Homeschool Curriculum Reviews for Core Subjects

If you’re like me, picking out homeschool curriculum can really spark a range of emotions. Maybe you feel overwhelmed, unprepared, or lack confidence when you pick out curriculum each year. You may wonder if certain brands are worth the cost, or worry you’ll pick something that your kids (or you!) end up not liking.

Sometimes there is an uneven response–maybe you love a certain curriculum, but your kids don’t. Maybe your kids love something, but you don’t love teaching it! Other times, a certain curriculum may flow well with one of your child’s learning styles, but not others’.

On the positive side, choosing homeschool curriculum can also be exciting, inspiring, and motivational. While I have had my share of ups and downs the past three years, in general, I really love choosing curriculum! I love to plan, and my brain works in systems, structures and vision. I usually map out my curriculum choices 6-12 months in advance, and then make adjustments as I observe my kids’ shifting needs.

Our 2025-2026 Homeschool Curriculum Choices: Core Subjects

(Note: I do not use affiliate links. All opinions are my own, and are not financially incentivized in any way.)

Below is a list of all of the things I have used this year, for core subjects. This is year three of homeschooling for us, and each year I have tweaked the lineup a bit, depending on my kids’ ages and ever-changing needs! My third is also in preschool this year, and while he’s learning a lot of amazing things there, I also work with him at home. Here is what I chose this year, for our core subjects:

Reading & Writing: Best Practices

• Read aloud, full family. We try to do this every day. With a toddler who yells loudly whenever I try to read aloud, it doesn’t always happen. 😉 I compiled a list of our absolute favorite children’s books, that you can download for free here! I absolutely love talking about books, especially children’s books–so send me a message if you have some other favorites you think we should check out!
• Read aloud, chapter books: we also do a Kid Book Club with three other homeschool families! We use Treehouse Schoolhouse’s Book Club Kits, which are incredible. I planned one of our recent gatherings, where we went to a local zoo to discuss the book, My Father’s Dragon.
• Daily independent reading: my two oldest (fourth grade & second grade) read independently for at least 30 minutes every day. It’s one of the items on their daily checklist, which they track themselves.

Reading & Writing: Formal Curriculum Choices

• All About Reading, Level 1: I am using this with my preschooler this year. He learned his letter sounds a few years ago and seemed to understand blending quite well. He also gets antsy and pester-y if he doesn’t have enough to do, so I decided to make a little Spiderman-themed reading chart for him for school this year. He loves it! I used All About Reading Levels 1&2 to teach my daughter (now 2nd grade) to read, and I really love the program. They provide short lessons that vary from simple word cards, to cute games, to reading short stories. This program honestly helped me a lot as an adult. Remembering different grammatical rules and why things are spelled or pronounced the way they are, is pretty tricky in our language! As fluent English speakers we don’t think much about it…until we have to teach someone else!
• Easy Grammar Books: I have used these for several years. They are dry and to-the-point, but that’s grammar! I like them because they’re just one simple page per day.
• IEW: My son (now fourth grade) did Fix It Grammar for two years, before starting IEW this year. He is doing the Structure & Style Level 1A, and then the video lessons online. He likes Andrew Pudewa’s corny dad jokes! I come alongside and teach/reinforce the material during the week while he completes the writing assignments.

Writing & Spelling: organic methods

• Our Homeschool Writing Experiment: Ok, so this isn’t an official curriculum! You may have seen this Writing Experiment series on my blog. I floundered a bit our first two years, trying to find a writing curriculum I really liked. I still haven’t found a perfect fit! So, this year, I did a bit of experimenting. We have been trying out different genres of creative writing this year, and it has been awesome. I will be blogging about it for the foreseeable future, and creating products on my TPT site–so if you have ever fell into a writing rut, stay tuned! Try out a few freebies to get your juices flowing!
• Spelling practice + test: My daughter (2nd grade) writes fluently and creatively, but doesn’t pay as much attention to spelling rules. This is exactly what I had hoped for. I really wanted my kids to get a taste for writing, enjoy the process, and enjoy writing well with descriptive imagery, before getting too bogged down by whether every word was spelled correctly. Because we have done so many creative writing projects this year and focused on quality of content, she hasn’t been too concerned with spelling. This second semester, I am having her start focusing on the words she most commonly misspells in her writing.

Homeschool History Curriculum

• Story of the World: We love this series! Studying world history with young children felt a bit intense at first. I myself have some huge gaps in my history and political learning background, so I wanted to do better by my own kids! Story of the World has been great. The historical events are written in story-form, versus dry lists of facts like a textbook, so they’re more appealing and easier to listen to.
  • While I read that week’s chapter aloud, the kids ask questions, consult our globe, and we also try to make connections with things we’ve read previously. What’s really cool is when they can make connections to current world events!
  • My daughter loves to draw, and she will typically color in the coloring pages and/or doodle while we read. The coloring pages, as well as important map work, are provided in the Activity Book, which I spiral-bind for $6 at Office Depot each year.
  • There is also a creator on Teachers Pay Teachers that makes comprehension questions for each chapter, and we love those!
• World Watch News: We have also enjoyed a subscription to World Watch News in the past. During this school year, I dialed back a bit, and we don’t watch every day. I felt that sometimes, even as an adult, the news can be overwhelming, and so that effect is just compounded for young kids. We try to educate our kids in age-appropriate ways, and the nice thing about homeschooling is that you can adjust their exposure to things based on age and maturity.

Homeschool Math Curriculum

Singapore Math: We are on our third year using Singapore Dimensions Math, and I really like it! You can purchase the grade level bundles, but I typically do more of an a-la-carte style purchase. I like to get the textbooks, the test books, and then this summer am going to use the workbook as review work. The test books help a lot–we typically do a math test every Friday.

One thing I really loved when I first started Singapore is that they provide amazing lists of living books, for each grade level! It had never occurred to me to look for a picture book related to math, but there are dozens of engaging titles and authors. I was shocked! A few of our favorites are:

• The Sir Cumference Series
• Place Value, by David Adler {really, anything by David Adler!}
• Minnie’s Diner by Dayle Ann Dodds
• Anything by Stuart Murphy

I have been thinking of compiling a list of our favorite academic children’s books, so I will get to work on that right away!

Basic Math Drill Books: This link calls them “timed tests,” but I haven’t used them that way, yet. We do these year-round. One page, per day. I cannot tell you how much the simple 5 minutes-a-day activity, even over the summer, has helped to maintain my kids’ mental math capabilities. We do take a break in the summer, for everything except reading, and these basic facts. To do one page takes my kids 5 minutes or less. This is absolutely worth it to me, for the amount of time, energy and headache it saves us when fall comes around! Since basic facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) are the basis for so much of math, especially as you learn more complex concepts, having these memorized well, and understood, is absolutely imperative as you advance in math.

Homeschool Science: my toughest subject to teach

Science is a hard one for me. I lean more naturally into the Humanities (reading, writing, religion, philosophy, art, foreign language) and while I love the idea of teaching science every week, I don’t feel like I do it well enough! I am especially sluggish when it comes to science experiments. I know how valuable they are, and, you could argue, the absolute best part of science! The hands-on part! But, with the stage of life we are in right now with the ages of our kids, I don’t always have the capacity to have an additional mess brewing in the kitchen every day. One thing about homeschooling is: activities don’t take as long as they take, in a classroom! Of course this makes sense–I’m homeschooling three children, not directing a class of 25.

That said, the prep & cleanup of experiments often don’t feel worth it to me. Science experiments are best done when the toddler is napping–but as many of you know, when a toddler is napping, there are a lot of things you’d like to be getting done! You have to prioritize. Anyway, I digress. Luckily, our first two years of homeschooling, we lucked out.

Our first two years, we attended two different co-ops. Both co-ops provided science classes, and my kids learned incredible material revolving around Botany, Earth Science, and Sea Creatures! Now we are down to one co-op, but they still get science there. This year, they are covering weather.

The Science Curriculum I Chose

Apologia Anatomy: My friend told me about a cool experiment kit that goes along with the Apologia Anatomy textbook, which is what we used this year to study anatomy. Apologia is a Christian company that creates science curriculum. The textbooks are dense and thorough, and much of the time I skip over concepts that are too complex for my 2nd and 4th grader. Regarding the experiment kit–this was a game-changer, especially as a busy mom of four!

The experiment kit came fully prepped, open-and-go. The materials for simple science experiments were all individually packaged, and labeled with the corresponding lesson from the textbook. They couldn’t have made it easier for me! I am sorry to say, I still didn’t hit every single experiment! Oops! Despite the impeccable organization & presentation, some perfection still can’t crack the chaos that a busy toddler creates 🙂 My daughter, our youngest, is 21 months right now, and quite the stinker. This year we’ve had new challenges as we navigate how to homeschool, with her hilarious impishness threatening to impede our every move. Ha!

That said, the experiment kit was still a godsend. As long as I glance at the textbook on Sunday before the week begins, I can get an idea of what experiments are suggested, grab the corresponding baggie and set it on the kitchen island for the next day.

Additionally, for science, I prepped a bit last summer. I looked at lot at Pinterest Ideas and got different printouts and projects ready. Homeschool Compass had this incredible PDF, for FREE, ready to download and print. I printed it in full color at our local library, spiral-bound it at Office Depot, and we’ve been using it all year!

Why Bible Curriculum Matters to Me

The last core subject I want to cover today, is Bible study! For our homeschool & family life, studying the Bible is important. My husband and I have made it a priority to share the Bible, and our personal faith journeys, with our kids in myriad ways! This looks different at different ages, and I have come across a lot of really cool resources over the years!

At the most basic level, this happens organically as we share life together. We try to talk about elements of faith, and who God is, and how he wants us to treat each other, as part of everyday conversation. We try to model grace, and forgiveness, humility and prayer, as best we can. We are never doing this perfectly! But, I think a model of humility & repair is imperative to a Christian homeschool environment. If I want my kids to possess these qualities, fruit of the Spirit, then I need to be modeling them as well!

Homeschool Bible Curriculum

Here are some resources I have used to support our goals, in this area!

Biggest Storybook Bible: We love this storybook Bible! Our kids are currently aged 10, 8, 4.5 and 21 months, so this works well for that range. My son (10) is reading through the Bible on his own right now, using a plan that I use as well. You can get the free Bible Recap Plan, here. There is an 8-minute podcast each day, that summarizes and enriches the parts of the Bible you read, that day, which we love.

Over the years, it has really varied when we read aloud from the Bible! Sometimes during morning time, sometimes at the dinner table. In the past we have also cycled in The Jesus Storybook Bible, and The Beginner’s Bible.

Here are a few other resources I’ve really liked:

Tiny Theologians ABC Bundle: these cards are concise and informative! I started out with these our first year and have used them intermittently since. They are quick and effective, helping your kids get bite-sized information and make for great discussion!

Sibling Relationship Cards: I love these, too. These cards have sweet animal illustrations on the front, and a simple relationship-related truth, on the back, with an accompanying verse. We have had some great conversations about our speech helping or harming our siblings, how to sacrifice what we want for the good of someone else, and other big themes that come up in sibling (and other) relationships.

One thing I have dropped the ball on a bit, for Bible, is verse memorization! Years ago my kids did Awana, which was so helpful for that. I would love to get back into the routine of memorizing verses together; maybe that will be a summer goal! 🙂

What are your curriculum favorites?

What curriculum have you found effective, with your kids? I would love to hear! Send me a message here and let’s chat!

I am planning one more post for curriculum choices, where I cover our elective subjects! Stay tuned, if you love nerding out about homeschool curriculum! 😉

Cait