Every homeschool family I talk to has run into a rut, no matter how much they or their kiddos love a curriculum, book series or what. I found an affordable, customizable K-12 curriculum based on great books that covers every subject and is easy to incorporate into our school or use on its own. Love that!
We just started using Great Books Homeschool and absolutely love it! It’s clear, easy to use and truly affordable. It covers everything! We get many of our books from the library or Amazon. The curriculum is broken down by day and subject, love it. My twins like it because it’s not overwhelming. My early riser can get started because it’s easy to follow independently. My reluctant reader feels the workload is manageable and the choice for books and subjects interesting (read: worth his attention!). You can get 30% off here. The free trial gives a detailed breakdown.
Overview
Great Books Homeschool is a fun, challenging literature-based curriculum for K-12 that is designed to be customized on the go for each student. It’s a great fit for kids who love to read and for eclectic and interest-led homeschoolers.
The curriculum is provided online. Great Books Homeschool creates a complete curriculum for each student, including reading, writing, math, history, science, foreign language, art, music, technology, life skills, and lots of great literature. But that is only the starting point. Parents can customize the curriculum by adding, removing and rescheduling components at any time.
Great Books Homeschool does not provide books, which can instead be accessed via libraries or purchased via Amazon links provided in the curriculum. This makes it possible to include a wider range of books and learning materials, while offering the curriculum at lower cost than curricula that come packaged with books.
Advantages of Great Books Homeschool
1. Great for kids who love to read
The Great Books Homeschool team is passionate about great literature and has spent many years searching out the best and most enjoyable children’s books, both classic and modern. In early grades, the focus is on fun reads like the Wayside School series and Roald Dahl books. Middle school includes more challenging literature like The Lord of the Rings series and A Christmas Carol. High school students read many ancient and modern classics in their unabridged form.
2. Minimal screen time
The curriculum is meant to be accessed by parents, who then provide children with physical books and other assignments. It does not require children to learn from devices or screens. (Students begin to use computers for typing and learning computer science in middle school.)
3. Customization
The curriculum offers core and optional books and activities, and parents can pick and choose which to do. It’s easy for parents to remove books and activities, add their own, and move them to different months and grades in the curriculum. Parents can also combine books and activities for children in multiple grades. Students can be moved from one grade to another at any time and at no cost.
4. Wider range of learning materials
Since Great Books Homeschool is online and does not produce or include its own books, it is able to include a wider range of books and other learning materials than any other homeschool program. Most homeschool curricula that emphasize great literature require kids to read the classics too early, and exclude wonderful modern literature like Harry Potter and the Percy Jackson series. Great Books Homeschool includes everything from age-appropriate classic literature and quality modern children’s books to historical fiction, science fiction and even graphic novels.
Many other Charlotte Mason programs are weak in math, science and technology. Great Books Homeschool has a strong and rigorous math program (Beast Academy and Art of Problem Solving, plus biographies of famous mathematicians and popular science books about intriguing mathematical concepts), and teaches typing and computer programming in middle school. Science study includes lots of breathtaking documentaries like the updated Cosmos series, plus hands-on activities like a microscope exploration unit.
5. Affordability
Great Books Homeschool is less expensive than prepackaged curricula because it does not include books. The kindergarten curriculum is free. For other grades, one subscription covers an unlimited number of students, and can be paid monthly so you can stop anytime. They offer a free 7-day trial.
6. Automated scheduling and record-keeping
Parents can input start and end dates for each book and activity, and this generates an automatic record which can be exported and included in legally required record-keeping and reporting. For high school, professional graded transcripts are generated which can be used in college applications (parents assign the grades).
Drawbacks
1. Books are not included in the curriculum. This helps parents save money by using libraries and makes it easier to change the schedule on the go. However, it requires parents to obtain books separately. We put the ones we hope to use in our wish list on Amazon and get alerts when they go on sale.
We simply put the curriculum books on hold and pick them up during our weekly library trips. The math and art materials must be purchased, but are not expensive.
2. The curriculum does not include religious instruction, which could be a drawback for families looking for a religious curriculum. The curriculum strives to be neutral, present a variety of ideas and does not espouse any particular religious or political ideology.
3. The unmodified curriculum may be too challenging for some students. The math program in particular is designed for gifted learners, and there is a great deal of reading. However, the math program may easily be substituted for another, and readings may be reduced or moved to later grades as necessary.
