I want to share our homeschool curriculum choices for the 2025-2026 school year, for my five kids that are in grades 12th, 10th, 9th, 7th, and 3rd. I have kids in elementary, middle, and high school, but for the first time, most of my kids are in high school. I’m so excited for the things we’re going to be learning about this year, especially as this is the last year my kids will all be homeschooling together!
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Prefer to watch me talk about our 2025-2026 curriculum choices? Watch the video below!
Here are some things you need to know about our homeschool, if you don’t already:
Family learning
We really value family learning – even in the high school years, and even with a wide range of ages! Other than my youngest, my four kids are fairly close in age, and three are high schoolers. So this makes it pretty easy to do a lot of things together. We have a regular rhythm of family learning time in addition to their individual free time to work on projects, read, learn independently, pursue hobbies and creative interests, etc. Many of our subjects are done as a whole family, with small adaptations to make things work for different ages/abilities.
Curriculum is a tool
Curriculum is one tool in our homeschool toolbox, and we tend to lean toward other resources when they fit our needs better. We also use books as curriculum most of the time. When I do use a curriculum resource, I probably won’t fully use it just the way it’s written or follow it exactly. A lot of what you see on this list isn’t necessarily “formal curriculum” or traditional bookwork.
Interest-led learning
We lean hard into interest-led learning in our home. So this means that in the high school years, we cater their learning toward their specific interests or future career choices. I don’t put our kids into a box based on what the school system deems “necessary” for kids to study in specific grades. We’ve crafted our own learning path! Interest-led learning also means that my kids get time to pursue hobbies, interests, a part-time job, sports, time with friends, books they want to read, etc. I let all my kids choose many of their own books (often alongside books that I have chosen as read alouds); I let them have a say in their learning!
Open hands
I hold all of our plans with open hands! We will follow what’s listed here somewhat loosely, especially for my younger kids. I allow space to change the plan, follow rabbit trails, and let my kids’ interests lead us away from the curriculum or resources I’ve chosen.
Integrated learning
We integrate a lot of subjects together. So if you look at it all together, and it feels like a lot, just know that a lot of it will overlap (like history and language arts or morning time, art, and language arts, etc.). Instead of compartmentalizing all our subjects as separate pieces, we combine many things together for a more holistic education.
What’s not included:
- sports: all my kids are involved in track and cross country, and my oldest plays basketball; my 10th grader also lifts weights
- animal care: we have lots of animals, so those are part of their everyday life
- hobbies: I listed some of their hobbies that translate into academics, but they all have unique hobbies they enjoy pursuing!
- church: we’re heavily involved in our church and they serve regularly throughout the week or on Sundays, and my older boys are very involved in the youth group
- work: my older boys have part-time jobs and/or are working to start businesses
Family subjects:
These are subjects we do together as a whole family, from my 12th grader down to my 3rd grader, though sometimes as the topics get deeper, my 8yo might just be playing nearby or doing an art project nearby.
History
Modern U.S. and World History from Beautiful Feet Books
We’ve used many of Beautiful Feet Books resources in the past, and love them! I never follow them exactly like they’re laid out within the teacher’s guide. So I’ll be loosely following this, but I’ll also adding in some additional books, especially for my younger boys. We’re using the high school guide, because most of my kids are in high school, but in the past I’ve easily combined multiple levels of their history to do family learning.
Geography and cultures
I’ll be integrating these throughout our morning time as read alouds, not necessarily a specific curriculum or a separate subject, but as a way to intentionally incorporate geography and cultures into our year.
- Missionary biographies – I’m going to pull in missionaries that are in the areas where we’re studying world history
- Book of Nations
- On Mission magazine
Art
None of this will cover a full-year and we’ll integrate them within our family learning time throughout the whole year.
- Stories of Home: family Morning Time guide – studying folk art and integrating language arts (you can see a walk through in this YouTube video)
- Art Appreciation from Beautiful Feet Books – we will dive into this after we finish our Stories of Home morning time guide
- 75 Masterpieces Every Christian Should Know
- Intro to Watercolor class from Brighter Day Press
Bible
I don’t follow a specific curriculum or program for our Bible time, but some of the resources I’m probably going to use to guide our conversations will be:
- Wonder full – we have been using this as we gothrough the Psalms using this book and keeping Psalm journals
- 10 questions every teen should ask (and answer) about Christianity
- Counter Culture: following Christ in an anti-Christian age
- Saving Leonardo: a call to resist the secular assault on mind, morals, and meaning – this integrates with our Stories of Home morning time guide
Language Arts
- Story Forge – these creative writing prompts and activities are geared toward middle and high school, so since most of my kids are this age, we’ll do it together as a family. My third grader might participate at his own level, because he often likes to be included. But he can also opt out of this, because it’s not really for him.
- Word Work – poetry, spelling, writing, and copywork – some of this will be done within our Stories of Home morning time, but you can see some other examples of how we integrate this in this blog post.
- Paragraphs and Picture Books – we’ll be using some of the lessons within the OG Paragraphs and Picture Books, the summer edition, and also there will be some new editions coming out later in the year that we’ll incorporate. Because the Stories of Home morning time is very similar to Paragraphs and Picture Books, we will wait to pull this in after we finish Stories of Home.
- Shakespeare – we’re going to do some deep dives into Shakespeare as a family (especially with my older four). We’ll be using resources like How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare and No Fear Shakespeare
- Poetry – we’ll be doing some poetry studies, including George Herbert
Science
- Since three of my boys will be doing chemistry, we will likely read some of the chemistry books together as a family as part of Guest Hollow Chemistry in the Kitchen
- Human body – this topic will be looped through in our family learning time. We’ll also be revisiting some puberty/reproduction topics that we covered awhile ago, but could use a refresher for my older kids and some of my younger kids were too young to get it. We’ll just use a combination of human anatomy books, the God’s Design for Sex series, and Crafted by God.
- Kids’ Brains and Screens – this goes into the science of screen addiction and how it affects our brains; we were working through this last year, and we’ll continue it this year. When I bought this, they only had the curriculum available, which we just read through together like a book and don’t do any of the worksheets or quizzes. I now see they have a Home Edition which is much more affordable and probably doesn’t include the worksheets (though I haven’t seen it yet, so can’t say for sure).
Individual subjects
If you’d like to watch me talk through our high school plans:
12th grade
- Young Writer’s Honors Academy – this is a brand new program from Young Writer’s Workshop that is designed for high-level training for kids who want to pursue a writing career. My oldest has been part of Young Writer’s Workshop since he was in middle school, and it’s been amazing for him in developing his skills and discipline with writing, and this is a more intense program within their offerings.
- Speech and debate – these are in person classes he’ll be taking through with a local homeschool group
- Career prep – this is a local in person class for homeschoolers he’ll be taking with the Department of Workforce Development (organized by a local homeschool mom) where they’re going to learn how to write a resume, interview for jobs, etc.
- Chemistry in the Kitchen from Guest Hollow – we’re also going to be having some local friends join us for hands-on experiments *I had originally planned to do this a couple years ago, but decided to wait until I had three kids in high school at the same time, so they could do the experiments together. Since this chemistry isn’t very math-heavy, it’s good for all high school ages, not just older kids.
- Math *I’ve chosen not to share my kids’ specific math programs in high school, just for their own privacy. You can see some of my recommendations for high school math HERE.
- World religions – this is something I’m developing for him, using some books like World Religions and Cults series, The Universe Next Door, The Case for Christ, So What’s the Difference?
- Business basics/entrepreneurship – again, not a specific course, but he’s going to be creating a business plan and starting a business. Some of the books we might use can be found in this blog post.
10th grade
- Intro to Digital Art and Design – a one semester live class through Compass Classroom; he’s a few weeks into this class already, and really enjoying it!!
- Film school 4 teens – I’m considering a course from this shop for second semester (after his graphic design class is over), but haven’t committed to yet
- Chemistry in the Kitchen from Guest Hollow – we’re also going to be having some local friends join us for hands-on experiments
- Writing – he’s either going to choose a self-paced course through Compass Classroom or work through some of the self-paced content within Young Writer’s Workshop program (or likely a combination)
- Read, Think, Write – we integrate a lot of language arts throughout our other subjects, and this helps us to take something he might read for science or history and use it also for language arts credit; we can also use the fiction books that he chooses for this program
- Art – this is a big focus for him, because he has a lot of interest in art. He’ll be doing wood burning, whittling, drawing and painting, plus he’ll be doing art within our morning time and his graphic design class
- Book illustration/writing – not a formal course, but an interest for him and something we’re working on together
- Math *I’ve chosen not to share my kids’ specific math programs in high school, just for their own privacy. You can see some of my recommendations for high school math HERE.
- Speech and debate – these are in person classes he’ll be taking through with a local homeschool group
- Career prep – this is a local in person class for homeschoolers he’ll be taking with the Department of Workforce Development (organized by a local homeschool mom) where they’re going to learn how to write a resume, interview for jobs, etc.
9th grade
- Music – drums and guitar – this is not a formal class he’s taking, but his self-paced learning, along with playing with the worship team at church
- Chemistry in the Kitchen from Guest Hollow – we’re also going to be having some local friends join us for hands-on experiments
- Read, Think, Write – we integrate a lot of language arts throughout our other subjects, and this helps us to take something he might read for science or history and use it also for language arts credit; we can also use the fiction books that he chooses with this program
- Wood shop – not a formal course, but this is an area where he’s very skilled; he’s been working with my husband to DIY our deck, and the skills he’s learning are plenty for a full wood shop credit
- Math *I’ve chosen not to share my kids’ specific math programs in high school, just for their own privacy. You can see some of my recommendations for high school math HERE.
- Research and notetaking – this is a skill we’re still working on, so I think the printables within this guide will be super helpful for him, in addition to the Read, Think, Write program
7th grade
- Read, Think, Write – we integrate a lot of language arts throughout our other subjects, and this helps us to take something he might read for science or history and use it also for language arts; we can also use the fiction books that he chooses with this program
- Research and Notetaking – this is a skill we’re still working on, so I think the printables within this guide will be super helpful for him, in addition to the Read, Think, Write program
- Morning work binder – since he’s my earliest riser, I want him to be able to dive in to some of his independent learning if his other brothers are still asleep
- Math – he’s using The Good and the Beautiful
- Music – guitar and piano – this is not a formal class he’s taking, but his self-paced learning, along with playing with the worship team at church
- Map work – I am probably going to incorporate these within his morning work binder as we get into the year, but I haven’t fully decided what that’s going to look like.
- Nature journaling – I’ll be doing some nature journaling with my younger kids while my older kids are doing their in-person classes, starting with portions of the Trees, Seeds, and Leaves botany study that we didn’t do last year
- Science – when my older boys are taking some in person classes, we’ll do some more specific human body reading/activities that we did years ago with my older kids. Not a formal curriculum, but a unit study I’m putting together from books we have in our home library.
3rd grade
- Retell Me a Story – these activities focus on the skill or retelling/narration
- Handwriting and spelling – I realized that with my youngest, he hasn’t done as much copywork as my older kids did (fifth child problems!) so I will be doing more intentional copywork with him, specifically to help with handwriting and spelling. This isn’t a specific program, we’ll mostly use poetry and Bible verses.
- Math – he’s using Masterbooks
- Reading Response Journal – this is a combination of reading and writing, and it uses the books that he or I will choose
- Morning work binder – he’s one of my earlier risers usually, and also the one of my kids most likely to say “I’m bored” (again, fifth child who is constantly entertained by siblings problems ;) so this is a great way for him to dive into some intentional independent work, but also allowing him to choose what he’s working on everyday
- Map work – I am probably going to incorporate these within his morning work binder as we get into the year, but I haven’t fully decided what that’s going to look like
- Nature journaling – I’ll be doing some nature journaling with my younger kids while my older kids are doing their in-person classes, starting with portions of the Trees, Seeds, and Leaves botany study that we didn’t do last year
- Science – when my older boys are taking some in person classes, we’ll do some more specific human body reading/activities that we did years ago with my older kids. Not a formal curriculum, but a unit study I’m putting together from books we have in our home library.
- Art – he has a lot of interest in art, so we’ll be using the Brighter Day Press watercolor class, drawing tutorials, and just giving him lots of time and space to create!
Want to see previous years’ homeschool curriculum choices? Watch this video and the whole playlist I’ve linked below!