Following on from my Homeschooling Tips! blog post, I have put together a list of the school books we use and love! This year, my kids are in Year 3, Year 2 and PP. Our needs may change as they grow older however, for the past five years, these have been my favourites!
RIC Publications
These books are AMAZING! Especially when you are just starting out as a homeschooler, because each lesson is literally planned for you! There is a page for the teacher with instructions on how to teach, followed by pages of worksheets for the kids to do. These Australian Curriculum linked books are expensive, at about $40 per workbook, but they are designed for the worksheets to be photocopied, so if you homeschool more than one child you could save by using one book for all your kids, if you purchase it at the beginning of your HS journey. RIC Publications have hundreds of resources on their website. Have a browse while you’re there! They also have a very handy ‘Australian Curriculum’ tab under ‘products’, which makes life much easier. In the past I have used them for Geography, Science, History and some English for the older kids. Bonus brownie points to RIC for allowing a preview online of each page of each book!
Pearson
For Maths, the kids and I love ‘enVisionMaths’ by Pearson. It is colourful, engaging and fun!
Firefly Education
For English, especially for the very early years, my favourite has been ‘Sound Waves’ by Firefly Education. It uses the phonemic approach which seems to just work for kids. I also like their ‘Writing Time’ books for handwriting. We follow the NSW Foundation Style of writing because I like it most and, as home schoolers (at least in WA), we have the liberty of choosing which handwriting style we want to teach our kids.
Teachers 4 Teachers
Lots of people rave about teachers4teachers because they are resources written by teachers, making them practical and easy to use. I have to agree: last year I ordered teachers4teachers ‘History Now’ books for the boys and they were great! I got them because they were under $20, versus the $40 price tag from RIC Publications, and now that I am more comfortable lesson planning, I am very happy with that choice! This year I also bought their ‘Science Now’ and ‘Geography Now’ books.
Teacher Superstore
I provided each publisher’s links above however, as I like ordering most of my books from one location (helps with the shipping costs!), I tend to use the Teacher Superstore website. I use the publishers’ sites only if the books I’m after aren’t available through the Teacher Superstore.
Here is a photo of my son’s Yr2 book collection! “I’m a Walking Talking Miracle” is a little bonus book I’m planning on using this year – the pictured book is one that our parents used for us when my brothers and I were little, over 20 years ago!
Aside from the above paper books, my kids have also been enjoying using the ABC Reading Eggs subscription program. It’s educational and so much fun, that we use it as a reward in our house. They offer a free trial as well, so you can try it out before you subscribe. For a detailed review of ABC Reading Eggs, have a read of this post from ‘Families Magazine’: ABC Reading Eggs Review.
I hope the above information is useful to you, saves you some time and makes your homeschooling journey an easier and more enjoyable one!
❤️
-A-
PS. Do you have a topic you’re dying for me to cover? Do you have any extra tips that you would like to share? Comment on the blog or get in touch on Facebook! I won’t force you to join another mailing list. I love what I do and I’m happy to share!
I was once a budding stay-at-home mum wondering how I’ll ever tackle this task as well! Now the kids are a tad older but the journey continues with new discoveries every day.
Hi, have enjoyed reading through your post! The part that SOOO resonated with me was the hours at night that have been wasted TRYING to find the *best* curriculum for our babes. Have realised that its being very counterproductive and not at all good for my family.
A quick question. What was it that made you make the switch from Sound Waves [you mentioned these were great for the early years] to New Wave? I have seen sample pages os sound waves, but cant seem to find any sample pages for the New Waves books. Thanks a pile. =]
Hi, thank you for your comment! To be honest, the switch was mainly out of curiousity! New Wave books are by RIC Publications and while they don’t say ‘Curriculum Linked’ on the cover, the price tempted me into trying them. You can view sample pages on the RIC website :)