Our Homeschool Favorites
We are currently in our 5th year of homeschooling. During these years we have tried different strategies, curriculum, learning styles, and resources. We’ve tried all-in-one curriculums with a schedule to follow, Charlotte Mason approach, classical approach, unit studies and project based learning, online classes, and unschooling, as well as roadschooling.
I have borrowed or purchased many resources and curriculum – some of which are great but most we didn’t finish. Now as we’re nearing the end of the elementary years, I realize how true it is that kids are natural learners and they do not have to follow a specific learning path, sit down to learn, or even need to learn specific things by a specific age. When we choose how to learn, the act of learning becomes enlivening.
This ‘favorites’ list is a compilation of the resources we used for many years and mostly still use today.
With this in mind, how do we homeschool now? In general, we choose topics that are interesting to us and learn about them! I get ideas about what to study based on the curriculum below, a badge Elodie wants to earn, or any other question she has. Since we also travel often much of our learning has to do with where we are and the museums/parks we visit. Elodie uses a math curriculum and we focus many of our learning ‘projects’ on writing and speaking/discussions. Sometimes we’ll do projects, such as lapbooks or videos, to record her learning (and because it’s fun to look back on them!).
Learn more about Our 5th Grade Homeschool here.
Resources that are useful for many years
Mystery science – Mystery Science is a collection of science topics for K-6. Each unit focuses on a specific topic and includes videos, thoughtful questions to discuss, and hands-on activities.
Junior Ranger programs – Every National Park, National Historic Site, and even some state historical parks have Junior Ranger programs. Each location has a booklet of activities that help you understand the history, geology, biology and/or people of the area, and when it’s complete you get a badge. Elodie has learned so much more by using these booklets because they encourage her to read the signage, attend the lectures, and ask the rangers questions.
Layers of Learning (LOL), Build your Library (BYL) – I’ve bought a few different curriculum over the years to help me implement consistent learning days – most we don’t finish because they had too much busy work and unnecessary projects. However, these are two curriculum that very helpful for topic sequences, great living book lists, and project ideas. BYL is more structured as it gives you a schedule of what to do each day, however I use it more for a sequence to follow, book ideas, and projects to expand learning.
I used LOL in the early years of homeschooling and I found it very overwhelming, however now that I’m much more comfortable with our daily rhythms and learning style, I highly appreciate the LOL format. Each unit comes with a long list of living books, many subtopics within the main idea, and then a long list of project ideas to engage with what we’re learning. I like that it gives us many topic ideas to dive in to, and Elodie likes to choose the topics and projects that catch her interest.
Curiosity Untamed – Curiosity Untamed is somewhat like Girl Scouts in that you earn badges in different areas, yet its more expansive as well. There are over 1000 badges that members can earn in topics ranging from art, science and tech, and outdoors, to world knowledge, history, home ec, and more. There are groups that complete the badges together (similar to Girl Scouts) or, as in our case, you can do them individually. We use this program as a way to learn about many different things that we wouldn’t have even thought of learning about! For example, Elodie explored Maedup (Korean knots), mythology, history of our flag, origami, first aid, and many more.
This week she’s completing the Peanut Butter badge, which at first glance might not seem important, but these are the topics explored — history of peanuts in the US, George Washington Carver’s life and role in popularizing peanut farming and use, nutrition of fat and protein, baking with peanuts/nut butter, geography of where they’re grown around the world, how peanut butter is made on a large scale, current events of why peanuts are a problem in tropical climates. I would have never thought to explore all of these topics, but now we’ll both learn so much more…and we’ll get some home baked peanut butter treats too. 🙂
Beast Academy – Math is the one area I had no interest in teaching beyond basic counting, so I had to find a good program that we could use for many years. Beast Academy is perfect. It’s a rigorous math program that uses graphic novel-style “texts” and mildly gamified learning. By ‘mildly’ I mean that it looks colorful and engaging like a game, there are cute monster characters as the teachers and students, and as you complete activities you earn coins that can be used to create your monster avatar. However, this is not like a video games that ‘hides’ the learning within playing a game – the lessons are quite challenging. The program encourages mental math and using the math topic in a variety of abstract ways beyond rote math problems.
Evan-Moor Writing workbooks – Teaching how to write is difficult, especially since I don’t feel like a confident writer. After a few different curriculum, the evan-moor books have become my go-to. For each grade, they approach writing by starting with crafting strong sentences, then move on to paragraphs, then eventually longer pieces of writing in different genres. The layout is easy to follow and it is easy to apply the lesson to our own learning, so Elodie can write about what is relevant to her.
Books
This is a list of our favorite “learning” books that we’ve used specifically for introducing or understanding a topic. It does not include the many, many pictures books, chapter books, and novels we’ve read (another list will be coming soon!)
Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne – Between first and third grade, we read almost every one of these! The series follows siblings Jack and Annie on their adventures back in time to solve a mission, meet real historical characters, and get back to modern time without getting caught. They are fun as a read aloud, but the simple writing is perfect for young readers too.
While the series is historical fiction, which mixes a real time period and events with real and/or fictional characters, the Fact-Checkers series helps distinguish between the fact and fiction. Many of the Magic Tree House books have a corresponding Fact-Checker book that answers all the questions that arise about the real events in the story. For example, we dove into topics such as dinosaurs, knights, Ancient Egypt, ice age animals, pirates (and so much more) by first reading the story then using the fact-checker book to learn more.
Folk tales and mythology books (so many to choose from!) – Elodie loves reading mythology and about mythical creatures. At library sales and used book stores we’ve picked up dozens of mythology books specific to certain countries or cultures, and she has also enjoyed the colorful compilations (pictured above). Elodie reads these for fun, but we also use them when we study individual countries – it’s a fun way to learn more about the history and culture of a place.
DK Visual Encyclopedias – These are beautiful encyclopedias that have clear, easy to browse layouts. Some encyclopedias have too much info with pages that are packed with little paragraphs, multiple boxes of info, tiny detailed photos, but these are different. These are so enjoyable to look at and have just the right amount of information to introduce a topic with some details, but also gives us the starting point to dive further into the areas of interest.
Who Was? Series (including Where Is?, What Was? series) – These books profile a significant person, place, or event throughout history or modern times with the perfect amount of detail for elementary age. Each book focuses on one person, place, or event, bringing history alive and making it relevant for kids. We occasionally use them as read-alouds, but mostly Elodie reads them on her own within an hour or two (so, they’re easy to read for 4th-5th grade) and then we discuss them. We’ve used these as stand-alone biographies, as part of the Curiosity Untamed badges (described above), or as a way to dive deeper into a topic we’re learning about (such as prominent people from the American Revolution).
Usborne Encyclopedia’s (the newer ones with a more open format): General encyclopedia, World History, World Religions – Similar to the DK Encyclopedias, these have an more open, uncluttered layout that allows the photos and information to be easily enjoyed. Each entry has additional internet links, such as videos or webpages with additional information.
Additional resources
Everand – A huge collection on ebooks, audiobooks, podcasts, magazines, and more. (Get 60 days free with my affiliate link!)
Kern County travel museum membership – This membership gets 2 adults and up to 6 kids into tons of museums around the country that are part of the reciprocities – NARM (many types of museums), ASTC (Science Museums), ACM (Children’s Museums). Anyone can purchase this membership – you do not need to live in California, near this museum. This membership has been indispensable! We have visited dozens of museums around the country, including many smaller museums that we wouldn’t have found without this the reciprocity programs.
YouTube (of course) – We use YouTube almost daily for everything from quick questions to history docs to Minecraft shows.
Resources for MOM
The Brave Learner – Anything that your child is interested in can be used to learn about a wide range of topics..and anything can be a worthwhile topic to study (yes, even video games). This books shares many ideas about how to make learning relevant and interesting for your child, as well as fun ideas about how to make learning a lifestyle instead of a chore.
Home Learning Year by Year – I have referenced this book every year since Kindergarten. The book outlines learning expectations for each grade and is filled with ideas for topics, books, resources, and projects. I appreciate having a general guideline of what to focus on each year – I love learning alongside Elodie, yet it can be overwhelming to figure out what to learn about next! There are SO MANY interesting topics to learn about and SO MANY resources – this book helps me narrow down ideas to frame our general plans for the year.
Honey for a Child’s Heart – There are so many books out there. So many are great…and there is so much junk. When we go to a library, it is overwhelming to choose a new book to read! This book helps me find quality books from recent authors as well as classics. The titles include everything from board books for toddlers, pictures books, early readers, to novels for older elementary and middle schoolers. I wish I purchased this resource earlier!
