Our Curriculum Picks for the 2025-2026 School Year (K - 3rd Grade)
The new school year is fast approaching, and I’ve been attempting to finalize our curriculum choices. I actually struggle quite a bit to pick from all the selections, not because I feel pressure to ‘choose well’, but because there are so many good options to choose from! We school year round, but still begin our new year in the early fall like everyone else.
Our typical homeschooling style might be characterized as ‘functionally disorganized’- I tend to collect a random assortment of resources throughout the year and implement as needed. But with another school-aged child joining us this year, I think we could benefit from being more organized as it can take more mental energy to plan-as-you-go.
We try to keep the majority of our curriculum items that we can work on together as a family-it really helps to make homeschooling multiple children more manageable!
After reflecting on what went well last year, here are the curriculum choices we made for this year.
Family-Style Curriculum
This is a First Sacrament year for one of my children, so we are focusing on resources that will prepare her heart and mind to receive Jesus in the Eucharist and go to Confession for the first time. My oldest received his last year, so this will be great review and continuation for him. I really like making these sacramental preparation years a family event, as we all support the child receiving together and immerse ourselves communally in the richness of our Faith. We can all use this time to grow closer to Christ in the Eucharist!
⛪Read-alouds and Unit studies for religion & Catechism:
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Into the Deep: The Mass Unit Study- We have never tried this curriculum before, but I love the layout and the family learning style. It looks like it will be a great fit for us, and perfect for First Communion prep.
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Preparing to receive Jesus: A Hands on religion resource - This was a favorite last year. We didn’t get to all the activities, so we will re-read the stories and complete some of the activities that we didn't get to yet.
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St. Patrick’s Summer - New to my kids, but a favorite from my childhood!
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Devotional Stories for Little Folk 1&2 - These are early readers, but I think they are a little advance for my kids to read alone this year. They are really sweet stories that I think will interest all of them though!
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Bible Memory flashcards & Catechism Flashcards- we just started using these and love them! I've written about how we use them in our home here.
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Catholic Prayer Cards - I think these will be of most interest to my 3 and 5 year old, but I’m likely to mix them into our flashcard assortment so that they have more things that are on their level!
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Saint Coloring Pages - We will likely have these on rotation for the kids to enjoy working on while we read from the list above! It keeps their hands busy and their mind more attuned to the stories.
🌍Social Studies:
History
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Story of the World: The Middle Ages (Reading only)
Geography
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Explore the Continents - a step-by-step exploration of the geography, climate, animals, landmarks, and saints of each of the seven continents
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7 Continent Maps - companion to Explore the Continents
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Catholic Children's Encyclopedia of Geography - this is an investment, but it looks like a great resource for years to come!
We started book 2 in the Story of the World series last year, but it was a slow year for us and we didn’t get close to finishing it. Because it breaches some sensitive topics related to Catholicism/Civilization/Culture, I will be reading it aloud myself, instead of listening to the audio version, so that I can self-edit as needed. We will likely read a chapter a week, and work on the geography selections two other days a week.
🌿Poetry/Memorization/Dictation
This classic collection of poetry for students of all grades is well known in the homeschooling world. From this, we pick and choose selections to memorize together.
🔬Science:
While this is a graded curriculum, we plan on reading it together and adapting it as needed. For the past two years, we've been using Catholic Heritage Curricula’s Science Curriculum. Although we often skip the experiments, the kids always find the content interesting, and I appreciate how the texts are organized and written.
🎼Music:
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My First Piano Adventures: Book A - While eventually I would love for them to take music lessons, we have a keyboard that we will begin learning basic piano on.
Grade specific curriculum
As anyone familiar with homeschooling knows, homeschoolers don’t typically fit into well defined grades. Because we can adapt to our children's specific needs, I find it best to select resources for them that meet them at their level, rather than grade level. For this reason, my oldest is doing some 2nd/3rds grade work, and my second is doing some 1st/2nd grade work. Since this is his first year of school, my third will begin squarely in kindergarten. Here are some of the grade specific items I've selected for them:
2nd/3rd grade picks:
🧮Math:
Math with confidence 3
This is a new one for us. While we loved many elements of the Rod and Staff Math that we used previously, I think MWC may be a better fit for us. While my son loves learning math concepts and is mathematically inclined, the amount of drill and problems per page were overwhelming to him with Rod and Staff (even when I didn’t assign most of them!). I try not to jump around between curriculums, but I have high hopes of this one being able to serve us for many years.
🧌Math Supplement: Beast Academy Online
Do we need a math supplement? Probably not. But this is one that really catches my son's eye and I'm intrigued by the conceptual logic based challenges it promises to deliver (and so is he!). So we are going to try it out, and we will happily drop it if it's too much (or too silly!). Since I’m not relying on it as his sole math curriculum, I feel more comfortable experimenting with the online version as it wont be replacing his actual math instruction-it will mostly be for fun! We have yet to dabble in technology for education, and generally try to limit screen time in the home already, but I’m hoping this will be something he can look forward to doing after he finishes some of his other tasks, as well as provide enrichment.
📚Language Arts:
Reading fluency is our top goal for this year, and this looks like it will provide adequate practice while remaining fun and engaging.
Readers:
📝Handwriting
We have used this Handwriting series in the past, and we love it! It truly feels like you’re getting more than just a handwriting curriculum. The subject matter corresponds with the Stories for Little Folk readers that we've used from Catholic Heritage Curricula, making it perfect for their reading level. While handwriting is one of the subjects that doesn’t necessarily NEED to be Catholic in our curriculum, I appreciate that their copy-work selections help reinforce our Faith. Practically speaking, I also appreciate that it is bound with a top spiral for writing ease!
1st/2nd grade picks:
🧮Math:
Even though my daughter eats up workbooks and doesn’t find them as daunting as her older brother, I think it will be simplest to switch them both to Math with Confidence.
I will also be giving her the option of doing Beast Academy as well, but I have a feeling she wont be interested. I’ll follow her lead on that one!
📚Language Arts:
The Good and the Beautiful Complete Language Arts Level 1- She did the level K last year and loved it!
Rather than buy any of the extra readers from The Good and the Beautiful (we will use the main ones), we will be using the Little Stories for Little Folk phonics readers that we already have as a companion. The programs do teach phonics concepts in slightly different orders, but I haven’t found that to be a problem in the past. These stories are super adorable and are highly relatable for my kids because they follow the life of a Catholic homeschooling family! She has already completed the K level for these and will continue on to finish the set.
Readers:
📝Handwriting
I love that this one is designed to help prepare for First Holy Communion!
Kindergarten:
We take a gentle approach to Kindergarten - free play is really the most educational thing a 5 year old could be doing in my opinion. However, I've found that my current 5 year old is super interested in doing school with the other kids, and has also been begging to learn to read. For him, I've selected:
⛪Little Lessons: Catholic Preschool Curriculum- I love how gentle and sweet this one is, while touching on each of the main subjects. While its labeled as a Preschool Curriculum, I think it will actually be the perfect base for him.
📘Phonics
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The Good and the Beautiful Level K booster cards and books - I will likely not buy the student text for this, as Little Lessons will already give him some hands on practice with Language Arts related topics. If I find that he really wants to do more, I may print portions of the free PDF workbook that TGATB provides as an option!
🧮 Math
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Life of Fred Elementary Series - This is a gentle concept based mathematics course, told as a story. All of my kids love listening to it as it has a certain charm by way of being bizarre and hilarious, but this set is most appropriate for Kindergarten.
👩👦Extras:
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Reading a lot of books together! We already have a collection of picture books, we usually make sure to read a few before nap/quite time and bedtime!
I know that no homeschool year ever goes exactly as planned - and that okay. These Curriculum picks are a starting point to help inform our days and keep us on a certain trajectory, even if we occasionally have to make a detour.
If you’re still piecing together your own curriculum choices, I hope this gives you some reassurance that there isn’t one ‘right' way to plan out your school year.
Do you use any of the same resources? Id love to hear what’s working for your family or what you’re excited to try this year - drop a comment below!
Looking for a fun way to ring in the school year? Check out our Catholic Back to School Celebration Kit in the Shop!
