Our Homeschool Curriculum for 2025-2026

Hard to believe that we are starting our 9th year homeschooling!

It truly seems like yesterday that I was beginning to teach our oldest at home and then somehow I blinked and this year I’ll have 5 school aged kids, our first year doing high school level work, and two rascals running around as my preschool teacher assistants.

Whenever I share about homeschooling, the number one question I always get asked is about our curricu… just kidding, you know it’s about socialization! The second most asked question is about which curriculums we’re using, so I thought it would be helpful to write down what this year’s curriculum plan is going to look like for everyone, at least the main parts of it.

I was homeschooled myself so I knew from the beginning I didn’t want to select an all-in-one curriculum for my kids. Been there, tried that, did not enjoy it. The benefit of homeschooling is that, unlike traditional school, you can pick and choose what works well not just for your family, but also for your kids’ individual needs and interests. So I’ve always chosen each curriculum on a case by case basis.

I also give the kids an opportunity to select an area of study that they are interested in learning. If they have something more unique they’d like to learn, I try to find a way to help do so. Following their interests is a big part in keeping school fun for everyone.

While I share the curriculums based on each kids’ regular school age, know that most homeschooling families don’t box kids into a specific year for school. We work towards mastery in each level which means that a student might be one or more grades “ahead” in some areas, and “behind” in others. We move on and advance as they’re ready so these grades are more of a general guideline for those that only know traditional school rather than their hard and fast grade for every subject.

Here’s what we’re using this year:

For our 8th Grader

While in 8th grade, our daughter has been working ahead and is going to begin high school level work. She’s a classic oldest child go-getter and this has always been her goal for a while. If the year goes well, we’ll begin to look at introducing college courses for her official high school years to hopefully help her graduate high school with at least an associates.

Math: Math-U-See Algebra 1 We’ve used math-u-see since the beginning. I loved it during my years as a homeschooler, and it’s worked well for all of my children.

Reading: Essentials in Literature. We’ve highly enjoyed this program. Like Essentials in Writing, it’s low lift for me. Alice does this entirely independently with little for me to do other than grade here and there.

Writing: Essentials in Writing. This is a low-lift curriculum for me, the kids can watch the videos with me or on their own and then do the lesson for the day. I have the scoring service which I enjoy so she gets outside feedback on her work throughout the year.

History: Beautiful Feet Early American History. Since this is literature based, she’s very excited to have more reading to do. I enjoyed this curriculum personally and found it a very fun way to dive into history.

Science: The Good and the Beautiful Biology. This is a new program released this year and she asked to try it out. We’ve done the self led Apologia courses for the past two years and she was ready to try something different. I’ve had a great experience with TGTB over the years and am excited they’re adding more upper level curriculums.

Bonus Studies: Our daughter has been learning piano on her own and will start taking piano lessons this year and doing more advanced literature units throughout the year.

For our 6th Grader

Math: Math-U-See Zeta. Like everyone else, he’ll be continuing his lessons with math-u-see. This curriculum is low-lift for me as a teacher which frees me up to help other kids while they’re taking their lessons. All I have to do is help as needed and grade along the way.

Reading: Good and the Beautiful Language Arts and Literature. He asked to try this program this year so we’re giving it a go. It will somewhat overlap with his Essentials in Writing course, but I think that will be helpful in many ways. We’re mostly trying it for the literature component. Our main goal for Reading this year is to continue the progress we’re making in learning that reading is fun.

Spelling: All About Spelling — we do this a couple times a week. I keep it casual and fun; it’s often the kids’ favorite subject of the week because it’s easy and a nice break from the norm. We’re also trying out the Evan Moore Spell & Write Skill Sharpeners for the first time this year. These we will use in the morning as an easy day opener.

Language Arts: Essentials in Writing. This is a low-lift curriculum for me, the kids can watch the videos with me or on their own and then do the lesson for the day.

History: The Good and the Beautiful History 1. This is a family style unit that the kids will be all be joining in on. I’ll teach the main lesson with everyone, then each has their own age appropriate work to complete afterwards. Our hope is always to spark a love of learning about history with each of the kids.

Science: The Good and the Beautiful Science Units. For the past few years, we’ve selected a few science units from their line up with input from the kids. We’ll be learning about Weather and Geology as our main units and select any additional units based on their interests at that time.

Bonus Studies: Our son is very into art so we’ll be encouraging this with more time to explore new mediums, learn techniques, and expand his skills through both online and in-person classes.

For our 4th Grader

Math: Math-u-See Epsilon Like everyone else, he’ll be continuing his lessons with math-u-see. This curriculum is low-lift for me as a teacher which frees me up to help other kids while they’re taking their lessons. All I have to do is help as needed and grade along the way.

Reading: We’re focusing on finding our love of reading. I’ll be selecting different book studies (I like finding many through Teachers Pay Teachers) based on his interests throughout the year.

Spelling: All About Spelling — we do this a couple times a week. I keep it casual and fun; it’s often the kids’ favorite subject of the week because it’s easy and a nice break from the norm. We’re also trying out the Evan Moore Spell & Write Skill Sharpeners for the first time this year. These we will use in the morning as an easy day opener.

Language Arts: Essentials in Writing. This is a low-lift curriculum for me, the kids can watch the videos with me or on their own and then do the lesson for the day.

History: The Good and the Beautiful History 1. This is a family style unit that the kids will be all be joining in on. I’ll teach the main lesson with everyone, then each has their own age appropriate work to complete afterwards. Our hope is always to spark a love of learning about history with each of the kids.

Science: The Good and the Beautiful Science Units. For the past few years, we’ve selected a few science units from their line up with input from the kids. We’ll be learning about Weather and Geology as our main units and select any additional units based on their interests at that time.

Bonus Studies: Learning to cook and bake more complex items.

For our 3rd Grader

Math: Math-u-See Gamma. Like everyone else, he’ll be continuing his lessons with math-u-see. This curriculum is low-lift for me as a teacher which frees me up to help other kids while they’re taking their lessons. All I have to do is help as needed and grade along the way.

Reading: All About Reading. This has been our go-to for learning to read from the beginning. Everything you need to do and say as a teacher is written there for you, so I don’t need to prepare much of anything in advance. Just open the book and go!

Spelling: All About Spelling — we do this a couple times a week. I keep it casual and fun; it’s often the kids’ favorite subject of the week because it’s easy and a nice break from the norm.

Language Arts: Essentials in Writing. This is a low-lift curriculum for me, the kids can watch the videos with me or on their own and then do the lesson for the day. For my younger kids, I work through these slowly at their pace.

History: The Good and the Beautiful History 1. This is a family style unit that the kids will be all be joining in on. I’ll teach the main lesson with everyone, then each has their own age appropriate work to complete afterwards. Our hope is always to spark a love of learning about history with each of the kids.

Science: The Good and the Beautiful Science Units. For the past few years, we’ve selected a few science units from their line up with input from the kids. We’ll be learning about Weather and Geology as our main units and select any additional units based on their interests at that time.

Bonus Studies: More outside activities and sports was all the was requested from this extremely active kid so we’ll be doing just that. We are also trying the Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners for the first time this year — he’ll be doing the Reading Comprehension and Spell & Write options.

For our First Grader

I keep most subjects very light for my kids pre-fourth. Because many of these curriculums are for the family, our daughter will join in for the lesson, but she may not be given any formal work to complete. So while this subject load looks heavy, her days stay fairly light with a focus mostly on math, reading, and learning to love learning itself.

Math: Math-u-See Beta. Like everyone else, she’ll be continuing her lessons with math-u-see. This curriculum is low-lift for me as a teacher which frees me up to help other kids while they’re taking their lessons. All I have to do is help as needed and grade along the way.

Reading: All About Reading. This has been our go-to for learning to read from the beginning. Everything you need to do and say as a teacher is written there for you, so I don’t need to prepare much of anything in advance. Just open the book and go!

Spelling: All About Spelling — we do this a couple times a week. I keep it casual and fun; it’s often the kids’ favorite subject of the week because it’s easy and a nice break from the norm.

Language Arts: Essentials in Writing. This is a low-lift curriculum for me, the kids can watch the videos with me or on their own and then do the lesson for the day. For my younger kids, I work through these slowly at their pace.

History: The Good and the Beautiful History 1. This is a family style unit that the kids will be all be joining in on. I’ll teach the main lesson with everyone, then each has their own age appropriate work to complete afterwards. Our hope is always to spark a love of learning about history with each of the kids.

Science: The Good and the Beautiful Science Units. For the past few years, we’ve selected a few science units from their line up with input from the kids. We’ll be learning about Weather and Geology as our main units and select any additional units based on their interests at that time.

Bonus Studies: Our first grader has become very artsy lately, so she will also be getting more time to explore art, crafts, and hopefully take a few local lessons as possible. We are also trying the Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners for the first time this year — she’ll be doing the Reading Comprehension and Spell & Write options.

What will my 4 and 2 year old be doing?

Keeping the younger kids busy and happy during lessons is easily the hardest challenge of my day. My four year old is old enough that we’ll be starting a few very *very* easy lessons for him to see how it goes. Nothing formal, just simple pre-reading type lessons.

For the most part he and his two year old sister will be the free birds in the home.

Like many homeschool moms I will be letting them trash the house while I power focus on getting all of the lessons taught like an octopus mother. (If you’ve got your crap together and plan out things for your little ones lie to me, k?)

In all seriousness….that’s literally what I’ll be doing.

I have a shelf in the room with a few activities, but mostly I just try to have them get excited about being my co-teacher and helping “teach” the lessons so they stay near me, out of trouble, and I can keep my focus on the older kids.

Crayons will be given to them to destroy and perhaps maybe scribble a picture if they’re feeling generous.

Of course I have some games they can choose to play on their own that tend to go well. And puzzles are a huge hit about once a week earning me an uninterrupted hour of teaching and on that day I usually order 1 or 2 more thinking that they’re the key.

I’ve linked some of my shelf items that I have purchased for them over the years in this list for ease.

If you’ve got little ones though, just remember there’s nothing you get them that will ever be better than a bowl full of snacks, so stock up.

Wishing you a fun year of homeschooling ahead!