Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2024-2025

I'm down to the final three kids at home. It's my seventeenth year of homeschooling, and with two kids in high school and one in middle school, I feel nearly obsolete. They may all be fairly self-sufficient, but they still need me—just in less acute ways. And isn't that the goal? Homeschool mothers should always aim to work their way out of a job. 

Here's a peek at how I'll still be involved in their day-to-day learning.

Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2023-2024

In just a few weeks, I'll be starting my final year with my final four. By the end of the 2023-2024 school year, my eldest son will be launching out into the world, my daughter will still be away at college, and I'll only have my three youngest at home.

Not surprisingly, I'm acutely aware that my days with a houseful of children are numbered. Here is a peek at what the boys will be learning together this year.

Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2022-2023

As my kids each tiptoe towards the teen years, we spend less and less time learning as a group in order that they can each have more time exploring their own passions in the school day and beyond.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is as it should be. Deep, layered work requires that each individual be given time to pursue their own interests. When they were younger, we were sampling and surveying topics together. Now in their teens, my oldest three kids need even more space and time to chase a few specific things that they are most interested in. And the younger two aren't too far behind.

Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2020-2021

Curriculum planning is normally the perfect preamble to the lovely year ahead. I head to my local homeschool convention and spend hours slowly sauntering through the vendor hall. I always go with a tentative shopping list in hand, but usually leave with several fun extras that were not originally on it. 

There's just something about getting to see, touch, and flip through curricula that can't be replicated by looking through a catalog or shopping online.

Top Faith-Building Christmas Gifts for Kids

In our house, we call them Myrrh gifts.
If you know the history of myrrh--its purpose and value in the ancient world--you know exactly why we've chosen this name.

Myrrh is fragrant. It's medicinal. In fact, it was myrrh that was mixed with vinegar and offered up to Jesus while he was being crucified. Today, myrrh can be found in most antiseptics and healing salves.

Like most Biblical oils, it's currently high on the price list of most MLM essential oil companies, and for good reason. From before Christ to the present day, there's always been quite a social demand for its healing properties.

Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2019-2020

With a curriculum shopping list firmly in hand, I scoured the shelves of my state homeschool convention determined to find great books at great prices! I'm fairly certain that I lugged home my body weight in GOOD READS...but that's between me and my chiropractor.

Our homeschool has always been defined by learning-a-la-carte. We are eclectic and refuse to be boxed in by any one method or mantra. Naturally, my curriculum choices for 2019-2020 reflect my pieced-together style.

In the upcoming school year, I'll have one child taking college classes for dual credit, two kids in junior high, and two in elementary.

My homeschool planner is heavy with my big plans! No doubt, it will be a full year.

Homeschool Curriculum 2018-2019

Like a shock of cold water, my 11th year of homeschooling (12th, if you count preschool) has awakened some renewed excitement in my bones. We're trying a few new things this year and returning to a few very old things. Like a 1990s DJ wearing neon colored Zuba pants, I'll be mixin' it up come fall. (Only without the neon colored Zuba pants because let's face it, those weren't flattering on the 13-year-old me, let alone the 38-year-old me.)

10 Faith-Building Christmas Gifts for Kids

"Mom, I know what I want for Christmas," my daughter proclaimed one afternoon.

"Oh yea," I said.  "What's that?"

"A leather-bound Bible," came her eager reply. "I know I already have a Bible, but it's beginning to fall apart and I'd really like a leather one."

And while this is not the typical wish list of most nine-year-old girls, it's not surprising that a new Bible is only one of three items my daughter has added to hers.  

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3 Simple Tools for Family Scripture Memory

When faced with the task of choosing a new independent project for the month, my Sweetie Pea didn't even hesitate with her answer.

"I want to memorize a chapter of the Bible," she said with emphasis.

As a family, we have made Scripture memory a priority.  From the time she was two and could babble out a few basic words, my darlin' girl has been "hiding" God's Word in her heart.  But, to challenge herself to memorize an entire chapter without the accountability and partnership of the family, was a new endeavor. (This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for full details.)

As of today, she has all but one verse of her chosen passage set to memory and looks forward to reciting it for us at the end of the month.

Small Tweaks to Our 2013-2014 Curriculum

Although I toil for months each summer to put together the "perfect" curriculum plan for my school year, rarely does my plan remain un-edited once fall arrives.  I think it is always a good idea to evaluate the success and use-ability of my chosen curriculum a few weeks into the school year.  By the end of September, I use a few key questions to assess the materials I've purchased/borrowed and make adjustments accordingly.  (This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for full details.)

This year, after sensing a definite deficiency in my PLAN, I added in two new elements to our 2013-2014 curriculum.  

Devotional Resources for 2013

Back in September, I shared my curriculum plans for the 2012-2013 school year, including the devotional/Bible books that my children would be reading through every morning. But, then came Christmas with its gift of Myrrh and many of our devotional plans were changed.

Family Devotions: God's Names

You probably know him as God, I AM who I AM.  But do you also know He is El Roi, the God who sees; El Shaddai, God Almighty; El Elyon, The Most High?  In fact, God is so great that it takes over 700 names to TRY to contain all that He is.  

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For the past few months, for our family devotions/Bible time, we have been reading through a book I learned about from Average Housewife.  God's Names by Sally Michael is an exceptionally well-written look at 24 key names of God.  Although it is a children's book, it is packed with spiritual truths for any age.  

Each chapter introduces one name of I AM, references a story in the Bible that helps to explain that name, and ends with a few discussion/reflection questions and a short activity.  

In addition to practicing our weekly verse from our Well Versed Kids pack, each night at the dinner table, we read half of a chapter of God's Names and briefly discuss how this name of God applies in our own lives.  It is my desire that as my children begin to learn these names and titles of the Living God, they will each be able to see Him as ALL IN ALL...everything they need.

Before we began this particular study, I made a simple drawing of a burning bush with Exodus 3:14a written across it and hung it in our entryway.  I also cut out a handful of leaves on various patterns of green scrapbook paper.

Every two or three days when a chapter is completed, one of the kids gets to pick a green leaf, write the name of God featured in that chapter, and attach it to the bush.  Since we are almost done with the book, our bush is quite covered with Names.  I am hoping that by the end of this study together, our hearts and minds will be too!

We have enjoyed the book so much, that we probably read the sequel, God's Promises, in the months to come.

*We do not do an official Bible Time during the school day.  Instead, we start each day with personal devotions and anxiously await dinner time when we can study the Word as a family.

Personal Devotions for Kids

Ever since Sweetie Pea was a little baby, we have sought to make time in God's Word as a family a daily priority.  At times we have been more faithful and consistent than others. For the most part, our nightly family devotions have consisted of readings from simple Bible Story books or children's Bibles.  The Hubs typically gathers all of us just before the kid's bedtime to read and share a few thoughts.

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In addition to that time together, for the last four years, I have also included a short Bible time in the morning at the start of the school day. This time is just between the kids and me and includes some fun Sunday-school type songs, the introduction of a classic hymn every now and then to pass on the songs of our faith heritage, a weekly Bible verse that we try to set to memory, and a Bible themed story...NOT a Bible story.  I have determined NOT to read an actual story straight out of the Bible because I don't want to steal the thunder from our family devotions with dad.  I want to keep THAT nighly time as unique as possible to create a level of anticipation and appreciation for it.

Over the years during our morning Bible time readings we have shared missionary stories, life application type stories, and church history stories.  We are currently working our way through The Children's Encyclopedia of Bible Books by Mark Water, a book of simple historical facts of each Bible book including info on authors, key passages, Israelite tradition, and main characters.

Although I really enjoy our time together every morning.  I realize that a "group" devotion does very little to promote the "personal" part in a relationship with Christ and a love for His Word.  I was challenged to read Scripture at a relatively early age, and because the habit was formed early, I find it easier as an adult to be dedicated to spending time each day in solitude with the Lord. The Psalmist David, certainly, found great worth in seeking time with God EARLY in the morning when he penned Psalm 63:1.

You, God, are my God,
    earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
    my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
    where there is no water.

So a little over a year ago, the kids and I took our first tiny baby steps into developing a morning "quiet time" habit.  Now, some might say that REQUIRING my children to sit down and begin meditating on Scripture is legalistic and going against the principles of the "personal desire" that I am seeking to create within them. But, I would argue that a "love" or "desire" can not begin to grow until they each begin to get to know who God is by personally seeking Him in Scripture. Also, I find great value in the firm establishment of a few spiritual disciplines...like daily quiet time with God.

I think it is better to show a child HOW to think, not WHAT to think. I find great comfort in knowing that as my children's faiths are nurtured during their nightly time with dad and as that faith begins to grow as they earnestly begin to seek God on their own every morning, THE WORD WILL NOT RETURN VOID. He who seeks...shall find. I do not have to be their morning-time Holy Spirit and ensure that they are gleaning perfect application. I truly believe, that just as the Holy Spirit can use Scripture to convict and encourage me, He can do the same for my two older ones who have both professed a saving knowledge of God.

So, our morning time together has evolved to include some personal devotion time for ALL the children.  We still have our "together" time to sing, learn a verse, and read a short passage from our Encyclopedia.  But then, we each split up to have some quiet time by ourselves.

Blonde Warrior and Greased Lightning join me to read a Bible story together from a preschool Bible. (Typically our nightly devotions are a little over their heads, so I thought this might be a nice time to read some of the stories that Sweetie Pea and Super Boy read when they were preschoolers.)  Super Boy reads a story from his Hear Me Read Bible, an emergent reader style Bible.  Sweetie Pea either reads a chapter or two from her Bible or a selection from God and Me: Devotions for Girls or What the Bible is All About: Bible Handbook for Kids.  I let her choose.

The little boys and I usually finish much earlier than the two big kids.  So once we are finished reading together, I often set them at the table with a Bible Story coloring book, so that a certain level of "quiet" can be maintained for Sweetie Pea and Super Boy...emphasis on "certain level."

When I went looking for resources for the kids, I had a difficult time finding studies that were not geared to public school children.  For the most part, most of the life application stories included in kid's devotionals did not apply to my kids because they were not in a classroom situation with a group of their peers.  So far, I've been pleased with the books that the Hubs and I ended up choosing. In addition to those I have already mentioned, here are some more great resources for child-friendly devotions:

Jesus in the Spotlight (This is just one in a GREAT inductive study for 8-12 year olds by Kay Arthur.)
Gotta Have God: Cool Devotions for Boys (This is the boys version of the series that Sweetie Pea is currently working through.  Each book is geared for a specific age group starting with 2-5 year olds.)
The One Year Devotions for Preschoolers (This would need to be read aloud by an adult.)

(Just a thought:  If you have non-readers but do not have the time to read an EXTRA Bible story each day, you can always have he/she just look through the pictures of a preschool Bible while you or your older kids are busy with your own devotions.  This way, you are at least establishing the habit of a PERSONAL time with God.)

Obviously, this relatively new Bible-time endeavor takes up a larger chunk of our day than our old Bible time routine. But I am certain, that what we sow each morning, we will reap for eternity.