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As a lover of literature, it may surprise you to know that I am pretty relaxed about literature in our homeschool. I love having a framework and exploring different stories — that’s why I still use curriculum in my choices.

BUT I no longer use workbooks or assign daily pages.

I have found that if I can pick a curriculum that suits my child, they don’t need assignments to encourage them to read. Additionally, the workbooks typically decrease motivation in an otherwise enjoyable subject.

I also knew I would be using different language arts and literature curriculum with each of my children. I got so bored as a music teacher if I had to repeat lessons, I knew that repeating the same language programs with my kids would drive me crazy. Finding the perfect program for each of them has been tons of fun for me!

Before I dive into the curricula we have actually used, I wanted to note that we started out with Memoria Press’s literature guides. I own most of the classics for the guides and my kids read them for leisure, so I ended up never assigning them. I didn’t want to spoil the fun they were having reading classics!

Now for what we have used and are currently using:

📚 Christian Light Education Reading

Christian Light Education has come to my rescue a few times when I just needed something that worked but wasn’t sure where to turn. For their reading series, I had one of my students use workbooks until about 4th grade.

After that we ditched the workbooks and she just read and narrated (talk to me about) the stories in the readers, and she enjoyed the reading so much more! She has read through the 7th grade reader and goes back to read her favorite stories often. We definitely have some theological differences, but the stories are wholesome and age-appropriate.

CLE has a Learning to Read curriculum that we loosely tried and quickly switched to something else. I wanted to start earlier than age 7 to teach reading, and this reading program is definitely better suited for older students.

Grades 1-8
Buy: Publisher | Rainbow Resource | Amazon

📚 ACE Literature and Creative Writing

ACE publishes a Literature and Creative Writing curriculum using workbooks called PACEs. There are several PACE workbooks for each grade that cover reading comprehension and creative writing exercises.

I originally tried this curriculum because I like the idea of comprehension and writing combined for one of my students. The creative writing activities were good for her, but she found the comprehension questions to bog down her reading. It became such a chore. I decided to let her finish the 4th grade books without doing the workbooks, and it turned out that she loved the books she previously thought she hated. This just reinforced for me that workbooks kill joy in reading.

We have read the 4th-6th grade book packs and my strong reader really liked them. These would also be great books for boys — lots of adventure and mysteries involved. They have a great mix of nonfiction, unique realistic fiction, and classics that I really love.

If you want to purchase these, I suggest browsing at ChristianBook.com. They do a good job of organizing by grade. Links to the literature packs can be found in the descriptions of the PACE bundles.

Grades: 2-8
Buy: Publisher | Christian Book

📚 The Good & The Beautiful Language Arts & Literature

I have to admit that I tried this curriculum with two students who hated it, just because I love it so much. My third student loves it and it has been great fun to get to use it with her.

This student has gone through most of the 2nd grade books. We utilize the two apps (letter tiles and homeschool app) as suggested — they are a pretty important part of the curriculum.

I think this student loves The Good and The Beautiful because it is so beautiful. She has an appreciation for art and lovely things. She also enjoys the conversational tone — she doesn’t need the bare minimum descriptions that some of my other students do.

I have heard that the later levels are not as good as the younger years. I have 3rd grade on my shelf ready to be used in the next few months — I hope it continues to suit this student well!

Grades: PreK-High school
Buy: Publisher

📚 Horizons Phonics and Reading

So far the student I have in Horizons is in the middle of the preschool curriculum. She loves it. She is a crafty girl and loves the simple, colorful graphics and that she gets to cut and glue almost every day. I have high hopes for the phonics program coming up!

Alpha Omega Publishing also offers LIFEPAC curriculum, which is the same as Horizons but less colorful and has less teacher involvement. We may switch to LIFEPAC later on, but as far as I can tell, LIFEPAC does not come with the beautiful readers.

Grades: K-6
Buy: Publisher | Rainbow Resource | Amazon

What have you used for literature in your homeschool?

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🤖 Always written and edited without the use of AI.

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