Our Curriculum Picks for 2020

Our homeschool curriculum and book choices for three elementary age children, a preschooler, and a toddler too! Plus, even more tips and tricks from an experienced homeschool family. 

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After researching and reading and discussing options with friends for weeks, I’ve finalized my curriculum plans for next year!! For some homeschool moms, this is an incredibly exciting ritual each summer, and for others it’s pretty much just stressful and anxiety-inducing.

I’m somewhere in the middle. 

I’ve done both the buy-the-all-in-one-curriculum-and-be-done approach, and the piece-together-all-the-subjects-individually approach before too. They both have their places. When I was just starting out with homeschooling for the first time, an all-in-one curriculum (My Father’s World) was exactly what I needed. And, a few years later, when we were entering a potentially stressful and very new season of life, a curriculum that laid out all the plans for an entire year for my different aged kids (A Gentle Feast) was an answer to prayer. 

However, I rarely completely stick to an all-in-one curriculum, and am usually ready to spend a little more time hand-selecting each component the following summer.

For the last two years, I’ve had the huge blessing of being able to attend a “curriculum night” with friends, where we all bring our favorite curriculums and resources so that we can flip through the books and ask opinions from moms who have used the curriculum themselves.

I understand that this is a rare opportunity, so I shared a “curriculum night” overview, as well as shared a few more of my personal favorites on Instagram. You can find it all in my HS Curriculum highlights (there are two) on my Instagram profile.

All this to say, after a lot of discussion and deliberation, I pieced together what we will be studying this year and I’m so excited! 

If you are new to homeschooling, this list could give you some ideas, but the last thing I would want to do is overwhelm someone. Don’t underestimate the value of an all-in-one curriculum to give you guidance, a framework, and support as you start out. Just go ahead and close out this page if it starts being too much. My goal is simply to share what one way (out of soooo many) to plan piece by piece for multiple ages of children.

Additional Homeschooling Resources and Ideas :: 

I’ve written a lot about homeschooling over the years, from our favorite resources, to how I organize all our supplies without a dedicated homeschool room, to free printables, and more. Whether you’re new to homeschooling or entering your tenth year, there are fresh ideas here for everyone.

• Homeschool Organization Tour & Mega List of Favorite Resources
• Favorite Homeschool Resources from Experienced Homeschool Moms
• How to Set Up A Daily Rhythm
• How to Keep Toddlers Busy At Home
• Favorite Morning Time Resources
• Free Morning Time Planning Printables

Before I get to the list, I have one more help to share. I will be participating in an online homeschool “open house” along with many other amazing homeschool moms– three days of hearing from experts on how to make homeschooling fit your family, plus a live Q&A on the last day. View the speakers, topics, and details, then sign up (for less than $10!) here. 

Our Curriculum Picks for 2020

This list might look overwhelming, or you may think we’re leaving something important off. Three important things to remember:

• Everyone’s curriculum choices are made to fit their own families. I’ve put together this list knowing our family’s current interests and capacities.
• We won’t necessarily read/finish everything on this list. We will definitely read more books than this and listen to additional audiobooks.
• I’m not going into any “how’s” in this post. This is only what we are doing. I will be talking more about rhythms, teaching with toddlers, and more in the open house. I also share frequently about homeschooling on Instagram.

Morning Time: 

HABIT TRAINING + ARTIST STUDY + POETRY + BIBLE LESSONS + SHAKESPEARE + READ ALOUDS

• Habits & Character :: Laying Down the Rails + Student Workbooks
• Living Math :: Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithmetic read-alouds (largely oral math– introduction for younger kids, review for older)
• Artist Picture Study :: (Fall term) Winslow Homer, Simply Charlotte Mason Picture Study
• Shakespeare :: (Fall term) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (We will read and discuss from these resources a couple times a week :: How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare, Who Was William Shakespeare, A Stage Full of Shakespeare Stories, Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare for Children on Audible, Shakespeare in Three Steps from Simply Charlotte Mason)
• Poetry :: Sing A Song of Seasons: Nature Poems for Each Day of the Year 
• Poetry Memorization :: 30 Poems to Memorize Before It’s Too Late: Circe Institute
• Music Study :: Squilt: Meet the Composers
• Arts & Handicraft :: Watercolor with Me: In the Forest, Jesus Storybook Bible Coloring Book, Wild & Free Handicrafts
• Bible Study :: read ESV family Bible, use Christ At The Center cards from Tiny Theologians to learn the books of the Bible
• Hymn Study :: Happy Hymnody
• Myths, Fairy Tales, & Tall Tales :: D’Aulaires Book of Norse Myths, Tales of Wonder, Classic Starts Grimm’s Fairy Tales, American Tall Tales

For the 2-Year-Old: 

• habit training together with the family (through Laying Down the Rails)
• using this list of activities- How To Keep Toddlers Busy At Home– while we do school at the table
• other real life learning: working in the garden, cooking in the kitchen, adventure days, etc
• lots of free play

For the Preschooler:

• participating in Morning Time
• Math & language arts with The Good and The Beautiful Preschool (first year using this)
• Family Science (see below)
• other real life learning: working in the garden, cooking in the kitchen, adventure days, etc
• lots of free play

For the First Grader: 

• participating in Morning Time
• Continuing with year 2 of My Father’s World language arts (I just need to buy the student pages because I already have the teacher manual)
• Copybook Reader Volume 1 from Simply Charlotte Mason
• Math Lessons for A Living Education Level 1 (halfway through 1 now), and CTC Math (lessons online)
• Family Science (see below)
• Nature Reader Book K (read together with mom & narrate)
• other real life learning: working in the garden, cooking in the kitchen, adventure days, etc
• lots of free play

For the Third Grader:

• participating in Morning Time
• Language Arts :: Using Language Well & Spelling Wisdom Level 1 from Simply Charlotte Mason, Brave Writer Single Arrow Units (combined lessons with two oldest kids), Independent Reading & Narrating
• Copybook Reader Volume 3 from Simply Charlotte Mason
• Math: CTC Math grade 3 (lessons online), student folder with extra pencil/paper computation and word problem practice
• Nature Reader Book 3 (read independently then narrate)
• Family Science (see below)
• Early American history (see below)

For the Fifth Grader: 

• participating in Morning Time
• Language Arts :: Using Language Well & Spelling Wisdom Level 2 from Simply Charlotte Mason, Brave Writer Single Arrow Units (combined lessons with two oldest kids), Independent Reading & Narrating
• Writing: Story Starters from Simply Charlotte Mason
• Math: CTC Math grade 5 (lessons online), student folder with extra pencil/paper computation and word problem practice
• Nature Reader Book 5 (read independently then narrate)
• Family Science (see below)
• Early American history (see below)

Family Science:

FALL :: Farm & Garden Life Science

• Spine :: Farm Anatomy + Farm Anatomy Notebooks (print one per child)
• Read-Alouds :: (ex: Up & Down in the Garden, We Are the Gardeners, A Seed is Sleepy, From Seed to Plant, The Vegetables We Eat, Big Book of Blooms, etc)
• Continue working in the garden, visit a farm (or two)
• Natural History: Parables of Nature, The Storybook of Science, nature readers (see above)

SPRING :: Ocean & Shores

• Spine :: Ocean Anatomy + Ocean Anatomy Notebook (print one per child)
• Ocean Unit: Gather Round (considering this one)
• Watercolor with Me: In the Ocean
• Read-alouds :: Big Book of the Blue, Beachcombing: Exploring the Seashore, Burgess Seashore Book for Children, Pagoo (tide pools), Ocean Alphabet Book, N is for Narwhal: ABC of Ocean Oddities,
• plan a trip to the beach
• Natural History: Cont. reading Parables of Nature, The Storybook of Science, nature readers (see above)

Early American History:

FALL :: American 1700’s

This first “semester” we will be focusing briefly on colony life, the Revolutionary War, and then the U.S. government and constitution around the time of the presidential election. I used the Gentle Feast book list for Cycle 2, and bought the teacher guide from Beautiful Feet Books for the intermediate Early American History study.

{Living History Texts: This Country of Ours, A Young People’s History of the U.S., A Child’s First Book of American History. We will read parts of these texts as they apply to the period we are studying.}

• North Carolina Colony :: Exploring the NC Colony, If You Lived in Colonial Times, A Nutshell History of North Carolina, When I Was Young In the Mountains, field trips to historic sites
• Revolutionary War :: George Washington: Spymaster, Black Heroes of the American Revolution, Worst of Friends (audiobook), Paul Revere’s Ride (Longfellow), A Spy Called James (audiobook), The Bear That Heard Crying, Amos Fortune: Free Man, The Life of George Washington, Cinnabar: The One O’clock Fox,
• U.S. Government & Constitution :: Gather Round U.S. Government Mini Unit, Shhh! We’re Writing the Constitution, When You Grow Up to Vote, The 4th of July Story, A More Perfect Union,

SPRING :: Post Revolutionary War || Early American Life

That’s it! Now I’d love to hear from you. Are you homeschooling this year? Do you have your curriculum selected? What is one of your favorite resources? 

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