The Best 4th Grade Homeschool Curriculum + Planning

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I cannot believe that I have a 4th grader in the house, y’all! Fourth grade (so far) has been the smoothest year for us even though we added a preschooler into the mix. I really think that this 4th grade homeschool curriculum combination and room set up is to blame for that success.

4th Grade Curriculum + Planning Resources

Our 4th Grade Homeschool Set Up (2017)

I put the year beside the header because our setup changes as our family changes and we seem to change pretty often! You can check our other homeschool posts for previous and future setup ideas. There is no one right way, you just pick the ideas that work best for your family at the moment.

Homeschool Workboxes

I have heard so many awesome things about these cute organizer carts, but I haven’t been able to pull the trigger on purchasing one until this year. This Organizer Cart is a game changer! Since I have the double cart, I use one side for my son and the other side for my daughter. The first five bins on each side hold the kids’ daily work and the bottom five bins on each side hold extra supplies, stickers, and other things that we will use throughout the year alongside our 4th grade curriculum.

4th grade has been the smoothest homeschool year for us by far! See what 4th grade homeschool curriculum and organization tools I blame for this success :)

We also have three boxes on top of the cart labelled “Life Skills”, “Games”, and “Writing Prompts”. If I have to stop teaching to take care of the baby or something else comes up, the kids can go to these boxes and pick and activity.

The Life Skills box holds activities to teach nutrition facts, counting money, table setting, etc.

Our Game box has Story Cubes, a roll-the-dice exercise game, Boggle, Paw Patrol Playing Cards, Time Bingo, and the Smarty Pants Trivia Game.

Writing Prompts is just that… writing prompts. My oldest uses this box to get an idea for a paragraph or short story to write. Sometimes he will come up with a story to tell orally as well.

Easel & Map Corner

I think this Easel is THE reason that my kids love school. They always want to draw or answer their school work on this board. I try to keep the little one away from the dry erase side because she gets a little marker crazy, but she LOVES the chalkboard & the paper roll that she can paint on.

We also keep our World Wall Map in this corner. A, my 2 year old, likes to “teach” us at this map and W, my 9 year old, does most of his geography work in this area.

Book Basket, Memory Verse, Storage

My mother-in-law gave this little storage piece to me and I love it! It sat in this corner for a while with a few dishes sitting in it until the girls started using my Pioneer Woman Dishes for play dough meals :/…

The plates have now been swapped to another cabinet in the same room and this piece is used to hold our Book Basket, Globes, Hand Puppets, Alphabet Dry Erase Boards, a Manipulative Clock, and extra books to supplement our 4th grade homeschool curriculum.

The dry erase board in this corner is used for our school name & weekly memory verse. Our flag, markers, pencils, and pencil sharpener are held on a DIY shelf above the globe.

Our 4th Grade Homeschool Curriculum

Core Curriculum: My Father’s World- Exploring Countries & Cultures

When we started homeschooling W at the beginning of 2nd grade, we chose My Father’s World (Adventures in U.S. History) because it was a full curriculum already planned out for us. It was wonderful! We tried different curricula in 3rd grade just to spread our wings a bit. We enjoyed 3rd grade, but it was evident for myself and for W that My Father’s World is the right set for us.

My Father’s World has a Bible & History core. It weaves other subjects in with this core for a seamless learning experience. We are using MFW Exploring Countries and Cultures for our 4th grade homeschool curriculum base. It has been a blessing so far and we look forward to dig deeper into it as the year goes along.

Math: Teaching Textbooks Math 5

Teaching Textbooks is new to our family, but I think it will be sticking around our home for years to come. W is a little ahead in math so we chose level 5 even though he is “technically” in 4th grade. He begs to do extra lessons each day because he loves it so much!

Teaching Textbooks is an interactive CD-ROM program that allows the child to do their lessons, practice, and problems on the computer. It has a grade book built in to the program so that parents can keep a detailed eye on the child’s progress and the parent can make changes as needed. I can honestly say that this has been my favorite addition to our 4th grade homeschool curriculum and we will definitely be using it in future years!

Language Arts: Bob Jones University English 4

Bob Jones University has become our favorite 4th grade curriculum for English. Each chapter has a theme (farming, racing, etc) so the child can visualize the sentences and passages with fluidity. Each lesson has a Guided Practice sheet and an Independent Work sheet. We also use additional activity pages that can be ordered with these books.

Spelling: Working Words in Spelling E

Spelling was a tricky one for us. I debated just printing off some spelling lists that I found on Pinterest… I looked into Spelling Power and other curricula, but a sweet mama friend of mine had this book that she gave to me. It is working really well for W. We go through each weekly list and do the activities provided in the book.

If you have a child who needs to learn phonetics on a more detailed level, I highly recommend All About Spellingbefore switching to a book like Working Words in Spelling.

Cursive & Keyboarding: Handwriting Without Tears

I’ll be honest…I was nervous to start teaching cursive to my son. He doesn’t care for writing as it is and I thought he would be a little rebellious with this… Y’all, he loves it! Just like Teaching Textbooks, he begs to do extra cursive lessons each day!

When I find something that he loves with enthusiasm, you know this mama has to shout it from the rooftops! Handwriting Without Tears is honestly an answer to prayer for our family! This particular level teaches cursive in addition to keyboarding so it is a double blessing!

Homeschool Record Keeping

This binder is stuffed to the brim with my homeschool planner, My Father’s World Teacher Manual, and Bob Jones worksheets and answer sheets. I LOVE having all of these things together so that I don’t waste time each morning gathering everything I need to start the day.

Homeschool Planner

My homeschool planner allows me to keep track of attendance, weekly lesson plans, semester learning plans, field trips, doctor visits, extra curricular activities, and any other info that would be useful to have on hand in case of an audit and for my own records. There is even a Learning Plan sheet where you can list your 4th grade homeschool curriculum list!