Please share!
Like most homeschoolers, I absolutely love homeschool curriculum. I think that’s why I have enjoyed being the Schoolhouse Review Crew for the past 3 years!
Today, I thought I would share some of our very favorite homeschool curriculum from our favorite companies and most of what we’ll be using this coming year. Most of these products we already have experience with and love. Ben is entering his first year of middle school — grade 6.
Bible and Apologetics
Who Am I? And What Am I Doing Here? is the second book in the series, What We Believe, from Apologia. Last year, Ben and I worked through the first book, Who Is God? And Can I Really Know Him? We absolutely love this Apologetics curriculum. If you wish to lay a foundation for your home and homeschool, based on Biblical Principles, this series is a great first step. You can read my reviews of this book, as well as the third book in the series, Who Is My Neighbor? And Why Does He Need Me?
Notebooking Resources
NotebookingPages.com is my very favorite company for notebooking pages. They have everything you can imagine. I could go through and share some of my favorite sets, like the American Presidents, U.S. States, or the beautiful nature study pages, but honestly, just buy the Treasury. It gets you everything on the site for a year, and you won’t regret it. I know I haven’t!
Unit Studies
Unit Studies by Amanda Bennett. We love all things Amanda Bennett, but this Elections Unit Study Adventure has been one of our favorites. Like all of the Unit Study Adventure titles, this one will took us through 4 weeks of learning. Some of our other favorites include American Government, Horses, Space, and Oceans. We’re also looking forward to using several of the new Passport Geography series. We have already purchased United Kingdom and Ben has also requested Germany. All of these unit studies are written at 2 levels to cover both elementary and middle/high school, so you can use them with all of your students at once.
Time Traveler’s Civil War. We have only scratched this surface with this History unit study/lapbook this summer (things have just not gone as planned for our summer studies), but I absolutely love this product. There are so many games, activities, and of course lapbooking to keep you busy for 6-10 weeks. We won’t finish it this summer, but we get back to it something in the coming school year. By the way, this company also sells the best figures for timelines!
Nature Study
We love nature studies at our house, and our very favorite company for nature studies is NaturExplorers from Shining Dawn Books. We have enjoyed several titles from this company, but I would have to say our very favorite was (surprisingly) Everchanging Erosion! Looking for signs of weathering and erosion put a brand new spin on our nature walks. What boy doesn’t love dirt and mud, right? These nature unit studies are chock-full of all kinds of hands-on activities and ideas for nature walks. Some others that we have loved include, Wonderful Wildflowers, Beautiful Birds, and Incredible Creeks. Ben hasn’t decided which of these units to do this year, but we’ll complete at least 2.
Science
Christian Kids Explore Biology was a review item from last year. We worked in it just long enough to know we loved it and then we tucked it away to use this coming year . Even though our unit studies usually cover quite a bit of science, there can never be too much in our homeschool. We also have Christian Kids Explore Chemistry and I’m guessing the way Ben loves science, we may actually complete both books this year!
Math
Life of Fred. We’ve used and reviewed many, many math programs over the past 3 years. From textbooks to online math games, we’ve seen it all. And Ben has tolerated a lot for the sake of math, even though he really does not enjoy the subject at all. The ONLY math program we have ever used that he actually enjoys, the the point of taking the books to bed with him to read, is Life of Fred. So despite all of the FREE subscriptions, ebooks, and physcial math books we have floating around, I will still purchase Life of Fred Fractions and Decimals and Percents for the coming year. Thankfully, it is very reasonably priced!
Foreign Language
Spanish for Children is a program I have virtually no experience with. But I have reviewed other curricula from this company, Classical Academic Press, and have been exceedingly impressed with the products they publish. I love that it is DVD driven, with a workbook as well, covering all the bases. I have no doubt Ben will have success with this program for the coming year.
Wonderful Extras
SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a relatively new subscription membership program. Many expert teachers bring monthly, weekly, and daily lesson plan in their chosen subject. We have had so much fun with this for the past few months and will continue adding ideas from these expert teachers to our days.
Apps
I can’t publish this list without sharing some of our favorite iPad apps. There are several we use frequently for homeschooling. Some very valuable additions to our day that I wouldn’t want you to miss. Not all would be considered “curriculum,” but at the very least, they add to the curriculum we are using. I’ll just list a few here, but my entire list of favorite apps can be found here.
Final Thoughts
You’ll notice a big gap in Language Arts curriculum here. There are 2 reasons for that. We have a couple of programs we’re trying out — Create Better Writers and IEW. I’m not sure yet if we’ll continue with one, both, or neither for writing. For spelling, grammar, and vocabulary, I use Charlotte Mason’s methods for teaching this subjects, and just work from our unit studies or literature for these subjects. You can learn more about Charlotte Mason over at Simply Charlotte Mason.
What are some of your favorite homeschool curriculum choices for middle school?
Please share!
