I can’t believe it’s that time of year again! Yep, it’s time to share our relaxed homeschool curriculum choices for next year.
Yay!! This is going to be so much fun. 🙂
Since I have so many kids, instead of sharing all of our choices at once, I’m going to break it up into three separate posts: the littles, the middles, and the teens.
Today I’m going to start with my littles, who will be entering Kindergarten, 2nd, and 3rd grade in the upcoming homeschool year.
Relaxed Homeschool Curriculum Choices for Kindergarten, 2nd, and 3rd Grade
Before I even get started, I just want to clarify that as relaxed, or minimalist, homeschoolers, we do not use a ton of textbooks. Throughout our nine years on this journey, we’ve realized that when it comes to learning (at least with our kids) that less is more. So, if you came here hoping to see a slew of textbooks for ten different subjects, then this probably isn’t the place for you. 😉
At this point in time, the only books my littles will be using individually are for phonics and math. Everything else is generally done as a group or is used as a shared resource.
This will be a simple list of our chosen resources. For a more in-depth look into our curriculum choices and how we implement it, watch the video I’ve included at the bottom of this post. 🙂
Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s get started!
(This post contains affiliate links.)
Kindergarten
Phonics – Explode the Code
Math – (I looked over Abeka Kindergarten and she already knew all of that, so…) Abeka Arithmetic 1
2nd Grade
Phonics – Adventures in Phonics Level A (finish up) and Level B
Math – Abeka Arithmetic 2
3rd Grade
Phonics/Writing – Adventures in Phonics Level B (She will have just a little of this to finish up before moving on to…) Copywork using poems by Shel Silverstein
Math – Abeka Arithmetic 3
Group Work/Shared Resources
Spelling – Natural Speller
Reading – Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and living books
History, Science, Art, Social Studies, Geography, Nature Study – Around the World with Picture Books by Beautiful Feet Books
All Subjects – life learning via interest-led learning
Believe it or not, that’s it! You don’t need to have dozens of textbooks in order for your children to have an effective education. In fact, the more you attempt to put on children this young, the less receptive they’ll be, so my motto is: Keep it simple.
Tune in next week as I share what we’re using for 5th, 6th, and 7th grade! What are your curriculum choices for next year?
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There's No Place Like Home 
Your girls are so cute! I loved seeing them in your video!
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Thank you. They can be a handful, lol.
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I have a question for you regarding the Abeka 2nd grade math curriculum. Do you also purchase and use the teacher’s guide, lesson plans, tests and quizzes, or any of the charts and flash cards, or are you just using the student workbook?
We are currently using Rod and Staff math. My daughter is finding it very easy, so I’m using more of a hands-off approach, letting her work through the lessons, and only really working with her on the new concepts, or things she is not understanding.
I was homeschooled myself, using Abeka math, and enjoyed it very much. Just wondering what your take is on using this curriculum with a relaxed homeschool approach?
Thank you!
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I just use the workbook, and it works perfectly for us. It’s simple but effective and cuts out the busywork and stress. 🙂
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Perfect! Thank you!
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Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and methods! I am new to homeschooling and will be starting with my 2nd grader in September. With the Abeka math workbook, do you purchase the answer key? I would think it would be easy to arrive at the answers, but I also know that workbooks/textbooks can sometimes arrive at answers differently than I would! Is it worth the extra expense to have the key? Also, do you let them do as many pages as they want within a set time period or do you follow a lesson plan for the math portion of their schooling?
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I do not use the answer key. I don’t feel they’re necessary at this stage of the game. Typically, my kids will do 1 to 2 pages per day. I prefer 2, but if there are a lot of problems on a page, I’ll let them just do 1 page that day.
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How are you liking Natural Speller so far? I just got it and will start using it in a couple weeks. I’m worried there will be too much prep work for me.
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It was too schoolish for me, so I just use the word lists. I give my kids 10 words a week, and they write them 3x each every day. It’s been working well for us that way.
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Do you have a similar post for 4th grade?
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I mean do you have a post where you share about your 4th grade curriculum? 🙂
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Here is the lik for my kids around that age. I don’t have a 4th grader this year, but if I did, they still would have used all the resources I mention here – https://redheadmom8.wordpress.com/2018/04/05/relaxed-homeschool-curriculum-for-5th-6th-and-7th-grade/
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I looked for your review of Explode the Code, but couldn’t find one. Did you do a review? I’m starting my daughter in Kindergarten. Do you have any updates for what you would be using today if you had a child in Kindergarten?
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Explode the Code didn’t end up working as well as I had hoped. I ended up using Adventures in Phonics and Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I alternated them – one day Adventures in Phonics, the next day Teach Your Child. It worked really well, and if I had a kindergartener, I would do that again.
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