Creating Our 4th Grade Homeschool Curriculum

This is our 6th year homeschooling! Our 10 year old, (our oldest) is doing 4th grade work this coming school year, ’23-’24. I love putting together homeschool curriculum plans leading up to the fall each year and this year has been no different. I must admit that I am also always excited to learn along with my kids, especially in subjects like science, history, and literature. It’s always amazing to see what I either never learned, or don’t remember from my own school experience. What a blessing to be able to provide our kids with a tailored to them, rich and interesting education in our own home! Come along with me now as I work on creating our 4th grade homeschool curriculum.

How Do You Choose Curriculum for a Fourth Grader?

By this stage in the game, I am familiar with some homeschool curricula that we like and work for us, but I am always interested in trying a few new things too.

There are many homeschool curriculum companies to choose from… Small, big, textbook style, Charlotte Mason style, Classical… You can piece meal it together with a math from one and a language arts from another, or you can purchase a whole “boxed” curriculum in one fell swoop.

How we are choosing to assemble the 4th grade curriculum this year is to stick with what we have used for years with math and language arts, and them plugging in some other things as well. That’s the fun in homeschooling to me, you can choose what you like, what fits your budget, and what works best for your child’s learning style!

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Does 4th Grade Curriculum Have to be Accredited?

As far as my understanding (do your own research for your own state), you are at liberty to select any type of curriculum you please for your child in all 50 states. Some states do have requirements for the subjects taught.

This website, Homeschool Legal Defense Association, has a great map to find our laws for each state.

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WHat is the Best Homeschool Curriculum for 4th Grade?

That totally depends on the family, situation and the child!

Some families choose to use the same curriculum for all their children, some families use individual courses for each subject for each child!

There is SO MUCH FREEDOM in homeschooling. If you get nothing else from this article, this is what I want you to walk away with. A sense of freedom and ability as the parent, that you know your child best, and you are completely capable to educate your child!

As far as my personal opinion about 4th grade curriculum, we are using The Good and The Beautiful for math and Language Arts and would recommend them to anyone.

What I love the most about this curriculum:

open and go (no prep work for the teacher)
rich in information, beauty and stories
affordable
Christian, but not specific doctrine. You can teach your own kids what you believe.

If TGTB didn’t work for my kiddo, I would try Saxon, Christian Light, or Apologia for math, and Christian Light, Simply Charlotte Mason suggestions, or Ambleside online schedules for Language Arts.

How to Know What To Teach for Homeschool 4th Grade

If you are using a set curriculum, like a language arts course or math course, usually what needs to be covered at that level is included without you having to put in extra planning or thought. There is some variance from curriculum to curriculum though.

In my state, there is no particular things that have to be taught in each grade, you don’t really even have to adhere to traditional “grades” if you don’t want. The “administrator” for the homeschool (me) is in charge of setting the standards and curriculum for their own homeschool. Yay!

Check the laws in your state to see if there are guidelines you have to adhere to.

Some children will need a more advanced level in one subject and a lower one in another. Another beauty of homeschool… Adaptability!

My main tip for this question though, is to use a couple of my favorite books, and check in on what your child is learning that year and see if there’s anywhere you need to fill in.

These books are both wonderful, and I enjoy them each year.

What Your Fourth Grader Needs to Know

Chock full of stories, poems, geography, math concepts and everything your child should know or be introduced to this year. There is one for each grade level, PreK – 6th grade.

Home Learning Year by Year

This book contains all the grade in one. It is full of concepts to teach, suggested books, science topics, everything you need to know!

How Many Hours a Day Should a 4th Grader HOmeschool?

Some states will require a certain number of hours per school year be attained. My state is not one of those, and we set our own schedule. I don’t think there is a cookie cutter answer to this, but I will say, the amount of time on studies daily for a fourth grader will be more than for a kindergartner. Here is a good resource to give you an overview of about how much time each age level can usually handle.

What is the Typical Curriculum Subjects for 4th Grade?

Again, check your state laws, because some states have required subjects!

Language Arts (reading, writing, grammar, spelling)
Math
Social Studies (history, geography, government)
Science
Enrichment (art, music, extra curricular, physical education, life skills etc)

What is a Good Schedule for Homeschooling?

Developing a homeschool daily schedule can take some figuring out, but once you find what works for your home, sticking to a flexible schedule makes your day go so much more smoothly.

In this post, I shared all about How to Develop a Homeschool Daily Schedule.

Also check out this post where I share a Free Homeschool Loop Schedule Printable!

Our Fourth Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices

All subjects will be taught together with 4th grader and kindergartner brother as a “family lesson” expect their own separate levels of math and language arts work.

Language Arts

The Good and The Beautiful Language Arts Level 3 (These seem to trend about a grade level ahead, and that’s what we have done. She tests high in this area now, so I believe it’s a good fit. You can take a placement test on the website to see where your child should be.)

These Language Arts levels are available in PDF downloads also for free to print!

Math

The Good and The Beautiful Math Level 4. We have used TGTB math since my daughter’s Kindergarten year and have stuck with it because it’s worked so wonderfully for her. It’s full of beautiful art, and practices concepts different ways. It can move a tiny bit fast sometimes, so I occasionally stop and practice something a little more before moving on.

Social Studies

I chose to go with Simply Charlotte Mason this year with their Bible, Geography, History curriculum. We will be going through Genesis – Deuteronomy, learning about the oldest civilizations such as Babylon, China and Ancient Egypt, and learning about the continent of Africa. There are some really neat books that go along with these lessons that the kids are really excited about:

Hungry Planet

Material World

To work in some American history, government, etc, I will be incorporating lesson topics from this book, also. Taking a short lesson, answering the questions and then adding in a library book and /or YouTube video about the topics that are interesting. Such as, digging deeper into the war of 1812, or the US Constitution. (Level 5 because that’s what I got lucky and found for $2 brand new at a used book sale! I don’t see that the content would be too challenging for my child.)

Science

Seasons Afield from Beautiful Feet is our natural science/nature curriculum this year. We are doing this with both my 4th grader and my kindergartner. I LOVE the Beautiful Feet subjects! Last year for 3rd grade, we did the Early American History and it was so great. Their lessons are literature and living books based. I don’t buy the whole bundle, I just purchase the teacher guide and I use Scribd, YouTube, our library, Thrift Books and eBay to collect the books we need through the year. Much cheaper that way!

We are also adding in little lessons from this book, and will be taking the different topics and expanding on them with library books, YouTube videos, and experiments. For example: The lesson topic is the life cycle of a frog. We can read a book on this topic, watch a YouTube video about frogs life cycles, and even do an art project or craft on this theme if we have the time.

Coop Classes

We are part of a online coop that my fourth grader loves! She is taking classes that rotate one month reading, one month creative writing. The reading month is a book club, and they pick awesome books! They read together, learn about the characters, and time and place, then talk about it. It has been a great way for her to have another teaching influence besides me, connect with classmates and take responsibility for class assignments. I highly recommend finding a local in-person coop or an online coop or class that you can work into your curriculum.

Art

I use the Charlotte Mason method of introducing an artist and several example of their work each term. We learn about the artist, I print out the artwork and laminate and we just look at the and learn their names. Just a few moments everyday, collectively, and they start to recognize and name many pieces of art!

Check out Ambleside Online’s website and you will find suggested artists and where you can print the art work for free.

We also add in watercolor painting, sketching, and art projects here and there.

Music

Another subject similar to art, we learn about a composer and listen to their work throughout the term.

A hymn is selected for each month and we sing it every morning. I follow Happy Hymnody’s suggested songs, usually. She has a wonderful website where you can find the music to print off for free. I laminate them and each child has it in their morning pages. (I will explain this soon in another post, stay tuned.) She also posts a YouTube video of them singing the hymn you can listen to with your kids.

We also use Hoffman Academy for self paced piano lessons. ( You can use their free lessons, or subscribe for extra content.)

Physical Education

Outside time!!! Bike riding, hikes, swimming, walks, playing with brother in the yard, gardening, chores like taking care of the chickens, scooter riding, and local recreation center activities this fall.

Handcrafts

This is the philosophy I subscribe to when it comes to “handicrafts”. My 4th grader will be continuing her practice of embroidery and cross stitch this year. She works on this whenever the mood strikes. She likes to take it on car rides sometimes.

Life Skills

My daughter is a very good chef and again this year, wants to expand her kitchen skills. At 10, she knows all the basics, can fry an egg, cook vegetables, roast, boil and use the stove and oven responsibly (with supervision). She has decided to cook through the cookbooks Kid Chef and The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs this school year, 1 or 2 recipes a week.

Morning Time

Each morning after breakfast we have a little quiet time gathered around the kitchen table. Here are the things we do:

Bible time (this year readings from our Simply Charlotte Mason course and we will continue reading through this book.)
Memory verse
Hymn (see music above)
Calendar and weather discussion
Artist study
Composer study (listening to a selection)