Our Catholic Homeschool Rhythm 2025-2026

I’ve come to believe that rhythm is one of the most underestimated forms of love.

Not the rigid kind—where the clock dictates every move and there's no room for wonder—but the kind that holds space for both structure and spontaneity, for both wildflower walks and Tuesday’s laundry. The kind that lets you exhale.

Our homeschool rhythm isn’t flashy. But it is ours. It’s been carved out slowly, through trial and error and a lot of coffee. It’s a rhythm that leaves space for deep dives and rabbit trails, for books read aloud on the couch and muddy boots by the door. It’s a rhythm that tries—imperfectly—to honor the reality that learning is a way of living, not a series of boxes to check.

Here’s what it looks like.

Monday through Wednesday: Foundation Days

6:00–9:30 AM: Rooted Beginnings
I get up before the house stirs. That first light of quiet is golden. I walk, lift weights, pray, journal. Sometimes I don’t get to all of it. But I try. By 8:30, coffee’s in hand, breakfast is humming along, and I have one precious hour to write.
It’s not always seamless, but it’s sacred.

9:30 AM–12:30 PM: Tea Time
This is our main academic block. We begin with the prayer we’re memorizing that month (Memorare, Hail Holy Queen, Morning Offering, etc), and whichever hymn from our book that we are learning (my all-time favorite has been hearing the kids sing the Salve Regina, not in the book). Then, we practice our memory verse and any poetry we are memorizing.

Then, it is Bible story and coloring time, followed by our read aloud. I try to have our tea and some baked good available to make it feel special, but even a quick snack plate with cheese and some grapes or apple slices and peanut butter is a crowd pleaser. This is key for keeping little mouths quiet as we shift to Story of the World for History.

All of that is quite a lot for little attention spans, so we then dismiss the younger kids and switch to individual subjects (we use G&B for Math and Language) before wrapping up the morning for lunch.

12:30–1:00 PM: Nourish + Tidy
We break for lunch and clean up from the morning around noon—sometimes earlier, sometimes later. It really is a rhythm more than a schedule, but I have found that the kids thrive on consistency and knowing what comes next. The structure creates stability and helps limit behavioral problems as well.

1:00–2:30 PM: Science, Popcorn Storytime, and Art
In the afternoon, we snuggle around the fire and dive into science and seasonal picture books (the popcorn helps keep little mouths quiet), followed by an online program called Art with Lauren (this sweet 45 min-1 hr lesson is mom’s quiet tea and fiction break).

2:30–4:00 PM: Chores + Homekeeping
This is our pivot into tending the home—folding laundry (or at least trying to), wiping down surfaces, starting dinner. The kids pitch in. Sometimes cheerfully, sometimes with all the enthusiasm of a cat in a bathtub. But they’re learning it matters. I divide my tasks into zones to tackle so there is just a small amount of work each day (ex. Monday Kitchen + Parent Laundry, Tuesday Bathrooms, Wednesday Floors + Kid Laundry, Thursday Bedrooms + Sheets, etc).

4:00 Dinner Prep

5:00-7:00 Dinner + Family Time

Wind Down
Reading aloud. Karate some nights. Bath and bedtime. Family prayer at 7—except on those karate nights, when it shifts to 8. You can read about our family prayer routine here (although lately, we have been loving Compline/Night Prayer). It’s not perfect, but it’s ours.

Thursday: Co-op Day

Thursdays look different. We pack lunches early and get out the door for our co-op day—a day of shared learning and community, where the kids take classes and I get to be both teacher and student in ways that surprise me. We come home tired but full, and dinner is something I threw in the slow cooker that morning with my fingers crossed.

Friday: Nature Day

Fridays are for wonder.

We use the Slow Down curriculum and follow the seasons: bees pollinating, mushrooms unfurling, birds tracing loops across the sky. We pair it with nature walks—sometimes in silence, sometimes with a running commentary of questions I don’t always have answers to. But we look. We slow. We see.

Afternoons are for catching up and resetting the house. For making sure the socks have mates (somewhere), the Mass bag is packed, and the fridge doesn’t hold any science experiments we didn’t plan.

None of it is polished. But all of it is intentional.

We don’t aim to finish everything. We aim to be faithful. We aim to cultivate wonder and wisdom and the kind of resilience that grows when a child sees a problem, wrestles with it, and finds he is capable.

If you’re in the thick of it—figuring out your own rhythm, questioning if it’s enough—here’s what I want to tell you: it’s okay to go slow. It’s okay to pivot. It’s okay if some days feel like a beautiful mess and others just feel like a mess.

Keep showing up. Keep reading the books. Keep lighting the candle. You’re building something lasting—even if it doesn’t feel like it yet.

Our Catholic Homeschool Curriculum Picks 2025-2026

It’s that time again! As summer winds down, I find myself re-reading Sarah MacKenzie’s Teaching from Rest, which has quickly become a must-read for homeschooling moms. I first read it as we began our homeschooling journey. Now, with the lens of a few years’ experience under my belt, I am stuck by how true her wisdom all rings, and by the surprising joy of homeschooling.

As a former teacher and perpetual type-A perfectionist, I can get very caught up in the schedule, the to-do list, and completing the curriculum (which we have never done—at least in single year). In reading Sarah’s words, I realize that the best moments of homeschooling have all been the joyful, cozy, and spontaneous ones: sipping cocoa as we read about snowflakes on a snowy morning, diving deep on unexpected topics that capture the kids’ imagination as we follow a rabbit trail, hearing the kids beg me for just one more chapter of our read aloud, and snuggling on the couch reading science and seasonal picture books.

So, for this year, our theme is slow, cozy, curiosity and connection. Rather than a drill sergeant who ensures that every item of the checklist is completed to perfection, my role is to create conditions for us to explore in wonder and form lasting memories. Whether we finish every lesson is beside the point (did you ever get to the end of the textbook when you were in school, anyway?). Did we love learning? Did we love each other? Did we love the Lord? Those are the priorities in our home, and this year, I aim to make certain that our homeschool days are a resounding “yes.”

With no further ado, here are our curriculum picks for the 2025-2026 academic year:

Preschool

There are few changes from last year, except that my youngest is a bit more docile (but still prone to color all over the walls). To keep my little one occupied during school hours, I have gathered an arsenal in the form of busy bins. (For my best tips on homeschooling with littles, check out this post.)

I am curious to see if she wants to spend more time “doing work” at the table with us now that her older brother is in Kinder, so I also added a coloring book and some of the G&B PreK finger-tracing and wipe-clean books to her box in case she does want to be at the table with us.

Kindergarten

My most feral child is surprisingly eager to learn his letters and very precise with handwriting.

We are using The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts K, and The Good and the Beautiful Math K. This was the first curriculum I ever used, and after trying many others, I just keep coming back. We love the format, the simplicity, and the many built-in ways the author makes it fun and engaging for the kids. It is a winner, and like that old commercial says, kid-tested, mother approved.

First Grade

My other son is about halfway through the G&B First Grade Math and Language Books and we will buy the Second Grade levels when he is ready. I also bought him a Picture Bible and the Hey Jack series to encourage his independent reading.

My daughter loved the Princess in Black, Billie B Brown, and Junie B Jones series at this age before moving on to The Cupcake Diaries, which she devoured voraciously!) I do love investing in these sets because they can move easily to the next one (the library can’t be relied upon to have the next one on hand) and with 4 kids, will be used again by the younger ones when they get to that age. Are they the greatest books in English Literature? No. Do they help foster a love of reading and increase fluency? Absolutely. More than enough for me!

Fourth Grade

Language Arts

Our fourth grader reads voraciously of her own accord, so I don’t assign any reading other than what we read aloud together. We have fallen in love with The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts, and we will continue with that as long as they have her grade level available.

Math

We tried Math with Confidence and Teaching Textbooks, and they just weren’t for us. We circled back to G&B halfway through the year, and her dad did those lessons with her. For some reason, Mom is an easy punching bag for venting math frustrations, and with Dad it was smooth sailing. It was difficult to stay consistent with this arrangement given his work schedule, though. I am hoping that, since the Fourth Grade Level advances to video lessons, that she will be successful independently this year with only occasional help from me to clarify problem areas. Pray for us!

Typing and Handwriting

We are using The Good and the Beautiful. I honestly love their handwriting and so do my kiddos. They don’t always do the extra little connect the dots, drawing and coloring, but sometimes they are drawn to them and it brightens the day and takes the fight out of homeschooling (which I will say G&B does shine in that arena in general). She will finish early and move on whenever she is ready, and we both like it that way.

I never actually took a formal typing class. I learned in the wilds of MSN Instant Messenger. We use Night Zookeeper and that seems to be fostering typing skills without feeling like a drag. If you have a suggestion (that isn’t an online chat or forum) let me know!

Family Subjects

For more on how our days together “flow,” you can check out this post on our homeschool rhythm!

Hymns

We will continue using a selection from this hymnbook. I absolutely adore the historical blurbs. We usually take one verse a week, and by the end of the month we are familiar with the chorus and melody, which is my goal for my kiddos at this age.

Read Alouds

We read historical novels last year, which was fascinating, but with this year’s theme, I just want to indulge in the stories I loved most as a kid. We will read Holes, The Indian in the Cupboard, Flowers for Algernon, The Phantom Tollbooth, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and whatever else I can scrounge up. We might also pull from some of the American History novels I didn’t get to last year.

I have already purchased Little Christmas Carol to do Sarah MacKenzie’s Christmas School during Advent which I missed last year because it sold out. We also did all of the Herdman series last year which was pure hilarious fun, and a good cadence for the fall with The Best School Year Ever, The Best Halloween Ever, and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

Bible

We have loved using Bible resources over the past few years. The Jesus Storybook Bible is still my favorite, and the kids enjoyed the Read Aloud Bible (even if I have some theological qualms with minor bits of content).

My kids continue to love listening to Bible Stories and completing a coloring page, so we will keep doing that with Ascension’s Great Adventure Story Bible and select pages from this coloring book. I considered adding Seton’s Bible Curriculum and Tan’s Story of the Bible. For now, at these ages, simple is better.

Am I “doing enough” so that they can answer every Bible trivia question with perfect precision? Probably not. (I did add this Catholic Trivia game, though, as my 9-year-old is all about trivia games these days.) Is it “enough” that they learn Bible stories and fall in love with Scripture? Which is ultimately the goal? One day, I do want them to achieve the biblical literacy that was a special gift of my Protestant upbringing. For now, familiarity with the stories and the questions and curiosity they spark are, indeed, enough.

Science

I am continuing our K-3 living books curriculum that I created using the Let’s Read and Find Out Series (let me know if you are interested in receiving our lineup!). This continues to be our absolute favorite way to dive into science. I am adding the worksheets from this resource this year to submit for reimbursement purposes, and we are also using the Slow Down Nature Curriculum with our St. Francis Nature Co-op based on the book Slow Down: 50 Mindful Moments in Nature. Very Excited to dive in!

My oldest also chose genetics as her area of special interest this year, so I pulled this off the shelf (I just love everything about the Dover coloring books!) and requested a stack from the library. We will see how involved she really wants to get!

History

We are diving back into my all-time favorite history curriculum, The Story of the World. We are entering at Volume 2 this year and will cycle back through. I honestly feel like this is a treat for me, and the teacher’s manual is my favorite I have ever used, including when I was in the classroom. There are so many pictures books and activities suggested that everyone can find something that works for their family. I also have added in many of the Jim Weiss audiobooks for our car rides (not the audio of the text, which we like to read at home, but extra tall tales, myths, and historical biographies). You can purchase these at Well-Trained Mind or via the Apple Books app (which is the cheaper option).

Supplements and Electives

Both our older kids take karate and piano classes. I love being able to outsource these as my skills, interests, and talents really all lie within the narrow range of academic subjects. Lucky for me as homeschooling mom, and lucky for instructors of the “fun” things I can pay them to teach my kids. We are also loving this online art option Art with Lauren. The kids follow along and I get 45 minutes for a cup of tea and a good novel!

We are also adding in that nature co-op I mentioned, as well as an additional day where they can take classes like sewing, cooking, chess club, etc. And of course, Sunday School! I am very excited, but also wondering if I have bitten off more than we can chew. Our cup overflows with goodness, praise the Lord!

What are your curriculum picks this year??

Our FINAL Homeschool Curriculum Picks 2024-2025

It’s that time again!

I am the quintessential nerd. I grew up with my nose perpetually in a book. Belle was always my favorite Disney princess. I adore the smell of newly printed books, and shopping for new school supplies was always a highlight of my year.

Is it any wonder, then, that selecting curriculum for the new school year has become one of my favorite pastimes? My one regret is having to narrow down all these amazing resources.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a good curriculum if it wasn’t manageable enough to execute elegantly, and so narrowed down they must be. With no further ado, here are our curriculum picks for the 2024-2025 academic year:

2-year-old

To keep my little one occupied during school hours, I have gathered an arsenal in the form of busy bins. (For my best tips on homeschooling with littles, check out this post.)

Preschool

I am of the Charlotte Mason, free-range set who believe that no formal education in the preschool years is necessary, and what children at this age in fact need is lots of time outdoors, baking muffins, and snuggling up to great picture books.

However, as a mom of many little ones, I also recognize the value of each having his own turn, his own special time with mom as his older siblings. If I had all the time in the world, I would use My Father’s World preschool program. I love the social-emotional development and how well every little thing ties in, especially the Bible component. Instead, I just use the character book (a MUST!), a finger tracing book, and he will join us during family Bible time.

We will also use Kate Snow’s Preschool Math at Home, and from the Good and the Beautiful we use the handwriting and preschool program daily and continue with the kinder prep when that is complete.

Kindergarten

My son has a late birthday, so he has actually already started kindergarten and is progressing with his reading very well. He is so self-motivated, even breaking out his reader to struggle through independently at night. The reader has been discontinued by The Good and the Beautiful, but you can still find it on ebay. I will say that it is not magic so much as a personality thing; my daughter is an avid reader now, but she fought me on that same reader tooth and nail when she was in kinder!

He will continue with The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts K, and I am still on the fence about Math. We switched to Math with Confidence last year, which was absolutely the right call for my 3rd grader (better organization and teaching instructions, better foundation of conceptual math), but my son is missing the fun and silly nature of The Good and the Beautiful, and at this age, that might be more critical. We will see. Either way, we will definitely switch to MWC by Grade 2.

He is loving the Magic Treehouse books and itching to be able to read them independently, so I am excited to see where he goes with it. He is also excited to begin writing his own stories, and spends hours building Legos. Such a fun age! I have a hunch he would really enjoy Minecraft, but I’m not sure what we’d be getting into.

Should we? Shouldn’t we? What are the pros and cons? Let me know!

Third Grade

Language Arts

Our third grader reads voraciously of her own accord, so I don’t assign any reading other than what we read aloud together. We have fallen in love with The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts, and I was really on the fence about whether to bump her up a grade as she doesn’t need the extra help with phonics at this point, but we are sticking with grade level as I think the writing component is more her speed, and why rush?

Spelling

The only thing we skip is the spelling component, as we both prefer a more traditional, straight foward approach (I actually didn’t even realize there were spelling rules until I started teaching this curriculum, and memorizing them felt burdensome even to me. I got nearly perfect verbal scores, graduated valedictorian, and became a published author all before learning of the existence of these rules, so I figure if I can make it work, so can she!). We use Evan-Moor for spelling, and I wouldn’t say she loves it, but she prefers it and does enjoy testing each week.

Math

As stated above, Math With Confidence all the way! I also love that I will only have to repurchase the workbooks, as the text and manipulatives will be the same.

Typing and Handwriting

We are using The Good and the Beautiful. I honestly love their handwriting and so do my kiddos. They don’t always do the extra little connect the dots, drawing and coloring, but sometimes they are drawn to them and it brightens the day and takes the fight out of homeschooling (which I will say G&B does shine in that arena in general). She will finish early and move on whenever she is ready, and we both like it that way.

I am not married to this typing program and still searching for something better (send your suggestions). I feel that electronic feedback would really help with this subject. Then again, I never actually took a formal typing class. I learned in the wilds of MSN Instant Messenger. If you have a suggestion (that isn’t an online chat or forum) let me know!

Family Subjects

Hymns

We will be using a selection from this hymnbook. I absolutely adore the historical blurbs. We usually take one verse a week, and by the end of the month we are familiar with the chorus and melody, which is my goal for my kiddos at this age.

Latin

We are just dipping our toes in this year by learning our prayers in Latin using this beautiful book (honestly, I will buy anything by Kate Warner, sight unseen), which we will do during our morning tea time. They already know most of the essentials in English, so this year we are focusing on Latin (again, probably one per month — or however long until we know it well).

Read Alouds

I am still compiling our official list, but they will all come from my American History Read Aloud booklist, which I promise to publish in the near-ish future.

Bible

We have loved using Bible resources over the past few years. The Jesus Storybook Bible is still my favorite, and the kids enjoyed the Read Aloud Bible (even if I have some theological qualms with minor bits of content). The activities from this one were mostly hits, with some exceptions (and some issues of execution on my part for poor planning).

This year, we are diving into the Biggest Story Bible Curriculum from Crossway, which I will verbally edit for theological errors as I go, but am thrilled with what I have seen so far. You can read from the Bible, use their Bible storybook, or watch the stories on YouTube before diving into your lesson. I am honestly so impressed with the quality and range of activities that go along with this, and you can basically access all the content for free on their website. No, it isn’t Catholic (please, somebody, make a quality Catholic Bible curriculum!), but I feel pretty confident in my ability to adapt this to be theologically accurate. I know it isn’t that way for all parents, so I definitely respect those who stick to Catholic-created resources.

Science

We are finishing up our K-3 living books curriculum (let me know if you are interested in the booklist and lesson plans I created!), and headed into a new frontier with Noeo Science. I love that it is based on living books and the science experiments are simple and integrated — the kids learn the content by doing, not just adding on — and that it came with a kit so I am not scrambling for materials.

I am definitely going to have mine spiral bound. I also liked the example pages I saw on flip throughs, but that wasn’t what came. I emailed the publisher and they emailed me a PDF for free right away, so A+ for customer service! I’ll keep you updated on how we enjoy it, but I am optimistic!

History

We are finishing up Notgrass 50 States, which was honestly a little repetitive for me, but the kids have declared it their favorite, and it has been fun to fill out our travel bucket list as we go. My oldest has become enamored of the Everglades and wants to hike to the top of Cadillac Mountain in Maine to be the first in the US to see the sunrise. It is helping to form our family culture to go through these together, so I suppose I can’t ask for more than that!

Once we finish, we will move on to Notgrass’s Star-Spangled History. I have flipped through it and I honestly love these stories. I am going to learn so much, and I am also a huge fan of the simple worksheets to check for understanding. My oldest will take the tests, while the littles will just listen along and complete the other activities. I am not going to use the literature component as I have a more ambitious, less realistic schedule of read-alouds in mind. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Supplements and Electives

Both our older kids take karate and piano classes. I love being able to outsource these as my skills, interests, and talents really all lie within the narrow range of academic subjects. Lucky for me as homeschooling mom, and lucky for instructors of the “fun” things I can pay them to teach my kids.

For writing, I am purchasing this little journal for my daughter and I as she is at the age of most intense interest in relationship with mom, or so my child development books tell me. We might also dive into this cute Writer’s Toolbox, and my son wants to write a book so we might get this kit for him as well.

As for the computer, my daughter adores Teaching Textbooks Math (which I attribute entirely to how wholly we have deprived our children of screens to this point), and plan to add Night Zookeeper which seems like a fantastic supplemental language resource.

We also get a monthly letter from Letters From Afar which is an absolute win for geography. If I had unlimited resources, I would add History Unboxed, Universal Yums, Saint of the Month, and The Mass Box to our subscriptions. But. I don’t. Hint, hint, gift-givers…

We might also add an art class or some kind of social meet-ups; those are all being formed and scheduled but still nebulous at this point. We will do what works with our schedule, with priority on forming friendships with other kids. If we don’t end up in an in-person art class, I will do art once a week with my kiddos based on this Usborne book that introduces different artists and has instructions for imitation and — what else? — living books.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something. After all, we are living and breathing the education we give our kids. An atmosphere, a discipline, and a life. The most important lessons are often the ones we don’t even intend to teach, like how to calm down when we’re angry, and how to apologize when we lose our cool (if only someone could teach their mom how not to lose her cool in the first place…).

What are your curriculum picks this year??