Homeschooling four kids is no joke – and that’s what I’m up to this year (granted, the toddler isn’t really “schooling” so much as being kept busy so the others can get their work done…). The last few years we prioritized mental health and social-emotional learning, and I feel like it’s paid off. This year, I decided to up our game by choosing to use a pre-made secular homeschool curriculum.
Here’s what we’re using this year for our homeschooling. This year, we’ll have a 2-year-old “tot-schooler,” a 1st grader, 2nd grader, and 4th grader. So far, I’m really really happy with our choices and feel like I finally have “curriculum peace.”
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Combining Torchlight and Build Your Library
In April, after a couple of years of fighting with planning my own curriculum, I decided to buy Build Your Library’s (BYL) Prehistory Unit Study. I liked that everything was nicely laid out, so I bought BYL Levels 0-4. In addition to looking at BYL, I’ve been eyeing Torchlight for years. I finally decided to go ahead and do it and I decided I would combine Torchlight(TL) with BYL, so I also purchased Torchlight Level K and Torchlight Level 1.
I decided I would combine the 1st and 2nd graders for BYL0/TLK and then have the 4th grader start with BYL1/TL1. I’ll post more details on how I combined two curricula into one year plan in another post, but so far it’s working really well and my kids are really enjoying things.
I wanted to combine the two programs because there are elements I really like in each. I almost also added Blossom & Root’s Nature Studies, but once I had everything in Excel, I realized it was plenty, and for these two levels, science is very nature study-like anyway.
So these cover literature, poetry, science, geography/history and culture and social studies, some writing and language arts, and some art and music. I also added in Pandia Press’s Real Science Odyssey Life 1 (they just came out with Biology Level 1 to replace this) where appropriate to round science out. To round art out, we’re doing Glitterbombers.
Math
After Singapore Dimensions Math not working well for my kids, I went back to Singapore Math Primary Math U.S. Edition. I liked this series best with my oldest and found that it also works really well with my younger kids. What I like best about this particular curriculum is that it doesn’t have too much repetition/busy work but if you need extra work or practice, there are plenty of ways to add that on through additional books.
I also like that there are home instructor manuals that show how to break things down – and that I still have these and the textbooks from my oldest, so all I’ve had to buy this year is new workbooks as each kiddo goes into the next book.
Language Arts
I like classics for the basics. We use Spelling Workout for Spelling and will do so again this year. It works, it’s phonics and then roots-based, and it clicks with my kids. I always only get the student workbooks for this. We’re also using Zaner-Bloser (just the student books) for penmanship.
For grammar, we’re using First Language Lessons. For writing, we’re doing Brave Writer. The 1st and 2nd Grader are doing “Jot it Down” and the 4th grader is doing “Partnership Writing.” The 1st grader will be doing the Quill program and the 2nd and 4th graders will be doing the Dart program.
My first grader is also continuing with All About Reading. The other two are already fluent readers and aren’t using a phonics program.
Languages
All three school-age kiddos chose to learn German this year using Duolingo. The 2nd and 4th graders have already started. The 1st grader will start when she’s reading a little better.
The 4th grader is also starting Memoria Press Charter‘s Grammar School Latin this year. A quick note: Memoria Press is not a secular publisher, but this version of their Latin curriculum is – and I’ve been hard-pressed to find something better for this age (my oldest used their Latin curriculum that wasn’t secular).
Conclusion
I’ve also planned for us to do some service projects, and my 4th grader is using Critical Thinking Company’s Building Thinking Skills book in addition to her other work. It promises to be a very full year, and I’m looking forward to sharing how things go for us with this year’s secular homeschool curriculum choices. I have managed to map everything out using Excel sheets, so I’m looking forward to sharing how I did that in another post soon.
