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This is my fourth year homeschooling, and over the years I’ve discovered many curricula and homeschooling resources that have been especially useful in our home school. I thought I’d share some of my favorite resources with you.

Curriculum

1. Story of the World. This wonderful set of narrative history books was written for elementary students. The books are a wonderful way to introduce world history to your children. We completed all four books in two years, and I’m planning to go back through them all again with my first grader beginning next year.

2. Wordly Wise. If you’ve never looked into Wordly Wise, you’re missing out! It’s not like the boring vocabulary program we had growing up in public school where we had to look up the definition of a word, memorize it, and then use the word in an original sentence. WW is so much better than that! I won’t go as far as saying it’s pain-free for the kids (they do actually have to think to complete the work), but it is most definitely effective. My kids have incorporated many of their WW words into their daily speaking vocabulary, and they’re constantly shouting out in the middle of a movie, “Hey, that’s one of my Wordly Wise words!”

Did we ever do that with the vocabulary words we learned in school? I know I didn’t. Most of the time, the learning of the vocabulary words stopped at my ability to write it in a (poorly worded) sentence. But use the words in everyday speaking? Yeah, right! I’d recommend Wordly Wise for first through twelfth graders.

3. Singapore Math. I don’t think there’s a single “perfect” math curriculum out there, but Singapore Math is definitely up there with some of the better ones. I talk a little more about why I like Singapore math so much here.

4. Exploring Creation series by Apologia. Jeannie Fulbright’s fantastic science series for elementary students has been such a hit at our house. I have…er…I mean my kids have learned so much with this curriculum. Jeannie uses the Charlotte Mason apporach so it’s not like reading a dry textbook. The kids learn lots of great information in a very appealing manner.

5. Lightning Literature (7th grade). We’ve only used this curriculum for a few months, but I’m very pleased with it. It’s a well-laid-out literature and composition program (a little heavier on the literature than the composition) that is easy to teach and doesn’t take a lot of pre-planning. I also like that it’s very literature-centered, not textbook-centered. Lightning Lit is available for Middle School through High School.

6. Rod and Staff Grammar (6th grade). We’ve used Shurley English, Bob Jones, and several other English curricula, but I have been most pleased with Rod and Staff. In fact, I’m ecstatic about Rod and Staff. So far I have only had experience with the 6th grade curriculum, but if their other grades are anything like the 6th grade edition, then I can wholeheartedly recommend them. I wrote a fairly detailed review of my experience with Rod and Staff here.

7. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. My kids started a keyboarding program last year, when they were in 3rd and 5th grades. The software, unfortunately was buggy, so we switched to Mavis Beacon (not the exact same edition in the link, but it’s a recent edition), and are extremely pleased. Mavis Beacon allows the kids to work through both lessons and games to improve their speed. Evaluations even let you know which keys still need more work, and most importantly what the exact problem is. Both my kids work on Mavis Beacon an hour a week (two 30-minute sessions) and they are both already typing about 30 words per minute.

8. God’s World News. This is a monthly current events magazine that’s targeted at different grade levels. It gives my kids a great introduction to reading news magazines and current events. There are lots of supplemental teaching aids as well that help teach the various topics covered in each magazine.

9. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (Workbook). This is a fantastic drawing program! It’s not necessarily the curriculum of choice for a beginning student, but for a student who shows a little natural talent — or even just a strong desire to draw — it’s wonderful. It’s definitely a challenging program, but it offers great results, as you can see here in the before and after pictures of my 6th grader’s self-portrait. There’s also a full-text book available that explains in detail the philosophy behind the method.

Homeschooling Resources

10. Number and letter tiles. These have come in so handy! I use the letter tiles to teach alphabetizing and spelling. The number tiles I use with my first grader for many things. Sometimes we just use them as a way to pick random numbers that she needs to add or subtract. Other times we use them for patterning, less than/more than, odds/evens, etc. Read more about how I use letter tiles and number tiles.

11. Three-corner/Triangle Flash Cards ( Addition / Subtraction & Multiplication / Division) You only need two sets to cover all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). These cards are a great way to help your child visualize the math fact instead of just memorizing it.

12. Kitchen timers. Each of my children has their own timer. They use it to time their computer use, their math drills, their reading time, and anything else that strikes their fancy.

And last, but most certainly NOT least…

13. Homemade dry erase boards. We use these each and every day, and they are a tremendous asset to our learning. You can read about how we made our own lap-sized dry erase boards for cheap here.

Now don’t forget to leave a comment and link to your own 3 Moms Thursday {Thirteen} post!

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