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By Kristen on October 19, 2025

As a homeschool mom, starting our school year is a favorite time of year for me! We are a couple of months into our eighth year of homeschooling, and I am loving the changes we made for this school year.

This year, our homeschool includes a middle schooler in 7th grade, two elementary students in 5th grade and 4th grade, a preschooler, and a one-year-old. I love sharing our curriculum choices and what our daily routine looks like with other homeschool moms—or anyone curious about homeschooling!

Over the years, we have gradually transitioned from a more traditional homeschooling approach to a more classical schooling method. I share a little about this in a previous blog post, along with our curriculum choices for 3rd, 4th, and 6th grades at the time.

Our Appreciation for Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA)

I often share my great appreciation for HSLDA. Our family has been a member for years, and I greatly 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 great resources for families, as well as 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.

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.

2025-2026 Homeschool Curriculum Picks 

Preschool 

The preschool ages have looked a little different for each of our children, while also being quite similar. Our four-year-old is our preschooler this year. Preschool is not a formal education for us, but I will share what we are doing with her.

She has been very eager to learn, and I love to steward that eagerness. She loves joining her older siblings at the table. Whether she’s coloring, painting with watercolors, building with Legos, or practicing numbers, letters, colors, and shapes in activity books, she’s always involved. Like her big brother, she was asking for her own school books at age three.

Last spring, she began working through Abeka’s K5 Math book and Kindergarten Prep Language Arts through The Good and the Beautiful. We’re also using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and phonics cards – resources I’ve used with all our children to teach reading. Throughout the year, we’ll read many books aloud (some are listed at the end under Read Aloud). We will officially begin Kindergarten with her in our 2026–2027 school year.

4rd Grade 

Our son is our 4th grader this year.

• Math – He is using Math-U-See this year. Though he has done excellently with Abeka in the past, we wanted to focus on division skills, so he’s currently using their Delta level and plans to transition to Saxon Math later in the year.
• Language Arts – Since we used Abeka and Learning Language Arts Through Literature (LLATL) last year, we put a pause on LLATL for the summer, so he is finishing the yellow book and will begin the orange book around November. He’s also starting Structure and Style 1A from IEW, while continuing with Fix It! Grammar. After completing The Nose Tree, he’s now working through Town Mouse and Country Mouse.
• Science –  We are using Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology this year.
• Social Studies/History – We are covering this as a family – see family studies.
• Reading – Here are some of his personal readings this year. He is currently finishing Pearl Harbor is Burning.
  • Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
  • Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Pearl Harbor is Burning by Kathleen V. Kudlinski
  • Frederick Douglass by Janet and Geoff Benge
• Handwriting (Cursive Curriculum) – We are using the Charlotte Mason Handwriting Series: Cursive Quotations.
• Poetry  – We’re continuing with Robert Frost and adding Emily Dickinson poems as well. He uses a notebook to copy these poems after reading them. 

5th Grade

Our second daughter is our 5th grader this year. 

• Math – She is using Saxon Math 6/5 and loving it! She says this is her favorite math curriculum!
• Language Arts – She is working through Learning Language Arts Through Literature (the purple book) and IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) for the third year with her older sister.  She is also using their Town Mouse and Country Mouse Fix It! Grammar book.
• Science –  Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology book. 
• Social Studies/History – Covered in our Family Studies
• Reading– Our older girls love to read! These are books that she is currently reading. She will be adding to this list as the year goes on.
  • Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • On The Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder 
  • The Box Car Children Set by Gertrude Chandler Warner (finishing two books from last year)

7th Grade

Our oldest daughter is our 7th grader this year.

• Math – After taking two years with Math-U-See for mastery’s sake, she switched over to Saxon Math 8/7, and it’s been a great fit.
• Language Arts – She is using Learning Language Arts Through Literature (green book), IEW (Institute of Excellence in Writing) 1B Structure and Style, and Robin Hood Fix It! Grammar. She is also working through Vocabulary from Classical Roots B & C.
• Science curriculum  – This year, she is using Apologia’s General Science, plus joining us for our group study of Apologia’s Anatomy & Physiology. 
• Social Studies/History  –  Covered in our Family Studies.
• Reading – Our oldest is an avid reader! This year, she chose the Anne of Green Gables set.
  • The Complete Set of Anne of Green Gables – By L.M. Montgomery
    • Anne of Green Gables
    • Anne of Avonlea
    • Anne of the Island
    • Anne of Windy Poplars
    • Anne’s House of Dreams 
    • Anne of Ingleside
    • Rainbow Valley
    • Rilla of Ingleside  
• Logic  – She’s working through The Fallacy Detective by Nathaniel Boone & Hans Bluedorn. We will also use this as a family over time. 

Family Studies

• Social Studies/History – This homeschool year, we are using Beautiful Feet Books Medieval History paired with our Middle Ages Story of the World. Beautiful Feet Books Medieval History comes with about twenty books, which we will read together. These are such good books that we are all looking forward to reading! We are currently wrapping up our first book, Beowulf. We will also continue Tuttle Twins American History. Tuttle Twins has two volumes. We will read through the second volume this year.
• Geography  – I am so excited to be working through Holling Geography Unit Study with the kids! We’ve had these sweet books for a couple of years and are finally working through them and their maps this year.
• Science  – As a family, we are studying Apologia’s Human Body Book (Anatomy and Physiology). The amount of work will vary for each of our children based on age and grade level. We have been enjoying this book so far! 
• Diagramming  – While diagramming has been built into their individual Language Arts curriculum through the years, I’ve desired to reinforce concepts as a family, so we are using How to Diagram Any Sentence & The Diagramming Dictionary.
• Foreign Language  –  We will begin Memoria Press First Form Latin Set in November.
• Music Appreciation  – We are using Beautiful Feet’s Music Appreciation. These are such beautiful books that we have been enjoying!

Read Aloud

Along with our Medieval history curriculum, here are some of the books we chose to read together this year. I’ve had to update two books since my original post, which had incorrect/incomplete titles (The Hiding Place & Homer – updated November 1, 2025).

• The Lord of the Rings Series by J.R.R. Tolkien
  • The Fellowship of the Ring
  • The Two Towers
  • The Return of the King
• The Hiding Place: An Engaging Visual Journey by Corrie Ten Boom
• Homer (this is the boxed set retelling for young readers)
  • The Iliad
  • The Odyssey
• Brother Andrew by Janet & Geoff Benge
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
• Winnie the Poo by A.A. Milne 
• James Herriot’s Treasury for Children 
• The Burgess Bird Book For Children by Thornton W. Burgess (a reread for our younger girls)

Extras

• Piano Lessons – Our son started piano in 2nd grade, so this is his third year of piano with the same teacher. We love our studio and his teacher, who has been able to help steward the gift in him so well. He also plays various sports throughout the year.
• Dance – Our oldest daughters dance ballet, tap, and jazz at the same studio together, and they love it!

What We Aren’t Using This Year

While I loved Morning Time from Brighter Day Press, I couldn’t keep up with it with our other studies. I hope to use their morning time another year! We will continue using their watercolor classes for art class, and I purchased their homeschool planner, which I am loving. 

This year, we will only be using Abeka for Naomi’s K5 Math Book. In previous years, we have included Abeka for our older children, especially for math. After years of hearing glowing reviews from veteran homeschool parents and doing my own research, it felt like the right time to make the switch for our older kids to Saxon Math. 

While we used Khan Academy’s Math in our previous school year for extra practice, online assessments, and independent work, we will not be utilizing this resource this school year. 

 

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