Although most of us are finished with school for the year, many of us homeschoolers are already looking to next year.  With convention season in full swing, decisions are being made about what curriculum and supplements to purchase.  With that in mind, I thought I would share some of our primary and/or favorite resources.

Our core curriculum consists of:

• Daily Bread: This is a unit study outline/reference that I created for our family.
• Language Arts at Home: I created this one, too.  Based on KISS Grammar (free online), it provides an outline for language arts for K-11th grade, with the fundamental information necessary to teach using the texts we’re already reading.
• Rays Arithmetic: This is our math program.  Used in one-room schoolhouses in the 1800’s, it’s very “real-life” based and starts out very concrete.  The 8-volume set will take you through 8th grade – very cost-effective!
• Stick Figuring Through the Bible: Old Testament Overview from Grapevine Studies: This is fantastic!  We’ve not been very consistent at using it, so we’re still in the Old Testament, but when we finish this, we’ll move on to the New Testament Overview.
• TATRAS Phonics: Known as “vertical phonics,” this teaches all sounds of a letter at once, rather than teaching each letter multiple times.  (This is very similar to the Spalding method used in The Writing Road to Reading.  It’s a little more student-friendly, though.)

We also really love (for supplementation, etc.):

• My Homeschool Planner: This is the planner my mama created when I was in school.  It has worked well for hundreds of students for well over a decade, and is readily adapted to a variety of homeschooling styles.
• Scripture Memory Fellowship: We love their preschool-level memory books, which also have CD’s available to go with them.  The music is pleasant even for mama to listen to again and again.
• various Montessori (or Montessori-inspired) activities
• Getty-Dubay Italic handwriting font from Educational Fontware’s CD: This allows me to not only create pages for handwriting practice, but also to create copywork and other worksheets with the lettering style we are teaching our daughters.
• our local library!

What curriculum works for you?