Giant List of Homeschool Recommendations & Resources

This recommendations and resources page is brand new… I decided to start collecting all the books, links, curriculum, etc. in one place. This list will change & evolve over time. I hope it’s helpful.

Some of Our Favorite Read-Aloud Chapter Books

  • Because of Winn Dixie
  • A Place to Hang the Moon
  • Charlotte’s Web
  • Trumpet of the Swan
  • A Long Walk to Water (we loved this one!!)
  • Wonder (one of our all time favorites)
  • Out of My Mind
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
  • Frindle
  • The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (Entire Narnia Series)
  • Little Pilgrim’s Progress
  • Mr. Popper’s Penguins
  • A Little Princess (6+)
  • YWAM Missionary Biographies – George Mueller one was amazing!
  • The Wild Robot Triology
  • Heidi
  • The Secret Garden
  • The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street (I read the first aloud, my kids listened to the rest)
  • The Penderwicks (I read the first aloud, my kids listened to the rest)
  • The Green Ember (my kids love this series; I couldn’t get into it, but I think I’m in the minority.)
  • Little Britches (This has Little House on the Prairie vibes but it’s about a boy’s childhood on a ranch in Colorado. It was a little slow but my kids enjoyed it.)
  • Holes (so fun!!)
  • Fuzzy Mud (same author as Holes)
  • Sign of the Beaver
  • Harry Potter (series)
  • The Hobbit
  • 100 Cupboards
  • Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
  • Poetry books!! I’ve included several of our favorites in this post below. Click here to jump to poetry books!

I actually made a GIANT book list – categorized by subject and age. It has nonfiction & fiction picture books, early readers, more read alouds, teenage book recommendations, etc. etc. etc.

You can click the button to download it; if you are an app subscriber, it’s also already in the app!

Grab the Booklist Here
big book list musical memory

Favorite Drawing Books & Supplies

Did you know drawing builds most of the same skills as handwriting practice? Drawing books + supplies + sketch pad make a GREAT kid birthday gift too. It’s one of my go-to gifts for kid birthday parties.

Supplies

We’re picky about our art supplies!

Pro tips 😉 – Leave drawing books and supplies around for your kids to “discover,” so they think it’s their idea to work on them. Show kids how the step by step drawing books work. Sit by them and try some yourself. Let kids take them to bed or rest time for a quiet activity.

Drawing Books

Homeschool book recommendations drawing books

HomeSchool & Office Supplies

homeschool supplies you'll actually use list

Read my complete blog post about what we use & love on a regular basis here.

11 Homeschool essential supplies for new families

And if you’re brand new to homeschooling or just want to know my absolute basic essential supplies, here is my Top 10 list… that actually turned into a top 11 list.

Poetry

I 100% believe in the benefits of memorizing poetry. In fact, I think poetry memorization + reading aloud is all you need to teach language arts until 5th grade. (Plus teaching your child to read and doing a basic handwriting or copywork program.)

We use IEW’s Poetry Memorization Program. We don’t review quite as intensely as they suggest but my kids’ review 5 poems a day on their own and never complain about it!

Here is a pdf copy of the introduction from the teacher’s manual; it explains why poetry memorization is so important.

You can buy the teacher’s book from IEW, Rainbow Resource or Christian Book. You don’t need any other pieces of the program to be successful, though the CD is helpful and recommended. The student books are optional and fun for coloring in the pictures as the kids go. Alternatively, you can photocopy the teacher’s pages of the poems for your children and stick them in a folder or binder for easy review.

Other Poetry Collections & Books We’ve Enjoyed

  • Mother Goose – this is my favorite edition. It’s beautifully illustrated and has 100 of the best Mother Goose rhymes. Great for all ages, but especially great for 1-5 year olds
  • Nature Poems – amazing pictures, by National Geographic
  • Animal Poems – amazing pictures, by National Geographic
  • Inexpensive Poetry Collections by Author – Simply Charlotte Mason “Enjoy the Poems” Collections.
  • Hilaire Beloc’s Cautionary Verses – We stumbled on Hilaire Beloc through the IEW program recommended above. The kids latched to a couple Beloc poems and they always made us chuckle. (My 5 year old has declared The Vulture his absolute favorite. So we checked out this book from the library and laughed our way through it. I promptly bought a secondhand copy.
  • Shel Silverstein- So funny with word play.
  • A Whale of a Time – very funny poem-a-day style. There is one for each day of the year. We leave this out in our living room & kids love looking up the poem of the day, or the poem for their birthday or whatever.
book recommendations feature image

These are our family’s top 20 word play & rhyming books. The ones we’ve read over and over. The ones that appeal to ages 3-100. ❤️

Math Programs

I’ll share my personal recommendations, but Kate Snow has an entire website devoted to helping homeschool parents teach math confidently and thoroughly. She has a math degree from Harvard and homeschooled her kids, so you should probably just read her in-depth explanation of how to pick curriculum with reviews. I’ve learned SO much from her.

In fact, if you really want a crash course in learning how to teach math well (which will in fact make everyone in your house less miserable during homeschool math), then I highly recommend bookmarking THIS PAGE on her website and just reading your way through these articles. She’s amazing at explaining how to teach math to non-mathy parents.

Generally speaking, I recommend you look at samples and even print out samples & try a lesson whenever possible. Also, I’d suggest picking the math program that looks fun to teach!! Don’t stress too much because you can always change your mind, and you can always flex & fit a program to your own family.

  • Beast Academy – Rigorous, problem solving style. We have switched over to Beast Academy entirely for my kids 7 and older. I’ll also consider the higher level math curriculum AoPS built by the same company when we get there. So far, my kids like it and it’s challenging! Here’s my Youtube Video about how we use it. Also, Kate Snow approves. 😉
  • Math With Confidence – Written by the above mentioned, Kate Snow. The last level (6th grade) comes out in June of 2026 and then it’s done. This is, in my opinion, the absolute best homeschool math program available. She has done a phenomenal job of writing a program that teaches math concepts well & explains to normal parents how to teach math. This is my go-to recommendaiton for new homeschooling parents, though there is no one-size-fits-all. I’m sure it’s not for everybody, but if you want to be sure your kids will have a GREAT number sense foundation for upper math, this would be a safe bet. You can modify the pacing as needed for your kids.
  • Singapore Math – All their programs are good…. I started out homeschooling my oldest with Dimensions kindergarten and switched to Primary 2022 when it came out. It works well, but you do have to learn how to teach it. It’s not rocket science to teach, but it takes a little effort to learn the Singapore method of math. It takes some effort to learn their specific approach to teaching math conceptually, in a hands-on way to very young children. In my opinion, you might as well just use Math With Confidence. She uses the best parts of Singapore Math method but in a much more accessible way.
  • Math Mammoth – This program is simple, inexpensive and teaches concepts well, while mixing in review. It’s pretty easy to teach. You could use Kate Snow’s Facts that Stick or Right Start math games if you wanted more activities to supplement.
Here is my recent review of how we use Beast Academy in our homeschool. I explain our rhythms, pacing, requirements, how I monitor progress & help out, etc. This screencast video goes behind the scenes of the student section and the parent section.

Learning to Read

You need something that teaches with phonograms or phonics… I’ve looked at them all and have my favorites. 😉

Here is my entire post on how kids learn to read and the best curriculum out there for you!

If you don’t care about knowing the how and why, then just buy Logic of English Foundations and you’ll be fine. Haha!

Logic of English Foundations is the most all encompassing. You can start it around age 5, give or take; whenever your child is ready. There’s a lot going on in there, though, and I’d recommend skipping the parts of the lesson that make your sweet little 5 year old’s eyes glaze over. Books A and B are pretty gently paced; books C and D get a little dense. It’s PRICEY up front, but if you’ll use it with more than one kiddo, the only piece you need to replace is the student workbook.

Full disclosure: I used LOE with my 4th and it was a great fit for him, but I did not use LOE to teach my first 3 kids to read. It was just too expensive and too many moving pieces for me at the time. It was too slow and repetitive as well; my kids thought the workbooks were redundant and boring.

I put together a complete phonogram kit with worksheets, flashcards, games, activities, etc. & explained my entire process in my How to Teach Reading Workshop.

Phonograms Made Simple Kit
How to Teach Reading Workshop
how to teach your child to read workshop

Language Arts

Unpopular Opinion – you do not need to buy an expensive, comprehensive Language Arts program.

The goals of Language Arts studies are to understand the mechanics of the English language, become a good reader and writer, fall in love with reading and stories, communicate effectively, enjoy & appreciate a variety of poetry and art and you might even add map studies to Language Arts. (Map studies also integrate well with history… which is just the story of people… which can be told through language arts and literature… so it’s all connected and we’ve come full circle. LOL)

Anyway, all that to say, the following activities take the place of a Language Arts Program for Kindergarten through 5th grade. And good heavens, you don’t have to do all of them all the time!!

  • read aloud a variety of poetry and literature
  • require independent reading
  • have your children practice handwriting and do copywork (or begin a writing program in 3rd-5th grade)
  • memorize poetry
  • reference maps that tie to books
  • sing Musical Memory English Grammar Songs (prek-5th grade)
  • begin to add basic grammar sometime between 3rd and 6th grade
  • some sort of fine arts exposure

I have chosen to not use a comprehensive language arts program because that fits my homeschooling style (for now) and we do all the other described activities in our homeschool. We don’t do every single thing on that list every single day, but we’re hitting them all over the course of the months and years.

If you reeeally want a full blown step by step reading or Language Arts program that will take 30-60 minutes a day, then I recommend:

  1. The Good and the Beautiful (You should add phonogram cards alongside this program to make it easier for your kiddo to pick up reading! They say you don’t need to, but lots of people in the Facebook groups say their young children have trouble learning to read only using TGTB. )
  2. Logic of English Foundations
  3. All About Reading or All About Spelling (I know their website says otherwise, but you don’t need both. If it were me, I’d just use AAS and double dip to use it as a reading and spelling program.)
  4. Learning Language Arts Through Literature

Activities for Little Ones During School Time

  • Kinetic Sand – I keep ours in a shallow bin like this which easily stores under a bed or couch.
  • Dried Pasta bin – Similar shallow bin with dried pasta & let the kids choose their own kitchen utensils from your kitchen; pasta is easier to clean up than rice. I have my kids sweep up their own pasta with a dust pan before moving on to a different activity.
  • Rush Hour & Rush Hour Junior
  • Cat Crimes – a fun “who done it!?”
  • Jump In – a cute fox/ rabbit game similar to rush hour
  • Tetris Style Wooden puzzle
  • IQ focus – my kids LOVE this!! I’ve seen people ages 4-50 enjoying it. So, highly recommend! Haha
  • Shoot the Moon
  • Small planks for building
  • Flower garden – this one is a fave
  • Pattern blocks – you can print on cardstock or laminate some free activity mats.
  • Rubberband geo board
  • Puzzles – these and these are cute for 2-4 year olds
  • Magnetic cube blocks
  • Magnetic tiles – an all time favorite at our house
  • Playdough – especially fun with some clay tools for cutting and moulding.
  • Sink play – I put a beach towel or two underneath a kitchen chair at the sink and let the kids go to town. If you keep a large sponge nearby it’s easier for them to clean up their own spills.

I try to rotate things in so that there occasionally new toys available for school time. You can have a bin and rotate on a weekly basis; or you can just randomly bring new toys into the school area for your little ones.

If it works in your space, having basic art supplies pretty accessible for little kids can be an easy way to occupy them – water color pallets, cheap oil pastels, half sheets of paper, markers, coloring books.

Include them! If they want their own little books, I love dry erase tracing books. My kids have loved these 3: one, two, three. I keep cute erasers on a magnetic dry erase board or refrigerator and remind them to erase when they’re done.

Books About Homeschooling

By recommending a book, I’m not saying I agree or implement every single idea in the book. Good gracious, that’d be overwhelming. But I like to read a couple homeschooling books each year… I sorta think of it as “professional development.” ❤️ Even if there are things I personally don’t agree with or practice from a book, I’ve learned something from each of these books listed below.

First 5 are my favorites… after that, there is no particular order.