Whether you are teaching one child, four children, or more, selecting a homeschool curriculum can be a daunting task.
This year I am teaching three of my four kids. One in preschool, one in first grade, and one in third grade. All different levels and all needing my attention in some form or another. This makes homeschooling more than a full-time job! Not to mention my two-year-old, who requires my undivided attention as well.
In this article, I am going to share what curriculum works well when teaching multiple subjects and multiple children. So, take a deep breath, I’ll show you how I don’t go crazy teaching multiple levels!
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Advice starting out
Let’s start at the first level. Ok mama, everything you have been doing in your home up until they turn 4 or 5 is a valuable education. You are teaching them morals, values, Jesus, life skills, communication skills, music, physical education, language arts, reading, art, and so much more.
Believe it or not, you are already a homeschooling mama when you guide, teach, and shape your child’s day beginning in babyhood.
They learn language from you talking to them, melody from you singing lullabies, reading and art from endless kid books being read to them, and social skills by how you interact with them and those around them.
So why when they turn four or five do we stress about their education???
Comparison.
We are all guilty even before schooling age.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
Teddy Roosevelt
The Bible is likely where Teddy got his inspiration.
For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
2 Corinthians 10:12
Let that soak in and analyze your heart. Are you being robbed of joy by comparing yourself and your children to other families or your own unrealistic expectations?
Admittedly, I have been there. If you are currently there, please stop it. Instead, jump into joy within your family. Take the reigns and create opportunity by designing your goals for your family. What do you hope to achieve as you start a formal education with your child?
The only time you should be looking to other families is for inspiration. Not comparison!
I have been inspired heavily by my little sister who had four kids before I got pregnant with my first. Many of her methods and choices helped me to form my own. We homeschool differently and over time I have also inspired her curriculum choices. However, we are both wise enough to not compare our children to the others, but rather celebrate their successes and encourage one and other during their struggles.
Additionally, my dear friend I met in Colorado helped inspire my homeschool before she was even “formally” educating her children. She made me realize how much more I needed to get out of the house and do things with the kids away from the home. She doesn’t know how inspirational she was to me and how my methods grew because of how I saw her raising her kids.
Ask yourself these questions as you start to homeschool your pre-k or any age you start homeschooling your kids:
- How much thought did you put into every single day of teaching your child to grow and develop before starting a formal education?
- Do you want to ramp up your child’s education or integrate a large part of how you have been running the show into a “formal” education?
- Who inspires you and will encourage you in your homeschooling journey?
Remember, a baby isn’t born walking and talking. Don’t put that on yourself either when it comes to homeschooling your kiddos. Take baby steps and see what works well for you. Then grow and adapt!
If you are brand new to homeschooling, I highly encourage you to read my article How to start homeschooling. I share resources pertaining to legal, social, and teacher tools to help you start your journey with confidence!
If you need homeschooling encouragement, I have two great articles that can help! How to create a positive homeschool environment helps you set your routine and manage your day with all the other needs of the home. It will help inspire your routine and organization! Helpful homeschool quotes and encouragement will help those mamas that need an uplifting word to get them through the day or just brighten their spirits. There is a printable PDF that you can download and hang up on your walls if you are a more visual, words of affirmation girl like me!
Read our personal story about how we reversed tooth decay!
Prekindergarten Homeschool Curriculum
Preschool is a fun time to start really turning your focus to phonics! I teach all my kids the alphabet and the sounds the letters make before prekindergarten. In my opinion, reading and language is the most important subject outside of the Good News of Salvation through Christ alone. Not of works lest any man should boast! By the time my kids are ready to do seat work, they have already learned phonics basics, have colored many coloring books, and caught countless frogs!
With a four or five-year-old little human, prekindergarten is a baby step to learning in a different setting. I only spend at most 20 minutes of “formal teaching” time with these little learners. By this I mean, they are learning all day – every day, but I will have a purpose and a point for 20 minutes to teach a new concept or principle with their undivided attention. At this age it is phonics. I have written in detail how I teach phonics to my littles in How to start teaching phonics: easy as A-B-C.
Outside of this, they are most often found right next to their sibling as we are doing group lessons or watching over a sibling’s shoulder as they work out math problems. Observing and learning passively.
It is remarkable how much they learn passively at this age!
This age is fun with very little work and effort, so don’t over think it! For fun we add Bible memory verses for all the kids each week and my three and four-year-old kids have impressive memory skills. Though not always perfect (nor should they have to be) they have all participated in memory verse recitation with their older siblings!
Homeschool curriculum by group subjects (elementary)
Bible homeschool curriculum (group)
I love going as deep as my kids will let me into accounts from the Bible. Something that helped me learn more and dive in deeper with them was the Abeka Bible homeschool curriculum. I only buy the books not the teacher’s guide or plan. This is because I read a lesson a day and we answer the questions together. This usually evokes a deeper discussion with my older two. Rather than having them independently read, I can challenge their understanding of God’s word and ensure they understand.
I did not buy these all at once, but instead, throughout the years. Furthermore, we do not go through all of these in one year, but instead we started in the Old Testament to the new testament and will repeat once we finish the series after a few years.
I bought the K5 kit the first year. Then the proceeding years, I bought the pieces from each next grade level kit. This is because the kits do repeat materials that I didn’t want to buy again. I don’t use the teacher’s manuals or the CDs.
Doing this curriculum in a group setting is great. This is because my 3-year-old’s and up have always enjoyed being read to and looking at pictures. They surprise me with how much they understand.
This is our favorite part of our homeschool day. We can’t miss out on these accounts and learning our history of the ancient times before us. I highly recommend this resource for your homeschool!
Language arts, science, geography, social studies, history, P.E., etc. (group)
Teaching language arts, science, geography, social studies, history, and physical education to three students individually would be insanely exhausting. That’s why last year I was thrilled to use the homeschool curriculum Gather ‘Round. It is an open and go, unit study based homeschool curriculum that has Charlotte Mason principles. It is a biblical infused curriculum! My only complaint is that it does not use the KJV Bible for verses. So, we grab our KJV Bibles when verses are referenced or need to be memorized.
I started using this curriculum last year and found it so incredibly helpful teaching multiple grades. What I love about it is that each learning level has their own age-appropriate seat work to go along with the daily lesson. I have saved time and frustration by using this curriculum to cover a multitude of topics in one swoop. The best part is that my kids are interested in the topics because I let them pick the units for the school year! I highly recommend you check them out if you are looking to consolidate your time teaching multiple kids.
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Homeschool curriculum by grade (elementary)
After the group schooling has finished for the day, we move to individual learning. I cover language arts at an individual level as well because I want those skills to be sharper than what the Gather ‘Round curriculum offers. Let’s go over what we use in our homeschool to help inspire yours!
Arithmetic homeschool curriculum (individual)
I have tried and shuffled through a few different curriculums to finally land on this one that we all LOVE so much. It is by Kate Snow, called Math with Confidence. I love open and go homeschool curriculums because let’s face it, I have a ton to do already. This math homeschool curriculum is so easy to use and only requires a few materials that you will oftentimes reuse!
The best part of this curriculum is that it is short and incorporates games for learning math. I have been using Math with Confidence for a few years now. The part that has shocked me the most is how quickly the math concepts are absorbed into my littles brains for how short the lessons are! I can’t say enough good about this curriculum and highly recommend it!
I do this homeschool curriculum with each kid individually and based on their skill level. Each kid has their own workbooks and I keep my teachers guide for the next years when my younger kids become of age to learn that grade level.
Spelling homeschool curriculum (individual)
Traditional spelling lessons in public school were seriously the WORST! Memorizing and then dumping only to not retain it all very well was awful. I knew early on in my homeschool that I would loathe that part.
When I found Spelling you see I was more than relieved! It wasn’t the same method as public school for teaching your kids to read! I have used it with my oldest from kindergarten to present and don’t see us stopping! Her spelling skills are phenomenal and I give this homeschool curriculum the credit!
The lessons are open and go and very short, no more than 20 minutes a day!
Reading and Language Arts homeschool curriculum (individual)
Reading is something that I put a lot of weight into for early elementary. This is because if your child knows how to read fluently, then can learn any other subject on their own if needed. Reading is the key that unlocks all other subjects.
I love getting my five-year-old’s to the level of reading where they can read their own instructions in their phonics books and only ask me for clarification. By the time they are seven, they are reading almost fluently and enjoying chapter books for leisure.
This not only expands their vocabulary, but enhances their confidence and ability to navigate the real world around them.
We love phonetics-based reading. For our family we lean on Abeka’s phonics program. Abeka can be overwhelming so let me simplify what we do by leading you to my How to teach Phonics series Part 1. I cover how to teach, letters, sounds, and the resources for getting started in phonics. Part 2 covers the next step of blending using Abeka products. I share my methods and the products we use in How to teach phonics: blending -part 2.
After those reading basics are established, I incorporate Abeka workbooks and readers for kindergarten and up. I like to find the readers on Facebook Marketplace but if you can’t find used copies there, I have links below where you can find them.
This list is all I buy for each grade. I don’t buy the teachers guides. You can. I don’t buy the additional materials and tests. You can. I find keeping it simple and doing less is more.
- Kindergarten Readers / Workbooks
- First grade Readers / Workbook 1 / Workbook 2
- Second Grade Readers / Workbook 1 / Workbook 2
- Third grade Readers / Workbook 1 / Workbook 2
- Fourth grade Readers / Workbook 1 / Workbook 2
- Fifth grade Readers / Workbook 1 / Workbook 2
- Sixth grade Readers / Workbook 1 / Workbook 2
Writing homeschool curriculum (individual)
If you are teaching your students cursive or need to improve their penmanship I recommended a dedicated handwriting curriculum. There are many out there to choose from. In our homeschool we have used Abeka’s handwriting curriculum in the past. I like it but I have switched to Christian Liberty Press handwriting homeschool curriculum. They also use KJV verses like Abeka.
The important thing to remember is that you are not homeschooling alone. There are thousands of homeschooling families across America. Some starting out as first-generation homeschooling families like me and maybe you.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:33
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