Apr 30, 2025

Curriculum Review (2024-2025)

We are finishing our seventh official year of homeschooling (or ninth, if you count preschool), which is hard to believe! Time is flying, and I’m more grateful than ever to have spent these years teaching my children.

This year, we homeschooled four kids for the first time: a 6th grader, a 4th grader, a 2nd grader, and a Kindergartener. In South Carolina, we are required to homeschool for 180 days and cover reading, writing, math, science, and social studies, so that’s what we used as an outline for our year.

We typically do school four days a week and use Friday for field trips, catching up, or spending time with each other. This approach has worked well for us! We plan some vacation time ahead of time, but we also take spontaneous days off when we feel it's needed. Having that flexibility has been a gift.

I’d love to share what worked for us this year, and what was challenging. I hope this is helpful!

Note: Each time I share our curriculum choices, I receive emails asking for more in-depth reviews, flip-throughs, and videos. I also get specific questions about whether certain curricula would be good fits for individual children. I wish I had the capacity to provide that level of detail and advice, but unfortunately, I don’t at the moment. That said, I hope this overview serves as a great starting point for you. If any of the curricula I mention spark your interest, many homeschool moms offer detailed reviews on YouTube that go much deeper than I can provide.

How My Husband and I Share Homeschool Responsibilities

My husband and I run our small business, Brighter Day Press, from home, which allows us to split homeschooling responsibilities equally. While one of us is teaching, the other is working. I usually take the lead in choosing the curriculum and organizing our plans, but we typically follow the same daily schedule. We simply use a bookmark to mark where we left off and pick up from there. The only difference is in our read-aloud books; each of us chooses our own book to read aloud. This is a unique set-up, but it has worked well for us for the last two years!

6th Grade for Liam

Reading & Writing: We have been using Learning Language Arts through Literature (the Green book) for several years, so we know what to expect. At this level, the curriculum is primarily independent, which is incredibly helpful for me as I teach younger siblings. What I love about this program at every level is that it is truly open-and-go. I don’t have to prepare lessons, and our kids can complete most of it on their own. Additionally, the book choices are fantastic. We plan to continue with new levels of Learning Language Arts through Literature next year!

For several years, we have also participated in Mail Monday. Each child has multiple pen pals, and they spend a few minutes on Monday mornings writing a letter to one of them. This activity teaches them so much without feeling like schoolwork. At the beginning of each year, I fill their Mail Monday baskets with all the stationery and stamps they'll need (and a small address book), and they are responsible for writing and sending the letter from start to finish.

I used the Ambleside Online Year 6 Free Reads as a loose guide for recommending independent reading to Liam. While he read some of these books, he ultimately became captivated by the Redwall series by Brian Jacques.

Math: Liam recently finished Beast Academy online this year, and we are actively looking for what’s next—Pre-Algebra, which he will also take online. I’ll keep you posted on our decision! Beast Academy has been a fantastic fit for him. It is very challenging and did not work well for our middle two children (we tried it briefly). I would say it is primarily suited for advanced math students, and Liam has loved it.

Social Studies/History: We were hopeful about the Ambleside Online Year 6 History program, but Liam did not enjoy the book choices and preferred to read other materials. After he showed me some passages, I understood why he wasn’t connecting with it. While I love Charlotte Mason’s principles, some of the Ambleside book choices have never clicked for us. Instead, Liam joined us in our family history lessons and completed one narration notebook page per week. To learn more about narration notebooking, see this post.

Foreign Language: Liam began studying Spanish using Rosetta Stone (he had done this for all of last year as well), but he has recently shown more interest in Latin, likely because his friends at church are taking Latin at their local school. We recently discovered Compass Classroom, and he has begun a self-paced course called Visual Latin 1. It has been fantastic for him.

Added: Since we began homeschooling, finding the time and motivation to consistently teach science has been challenging. While we did some Apologia science (see Morning Time below), Liam wanted more. He recently started a middle school/high school level class on Creation Science with Compass Classroom and will be working on this for the next year. He is absolutely thriving and learning so much!

4th Grade for Lanie

Reading & Writing: We used Learning Language Arts through Literature, the Orange book, along with Mail Monday + Ambleside Online Year 4 Free Reads. These selections are similar to what I chose for Liam, but they are tailored to Lanie’s level and have proven to be good fits for her!

Handwriting: We used Cursive Success (Handwriting Without Tears). We have long loved Handwriting Without Tears. It’s simple and straightforward and it has worked well for us.

Math: Apologia Math Level 4 - Apologia Math was brand new to us this year. In the past, Lanie used Math-U-See which definitely did the job, but was quite dry and repetitive. She did not enjoy it. Apologia is quite a bit more colorful and engaging, while also not being any more teacher-intensive for me.

Social Studies: Around the World in Picture Books, Parts 1 & 2 (Beautiful Feet Books) - Although we read many of the picture books associated with this study, we did very little of the actual study itself. We've completed this entire program before, and it remains one of my favorite studies. However, I found that we were focusing more on our Morning Time routine, which required additional time. I did use this study as a reference for some of the picture books we read aloud together.

2nd Grade for Bear

Reading & Writing: Learning Language Arts through Literature, the Red book + Mail Monday

To be honest, Bear did not enjoy Learning Language Arts through Literature at all, and it was often a struggle to get him to complete the assignments. Bear is an excellent reader who reads constantly and enjoys discussing what he reads. However, he struggles with handwriting; he doesn't yet have the fine motor skills required and found the amount of writing overwhelming. On some days, I would talk him through the material to ensure he understood it, but I didn't require him to write everything down.

Handwriting: Printing Power (Handwriting Without Tears) - This worked well for him! He worked through a page every other day, so he worked through it very slowly.

Math: Apologia Math Level 2 - This was a fantastic fit for Bear. He never complained and moved through it mostly independently, and we will be doing Apologia Math Level 3 next year! He is really understanding the concepts and looks forward to doing math each day.

Social Studies: Around the World in Picture Books, Parts 1 & 2 (Beautiful Feet Books) - Again, we did not do very much of this, other than reading the picture books.

Kindergarten for Beckham

Reading & Writing: Get Ready for the Code, Get Set for the Code, Go for the Code; 100 Gentle Lessons in Sight & Sound, Level 1 (A Gentle Feast)

Beckham is slowly learning to read and write using these resources. He is doing so well, and I have a feeling we’ll have a strong reader by the fall!

Handwriting: My Printing Book (Handwriting Without Tears) - Again, this just works for us! Consistency is key.

Math: Math with Confidence, Kindergarten

I love the idea of Math with Confidence. However, as a mom who is already stretched thin with my other kids' work, it feels quite teacher-intensive, with many games and hands-on activities. I understand how important these elements are for creating a strong foundation in math, and I believe that if we were homeschooling just one child, it would feel more manageable.

That said, Math with Confidence is still my favorite option for kindergarten. For his first grade, we will be using Apologia Level 1, and I am really looking forward to it!

Social Studies: Around the World in Picture Books, Parts 1 & 2 (Beautiful Feet Books) - Again, we did not do very much of this, other than reading the picture books.

Morning Time / Community Work

Since my husband and I took turns during this time, we generally followed the same daily routine. We just leave a bookmark where we left off and pick up from there. The only difference is that we each have our own read-aloud materials. This setup has worked well for us!

We start our Morning Time around 10:00 a.m. and work until lunchtime. By this point, the kids have already completed their independent work.

Bible: This year, we are reading through the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) one chapter at a time. We have also read through Acts and Romans, and we are currently working our way through the Psalms. We begin our Morning Time with a prayer, asking the Lord to enlighten our hearts and focus our minds on what He would have us learn that day. Then we read a chapter of the Bible and discuss what we just read.

Scripture Memory: We memorized several passages, including Psalm 121, Psalm 139, and the Lord’s Prayer, as well as the Apostles’ Creed. We also practice the verses and passages we already know.

The New City Catechism for Kids: I hope that by the time our kids graduate, we will all know all 52 questions and answers. We are currently about halfway there. We keep this practice lighthearted and fun, regularly reviewing the questions and answers we have learned.

Hymns: Each morning, we choose one or two hymns from our hymnal and sing them together. Liam often accompanies us on the piano.

History: This year, we did not use a formal history curriculum. Instead, we read some wonderful Charlotte Mason history resources, including Lorene Lambert’s Stories of the Nations and Our Neighbors and Their Stories. We enjoyed these readings, discussing what we learned, plotting events on a timeline, and often watching YouTube videos for further detail. It was simple and wonderful! Currently, we are reading Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall a chapter or two at a time and discussing it. We plan to dive deeper into British history next year (more on that soon)! One day a week, our oldest two choose something we’ve learned about that week and create a page (writing and drawing) in their narration notebooks. To learn more about narration, see these posts: What Is Narration? and Keeping a Narration Notebook.

Science: We attempted to use Apologia’s Zoology I, but we ended up doing just a little bit every few days. We didn't make as much progress as I hoped, but we plan to continue some of it through the summer. What we did do, we really enjoyed!

Read-alouds

Here are the books we read aloud this year:

Shawn is currently reading Wish by Barbara O'Connor and I am currently reading The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Did not finish: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo - Shawn read about half of this to the kids, then was disturbed by the elements of child abuse in the story. (I had forgotten about this from years ago when I read it.) It was disturbing to our younger kids, so he didn’t finish this.

I hope this helps you, whether you’re just exploring the idea of homeschool or planning your year next year!

Curriculum Review (2024-2025)