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By Kristen on September 23, 2025

We recently started our eighth year of homeschooling. As we’ve wrapped up our first month back to school, I wanted to share a review of our past year (3rd, 4th, and 6th grade), as well as what we are using for 7th grade, 5th grade, and 4th grade in another blog post.

We have five children, three of whom are of compulsory school age, plus a toddler and a one-year-old. I often find myself sharing curriculum choices and routines with other homeschooling moms or those interested in homeschooling, so I thought I would share a review of our 2024–2025 school year and curriculum as a first time blog post reflecting on our school year.

Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA)

I often share my great appreciation for HSLDA so I will provide their information at the beginning of this blog. Our family has been a member for years, and I genuinely appreciate their heart and ongoing efforts to advocate for homeschool families. I would strongly encourage any homeschooling family to become a member with them. They provide many resources for families, along with legislative updates from across the country.

As Georgia residents, we are required to teach math, language arts, reading, social studies, and science. We are required to provide 180 days of education, with each school day consisting of at least four and one-half school hours, along with multiple other requirements that you can find at HSLDA.

How Our Homeschool Has Evolved

We’ve always leaned toward a more traditional homeschooling approach, often using Abeka, minus a few subjects, as our spine (guide or core curriculum). I found this most helpful in the early years for staying organized year to year. It has also served me well while I have continued to have children, and it has made it easy to keep my children on track when welcoming a new child into the home.

As the years have gone on, I have been able to observe where my children thrive and where they do not. Through the years, we’ve included elements of Classical and Charlotte Mason styles to allow for a rich focus on literature. As we have done this, I have watched our children naturally thrive and gravitate toward a more classical schooling method. They have each seemed to really enjoy the emphasis on literature and retain the material much better. 

We used to start our days with a morning time of family studies, but as our children have grown older and different subjects, such as math and writing, have become more time-consuming, we have adjusted our routine to start with those subjects first. However, we do remain flexible if we need to switch our routine up to start with family studies. 

A Few Quick Notes:

I have included links to our curriculum choices throughout this blog post. Each link will take you to a single book, a set of books, or a main website. I encourage you to explore all purchasing options before buying.

We have loved Abeka through the years, and I consider it to be a very solid curriculum, especially for Math and Language Arts. We will continue to use their lower elementary material for our little girls; however, we will not be using any of their upper elementary or middle school material for our 2025-2026 school year.

All of our Language Arts material includes reading, vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and writing.

I absolutely love IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) for upper elementary and middle school writing so far! We have used it for two years and plan to continue using this curriculum. Our children love watching Andrew Pudewa, and his writing process has been so effective for our older girls. They are both creative writers, and IEW has helped to add structure and process to their love of writing. Our son will slowly begin using it in his 4th-grade year.

2024-2025 Homeschool Curriculum Picks

3rd Grade

Our son was our 3rd grader this year. 

• Math – He used Abeka 3 this year, along with practicing his math skills through Khan Academy. I discuss Khan a little further below with Family Studies. He has always used Abeka for math and does very well with it.
• Language Arts – We used Abeka as well as Learning Language Arts Through Literature (the yellow book).
• Science –  He completed Abeka’s 3rd grade science book.
• Social Studies/History – We worked through our History as a family – see below for Family Studies.
• Reading – some of his personal reading included:
  • Pilgrim’s Progress Christian’s Journey through Abeka
  • The Pilgrim Boy through Abeka
  • The Making of a Knight by Patrick O’Brien
  • Who Was George Washington? by Roberta Edwards
  • Abe Lincoln’s Hat by Martha Brenner
• Handwriting – We used Rod and Staff cursive and print handwriting books, as well as a scripture book from Daily Grace Co. that included reading and copy work of scripture. This was our first year using the Rod and Staff curriculum. The entire book was filled with information about animals, so as an animal lover, he enjoyed using this book. Additionally, we used Robert Frost’s poetry book to practice handwriting.
• Poetry  – Poetry is used for handwriting and reading. This year, he had a notebook that he used to copy Robert Frost poems. We would select the poems to coincide with the seasons of the year.  

4th Grade

Our second daughter was our 4th grader this year. 

• Math – We used Abeka 4 this year, along with practicing her math skills through Khan Academy. Like her brother, she’s used Abeka consistently and has done well with it.
• Language Arts – She joined our oldest for the second year in using IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) Structure and Style 1A. Stretching Structure and Style 1A out over two years worked beautifully for us. We also used IEW’s Fix It! Grammar, as well as working through Learning Language Arts Through Literature (the orange book).
• Science – She used Abeka’s 4th-grade science book this year.
• Social Studies/History – We worked through our History as a family – see below for Family Studies.
• Reading– some of the books she chose to read this year:
  • By The Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • The Box Car Children Set by Gertrude Chandler Warner
  • Secret of The Lost Colony by Rebecca Price Janney
  • Wilbur and Orville Wright by Augusta Stevenson
  • The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

6th Grade

Our oldest daughter was our 6th grader this year as she began her middle school years. We started our year out with Abeka Online Academy. While we have loved Abeka for some years, she found her love of learning being snuffed out this time around. She loves to read and loves to take time with what she’s learning. Abeka Online did not fit her heart of learning this year, so we set it aside and ended up finishing with the curricula I mentioned below. 

• Math – She used Math-U-See this year. Math-U-See is great if you desire to hone in on a specific aspect of math for mastery, or if math isn’t your strongest subject. We have used various math curricula over the years, including Abeka, The Good and the Beautiful, and Math-U-See. The Good and the Beautiful never worked well for us, while Abeka has been great in other years. Math-U-See gave her the ability to hone in on certain aspects of math to master before moving on. This was our second year of using Math-U-See, and it gave her exactly what she needed. 
• Language Arts – She used Learning Language Arts Through Literature (the tan book) and continued with IEW (Institute of Excellence in Writing) Structure and Style for the second year. She also used Fix It! Grammar, and will be moving on to Structure and Style 1B for her seventh-grade year.
• Science curriculum  – This was one main subject that we stuck with from her Abeka Online & Video Lessons.
• Social Studies/History – Included in Family Studies.
• Reading– some of her personal reading choices this year:
  • Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls
  • Little Town in the Ozarks by Roger Lea MacBride
  • The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare
  • Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham
  • Dreams of Gold by Lynn Kirby
  • The Black Stallion by Walter Farley

​Family Studies & Extras

• Social Studies/History – There have been years that our children will work one-on-one with me through their Abeka history books, but we will often implement history as a read-aloud for the family – whether we read their books together, biographies, or historical literature. This year, we wrapped up ancient history through Story of the World as well Tuttle Twins America’s History book. While we have studied United States history or Early American History through Abeka in the past years, the kids enjoyed Tuttle Twins, as it is taught through storytelling. 
• Math Practice – Khan Academy is an entire Academy, but we have used it for their math program – for review, practice, independent work, and online assessments. We have loved using Khan Academy for that extra practice work.
• Fix It Grammar – While each child worked through their own Fix It! Grammar book, we also reviewed them together on the chalkboard. This allows for great conversation and greater understanding for everyone.
• Read Aloud – In addition to our history-based books, we selected family read-alouds each year. These included a mix of classic literature and books our younger girls could enjoy, too:
  • The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • George Washington Carver by Janet & Geoff Benge
  • Swiss Family Robinson by Johann D. Wyss
  • The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson
  • All Creation Waits by Gayle Boss
  • The True Gift by Patricia MacLachlan
  • Stewart Little by E.B. White
  • The Little Bear Treasury by Else Holmelund Minarik
  • The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone
  • Tales of Peter Rabbit and His Friends by Beatrix Potter
  • The Complete Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem
• Brighter Day Press  – Volume 3 Morning Time
  I purchased this last year, and as much as we loved it, I found it difficult to finish with everything else we were doing. I tried to get back to it this year, but I had the same problem. We have loved what we’ve used, but we have not finished it. It includes:
  • Hymn study
  • Composer study
  • Scripture memory work (my husband also does this separately with the kids in the evening)
• Art Class – Used in conjunction with outside art classes, we have loved using all of Brighter Day Press’ watercolor classes for the last few years.
• Election Year – This school year was an election year, so we took time to study the election process while lightly studying the role of government. We also took time to watch the Inauguration of Donald Trump. While our children have watched an inauguration before, they are at an age where they are able to have more understanding than in previous years. Inauguration Day also fell on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so we took time to watch videos and read about the life of Martin Luther King Jr., as we do every year. 
• Capitol Day with GHEA (Georgia Home Education Association) – this year, we joined GHEA and HSLDA for Georgia’s annual Homeschool Day at the Capitol to meet our elected officials, sit in informative classes on the legislative process, and tour the Capitol. This is something we have desired to do for years, and we will definitely be doing it again.
• Piano Lessons – Our son started piano in 2nd grade and has worked with the same wonderful piano teacher for the last two years. He also plays different sports throughout the year.
• Dance – Both of our older daughters dance ballet, tap, and jazz at the same studio together and have been there since they were five and six.

Evening Time: Scripture Memory

One of the sweetest parts of our day happens in the evenings. My husband leads scripture memory and prayer time with the kids. This may look something like this: read a passage aloud, discuss what they have read, recite the weekly memory verse with them, and close with prayer. He also reads different books with them before bed, so it does not always look the same, but it is always intentional and sweet.

What We Didn’t Use This Year

Every homeschool year looks a little different for us. Here are a few things we’ve used in the past but stepped away from this year:

• Foreign Language – We paused Spanish for this school year, but will pick it up down the road. We will begin Latin through Memoria Press next year for our 2025-2026 school year. 
• Beautiful Feet Books – We’ve used this literature-rich curriculum in the past and will return to it for our 2025-2026 school year.

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