Homeshooling
Resources
This page shares the resources we used throughout our homeschool journey—what worked, what didn’t, and what we adapted along the way.
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With learning differences like dyslexia and dysgraphia, no single curriculum fit perfectly. We built something that worked for our family by pulling from different approaches and shaping them to meet my boys where they were.
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Looking back, two things mattered most: hands-on learning and story-based connection. Practices like narration—retelling what was learned—helped deepen understanding and stayed with my boys even into college.
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This isn’t a perfect system—just a lived experience. My hope is that it gives you a place to begin and the confidence to shape something that fits your family.
Please feel free to reach out of me if you have any questions
Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW)
The Barron Method
Denison Algebra
My boys loved Mr. Pudewa. He drew them in, held their attention, and for the first time, they actually wanted to do the work.
In the early days, being able to build a paragraph from a key word outline was incredibly powerful. They felt successful, and their confidence began to grow.
We’ve tried other programs over the years, but this is the one they continue to come back to. One of the most meaningful parts was speaking the outline out loud before writing. For kids with dysgraphia, this can be monumental—it helps organize their thoughts before anything ever hits the page.
Even now, my oldest—who is in college—wants to return to IEW to strengthen and practice these skills again.
The Barron Method gave my boys a really clear way to understand how writing works. Breaking paragraphs into individual sentences—each with a purpose—helped take away the guesswork.
The color-coding especially clicked for them. Being able to see how a paragraph was built made the process feel more concrete and manageable.
What stood out most, though, was how it pushed them to explain and support their ideas. It helped them move beyond just saying something to actually developing their thinking. To this day, when they get stuck, they come back to CEA—the core of the program—and often ask themselves if they’ve really addressed the “A” when editing their work.
Finding the right math program wasn’t easy for my boys. Many moved too quickly, leaving them overwhelmed. Denison was different—it gave them the time and space to truly understand. Mr. Denison was another teacher who really drew them in, making them want to learn, and his brain-friendly approach helped everything click.
They worked through multiple levels with him, and the foundation stayed with them. In fact, they chose to return to his Trigonometry course later on, which says everything about the confidence they gained.
Early Math Resources
Science Resources
Language Arts
We tried several math programs in the early years, searching for something that felt visual, engaging, and accessible. What mattered most was finding approaches that helped my boys actually see and understand what they were learning.
Programs like The Good and the Beautiful, Math Lessons for a Living Education, and Math-U-See all offered pieces that worked well—especially in building early concepts like place value. Teaching Textbooks provided some independence in the middle years, though we often needed to go deeper.
Over time, I learned that no one program had everything. The key was finding what met them where they were and helped them build confidence step by step.
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I would recommend any of these programs I think they all have value.
Science came alive for my boys through living books. Instead of relying on traditional textbooks, we found they connected much more deeply through stories and ideas that felt engaging and meaningful.
We did try more traditional programs like Apologia, but it often felt like too much and didn’t really land. What worked best was using resources like Ambleside Online, Simply Charlotte Mason, CMEC, and the Alveary to find living science books, along with hands-on experiences like KiwiCo kits.
That combination—reading, exploring, and building—made science feel real and something they genuinely enjoyed.
Language arts looked a little different in our home. Because of my boys’ reading challenges, I often read aloud to them and we spent time talking about what we were reading—what stood out and what it meant. That became the heart of our learning.
I leaned on Charlotte Mason book lists, along with the literature I grew up with, and each year we chose books together that sparked their interest. We also used The Good and the Beautiful at times. It’s a rich and thoughtfully designed program, though for my boys it often felt like too much.
In the end, what worked best was a combination of reading aloud, conversation, and meaningful literature—meeting them where they were and letting their understanding grow from there.
Reading Resources
History resources
Waldorf Education (oak meadow)
We tried several reading programs along the way, including IEW and Logic of English. Both had strengths, but for my boys, they often felt like too much.
What worked best for us was All About Reading. It gave us a clear, steady path, and I worked through it one-on-one with each of them. Over time, their confidence grew, and they began moving into graphic novels, which made reading feel more accessible and enjoyable.
In high school, we followed a more traditional sequence—World History, American History, and Government—but I pulled from a variety of resources to make it more meaningful.
In the earlier years, we used selections from The Good and the Beautiful and Oak Meadow, along with historical fiction. Reading stories alongside the history helped my boys connect more deeply and truly understand what they were learning.
Story became the thread that made it all come alive.
I discovered Waldorf education early in our homeschool journey through Oak Meadow, and it came at just the right time. I was drawn to its emphasis on imagination, story, and rhythm.
While it wasn’t always the right fit for my boys, it shaped our homeschool in meaningful ways. And we always had some lessons that we worked from each year. Ultimately, ee carried forward the focus on story and the steady rhythm it brought to our days.
Oak Meadow and Waldorf Essentials are both wonderful resources to explore if this approach resonates with your family.
In high school, we partnered with Clonlara School, which gave us both structure and flexibility. My boys were able to earn credits and a diploma while still shaping their own learning.
What stood out most was the focus on reflection. They regularly thought about what they were learning and why, which has stayed with them into college.
Clonlara was a meaningful part of our journey and a great option for families looking for both support and independence in the high school years.