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What Resources Do You Use For This Subject?

Simply Organizing Home and School, Lists, Teacher's Corner

What Resources Use

(page under construction)

“What resources do you recommend for ____?” is a very common question which all of us homeschool moms have asked as we make plans for educating our children. Hopefully some of our suggestions will help you! 🙂 

Sometimes our family uses resources which are very well-known to other homeschooling families. Sometimes, however, we end up liking something less common better!

After trying a variety of resources and previewing others along our journey, we’ve settled generally into using the resources you will read about on my lists (or we may have if we had seen it earlier). These would be resources which we would also say are of enough worth to enjoy repeating if given the opportunity!

Of course, these are just suggestions to help you on this quest for great educational resources to use for homeschooling! Only YOU will know what will be the best fit for YOUR family.  And just like us, sometimes that will only be discovered when you try something for a while!

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“Where Can I Find Help and Ideas for Teaching ______?”

Sometimes I write blog posts with teaching tips for specific subject areas. Any current or future posts can be found by either going to the “Our Twist” tab or “Encouragemints” tab and then to the subject(s) you are looking for.

Note 1:

Please note that the lists on this post do NOT generally include the various novels, picture books, videos, etc. which we would also supplement our studies with. To see what we might consider a good choice for those, please go to the tab “LISTS” or the links here:

Note 2:

The lists for this page also does NOT include resources for teaching Bible studies or family Bible time (a.k.a. devotions). This is because we do not view “Bible” as a “school subject” that one graduates from or needs to have a spot on a “report card” for evaluating what is learned.

To see what resources we recommend for Bible-related and Christian-character-education-related studies for families, please see go to:

  • Compilation of Bible-based Resources (a list of various pages and posts on our website(s) to help families learn together from God’s Word)
  • Bible and Christian Ed. (a shop category of resources we sell)
  • And the lists of Character-Building Titles mentioned above include some Bible-related resources as well.

Note 3:

FULL DISCLOSURE: This page contains some affiliate links and some non-affiliate links. For this page, consider that the product links will go to an affiliate product page or into our online shop unless otherwise indicated as a non-affiliate link.

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What does our family like for the subject of ____?

Table of Contents

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Science

Early Learning – General Science

Our family uses these for K-3 science –

Supplemental Resources:

  • Kits which we have not used personally but would have I think if we had found out about these earlier in our homeschooling, are hand-cut educational felt and sensory sets by someone we met at a homeschool conference. The (non-affiliate) link to her website is Twig and Daisy.
  • Grades 4-6 or Nature Walks – I liked what a couple of Cindy West’s (not an affiliate) resources looked like to supplement some science for our family in the junior levels. She has been a homeschooling mom who also has developed curriculum unit study books, such as one called 100+ Easy and Fun Creative Nature Walks – which is ANY age! Sometimes the student pages of her typical unit studies resemble “fancy writing paper” so we do not find those very useful. But her suggestions for video content, some literature, and organizing of the topics are fairly good. (Note: When I recently looked back at her website, it looks like she has restructured her focus from downloadable pdfs to membership-based video classes instead. The resource book(s) I mentioned might not be available.)
  • For additional resources for the topic of Health studies (including human biology), go to the “Health/Phys. Ed” heading further down on this page.

Middle to Upper Grades

NEW! We have recently published a multi-level unit study (15-18 lessons) specifically on the topic of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is for grades K-12+, in other words, young students to adults. And it is FREE! Find more information about it here:

Science for Grades 4-10/11

Personally for my own family for curriculum, I teach with a lot of things which I’ve either developed or organized from “wherever”, including my own life as a student years ago.

These titles are still in “draft mode” and not published yet but I’d link to them here if/when they ever are completed and available:

  • Multi-Grade Science: Outer Space
  • Multi-Grade Science: Diversity of Plants
  • Multi-Grade Science: Geology (supplemented with various videos from Answers in Genesis, Creation Ministries International, or other similar ministries)
  • Multi-Grade Science: Ecology and Microscopes
  • Multi-Grade Science: Human Biology
  • Multi-Grade Science: Diversity of Animals
  • Multi-Grade Science: Gears and Work
  • Multi-Grade Science: Genetics

And, here are some other resources we have included in our science studies for grades 4-12:

Pearson Education Prentice Hall Science Explorer Series – There are life science titles (environmental science, animals, human body, plants), earth science titles (we liked the one on weather), and physical science titles (which includes two good titles for chemistry and other titles for physics topics). They are full-colour, thin hard-cover, straight-forward, pleasant layout/font/graphics, comprehensive textbooks. The majority of the lessons in most textbooks of this series are presented very well for grades 4 (advanced) to grade 10 levels. You might have a challenge finding these but they might be offered as “used” somewhere. (Note: These are secular materials although in many (but not all) of the titles, the objectional content is not as much as some other textbooks I’ve seen. We did not use the ones on geology or astronomy.)

  • An example title: Earth’s Waters

McDonald Publishing’s Chemistry (Grades 6-9) reproducible book is also a helpful one but that title was discontinued.

Ellen McHenry’s Basement Workshop (affiliate link): Ellen McHenry develops science curriculum differently than some homeschool publishers and we like how that looks! See her website for titles. We began with her botany curriculum and also printed out her chemistry books (the general one and the one for carbon chemistry). She has printable e-books for some curriculum. We’ve also gone through the study of protists (protozoa). See my review about her curriculum at this link.

Steck-Vaughn published reproducible books – Physical Science and Chemistry These have worksheets and summary pages which are good to use for high school levels. We might still have these left in our shop here.

See also my comments below for how we combined grades 7-11 for physics. (I did this so that brothers could enjoy doing lab activities together and watch the same video lessons. The oldest brother completed the tests and did more written work/mathematics in comparison to his younger brothers.)

Science for Grades 11/12 – Biology, Chemistry, Physics

Science Shepherd (not an affiliate link): Our family has used two of these courses.

If a “conversational style” for curriculum bothers you this might be the answer because this curriculum has less conversation filler and focuses on science more than some homeschool curriculum. (A conversational style is where there are paragraphs upon paragraphs telling you sort of a story to get to the main points. We didn’t want that style ourselves so that is why we searched for something that would be a better fit for us.)

  • BIOLOGY (e.g. Grade 12) – The senior high school level textbook, DVD, and lab course has all labs on DVD if you can’t do them in real life. It is very comprehensive but presented quite well. It has a solid science foundation with a lot of great details and comes from a creationist perspective. The downsides to this program were that the videos were mainly done in “a talking head” style and that the chapters were sometimes more detailed than what they needed to be for high school levels.
  • PHYSICS (e.g. Grades 9-11) – The Fundamentals of Physics video course (with online quizzes) is taught well. A high school textbook as a accompanying reference book is a good idea too. I chose not to include their lab activities because I was combining this course with another publisher’s physics. (What that meant for me was to rearrange the other publisher’s lab manual activities to fit with the order of concepts taught in the Science Shepherd’s course. There were a few “gaps” of no activities but for us, that was satisfactory.)
    • Because a couple of grades 7-9 students were also watching the Fundamentals of Physics video content, I supplemented them with another textbook, laboratory notebook, and teacher’s manual called “Focus on Middle School Physics” (3rd edition by Rebecca W. Keller, Real Science Kids) – I really like the size of print and layout in that orange textbook! However, Keller’s books were being discontinued.
    • If you are looking for a physics textbook, the one used in the Science Shepherd Physics course is available through Christian Book Distributors: Fundamentals of Physics. (We’ve used a vintage Canadian textbook designed for grade 11 instead.) The video component is offered through the Science Shepherd website itself.

  • Attending high school in-person for the grade 12 physics course was an option one of ours also did. But be aware that quantum spirituality might be discussed within a secular physics unit on quantum mechanics. (See my blog post here for a note about that difference.)
  • If our teens desire a grade 12 physics, we would also consider an online course through a university at a grade 12 level or physics from Journey Homeschool Academy (see below).

Journey Homeschool Academy (affiliate link) has online science courses with good video and notebooking components to them. See my reviews describing the senior biology and senior chemistry courses at these links: Biology and Chemistry. They also offer other senior science courses which our family has not used at this time.

Other Science for Grades 4-12 – Environmental, Astronomy, Hydrology, Agriculture and other Applications

Our family sometimes combines reference materials (and real life) to self-design some studies with project-based learning (e.g. written reports, posters, speeches, field trips). Here are some resources we have liked for reference materials:

Environmental (Ecology)

(non-affiliate links)

  • Reader’s Digest North American Wildlife: An Illustrated Guide to 2,000 Plants and Animals (a reference guide).
  • University-level textbook:
    • Wildlife and Natural Resource Management (3rd edition) by Kevin H. Deal – This is a very nice textbook/reference book with full-colour photos and readable information.
  • Various videos such as:
    • “It’s a Small World” (micro organisms) (on Moody Adventure series – The Power in Plants)
    • “City of the Bees” (Moody Science Classics) and others
    • “The Wonder of Creation: Soil” and “The Wonder of Creation: Trees” (Day of Discovery/Discovery House Publishers)
Hydrology (Water) and Air Science

(non-affiliate links)

  • Properties of Water: “Science Mom” has 7 excellent videos (YouTube) of MESSY EXPERIMENTS and accompanying free, downloadable booklets with activities. See this link for part 1 and the rest follow it on her website.
  • Water (critical thinking): Here is an interesting website from a retired chemistry faculty member in B.C. and his summaries of water and its scientific properties are quite good for upper level thinkers. Avoiding scams which prey on people who don’t know or remember scientific principles is the main purpose of his site.
  • Bernoulli’s Principle (air): These experiments are only a bit “messy” but I’m adding a link from “Old School Science” here, partly to show you that science can be “a blast” to learn! These take more room/space so you might want to take these ones outside.
  • (I also have my university notes on hydrology but so far, these are not of much use for our teens.)
  • And the “Earth’s Waters” textbook (Pearson Education) – mentioned above.
  • University-level textbooks for reference books:
    • Essentials of Meteorology: An Invitation to the Atmosphere (6th edition) by C. Donald Ahrens – Again, an excellent textbook, for interested middle school to university-level.
    • Weather and Climate: An Introduction (2nd edition) by Sheila Loudon Ross – We’ve not used this one yet for homeschooling but a daughter liked it in post-secondary studies.
  • We also supplement our studies with various videos such as:
Outer Space (Astronomy)

(non-affililate links)

  • Homeschool Astronomy has two sets of PPT slides with lots of detailed photos of space stuff. However, if you want something simpler, you have to summarize some of the details or leave them out. I use this as a resource to supplement my own (draft version) curriculum for my high school students, although younger ones might watch the slides as well.
  • Moody Science Videos – We also supplement our studies with their various videos relating to astronomy. Titles would include:
    • “The Wonders of God’s Creation: Planet Earth” (a family favourite alongside the other videos in “The Wonders of God’s Creation” series)
    • “Journeys to the Edge of Creation” (Our Solar System and The Milky Way) (the longer version of below)
    • Shorter: “Journey to the Stars” (on Moody Adventure series – The Clown-Faced Carpenter)
    • Shorter: “Somewhere Out There” (on Moody Adventure series – Flying on Wings of Beauty)
  • “What You Aren’t Being Told About Astronomy Volume 1: Our Created Solar System” (Creation Astronomy Media) is also a video resource we would use for high school level.
Agriculture, Small Engine Repairs, and other practical applications of Science
  • Homesteading resources provide some good learning materials. (See another section below called “Family Studies and Home Skills”.)
  • Christian Light Publishers (non-affiliate link) has a selection of textbooks and lessons in their high school electives. Our family sometimes uses a textbook from CLP as a reference book. Sometimes (but not always) we have also used their student booklets for these electives.
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Math

Drills

Reinforcement of Facts – Our favourite drills are Mad Minute: Mastering Number Facts (reproducible drills for grades 1-8, all in the same book) published by Dale Seymour Publications. (We have sold this book and might have one or so left in clearance.) 

  • I usually allow 2 or 3 minutes to complete the page, rather than 1 minute. My reason for using drills is not speed but rather review of facts.
  • I don’t use drills every year.
  • When I use them, I like to use them right at the beginning of the school year (or just after the Christmas break), before I have the students work much in their new lessons. This is partly because it’s what I think my grade 1 teacher did years ago (when I started liking “Mad Minutes”) and partly because it’s easy to do while I’m still busy with my work such as canning and harvesting in the fall.

The other drills which we would recommend as more-useful are triangular-shaped flashcards. There are a few varieties now to choose from:

Sometimes I’ve used the basic rectangle kind of flashcards to post up (like mini-posters) for learning, taking the “flash” (speed) aspect away. Here are two examples if you are looking for these kind:

Kindergarten to Grade 2

Our family has enjoyed our PSLC math curriculum! (Our youngest has now moved into junior levels.)

  • Beginner Level (e.g. Kindergarten, Pre-primary, Preschool) – Beginner Math Sticks (or former title, Beginner Math JK/SK)
  • Math Sticks 1 (Grade 1) – This is the kind of math where a kid might announce, “Math is my flavourite subject!” Mine did.
  • Math Sticks 2 (Grade 2) – One of my oldest teens wished I could make her math “just like it”, but at her level!

Math Manipulatives

Be aware that many manipulatives are small or have small parts and are choking hazards. Please use parental discernment if using such items in places where there are children who should not be using these items for safety reasons.

We continue to include manipulatives, as desired by the student or teacher for the early levels as well as into the junior levels. This is because playing with these or having the grade 4 student show the grade 1 student how to work with math manipulatives is both fun and reinforcing for concepts.

To see what manipulatives we like in our family and what they might be used for, please see Our Twist on Math for a downloadable, printable list of manipulatives.

A number of manipulatives might be found around the home or in a general department or grocery store.

Of the other kind which can be purchased specifically for learning math concepts, see these [affiliate] product links:

How might you use manipulatives in math lessons? The “Our Twist on Math“ page has a FREE printable with ideas!

Math Handbooks (reference books) –

We have also appreciated the Nelson math handbooks (Canadian versions) – Math to Learn (gr. 1-2), Math to Know (gr. 3-4), Math at Hand (gr. 5-6), and Math on Call (gr. 7-8) (which may still be on clearance in our shop). Also the high school titles – Algebra to Go and Geometry to Go.

Math Lessons/Curriculum for Grades 3-8 –

Supplemental (Elementary) –

For our family, I gathered various worksheets we had from my parents and aunt (old-fashioned schoolteachers), some Remedia Publications math units (reproducible books), and other “odds and ends”, and organized these according to sub-topic in binders to use, at least for some of the time. I write about it in a blog post: Homeschooling Math in Unit Chunks for Grades 3-8.

We might still have some of these titles in our clearance section here.

A couple of those math unit books are also at CBD so I’ve provided our affiliate links to these below:

(The Mad Minute drills mentioned above also would be considered supplemental.)

Core Math (Elementary) –

While our children really liked our own Math Sticks for K-2, I wasn’t interested in writing math curriculum beyond that level for them. (Plus, they have grown quicker than I can develop it anyway!) So what else might we recommend?

  • We have often used Prism Math or “vintage” math textbooks (e.g. from the 1980’s/90’s). The math is not “spiral” (still taught in chunks of skills to focus on) and not “mastery” (which would have too much practice for a topic). However, these books are out-of-print and difficult to find.
  • Math with Confidence (Kate Snow) – I’m very impressed with Fourth Grade Math with Confidence! In 2026, the sixth grade level is to be published. Instead of the consumable version, we purchased the downloadable/printable version to print it instead (- we used double-sided cream cardstock since it has a lot of colour ink). The download version is available from Well-Trained Mind Press website here (not an affiliate link). The consumable version can be found at Christian Book Distributors here (our affiliate link).
  • The next plan is to try out Books 1 and 2 of Principles of Mathematics (Katherine A. Loop, MasterBooks, New Leaf Publishing Group). Here is our affiliate link for the Book 1 set for Principles of Mathematics.

To find out what else we have tried for math for the grades3/4-8/9, you can read the following blog post: Homeschooling Math for Grades 3-8 and Up.

Math Lessons/Curriculum for Grades 9-12 –

To find out what we have done and are doing for math for grades 9-12, please read this blog post: High School Math. I plan to preview Remedia Publications high school level math reproducible resources at some point. (For now, we’re happy with CTC Online for one teen and an old out-of-print series of grades 9-11 for another teen.)

Our family prefers “procedural math” in units or chapters of the same sort of skill practiced. (This is not “spiral” and it is also not “mastery”).

Our top recommendation at present is CTC Online Math (a non-affiliate link) for high school levels (grades 9-11, they also offer grade 12).

For grade 12, we like the idea of using an online grade 12 math course(s) from a university that offers such course(s) with help from a professor for these more-complex skills. (Rob has a math background too so he can help if our teens need further explanations, or sometimes an older sibling has helped a younger one at those upper-levels. I have generally kept to teaching the younger students for this subject area so I personally don’t do much in terms of teaching math beyond a bit in grade 9.)

Logic Skills

Our family learns “logic” in the subject of math. But the “logic” we tend to use are a selection of fun puzzlers and charts – some pages from resources I found at a yard sale, others from a series called “Perplexors: Logic Puzzles for a Sharper Mind”.

Some families teach logic with a philosophical reasoning method in a specific course/program but we personally have used very little of those type of resources. My overall view on teaching philosophical logic concepts (e.g. fallacies, truths, debate skills for if a=b and b=c, then a must mean c, etc.) is that it is generally unnecessary to do so formal lessons if a student learns common sense in real life situations as he/she grows up naturally with conversations in their family and if a student has a good grasp on reading/interpretation of/application of the Scripture.

  • Apologetics is a topic which we personally include within history or science, depending on the topic, and within Bible studies, of course. Various books and videos can be found.
  • For logic skills when it comes to understanding fallacies and truths on specific teen or school-related topics, there are various people who present some non-boring, good seminars: Answers in Genesis, Linda Lacour Hobar, Todd Friel, etc.. These have sometimes given presentations at homeschool conferences to adults and/or teens.
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Reading

First, a few “definitions”: Literacy, Fluency, and Comprehension –

  • Literacy means lessons for “how-to” read (e.g. sight words, phonics, context clues, spelling and word shape patterns).
  • Fluency means practicing reading by reading (e.g. kinds of readers or books or other materials to read, literature).
  • Comprehension means understanding and expressing what is being read. This includes learning the skills of sequencing, organizing (e.g. into diagrams or charts), summarizing main ideas, inferencing, following written directions, comparisons and contrasts, facts and opinions, discussing and writing for novel studies and book reviews.

For my explanation of READERS (as in the kind of book called a reader) and for a printable list of vintage readers which we personally like to read if/when possible, please see this blog post: Types of Readers where I explain the differences between integrative readers, phonics readers, and story readers.

Beginner Level(s): Grades JK-2

(Kindergarten, Pre-primary, Preschool, Grades 1-2)

Readiness Books:

Core Literacy Curriculum:

  • Let Me Read: Step 1 (and readers such as the ones listed here.)
  • Let Me Read: Step 2 (and storybooks such as the ones listed here.)
  • Let Me Read: Step 3 (and literature such as what is listed on our Character-Building Titles for Children page.)
  • (Let Me Read: Step 4 is not yet published. I have only used parts of what will be available in it for my children. It would simply review the concepts taught in the above resources briefly, add more reading comprehension activities, spelling, and some phonics. By the end of Step 3, this is really all that I feel is needed for “teaching the skills of literacy” other than more phonics lessons which can be accomplished just with Phonics Units. The student would continue practicing fluency by reading more and more stories and literature and learn more comprehension/analytical skills as he or she grows.)
    • For reading comprehension, our family uses the activities in our older book entitled “Let Me Read: Reading Comprehension for Primaries” (out-of-print but I might put it back in print again).
    • As mentioned, we tend to focus on reading books for teaching reading. By this point, our kids typically understand “how-to” read but just need more practice time.

Phonics Curriculum:

  • Phonics is Fun! Unit 1 Consonants (grades 1 and 2)
  • Phonics is Fun! Unit 2 Vowels
    • the hands-on and listening activities for short, long, and y as a vowel (grade 1)
    • review and teach the rest of the vowels (grade 2).
  • Phonics is Fun! Other units yet-to-be-published include plurals, prefixes, suffixes, beginning and ending blends, diagraphs, etc.) Again, I use worksheets for these for my own children and perhaps someday will finish this series for PSLC.
  • Hallway Vowels Posters (I like to introduce these in grade 1 but use them more in Grade 2+.)
  • Phonics Readers Set 1 (Reading Rods stories including “A Bath for Rags”, etc.) (Grade 1)
  • Sometimes I’ve also used the Phonics Readers Set 2 (Grade 2).
  • In the past, we have also liked and used to sell Level A of Sadlier Phonics for grade 1. It is good but American-based (and very very American-based in themes for grade 2 and up so we just kept to the grade 1 level). We did discontinue it partly because they were going to “update” the edition and partly because we preferred something that would be Canadian or at least, not American, for us.
  • There are two other phonics reproducible books which our family uses when we are studying “consonant blends and digraphs”. These are: Little Books of Blends and Digraphs by Sherrill B. Flora, Key Education Publishing Company LLC, and Investigating Phonics: Blends by Kevin Rigg, World Teachers Press. (The “Little Books” one is particularly a family favourite and have very cute stories! We circle the letter combos as we read the story together, colour and cut, and sometimes (but not always) do an extension activity.
  • Sometimes we’ve also used some cute phonics posters from “Teacher’s Friend” publishing but I think the kind we have are out-of-print/unavailable. They show one sound per poster with common example words and can be helpful for a visual learner.

Spelling Curriculum:

  • Grade 1 spelling lessons are now included within Let Me Read: Step 3. They were originally titled “Gingham” and “Calico” (as two parts of grade 1 spelling available separately).
  • Grade 2 spelling lessons might be soon published separately or I might wait to publish them in within Let Me Read: Step 4. (They are almost finalized.)
  • For spelling in grades 1-2, I recommend using a chunky letter manipulative set which has vowels in one colour and consonants in another colour such as:
    • Unifix letter cubes
    • or “Reading Rods” which look similar to the ones shown on the cards at this link or the set shown at this link.
    • The chunkiness of the cubes makes it easy and fun for little hands to put together to make words, rather than the flat paper kind of letters.
A funny story about our spelling curriculum… 🙂

Generally, the curriculum that I’m using is easily understood by the student and I don’t need to be interrupted while say, teaching or modelling a writing skill to one group to answer questions about spelling. In other words, spelling is often something my kids work independently on, without needing me.

However, I will admit that one afternoon, Dandelion (webname) did indeed need me to explain something in his spelling lesson… his little brother was still napping when I heard “bang-twang-BANG-TWANG” GETTING LOUDER AND COMING FROM MY KITCHEN!!!

“What ARE you doing?” I queried, still amazed at his boldness to continue to crash two of my pot lids together.

“Oh,” he replied calmly, with such a sweet smile beaming across his face and announcing with an increasingly important and pleased-with-himself tone of voice. “I’m doing my spelling! It says I’m to do this right in the book!”

Now, keep in mind, that I had written that curriculum and that declaration made me very puzzled – I hadn’t remembered instructing children to bang lids together for spelling – I was sure I hadn’t done that!

“OK, hold it a minute,” I said, “WHERE does it say THAT?”

“Right here! It says I’m to clap cymbals for each word.”

Dandelion pointed to a sentence of instructions:

“Clap the syllables for each word….”

So yes, depending on your situation, you might need to help someone with spelling!

Primary Readers

Grade 3 (Reading, Spelling, Phonics)

  • Our favourite for grade 3 spelling has been an old Canadian school speller from the 1980s, published by Nelson – I think it’s called “Spelling in Language Arts” – it’s the same title I used in school and I liked it back then too.
  • “Daily Word Ladders”, a reproducible book by Scholastic, is a supplemental resource we’ve enjoyed.
  • Some of our kids liked to use Target Spelling (Steck-Vaughn) for junior levels; we used to offer these but they are quite pricey and not reproducible. (They are also harder to judge which level a student might be in.)
  • Phonics is Fun! series – I aim to have my children review and complete almost all of the lesson pages in this series by the end of grade 3. (If needed, the few remaining pages might be used in grades 4-6 to reinforce a concept or perhaps teach more-difficult suffixes in those grades.)
  • Our family continues to read readers as well as other storybooks, novels, etc.. We rarely do written worksheets with the readers. We sometimes do reports or project-based learning or have discussions or occasional assignments for works of literature.

Grades 4/5 (Reading, Spelling)

  • Spelling curriculum for grades 4/5 has been created; our kids use it and really like it! Look for it to be included in Reading Sticks or as a title on its own. (“Reading Sticks” is not published yet.)
  • Test-taking Strategies (Remedia Publications) is a good “reading comprehension” resource for teaching students (grades 4-8) how to write tests. Our family uses this reproducible book at some point in junior or senior elementary grades.
  • Our family continues to read readers as well as other storybooks, novels, etc.. We rarely do written worksheets with the readers. We sometimes do reports or project-based learning or have discussions or occasional assignments for works of literature.

Grades 6, 7, and 8 (Reading, Spelling)

  • Spelling curriculum (for the remaining grades of 6, 7, and 8) is under current editing and plans are to include it within the Language Arts Sticks Grades 6-8 title, alongside grammar and penmanship. As of spring 2026, it is in draft version.
  • Working with Syllables is available separately now but would also be part of the newer title.

From the junior/middle grades onwards, I prefer to focus on either composition writing OR reading comprehension each school year, rather than having too much of both. In other words, every other year, reading comprehension means learning those skills.

  • Note 1: On the “off” years (when writing skills are emphasized), it more so means that kids simply enjoy reading a bunch of books and I provide them with a suggested book list. I like allowing students to simply read a good variety of literature without the pressure to dissect everything. Sometimes it spoils the delight of a book or article if a child/teen “must” write a report to show they have understood the theme or fill in answers to chapter questions and feelings. While I agree with doing these sorts of activities with books occasionally, it is only occasionally.
  • Note 2: For reading comprehension, our family has a variety of lessons which I’d like to compile into the “Literature Studies” title someday. This would help to guide learning about some general categories/genres, literary terms and techniques, and practice using one’s own choice of literature for analytical skills. I try to present “reading comprehension” as learning useful skills for various subjects. Once a specific skill is understood then sure, we’ll review it from time to time but I don’t feel that reading comprehension needs tons of practice in and of itself. If reading skills can be understood with just a few examples, then those skills can be applied whenever and wherever they are required or desired in the future (e.g. science, geography, history). Too often, I feel that the focus has traditionally been on “content” (studying one piece of literature after another piece of literature to enjoy a different storyline). I like to put the focus on the SKILLS needed to enrich comprehension instead, give some examples, and then move on to other topics.

High School (Reading)

See under “Writing” (below) for “English”.

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Writing

Composition – Penmanship – Grammar

Manipulatives and Supplies

  • Beads in a Bucket (My mom had a similar set for me when she taught me kindergarten at home. She also sometimes used a set of old thread spools (mostly wooden) and sewing cards. Sewing cards remain my preference since they can be easily taken on car trips or even to church. But sewing cards are difficult to find sometimes.)
  • Our printing program (and beginning cursive writing curriculum) uses a variety of around-the-home items such as clothespins and playdough.

Writing Curriculum/Lessons:

For Kindergarten (or Beginners): Penmanship, Composition

  • Beginner Printing (or the newer title – Beginner Printing with Fine Motor Skills) – I use this program for both kindergarten years (JK/SK)!
  • I also typically add a page or so of supplementary pre-handwriting and/or maze books for meaningful busywork, either from my childhood days or from a book or so that I have around here. Examples: 
  • Tell Me Cards: Modelled Writing for the Very Young – I like using this title in kindergarten to grades 1 or 2 or until the student is confident to write short stories on his/her own. (In this title, the student dictates and then copies what the parent writes. Also, other basic writing skills are learned in this curriculum title.)

What can many kindergarten-age children do? They can learn to print in large letters. They also love the hands-on activities and pre-writing art skills including scissors skills! They can dictate their own stories from little journal prompts and copy under “Mommy’s” printing. They can learn by modelled writing about basic grammar and basic sentence writing. It is fun to learn! By grade 1, they can begin to copy very short summary notes to make a science notebook, use a ruler to help them make a diagram, and help to sew a picture storybook they created with dental floss!

Grades 1-3: Penmanship, Composition

  • Printing Lessons for Primaries – I use this for grades 1 and 2 (both grades) or grades 2 and 3 (depending on the student and how old he/she is in the grade level).
  • Handwriting Designed for Grade 3 
  • (I have also occasionally used a supplementary extra practice book for fun that came from an old schoolteacher. The book is entitled: First Lessons in Written Language for Second or Third Grade by Claire Roberts, Hayes School Publishing Co., Pennsylvania. It has vintage-style drawings for some pages so that children can colour and cursive write answers.)
  • Tell Me Cards: Modelled Writing for the Very Young alongside or followed by…

  • Creative Writing for Primaries (which is designed for grades 1-3 – all three grades in one helpful resource)!
  • Songs, Riddles, and Poetry – designed for all grades (elementary and high school) – ideas for writing such (not for analyzing famous poetry). We don’t use this every year. But it can be nice as a short unit study for writing poetry.

Elementary-Level Grammar:

  • I design many of my own lessons for elementary-level grammar. But I haven’t finalized most of those for publishing yet. 🙂
  • Our family also uses sometimes, the writing handbooks (Canadian editions) called Write Source Handbooks, especially the Write Away and Write on Track as reference resources.

Grades 4-8: Penmanship, Composition

  • Handwriting Designed for Grade 4
  • (For grades 5/6, a poetry-based title is close to being published.)
  • Keyboarding lessons (typing on a computer): The resource (book) our family has used is “Writing Skills Keyboarding Skills“ by Diana Hanbury King, published by Educators Publishing Service.
  • Aaron’s Story: Advanced Penmanship with a Twist
  • Ava’s Story: Advanced Penmanship with a Twist (similar to the above title and almost published).
  • Mastery in Writing Fluency Unit Level Eight of A Basic Writing Course by C.E. Stothers and J.W. Trusler, published by W.J. Gage & Co., Limited, Toronto and used in public schools many years ago. (vintage, out of print) One of the reasons we like this title is because it incorporates fluency in scribbles as well as some “real life” interesting and practical things to write for a lesson, along with numbers. (In other words, it isn’t just about writing alphabetical letters and poetic or famous quotes.) In our family, penmanship lessons have ended in grade 7 or 8 (usually grade 8).

Grades 9-12 – now called “English”

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Visual Art

Visual Art — Music — Creative Storytelling/Presentations

Preschool and Kindergarten

  • Preschool readiness books (various skills) including Teacher’s Friend Publications – “Little Kids…Color” and “Little Kids…Cut”.
    • If my “littles” are finished early or are not involved in the art lesson of an older sibling, “Paint with Water” books are really nice to have on-hand.
  • At this age, my children tend to be involved with crafts/art of other people around them are doing or free-drawing and painting, cutting and pasting, etc..
  • Beginner Printing with Fine Motor Skills includes the beginner level of our PSLC art ideas.

Elementary Levels:

  • Art for Grades 1 to 8 (renamed and updated as Multi-grade Art Projects)
  • Lessons in Perspective Drawing by Lester E. Showalter (Rod and Staff Publishers)
  • FreeSchool YouTube channel for Famous Artists for Kids
  • “How to Draw” lessons of mine (unpublished) – These are basic drawing lessons from my school-days (not as technical, step-by-step style as below).
  • “I Can Do All Things” video curriculum. (I find though that his lessons are quite technical and although we’ve gone through portions of it too, none of our children have enjoyed it enough to complete all of the lessons he teaches.)
  • Art lessons within the Nature Friend magazine (non-affiliate link) occasionally. (Our kids have enjoyed these.)
  • David W. Emke’s Art to colour – We sell this Canadian artist’s miniature drawings in our shop and include some of them in our ministry website, The Word In Our Hearts. He wrote the “Pencil Points” portion (drawing lessons) in Art for Grades 1 to 8 as well. Children, young and old, enjoy colouring these and getting ideas from them for drawing details!
  • Sometimes our children just want to colour or do a simple paper craft. Some family-favourites for resource books include:
    • Scripture verse booklets (KJV from Trinitarian Bible Society) (non-affiliate link)
    • Betty Luken’s Coloring Pages (and activity pages) (non-affiliate link)
    • Easy-to-Make Puppets and How to Use Them (early childhood) by Fran Rottman (cute patterns, older book by Regal Books, 1982)
    • Easy Paper Crafts (books #1 and #2) (Christian Light Publications Inc.)
    • An Ark Full of Crafts for a Boatload of Fun! (an older book by The Standard Publishing Company, 1993)
    • Mary Currier’s books: Old Testament Bible Verse Mottoes, New Testament Bible Verse Mottoes, Bible Inspirations Coloring Book (for young and old) (Christian Light Publications).
    • My Bible Coloring Book (Shirley Dobson, David C. Cook)
    • Art for All Seasons (Grades 1-4) (Evan-Moor, EMC 2001)
    • Things to Make and Do (by Esther M. Bjoland, Standard Education Society Inc, 1956)
    • Landscapes and old-fashioned life drawings to colour: drawn by John Sloane (non-affiliate link)
    • Cartooning instruction pages from the Schulz Museum (non-affiliate link)
    • Sometimes these colouring books are available in our PSLC online shop:

High School Level:

We’ve sometimes combined portions of the following resources (including ignoring some lesson material and changing assignments for some other lessons to be more relevant and/or less boring) into a one-year course:

In the teen years, an art course could be general (e.g. traditional education) and/or specific to a student’s career or hobby interests, for example, woodworking or jewelry-making or stock photography (digital art). Sewing and similar hand-crafts are mentioned under “Family Studies” (continue scrolling) but could be considered an art course instead.

Some other potential ideas for curriculum/programs:

  • “See the Light” is a drawing/painting unit study with video approach.
  • Photography – James Staddon at https://www.lenspiration.com/ (not an affiliate link). I heard him speak at a Christian online homeschool conference and had a bit of contact with him at that time. I would definitely recommend his website although none of our family have gone through his course(s) yet.

Music

See this blog post: “Joy’s Picks for Music” – for resources and ideas!

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French (or other languages)

French can either be taught together or self-taught with the audio lessons. The program we like the best is Mission Monde by MFB Publications and it is sold in our online shop here.

This French curriculum could also be arranged to be a daily lesson sort of schedule. Some of our kids went through it more so as a once-a-week lesson. Often it has been used as an independently-learned subject rather than with much input from me (other than to mark tests or check to see where a student as at). One of our kids also took the Spanish program for a year from the same publisher and enjoyed it too.

I think one of my favourite ways to provide French lessons is to take this subject out of the regular school months and use it as a special study over the summer break, when we can take more time to use the language.

We might supplement our French studies with:

  • Lyric Language videos (Penton Overseas Inc.) – These are kids’ songs using both French and English words to learn the second language. It also uses Bil Keane’s “Family Circus” cartoons.
  • Hide & Speak French by Catherine Bruzzone, Susan Martineau, Claudine Bharadia, Louise Comfort (ISBN# 9780764125881.
  • ELI Dictionnaire Illustre Francais – a French-English Illustrated Dictionary (ISBN# 9788881480906). This colourful dictionary used to have a fun black-and-white consumable activity book to go with it too (which is not really a school-like “workbook” but rather like a fun activity booklet to reinforce the vocab).
  • French posters – We’ve used some from “Poster Pals” (and may still have some of these in our clearance). I also handmade a set of posters for our family’s use with cut/paste pictures when appropriate. (These would be similar to a French-English Dictionary but instead be posted on a wall to reinforce memory of new vocabulary.)
  • (I personally also began writing a basic French program for my children based on my French books and charts that I kept from my elementary student years. But this sort of thing is nicely covered in the Mission Monde curriculum so once I found that publisher, that program was better.)

If a second (or third, etc.) language is desired to be learned by and used in frequent conversation with the whole family including parents, then I might recommend Talkbox.mom kits and “phrase book”. Besides the commitment to regularly use the language in daily life, the other potential disadvantages are small print posters needing some wall space and cost of the program. For our family, this program did not fit us well but some of the concepts of learning quicker through speech instead of writing earlier, I felt were thought out quite well.

Greek or Latin? Beyond understanding some roots to the English language in upper-level spelling, our family does not study these languages unless there is a personal interest. One year we used resources from Song School Latin (DVD, workbooks) for a son who wanted to understand more botany. Another year, we provided a few introductory resources for Biblical Greek including an Interlinear New Testament for a son who has some interest in this.

An introduction to Linguistics is another possible resource to consider with this. See our blog post “High School-Level English (that isn’t boring)”.

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Canadian Geography

  •  Canadian Communities – This is what I use for students for full-year curriculum somewhere in grades 2-5. (I can pair it with Making Maps of Canada if there are older siblings needing a higher level of map skills during the same time as the younger children are going through Canadian Communities.)
  • We also like using Apple Press Map Skills reproducible books, usually one per student per year but not always. (Some years, we might focus on atlas skills instead and some years, a student might do two Apple Press books.)
  • See the Canadian History section (below) for my comments about the other Apple Press books.
  • See the World Geography section (below) for my comments about the atlas I especially like to use with K-4 students.
  • InfoCanada Books (Nelson Canada) – These are produced for public schools but are nice to use as reference books in grades 4-10. There is a series with titles by the province or territory and a series on the geographical regions of Canada. While we look at them in the junior levels, we use these more for project-based and notetaking in grades 9-10. (If desired, these could be used in a more traditional manner since there are questions and ideas written in each of the books.) One student of ours used a series of these but expanded it more with other information sources such as some videos we found on related topics for a full-year history/geography course she called “Across Canada: Past and Present”. We might have a few InfoCanada books left in stock.

World Geography

World Activity Map Posters
  • For marking up one (or more) large poster-size maps (17×22″), we have liked the “class set” of 30 identical world activity maps by McDonald Publishing (McM236). We no longer have stock of these. It seems that Teacher Created Resources acquired some of their past publications but it doesn’t look like this specific product is in print. (Michaels (the craft store) also used to carry these.) Topics I can teach with this kind of resource include latitude/longitude, time zones, locations mentioned in the Bible including prophetic names, world weather patterns, mountains, deserts, rainforests, etc..
  • Beginning Geography, Grades K-2 by Evan-Moor teaches some basic map skills and I have liked using it for this rather than some other beginner level map books.
  • Our Big World and People – We use this for full-year curriculum somewhere in grades 2-5/6. There are so many neat things to learn and do and this one is fun for the younger children too! (Sometimes I’ve divided this one into two years’ worth for our family, especially if I want to slow down and expand it for the older students.)
  • Atlases:
  • A globe (we use a beach ball version) or an inexpensive fold-out/rollable world map
  •  Mapping the World Through Art (Ellen McHenry, this is an affiliate link) is video-based curriculum which teaches world geography through art. Our older kids went through this one year; it was different but pretty good.
  • For our family, we compile various points of information about countries on posters as one of the ways to learn about them.

Canadian History

Canadian History – please also see our current listings in our shop here. (I still need to list some other resources below.)

  • Pioneers in Upper Canada – We use the 2nd edition for our scrapbook project-based lessons. (I’d like to do a 3rd edition someday.)
  • We’ve also done our own lessons one year for studying about Acadians and other history (and geography) in the Maritimes.
  • For a high school textbook of Canadian History for the 1900s, our family has used Canada: Our Century, Our Story by John Fielding and Rosemary Evans (published in 2000). (We used to offer it in our web shop but have discontinued Nelson products in more-recent years and we have none in-stock of this title.) It is a good, straightforward history textbook. My dad (who taught high school and liked history too) also previewed this book briefly and thought it was a pretty good one.
  • For a study on Canada in the 1900’s to present day, I have liked using the Powerpoint slides created by Mike Zietsma (designed for high school level).
  • We also have used a couple of other “slide” presentation resources:
    • One of those resources was “generally OK”. There were many pictures (good) but sometimes we rearranged the lessons to be more chronological (especially for Unit 2) and there were a few corrections needed too. It was designed for a senior high school level. (We did not care to do the assignments but some of the test questions for a final exam were selected from this material (and some from other resource).) Bundle Unit 1 up to 1774, Bundle Unit 2 from 1774-1867 (non-affiliate links)
    • The other ppt presentation slides were very good and designed originally for grade 7 (middle school). We enjoyed these slides and here is a non-affiliate link to the bundle of those sets on TPT’s site – New France, British North America.
  • Provincial or regional history/geography – We have used a variety of “local resources” for making our own unit studies to study “close to home” maps, industries, communities, stories, etc.. Sometimes we have also included one or more of the province titles in the Land and People series by Apple Press (e.g. Ontario, Nova Scotia or even the one for P.E.I. while studying Anne of Green Gables for literature or British Columbia to supplement a unit study on agriculture). These worksheets can inspire further study a particular sub-topic so you could also expand these into project-based learning opportunities for some of the lessons or use what you learn on the worksheet to do keyword searches for supplementary literature, multi-media or virtual field trips. In other words, if you like learning with “rabbit trails”, these resources could help guide those. Apple Press books went out of print and we sold our stock; you can check The Learning House or another homeschool vendor for availability.
  • Additionally, I have almost completed a rough draft of a multi-level history curriculum. It puts Canadian history in context of world history and church and music history (with relevance-to-my-students). Interest level: grades 5-12.

American History

For our teens who have also enrolled as students with the North Atlantic Regional High School (see here about this option for homeschooled students), that diploma has a requirement of one credit in U.S. History. So, as non-Americans, and as a family who do not feel the need to learn tons of details about it, we had to design a high school level course of study for this subject instead of just using a typical history program.

One year, we used a selection of videos on USA history (e.g. Youtube, Vision or Christian History Institute videos, etc.) and the students wrote notes and wrote a video script as one of the creative projects. Then for an independent project (on a “science fair” presentation board), the topics chosen were about people groups (e.g. Mennonites, Amish) which exist in both countries, so it was something relevant and of interest to our teens. (The resources were specific to sub-topics often and were sometimes primary source materials.) Another year, the teen used the upper-elementary textbook and student activity book from Notgrass’ America the Beautiful up to 1877) and added more notetaking and projects to make it into a high school level for expected work. The projects again related to what would have shared similarities in both countries, so that the studies became more relevant to a Canadian student. Think of projects such as researching how canoes were made, making moccasins (measuring, drawing pattern, cutting, leather sewing), real clay dish, basket-weaving, cooking something without electricity, candle-making, rug-braiding, etc..

World History

Ancient Civilizations (Creation to the Roman Empire), Biblical History

Early Church Period to 1600’s, European History (Dark Ages, Renaissance, Reformation)

Latin American History, General World History, (Music History listed elsewhere)

More Recent World History, Missions

We personally study this section of history sometime during grades 4-8 but not as much in other grades.

Grades K-3: Younger students might listen-in on lessons or just use world history time to play to colour, perhaps something related, perhaps not. For example, a younger student might colour a simple picture of a castle if his/her siblings are learning about castles. But I don’t worry about finding corresponding material for the younger level on this topic as I think it is not overly meaningful to the little kids.

Grades 9-12(+): If a high school student desires more in-depth study on this topic, he/she simply reads or watches more about it but we don’t use it as a history course at that level. If a world history resource is used for “schoolwork” at that level in our home, it would be for perhaps an English assignment such as an essay or report. Alternatively, if a high school student has interest in world history at his/her level, then he/she might study in a unit approach where a specific area of history is researched for 4-6 weeks instead of other topics for that time (other than math, practical work skills, and music practice). But we have not had a high school student who works on a half or full-credit’s worth for world history yet (and we’ll be graduating our 4th next year). It is a possibility that our 5th might end up with such a course due to his interests as an elective. (One of my electives in public high school was ancient history and I liked studying and presenting in that class, especially my project on Jewish history. Later in university, one of my electives within my science degree was European history, another one was History of Medicine, another called Understanding Israel, and another was Christian Hymnody (music history). I do see its value as an elective.)

What we do?

  • We read, discuss, watch films, and make a notebook (which includes diagrams, charts, maybe a small project type of thing).
  • Apple Press’ book has three short quizzes which we might do individually or together as a group.
  • We spend a fair amount of our time looking at world maps, including historical maps and how things changed
  • Sometimes, my children have worked independently on learning world history with minimal guidance and other times, I’m more involved in the lesson work if the students are more talkers than readers/writers.

Another way we have studied world history is alongside in-depth Canadian history, adding in what is happening in the world (major events or people who are significant-enough to be mentioned to our family). We’ve done this through adding in various videos, books, stories, and a timeline. Some pictures from the timeline were purchased from Homeschool in the Woods. (However, we only used a portion of those and for Canadian people or events, we had to find our own pictures for the timeline.)

Both of these resources work very well together:

  • Images of the Middle Ages (Apple Press) – It is currently part of this World History Bundle in our online shop.
  • Story of the Middle Ages {Michael J. McHugh and John Southworth, Christian Liberty Press). This book might also be a part of our World History Bundle in our online shop. I don’t tend to use the test/answer key part. The textbook gives enough details in a great way but is NOT overwhelming like so many other world history curriculum. It’s readable but not verbose, has some pictures and maps but doesn’t put every little detail (which is unnecessary anyways) in it. We use it almost more like a reference book rather than a textbook but it does come with discussion questions, vocabulary, etc.

General Resources for World History:

  • Because our own children understand Christianity to the extent that they can handle more stories and more explanations of church history, we have used Christian History Institute’s “Reformation Overview” (Gateway Films/Vision Video), “History of Christianity” with Dr. Timothy George, and Day of Discovery’s video series by Dr. Joe Stowell “The Dawning: Christianity in the Roman Empire” plus some of single titles of events or biographies of interest. Note: For most students, especially those still in elementary grades, the “overview” in my opinion, in better than the full-movie versions. If later, when they’ve grown up more, they want to watch more details, then fine. But for elementary, I’d rather keep to an “overview” approach for world history.)
  • For studying more in the early church period, our family really likes Discipleland’s Acts curriculum (Eyewitnesses, Powerful Messengers, Valiant Voyagers) and the Visual Bible’s Acts of the Apostles (Scripture word-for-word acted out).
  • For British History, you might like to read about the links in the high school English unit study we like here.
  • The timelines we use most often are The Human Register (Rod and Staff) and the one I designed, Pictorial Bible History Cards (here). Because we have either not had appropriate wall space or used the limited space for other posters, we personally do not bring our timelines out as much as some homeschool families. The children make a couple of simple timelines in their notebooks near the beginning of a study and/or we’ll look at one together that I have made on regular paper for a lesson or so.
  • Short Lessons in World History (Walch Education, Churchill’s) – We don’t use it as “curriculum” but rather as a quick reference resource to get an overview. (We have tried using a couple other traditional world history textbooks but we did not find them overly attractive so if we can get sufficient historical information from this book alongside our novels and videos, those textbooks are not needed.)
  • Understanding Latin America (Rod and Staff) – Again, we don’t use it as “curriculum” but this specific textbook IS a good reference resource to read selections from, for any age. It covers the history of Mexico, Central America, and South America well, is from a Christian missions perspective, and includes geography and cultural information for current times.
  • We also might use, as reference resources for projects or discussions about ancient civilizations, these books: The Puzzle of Ancient Man: Evidence for Advanced Technology in Past Civilizations (D. Chittick) and/or After the Flood: The Early Post-Flood History of Europe Traced Back to Noah (B. Cooper). For an additional upper-level history reference, we have the Annals of the World (Ussher) which is very thick and small print. (It’s rarely used.)
  • The Integrated Atlas: History and Geography of Canada and the World (Harcourt Canada) – Over 75 full-colour maps of world and Canadian history (includes political and physical maps of Canada and the world). This has been our regular atlas for historical maps over the years.
  • The Student Bible Atlas (Tim Dowley) – nice for any age of student!
  • Rose Then and Now Bible Map Atlas (Paul Wright) – overlays and detailed explanations of Bible geography; for older students.
  • Map Trek Set (Master Books, Terri Johnson) – This is a newer resource which we look forward to using this next year. One book has full-colour maps while the other book has the same maps in black-and-white outline map format. It has over 200 maps (in each), divided into four periods of time (thus would be useful as historical maps, not just for a world geography): Ancient World, Medieval World, New World, and Modern World.
  • For a student who wants world history as an elective in high school levels, we might consider such resources as
  • Resources for world history from Christian Light Publishers, and/or Church History in Plain Language (by B. Shelley, an older edition but not current 5th which isn’t as good apparently), or perhaps World History (Revised) (by Master Books; we’d hesitate since MB has not usually been a good fit for us; they tend to be more conversational or wordy about integrating other thoughts instead of focusing on the title’s point).
    • Something to pay attention to in world history courses marketed as based on a “Biblical” or “Christian” worldview, is to be aware of from “which” perspective of such a worldview is the author presenting the material? Preterist or futurist? Covenant Theology or Dispensational? It’s fine to read from a variety of Christian perspectives but it’s also wise to know the differences since these impact how one will be trained and/or encouraged in those materials to understand God’s Word and the role of people groups in history and onwards.
  • Music history resources are listed elsewhere but yes, this would be considered a unit study within world history.
  • Recent world history – we would tend to use resources such as missionary flashcard stories (e.g. Bible Visual International and other ministries have these), videos which are specific to countries or people groups we want to study more about, and those listed under Canadian or American History.

To me, “looking back” in world history has a certain amount of importance, BUT “looking ahead” in Bible prophecy has also great importance and we do not want to neglect that. Often-times homeschoolers spend a great deal of time studying details of paganism in cultures and/or history which has very little significance to lives today. Much time is typically spent reading about and memorizing useless information for tests and scholarship.

We wanted to minimize wasteful time in our homeschooling overall (e.g. Eph. 5:16, Col. 4:5), so this is why our approach to general world history is less in comparison to most homeschool styles which, for whatever reason(s), emphasize world history instead. See our approach for minimalistic homeschooling here and here.

Health and Phys. Ed

Health Studies:

Our family learns with quite a variety of resources, including many past notes from my schooldays including notebooks I made in elementary school, high school, and university courses. (The science degree I graduated with was essentially a pre-medical kind since I took several from the health or medicine faculty.) I like to also supplement our studies with online articles, visuals and multi-media presentations.

Here are some resources we might include:

  • Essential Atlas of Anatomy, Barron’s Educational Series Inc., 2001.
  • The Human Body charts, TREND Enterprises Inc., 2001
  • Videos by Dr. David Menton (e.g. “The Hearing Ear and The Seeing Eye” (there is a simpler version for kids and a more detailed one for older students of Dr. Menton’s for this topic), “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made” (human reproduction) are the more interesting ones); “Where Did the Races Come From?” (genetics and skin melanin) by Ken Ham, Answers in Genesis-USA; “Human Life” by Moody Science, Chicago, Illinois; YouTube videos such as “Human Immune System” for kids – Body Defense Mechanism (Biology) by www.makemegenius.com and “Digestion” by Bill Nye the Science Guy, Buena Vista Television, 1993.
  • A family-favourite series for review or reinforcement of human biology lessons is the body systems series of videos from “Once Upon a Life”, found on YouTube. (Note: Some of the other videos in this series are not recommended by us, for example, I think the topic of cells and genetics can be explained much better elsewhere than they do.)
  • The “First Aid” book from the Canadian Red Cross
  • We used to sell a superb thin reproducible curriculum book for K-3 levels where the child traces his/her body on large paper and then has simple summary notes and parts of the body to colour, cut, and paste onto the body shape. It is called My Body (TCR0211).
  • One (interactive/visually-appealing) website that we appreciated for understanding some of the cells and genetics topics for a couple of rounds through that unit over these years has been: https://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/basics/
  • A blood typing kit can be fun
  • Understanding Nutrition (6th ed. by Whitney, Rolfes) – a colourful university textbook which remains very useful as a reference and to simply read.
  • Guide to Good Food (11th ed. by Largen, Bence) – one of our high schoolers really liked going through this textbook/workbook on her own.
  • “With the Skills of Natural Medicine” by Campfire Curriculums is “OK”, alongside other related resources such as “Making Herbs Simple” (video by Easling/Pearl), a medical reference guidebook, and other reference material. It is important however, to carefully consider this topic as what is actual science (which is good) and what might be just a philosophy/idea (which might not be good).
  • Melissa K. Norris’ website is also a resource with some parts to it which we’ve used for natural health information and food safety. Melissa’s courses can be accessed through a yearly subscription and for a year, one of our teens subscribed and the content was very good.
  • The Wonderful Way Babies Are Made by Larry Christenson, Bethany Publishers
  • How You Are Changing (one title is for Boys 10-12, one title is for Girls 10-12), Concordia Publishing House.

Physical Education:

Many homeschooling families sign their kids up for competitive training in their community for learning phys. ed. skills. Our family is more musical and less into vigorous sports. Physical activity of course is still important for healthy habits and it’s good to understand some of the science of movement and enjoy playing and working together with family and friends! Here are some ideas:

  • Skills for Work and Play (product) – This is how I’ve liked arranging our phys. ed. during elementary levels. At times, we’ve added swim lessons or horse riding experiences or similar by a qualified instructor in a local community and a homeschool co-op or local school might have occasional sports event(s). Hiking on park or community trails is always enjoyed by our family too!
  • Another year we took time to study the skill of orienteering on our property and plan to repeat that unit study again since it was a lot of fun!
  • For high school levels, our family includes more written studies in with involvement of participating in physical activities of one’s individual interest(s). One can learn rules and tips for games easily through online videos (e.g. YouTube) and playing among family and friends (e.g. teen youth group). For written resources for projects, we might refer to a phys. ed. teacher’s textbook, Developmental Physical Education for Today’s Elementary School Children (D. Gallahue) that I picked up at a used book sale – it explains movements and techniques for various sports. We might use something such as Sports Science: 40 Goal-Scoring, High Flying, Medal-Winning Experiments for Kids (Jim Wiese) or novels or videos relating to athletes or activities of interest.
  • We have tried MasterBooks online physical education but it doesn’t fit well with a fall to spring school year in snowy Canada. (I think it would be better as a “crash course” during the spring to fall months instead.)
  • Biographies such as Terry Fox (Canadian), Eric Liddell (Olympic runner), Dave Dravecky (American baseball player) in novel or video format.
  • Another nice resource is Games for Everyone (Aaron Hershberger) which includes active group games used at schools including smaller private schools. (Sometimes we have put this book in our shop. If it isn’t listed there and you’re interested in it, we might still be able to special order it.)

Family Studies and Home Skills

  • A virtual or actual farm tour, example – https://www.farmfood360.ca/ 
  • Melissa K. Norris’ website (- she teaches about organic gardening, grinding flour, etc.)
  • Garden Way’s Joy of Gardening by Dick Raymond (a reference book)
  • The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener and Growing Under by Niki Jabbour has some interesting tips for growing in Canada.
  • Homesteading for Beginners video series (Erin and Mark Harrison and family) (about small farm life, etc.) (Note: When I’m meaning “homesteading”, I’m NOT meaning a survival-prepper type. Instead, I’m meaning the idea of putting into practice home and land skills that people have been using for centuries in order to work with their hands (1 Thes. 4:9-12) and by doing so, lower family expenses and benefit their community in Christian love. A Christian homesteading lifestyle should reflect dependence on God and love for people, not self-sufficiency and isolationism.)
  • Skills for cooking, baking, blanching for freezing, canning, making yogurt, etc. are naturally a part of our lives, especially in the summer or breaks. We do not need specific curriculum for these things unless it’s a study on food science. For that topic, I like “Digest Your Dinner” by Ellen McHenry as a unit study curriculum.
  • Sewing skills –  If you aren’t teaching skills yourself (perhaps you don’t have these or perhaps time is tied up with other needs), Christian Light Publishing has a high school level course for this which is quite well done. And a good reference book is Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing (which was used in a university-level sewing course).
  • Other topics in this section that you might consider are survival skills (e.g. scouts, wilderness/camp skills), orienteering, weather forecasting, hair-styling/cutting, spool-knitting, rug braiding, basketry, embroidery/cross-stitch, crocheting/knitting, wood burning, macramé, quilting, making slippers/shoes, pattern-making (e.g. hat or other clothing), how to iron safely, driver’s education, ropemaking and knots, etc.
  • My kids each have a “long-term binder” for handouts or notes about some of the topics listed – a “long-term binder” means that they can add to it year after year and it becomes a reference guide for them by the time they graduate. Theirs includes this book (of mainly recipes) plus other pages that I’ve added for their copies.

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Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.
Deuteronomy 5:33
DailyVerses.net

Disclaimer: The information on this website is for educational and information purposes only. Additionally, the pages on health-related topics are not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. I/we am not a medical doctor and I/we am not a building biologist. Please do your own research and seek help from qualified professionals.