5 LDS Homeschool Resources

5+ LDS Homeschool Resources

There are a lot of homeschooling resources out there, and thank goodness for that. Many of these have been created by faithful Christians with a focus on the Bible, and that is absolutely wonderful. But what about resources made specifically with LDS homeschooling families in mind? Are they out there? This list started out with just 5 websites, but with your help it has grown! Check out these LDS homeschool resources you might not have known about:

1: LDS National Homeschooling Association

Okay, if you live in the States and you have been homeschooling a while, you probably know about this one. Founded back in 2004, the mission of this organization is “Supporting homeschooling families by building connections, sharing resources, and providing leadership training.”

On their website they have advice for new homeschoolers, upcoming events, links to helpful blog posts, and (best of all!) a meet-up map to connect you with other LDS homeschoolers in your area— because Facebook friends and online support groups are great… but there’s just nothing quite like a face-to-face meet-up every once in a while.

2: Our Deseret Homeschool–LDS Homeschool Gospel Study

This cute little blog has a fantastic gospel learning section, including:

Gospel Basics 38 week lesson plan:

With weekly songs, scripture verses, coloring pages, and stories from the Friend magazine, these lessons are a great way to add gospel learning to your kindergarten schedule, or make family home evening planning easy for a year!

Book of Mormon Scripture Heroes:

Inspired by the Friend magazine’s monthly Scripture heroes, Kourtney has created a free printable booklet full of coloring sheets, hands-on activity ideas, writing practice, songs, scriptures, and even links to videos on lds.org.

Vacation Book of Mormon School:

Adapted from the popular Vacation Bible School concept, this is a week-long learning and activity program focused on the story of Nephi. From departing into the wilderness to arriving at the promise land, join Nephi’s family for this week of games, crafts, and scripture study. Great for summer camps or multi-family co-ops.
Be sure to check out the other sections of Kourtney’s blog for more fun preschool and kindergarten activity ideas, and free printables!

3: Walk Beside Me–LDS Preschool Letter-of-the-Week

Although her main blog, Confessions of a Slacker Mom, has been taken down, Sarah has made her fantastic printable preschool curriculum available to download from Google Drive. This letter of the week program goes above and beyond the typical coloring pages and writing practice sheets (though it has those too). Included are weekly scriptures, songs, math worksheets, reading, vocabulary, tracing, and critical thinking activities such as comparison words, matching, and opposites. And most uniquely of all: each letter has an LDS theme, such as N for Nephi, and T for Tithing.

 

4: The Family School–LDS Homeschool Curriculum

The Family School is a homeschooling curriculum developed in 2012 by the fully accredited K-8 American Heritage School. Their content is all online, and accessed with a monthly or yearly subscription which allows access to their growing library of dozens of courses. Once you have created an account, you pick which courses you want to study that year, out of each subject, and use the tools provided to create a custom schedule.

There are at least six course topics to chose from for each of the main subjects, which are art, geography, history, literature, music and science, so every year you learn something new. The courses are set up with a one-room-schoolhouse approach, targeting multiple age groups in one easy-to-prepare lesson. Worksheets and activities are divided and targeted to four separate age groups, from observers (3-5) to scholars (12-14), plus a separate set of lessons for high school students.

The courses present, as the website puts it, a blend of secular and spiritual learning. The most overtly LDS content comes through the subject of history, where historical world events are studied in parallel with the happenings of the Book of Mormon and Bible, as well as the restoration of the gospel in the modern age. What is not included in their courses, as you might have noticed, is math and language arts, due to the difficulty of targeting these subjects to multiple ages simultaneously.

 

5: LIFE School–LDS Homeschool Curriculum

The LIFE school is a homeschooling curriculum developed by Experius International Academy, and it is heavily centered in LDS themes and scripture. Like the Family School, LIFE School is designed to teach one lesson to the whole family, but it is structured differently, with a unit study approach. The full program includes four years of learning, each representing a different time period in a chronological study of the scriptures and history. All other subjects are tied into this theme, and include History, Language Arts/Grammar, Reading/Literature, Creative Writing, Spelling and Vocabulary, Science, Geography, Social Studies, Handwriting, Art, and Music… everything except Math.

There is one teacher’s manual for each year, and eight grade-level student manuals to ensure the students’ assignments match their ages. A cool feature of this program is that many of the lessons integrate with the primary’s Faith in God program, as well as linking to multiple church resources such as the children’s songbook and church magazines. Also, apparently if you buy this program, a portion of your purchase goes to the Church’s general missionary fund—don’t ask me how much though, they don’t mention that.

6: Liahona Education—LDS Distance School

Liahona Preparatory Academy is a private school based in Pleasant Grove Utah that offers a distance learning program for homeschool kids. With an emphasis on supporting parents, and integrating eternal truths into secular learning, Liahona offers a distinctly LDS approach to education. Available for grades 3-12, the distance education classes are recorded daily and may be watched live, with teacher interaction, or recorded at the student’s convenience. If you are looking for a flexible LDS homeschool solution that doesn’t require you as the parent to do a lot of teaching, this may be for you.

7: The Good and the Beautiful—LDS Friendly Homeschool Program

Although this is a Christian program, non-specific to any one denomination, it was written by an LDS author, and includes some optional LDS homeschool supplements, so you can be sure the teaching is harmonious with our faith. The Good and the Beautiful offers levels 1-5 of its language arts program as free downloads, with the goal of making homeschooling affordable. Reading, writing, and grammar are taught with an emphasis on high quality moral literature, and no prep work for the lessons. The history and science courses are designed in the family style so you only have to give one lesson for everybody. This is a very popular program amoung LDS homeschool families.

 

8: My LDS Preschool—LDS Home Preschool Curriculum

Designed for ages 3 to 5, this 28 week course is suitable to be taught to your own child individually, or in co-op groups of up to 6 children. The lessons follow a traditional preschool style, with circle time, snack time, story time, and many other developmentally appropriate activity slots. Blended with the basics like language and math, Book of Mormon stories are taught in fun interactive ways to give the kids an early love of the scriptures. For a one-time fee, your family is given lifetime access to all content, including a host of beautifully illustrated printables. Definitely check this one out.

9: Ensign Peak Academy—Online LDS Middle and High School

This school offers live online classes for middle-school and high-school students.

Bonus:  Study and Faith—LDS Kindergarten 

I recently published my FREE kindergarten weekly theme schedule just for you. Each month follows a gospel study theme and each week includes songs, a story book, and learning ideas.

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So, what do you think? Had you already heard of all the sites I listed? Did I miss any great resources? Let me know in the comments below!

If none of these were a good fit for you, you can check out my post on how to pick a homeschool curriculum.