At the time of writing this post, my daughter is six and is currently in first grade (form 1B if you’re in the Charlotte Mason world). My husband and I chose to model our homeschool format after the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education. To that end, our days are full of Living Books, handicrafts, narration, notebooking, free play, outdoor exploration, etc. We limit curriculum heavy on worksheets, strict memorization, and busy-work. It’s truly a gift to enjoy the slow pursuit of lifelong learning, and it has been a gift to my Mama heart.

Below you’ll find a list of our favorite curriculums and programs by subject.

Language Arts

When my daughter was four, and before we had chosen the Charlotte Mason philosophy, my daughter showing signs of being ready to dabble in school. Her interest was peaked, and she enjoyed doing simple tablework revolving around coloring, letters, and numbers. Around that time I found The Good and the Beautiful Preschool Curriculum. It was delightful! It covered both reading and math instruction in under 15 minutes a day, and at the time it was the perfect fit for our little girl.

Fast forward to today, and we’ve chosen to keep using The Good and The Beautiful for our Language Arts curriculum. In approximately 15 minutes per day, we can cover phonics, grammar, spelling, writing, narration, and more. My daughter’s reading ability has soared, and this curriculum has helped me stay on track with phonics, sight words, and grammar.

For reading practice and narration, we have loved The Treadwell Readers. The stories are classic stories that align well with Charlotte Mason, but the reading level has been modified for early readers. They’ve made for excellent practice in narration! My daughter has worked through the First Treadwell Reader and the Second Treadwell Reader this year.

For literature, we’ve followed the Alveary History & Literature Program, and it’s been so helpful! We’ve covered a wealth of fairy tales, tall tales, and fables this year. In addition, I have added classic chapter books recommended by Ambleside and Simply Charlotte Mason to round out the curriculum.

Math

For math, we’ve landed on Right Start Math after a couple years of stumbling around. I was warned at the beginning that it was a bit pricey, but we’ve found that it’s truly worked so well for our daughter (and her mama)! While I can teach reading all…. day…. long…., math is just not my subject, so finding a program that worked for both of us has been a game changer for me.

One thing I’ve loved about Right Start Math is the simplicity of the lessons. We spend about 15-20 minutes on each lesson daily, which is the perfect amount of time for both of us. They also provide a large number of math games for learning math facts in an engaging way (which my husband has been happy to play with my daughter in the evenings).

Social Studies

For history, we’ve followed the Alveary History & Literature Program, and it’s been a great overview to Early American history. My daughter has learned about the Native Americans who first settled the Americas in a respectful, culturally sensitive way. I’ve been really pleased with their selection of Living Books for these topics. We will be sticking with this curriculum next year as well!

Other Resources

Throughout our week, we cover a myriad of other subjects. Here’s a quick overview of the other resources we utilize.

• Science: The Burgess Book of Birds, a collection of bird books, and our nature study journal.
• Citizenship: Hero Stories as Recommended by Ambleside Online.
• Bible: We follow the Ambleside Online reading schedule, and are currently working chapter by chapter through Genesis and Luke.

In addition, we cover hymns, Scripture memory, poetry recitation artist study, and composer study during our Morning Menu time. I’ll be sharing about our Morning Menu in an upcoming post shortly, so stay tuned!

That’s a wrap! We’re really enjoying our year, and have found these curriculum and resources to lay an excellent foundation for our homeschool day. I’m thankful for the recommendations of so many who have helped us find our way, and hope our recommendations can help others as well!

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