Homeschooling : Part 5 : Our Favorite Elementary & Middle School Curriculums & Resources
Hey Friends!
This post will be forever updated so make sure to stay tuned for more ideas as our Homeschooling journey continues
Today on the blog, I'm chatting about our favorite Homeschooling Curriculums and Resources we've used over the years. As previously mentioned, we never participated in "formal" homeschooling or mimicked traditional schooling but in the early years of education, but for certain things, we do use trusted and accredited curriculums and resources.
So, without further ado, here are some of the best curriculums and resources we used in our Elementary/Middle School years. We didn't start using these curriculums until 1st grade. Before then, we utilized Educational Shows and Craft Projects for "schooling".
Disclaimer: Some of these resources we no longer use, not because they're not wonderful but because our homeschooling style and needs are everchanging. Most of these, you can even use into Jr. High and High School.
The Good and The Beautiful is a wonderful, Christian-based curriculum focused on literature and the arts. This brand has grown so much since we started it. They cater to grades K-12 with Free Curriculum available to try. They also have Placement Tests for your students to see which level of academics they're on.
We have and still use some of the resources such as:
Language Arts (used in the past) This was a great start!
Handwriting, for Cursive (still using)
Typing (still using)
Space, (completed in the past) This was a great project for my little Space lover.
We even made a whole project board.
Wind and Weather (previously Meteorology) We currently own the original Unit Study and plan on completing it this year. Along with Geology, which we also currently own.
My plan is to complete all of the Good and The Beautiful's Science and Health Unit Studies this year and beyond. They have so many great ones and we love the creativity of Unit Studies.
Bible
We use the Catholic Children's Bible to refer to scriptures and complete this fun, Monthly Scripture Writing to start off our mornings. This Scripture Writing Activity is one of my favorite, free resources I've ever found.
Math
We've used a few Math curriculums over the years such as Math U See, but the last few years, we've used Teaching Textbooks and haven't turned back. We absolutely love this Math Curriculum and highly recommend it.
As far as "formal" curriculum, that's about the extent of what we've used and love. I've stated in previous posts we are more of an eclectic, unschooling family and very much concentrate on interest-led learning.
Here are a few of our favorite Educational Resources we love:
Gameschooling
We originally heard of "Gameschooling" about 7 years ago from the Waldock Way and have invested in many of their game recommendations. Family Game Nights have always been important to us and we still have them to this day.
Here are a few of our favorite Educational Games:
Osmo Games (loved this) Especially the Pizza one.
We are constantly investing in different educational games that help make learning fun and hands-on. If you are looking for some great ideas, make sure you watch The Waldock Way on Youtube. Love her and her channel.
YouTube Moms
Ya'll, my whole journey to Homeschooling began with YouTube Homeschooling Moms, 12 years ago! When our daughter was first born, all I did was watch YouTube Moms and planned. These channels are for the Homeschool Mom who needs inspiration and encouragement. While these are the ladies I started out watching, there are many more today.
Here are some of the very first Homeschooling YouTube Moms I watched & learned from:
The first book I ever bought on Homeschooling was Erica's...Homeschooling 101: A Guide to Getting Started
Abby with Rooted in Rest
If you're interested in exploring these channels, when you visit their page, click on "oldest" videos and start there.
Educational YouTube Channels
Weird but True ...there are no words and not enough time to tell y'all how much our daughter has learned from this show! Weird but True has been a staple, educational show in our Homeschool.
Weird but True is also available on Disney+.
Educational Shows
(And I'm not talking about the new Bill Nye shows. I'm talking about the old ones.)
Disney presents American Presidents
Fun Homeschool Books
There was an Old Lady Series (this includes multiple books)
Natasha Wing's The Night Before Series (this includes multiple books)
Educational Books
Who Was Series (this includes multiple books)
The Magic School Bus (this includes multiple books)
Ultimate "Pedia" Books (includes multiple books)
Educational Resources
Teachers Pay Teachers is still my go-to for creative, hands-on and uniquely designed educational activities created by Teachers and Homeschoolers. We've used it since Day 1 and I even already started downloading for this year.
Did you know? I even have a store? LB Home Education
Y'all, I have LOADED DOWN this post with our most favorite curriculums, resources, books and games...and honestly, I'm still probably missing a bunch but this post is sure to be updated in the future, guaranteed.
I hope this helps you on your Homeschooling journey and you enjoy all of these great resources just as much as we did. Stay tuned for more!
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