Where to Get Homeschool Curriculum

This article is part of our series for those New to Home Education.

Where do I get my homeschool curriculum? is one of the first questions most parents ask. Some parents, new to home education, have the misconception that there is some set standard of books to use and information that needs to be learned at certain ages, or even one set curriculum that all homeschoolers are required to use. Although the government is working hard to make such a requirement for their schools, there is no such thing for home educators. God has certainly not ordained that every child of age Y must learn X material or they will be “behind”.

There are as many ways to home educate as there are home educators, and although there were only a handful of resources available when we began in the mid-1980’s, there are many thousands available now. To narrow those choices down, before you start searching through, you must first determine what type of curriculum will be right for your family. Your educational philosophy (go back and read First Things First if you haven’t read it yet) will help you narrow down what types of approaches are going to best achieve your goals.

The first division in types of curriculum is  Textbooks/Workbooks vs. “Real Books”. If Real Books are your choice, there are many methods to further divide that category. Although we don’t recommend all types, homeschool resources for all types are available through our Partners listed in our sidebar, such as ChristianBook.

Let’s take a look at these two divisions, and then the various approaches based on Real Books.

Textbooks/Workbooks Approach

Real Books Approach