Creating Your Homeschool Curriculum Grade 4-5 — Free Resource Guide

How to Create Your Own Homeschool Curriculum: Grade 4-5

Today I want to share this free 50+ page Resource Guide for Creating Your Own Homeschool Curriculum. It has been created to help answer some basic questions: What subjects should I teach my 4th or 5th grader?  Where do I start? How do I know what to teach my kids?
Homeschool Curriculum Grade 4 - Grade 5

We are eclectic homeschoolers, which means that we use a wide variety of curriculum, books, resources and materials.  We’ve also created a lot of our own packets, worksheets, and games to go along with our studies.

We tend to really love hands-on activities and experiments.  We watch a lot of documentaries and movies (when they fit in with a unit).  We read a lot of books aloud together (including some of the textbooks we’ve used).  And, we play a lot of games in our homeschool as well (even my oldest still loves those).  Don’t worry if our style doesn’t suit you, that’s definitely not a bad thing.  Just take what sounds interesting or useful and disregard the rest!

We have three kids in our family. We often do science and history together.  That means that we don’t have a set plan for each grade. But, as our blog has grown and as the number of resources we have available has increased, I have gotten more and more emails from people asking where to start.

This series is my humble attempt to try to address some of the emails I’ve gotten

  • I’m overwhelmed, I don’t even know where to start.
  • How do I know what to teach my kids?
  • What should I teach my child in Grade ___?
  • My daughter (or son) is X years old, what should they be learning for science?

Creating your homeschool curriculum is easier than you might think. Decide on the basic subjects you’ll want to cover – and then choose the topics you want to start with.  Sounds easy, right?  But when there is SO much you can cover, it’s hard to know where to start.

I wanted to pull together some of the topics we covered and resources we used as my kids moved through 4th and 5th grades.

My hope is that this helps new homeschoolers to see some of the possibilities.  But you’ll want to listen to your own kids and follow your strengths and instincts as an educator.  It is quite possible you’ll look at some of the things we covered and reject it all. That’s helpful too, right?!!

Every homeschool is very different… just as each family is unique, each homeschooling family will wind up following their own enriching, exciting educational journey.

I’m worried that this resource is a bit rough around the edges… Life has been very busy and I feel like it could use some editing and polishing. (I spent 5 hours on it one day and 8 hours on it today… just gotta say “done” for now!) Maybe I’ll get to that at some point, but I wanted to publish and share it because a number of readers have been asking for it.

So, for what it is worth, here is the next in the series. I really hope it is helpful.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions or if you just want to say hi and tell me about your family!

Happy Homeschooling!

Warmly, Liesl

Creating You Own Homeschool Curriculum – Grade 4-5,  FREE Resource Guide

This was updated August 2023 to include some environmental studies units we did when my youngest was in 4th and 5th grades and to update some of the pages.

Creating a Homeschool Curriculum for Grade 4-5

You might find these resources helpful if you have been homeschooling for a while.  These are the topics and units I hope to cover from K to 8:

Homeschool Science Unit Checklist for Elementary and Middle School

Free Science Checklist - Elementary Middle School

Language Arts Homeschool Checklist

Homeschool History Checklist

 You might want to check out these other free guides:

Creating a Homeschool Curriculum: Kindergarten – Grade 1 Resource Guide
creating-a-homeschool-curriculum-k-grade-1

and here is the second free Resource Guide in this series: Creating a Homeschool Curriculum: Grades 2-3

creating-a-homeschool-curriculum-grades-2-3-free-resource-guideThe Grades 6-8 Resource Guide is located here.

Homeschool Curriculum Grade 6-8

Free Resource Guide for Homeschooling High School – Grades 9-12

High School Homeschool Resource Guide - Subjects, Topics of Study - Grades 9-12That’s about it for today!

See you again soon here or over at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page! You might also want to check out some of our resources pages above (such as our Science, Language Arts, or History Units Resource Pages) which have links to dozens of posts.  You might want to join our free Homeschool Den Chat Facebook group.  Don’t forget to check out Our Store as well. :) Homeschool Den Store

Again, if you are interested in joining our Homeschool Den Newsletter, feel free to subscribe here. The Welcome Series includes 5 packed emails… with tips on homeschooling, keeping motivated, finding various resources and freebies tucked away on the blog and more!

Plus, you’ll be the first to hear about new packets (generally offered at a discount when they are first released), seasonal resources and more!

SubscribeIt’s a great way to hear about our latest packets and to learn about many of the hundreds of printables & other materials we have tucked away on the blog!

Happy Homeschooling!! 

~Liesl

P.S. I have a new post called Homeschool Resources that will help you find many of the resources we have on the blog. In addition to the various packets we have in the Store area, we have TONS of FREE printables.  The Resource Page has a huge list of those. 🙂

Homeschool Resources

13 Responses

  1. Tyana says:

    Hope i enjoy this an it helps me

  2. Lori says:

    Thank you for these helpful guides!! Looking forward to the Grades 6-8 one! 🙂

    • homeschooldenadmin says:

      You’re welcome, Lori! The middle school one will be a work-in-progress since my oldest is now in 8th. Invariably, my other two have very different experiences as they come up through those same grades!! And, I’m sure I’ll also add to this Gr 4-5 Resource Guide as my youngest goes through these grades (She’s now in 3rd grade.) ~Liesl

  3. Winona says:

    I could use this for 7th grade. I never know if I’m doing things right.

    • homeschooldenadmin says:

      Hi Winona,
      I have the 6-8 Curriculum Resource Guide partly done, but I have to admit it has been taking me quite a while to share it because my girls are still in (or heading into) middle school. 🙂 I know what I did with my son, but I also know that will be a pretty different journey from what my girls are/will do! Just as every family’s homeschool journey is different, I’ve found that each of my kids have a different homeschool experience as well!! But back to the guide… it is on my to-do list. I hope to get it done soon! ~Liesl

  4. homeschooldenadmin says:

    I wanted everyone to know that the 6-8 Curriculum Guide has been published. You’ll find it FREE to download here: Creating Your Homeschool Curriculum, Grade 6-8 – Free Resource Guide — http://homeschoolden.com/2018/04/29/how-to-homeschool-grades-6-8-curriculum-guide/

    Another helpful page is the New to Our Blog Page which has links to our free homeschool planners, all of the free Creating your Homeschool Curriculum Guides and more! http://homeschoolden.com/new-to-our-blog-start-here/

    ~Liesl

  5. Christine Chambers says:

    I’m from England and am struggling to understand the grading over their, my kids are 9-11 and 15, what grade would i need to be using

    • Hi Christine, Sorry about that! 🙂
      Kindergarten – Grade 1 are ages 5-7 or so
      Grades 2-3 are ages 7-9
      Grades 4-5 are ages 9-11
      Grades 6-8 are ages 11-14 or so
      Grades 9-12 are high school (here in the U.S.) ages 14-18

      Hope that helps! 🙂 ~Liesl

  6. tamala Hensley says:

    how much would it cost to home school 5th 6th and a 8th grader

    • Hi Tamala,

      It depends so much! It depends on your homeschool style, how much you use the library, how much you create/pull together your own units or whether you purchase a curriculum (or texts or books).

      Homeschool curriculum or programs also very widely in price. Some programs are very expensive, some people do units and just purchase things as they need them.

      Some people join co-ops or take outside classes which can cost from under $100/semester to over $1,000 a year!

      It also depends on what other activities your kids are interested in. Just like sports costs can add up, some students will want to study a musical instrument, art or do other outside activities that can add up. For example, by this age (5th, 6th, 8th) we also added in a foreign language. I was able to teach the kids German myself, but then my girls have added in Spanish too (which I don’t speak) with Sra. Morato — https://homeschoolspanishcurriculum.com/ and, of course, a class like this would add another expense.

      Sorry I couldn’t be more definitive for you! I think if you were to ask 10 different homeschool families, you would get 10 completely different answers!! ~Liesl

  7. Juanita Carmichael says:

    I am homeschooling my 12 year old son,

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