The Homeschool Curriculum we’re using for 2026-2027

This week, we started our third year of homeschool (it’s actually kind of our 5th year too, because I homeschooled Ella in kindergarten and first grade).

When we decided to homeschool, the #1 question was “What curriculum are you using?!” (You can see the answers to all the other questions people asked in this post, if you’re curious, plus why we decided to homeschool!)

I’ve never been interested in doing a single curriculum for all subjects – my mom didn’t go that route when she homeschooled my siblings and me 30 years ago and I had the same desire to pick things that worked for us in each subject.

Here’s a full rundown of what we’re doing this year, but, like the last two years, a few notes:

1. Homeschooling rules vary widely by state. Your state may not care if you watch cartoons from sun up to sun down and call it homeschool. Your state may want detailed plans submitted for each child that align with their state designed standards. So I know that what works for us may not be an option in every location.
2. My goals for homeschool are to spark curiosity and a love of learning in my children. I’m SIGNIFICANTLY less worried about them learning specific material in specific topics. When I went to public school for the first time as a ninth grader, the most shocking thing to me was discovering that I was one of the very few students who still liked school and learning (even in my AP and Honors classes). Protecting that love of learning is one of my biggest priorities for my kids.
3. My two older kids (high school and middle school) do part-time homeschool and attend public school for some of their classes. I did the same when I was in high school and I have a whole post about how hybrid homeschool works for my kids here, if you want details!

Each girl has a wire basket to hold all their school supplies and we use our Skylight (code is JANSSENB) so they can track what they need to do each day (people always want to know if there is a reward for completing their charts – there isn’t. This isn’t an incentive program; it is just a way for them to keep track of what they need to get done and have a visual way to see what needs to happen).

Here’s what homeschool curriculum we’re using for each grade level

Ella – 11th Grade (Hybrid Homeschool and Public School)

• AP Seminar. She’s taking this at the high school and will take the AP exam in the spring. She has the same AP teacher she had last year for the AP English Language class and she loves her (her class has an almost 100% pass rate for the AP test each year!)
• AP Calculus BC. Another class at the high school with the AP exam at the end of the school year.
• AP Art History. And . . . another class at the high school with the AP exam at the end of the school year.
• Mandarin Chinese. She took the AP exam (and got a 5!) a year ago so she’ll just keep working with a tutor each week and watching some shows and reading some books in Mandarin to keep it up, plus do some tutoring for elementary schoolers.
• Piano. She has a private lesson once a week from a woman in our neighborhood then practices during individual work time the rest of the week.
• Art class. Ella is taking a weekly art class for high schoolers at a local studio.
• Pickleball. Ella LOVES pickleball and played all summer and will take lessons and play on the school team this fall (she played on the varsity team last year!)
• ACT prep. She’s taking the ACT in a few weeks, so right now she’s spending a lot of time preparing for that. This is what she’s using to prep.

Ani – 8th Grade (Hybrid Homeschool and Public School)

Last year, Ani only took Chinese at school, but this year she’s taking a much heavier load and only doing a few things at home

• Mandarin Chinese. Ani left the Chinese Immersion program in 4th and 5th grade to attend an accelerated program in our district, but when we started homeschooling in 6th grade she worked with a tutor all year long to try to get her Mandarin back in working order to rejoin the immersion program in middle school (the teacher is phenomenal – Ella felt like she was a better Mandarin speaker coming out of 8th grade than she was after 9th grade when she took the AP test).
• 8th grade Honors science. She is taking this at school from the same teacher who Ella had and loved a few years ago. Ani did science online last year and did NOT love it.
• 8th grade Honors Language Arts. She’s also taking this at school.
• Orchestra. Ani took up violin a year or so ago and is doing orchestra at school this year in addition to her private lessons.
• Dance. This is at school
• History. We’re doing Story of the World (book 4) but because Ani’s schedule at school is longer this year, she’s reading it on her own instead of with the little girls and me.
• Math. Last the last two years, Ani will be doing math with help from Bart’s mom and they’ll be doing Saxon Algebra 2 .
• Career Prep. We’re taking a break from geography this year and Bart is doing career prep with the girls. Each week, he assigns them an article or video to read/watch and then some questions to discuss together after.
• Financial Literary. I bought a copy of this money book for each of my three younger girls to do a few pages of a week of.

Star – 6th Grade (Full-time homeschool)

• Mandarin Chinese. She practices with her tutor 1:1 two morning a week. She also has homework assigned from her tutor to work on throughout the week and they watch a short Chinese show every day too.
• History. We’re doing Story of the World (book 4) together again this year – I read aloud one chapter twice a week, we do an activity one day a week and on the fourth days, the girls read the related books that this book recommends (I mostly get them from the library)
• Science. Star aged out of the neighborhood science group, so we’re doing science together this year. Our plan is to work through 3-4 of The Good and the Beautiful Science modules and we do it once a week. We’ve started with Marine Biology.
• Math. Star is about halfway through 6th grade math, so we started with the second half of The Good and the Beautiful math for 6th grade.
• Career Prep. As noted above, Bart is leading this.
• Financial Literary. I bought a copy of this money book for each of my three younger girls to do a few pages of a week of.
• Language Arts. I looked at SO MANY language arts programs and finally settled on doing Brave Writer with my 4th and 6th grader together. This is the program we’re doing.
• Poetry. Each month, I choose a new poet and they have all month to memorize multiple poems by this poet and we read several picture books about the poet so they have some background information.
• Art History. Like poetry, each month we pick a new artist and learn as much about them as we can (primarily through picture books).
• Typing. We’ve used free typing programs for years, but this year we’re trying out The Good and the Beautiful’s new typing program.
• Piano. Star goes to her piano lesson once a week and then practices during individual work time the rest of the week.
• Art Class. The two younger girls are doing a weekly art class for homeschoolers with a bunch of friends – they can’t wait!

Tally – 4th Grade (Full-time homeschool)

• Mandarin Chinese. She practices with her tutor 1:1 two mornings a week and then a group class with her sisters 1 morning a week. She also has homework assigned from her tutor to work on throughout the week and they watch a short Chinese show every day too.
• History. We’re doing Story of the World (book 4) together again this year – I read aloud one chapter twice a week, we do an activity one day a week and on the fourth days, the girls read the related books that this book recommends (I mostly get them from the library)
• Science. She’ll be taking the science class one of my friends in the neighborhood is generously teaching to several of the little girls here.
• Math. Tally is doing the 5th grade level class of Savvy Math (use my code JANSSEN25 for $25 off each month or you can do a trial class here!).
• Language Arts. I looked at SO MANY language arts programs and finally settled on doing Brave Writer with my 4th and 6th grader together. This is the program we’re doing.
• Career Prep. As noted above, Bart is leading this.
• Financial Literary. I bought a copy of this money book for each of my three younger girls to do a few pages of a week of.
• Language Arts. I looked at SO MANY language arts programs and finally settled on doing Brave Writer with my 4th and 6th grader together. This is the program we’re doing.
• Poetry. Each month, I choose a new poet and they have all month to memorize multiple poems by this poet and we read several picture books about the poet so they have some background information.
• Art History. Like poetry, each month we pick a new artist and learn as much about them as we can (primarily through picture books).
• Typing. We’ve used free typing programs for years, but this year we’re trying out The Good and the Beautiful’s new typing program.
• Piano lessons. Tally took piano a few years ago and was just not ready for it but restarted last year and has liked it so much more. Ani’s violin teacher also does piano and comes to our house for Tally’s piano lesson.
• Art Class. The two younger girls are doing a weekly art class for elementary schoolers with a bunch of homeschool friends.

We also do a weekly Nature Study outing with some other homeschool families in our neighborhood.

Any other questions about the homeschool curriculum we’re using? I’m happy to answer any questions!

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