49 independently reviewed programs
Find the curriculum that fits your family.
Compare the evidence that changes a homeschool day: rigor, parent workload, cost, flexibility, and how independently a child can work.
Every curriculum, using the same evidence
How our scoring works
Every program is scored 0–100 on nine dimensions, weighted into an overall letter grade. Full methodology on How We Grade.
- Academic rigor
- Depth and challenge of the content.
- Ease of use
- How simple it is to open and teach with little prep.
- Parent time required
- Hands-on time a parent must give. A higher score means less time needed.
- Cost & value
- What you get for the price you pay.
- Engagement
- How well it holds a child's interest.
- Flexibility
- Room to adjust pace, order, and depth.
- Independent learning
- How much a child can do on their own.
- Support & community
- Training, help, and community around the program.
- Special-needs support
- Fit for dyslexia and other learning differences.
A = exceptional fit for most families ·B = strong with minor trade-offs ·C = workable but notable compromises ·D = significant drawbacks for typical use.
A hands-on, mastery-based math program that makes abstract concepts concrete.
Best for: Works best for families who want a structured, mastery-based math track and don't mind buying a shelf of manipulative blocks.
- Rigor4/5
- Ease4/5
- Parent Time4/5
A book-rich, read-aloud-heavy curriculum that turns history and literature into a family experience.
Best for: A natural fit for Christian families who'd rather spend the school day reading aloud together than filling out worksheets.
- Rigor4/5
- Ease4/5
- Engagement4/5
Sonlight's secular sibling — the same book-driven approach without the faith content.
Best for: If Sonlight's reading list appeals but the faith content doesn't, this is the swap.
- Rigor4/5
- Ease4/5
- Value4/5
A low-screen, character-focused curriculum with some of the lowest buy-in costs in homeschooling.
Best for: Tight-budget Christian families willing to piece together courses one at a time in exchange for very low prices and almost no screens.
- Value5/5
- Engagement4/5
- Flexibility4/5
Nearly hands-off math — video lectures, automated grading, and step-by-step solutions do the heavy lifting.
Best for: Parents who want math off their plate entirely, from upper elementary on up, will get the most out of this one.
- Ease5/5
- Parent Time5/5
- Independence5/5
The classic drill-and-review math program — concepts return constantly until they stick.
Best for: Families who trust a decades-old track record over a newer approach tend to stick with Saxon longest.
- Rigor5/5
- Value4/5
- Support4/5
A structured, traditional Christian curriculum built around textbooks, workbooks, and daily drill.
Best for: If a school-like pace and a fast, drill-heavy workload sound like a feature rather than a bug, Abeka is the Christian program built for that.
- Rigor4/5
- Ease4/5
- Support4/5
Bob Jones University's Christian curriculum, available as print kits or a flat-fee video school.
Best for: Multi-kid Christian households chasing a flat monthly rate rather than per-subject pricing gravitate to Power Homeschool specifically.
- Rigor4/5
- Ease4/5
- Parent Time4/5
A low-cost, fully online curriculum that runs itself once a child logs in.
Best for: A good low-stakes on-ramp for families new to homeschooling who aren't ready to commit to a full boxed curriculum yet.
- Ease5/5
- Parent Time5/5
- Independence5/5
A free, donation-funded mastery platform that's hard to beat as a math and science supplement.
Best for: Costs nothing, so it's an easy add-on for shoring up math or science under almost any other curriculum.
- Parent Time5/5
- Value5/5
- Flexibility5/5
A gentle, nature-soaked curriculum for younger learners that leaves math and spelling to another program.
Best for: Early-years secular families who lean Charlotte Mason and want more time outside than at a desk will feel right at home here.
- Ease4/5
- Value4/5
- Engagement4/5
Challenging, puzzle-driven math for elementary kids who want to be pushed harder.
Best for: Kids who find grade-level math too easy and start complaining of boredom are exactly who this was built for.
- Rigor5/5
- Value4/5
- Engagement4/5
An open-and-go Christian curriculum best known for its young-earth creationist science line.
Best for: Families specifically looking for a young-earth creationist science line won't find many alternatives this developed.
- Ease4/5
- Value4/5
- Rigor3/5
A Charlotte-Mason-style unit study built for teaching multiple ages together around one theme.
Best for: If you've got several kids spanning grades and want to teach history and Bible as one shared class instead of three separate ones, this is built for that.
- Engagement4/5
- Rigor3/5
- Ease3/5
A classical, community-anchored program built around weekly co-op meetings and a memory-work core.
Best for: Weekly, built-in community is the draw here — worth the classical, memory-work-heavy method for families who'd otherwise be homeschooling in isolation.
- Support5/5
- Rigor4/5
- Engagement3/5
A rigorous, book-based classical Christian program built around Latin, great books, and a fixed teacher-directed sequence.
Best for: Real classical rigor, especially in Latin, without needing a classically trained parent — the scripted teacher guides do the heavy lifting.
- Rigor5/5
- Ease4/5
- Value4/5
A classical Christian program known for its Omnibus great-books sequence, offered self-paced or via a live online academy.
Best for: A great-books discussion education with the option of live teacher-led classes instead of a local co-op suits Christian families who want both structure and real classmates.
- Rigor4/5
- Ease4/5
- Parent Time4/5
A four-year classical history and literature loop designed for multiple ages to study the same era together at different depths.
Best for: Large, multi-age Christian households who want to study history together as a family rather than by grade.
- Rigor4/5
- Engagement4/5
- Value3/5
A free, volunteer-run Charlotte Mason curriculum that closely follows Mason’s original book lists and methods.
Best for: Charlotte Mason families on a tight budget who are willing to source books themselves in exchange for a free, authentic program.
- Value5/5
- Rigor4/5
- Engagement4/5
A polished, family-style Charlotte Mason curriculum built to teach multiple children together from one shared plan.
Best for: The Charlotte Mason philosophy, minus the DIY assembly work AmblesideOnline demands — a good match for Christian families who want a more polished, ready-made schedule.
- Rigor4/5
- Ease4/5
- Engagement4/5
A well-established, à la carte Charlotte Mason publisher known for clear planning guides and a strong language-arts sequence.
Best for: Charlotte Mason families who want practical, well-tested planning guides and prefer buying subject-by-subject over a full boxed set.
- Value4/5
- Flexibility4/5
- Rigor3/5
A gentle, picture-book-based unit-study curriculum for preschool through early elementary built around one book a week.
Best for: New homeschool families with preschool or early-elementary kids who want a low-pressure, book-centered on-ramp.
- Ease4/5
- Value4/5
- Engagement4/5
A hands-on, character-trait-organized unit study that builds history and science lessons around virtues like patience and honesty.
Best for: Hands-on, multi-age Christian families who want character education woven directly into history and science.
- Engagement4/5
- Rigor3/5
- Value3/5
A secular, literature-anchored unit study built with gifted and advanced learners specifically in mind.
Best for: Secular families of gifted or advanced learners who want literature-anchored units pitched above standard grade level.
- Rigor5/5
- Engagement4/5
- Ease3/5
A secular, nature- and arts-rich curriculum with Waldorf influences, available as a self-directed syllabus or an accredited online school.
Best for: Secular families who want a gentle, arts- and nature-rich education, with the option of an accredited online school for a real diploma.
- Ease4/5
- Engagement4/5
- Flexibility4/5
A secular, multi-age unit-study curriculum covering history, geography, science, and arts in one integrated four-year cycle.
Best for: Secular, multi-age families who want an affordable, hands-on unit study covering history, science, and geography together.
- Value4/5
- Engagement4/5
- Flexibility4/5
A free, state-funded virtual public school offering a full accredited K-12 curriculum with certified teachers.
Best for: A free, fully accredited school-at-home experience works well for families willing to operate within public-school structure and state testing in exchange for zero tuition.
- Value5/5
- Ease4/5
- Parent Time4/5
A large, long-running online school provider offering both free public virtual-school options and paid private online academies.
Best for: The reliability of a large, established online school provider — free through a public partner or paid privately — is the main draw here over newer, smaller platforms.
- Ease4/5
- Parent Time4/5
- Support4/5
An accredited private online school known for flexible, self-paced enrollment popular with performing-arts and athlete families.
Best for: Families of students with demanding outside schedules (athletics, performing arts) who need a flexible, accredited private online school.
- Flexibility5/5
- Rigor4/5
- Ease4/5
A budget-friendly, mastery-based Christian workbook program built from small, self-contained LightUnits.
Best for: Budget-conscious Christian families who want a straightforward, low-prep, mastery-based workbook program.
- Value5/5
- Rigor4/5
- Ease4/5
The most widely used Christian homeschool science line, known for its conversational, notebook-based textbooks.
Best for: An accessible, hands-on science line a student can largely read and work through independently suits Christian families who don't want to co-teach every lab.
- Ease4/5
- Parent Time4/5
- Value4/5
A secular, hands-on science line that introduces real scientific vocabulary and concepts earlier than most competitors.
Best for: Secular families who want an early, hands-on introduction to real scientific vocabulary and concepts without any faith-based framing.
- Value4/5
- Engagement4/5
- Rigor3/5
A highly structured, stylistic-technique-based writing program built to give reluctant writers a repeatable process.
Best for: Families with a reluctant or structure-needing writer who wants an explicit, step-by-step process rather than open-ended prompts.
- Rigor4/5
- Ease4/5
- Support4/5
A secular, expression-first writing program built around natural conversation, freewriting, and a genuine love of language.
Best for: Secular families who want writing taught as authentic self-expression first, with formal structure layered in gradually.
- Engagement4/5
- Flexibility4/5
- Special Needs4/5
A widely used, narrative-style world history read-aloud series covering ancient times through the modern era in four volumes.
Best for: Any family, regardless of main curriculum, who wants an engaging read-aloud history spine for elementary-age kids.
- Ease4/5
- Value4/5
- Engagement4/5
A structured, multisensory phonics and reading program widely recommended for dyslexic and struggling readers.
Best for: Families of struggling or dyslexic readers who need an explicit, multisensory, mastery-based approach to phonics.
- Ease5/5
- Special Needs5/5
- Rigor4/5
All About Reading's companion spelling program, using the same multisensory, rule-based method for struggling spellers.
Best for: Families of struggling spellers, especially those already using All About Reading, who want the same explicit, rule-based method.
- Ease5/5
- Special Needs5/5
- Rigor4/5
An internationally acclaimed mastery math program known for its concrete-pictorial-abstract teaching progression.
Best for: Internationally proven, concept-first math rigor pays off for families willing to actively teach rather than hand math off to video lessons.
- Rigor5/5
- Value5/5
- Ease3/5
A quirky, story-driven math series that teaches concepts through the narrative adventures of a five-year-old college professor.
Best for: Kids who actively dislike traditional math workbooks and respond well to a story-driven, low-drill approach — usually paired with a supplement.
- Engagement5/5
- Ease4/5
- Parent Time4/5
A hands-on, visual math program built around the AL Abacus that emphasizes mental math and genuine number sense.
Best for: Families of visual or kinesthetic learners who want math taught through hands-on games and genuine number sense rather than worksheets.
- Rigor4/5
- Engagement4/5
- Special Needs4/5
An affordable, video-based online math subscription covering the full K-12 range with short, focused lessons and automatic grading.
Best for: Multi-child families who want one affordable subscription covering every kid's math, K-12, with minimal parent teaching.
- Ease5/5
- Parent Time5/5
- Value5/5
A widely used, multisensory handwriting program built around simplified letter formation and hands-on practice.
Best for: Any family, of any curriculum, that wants a proven, low-frustration handwriting program, especially for kids with fine-motor challenges.
- Special Needs5/5
- Ease4/5
- Value4/5
A well-known immersive language-learning platform offering a homeschool-specific subscription across many languages.
Best for: An immersive, self-paced language option covering a wide range of languages without needing a live tutor is the appeal here.
- Parent Time5/5
- Independence5/5
- Ease4/5
A free, gamified language-learning app that works well as a low-stakes supplement to a homeschool foreign-language requirement.
Best for: Any family wanting a free, low-stakes way to build basic language exposure alongside a more structured curriculum for credit.
- Ease5/5
- Parent Time5/5
- Value5/5
A marketplace of thousands of live, small-group online classes taught by independent instructors across nearly every subject and interest.
Best for: Building a custom, interest-driven schedule with real live teachers — as a full plan or a supplement — is what this marketplace is actually good at.
- Flexibility5/5
- Engagement4/5
- Support4/5
A standalone accredited online academy delivering the same Acellus video-lesson platform used by several other providers, at a flat monthly rate.
Best for: Multi-course, budget-conscious families who want an accredited, low-effort online school for one flat monthly rate.
- Parent Time5/5
- Value5/5
- Ease4/5
One of the longest-running homeschool curriculum brands, offering a traditional, all-in-one secular grade package.
Best for: Secular families who want a traditional, long-established, all-in-one curriculum with a proven, recognizable track record.
- Ease4/5
- Rigor3/5
- Parent Time3/5
A Christian, narrative-driven history and literature program known for pairing primary-source readings with engaging textbook narrative.
Best for: Christian middle- and high-school families who want an engaging, primary-source-rich history course with built-in credit tracking.
- Rigor4/5
- Ease4/5
- Value4/5
A comprehensive, phonics-rule-based language arts program that teaches reading, spelling, and grammar together through explicit rules.
Best for: Families wanting one integrated, rule-based program covering reading, spelling, and grammar together, especially for a child who benefits from explicit rules.
- Special Needs5/5
- Rigor4/5
- Ease4/5
No curriculums match those filters.