Our Homeschool Curriculum
What we've used, what has worked, what hasn't—and how our homeschool has changed along the way.
Where our homeschool journey began.
My Father’s World was the first curriculum we used when my boys were in 1st and 3rd grade. One of the things I loved most was that it allowed us to “do school” together. We could share subjects like history as a family, while each of them worked at his own grade level for subjects like math and grammar.
The math curriculum that finally stuck.
After trying two other math curriculums, we landed on Math-U-See—and stayed with it. I loved that each lesson combined video instruction with Mr. Demme, hands-on math manipulatives, and a workbook with multiple practice pages for each lesson. Having those different ways to learn and reinforce the same concept made this one a great fit for us.
Good for a season, but ultimately lacking.
Power Homeschool / Acellus Academy worked well for us for a couple of years when my work schedule changed and we needed something more independent. The lessons are completely online, everything is already planned, and grading is done for you—which was incredibly helpful during that season.
Power Homeschool and Acellus Academy use the same core curriculum and online platform, but there is an important difference between the two. Power Homeschool is the less expensive, non-accredited homeschool option and does not issue a diploma. Acellus Academy is the accredited online-school option and maintains official transcripts and can issue a diploma.
For us, though, the convenience eventually became part of the problem. Without close oversight, it was simply too easy for my boys to do the bare minimum. And academically, we found that it wasn't challenging them. What had been a really helpful solution for a particular season eventually stopped being what they needed.
The one I never thought we'd choose.
Classical Conversations is where we are now—and something I never thought we would do. We started last year, and it has been a completely different approach to homeschooling for us.
In the Challenge programs for grades 7–12, the boys work through six strands—Logic, Grammar, Research, Reasoning, Exposition, and Debate. They follow their assignments at home during the week and meet with their class and tutor for Community Day once a week.
What I've come to appreciate is how those pieces are meant to work together. Community Day isn't simply another day of instruction. Their tutor helps facilitate discussion, ask questions, and bring together what they've been studying throughout the week. Rather than treating math, Latin, science, literature, logic, and government as completely separate subjects, they're encouraged to see the connections between them—and ultimately to see God at the center of what they're learning.
There really is no “one size fits all.”
If there's one thing I've learned through all these years of homeschooling, it's that there is no perfect curriculum—and there certainly isn't one curriculum that's perfect for every child, every subject, or every season.
We've used Master Books, Singapore Math, Berean Builders, Apologia, Teaching Textbooks, Spelling Power, All About Spelling, Veritas Press, Handwriting Without Tears, IEW, and plenty of other resources along the way. Some have worked beautifully for us. Some haven't. And sometimes something that worked wonderfully for one child—or for one season—simply wasn't the right fit anymore.
Kids grow. Their strengths change. Their struggles change. Life changes. And sometimes the curriculum needs to change with them.
I think that's one of the freedoms of homeschooling that I've come to appreciate most. We don't have to keep using something just because we bought it, because everyone else loves it, or because it worked last year. We can pay attention to the child in front of us and choose what serves them best right now.
And if next year that looks completely different? That's okay too.