 A Gentle Feast is a delicious Charlotte Mason inspired curriculum. The curriculum goes from early elementary through high school. It covers history, geography, language arts, science, foreign language, science, Bible, art, and many other topics as well. The only subject you need to add to this curriculum is math. The curriculum runs in a 4 year cycle through history. History is taught through living books rather than a text book so there will be lots of stories and reading that goes along with this great curriculum. A Gentle Feast is also written so that all your children can be in the same cycle of history at the same time and most other subjects will tie into that cycle of history as well. There are great videos that walk you through starting this curriculum. The online lesson plans are easy to follow and using the curriculum should be simple once you master the feast of subjects that are done in a week. A Gentle Feast also has a solid foundation being written by a Christian author and based in a Charlotte Mason style curriculum. The Word of God is found everywhere in this curriculum. Click Here to learn more about A Gentle Feast
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 Tapestry of Grace is a wonderful history curriculum that serves up a feast of learning for the entire family. However, if this is your first year homeschooling or you get overwhelmed easily by a lot of options I wouldn't recommend TOG. I always suggest for first year homeschool families to pick a simple curriculum and though TOG can be simple - the experience of a year of homeschooling under your belt helps with handling this curriculum.
That being said, I personally use TOG with my family and we love it. We don't do everything because there is simply too much to do in a year and it's written this way on purpose. Tapestry of Grace is written to be a 4 year cycle curriculum, meaning every four years you start back over again. The curriculum is broken up into Lower Grammar, Upper Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric Levels. History is taught through books rather than a text book and you will read autobiographies, history, historical fiction, and so many more books. There are books to be read as a family read a loud and there are books that each age group are responsible for reading during the week. I love this curriculum because our entire family (currently in grades 6th, 8th, and 11th grade) can all be learning about the same time period but learning at their appropriate age level. We can then sit together at the dinner table and discuss who was learning what. Inevitably, what each has learned through the week weaves over the top of one another and they naturally learn from each other as we discuss together. Watching their discoveries as we discuss is simply beautiful. Along with the books to read there are also map aids, writing prompts, vocabulary words, time lines, projects, art, and so much more. TOG is a very deep and wide curriculum and truly one of the best homeschool options for a family who want to learn together. Click here to learn more about Tapestry of Grace  Notgrass History is a traditional text book history curriculum. The text books are visually stunning and laid out very well. It's been a few years since we have used this curriculum but we enjoyed the time we used it. They have excellent literature books that run along side the time period you are learning about. We used Notgrass History for middle school years. They have since added in elementary curriculum too. I have no experience with this so therefore I can't give any experience.
My children liked this curriculum and a wild collection of state quarters started during one of our years using their curriculum. The crediting they lay out for high school is very simple to follow too (something we moms of high school students appreciate!) I've also heard Ray Notgrass speak at several conferences and was very blessed by his heart for the Lord, his heart to have children learn factual history, and his personal love of history. Click Here to learn more about Notgrass History  Winter Promise is a fantastic company that writes curriculum that is easy to use for parents and well loved by children. They offer science, language art, and a full year boxed curriculum. In this post I'll be talking about their Themed curriculum packages. Head to the Science or Language Art pages to learn more about these programs from Winter Promise.
Winter Promise offers themed curriculum packages starting in Pre-k all the way through 12th grade. Each theme package is broken up by history time periods. The curriculum includes great lesson plans for teachers and students, living book reading (rather than a text book) journal prompts, art study, hands on activities, science, nature studies, Bible, morning time studies, and so much more. Winter's Promise Themed packages are a complete package and offer more to do than you can probably do in a week. Engaging learning all tied together by a time period are one of my favorite types of curriculum to teach my children. I feel they retain the curriculum better when the subjects all tie together by a common thread, whether that is a unit study or through a period of history the mind retains more when this approach is used I have found. I also appreciate Winter Promise curriculum for their solid stance on Christ that is tied into all their curriculum. Solid foundations in the Word of God are being made in their curriculum and their own personal walk with the Lord is evident in all they do. I would much prefer to support a fellow Christian when great curriculum like this is being written. Click Here to be directed to the Winter Promise Website  Geo Matters - Trail Guide to Learning is a complete curriculum for the homeschool family. This curriculum covers all subjects except math. Currently Geo Matters has curriculum for those in K - 9th grade and based on their website they appear to be working to add more curriculum for high school years each year. Grades can also be combined for some of the school work. For parents who are wanting a simple all in one curriculum Geo Matters is an easy to use curriculum for all the subjects with well rounded learning that all ties together, living books for reading, and a lot of fun and adventure to be had a long the way. This is certainly a curriculum to look into when looking into curriculum for future years of schooling. Geo Matters curriculum is also foundxtinionally built on the Word of God and is sure to give your children a greater depth of understanding the Bible in a school year.
Click Here to check out the Geo Matters website  Memoria Press is another great option for boxed curriculum. Memoria Press is a classical curriculum and rich in great literature, history, and foreign language.
Personally ive used the entire year of K and absolutely loved it. Ive also love their literature packs for all grades. If you need a good reading list and comprehensive questions to go along with the books look no further. They are spot on when it comes to the book lists. We also love the Latin program and have used their online classes for Latin and Comp and have been so impressed with the quality of teacher, curriculum and growth of learning that happen in these classes. Check Memoria Press our here!!!  simply Charlotte Mason is hands down one of my all time favorite boxed curriculum available. Our family uses many of their products. It goes without saying that this is a very Charlotte Mason styled curriculum. Nature study, living books, narration, and copy work are all things you will find within the curriculum.
The history curriculum is a 6 year cycle and it coensides with the Bible so you will read through the Bible in a 6 year cycle too. The Bible study as a family is one of my favorite things within this curriculum. You study together as a family and as your children get older the styles of Bible study grows with them. I’ve watched my older children’s faith become their own using the Bible study tools. The scripture memory box way of memorizing scripture is another favorite and the way my family learns so much scripture throughout the years with easy review. Spelling is another favorite in this curriculum. The lessons are taught through copy work and dictation and if you stick with the program the growth you will see in spelling is astounding. The living books read through the history years are wonderful too. My children all love the books they read alone and then the family books that we read together are the best!!! I could continue but I’ll stop here just trust me and check out this curriculum. Feel free to ask questions! Check our Simply Charlotte Mason here!!!  My Fathers World is a great boxed curriculum. Very faith based, super simple to use, and great to use with multiple children at once.
My Father’s World is a favorite I recommend for those who are just starting homeschooling. It is simple, easy to follow, has great lesson plans for parents. A boxed curriculum that has everything included and is so fun for the family. The curriculum is also Charlotte Mason inspired so a lot of the learning will be done through living books rather than a text book. Personally, I love this more as I feel the retaining of the material occurs more naturally through a living book. Check out My Father’s World here!!! |
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