(Last Updated on January 27, 2025)
Homeschoolers are blessed with FREEDOM. But sometimes that much freedom can feel overwhelming. Even paralyzing. Especially when it comes to choosing curricula, how do you know where to start?
Think of it this way. Let’s say you recently moved to New York and need to find a dentist. You could grab an old phone book, pick a name out of the 18,000+ licensed dentists in the state of New York, and take your chances. But, yikes!! It makes my teeth nervous just thinking about picking a dentist this way.
Fortunately, we have ways to make the process less of a shot in the dark. Ratings, reviews, and recommendations from friends can help narrow down our choices. We can pray for discernment and visit prospective offices before scheduling an appointment. Although there’s no way to be 100% certain we’ll pick the “right” dentist, we can do our part to make an “educated selection” instead of a “random guess.”
It’s the same with homeschooling. If you feel overwhelmed at the zillions of curricula choices out there, know that you aren’t powerless in this process!
How to Choose Homeschool Curricula
You can read reviews on sites like Cathy Duffy’s Reviews (her “Top Picks” are a great place to start). You can join forums and social media groups and read blogs and books where people share their experiences with homeschool curricula. And you can always ask your homeschooling friends and acquaintances for a guided tour of their bookshelves. For a quick visual tour of our school area and bookshelves, check out these posts:
- A Tour of Our Homeschool: School Room
- A Tour of Our Homeschool: Desks & Tables
- A Tour of Our Homeschool: Math Shelves
- A Tour of Our Homeschool: Science Shelves
- A Tour of Our Homeschool: Language Arts Shelves
- A Tour of Our Homeschool: History (& More) Shelves
- A Tour of Our Homeschool: Art Closet
I’ve found it immensely helpful to check out what other families have used for different grade levels and what their experiences were with those products. As you familiarize yourself with the different methods and curriculum choices out there, you’ll start to get a feel for what type of resources might work for you and your kids and which ones you know would flop.
Remember… your homeschool is UNIQUE! No list can tell you exactly what the “right” curriculum choices are for your family, or whether you even need to use curricula at all. Everyone homeschools differently and that’s OKAY! In fact, that’s the whole point!
Our Homeschool Curriculum Choices
So, with all that said, I’ll be sharing the resources we’ve used every year we’ve homeschooled, but NOT because they’re the one best solution and NOT because you should go buy them today. My hope in sharing what we’ve used is that it would help you take another step closer to finding the right fit for your family.
Check back for updates to this list as more links are added in the future:
- Year 1 (Kindergarten)
- Year 2 (1st Grade & PreK 3/4)
- Year 3 (2nd Grade & PreK 4/5)
- Year 4 (3rd Grade & Kindergarten)
- Year 5 (4th Grade, 1st Grade, & Toddler)
- Year 6 (5th Grade, 2nd Grade, & PreK age 3)
- Year 7 (6th Grade, 3rd Grade, & PreK age 4)
- Year 8 (7th Grade, 4th Grade, & Kindergarten)
- Year 9 (8th Grade, 5th Grade, & 1st Grade)
- Year 10 (9th Grade, 6th Grade, & 2nd Grade)
If you’re looking for ideas for a certain grade, you can see a summary of what we used in our homeschool for each age range in these posts:
- How to Homeschool Preschool – Part 1
- How to Homeschool Preschool – Part 2
- How to Homeschool Preschool – Part 3
- How to Homeschool Kindergarten: Curriculum Ideas & Lessons Learned
- How to Homeschool the Early Elementary Years (1st – 3rd grade): Curriculum Ideas & Lessons Learned
Before you buy any homeschool curriculum, be sure to read Strategies for Buying Homeschool Curriculum: A Grocery Store Analogy for more tips!
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