Literature-Rich, Delight-Directed Elementary Homeschool Curriculum
Have you chosen your elementary homeschool curriculum yet? You might want to take a peek at what homeschool curriculum we’ve used for the elementary years with a literature-rich, delight-directed learning focus.
When you’re taking a delight-directed approach to homeschooling with creative girls who love books, you have to plan to be flexible. We often switch up our resources once we start following rabbit trails of learning. I’ve gotten used to the ebb and flow of mixing books with hands-on activities and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Of course this means that none of our plans are etched in stone. As I’m gathering resources and looking over curriculum choices for this new homeschool year, here is the list of things that we’re currently using, think we’ll use soon, or would like to explore in the future. All of it is subject to change, additions, and field trips whenever possible!
At the time I wrote this post, my two younger daughters were in 3rd and 5th grades, though I’ve always tried to combine their studies as much as possible. Our morning basket routine is an important part of doing that in our homeschool days. {You can read a post about what we include in our morning basket.}
Elementary Homeschool Curriculum for Literature-Rich, Delight-Directed Learning
Language Arts: We’ll be continuing with Readers in Residence and Writers in Residence from Apologia. I’m very impressed with these and love using favorite books for language arts lessons. You can read my complete reviews here: Readers in Residence and Writers in Residence.
We alternate this with Five in a Row and Learning Language Arts through Literature. Using real books — living books and classics — to teach reading comprehension, handwriting skills, spelling, and grammar is a dream come true for us. It’s so great to share quality read-alouds together and then carry those over into our language arts lessons!
Five in a Row covers more than just reading/language arts. It also includes geography, social studies, some math, and science when you do the included activities. They are literature-based unit studies for the elementary years.
We also add in author/book studies with lapbooks and unit studies. You can get a free author lapbook project from Home School in the Woods when you join their email list:
Math: Mathseeds
This is part of the Reading Eggs website, which we also use for fun practice time. You can read my full review of Reading Eggs and Mathseeds here: Build Reading and Math Skills with a Multisensory Approach
Science: Apologia Astronomy
We really enjoy Apologia and have for years. We’ve tried other science options, but always come back to the Apologia series. We also like hands-on projects that we pick up along the way, like Creation Crate or Magic School Bus. You can read more about our hands-on projects in this post.
We also add in nature studies from NaturExplorers for fun. You can read more about that in this post: Our Nature Study Homeschool Curriculum Choice
Art: Chalk Pastels are a big favorite in our homeschool. There are so many different projects to choose from and we haven’t run out of ideas yet!
History/Geography:
U.S.A. State-by-State Geography Notebook — this includes notebooking and coloring pages for each state with information about the capital, the state bird, state flower, and more.
Notgrass History for a spine has been a favorite, in addition to living books.
Home School in the Woods has some great timeline projects and lapbooks for history and geography as well.
We’re doing this cool Science, Inventions, and Mathematicians timeline notebook:
Bible: We use the Apologia Word in Motion series, which is excellent. We have the books and journals, but they’re now available as audiobooks, too. You can read my full review here: Apologia Bible Curriculum: The Word in Motion
We use lapbooks to explore other interests and have creative learning time as well.
If you want a peek at some of our reading selections, I recommend these posts:
10 Chapter Books Chosen by a 10 Year Old
101 Books Every Girl Should Read
Our Favorite Caldecott Honor Books
List of classics by grade level
Read the rest of the delight-directed learning series here:
- Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt with free printable - December 18, 2024
- Customizing Your Homeschool Curriculum For Special Needs Students - December 11, 2024
- Keeping Christ in Christmas: A Review of Finding Jesus - November 29, 2024
Do you have a list of what a day looked like for kindergarten? We are 6 and 3 and just starting out. Thanks!
Well, I looked back through some old posts and found this one:
https://wp.me/p3TR0q-5K
I shared what we were doing/using for kindergarten and preschool when my daughters were 5 and 3. It’s not really super detailed, but it can give you a starting point. My best advice for these ages is to make learning playful — just enjoy spending time together and reading lots of great books. Hands-on activities and play are so important and more valuable than you might even realize right now. Lapbooks are a fun thing to do together as they learn fine motor skills, too.
Nature walks and nature studies are fun at this age, if you can do those: https://heartandsoulhomeschooling.com/nature-study-for-beginners/ and https://heartandsoulhomeschooling.com/why-you-need-nature-walks-in-your-homeschool-day-and-how-to-do-them/
Here is my series about lapbooking: https://heartandsoulhomeschooling.com/homeschooling/lapbooking/
Morning baskets are also a good way to start the day (or do them in the afternoon or bedtime): https://heartandsoulhomeschooling.com/homeschool-morning-basket/
I also highly recommend the resources at The Crafty Classroom for that age group.
I hope this helps! Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!