Our Curriculum

Taking a German Class at Paul Revere Mall after a tour of the Old North Church

We decided we would homeschool before our son was born and started his education when he was but two. After reading, exploring, and trying a wealth of resources and curricula, I wanted to share what is working for us. Please share what works for you!

• Core Knowledge

  • Founded by professor emeritus E.D. Hirsch, Jr. from my alma mater, the University of Virginia, their mission is to provide world class education that is available to all.

  • We use their History, Language Arts, and Science curricula finding them both engaging and ambitious, sparking many meaningful conversationos about morality, ethics, culture, and reality.

• Easy Grammar Systems

  • Founded by Dr. Wanda Phillips, I am truly impressed by her program. So much so that I have already purchased her program through the 12th grade for fear that it may one day become unavailable.

  • In only a few minutes a day, Dr. Phillips has crafted a brilliant program that makes learning grammar easy and fun.

• Math in Focus

  • Former Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, once said, "We are a small country with no natural resources, so our people mus be our greatest asset." And with that mindset, I have found no better program than Math in Focus.

  • While built for the classroom, it is easily adaptable to the home (even with a single student). The focus on truly understanding what numbers are and what math is makes a world of difference.

  • I have combined the Math in Focus program with both the finger abacus method and the soroban abacus.

• Outschool

  • One of the best things to come out of Covid was the wealth of experienced teachers who decided the classroom wasn't for them any more. Any subject you can imagine, you are likely to find for your child.

  • We have used Outschool for foreign language study, creative writting classes, and singing lessons... all in group settings with peers for our son form around the world. His favorite is is Outschool's CraftEd History Class where the kids build in a themed Minecraft world each week that marches through centuries of history in a way leaves our son asking how many days until the next class!

  • If you use the above Outschool link, you should get a $50 credit!

  • One of the things I really love: if the class/teacher aren't a good fit, we can switch or drop the class with ease.

• Khan Academy Kids

  • Founded by Sal Khan with seed funding from numerous business icons, the mission is to provide amazing educational resources for all and they have succeeded.

  • While I loved the Khan Kids program and app and feel that it gave our son an amazing head start on his reading and writing, I found the full program and their push into AI with Khanmigo to be quite the opposite of what we want by creating a hands-off, less involved parenting approach with AI taking over where I believe a human teacher or a guide remains quite necessary for providing additional context and perspective. While Core Knowledge occasionally points to a Khan Academy Lesson (and I have found those lessons to often be quite insightful), the program just doesn't feel right for us.

• Testing Mom

  • The reality of the world and higher education is that homeschooled kids still need to be able to take tests. In North Carolina, it's a yearly, legal requirement. Testing Mom is an incredible resource to teach the skills necessary to succeed.

  • Pick your test (we went with a combined CogAT/Iowa) and follow their program for fifteen or twenty minutes a day. They also provide private tutoring for tests that are fantastic in addition to a number of resources that gamify learning.

• Mensa for Kids

  • If you have a gifted child, I encourage you to try and join. I have loved being a member and the opportunities that this organization has afforded our son (and me) to be around other gifted individuals is wonderful.

• Homeschool Legal Defense Association

  • A wealth of resources and a wonderful lobby to protect and promote our rights as homeschoolers. What's not to love?

  • If your state makes homeschooling a challenge, HSLDA is the place to turn. And check out their webinars and podcasts!

• Triangle Assessments

  • Responsive, easy to work with, and comprehensive, Triangle Assessments was the group I finally picked after months of searching for our yearly Iowa testing with the goal of identifying any deficits in my teaching as well as strengths and weaknesses for our son so that we may further refine his testing.

In addition to these programs, we have found local swim groups, tried a number of local homeschooling groups, know every playground in the region, enjoy hikes and runs in the woods, and take advantage of our local library system's many offerings for group activities throughout the year that get kids together to build legos, explore new subjects, and learn how to engage others outside of the home.

My closing thought is about the word "socialization"... a word that we have come to learn really means "indocrination" after being asked by family, friends, strangers, and even our pediatrician, "How will he be socialized?" Confident, social, and engaged are not problems our son has. Accepting without questioning and seeing the world a bit differently on the other hand are problems for him and we think that's great! Indeed, the problems are the entire point.