🗓️ Brief rundown of last year:

Last year was our first year of homeschooling and while I had a lot of good advice and chances to look at a variety of curriculum, at some point, you just have to pick and see how it goes! With that in mind, here is what I went with last year:

• 👦🏼 For my son (Kindergarten):

  • Math - Right Start Level A

  • Language/Reading - The Good and the Beautiful Level K

  • Science - Seton and The Good and the Beautiful

  • History - Seton

  • Theology - Baltimore Catechism

  • Handwriting - The Good and the Beautiful

     

• 👧🏼 For my daughter (1st grade):

  • Math - Right Start Level B

  • Language/Reading - The Good and the Beautiful Level 1

  • Science - same as my son

  • History - same as my son

  • Theology - Baltimore Catechism AND 1st Communion prep with the St. Joseph first communion catechism

  • Handwriting - same as my son

For both kids we also did art lessons using what I came up with from week to week as I consider myself pretty artsy. But The Good and the Beautiful also incorporates art, geography, and poetry into their language series so I never felt like we were lacking on that content area!

🤓 Changes for this year:

This year I really feel like I have a handle on how my kids learn and what they need to be successful in their learning. We had enough days of hair pulling last year for me to figure out how I can push them to do difficult things without pushing them over the edge! It was a tough balance to find some days 😮‍💨 Going into this new year, here is what we’re doing and why I switched:

• For both kids (1st and 2nd Grade):

   

  • 📐 Math - Math With Confidence Levels 1 and 2

     

    A dear friend lent us her entire Right Start series and manipulatives set so it seemed like a no-brainer to use for our first year. Plenty of friends recommended it AND it was free! While Right Start gave my kids an amazing foundation of number sense, and I do not regret using it, it didn’t take long for me to realize that they would both benefit from something with a workbook. Right start is entirely adult-led, but my kids, especially my daughter, had a very hard time with not “knowing” when the lesson would be over. Not every lesson looked the same, and she would lose steam very quickly if she felt like she didn’t know the end goal.

     

    This switch was the one I was worried most about - I knew they needed something new and was considering Abeka until I had the fortunate chance to go to a homeschool expo in Indy. I was able to speak with some people that have been doing this WAY longer than I have and ended up choosing Math With Confidence. Similarly to Abeka, it has a short, parent-led lesson and the lesson concludes with a workbook page done independently. The thing that made this series stand out over Abeka is that it places a larger emphasis on spiraling (reviewing concepts throughout the units so they aren’t forgotten as you learn new skills). While my son is very math minded, my daughter needs more review and this program seemed like the best for her needs. Plus, the book is very cute and colorful, and what 7 year old girl doesn’t love some cute pictures to make math more fun? 😆 Math Archives

     

  • 📖 Reading - Logic of English Foundations B and Essentials 1

     

    While I enjoyed The Good and the Beautiful (TGTB), my previous experience with teaching reading had me questioning the emphasis on sight words and how they chose to introduce certain phonograms. My daughter does well with memorization, but there were times when she was frustrated with how many words needed to be simply memorized because they were a “rule breaker”. When in reality, they didn’t break the rules per say, there are just a lot more rules to the English language than this series actually taught (in the level we were using). For instance, the letter “o” has a lot more sounds than just the “long o” and “short o” that we are used to teaching. I do think that she is in a good place for reading for her age, but I wanted to search out a series that would focus more on all the phonogram sounds early on, in order to avoid the frustration that sight words can be at times.

     

    That search led me to Logic of English! This series definitely emphasizes phonograms and I was fortunate enough to be able to look through the books before buying because my sister-in-law uses this series with her kids. I think it’s super helpful to physically hold a book and look through it critically keeping my kids in mind. The Foundations series is super fun and colorful, and while my daughter will likely wish that was her book, I think it’s good for her to approach learning in a variety of ways. Logic of English

     

  • 🔤 Language - Well Trained Mind First Language Lessons level 1

     

    This choice seemed very logical to me...Last year grammar and language usage were incorporated into The Good and the Beautiful’s reading book, so I didn’t have to buy an additional book for it. Since it isn’t particularly covered for Logic of English, I decided to use the series from Well Trained Mind. I was able to physically look through the book at the Homeschool Expo I went to and I really liked the approach! First Language Lessons Archives

     

  • 🔬 Science - The Good and the Beautiful

     

    I absolutely love the variety of science books offered by TGTB! We used Seton for the first semester last year and it was nice, but I found it more hands-off, which is not the approach I prefer for science. 2nd semester I bought a series called “Sparks and Stars” from TGTB’s Science for Little Hearts and Hands. They have 5 different units to choose from and we are excited to pick a new one this year! Science: Choose Your Unit | The Good and the Beautiful

     

  • 📜 History - Story of Civilization Volume 1

     

    Similarly to Seton science last year, I found Seton history to be a little dry. If I’m being honest, I chose it because it was the most affordable option at the time AND because I was so overwhelmed with all the other things I had to pick that I just needed to pick and be done with it 😆 We made it through the whole book and it provoked some great discussions, but I wanted a series that would cover a bit more and be a little more engaging. That led me to find Story of Civilization by Tan Books. This series was highly recommended and incorporates audio stories, which I am excited about!

     

  • ✝️ Theology - Saint Stories, The Beginner’s Guide to the TLM by Sophia Institute, and continuing in the Baltimore Catechism

     

    Our theology unit always ends up being a combination of Catechism lessons and whatever I come up with that week based on the feast days that are coming up. This year I am excited to have found Saint Stories from All Saints Play! My kids love learning about the saints, and we have many great books to reference at home, but sometimes they cover parts of the saint’s life that I am not yet ready to discuss with my kids. Saint Stories are the perfect snippet and will be so easy to add to our start-of-school prayer routine 😁

    We are also going to work through this new series by Sophia Institute: Beginner's Guide to the Traditional Latin Mass

     

  • ✍🏼 Handwriting - The Good and the Beautiful Levels 2 and 3

    I loved the handwriting books from TGTB so we are sticking with them for this year! The ONLY suggestion I would make is to make sure you look ahead of time at the sample pages they offer online and see what level your child is ready for. I personally felt my kids were both ready for the level above the year they were in school. For instance, last year my daughter was technically in 1st grade, but she did handwriting level 2 and had no problems. This year we are continuing on with level 3. Handwriting

   

The start of this year is fast approaching and aside from needing to do some serious laminating, 😆 I feel ready! Like last year, I bought this wonderful Catholic planner again to help keep myself on track and avoid missing any feast day celebrations 🙂 2025-2026 Catholic Homeschool Planner: Traditional & New Liturgical Homeschool Planner / Dated Lesson Plan Grade Book

If you’re using any of these series’ I’d love to hear what you think! Or if you’re looking to make a change and have questions (*read: are overwhelmed like I was), please feel free to leave a comment!

My first piece of advice would be to grab some chocolate, it may get intense... 🍫