10 Best Homeschooling Special Needs Curriculum Picks

Are you struggling to find the best homeschooling curriculum for your child with special needs? Do you want to know how these resources can specifically support children with ADHD, Autism, and Dyslexia? And most importantly, how do you choose the right curriculum tailored to your child's unique needs?

Hi, I'm Rebecca Devitt, a curriculum expert who has spent thousands of hours researching homeschooling options.

For this article, I've dedicated countless hours to scouring forums and finding the best special needs homeschool curriculum programs.

I've received many emails and comments from viewers like you asking for a curated list of effective resources.

I can sense the frustration special needs (SN) homeschool parents feel as not every homeschool program is right for ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and other special needs.

So, I'm here to offer my support and encouragement to let you know that you're not alone in this journey.

Let's explore the top picks that can bring a sense of relief and hope to your homeschooling journey, reassuring you that you're on the right path and instilling optimism in you as a parent.

At the end of the post, I’ll also discuss some specific special needs choices for certain subjects, such as math and reading.

Let’s get started.

Some affiliate links are used in this post.

Masterbooks

Okay, let's begin with a question.

How do we best help children with special needs to learn?

The answer is to tell, show, or teach step-by-step.

It's best to focus on teaching skills that your special needs child is capable of learning that they want to learn, and that will help them in day-to-day life.

That's why Masterbooks (pictured below) is such a hit.

It teaches through narratives and stories that engage the learner in a way that a dry textbook doesn't.

Masterbooks, a Christian curriculum, produces many colorful textbooks and workbooks.

They use a Charlotte Mason-inspired approach, which is fantastic for special needs.

This approach, characterized by living books, nature time, and good habit training, is particularly recommended for teaching Asperger/autism, ADHD, and dyslexia.

Masterbooks cost around $230 for Grade 1 curriculum and $290-350 for the high school grade curriculum.

Christian Light Education (CLE or CLP)

Next, what if you only have a little time and want your children to work more independently?

Use a program that does most of the work for you.

Christian Light Education (pictured above) does this, but schoolwork is only in bite-sized chunks, making work particularly manageable for special needs children.

With this curriculum, you get a whole bunch of LightUnits (small booklets), each with quizzes and a test.

They also specialize in a distraction-free design, which helps children with ADHD focus on the task at hand.

Remember that CLE is entirely paper-based, so no screens are involved.

Christian Light costs roughly $330-530 for a grade-level curriculum.

You can also pay an extra $300 with Homeschool Plus and get accreditation.

If you do the accredited option, you have to send in your child’s scores for them to be registered.

BJU Press Homeschool and Abeka

But what if you want something with lots of rigidity and predictability?

A lot of parents with special needs children reported their child with autism loved Abeka and BJU Press Homeschool.

This type of program will be great if your child needs something super-predictable and relatively rigid—an actual schedule to follow.

This rigidity will work well with some children with Aspergers in particular.

But it won't be for all special needs children, so you have to assess your child and determine if this will be a good fit for them.

We use BJU Press (pictured above) in our homeschool, and we love it.

My children don't have special needs, but my son likes the structure of the program.

As a parent, I love how it encourages children to work independently.

My son can almost set up his lessons on his own now.

The teacher-led video lessons take the pressure off my shoulders to teach children for hours daily.

There's also a lot of 'showing' from online teachers, which is perfect for ADHD, autism, dyslexia, etc.

Kids can also work in physical workbooks, so they're not always looking at a screen.

As a Christian, I love that this program teaches the gospel.

That Jesus came to give us hope and a new future - that we can have eternal life with him forever.

But how much do Abeka (pictured above) and BJU Press cost?

Abeka is a bit more expensive and costs around $1,349 for Grade 1.

BJU Press is a fair bit more affordable and very well-priced for video lessons, at $1,049 for Grade 1.

Hence, BJU provides a more cost-effective option if you want to go with teacher-led video lessons.

High school is a bit more of a price hike for both programs.

IXL (Secular Special Needs Primary and Middle)

All the programs we've talked about previously have been Christian special needs homeschool curriculums.

But what if you wanted something secular?

A lot of parents use IXL because it's all online and quite affordable—it costs only around $13 a month, or you can save 33% with their annual plan.

IXL is suitable for kids with SN who get easily frustrated as it skips the busywork and adjusts to your child's knowledge level.

IXL creates personalized learning plans for your children.

There are educational games to keep them interested.

There's even a mobile app so they can learn anywhere—even when you're grocery shopping, and they're waiting in the car for you.

So that parents know where their children are up to, there are tools so they can track their children's progress without looking over their shoulders constantly.

Sonlight

Another curriculum that parents liked for SN is Sonlinght.

Sonlight (pictured above) teaches using a literature-based approach.

This means that, like Masterbooks, children are mainly learning through stories.

This is great for special needs because your child learns through stories, making understanding concepts easier.

Sonlight is an entirely offline Christian curriculum.

It can be expensive, but that's because you're paying for a large number of books that you can keep forever.

Many parents recommended this program, but they also suggested buying it secondhand to reduce your costs massively.

With this program, you just need to ensure your child likes reading (or you do) because there's a lot of reading involved!

Sonlight costs around $850 and $1200, depending on the grade you purchase.

Accelerated Christian Education (ACE)

Another program parents said worked well with special needs is Accelerated Christian Education or ACE.

Their homeschool program is called Lighthouse Christian Academy or LCA.

ACE is similar to Christian Light Education.

It's a great Christian special needs homeschooling curriculum because it's self-paced and easy for students to follow.

It even has its own ACE SN Facebook page!

ACE produces offline paces children can complete at their own education.

It's great if they have an intellectual disability because children can go slower; on the other hand, if they're gifted, they can go faster.

To start, children do a diagnostic test to be placed at the right level.

With ACE or LCA, you get report cards, transcripts, and high school diplomas because this program is accredited.

They also offer help for parents who are a little lost.

Or you can have more flexibility by doing an independent homeschool program with LCA.

My Father's World

Maybe, though, you have a special needs learner who loves the outside.

They love to learn with their hands - that is, there's lots of learning while doing tasks - perfect for special needs!

And they also love learning through narrative stories.

Then, something a little more eclectic, like My Father's World (or MFW), is a favorite in the homeschool curriculum for SN students.

MFW is good as it is self-paced, repetitive, and has a schedule, which can be really helpful for certain SN children.

This program sports physical workbooks and teachers' manuals for complete offline use.

Many parents like this program because it allows you to teach your children together with age/grade-suitable material, keeping everyone challenged at the same time.

The idea is to spend your mornings doing more academic work while your afternoons are more flexible and fun with library visits, field trips, and music lessons.

Depending on your choice, My Father's World costs $390-460 USD for Grade 1 (about $590-700 AUD), $440- 520 USD for Grade 8, and more for high school.

Ambleside Online

People love MFW because it uses the Charlotte Mason method.

But it can be pricey for some.

How about a curriculum that uses the Charlotte Mason method (many parents commented this was great for SN) but one that was a completely free homeschool curriculum for special needs?

This is where a lot of people recommended Ambleside Online.

Ambleside is one of the original Charlotte Mason homeschooling programs.

It has been constructed over decades by keen Charlotte Mason educators and parents and made available for free to anyone.

They have huge grade-specific booklists, lesson plans, and resources so you can construct your whole homeschool curriculum for free.

If you need help implementing this program, there are many online forums with knowledgeable parents who are happy to answer questions and encourage you.

Study.com (Online Special Needs High School)

But one thing about Ambleside Online is that, although it's free to access their curriculum, you only get some of the books included (those with past copyright protection are available online as free PDFs you have to print out).

So after you buy all the books you may as well be paying for a physical curriculum.

But perhaps the thought of having lots of physical curriculum around the place isn't for you.

You may want a completely online program.

Study.com is a secular special needs homeschool curriculum that's super easy for homeschoolers with autism, ADHD, and dyslexia to use.

Its video lessons are 5-7 minutes long, which is perfect for special needs!

Study.com has an app so children can learn wherever they are, on an iPad or even a phone, doing short lessons here or there.

Automatically graded short quizzes and multiple choice questions make learning simple to understand and help reinforce concepts.

Assessments tend to be quite short, so they're not daunting tasks.

This makes them good for students who become easily frustrated when taking tests.

Study.com offers several affordable plans, including the basic ($29.99/month), homeschool edition ($59.99/month), and college saver ($235/month), which allows you to earn college credits and save on college fees in high school.

They also offer detailed goal tracking and progress reporting for each course, so you can easily see what your student is up to.

They've partnered with over 1,500 colleges so that Study.com recommends credit transfer to colleges of the student’s choice.

Depending on your plan, you can pay from $30 a month for their basic plan to $235 for their dual enrollment College Saver plan.

If you use the link above to sign up, you’ll automatically get $25 off your first month’s plan.

Memoria Press

But many parents don't want their children to learn from a screen constantly.

Maybe something with an audio option would be suitable then.

Memoria Press is a classical Christian homeschool curriculum suitable for special needs students.

This offers primarily offline material but also some video lessons.

They also produce many audio resources, such as their homeschool history series, which I detail in this article.

By the way, if you do have a child who loves to listen to audiobooks, I have a free homeschool booklist I'll link below that you can check out.

These high-quality books with no twaddle that teach valuable character lessons as they walk children through history and various fascinating classic stories.

The best part is that you can find most of these books on YouTube as free read-alouds.

Math - Best Special Needs Curriculum

Now, some parents like to choose subjects individually for their children.

I noticed a few math programs were particularly loved among special needs homeschoolers. These include:

1. Teaching Textbooks - which is an online math app designed specifically for homeschoolers

2. Life of Fred - these are storybooks that teach math concepts through a fun story. So all you have to do is read them, and your child learns math - pretty fun, huh? And then there is...

3. Math-U-See - which is a mastery-based physical math program with lots of manipulatives so children can see the concepts they're being taught.

Reading - Best Special Needs Homeschool Programs

But what about reading and writing options? Parents quite liked:

1. Rod and Staff - which are physical workbooks.

2. EIW (Essentials in writing) - which is a writing a mastery-based literature curriculum with online video lessons

3. Writing-U-See - which is a writing program that uses reading manipulatives so children can see what they're expected to learn.

4. Learning Language Arts Through Literature by Common Sense Press - this is an offline literature-based program. And then there is:

5. Easy Grammar - which is a mastery-based secular grammar program.

More Special Needs Homeschool Curriculum Picks

There are also some other options parents mentioned that they thought were suitable for special needs, but they didn't get as big a mention as the ones I detailed above.

1. Easy Peasy - free, all-in-one curriculum

2. Thinking Tree - Funschooling website

3. HOD  - a complete Christian Charlotte Mason program

4. Monarch - an entirely online program starting from Grade 3

5. Horizons - a teacher or parent-led homeschool curriculum

6. Simply Charlotte Mason - another Charlotte Mason option

7. Acellus Academy (secular) - an accredited secular pick

8. Schoolhouse Teachers - an incredibly affordable curriculum with a special needs homeschool center for support

9. ABC Jesus Loves Me - a free Bible curriculum for special needs

10. Beautiful Feet books - a literature-based option for multiple ages and are great for earlier years.

I hear you…

But what if you're a parent who's been forced to homeschool their child with special needs because your child isn't fitting into the school situation?

This could be really hard for them as well as you.

Perhaps you're trying to juggle homeschooling special needs and working full time.

If that's you, know there are some great curriculum choices for you.

I've made a video on the best homeschool curriculum for working parents in the video.

You can watch it now below :)