Your favourite curriculum you used this year

[alysee]

YouTube has a ton of videos of homeschool families favourite curriculum they used for the current 2022/2023 year. I'm curious, what have been your families favourite? New favourites? Old favourites. 

I asked my kids and they said Bookshark Science and my 9yo said he loved IEW because it makes writing easy. 

[knitgrl]

Our use of it has been spotty because of unique circumstances this year, but I am really impressed with R&S English. It is just solid grammar, and incorporates enough review so that things stick. It is just open and go, and doesn't take too long. A good deal of bang for your buck.

[Clarita]

Beast Academy is growing on me for DS6. I know I wouldn't have liked it as a kid, but it really jives with him. 

All about reading is the other one, it's way more than my kids need to learn to read but they love all the bells and whistles. Oddly we end up doing everything in that curriculum, my favorite part of that curriculum is the activities and stuff they do with the short stories they read. It really teaches my kids how to read for information.  

 

[Green Bean]

Dimensions Math with vids for DS-6. Miss Beth rocks as a teacher. It is so perfect. Just enough practice, makes complete sense, and no fluff!

Teaching Textbooks for the older 3. They love it and are learning & retaining so well. Even 6 yr old joins in for their lessons!

DS-17 loved BJU online Physical Science 6th ed. with Mr. Harmon. He found it super engaging and interesting. The guided notes made a huge difference to his understanding. I "cheated" and printed/bound the filled-in 256 pg answer key which he highlighted each lesson and added to. I wanted him to pay attention to the teaching, not try to figure out when to fill in the blanks.

The other two were meh about everything but math from this year. Oh well.

 

Edited May 7, 2023 by Green Bean

[El...]

AOPS is really working for both of my kids this year. 

GFTWTM was effective for my son, mostly. We only did the first 40 lessons, but I felt like he got it and it sure was easy to implement!

Pandia Press RSO Biology 2 has been a huge hit! We splurged on a nice microscope and we're all getting a kick out of actually seeing the things! 

[Ting Tang]

Memoria Press 2nd grade sans math and Latin (but with enrichment). Ironic since MP didn’t work for my two oldest last year in its entirety. Didn’t really love anything else for the others, except maybe MCT grammar. 😕

[countrymum]

RightStart Math- It really clicks with how I teach. I was wondering about G and H because they are so "different", but it is working so much better than anything else we've tried were going with it. My son wouldn't say he liked RightStart G but he says he learns well with it and not to switch....we don't get to all the games but I've added in calculadder drills for all and sometimes make a worksheet or add in some drill from strayer Upton. I've used most RightStart levels now.

All About Reading - I'm on my 3rd and 4th runs through this now. I like to put Little seedlings press letter mastery between levels Pre and 1, but he otherwise I like it.

All about spelling- it's helping my 2 very different children. Child 3 will finish level 1 next year. It will likely help him too;)

Simply Charlotte Mason History geography and Bible. The kids like to do this together. I like the book choices and it's easy to substitute 1 if I want ..or add to it;)

None of these are new. I've learned to stick with what's always worked. I think I initially picked all these when ds 11 was 5... Not that we haven't tried other things but I still like these best and keep coming back to them;)

Edited May 7, 2023 by countrymum

[SilverMoon]

The diy evolution and prehistory course has been my personal favorite this year. The kid and I have both found it fascinating. We've dragged the whole family into conversations. ❤️😄

My high schooler would probably say world mythology. They've read many fabulous stories and really, really enjoyed Professor Vandiver lectures. 

Edited May 7, 2023 by SilverMoon

[freesia]

Ulat was a great fit this year.  I feel like I finally have a good, affordable option for foreign language!

[caffeineandbooks]

The group learning is where the magic has happened for me this year.

Getting Started With Latin is cheap as chips, takes 5 minutes a day, and has been a perfect light, family-style foreign language taster.

My boys have grown so much as readers through a book club based on Center for Lit's Teaching the Classics method.

My littlest is loving her Jot it Down fairytales co op.

Despite having hated every group project ever when I was at school, it turns out I really enjoy homeschooling in community with a few friends.  It calls me up to put forth more effort, it fills me up with encouragement and good conversation, and it makes my kids happier and more enthusiastic when there are more voices in the conversation and play time on the schedule.

A bonus: what I'm most looking forward to implementing next term is How To Teach Nature Journalling by John Muir Laws.  It gives clear, simple structure and directions, and is available as a free PDF on his website, although it's so good that I bought the hard copy anyway.  Although it's aimed at school type settings, he references homeschooling and Charlotte Mason more than once and in a way that makes me feel he's taken time to understand and value some of what we do.  Highly recommended!

[AnneGG]

The kids loved Our 50 States from Notgrass. 

CLE math for my 2nd & 3rd grader was great. I loved it, they thought it was fine and they learned quite a bit. 

Oak Meadow 6 was a win. I was initially apprehensive about it, but it has been a perfect fit. I have spent so much time and money on curriculum for this particular child and it was so refreshing to have a smooth year.

I think the real win was me not over buying and over planning. I have to keep reminding myself how nice keeping it simple was this year as I plan out next year. 

[Momto6inIN]

W&R was a big hit for my 5th grader who is a natural writer. She loved the stories and the background info and the challenge to write the same thing in different "copious" ways.

9th grader loved her online biology course from Berean Builders and discovered that she loves plants and might want to make them a career someday. Win!!!

[Momof4sweetkids]

For 5yo DD, AAR has been awesome.

For my preschooler, See Hear Do has been a fun way to learn letter sounds. And somehow the almost 2 year old has picked up on some of them. They love the hand motions!

[wisdomandtreasures]

It's not a "curriculum" but the book "Write Something Every Day" actually has my oldest child writing! After 4 years of butting heads trying to get him to do CM written narrations on his school reading, he is writing more and without a fight! Hallelujah!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/195665500X?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

[domestic_engineer]

17 minutes ago, wisdomandtreasures said:

It's not a "curriculum" but the book "Write Something Every Day" actually has my oldest child writing! After 4 years of butting heads trying to get him to do CM written narrations on his school reading, he is writing more and without a fight! Hallelujah!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/195665500X?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

Is this a consumable?  (I assume with 563 pages that it is.). Are there more than 1 prompts on a page?

Never mind.  I should have researched before asking rather than the other way around.  For others, here's a longer sample than Amazon has:  https://homesteadontherangesite.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/write-something-every-day-sample.pdf

Thanks for sharing this new-to-me resource.

Edited May 10, 2023 by domestic_engineer

[umsami]

We loved BookShark Level F (reading and history)--but not so much their science. He was not a broad reader before, but loved all of the books.  We will be doing G next year.

My kid also did a Rube Goldberg science class in person that he loved which involved building stuff with Legos, pulleys, and the like. 

BraveWriter 101 was actually a really great experience for my reluctant writer, too. We just did it near the end of the year and I had my doubts, but bit the bullet. The encouraging feedback of his teacher meant the world to this kid. I realized that maybe I focus too much on grammar and construction early on and this inhibits him more. We're trying a WTM Academy Exposition I class next year. Hoping it goes as well. 

[amiesmom]

Science Mom Bio 1&2 were a huge hit for my 7th grader! We will do Physics with her next year and my rising 5th grader will do her Earth Science. 

Math With Confidence (pilot testing) has continued to be a great fit for us.

[Nm.]

Tgtb math…only done 3 days so far but no tears, and they’ve learned so much! 

[Shoeless]

Foerster's Algebra and Killgallon sentence composing. I am surprised at how well Killgallon is working for DS14. I kind of want to ditch Writing and Rhetoric because we are making so much progress with Killgallon. 

[keirin]

I've been quite happy with EPS's The Paragraph series this year for my sixth grader's writing.

I'm still quite happy with Evan Moor's Daily Science workbook as a spine for my 2nd grader. This was our second year with this product. I also use Mystery Science, library books, and kits from homeschool science tools to supplement the workbook.

Geoguessr! We didn't end up doing much formal geography but this fun 5 minute a day website helped keep us working on geography during morning time anyway.

[A.M.]

Math Mammoth - we are using 4 and 7, and enjoying them very much.

Mcguffey Readers - we love using them for many LA activities: elocution, reading, narration, dictation, and grammar. 

Edited May 29, 2023 by A.M.
typo

[Porridge]

On 5/27/2023 at 11:51 PM, Shoeless said:

Foerster's Algebra and Killgallon sentence composing. I am surprised at how well Killgallon is working for DS14. I kind of want to ditch Writing and Rhetoric because we are making so much progress with Killgallon. 

How are you implementing killgallon? 

[Shoeless]

2 minutes ago, Porridge said:

How are you implementing killgallon? 

We are still in the Middle school sentence book There are 33 activities in the book, and DS does 2 or 3 per week. He does take some time off between sections; sometimes he has the bug to write, and other times he does not. 

I read over his work and haven't been harsh about correcting. Basically, it's pass/fail. He has a solid grasp of grammar and spelling. Sometimes he has a simile that doesn't exactly work, but I am not being a stickler about it at this point. 

Once sentences is complete, we will start paragraphs. I anticipate having both books complete by labor day.

[mathmarm]

Spelling by Sound and Structure
SRAs Reasoning and Writing
DK's World Atlas History
Extreme Use of our Library Cards
Runkles Geography

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by mathmarm

[Elizabeth86]

Lantern English writing because I am terrified of writing. It has been the perfect fit for ds and me.

[Kezia]

TGTB constitution study, AoPS and Philosophy for Kids were his favorites. 
 

I always enjoy R&S English. He can’t say he likes it, but it gets the job done. 

[Nm.]

Oh yes R&S English here too.  I personally loved math mammoth but all mine are sick of it.  Perhaps after a summer break they’ll be ready to start again.

[chiguirre]

ELL nephew and I have really clicked with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Journeys ELA curriculum. It's everything homeschoolers usually hate about public school reading instruction: short stories, worksheets and somewhat random spelling and grammar instruction. But, it's worked really well as a base for working on his English issues in an open and go format because I didn't have a lot of time to plan. I can eliminate stuff that will be too challenging without him even noticing (he's a perfectionist and would be offended if he knew I dump stuff I think will be too frustrating.) The fill-in-the-blank worksheets are great tools for expanding his vocabulary bit by bit since they tend to spiral words with the reading. All in all, it's surprisingly useful as a base for 3rd grade ELA.

[fostermom]

We just started it, but Beast Academy level 1 for my almost 6 yo math and puzzles lover has been so much fun. He was very upset the other day when I told him it was time to stop Beast Academy and get ready for swim class (and he loves swim class). We are still doing Singapore Math but I am seriously considering just using Beast Academy (have to do research on that).

Jot it Down by Brave Writer is a favorite of mine. 5 yo is still not the biggest fan of writing or reading fiction but we are having fun creating stories together. He is so creative, just not ready to do extensive handwriting and that is totally ok.

9 yo loves all the board games. Some of them have math practice in it even though she doesn't realise it so it counts as homeschool in my book. Cover your assets gets pretty serious around here. She told me she likes mystery stories so I've been reading the Enola Holmes book aloud and it became a whole house affair (even my husband wants to know what happens). Once we finish the first book (almost there) we'll have a fun movie night with ice cream (It's on netflix).

12 yo found my copy of The History of the Ancient World (the adult version of SOTW) and has been reading it by herself so that's certainly a favorite. She is also reading Gilgamesh because of it. Thanks to Percy Jackson she is very motivated to learn history. I had no plans of doing it but she did it by herself so of course I've been encouraging it.

[2_girls_mommy]

 

For my 3rd grade homeschooler I used Prima Latina and taught it at her homeschool co-op.  I really enjoyed teaching it with them.  I think the first time I taught PL in a co-op many moons ago, I didn't think there was enough material to fill up a class period and to make it interesting, but I have more class experience these days, and I had a lot of fun with it.  We are still doing it in our house with a couple of the families now that co-op is finished for the year because the girls are enjoying it. 

Edited July 18, 2023 by 2_girls_mommy

[happypamama]

Getting Started With Latin is still my old favorite.  Five kids, and the poets still never carry writing tablets!

 

I finally have a kid who does well with AOPS!  

 

What worked super well for us this year was the world geography tour I put together, loosely using Trail Guide to World Geography.  We did the questions together, using a tablet map app, and we looked at pics of animals and monuments online and from the Smithsonian Man-Made Wonders book (gorgeous).  We also read pages from What I Eat (this was my kids' favorite), and I spent a lot of hours last summer putting together a Spotify playlist of songs to represent many countries.  We took our time meandering around the first part of the world and will finish Africa, Asia, and Oceania (and Antarctica) last year. . . It was so much fun.

I personally liked the Killgallon sentence composing books, though the kids are not huge fans, but they tolerate them.

 

I discovered Gizmos virtual demonstrations from Explore Learning, and while I have not used them with the kids yet, wowwww, they are cool!  I might actually have liked science in school if we'd had these.  I'm so completely psyched to enhance our science studies with these next year.

Edited June 5, 2023 by happypamama

[SilverMoon]

I asked the kids what worked well and what didn't. More of a rose and thorn for the year instead of their favorite subject. 

The dysgraphic kid said Megawords spelling. He still doesn't like spelling, but MW makes it seem like something he can actually learn. 

The highschooler said the Holt algebra textbook by Burger (the Thinkwell teacher) with nearly the same response. He still doesn't like math but that book teaches in a way he can succeed. 

[Mona]

I can’t say I have a favorite, but after reading SilverMoon’s post, I remembered the evaluator asked ds what his favorite was, and he said he liked Editor in Chief. EIC tells you what kind of mistakes and how many of each are in the paragraph, and you have to correct it. Before that, I know he said ETC was another one he enjoyed doing.

Visualize World Geography went over really well, too. I had that from when I taught my older children and everyone enjoys the silly stories and learns geography quickly.