I’m excited to share with you the homeschool curriculum choices I’m using for the 2024-2025 school year. This year I’m homeschooling 11th, 9th and 3rd grades. Whether you’re a seasoned homeschooler or just starting out, I hope a peek into my curriculum selections for this year will prove helpful on your own homeschool journey.

Here we go!

How I Choose Our Curriculum

I love reading posts about what other moms use in their homeschools for different grades. Especially when I’m homeschooling that same grade. Many times, I’ll discover a curriculum I didn’t know existed, or something that works well with my budget. 

However, I am careful to also remember that what works in their homeschool may not work in mine. Thus, I never just blindly order that product without doing my own research first.

As you read through these choices, you may find something you haven’t heard of before or considered using, but I encourage you to review it through blog reviews, product samples, or watching a flip-through on YouTube. 

(If I have a review for a certain product, I will link to that below.)

Also, so many families have to consider their budget when ordering homeschool curriculum (mine included). I thought it would be helpful to indicate throughout this post if an item I’m using is free, from the library, or something I already have.

Homeschool Curriculum Choices for 3rd, 9th, and 11th Grades

3rd Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices

Social Studies

History

• The Children’s Book of America: This year we are studying early American history. I read one story from this book each day. After completing this book, we’ll review some of the events, people and places that we touched, and also some that weren’t covered. I plan to do this primarily with picture books and a read aloud or two.

• History Pockets: Life in Plymouth Colony: I’ve used these before and I love the price point and hands-on learning. It creates a unique keepsake book in the end. My boys still have theirs! We may also complete the Native Americans book if my daughter shows interest.

Notes: I don’t have the picture books totally mapped out yet. However I’ll be keeping track of everything we use. I plan to make a future post that will provide you with an already mapped out for you plan to study early US history with picture books!

The Children’s Book of America I picked up years ago at the thrift store for a buck. I decided to use this as a mini-spine book for our history. It’s not perfect, but it’s cheaper than the shiny curriculum pack that looked absolutely lovely, but is $120. I just couldn’t do it!

Geography

• Families of the World DVD Series: We borrow this from the library. Each DVD features a different country and tells you about two children and their families. The videos are a bit dated (2010), but they’re still quite interesting! 

Notes: I came across this series on the shelves at our library. See if you can save yourself some $$ and check your library, too. Keep in mind that if your local library doesn’t have the item, they may be linked with other libraries across your state and can order from them.

Language Arts

Reading

• All About Reading (AAR): this is the first year I’ve used AAR. For K, 1st and 2nd, I used The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading, which worked well with my two boys! With my daughter, however, it’s been challenging. She’s learned to read fairly well, but not to the level I would expect at this point. I decided to splurge with this program starting at level one so we can thoroughly review everything and catch the areas of struggle.

Notes: I do hope to re-sell this curriculum in excellent condition. Because it’s such a popular program, I don’t think it will be an issue. It’s an investment, but already she’s told me how much fun she thinks it is compared to the other book. Yay!

Spelling

• All About Spelling (AAS): I already have five levels of this program from using them with my son. I won’t begin this until we finish AAR level 1.

• Evan-Moor Skill Sharpeners Spell & Write: a friend gave me a whole box of workbooks she bought during the pandemic and I held onto them. My daughter thought this book looked fun. I agree! It’s colorful and has nice pictures. I’m only pulling out this book when she wants to do it, however. My main focus will be the AAS program.

Handwriting

• Handwriting Without Tears: I’ve used this curriculum for all my kids. My 3rd grader (and last child to be homeschooled! 😭) will complete the Cursive Handwriting this year. I like the simplicity and ease of use. We typically do 1-2 pages a day; just a simple 5 or 10 minutes is sufficient.

Math

• Math Lessons for a Living Education (MLFLE): I’ve used this program for years and I like its gentle approach to math, especially for the elementary years.

• Evan Moor Skill Sharpeners Math: This workbook was given to me (yay free). This is a 2nd grade book, but it’s been a good review and is teaching a few techniques she didn’t learn in her other 2nd grade book. When she’s finished, we’ll start MLFLE Level 3. 

 

Science

• Evan Moore Skill Sharpeners Science: This is technically a grade 2 book, but I don’t worry about how it’s labeled. If she’s learning from the content and enjoying it, that’s what matters most. She enjoys this book, so we’ll finish it and possibly get the 3rd grade book if she’s interested.

• Burgess Bird Book: I started using this in 1st, we continued it for 2nd, and she wants to finish the book! So, we’ll keep plowing ahead. I read about a chapter while she colors a bird coloring sheet that matches whatever bird is in the story. Honestly, we’re still working through it because for 2nd grade, we mostly worked on it when she felt like it. That’s how we’ll use it this year, too.

Notes: You can find this book for FREE at Project Gutenburg! I also have realistic bird pictures to match. I found them online somewhere that I can’t find now! Little Schoolhouse in the Suburbs has some helpful coloring page resources, and I’ve found others at Super Coloring. 

We’ve been compiling the bird pics and her coloring pages into a notebook. When we finish this book, we’ll read the Burgess Animal Book.  

• Read and Find Out Science series: Throughout the year we’ll select science topics of interest from this book series and borrow those from the library.

Art

• Co-op: We’re part of a co-op again this year, and so my daughter will be taking an art class there. 

• Step-by-Step Drawing: Animals: We started this last year and will be finishing it in a couple of weeks.
• Draw Write Now: I have several of these books I purchased years ago. These are more challenging than the Step-by-Step Drawing books. All my kids loved these books.
• Usborne 365 Things to Draw and Paint: Together we’ll select a few art projects from this book
• Art for Kids Hub: They have great draw along art tutorials with many selections for holidays, special events, trendy things like character drawings. No complicated supplies are needed, so these are great to quickly set up while you’re fixing snacks or lunch!
• Nature Sketching: This is going outside and sketching something in nature from the yard, around the neighborhood, etc. Sometimes we’ll take the notebook to a park or the zoo. We try to nature sketch about once a week.

Notes: Minus our co-op class which did have a fee, all the above materials I’ve have on hand from previous years, and Art for Kids Hub is FREE. 

(You might also like my post Simple and Easy Homeschool Art AND take advantage of my Art Project Planner!)

Music

• Piano Adventures: We started this last year and I was terribly inconsistent. We haven’t finished the book! However, she still wants to learn piano. I’m going to try to be more diligent this year.

9th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices

History

• Kahn Academy World History: I’ve used Kahn Academy before and like the fact that it’s FREE, provides a mixture of video instruction and reading, and provides questions for review and quizzes. It’s not perfect, but if you’re on a budget, you can really save money with this option. I’m supplementing throughout the course with interesting book titles I gleaned from other programs, both fiction and non-fiction. We’ll borrow those from the library.

(You may like my post Homeschool Preschool With Kahn Academy Kids-For Free!)

Math

• CTCMath: I’m using this program for Algebra I. We’ve also used it for 8th grade math and geometry. To be honest, my freshman wasn’t sure he wanted to use this program. He had some frustrations with it last year. However, after we looked over some other math options together, he decided this program has a lot of things he likes and he wanted to stick with it. 

If you’ve never considered using an online math program, you can read more about the perks in the post 5 Reasons to Try An Online Math Curriculum.

Language Arts

• Learning Language Arts Through Literature: Besides being affordable, I like this program a lot. It’s broken down into daily lessons and covers everything from grammar, to literature and writing. 
• Wordsmith Craftsman: We’re using this program to enhance writing skills, specifically essay writing.
• Creative Writing: My son has been working on writing his own novel all summer. I want to make space for this throughout the year as well. Language arts doesn’t always have to come from a curriculum! 

Foreign Language

• Universal Language Acquisition Tool (ULAT):This is our 3rd year using this program. It’s extremely affordable when compared to other foreign language curriculums. It’s not the most user friendly platform, but there are many pros to this program. You can try the first 15 lessons for free. 

Science

• Friendly Biology: I used this program with my oldest son and am using it again for my 14-year- old. I thought about switching him to the 101 series for Biology because my oldest son really enjoyed their Chemistry program. However, keeping my budget in mind I decided to use what I have. It really does make biology friendly!

Art

• Easy Peasy Drawing Professionally: This course is part of the Easy Peasy High School program. We’ve used various courses on Easy Peasy throughout the years. Again, this is a free curriculum. We looked over some of the lessons together and he felt like it would teach him new skills and challenge his abilities.

(You may like my post How to Homeschool Preschool: Your Essential Guide. Easy Peasy Preschool is a resource I used for the preschool years! It was simple, my daughter loved it, and it’s FREE!)

P.E.

• Soccer: Soccer with our local high school, which will translate into a half PE credit.

Bible

Starting 2nd semester, he’ll work on earning a half credit in Bible. This will include daily bible readings, journaling, and two book studies with discussion. Not sure on the books yet, but I’ll update when I am.

11th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices

History

• Land of Hope: I liked the set-up for this curriculum for American History. There is a student book, a student workbook and a teacher’s guide. Additionally, there are accompanying lectures and quizzes that correspond to this curriculum at Hillsdale Online, all FREE. 

Math

• Teaching Textbooks: While we used CTC math for Algebra I and Geometry for my oldest son, he wanted to investigate other options for math this year, and we decided to try Teaching Textbooks. 

Notes: In my opinion, there are some cons to TT compared to CTCMath. Also, I already have a family membership to CTCMath so from a budget standpoint, I wasn’t wanting to purchase another program. However, because my son rarely complains much about any of the curriculum I choose for him, I took notice when he was frustrated with math. It’s also not his strongest subject so finding something that might work better for him felt like a worthy investment. 

Language Arts

• Learning Language Arts Through Literature (The Gold Book American Literature): This is the first time using this program with my 11th grader. I did use the gray book level with my younger son, and I like the layout, content and price point. This book covers short stories, novels, poetry, essay writing, literature interpretation and literary terms.

Science

• Physics 101: My son really enjoyed their Chemistry 101 series, so I decided to give their Physics a try. It’s DVD-based, and you print your own workbook, readings, etc. There are labs as well that you can complete at home. 

Foreign Language

• Universal Language Acquisition Tool (ULAT): We started this program in 9th and will continue this year. ULAT takes a bit of a different approach to learning language. However, we tried the first 15 lessons for free, then decided to purchase the one-year plan. You can use it with multiple students.

Health

• Georgia Virtual Learning-Health-this online course is FREE. I will be pairing it with some other books that cover healthy living and choices that align with our family values.
• First Aid/CPR: We will use some of the resources I found at Freedom Homeschooling to have learn first aid/CPR skills.

Miscellaneous

• ACT practice: We found some free online resources with practice tests, test taking tips and the like. We’re also borrowing an ACT practice book from the library.

Still Planning Your Homeschool Curriculum?

If you’re still in planning mode, be sure to get these curriculum planning pages. You can print one for each student, and jot down curriculum ideas, notes, and other resources you plan to use for the school year. Additionally, there is a curriculum comparison worksheet to help you compare prices of your curriculum choices across various vendors to make sure you’re finding the lowest price!

Conclusion

There you have it! Our homeschool curriculum choices for the 2024-2025 school year. Homeschooling is an ever-changing journey, and flexibility is key. While these curriculum choices form the backbone of our plan, I always remain open to adjusting and tailoring them as needed during the year. 

I hope my sharing this information with you is helpful for your own planning. Here’s to a happy and successful school year!

How about you? Have you made your curriculum choices for next school year yet? Let me know in the comments!