available as of October 2020)
- Artists (November 2020)
- Ancient Civilizations (December 2020)
- Inventors (January 2021)
- Transportation (February 2021)
- Botany (March 2021)
- Career and Trades (April 2021)
- Creepy Crawly Things (May 2021)
- Farming and Food (June 2021)
Each year consists of 10 Themed Units that are designed to last 4-5 weeks. The units cover every subject area but math, which is fantastic if you ask me!
The grades are broken down into six levels of student notebooks:
- Pre-Reader (3-5 yo)
- Early Reader (6-8 yo)
- Early Elementary (8-10 yo)
- Upper Elementary (10-12 yo)
- Middle School (12-14 yo)
- High School (15-18 yo)
You can choose to purchase the teacher’s manual and any student books in print form OR you pay to get a PDF download of the manual and every grade level and print it off yourself. I personally think the best value is the PDF download if you have multiple children!
And if this isn’t enough, she has also come out with an entire preschool AND kindergarten curriculum! The preschool is called Letters and Numbers and the kindergarten is called Ready to Read. These don’t tie into the themes mentioned above but they do a much better job than the original Pre-Readers of walking little ones through early literacy.
What We Love About It So Far…
We love Gather ‘Round for many reasons!
- It allows us to learn together as a family throughout most of the day instead of everyone learning something different.
- Because of this, it promotes conversation between all of us!
- It doesn’t bog us down with busy work all day, so we have time to explore the topics deeper. Go down rabbit holes of learning. Do some experiments. Go on nature walks. Enrich our learning!
- The student books are beautifully done and easy to use, not to mention easily portable when we need to do school on the go!
- It’s incredibly flexible. We can go through an entire unit in 4 weeks or extend it out as long as we want to depending on how deep we want to take the learning. With the digital copies, we also have the ability to move our kids from one level to another at any time if we need to.
- I’m not bored teaching it. My kids aren’t bored using it. We are a unit study loving family and this curriculum is everything I would have created for myself!
If you’ve never seen or heard much about this curriculum yet, then go check out the website! She offers several free samples of the units so that you can give it a try first and see how it works with your family!
I have a feeling we’ll be sticking with this one for the long haul.
Our Homeschool Curriculum Pick for Math:
What is Math Lessons for a Living Education?
Math Lessons for a Living Education is a faith-based, Charlotte Mason inspired curriculum by Masterbooks that teaches math using relatable stories, copy work, narration, and hands-on practice.
It’s a gentler approach than other more traditional math curriculums such as Abeka (which we used last year) and teaches more for mastery and character building of the whole child.
It follows the lives of two children in their own homeschool experience and relates their stories to the math lesson for that week. This makes the math lessons more relatable and relevant to my children.
This math curriculum is divided up into 7 levels, not necessarily grades. They have a placement test on their website to help you decide which level you should start your child in.
What We Love About it So Far…
So far, we are very pleased with Math Lessons for a Living Education!
My 3rd grader has used Abeka for the past two years, and even though it’s a great curriculum, it moves very quickly. There were times that I wanted to slow down and spend more time on certain skills (such as place value and telling time), but we had to keep moving along. (At this time we were also still in a hybrid homeschool program.)
Since moving her to MLFALE, we have been able to slow down and focus on those skills that she was unable to master before. She’s less overwhelmed by the amount of work everyday and the frequency of new concepts being introduced. There have been FAR fewer tears that’s for sure!
We also love that:
- It’s super affordable!
- It’s only one book per child. No teacher manual. Very open and go.
- Any manipulatives they suggest you use are provided in the back of the book. The Place Value Village is an amazing resource and you just need a few small containers and craft sticks (or other counting objects)…the labels are in the book!
- It’s gentle enough that I feel like my children can really understand the “why” along with the “how” of the math skills they are learning.
- It doesn’t take an hour to complete! I have three kiddos, so I need something with good content but that’s also efficient! This fits the bill! It only takes each child 30 minutes or less to complete their lesson for the day. That’s a win in my book!
For now, this curriculum is working great for us. I plan on continuing with it for the rest of this school year. If something changes along the way, though, I will fill you in!
Our Homeschool Curriculum Pick for Phonics:
What is Horizons Phonics and Reading?
Horizons Phonics and Reading is phonics program through Alpha Omega publishing that has levels from K-3. I can only speak to the kindergarten level because that is what we are using this year.
It takes a more traditional educational approach with a very worksheet focused lesson. This curriculum is considered to be more advanced by many and I would agree.
The kindergarten alone has 4 student books and 4 readers full of short stories that go with each lesson. It’s a lot! I don’t know that this curriculum would be right for every 5 year old, however, it is what I needed for mine.
There is also a Teacher’s Manual available to purchase with this set, but I don’t personally find it to be a necessary purchase, so we saved some money by not getting it. (It’s mostly useful for knowing what the pictures are that they are using for beginning and ending sounds.)
What We Love About It So Far…
We weren’t going to add any phonics to our curriculum at first. (Gather ‘Round has it built in remember!) However, because my sweet girl wants to read so much, we decided to research some phonics programs and speed her along.
After researching several different programs, we landed on this one because it was more advanced. It starts with the letters but we can move forward to the phonics blends and rules that she’s getting stuck on whenever we want to. I mean, isn’t that the beauty of homeschooling?! 🙂
The readers that go along with each student book are full of stories that get progressively longer, too, and my daughter absolutely LOVES reading them. Even though we are “supposed” to read a new story with each lesson, I just let her read through the book whenever she wants to…and she chooses to often!
We also love that even though the student workbooks are consumables, the readers can be used again by my youngest when she is ready in a year or two!
If you’re looking for a more traditional, thorough, and advanced phonics program or you are looking for a phonics program that is intensive for a child that is struggling then Horizons might be for you!
Our Homeschool Curriculum Pick for Bible:
What is More Than Words?
More Than Words is technically a Bible curriculum, although it feels more like a devotional/journal. It’s written by Rebecca Spooner (Gather ‘Round) for Masterbooks and it goes beyond the standard bible stories and teaches children about who God is, who they are in God, and how to live out their faith.
There are two books:
- Level 1 for K-3
- Level 2 for 4-6.
We are currently using Level 1 with my 8 and 5 year old…and our 3 year old listens in, too. 🙂
This is a beautiful curriculum that follows the same pattern every week:
- Day 1: Journal Entry by one of Rebecca’s own children, bible verse, and introduction of “key truth”
- Day 2: Copy work of bible verse
- Day 3: Art, Poem, or Hymn Study
- Day 4: Character Trait Study (Humble, Content, Honest, etc.)
- Day 5: Reflection drawing and journaling of their own
What We Love About It So Far…
This has been one of my favorite parts of our homeschooling journey so far! My girls and I use this as a morning devotional together after breakfast. It has led to some good conversations and even rabbit trails of learning (like what is acapella music?)!
Even though we love bible stories and believe they are important to read and know, we love that this was created to take our kids much deeper than that at young ages!
We also love:
- it’s open and go layout
- that it doesn’t take a lot of planning
- that it doesn’t need a teacher’s guide
- it’s flexibility
We often do Day 1 & 2 together and then bump everything else up a day. Since we do a four day work week, this allows us to finish our Bible for the week in four days if we aren’t able to get to it on a Friday.
There you have it! Our homeschool curriculum picks for the 2020-2021 school year.
I hope this will help guide you in your own curriculum making decisions!
What about you all? Does anyone else use something from our line-up? If so, how are you liking it? Let me know in the comments below! I’d love to know. 🙂
