Guides
The answers, without the fluff.
Homeschool guides written by people who read the actual law, called the actual program, and priced the actual curriculum. No listicles. No affiliate-bait. Just the information families ask about most, answered clearly, for any family, any worldview, any geography.
Start here
New to homeschooling? Start with the field guide.
The canonical method-neutral starter for the 2026 family. Every entry point from fresh kindergarten to a mid-stream high-school senior. Every approach from classical to Charlotte Mason, Reformed, Catholic, secular, Montessori, unschooling, traditional textbook, unit study, online academy, and hybrid. United States legal framework and ESA by state, plus ten international regions (Canada, the UK and Ireland, Continental Europe, the Nordic countries, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Oceania, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East). Five worked first-year budgets, a 90-day plan per family situation, primary-source-cited throughout.
Curriculum pillars
Choose by subject, and by the careers each subject prepares for.
Six destination-shaped pillar guides. Each profiles 12 to 25 programs across method, worldview, and price, then maps ten career destinations with US, European, and Asian labor-market data. Six family case studies per pillar, two each in the US, Europe, and Asia.
Best math curriculum (2026)
Twelve programs from MEP and Math Mammoth through Singapore Dimensions, Beast Academy, and Art of Problem Solving. Engineering, computer science, data science, accounting, economics, actuarial, physics, operations research, bioinformatics, with BLS, Singapore DOS, Japan METI, and Korea KOSIS data on ten-year demand and current salary.
Best history curriculum (2026)
Fifteen programs across Story of the World, Mystery of History, History Quest, Curiosity Chronicles, BookShark, Notgrass, TAN Books, Catholic Textbook Project, Memoria Press, BiblioPlan, Veritas Press, Master Books. Ten humanities career destinations from law to foreign service.
Best visual arts curriculum (2026)
Seventeen programs . ARTistic Pursuits, Drawing With Children, Mark Kistler Draw3D, Memoria Press classical art, Royal Drawing School UK, Tate Kids, Khan Academy Art History, Pixar in a Box. Industrial design, animation, architecture, illustration, UX/UI, art conservation.
Best music curriculum (2026)
Eighteen programs across Hoffman Academy, Suzuki, Faber, Alfred, Bastien, Memoria Press Music Appreciation. Three exam boards mapped . ABRSM, RCM, Trinity College London. Music education, performance, composition, audio engineering, music therapy, music tech.
Best foreign language curriculum (2026)
Twenty-five programs across modern (Spanish, French, German, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean) and classical (Latin, Greek, Biblical Hebrew). Memoria Press Forms, Henle, Wheelock’s, Lingua Latina, Cambridge Latin Course. AP, NLE, A-Level, DELE, DELF, TestDaF, HSK, JLPT.
Best science curriculum (2026)
Twenty-two programs across four worldview camps, young-earth, old-earth Christian, secular, Catholic (anchored to CCC 282–289). Apologia, BJU, Berean Builders, Pandia REAL Science Odyssey, BFSU, Real Science 4 Kids. Medicine, engineering, computer science, research, public health.
Stage and starter
Starting out, or matching curriculum to grade.
Guides for first-year families and for parents matching a specific grade band to a program.
Head-to-head
When two publishers feel like the same answer.
Side-by-side comparisons on one rubric. Rigor, parent-intensity, daily time, cost, and worldview scope.
Abeka vs BJU Press vs Sonlight
The head-to-head comparison every first-year Christian homeschool family asks about. Rigor, parent-intensity, daily time, cost, and worldview scope, on one rubric.
Master Books vs The Good and the Beautiful
Two gentle, budget-friendly elementary programs families weigh against each other. Math and Language Arts compared on scope, daily time, cost, and the worldview each publisher states for itself.
Saxon vs Teaching Textbooks vs Singapore Math
The three-way math showdown families search for most. Spiral rigor, self-grading independence, and conceptual Asian-method depth compared on parent load, cost, and the kind of mathematician each produces.
Best all-in-one online homeschool programs
Time4Learning vs Miacademy vs Power Homeschool vs Monarch. The major online subscription programs compared on price, grade range, parent involvement, records, and secular-versus-Christian fit.
Choosing & teaching
Picking a program, and the day-to-day of using it.
Program-by-program guides for the decisions families actually make: how to teach reading, what a daily schedule looks like, where to go when one curriculum stops working.
How to teach your child to read at home
A program-by-program guide grounded in the reading science. Systematic phonics versus whole-language, Orton-Gillingham for at-risk readers, and the major programs compared from 100 Easy Lessons to All About Reading.
Homeschool daily schedules by age
Sample routines from preschool through high school, the block, loop, and morning-basket methods explained, and realistic time-per-subject ranges. The two-to-three-hour day, sourced to HSLDA and Charlotte Mason.
Best homeschool preschool curriculum (ages 3-4)
The play-based-versus-academic question answered from child-development research, then gentle picks for 3 and 4 year olds across phonics, math, and literature-rich preschool programs.
Homeschool transcript and GPA, step by step
How to build a high-school transcript, assign Carnegie-unit credits, and calculate weighted and unweighted GPA with a worked example. Includes the NCAA-eligibility documentation homeschoolers need.
Leaving The Good and the Beautiful Math
Where families go when TGTB Math stops fitting. The reasons families report switching and subject-appropriate alternatives ranked by fit, from Math With Confidence to Singapore and Math-U-See.
Switching from public school to homeschool
The first-year and mid-year transition, start to finish. How to withdraw legally, why deschooling matters and how long it takes, and how to choose a forgiving first curriculum without overbuying.
Year-round homeschooling
Sample schedules, loop and Sabbath plans, and summer routines, with the summer-slide research that makes the case for schooling through the year. Built to pair with the daily-schedules guide.
Homeschool record-keeping and portfolios
What to keep, how long, and which states require a portfolio. Attendance, work samples, and assessment records explained against statute, with the free printables that cover the paperwork.
Single subjects & skills
When you need one strong program, not a whole curriculum.
Subject-by-subject guides for the pieces families add on their own: handwriting, typing, coding, and logic, each with free and paid options compared.
Best handwriting curriculum
Print versus cursive settled with the handwriting research, then the major programs compared from Handwriting Without Tears to Logic of English Rhythm of Handwriting and New American Cursive.
Best typing programs for kids
Free versus paid typing tutors compared by age range and features, from Typing.com and TypingClub to Typesy, with the dyslexia-friendly options called out.
Best coding curriculum for kids
Free and paid coding programs by age, from Scratch and Code.org through Tynker, CodeMonkey, and the move to Python for teens. The on-ramp from blocks to real languages.
Best logic and critical-thinking curriculum
Formal and informal logic by age, from The Fallacy Detective and The Critical Thinking Co. through Memoria Press Traditional Logic and the classical Art of Argument sequence.
High school & credits
Transcripts, lab credits, and the graduation-requirement subjects.
The guides that matter once a homeschool has to produce records colleges recognize: documentation standards, credit-bearing courses, and the twice-exceptional path.
Homeschool transcript and GPA, step by step
Build a high-school transcript, assign Carnegie-unit credits, and calculate weighted and unweighted GPA with a worked example. Includes the NCAA-eligibility documentation homeschoolers need.
High school science with lab credit
What actually counts as a lab credit on a transcript, then biology, chemistry, and physics programs built to satisfy it, plus the kit vendors that make the labs happen.
Best economics and financial-literacy curriculum
The high-school economics credit covered, from Notgrass and Ramsey’s Foundations in Personal Finance to the free NGPF semester course and Khan Academy.
Best government and civics curriculum
The civics graduation requirement met, from Notgrass Exploring Government and We the People to the free iCivics and Hillsdale 1776 courses.
Curriculum for twice-exceptional (2e) learners
Accelerating a child’s strengths while accommodating a learning difference. The asynchrony challenge explained, with picks that go deep in talent areas and Orton-Gillingham where reading struggles.
Classical education & history
Booklet-length essays on the history of classical pedagogy.
Specialty long-form for families weighing classical, Charlotte Mason, and developmental-trivium curricula. Primary sources translated; modern publishers profiled reportorially.
Trivium, Quadrivium, and Charlotte Mason: a booklet on classical education from Augustine to 2026
Fifteen centuries of the seven liberal arts, from Augustine’s De Ordine through Boethius, Cassiodorus, Hugh of St Victor, the medieval university, the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum, Comenius, and Charlotte Mason, to the 2026 American classical-Christian school movement. With original Latin sources translated, Byzantine and Islamic parallels documented, and the four routinely-conflated modern frameworks (medieval seven-arts, Mason PNEU, Bauer developmental trivium, ACCS institutional model) separated clearly.
Blending Classical and Charlotte Mason
For families already doing classical who have discovered Charlotte Mason and want both. Where the two philosophies overlap and pull apart, a practical way to combine them, and the curricula (including the free Catholic option, Mater Amabilis) that fit each side.
Homeschool life & rhythm
The day-to-day, when curriculum is the easy part.
The felt-need pieces: organizing the day, teaching several ages at once, the resistant learner, boredom, the homeschool space, and the planner that holds it together.
Teaching multiple ages at once
One parent, several grades, a toddler underfoot. The systems that work: combine the family for history, science, and read-alouds, keep math and reading individual, and the family-style curricula built for exactly this.
How to organize the homeschool day
Block, loop, and routine scheduling explained with worked examples, so the subjects that always get skipped finally happen and the day stops dissolving by lunch.
When your child won't do the work
Ending homeschool power struggles. How to tell defiance from a developmental mismatch from a learning difference, and the de-escalation that protects the relationship while the work still gets done.
The science of boredom
Why unstructured time helps children think, drawn from the actual research (Belton, Mann, the AAP on play, Peter Gray), and what to do when you hear “I’m bored.”
Homeschool room setup and organization
Storage and setup for every space, including no dedicated room at all. The must-haves, the command center, book and supply systems, and how to keep materials from taking over the house.
Best homeschool planners compared
Paper versus digital for 2026-27. Homeschool Planet, Well Planned Day, Plan Your Year, and the free printable route, compared by family type so you buy once and use it.
Switching & logistics
When you are changing programs, or timing a purchase.
Practical guides for the in-between moments: leaving a curriculum, placing a child correctly, and knowing when publishers actually discount.
Switching from The Good and the Beautiful
A subject-by-subject replacement plan for families leaving TGTB. Why families report switching, what TGTB actually includes, and which covered programs map to each reason, with placement tests linked so you transition by skill rather than grade.
Curriculum placement tests: the directory
Free placement tests for math, reading, spelling, Latin, and full-program publishers, organized by subject with every link verified working. The fastest way to place a child correctly when starting or switching curricula.
Curriculum sale calendar
When publishers and retailers actually discount, month by month, with every recurring pattern tied to a dated past instance. A “live right now” section tracks the sales running this week. Updated as new sales are confirmed.
Leaving Abeka
Where families go when Abeka’s pace or volume stops working. The reasons families report switching and subject-by-subject alternatives, from BJU Press to Master Books, Singapore, and Sonlight.
ESA & state policy
Where the money is. Where the law sits.
Independent guides to homeschool law and Education Savings Account programs. Verified against statute and the program’s own published materials.
State homeschool laws (2026)
A clean, up-to-date table of homeschool law in all 50 states. Regulation level, reporting, testing, immunization exemptions, recent changes. Written in English, not legalese.
ESA funding by state (2026)
Thirty-plus states run ESA or school-choice programs in 2026, but homeschoolers qualify in fewer than a dozen. A clean 50-state matrix with eligibility, funding amounts, and the states where most blogs get it wrong.
Texas TEFA: what homeschoolers actually get (2026)
More than 95,600 Texas families now hold TEFA awards, and at-home learners receive their full $2,000 on July 1. Updated June 2026 with award counts, spend rules from the adopted regulations, and three sample curriculum plans.
WV Hope Scholarship: homeschoolers qualify for the first time (2026-27)
West Virginia's statutory trigger fired, and 2026-27 is the first school year existing homeschool families can receive the $5,435 Hope award. Eligibility mechanics, the Student First portal, and the reporting trade-off, verified against the statute.
Buying curriculum with ESA funds: the reimbursement path (2026)
Florida PEP and Arizona ESA families can buy direct from a publisher and submit the receipt instead of shopping the platform marketplace. When that path wins, what a compliant receipt shows, and where the audit triggers sit, from the program handbooks.
Weekly
New issues published Monday mornings.
A new dispatch publishes at everyhomeschool.com/issues every Monday at 7 AM ET. No email, no paywall.