TOP 10 Best CHRISTIAN Homeschool Curriculum Options [2024]
Which are the best Christian homeschool curriculum programs? What about the worst? In this post, I’ll review all the most popular Christian homeschool programs together to determine which ones are great choices and which aren't worth your money and time.
Hey there. My name is Rebecca Devitt. I'm a curriculum expert and a homeschool mom. I homeschooled myself 30 years ago using some of the programs we will discuss today.
I've spent literally thousands of hours researching online curricula from just about every educational provider.
In this post, I'll share some of my favorite programs I've discovered along the way.
Affiliate links used in this post.
BJU Press
First up, we have BJU Press, which is like studying at a high-quality private Christian school - only a lot cheaper!
Now, this is a curriculum that I love and use with my own kids because I don't have to sit down and teach them myself.
That’s because it’s open-and-go.
BJU Press (pictured below) is similar to Abeka, but the video lessons are much shorter and more affordable, and accreditation is offered at no extra cost.
BJU offers you a choice between DVD video lessons, pre-recorded videos, and a teacher's manual.
I'd go with the pre-recorded videos, though.
The curriculum also comes with physical workbooks so kids won't be staring at a screen the whole time, which I like.
With this program, you can track your student through the BJU Press Homeschool Hub.
The Homeschool Hub is an all-in-one learning management tool, assignment scheduler, and planner.
In the Hub, you're able to
keep an eye on their progress,
watch their upcoming assignments
and monitor their progress in the gradebook
BJU isn't the cheapest curriculum on this list, but it's the most affordable one with video lessons, which allows you to outsource a lot of the teaching to its online video teachers.
In terms of cost, their pre-recorded video lessons with workbooks option costs $1,049 for the full grade level. Grade 12 costs exactly the same, but you can choose to buy electives on top of that.
BJU Press also offers a payment plan. You can pay 15% upfront and 85% over the next nine months.
With this Christian curriculum also like that kids can homeschool themselves almost entirely as they get older.
I use BJU Press in my homeschool, and we love it.
Abeka Academy
Next, we have Abeka, pictured above.
Abeka has been around for over 4 decades, and offers pre-recorded teacher lessons OR a teacher's manual option combined with physical textbooks.
They offer all the usual subjects you'd expect from a Christian homeschool program.
With Abeka Academy, you can get a full week of free video lessons (25 hours) before you decide whether to use their curriculum.
When you purchase, you can either purchase a semester's worth of material to experience it firsthand or get the full year's worth of material, which is cheaper.
They also offer a generous payment plan over 10 months.
To give you an idea about pricing, their Grade 1 lessons cost $1,350, with accreditation costing an extra $50. Grade 12 costs around $1,600.
Abeka is a rigorous program.
Some report it as an entire grade level above public school curriculum programs.
Masterbooks
But let's say you want lessons to be way more engaging. More stories and less textbook stuff.
Then you have Masterbooks.
Masterbooks is a great gospel-centered option for a Christian homeschool curriculum with physical and offline workbooks.
Now, these books are very open-and-go.
In the earlier years, parents will have to read to their children a lot, but the books are made so children can do a lot of the work independently, especially when they're a little older.
Most of the books are written to the student.
This curriculum includes extensive character training.
The aim is to teach children practical life skills and godly living, with the gospel as the central reason for their actions.
When buying Masterbooks, you can choose their basic four-subject set, which costs around $250-350 for Grade 1 and $650 for Grade 12.
Masterbooks is very customizable, and you can choose several variations of a subject depending on what interests children.
Generally, when you buy a subject, you get the main textbook, a teacher's guide, and a workbook.
The main textbook reads like a story more than a textbook - a reason people really like it.
Masterbooks is considered on the easier side of homeschooling, but it is certainly challenging enough to offer a good homeschool education.
The Good and the Beautiful
If we're discussing Christian homeschool curriculum, we need to talk about The Good and the Beautiful.
This curriculum is an open-and-go family-style homeschool curriculum.
You can use this one for all grades and the program combines all subjects in various topics.
The Good and the Beautiful also offers a lot of its curriculum for free and is very popular in homeschool circles.
But you can also get their curriculum as physical workbooks, and the workbooks are so pretty that many people love the look of them.
There's lots of teaching about character, god, nature, and good literature.
But, it's definitely not one I'm going to use...and I'll tell you why later.
Generations Homeschool Curriculum
But what if you want to go for something offline?
Generations Homeschool curriculum is all about family discipleship, mission, and incorporating the Bible into every subject.
This program is an entirely offline, boxed curriculum with colorful workbooks and textbooks.
Generations offer a grade curriculum with all subjects in some grades.
The price of Generations varies from around $400 for Grade 1 (which is complete with all subjects) and is only $277 in Grade 12, but that's because it's missing (what some might call) core subjects.
I love that they offer free worldwide shipping for orders over $200.
This is such an affordable, solid, gospel-centered Christian homeschool curriculum.
And the reviews on this program are - well, I've never seen such positive reviews!
The only downside with this one is that if you're looking for video lessons, they don't do them. So if your kids aren't old enough to do the work independently, you'll have to help out a bit more.
But this is such a great, affordable choice.
Monarch
But what if you want a program that's entirely online? Something kids can do themselves completely.
Let's take a look at Monarch.
Some people like this program because it's affordable for a Christian homeschool curriculum, and everything is entirely online.
No workbooks, paper, or pencils are required!
This program has all your basic subjects, including Bible.
Monarch is made by Alpha Omega Publications, a beautiful curriculum company that makes Ignite Christian Academy (an online Christian school), Lifepac, Weaver, and Horizons.
With this one, you can get a 30-day free trial.
If you like it, you can get it for around $40 a month or around $400 for the year.
If you want an elective, you have to pay another $10 a month for each of these or $100 a year.
Their elective options are quite extensive, such as Spanish, Technology and Business, and more.
You can set up the pace of the curriculum yourself and the child's schedule in the curriculum portal.
Keep in mind that Monarch is only available for Grade 3 onwards. And some kids find it a little boring because there’s a lot of text.
If you have younger children, you'll have to use another program.
Veritas Press
But what if Monarch is too dry and boring? Want something more personable?
How about LIVE, online lessons?
Veritas Press is a popular, complete classical homeschool curriculum program.
This program offers all the usual subjects, but they're taught in a slightly different way with the classical method.
Veritas offers its curriculum in three ways:
Firstly, there is the You-Teach version. This has teacher manuals, but everything is offline. I personally am not a big fan of teacher manuals.
Secondly, there are self-paced lessons where kids can do the work themselves without parents.
Lastly, there are LIVE online lessons, which are like studying in an online classical Christian school. Kids get to interact with each other and the teacher online in a gorgeous Christian environment.
I think the last option is what makes Veritas Press a popular Christian curriculum today.
You can buy individual subjects or buy a full grade year.
Grade 1 costs $1,224 and Grade 12 costs $1,269.
Veritas Press is also very flexible, and you can customize your package to your liking.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the state governments of certain states in America generously subsidize Veritas by the tune of hundreds of dollars.
If you want to learn more, you can schedule a free consultation with Veritas Press HERE.
Schoolhouse Teachers
But, what if you want a way more affordable option - that covers your whole family on the same subscription?
Then you might want to look at Schoolhouse Teachers.
Schoolhouse Teachers gives you EVERYTHING you might need to homeschool using a Christian curriculum from Preschool to High School.
One membership covers you for ALL subjects and electives (and they have an insanely huge range of these!).
There are also parent education and resources, Classical and Charlotte Mason Learning Centers, and help with transitioning from high school to college.
Although Schoolhouse Teachers has 25,000 video lessons, you'll probably print most of the subjects and do the work offline.
There are lots of payment options available.
You can pay for PreK to Grade 12 monthly, quarterly, or yearly (around $30, $60, and $270, respectively).
Or you can pay for PreK to Grade 8, which is slightly cheaper at around $23, $45, or $210 (monthly, quarterly, and yearly).
So there are discounts if you pay for the quarterly and yearly options.
But this is such an affordable program, especially if you have a big homeschool family.
You don't need to multiply your homeschool fees! How good is that!
Apologia
But let's say you want something really slick that pushes your kids to think critically.
Something that will push them to defend their faith confidently.
Then Apologia, an all-in-one Christian homeschool curriculum, is a good choice.
Apologia was known for its great creation science offerings, which is where it sprang into popularity.
They now offer all subjects for all years.
They even have video lessons for some courses (some of which are self-paced and LIVE), but this option can be a little pricey.
In terms of grade packages, Apologia lists its courses more broadly than other curriculum providers.
You can buy for 'elementary', 'middle school', or 'high school', and the textbooks are reusable—although the workbooks are consumable, so they'll need to be purchased for each child.
It's hard to give a set price for each grade level.
Still, it would be fair to say each grade will cost a few hundred dollars unless you purchase self-paced lessons, which are more expensive, and LIVE lessons, which are the most costly.
Easy Peasy
But what if you just need something that's low cost - even free?
Then we should talk about Easy Peasy All-in-One.
I like Easy Peasy because, unlike all the previous ones, it is free.
It can be done entirely online.
The program has everything you need for an effective Christian homeschool from kindergarten to grade 12.
With Easy Peasy, the best way to start is to have your child do a placement test. Then, sign up through My EP Assignments, which can record their progress as they go through the curriculum.
Easy Peasy is nice because, in addition to all the basic subjects (reading, math, Bible, and so on), it is pretty customizable.
You just need to set up your child's schedule, and then your child can log on and independently complete their lessons.
The only thing with this one is that the program won’t grade it for you.
You have to do it yourself.
Tapestry of Grace - Lampstand Press
Easy Peasy is quite eclectic, as are many programs. One popular one is Tapestry of Grace.
This is a Christian homeschool curriculum mix between the Charlotte Mason homeschool method and the Classical method.
They use a Unit Studies method of teaching, and the idea is to apply scripture to every subject the child studies, including:
history
literature
politics and
philosophy.
TOG is big on character development (rather than drills and memorization).
They spend a lot of time exploring each major religious worldview, comparing and contrasting them to Christianity.
Tapestry uses the traditional classical method of teaching:
primary school in the grammar stage
middle school in the logic stage and
high school in the rhetoric stage
This Christian curriculum embraces the classics and ‘l’ving books’ ‘educational storybooks).
ThThere'sands-on learning and a lot of exposure to the arts and music.
The cost of this homeschool curriculum varies hugely because you can buy the books directly from Tapestry with all the bells and whistles (which might cost you more than $1600 or dramatically reduce your costs to the tune of $200 to $300 by getting them as library books or second-hand buys.
My Father's World
But, if you have to scrounge around for all your materials to reduce costs, choosing a homeschool curriculum can be annoying!
This is where an excellent open-and-go curriculum like My FaFather'sorld shines.
They have complete packages that make things so much easier.
My FaFather'sorld is a gospel-centered homeschooling curriculum that uses the classical Charlotte Mason and unit studies homeschool methods.
They produce a fun and engaging hands-on curriculum that's heavy on crafting.
They are often hailed as having the best preschool homeschool picks because ththey'reo tactile.
Of course, if you're not a fan of crafting, you can skip the craft and read the lessons.
In terms of price, Grade 1 costs $390-460 USD (roughly $590-700 AUD).
Grade 8 will be $440-520. And high school…well, you have to talk to them about that.
Sonlight
Another favorite among Christian homeschoolers is the Sonlight homeshcool curriculum.
This program is a Christian curriculum that’s literature-based.
This means they teach children primarily using quality literature, as opposed to using drills or memorization as their primary method of learning (like Abeka does).
Sonlight is an entirely offline curriculum.
You’ll get a big box of books and curriculum to your door.
The only reason I’m not a big fan of this one is that it doesn’t strongly say whether it is Creationist or Evolutionist.
It sits on the fence a bit.
I’m uncomfortable with this as I’d like my science program to be convicted about the stance they occupy as being the truth.
It can be quite pricey for an offline program (between $850 and $1200), but you get books you can keep for a lifetime and for the next child who does Sonlight.
Best and Worst Curriculums
Okay, so now I'm going to tell you which programs on this list I am a fan of and which ones I don't particularly recommend.
But take these recommendations with a grain of salt because the best and worst curriculums are going to depend on what you are looking for.
BJU Press - BEST
If you want something that looks like a Christian school curriculum but is fairly affordable, easy to use, and open and go, use BJU Press.
You can homeschool and work at the same time as kids, after about grade 3, can homeschool themselves and the program will mark all thier work for them.
I use this one with my kids and love it because it has such a focus on good character training as well as teaching a biblical worldview.
Easy Peasy - FREE
If you want to use something free, Easy Peasy is a solid choice.
Unlike a lot of other "free" programs, you really can do everthing online and find all the resources you'll need for free.
The Good and the Beautiful - WORST
Okay, now for my choice of the worst Christian homeschool curriculum program.
You know, I kept on writing this one in and out of the post because I find it hard to say.
But my choice for worse goes to The Good and the Beautiful.
But it’s not because the program doesn't do a great job at teaching your basic subjects.
It's not because it's clunky or hard to use.
It's not because it's not an attractive proposition.
It's because it doesn't do a solid job of teaching the gospel as laid out in the Bible.
The Good and the Beautiful is written by Jenny Phillips, who is of the Mormon faith. The curriculum teaches about god, good moral behavior, and even some stories from the Bible.
But it's weak.
I've made a video to discuss this issue in more detail. I’ve put it below.
The bottom line
But homeschool curriculum - especially your first one, can get confusing.
And there's a lot no one tells you about them.
But how can you find out what those things are?
I've spent about ten years looking at just about every homeschool curriculum.
I made a video on 7 Things NO ONE Will Tell You About Homeschool Curriculum below, so check it out.
