One of the fun aspects of home educating can be choosing curricula and perusing the wonderful resources that we have on offer. I have always been slightly wary of compiling a list of the curricula we use or have used. The reason for this is that there are certain principals I cling to, such as the principal of Christian education and the centrality of Christ in all knowledge. There are other aspects of home education that are built on not on principal but on personal preference. There is always a danger that we home educators can become too smitten with the details of what we do, exchanging personal preference for principal and thereby heaping burdens on one another’s shoulders.

Nevertheless, people often ask what we use and I recognise that I was able to make curriculum decisions based on trawling the internet and carefully considering what other people recommended. For this reason, I have finally compiled a list in case God is pleased that it might help somebody.

A couple of caveats:

1. If you are just starting out with a younger child. I would probably pick a book that teaches phonics, and perhaps tentatively select something for maths or handwriting, then just spend some time finding your feet! There is no point buying a whole host of resources when you have not even begun to find your style or philosophy of education. The only reason that I can recommend a list of resources is because I have built up what we do over many years. We have made a thousand false starts!

2. I love languages and my husband teaches apologetics. For this reason, we teach our children Latin and Greek. Please do not let this put you off!!! We are working with our strengths. We are all strong in different areas and we use our strengths to glorify God. Home education is a wonderful opportunity for your own children to particularly profit from your area of knowledge.

So, on that basis, and with the caveat that home educators have an embarrassment of riches and it is hard to go far wrong, here are our top picks:

Phonics – ‘Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading’ by Susan Wise Bauer

This is a very straightforward and comprehensive phonics text. There are no bells, whistles or pictures! I did try to teach my children phonics using pictures and songs, but I found that we did not get anywhere. They were far too distracted by the pretty images! Once I cut out all the extras they started learning. I supplement this book with the ‘Songbirds’ readers by Julia Donaldson plus any other beginners’ books I can lay my hands on. Five minutes of phonics and five to ten minutes of book reading per day seems to do the job over the course of a couple of years.

Handwriting – ‘Beautiful Handwriting’ by Penny Gardner

I purchased this download to teach my older children handwriting. It was inexpensive although it took a certain amount to time to do all the printing. It certainly achieves beautiful handwriting! The drawback is that the writing lines were probably a little too small at the beginning and but then probably a bit too big later on (rather than progressing to a smaller size).

Getty-Dubay

I have used these handwriting books with my younger children. They involve much less work for me (no printing!) and I like the fact that each book gives the opportunity to practice slightly smaller handwriting which is more in keeping with how my children have learned.

Maths

Saxon Maths

Not for everybody, but Saxon really appeals to the way I think! It gives an excellent grounding in the basics and insists on mastery which, I hope, will pay off in the long-term. This year I have seven children doing Maths so it is pretty much impossible to teach them all separately (and do things like eat, sleep and have any friends!) so I have started using teaching videos by ‘Nicole the Math Lady’. These do not suit all my children, but they have certainly cut down the amount of time that I spend teaching and correcting.  

‘Maths Lessons for a Living Education’

Around about the third year of Saxon, I sometimes switch my children to ‘Maths Lessons for a Living Education’ (Book 3). I find that it does my children good to have a bit of a change. These books are not rigorous as Saxon, but the stories that run throughout the chapters really appeal to us. These books tend to focus on one subject in depth (such as fractions), rather than spiraling round the concepts as Saxon does. I did find that when my children came to learn fractions in Saxon Maths, they already had a good grasp of some difficult concepts because of the way the ‘Living Education’ books had taught them.

History

‘Mystery of History’

I have not really come across anything comparable to this! We LOVE Mystery of History. This course is made of four books covering history from creation to the consummation and everything in between! We are now in the second cycle and it is wonderful to revisit stories now some of the ‘pegs’ are in place. We read a couple of chapters on Mondays. I then ask my children to pick their favourite story and use it to do a writing exercise during the week.

Some families work through the books more slowly. I prefer to keep to one book per year even if we do not cover everything thoroughly. We use the quizzes and have timelines on the walls. I very often find the books in beds because my children enjoy reading them so much! I have no idea how well my children would test if they were to one day take a GCSE, but as far as I am concerned, they have a superb knowledge of Christ-centred history which is far more important to me than any exam grade.

Science

Answers in Genesis ‘God’s Design for Life’

So far, we have worked through the green books (animals, plants and human body), the blue books (universe, planets, water and weather) and two of the orange books (eco-systems and atoms and molecules). I do not really have a scientific bent, but these books have inspired those of my children who do. They are a great resource that are often turned to outside of lesson time for general perusal!

Apologia ‘General Science’

This year, I started ‘General Science’ with my older children. Thus far, it has been a hit. The first chapter details the history of science and this really tickled our interest. There are workbooks to accompany the textbooks which I have found extremely helpful as well as a teaching DVD which we use as review (and to check we are doing the experiments properly!).

Writing

Institute for Excellence in Writing: ‘Teaching Writing: Structure and Style’

We have purchased the History-based Writing lessons which tie in with ‘Mystery of History’ and thus reinforce whatever we are learning. I am a big fun of Andrew Pudewa’s videos. He has taught me so much about teaching! If you have a moment, I really recommend trying to find one of his talks on youtube.

We are in our second year of IEW and I have seen my children’s writing improve (as well as my own). The mechanical explanations of what makes good writing have really helped my less imaginative writers whilst still inspiring those who have a natural ability. It is important to follow the ‘Easy plus one’ rule, whereby you do not introduce a new concept until the last has been mastered.’

Poetry

‘Poetry Memorisation’ by Andrew Pudewa

This has been another success, particularly since it really appeals to our ‘not-yet-reading’ four-year-old twins who have INCREDIBLE memories, as well as the older children. After lunch, we kick-off by rattling through the poems we have learned. The key is to learn a poem and then repeat it basically forever! Lol.

The course initially seems a bit pricey, but might appear less so if you imagine that you have a five-year poetry memorization syllabus that can be used for multiple children. If you think poetry memorization is a good idea but do not want to shell out the cash, you could simply pick your own list of poems and then commit to learning them.

Grammar

‘First Language Lessons’ by Susan Wise Bauer

These grammar books are highly scripted. They probably are not the most exciting grammar lessons available but they certainly do the trick! I studied modern languages at university and thought I knew something about grammar…but I was wrong! I have learned so much over the past few years, including how to diagram a sentence. Pre-home education, I never realized there was such a thing as sentence diagramming, let alone how to do it!

If you need something a bit more inspiring, I am sure that there are lots of great alternatives available, but I have been happy with this course. I will probably use it again with my younger children.

Latin and Greek

‘Memoria Press’

The Memoria Press books are very hard to get hold of, so unless you have a sure way of transporting them to the UK, then I would probably choose another curriculum.

I have learned so much through teaching Latin, not least the importance of mastery at the earlier levels. If you do what the textbook says (ie consistently all the reciting of verb forms!) your children will probably be able to manage. I have a daughter with some dyslexic traits and she is doing very well with Latin (and she enjoys it!). My four-year old twins can confidently recite lots of endings (although they have absolutely no idea what they are saying!). Latin trains the brain, improves language and grammar skills and makes sense of science vocabulary. If you think you might possibly be able to learn it then give it a go (you have nothing to lose!)

So, there you have it! There are a few other bits and bobs that we use, but these books my heroes. I praise God that he has gifted us with so many teachers and writers who do not even know their toil is bearing fruit in my family. If I meet then in heaven, I will be sure to let them know!

I have always been slightly wary of compiling a list of the curricula we use or have used. The reason for this is that there are certain principals I cling to, such as the principal of Christian education and the centrality of Christ in all knowledge. There are other aspects of home education that are built on not on principal but on personal preference. There is always a danger that we home educators can become too smitten with the details of what we do, exchanging personal preference for principal and thereby heaping burdens on one another’s shoulders.

Nevertheless, people often ask what we use and I recognise that I was able to make curriculum decisions based on trawling the internet and carefully considering what other people recommended. For this reason, I have finally compiled a list in case God is pleased that it might help somebody.

A couple of caveats:

1. If you are just starting out with a younger child. I would probably pick a book that teaches phonics, and perhaps tentatively select something for maths or handwriting, then just spend some time finding your feet! There is no point buying a whole host of resources when you have not even begun to find your style or philosophy of education. The only reason that I can recommend a list of resources is because I have built up what we do over many years. We have made a thousand false starts!

2. I love languages and my husband teaches apologetics. For this reason, we teach our children Latin and Greek. Please do not let this put you off!!! We are working with our strengths. We are all strong in different areas and we use our strengths to glorify God. Home education is a wonderful opportunity for your own children to particularly profit from your area of knowledge.

So, on that basis, and with the caveat that home educators have an embarrassment of riches and it is hard to go far wrong, here are our top picks:

Phonics – ‘Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading’ by Susan Wise Bauer

This is a very straightforward and comprehensive phonics text. There are no bells, whistles or pictures! I did try to teach my children phonics using pictures and songs, but I found that we did not get anywhere. They were far too distracted by the pretty images! Once I cut out all the extras they started learning. I supplement this book with the ‘Songbirds’ readers by Julia Donaldson plus any other beginners’ books I can lay my hands on. Five minutes of phonics and five to ten minutes of book reading per day seems to do the job over the course of a couple of years.

Handwriting – ‘Beautiful Handwriting’ by Penny Gardner

I purchased this download to teach my older children handwriting. It was inexpensive although it took a certain amount to time to do all the printing. It certainly achieves beautiful handwriting! The drawback is that the writing lines were probably a little too small at the beginning and but then probably a bit too big later on (rather than progressing to a smaller size).

Getty-Dubay

I have used these handwriting books with my younger children. They involve much less work for me (no printing!) and I like the fact that each book gives the opportunity to practice slightly smaller handwriting which is more in keeping with how my children have learned.

Maths

Saxon Maths

Not for everybody, but Saxon really appeals to the way I think! It gives an excellent grounding in the basics and insists on mastery which, I hope, will pay off in the long-term. This year I have seven children doing Maths so it is pretty much impossible to teach them all separately (and do things like eat, sleep and have any friends!) so I have started using teaching videos by ‘Nicole the Math Lady’. These do not suit all my children, but they have certainly cut down the amount of time that I spend teaching and correcting.  

‘Maths Lessons for a Living Education’

Around about the third year of Saxon, I sometimes switch my children to ‘Maths Lessons for a Living Education’ (Book 3). I find that it does my children good to have a bit of a change. These books are not rigorous as Saxon, but the stories that run throughout the chapters really appeal to us. These books tend to focus on one subject in depth (such as fractions), rather than spiraling round the concepts as Saxon does. I did find that when my children came to learn fractions in Saxon Maths, they already had a good grasp of some difficult concepts because of the way the ‘Living Education’ books had taught them.

History

‘Mystery of History’

I have not really come across anything comparable to this! We LOVE Mystery of History. This course is made of four books covering history from creation to the consummation and everything in between! We are now in the second cycle and it is wonderful to revisit stories now some of the ‘pegs’ are in place. We read a couple of chapters on Mondays. I then ask my children to pick their favourite story and use it to do a writing exercise during the week.

Some families work through the books more slowly. I prefer to keep to one book per year even if we do not cover everything thoroughly. We use the quizzes and have timelines on the walls. I very often find the books in beds because my children enjoy reading them so much! I have no idea how well my children would test if they were to one day take a GCSE, but as far as I am concerned, they have a superb knowledge of Christ-centred history which is far more important to me than any exam grade.

Science

Answers in Genesis ‘God’s Design for Life’

So far, we have worked through the green books (animals, plants and human body), the blue books (universe, planets, water and weather) and two of the orange books (eco-systems and atoms and molecules). I do not really have a scientific bent, but these books have inspired those of my children who do. They are a great resource that are often turned to outside of lesson time for general perusal!

Apologia ‘General Science’

This year, I started ‘General Science’ with my older children. Thus far, it has been a hit. The first chapter details the history of science and this really tickled our interest. There are workbooks to accompany the textbooks which I have found extremely helpful as well as a teaching DVD which we use as review (and to check we are doing the experiments properly!).

Writing

Institute for Excellence in Writing: ‘Teaching Writing: Structure and Style’

We have purchased the History-based Writing lessons which tie in with ‘Mystery of History’ and thus reinforce whatever we are learning. I am a big fun of Andrew Pudewa’s videos. He has taught me so much about teaching! If you have a moment, I really recommend trying to find one of his talks on youtube.

We are in our second year of IEW and I have seen my children’s writing improve (as well as my own). The mechanical explanations of what makes good writing have really helped my less imaginative writers whilst still inspiring those who have a natural ability. It is important to follow the ‘Easy plus one’ rule, whereby you do not introduce a new concept until the last has been mastered.’

Poetry

‘Poetry Memorisation’ by Andrew Pudewa

This has been another success, particularly since it really appeals to our ‘not-yet-reading’ four-year-old twins who have INCREDIBLE memories, as well as the older children. After lunch, we kick-off by rattling through the poems we have learned. The key is to learn a poem and then repeat it basically forever! Lol.

The course initially seems a bit pricey, but might appear less so if you imagine that you have a five-year poetry memorization syllabus that can be used for multiple children. If you think poetry memorization is a good idea but do not want to shell out the cash, you could simply pick your own list of poems and then commit to learning them.

Grammar

‘First Language Lessons’ by Susan Wise Bauer

These grammar books are highly scripted. They probably are not the most exciting grammar lessons available but they certainly do the trick! I studied modern languages at university and thought I knew something about grammar…but I was wrong! I have learned so much over the past few years, including how to diagram a sentence. Pre-home education, I never realized there was such a thing as sentence diagramming, let alone how to do it!

If you need something a bit more inspiring, I am sure that there are lots of great alternatives available, but I have been happy with this course. I will probably use it again with my younger children.

Latin and Greek

‘Memoria Press’

The Memoria Press books are very hard to get hold of, so unless you have a sure way of transporting them to the UK, then I would probably choose another curriculum.

I have learned so much through teaching Latin, not least the importance of mastery at the earlier levels. If you do what the textbook says (ie consistently all the reciting of verb forms!) your children will probably be able to manage. I have a daughter with some dyslexic traits and she is doing very well with Latin (and she enjoys it!). My four-year old twins can confidently recite lots of endings (although they have absolutely no idea what they are saying!). Latin trains the brain, improves language and grammar skills and makes sense of science vocabulary. If you think you might possibly be able to learn it then give it a go (you have nothing to lose!)

So, there you have it! There are a few other bits and bobs that we use, but these books my heroes. I praise God that he has gifted us with so many teachers and writers who do not even know their toil is bearing fruit in my family. If I meet then in heaven, I will be sure to let them know!