If you need a bit of encouragement or inspiration for your homeschool journey — or perhaps you are considering homeschooling for the first time, I created this page to share our homeschool journey with you.
Below you will find a little bit about our favorite homeschool curriculums, and also links to the blog posts or podcast episodes I have shared on the topic of homeschooling. If you have specific questions about homeschooling, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll do my best to respond, and/or gather questions for future podcast episodes or blog posts! I hope this is helpful!
DIVE — Math and Science with a Biblical Foundation. My boys have used DIVE for math and science beginning in Middle School. We love this curriculum (it is an online video format with some seat work and some online work.) We are good friends with the founder and teacher, Dr. David Shormann. (His family lives here on our North Shore and we go to church together. :)) Jonah and Josiah have taken classes up through AP Calculus and Physics with DIVE and passed AP tests and also gone on to feel very comfortable in college classes following. I highly recommend DIVE!
IEW. The Institute for Excellence in Writing. IEW is the writing curriculum that all of my boys have used. We love IEW and give much of the credit for my boys’ love for writing (and success getting into college and even getting college scholarships) to their foundations using IEW! CLICK HERE to find a page with the specific IEW classes that my boys have used and loved. (and during summer 2020, get THREE WEEKS FREE of IEW curriculum on this page.)
Also: Listen to founder and director of IEW on my podcast here.
ABEKA ACADEMY. My boys have used this for the bulk of their elementary and middle school classes, and for Bible, history, health, and language arts through high school. We use the Abeka “Academy” (streaming online video of a teacher and classroom) but they do all of the writing and seat work in books and workbooks, and take quizzes and tests at home, on paper (and I grade them. Abeka also offers an accredited program where kids send in work and someone else grades it) Abeka is challenging (definitely “college prep”) and if students watch all videos and do all seat work it can be a long day. It has a very conservative, Christian, traditional flavor and we are really grateful for what our boys have gotten from it. Using Abeka has simplified my days and gives me confidence my boys are getting a good and thorough education.
SONLIGHT: We used Sonlight for the first few years of my boys’ homeschooling when they were in elementary school. It is a literature-based curriculum, and I really loved those years with the boys. The neat things about Sonlight is you can combine kids up to 2 years apart in school to do one curriculum together (for subjects like history and science — while ordering separate math and language arts.) I still order many of their suggested reader books and I think the list of books on their website is excellent!
CLASSICAL CONVERSATIONS. This is a classically based curriculum done through group meetings. (I have never used CC but a lot of people I know use it and love it!) September’s kids have used this.
My past blog articles related to homeschooling:
Swanson family Homeschool Updates Fall 2022!
Homeschool Updates and Books the Boys have been Loving (from 2019)
On Homeschooling High School (A guest post but very good!)
Homeschool Updates (from my boys High School years — from 2016)
Homeschool Updates (from Elementary and Middle School — 2016)
A Typical Day in our Homeschool Life (an oldie but goodie. 🙂)
PODCAST EPISODES which cover homeschooling:
EPISODE 125: The Four-Hour School Day with Durenda Wilson
EPISODE 59: Motivating Boys to Read and Write (With Andrew Pudewa, of IEW)
EPIDOSE 54: Finishing the (home) school year strong with Robert Bortins of Classical Conversations
EPISODE 52: Q&A With my boys covering “Why We Homeschool” and more.
EPISODE 48: You Have What it Takes to Homeschool with September McCarthy
I’ll try to add to this page over time, but I hope this is a helpful start! 🙂