4th and 5th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2025-2026 – Charlotte Mason

A new homeschool year is coming up very soon, and this year I’m sharing all of our homeschool curriculum choices for all of our kids. Today we are starting with our 4th and 5th Grade homeschool curriculum selections!

This year we are leaning fully into the beauty of Mater Amabilis, a Catholic Charlotte Mason curriculum designed to bring beauty, truth, and goodness into your homeschool day. My kids are doing Level 2 Year 1. I keep them together because they are so close in age.

In this post (and accompanying YouTube video!), I’m sharing our curriculum picks for every subject from language arts and religion to math, history, science, and more. Whether you’re new to Mater Amabilis or just exploring Charlotte Mason homeschooling with upper elementary kids, I hope this gives you fresh inspiration and confidence for your year ahead.

Religious Education Studies

Most of their religious education studies will be from the same books, but they will have a few things they do on their own.

See the Mater Amabilis syllabus for more information.

• The First Christians – The Acts of the Apostles by Marigold Hunt
• The Young People’s Book of Saints by Hugh Ross Williamson
• Stories of the Child Jesus from Many Lands by A. Fowler Lutz (to be read during Advent)
• My Path to Heaven by Geoffrey Bliss, S.J. (to be read during Lent)
• Of Bells and Cells by M Cristina Borges and Michaela Harrison (to be read during Easter)
• Jesus Our Guide: Faith and Life Level 4 – for my 4th grader
• CREDO: I Believe: Faith and Life Level 5 – for my 5th grader
• Saint Joan the Girl Soldier by Louis De Wohl- for my 4th grader
• Saint Dominic and the Rosary by Catherine Beebe- for my 5th grader

A new saint biography is to be read each term, but I’m not sure we will get to that.

Language Arts

My language arts choices do not follow the Mater Amabilis suggestions. In fact, some of my language arts choices are not considered Charlotte Mason at all. That is ok. I do what works for my kids.

• Phonics – I’m working through Reading Pathways with my 4th grader just to improve her fluency. Not pictured: Reading Eggs. We use Reading Eggspress during screentime for reading comprehension and vocabulary practice.
• Grammar, Dictation, Copywork, and More: Language Lessons for Today Grades 4 and 5. I love Language Lessons for Today from My Father’s World and will continue to use it with my kids. See my review here.
• Handwriting – I love Handwriting without Tears. I am using the Cursive Handwriting book with both students.
• Spelling – We use a workbook for spelling. My 4th grader will use Spelling Workout Level C and my 5th grader will use Spelling Workout Level D. I think that technically puts them a grade level behind, but we aren’t worrying about that.
• Writing – We are trying Story Starters by Karen Andreola. I’m excited to see what the kids write this year!
• Not pictured are our Schoolnest notebooks that we use for a large portion of our subjects. See this blog post to learn more about how we use them.

Literature

Our main literature selections are:

• The Children’s Homer by Padraic Colum
• The Aeneid for Boys and Girls by Alfred J. Church

Here is what I have chosen for free reads or read alouds:

• The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
• Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett(Puffin Classics edition)
• The Burgess Animal Book for Children

Math

We are switching gears for my 4th grader and using Math With Confidence 4. My 5th grader is sticking with Teaching Textbooks 5 (not pictured, but you can read my review).

History

We are following Mater Amabilis’ recommendations for history. Our main texts are:

• Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall for British History
• Our Lady’s Dowry available on the Mater Amabilis website
• Famous Men of Greece for Ancient History

We will read three books over the course of the year to go along with our British History:

• And God Blessed the Irish
• The Hidden Treasure of Glaston
• Augustine Came to Kent

Geography

Here is what we are using for geography this year:

• Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling
• Seabird by Holling C. Holling
• Holling Geography Unit Study from Beautiful Feet Books
• Holling Maps from BFB

We will be reading one book per term from countries in the Americas. We have chosen:

• The Cay by Theodore Taylor
• Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark
• Where the Flame Trees Bloom by Alma Flor Ada

We will also use the lesson plans from Mater Amabilis for mapwork with The Geography Coloring Book.

Science

Our main science texts are Science in Ancient Greece by Kathlyn Gay and Archimedes and the Door of Science by Jeanne Bendick. We will do activities from Home Science Adventures which include The Wonders of Light and The Magnetism Adventure.

Term 3 we will be studying simple machines and I’m undecided on a resource for that at this time.

Electives

We have a few fun electives to help round out the feast of ideas:

• Art – Artistic Pursuits Elementary 4-5 Book 1
• Typing from The Good and the Beautiful
• The Fun Spanish
• Bastien Piano Basics – Piano for the Young Beginner

You’ll notice there are some subjects that I left out. We do a morning time every day as a family, which includes many of our “riches” subjects which I will share in a later post!

More Homeschool Curriculum Choices for 2025-2026

• 7th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices