2019-2020 Catholic Homeschool Curriculum Reviews

A review of our 2019-2020 Catholic Homeschool Curriculum for 7th, 2nd, 1st, and Preschool students.

Hey. friend! I get requests every year to review the curriculum we used in the past year- that’s what’s on the agenda today.

This past year was marks our 7th year of homeschooling and I feel like I can say we’ve found our groove.

Planning takes me very little time now because of the easy to use curriculum I choose and also because I know what is going to work for our family (my students and me!).

I get really honest about curriculum purchases before buying using these 10 Criteria for Homeschool Curriculum.

Being really honest about what works means we are saving money, accomplishing more academically, and saving this mama’s daily sanity.

I feel absolutely no regret that our homeschool doesn’t fit perfectly into one particular method and I no longer have shiny curriculum and method syndrome!

In years past we were switching curriculum mid-year, but we finished the year with everything we started with this year. Hallelujah!

2019-2020 Catholic Homeschool Curriculum Reviews

7th Grade (Isaiah)

Math – Merrill Algebra I

This book was unearthed in the in-laws’ basement from Husband’s long ago homeschool days. It saved us $300 over purchasing a new math curriculum and it has worked well- I call that a double win!

MONEY SAVING TIP: go with older book editions (especially in math) and that it will not affect the quality of your students education.

Isaiah teaches himself as many of the lessons he can, but I’m always there to answer his questions and help him with lessons that are harder for him to grasp.

• lots of daily practice on new concepts
• chapter reviews and tests
• quarterly and semester tests
• builds on old concepts
• incremental approach
• inexpensive
• reusable for other students

Isaiah is quite mathematically minded and he needed a bit of a challenge. He’s been able to slowly work his way through this book in the past 18 months, reviewing lessons when necessary.

TIP: When his work (or his siblings work) gets sloppy or has lots of silly mistakes in it, we assign one-on-one tutoring in the evening (with whoever is available, mom or dad).

Our kids don’t want to “waste” their free time with a tutoring session, so they try extra hard to get it right the first time. One night of tutoring and their work usually improves the next day.

We plan on continuing with Merrill Algebra II (another one of Husband’s homeschool hand-me-downs) this fall.

VERDICT: KEEPER

Writing –  Modern World History Based Writing Lessons (IEW)

Since completing the IEW Student Writing Intensive B a couple of years ago, we have continued with the themed based writing offered by Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW).

This year we used Modern World History Based Writing Lessons (IEW).

I really don’t have enough good things to say about this program. It’s made my math-minded-writing-disliking boy a decent writer!!!

• great for independent study
• grab and go
• reusable for other students

We plan on doing another theme based writing program from IEW in the fall, most likely this one: Following Narnia Volume I: The Lion’s Song

Verdict: Keeper

English – Seton English 7

We continue to use and love Seton workbooks for both English Grammar and Spelling (review below).

• great for independent study
• incremental approach to learning
• regular review
• grab and go
• broken into daily lessons for easy scheduling

Verdict: Keeper

Spelling – Seton Spelling 7

Again, we love the ease of the Seton workbooks for Spelling. The only time involved for me is administering the weekly test.

• great for independent study
• incremental approach to learning
• regular review
• grab and go
• broken into daily lessons

These workbooks (both Seton English Grammar and Spelling) are no brainers and will remain stand-bys in our family for a long time. They are nothing fancy but they get the job done and done well.

Verdict: Keeper

Latin – Latin for Children B & C (Classical Academic Press)

This is the third year we’ve been using Latin for Children from Classical Academic Press and we continue to like how easy it is to use.

Since we homeschool year round, Isaiah finished Level B early in the year and began Level C immediately afterwards.

Here’s what we like about Latin for Children:

• Easy to use
• Intuitively broken down into daily lessons
• Review lessons to bolster old material
• Great video instruction (important for this non-Latin mama)
• Very independent (I correct his weekly test each week, but he is able to do the rest on his own)
• reusable for other students

I was recently asked by a reader about my experiences teaching Latin. While we certainly haven’t tried ALL Latin curriculums, we have used a couple so I’ll be sharing my thoughts soon!

Isaiah will be finishing up Level C soon and we will most likely move into Latin Alive! (also from Classical Academic Press).

VERDICT: Keeper

History – Our Catholic Legacy II (Seton)

When your child reads lots of good literature (especially historical fiction), formal study of history isn’t quite as critical.

However, we chose to go ahead and do some formal study of history this year to help transition Isaiah to more rigorous history work in his coming high school years.

Seton once again came to the rescue with their easy to use books.

• chapters broken down into 36 weeks (perfect for homeschool year scheduling)
• history from a Catholic perspective
• review questions to enforce learning at the end of every chapter
• reusable for other students

VERDICT: KEEPER

Religion – weekly Adoration, daily Bible reading, Our Lady of Victory Religion 7

Before the bombshell that is 2020 happened, Isaiah and I were blessed to do about 20 minutes of adoration together during the younger three’s Catechesis of the Good Shepherd class. It was a gift to both of us!

Isaiah continues to do his nightly Bible reading and is so faithful to it! He got The Great Adventure Study Bible for his birthday this year since he read his Catholic Children’s Bible by St. Mary’s Press to pieces.

On top of those two good devotional practices and living our Catholic faith in the home, he also worked through Our Lady of Victory Religion 7. After our time in adoration, we would go over his religion review questions for the week.

We’ve been quite pleased with these courses and plan on using the reusable books with each of our children.

• faithful to the Magisterium
• based on Baltimore Catechism
• stories to illustrate points
• review questions
• independent (I assigned 10 pages/week)
• reusable for other students

VERDICT: KEEPER

Piano – Hoffman Academy Piano

This is our 4th(?) year using Hoffman Academy and we still love it!

• accessible (no driving to lessons)
• affordable ($179 for a year’s worth of lessons or FREE!)
• independent

Isaiah continues to learn, understand the basics of music, and enjoy Hoffman Academy too! He has started (voluntarily) supervising lessons for his little sister, Clare.

I don’t know that he will be a concert pianist by the time he is done with the program, but he will understand music and have some playing capability.

If he eventually expresses more interest in the piano, I would be happy to pay for private lessons for him.

VERDICT: KEEPER

Computer programming (Teach Your Kids to Code)

This was the first year we transitioned Isaiah from typing into computer programming. This is 100% a foreign language for me, so engineer Husband has complete say in this subject of our school.

We were happy with the book we chose for Isaiah to use this year: Teach Your Kids to Code: A Parent-Friendly Guide to Python. He completed it in February and then Husband moved him on to some other free programs online.

• easy to use
• good for non-programming parents
• independent
• projects to apply learning
• inexpensive
• reusable for other students

Instead of trying to assign a set amount of work each day, I just assigned him 30-45 minutes of coding/day.

VERDICT: KEEPER

Art – You Can Draw in 30 Days

One other subject that Isaiah I worked on together was working through the book You Can Draw in 30 Days. We did this together while the three youngest were at Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

Doing the lessons with Isaiah made it a bit more fun for him and I learned something too! We stopped our art lessons after CGS was cancelled, but plan on picking up and finishing the book together this year.

• easy to use
• uncomplicated art projects
• broken down nicely into 30 lessons (perfect for 1 lesson/ week)
• inexpensive
• reusable for other students

VERDICT: KEEPER

2nd Grade (John Christian)

Math – Abeka Math Grade 2, Abeka Math Grade 3, and  Sudoku

We did not use Abeka math with our first child, Isaiah, but it has been a great program for our youngest three.

• easy to use (1 page=1 lesson)
• incremental and spiral approach to math
• lots of review
• daily speed drills to encourage working quickly
• affordable

Math is something we do year round and John Christian finished the 2nd grade book midyear and moved directly into 3rd Grade.

John Christian’s hospitalization and medical issues means he is a bit behind and his motor skills aren’t quite up to snuff. Abeka workbooks provide space within each math worksheet to work the problems which is much better than copying problems from a text book.

We will continue to use Abeka for Kindergarten through 3rd grade math.

John Christian also occasionally did Sudoko puzzles which he enjoys and are a good logic stretch for his brain.

VERDICT: KEEPER

Reading – Explode the Code, readers, phonogram flashcards, sight word flashcards

We continue to enjoy the Explode the Code workbooks. They do a great job introducing a phonics rule and then providing lots of practice before moving on.

A typical school day looks like:

• 3-4 pages of Explode the Code workbook
• read aloud to Mom from a reader (Little Angel Readers and Faith and Freedom Readers)
• practice phonogram drill OR sight words

I’m always so thrilled with any academic or physical progress John Christian makes after the past few tough years. By February this year, he was able to begin reading the Boxcar Children series. We couldn’t be more proud.

VERDICT: KEEPER

Penmanship – Writing Our Catholic Faith 2 & 3 Cursive

This was our first year using Writing Our Catholic Faith 2: Manuscript from the Writing Our Catholic Faith Series. It is a nice workbook, but I think next year we will switch back to Seton penmanship books.

Why?

Seton penmanship has approximately twice as many pages which offers a lot more practice for struggling writers. John Christian completed the above workbook by midyear and his handwriting hadn’t improved that much because there wasn’t quite enough practice.

VERDICT: NICE but we’ll be switching

Music – Piano Lessons (Hoffman Academy)

We ended up not doing piano lessons this year. John Christian just wasn’t ready for lessons and we wanted to focus on bringing his 3 R’s up to speed before adding in “extras.”

VERDICT: GREAT PROGRAM (we’ll try it again in a year or two)

Memorization – poetry, scripture, prayers

This continues to be something I enjoy doing with my elementary students. It offers great public speaking practice and one-on-one speech help.

I print off several poems and scriptures at the beginning of the year, put them in a plastic sleeve, and store them in their daily work clipboard. They are right there every day and then can get pulled out and illustrated when memorization is complete.

1st Grade (Clare)

Math – Abeka Math Grade 1

Again, Abeka early elementary math books continue to be a winner in our house. We didn’t get the speed drills for this year but plan on introducing them next year.

As an added bonus, my kids love to cut out all the colorful illustrations from their workbook pages when they are done with their work.

(See more thorough review of Abeka Math in John Christian’s section above.)

VERDICT: KEEPER

Reading – Ready2Read, Explode the Code series, readers, phonogram flashcards, sight word flashcards

Again, the Explode the Code series is a winnner in our house. (See more deatiled review in John Christian’s section above.)

Clare also took of with her reading my the end of the year and is now on to the Boxcar Children series as well. Which means, we’ll be phasing out phonics instruction soon.

VERDICT: WINNER

Penmanship – Writing Our Catholic Faith 1: Manuscript

Again, a great series, just wish it had a bit more practice for when a child struggles with a particular letter formation.

We’ll be switching back to Seton in the coming year. (See a more thorough review in John Christian’s section above.)

VERDICT: Not quite enough practice

Memorization – poetry, scripture, prayers

Preschool (Elijah, 4 years old)

Prereading – Explode the Code series

We are slowly working our way through the Explode the Code series with Elijah as well. We aim to get 1 or 2 pages done a day but will go long stretches in stopping our workbook to reinforce the concepts.

(See a more thorough review in John Christian’s section above.)

VERDICT: KEEPER

Math – workbook, puzzle, counting games

Elijah is a pretty smart cookie and he needed something to keep him occupied during our homeschool time so I began him on Abeka Math K. He has done well and will probably be finishing the workbook early in Kindergarten.

Again, we love Abeka Math for early elementary. (See a more thorough review in John Christian’s section above.)

VERDICT: KEEPER

Penmanship – Seton K penmanship

This book had some left over pages in it from my other kids and so Elijah is using up the “leftovers.”

I find the Seton handwriting books to be such a good deal. There is so much writing practice that the student gets plenty of time to get their formation correct. They usually have a hard time completing the book by the end of the year so I can use it some with other students as well.

VERDICT: KEEPER

Youngest 3 Together

Baltimore Catechism

The Baltimore Catechism has been a stand-by from our earliest days homeschooling. I’m not quite as consistent as I would like to be with this subject and my younger three, but they are all developing a nice understanding of the faith nonetheless.

READ MORE: BALTIMORE CATECHISM: Step-by-step Guide to Using it IN YOUR HOMESCHOOL (with printable schedule)

VERDICT: KEEPER

Art Appreciation – study /memorize art pieces and artists (using art cards)

This is one of those good intentions that has a hard time coming to fruition. I focus very heavily on the 3 R’s in the beginning of homeschooling so these little “extras” can fall through the cracks.

However, we usually read the following two books every year: Come Look With Me and A Child’s Book of Prayer in Art. My kids enjoy them and I do too. They make art study approachable for this mama!

Music Appreciation – learn more about the orchestra and listen to classical music (Alligators and Music)

The kids enjoyed this book, but I think I much prefer Story of the Orchestra from our study last year.

Bible Stories (4 days per week, a mix of The Golden Children’s Bible and the Action Bible) and Saint Stories (1 x per week) both with narration

We do a lot of faith based reading in our house, but I have to be honest and say I am not good and making it part of our homeschool schedule. It happens much more organic than that.

I do; however, enjoy using my monthly liturgical reading lists to come up with liturgicall appropriate reads.

Geography – continents, oceans, hemispheres, USA states and capitals

The kids and I have casually been working through the states and capitals. I think we’ve got about half of them down and we intend on getting the other half down this year.

These flashcards have been helpful.

Skip counting, counting to 100

Skip counting is great for memory work and for building math concepts. It will be something we continue to do together.

Drawing from various “How to Draw” books

This, again, is something that happens much more organically than the scheduled “once per week” that I envision at the beginning of the year. It is great to have a big pile of how to draw books for them to choose from when they want to draw.

Here are a few of the books the kids enjoy working from:

All Together

Morning Offering, family devotion, and Rosary decade

This seems to go in spurts. We do it about 75% of the year, which, I think, isn’t too terrible of a track record.

We offer up our family intentions with just one decade of the rosary. Sticking to just one decade makes saying the rosary much more approachable!

PE – Family Time Fitness

I started this last summer with the kids, but Husband took over and began doing workouts with the kids a few times a week.

I certainly don’t mind having him take over! Besides this, I think of us as a fairly active family.

The kids enjoy annual swimming lessons too, but we don’t participate in any other sports.

I hope this little review of our homeschool curriculum is helpful to you! Wishing you a beautiful homeschool journey!

You also might enjoy:

A Required Reading List for Your {Catholic} Child

Creating your Own Scope and Sequence

Books to Prepare and Inspire Your First Communicant

Finding Free Books for Your Homeschool