Christian Homeschool Resources We've Loved

This year will be our eighth year homeschooling. I’ve loved every second of it.

One of the things I love to do here at Thinking Kids is to let you know about great Christian resources I’ve found. The other day I received an email asking about our favorite Christian homeschool resources. In eight years of homeschooling, we’ve certainly found some resources worth using year after year. I’m so happy to share them with you!

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Christian Homeschool Resources We’ve Loved

We’ve tried a lot of curriculum, but there are homeschool resources we’ve stuck with from the beginning. Some, I couldn’t find a resource I loved, so I wrote our own, and some I’ve come across for our boys as they’ve entered middle and high school, and I’m thrilled.

Tapestry of Grace

We’ve been using Tapestry of Grace from the beginning. I LOVE it. The program takes your students through history from Creation to modern day, at four separate levels. Literature based, the program also offers suggestions for writing, crafts, speaking projects, timeline work (get my free timeline here), and co-op activities.

The program does require some scheduling (I use the homeschool planner I designed). I’ve used the curriculum as a schedule, adding and substituting books as I go. It was a little pricey up front, but after purchasing the four years, I only had to locate the books I wanted to use all the way through high school.

Click on the pictures below to find out more about each year plan.

Tapestry of Grace Year One Tapestry of Grace Year Two Tapestry of Grace Year Three Tapestry of Grace Year Four

Bible Road Trip™

I wrote Bible Road Trip™ because I wanted to take my kids through the Bible in three years, then do it again at a deeper level. The program has five levels from preschool to high school, and includes suggestions and scheduling for extra resources, discussion questions, Bible verse memory, crafts, notebooking, research projects, and praying around the world.

I’m excited to add Bible verse memory cards to the Bible Road Trip™ program for all five levels! Check them out.

Bible Road Trip™ Bible Verse Memory Cards

Life of Fred

We love, love, love Life of Fred. This is a fabulous math program! We use Life of Fred, a creative literature-based math curricula, as a stand-alone math program. My boys’ test scores have been awesome. You can purchase the sets at Amazon (click the pictures below). When I did my initial research, I found this program comes from a Christian worldview, but that’s not overt.

To learn more about the program, visit the author Stanley Schmidt’s page. It’s not an elegant site, but you’ll learn a lot, and you can download samples. To purchase individual books, you can shop at Z-Twist. (Note: My kids hated the language arts program. But we love the math! Dr. Schmidt is a mathematician, and quite entertaining.)

Life of Fred Complete 10-vol Elementary School (Apples through Jelly Beans) Homeschool Kit in a Bag Life of Fred Kidneys, Liver, Mineshaft Homeschool Kit in a Bag $Life of Fred Middle School Set--fractions, Decimals, Algebra 0 Physics Homeschool Kit in a Bag$ Life of Fred Middle School Set–fractions, Decimals, Algebra 0 Physics Homeschool Kit in a Bag Life of Fred COLLEGE PREP–Fractions through Trigonometry Homeschool Kit in a Bag

NotebookingPages.com

We absolutely love notebooking about what we’re learning. I’ve found that having premade notebooking pages is much easier than having the kids just use notebooks to take notes. You can read more about my love for notebooking, and see how we use it, at Ode to Notebooking.

NotebookingPages.com is an excellent resource for notebooking for a large range of topics and ages. You can click on the photo below to learn more about NotebookingPages.com ‘s lifetime membership. And you can get a free membership that will give you access to hundreds of pages.

Apologia Young Explorer Series

If you’re looking for a college-prep-worthy science curriculum for elementary school students. My boys and I thoroughly enjoyed the Exploring Creation series. It has great labs, wonderful information, and we loved learning to notebook with the great notebooking journals. Click on any of the photos below to see the individual products on Amazon.

Apologia Middle and High School Science

In middle and high school, the Apologia series is–again–an excellent choice. We are loving this program. I suggest getting the student notebooks whenever possible. Click on the individual photos to check out the curriculum items on Amazon. (These are in the order you’ll want to do them until after physics. The advanced courses are all optional and can be selected based on student interest.)

Cobblestone Path™ Church History Research Journals

Once we realized how wonderful notebooking is, I wanted my kids to notebook and research their way through Christian history. Cobblestone Path™ is designed for middle and high school students. Learn more here.

The Cobblestone Path Church History Journals for middle and high schoolers will be available beginning in May 2015! Notebooking for comprehension is a great way to learn!

Dr. James P. Stobaugh’s Literature Series

For middle and high school students ready to move beyond reading and notebooking, Dr. James P. Stobaugh’s Literature series from Master Books is amazing. My boys are learning so much, and they’re largely independent in their daily work. I help with writing and editing. This program is amazing. I’ve placed the books in order from 6th grade on.

Skills for Language Arts (Student)Skills for Language Arts (Teacher)Skills for Literary Analysis (Student)Skills for Literary Analysis (Teacher)Skills for Rhetoric (Student)Skills for Rhetoric (Teacher)American Literature (Student)American Literature (Teacher)British Literature (Student)British Literature (Teacher)World Literature (Student)World Literature (Teacher)

Write Through the Bible

Trisha Gilkerson’s Write Through the Bible series is fabulous. It comes in a junior or regular edition, and you can choose ESV or KJV, ball-and-stick, D’Nealian Manuscript, or cursive.

Spelling Power

I’m including Spelling Power just because it’s a great program. You can purchase one book to use with all of your students all the way through high school, and it takes just a few minutes a day. This isn’t a Christian homeschool resource, but we still love it.

Spelling Power, Fourth Edition