Our Curriculum Picks for 2020

Our homeschool curriculum and book choices for three elementary age children, a preschooler, and a toddler too! Plus, even more tips and tricks from an experienced homeschool family. 

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After researching and reading and discussing options with friends for weeks, I’ve finalized my curriculum plans for next year!! For some homeschool moms, this is an incredibly exciting ritual each summer, and for others it’s pretty much just stressful and anxiety-inducing.

I’m somewhere in the middle. 

I’ve done both the buy-the-all-in-one-curriculum-and-be-done approach, and the piece-together-all-the-subjects-individually approach before too. They both have their places. When I was just starting out with homeschooling for the first time, an all-in-one curriculum (My Father’s World) was exactly what I needed. And, a few years later, when we were entering a potentially stressful and very new season of life, a curriculum that laid out all the plans for an entire year for my different aged kids (A Gentle Feast) was an answer to prayer. 

However, I rarely completely stick to an all-in-one curriculum, and am usually ready to spend a little more time hand-selecting each component the following summer.

For the last two years, I’ve had the huge blessing of being able to attend a “curriculum night” with friends, where we all bring our favorite curriculums and resources so that we can flip through the books and ask opinions from moms who have used the curriculum themselves.

I understand that this is a rare opportunity, so I shared a “curriculum night” overview, as well as shared a few more of my personal favorites on Instagram. You can find it all in my HS Curriculum highlights (there are two) on my Instagram profile.

All this to say, after a lot of discussion and deliberation, I pieced together what we will be studying this year and I’m so excited! 

If you are new to homeschooling, this list could give you some ideas, but the last thing I would want to do is overwhelm someone. Don’t underestimate the value of an all-in-one curriculum to give you guidance, a framework, and support as you start out. Just go ahead and close out this page if it starts being too much. My goal is simply to share what one way (out of soooo many) to plan piece by piece for multiple ages of children.

Additional Homeschooling Resources and Ideas :: 

I’ve written a lot about homeschooling over the years, from our favorite resources, to how I organize all our supplies without a dedicated homeschool room, to free printables, and more. Whether you’re new to homeschooling or entering your tenth year, there are fresh ideas here for everyone.

Before I get to the list, I have one more help to share. I will be participating in an online homeschool “open house” along with many other amazing homeschool moms– three days of hearing from experts on how to make homeschooling fit your family, plus a live Q&A on the last day. View the speakers, topics, and details, then sign up (for less than $10!) here. 

Our Curriculum Picks for 2020

This list might look overwhelming, or you may think we’re leaving something important off. Three important things to remember:

  • Everyone’s curriculum choices are made to fit their own families. I’ve put together this list knowing our family’s current interests and capacities.
  • We won’t necessarily read/finish everything on this list. We will definitely read more books than this and listen to additional audiobooks.
  • I’m not going into any “how’s” in this post. This is only what we are doing. I will be talking more about rhythms, teaching with toddlers, and more in the open house. I also share frequently about homeschooling on Instagram.

Morning Time: 

HABIT TRAINING + ARTIST STUDY + POETRY + BIBLE LESSONS + SHAKESPEARE + READ ALOUDS

For the 2-Year-Old: 

For the Preschooler:

For the First Grader: 

For the Third Grader:

For the Fifth Grader: 

Family Science:

FALL :: Farm & Garden Life Science

SPRING :: Ocean & Shores

Early American History:

FALL :: American 1700’s

This first “semester” we will be focusing briefly on colony life, the Revolutionary War, and then the U.S. government and constitution around the time of the presidential election. I used the Gentle Feast book list for Cycle 2, and bought the teacher guide from Beautiful Feet Books for the intermediate Early American History study.

{Living History Texts: This Country of Ours, A Young People’s History of the U.S., A Child’s First Book of American History. We will read parts of these texts as they apply to the period we are studying.}

SPRING :: Post Revolutionary War || Early American Life

That’s it! Now I’d love to hear from you. Are you homeschooling this year? Do you have your curriculum selected? What is one of your favorite resources? 

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Our homeschool curriculum and book choices for three elementary age children, a preschooler, and a toddler too! Plus, even more tips and tricks from an experienced homeschool family. 

3 Comments

  1. Pingback: Best Kids' Book Authors - This Pilgrim Life

  2. Thank you for sharing this! I have always sent my kids to public school but love to get ideas for supplementing in summers. We sound a lot alike…would love to teach so much of this to my kiddos. Great job, Momma!

    Reply

  3. You have picked so many of the same choices I have picked or have been looking into! I’d love to hear more about how you like A Child’s First Book of American History. It’s caught my eye!

    Reply

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