Homeschool Curriculum: What should you buy? This is the time of year when many families have made the break from public schools for a variety of reasons. They will spend the summer shopping and comparing curriculums. I’ll share some of my favorite homeschool curriculums here.


A word of caution: do not overwhelm your student. You do not have to recreate public school at your kitchen table . . . unless you WANT to. You do not have to present every subject under the sun each semester. So, rule #1 – relax!

For beginning students who have not yet learned to read and write, my favorite curriculum is Explode the Code. I used these consumable workbooks (consumable means the student writes in it, and then it must be replaced for the next students) in our homeschool for many years. I didn’t know about them for my oldest, but my two babies learned to read and write with Explode the Code. When my Russian children joined the family, Explode the Code worked beautifully for my ten-year-old daughter who was learning English for the first time. However, my learning disabled Russian son did not experience the same level of success.

Explode the Code is a very inexpensive series of workbooks, introducing the alphabet on letter at a time. The students learn how to write the letters, the name of the letters, the sounds of the letters, and how they combine to form words. The letters are not introduced in alphabetical order, however; the students are introduced to combinations of letters that make simple words right away. This greatly facilitates the reading process as the students begin reading simple words very early. I started this program with my children at age 5 – but there are NO rules about what age each child should start each subject. Rule #2 – all children develop at different rates . . . and that is OKAY!!

Math-U-See is my favorite math curriculum. I also began this program at age 5, and it worked for us. There is an initial investment, and the student book is consumable, but the rest of the program will be used for all of your students, throughout their mathematic career. Math-U-See can only be purchased new from the Math-U-See website . . . Rule #3 – ALWAYS check used resources before you buy anything new! (I’ll write another post about how to find cheap and used curriculum!)

Math-U-See uses manipulatives to teach basic mathematic concepts. The workbooks are not colorful and are rather boring. Yet they are simple and direct. The creator made DVD’s of himself teaching Math-U-See to a classroom of student, so you do not have to worry about not knowing math yourself – he shows you how to teach it using his methods.

I made the mistake of letting my children talk me into changing our math program to one that had bright, and colorful workbooks. They looked sooo cool! That was a mistake. Once we left Math-U-See I found it very difficult to go back to it for high school subjects. Now we struggle with math, and I very much wish we had stayed with Math-U-See for the duration of our homeschool journey.

Science and history are easily done at any level with library books and independent research. Let the student lead these courses, based on their own interests. Don’t worry that they will never become interested in what you feel is important. Eventually all topics lead to each other.

If you feel it necessary to work a science program for your young students, I recommend you look at Beginnings Publishing. The program was written by a homeschool dad for homeschool students. I like the way the textbooks are written TO the students. There is not a lot of technical science lingo, which makes it easier for student and teacher alike. This is a great program to share with a couple of other families in an informal homeschool co-op setting.  The Colors is the program for 10-12 year olds, which is the youngest group they have written for so far.  However, the Colors has not yet been released.  I recommend waiting for it, using the library and being outside in the meantime.

History: take a look at Story of the World. It is a general overview of world history from the beginning to modern times. It can be read aloud to the child, read by the child, or listened to on CD’s. It has four volumes of reading ‘texts,’ although there is nothing ‘text-like’ about theml. There is also an activity book suggesting ways to bring the history to life. Story of the World can easily be repeated at least twice, if you take one year for each volume, before you move on to higher level history. Remember – not every suggested activity in any activity book is required!! This also is a great program to share with a couple of other families in an informal homeschool co-op setting.

If I could have a do-over, these are the homeschool curriculums I would use with elementary aged children.