The 3 Moms all homeschool their children. Some of our curriculum choices overlap and some are unique. We each focus on using the programs and books that work best for our families. Because of this, we bet you can find at least a thing or two in this list that will be useful for you or your family, whether you homeschool or not.

Kate’s Recommendations

1. Mystery of History by Linda Lacour Hobar This is the best history program we’ve ever used. I love how it is designed to be used with multiple age groups and each lesson includes activities appropriate for young, middle and older students. Another element of the program that I appreciate is how each week’s lessons are tied together with geography and time line activities. This really helps to pull all the information together. Isabelle has really gained a phenomenal grasp of history since we began using Mystery of History.

2. 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum by Cathy Duffy Every year when I start planning out our school plans for the next year, I turn to this book. I always seem to find a new book or program that would be perfect for us. I get a great starting point for my curriculum list. Even though the book is mainly an overview of all the different homeschooling resources out there, I find a ton of encouragement from it. Reading about the texts, and how they differ from some used in public schools, really reinforces our homeschooling decision.

3. Bible Town Detectives by Mary Rose Pearson Isabelle loves mysteries and being a part of the action, so this book is perfect for her. She learns bible history and memorizes passages all while solving mysteries. Each activity reinforces this knowledge and they are fun too. To me, this book is a great example of learning and fun going hand-in-hand.

4. Three Bears Counters We have been using these great manipulatives all year with our 4 and 3 year olds. The activities and learning opportunities are limitless. We practice counting, organization, sorting and grouping, and color recognition. We also use the bears to act stories and reinforce lessons.

5. The Art Book For Children Although not an official part of our curriculum, I cannot recommend these books (book 1 & book 2) enough. They have taught our 9 year old such a strong appreciation for art. She now recognizes styles, artists, and methods. The books give information on the artists’ histories and their works. All of the pictures are high quality and the pages are laid out in a way that draws children in and keeps their attention.

Joy’s Recommendations

6. Beautiful Feet History. Since we finished up Story of the World last year (which I also highly recommend), we moved on to Beautiful Feet this year. I love the flexibility of the program and the fact that it uses a variety of real books to teach history. Beautiful Feet guides allow us to go at our own pace, yet they still provide enough structure to keep us on track. My children have thoroughly enjoyed learning about Greek history and culture through reading The Children’s Homer by Padraic Colum, a well-respected children’s version of The Odyssey.

7. The Fallacy Detective. Written by Hans and Nathaniel Bluedorn, The Fallacy Detective cover the basics of logical thinking and fallacies in logic in an entertaining and memorable way. We read through all 36 lessons in The Fallacy Detective last year, including lessons about Tu Quoque, ad hominen, and straw man fallacies, and every member of our family, myself included, learned so much. We’re excited about starting The Thinking Toolbox, the sequel to The Fallacy Detective, in the next few weeks.

8. Rod & Staff English. I’ve fallen in love with this grammar curriculum. Yes, I’m a grammar nerd, so I enjoy reading grammar books, but I think that Rod & Staff has done an excellent job producing a thorough grammar program that focuses more on the application of grammar than the ability to correctly label the parts of a sentence. I also appreciate the fact that there is little to no teacher preparation required. I don’t recommend starting a formal grammar program before the 4th or 5th grade, but if your children are old enough, I’d highly recommend you check out Rod & Staff. I wrote a more detailed review of Rod & Staff here.

9. SpellQuizzer. This is my newest favorite homeschool goodie. I had the chance to review this wonderful spelling practice program recently, and now all my kids are hooked. It’s a great program that not only helps your children learn their spelling words more easily, but also helps you organize spelling lists, especially if you pull words from your child’s writing for spelling tests. I wrote a full review of this program here.

10. Number tiles. We use these tiles for so many things, from practicing greater than/less than, to sequencing, to studies in squares and cubes. I wrote a post here about how I used these with my 5-year-old.

11. Apologia’s Exploring Creation elementary science series by Jeannie Fulbright. These books, written for 1st through 6th graders, cover botany, zoology, and astronomy in a kid-friendly manner without neglecting the meat of the subjects studied. Exploring Creation books are easy to use with multiple grades, and teacher preparation is minimal (which is always a big selling point for me).

12. Wordly Wise 3000. This is by far the best vocabulary curriculum I have ever seen or used. Again, teacher preparation is practically none, and yet the curriculum does a fantastic job teaching the student the full meaning of the vocabulary words. I’ve noticed, with great pleasure, that my children have incorporated many of their Wordly Wise words into their everyday conversation…and they’re even using the words correctly! This is one program that we will be using through the 12th grade.

Toni’s Recommendations

13. Teaching Textbooks. This program, which is computer based, teaches your child the lesson, goes over every problem, and even goes over every solution to every problem, if necessary. The information is presented in a fun and detailed way. I can say without a doubt that Teaching Textbooks is our favorite math curriculum!

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