The Benefits of Using an All-in-One Boxed Curriculum

During your homeschooling journey, you’ve likely run across the debate between the all-in-one homeschool boxed curriculums and just piecing together a plan yourself from multiple sources. While both approaches have value and can work for different families, today let’s dive into the topic of the benefits of using a boxed curriculum.

Homeschool Boxed Curriculum

Homeschool boxed curriculum can be the perfect fit for families who need all the planning and sourcing done for them. Whether you’re working on the side, busy with loads of children, or just would rather have expert educators plan out your lessons, homeschool in a box is a great choice. Here’s why.

What Is an All-In-One Homeschool Curriculum?

An all-in-one homeschool curriculum is a complete curriculum for one student for an entire school year. Curriculum providers who sell these homeschool programs usually include the core subjects like reading, writing, and math, but they also include science and history as well.

With a boxed curriculum, you would choose the grade level needed and then the curriculum would arrive with all the resources, books, lesson planning, and videos, if applicable.

Advantages of Homeschool Boxed Curriculum

The main advantages of a homeschool boxed curriculum is that you don’t need to spend time planning and you don’t have to wonder if you’re missing anything by piecing together your own curriculum.

It really does take the guesswork out of homeschooling.

Boxed curriculum is a wonderful confidence builder especially for new homeschool moms. It can be intimidating to think of choosing the best curriculum for each subject for each of your kids each year.

With a boxed homeschool curriculum, you can be confident that your kids will be learning everything they need at each grade level.

Homeschool Boxed Curriculum Saves Time

A boxed homeschool curriculum saves a lot of time! First, you don’t have to spend the summer months creating a yearly plan because that planning has already been done for you by the curriculum provider.

Then, each homeschool day is mapped out for you and you don’t have to wonder what your child needs to read, do, write, or learn. You don’t have to spend each evening planning out the next day.

School-in-a-box curriculum typically includes detailed lesson plans.

Boxed Curriculum Takes the Guesswork Out of What to Teach

When you use a boxed curriculum, you don’t have to guess what to teach each year. That means you don’t need to come up with learning objectives, assignments, topics, or scope and sequence. Yes, it’s all done for you.

And if you have high schoolers that need a solid transcript and preparation for college, a boxed curriculum will give you the confidence that they are getting everything they need.

Boxed Curriculum is Easy to Supplement

A boxed homeschool curriculum is easy to supplement, whether you appreciate a Classical approach or your homeschool falls into a Charlotte Mason style or you prefer another methodology. It works great for different learning styles. 

You can add in other great books or find additional electives to meet the needs of your unique child. And when you remember that the curriculum is not your master, you can feel comfortable using the boxed curriculum as the foundation or structure of your homeschool learning while still adding in supplements, creative additions, and customizing things for your child.

Homeschool Boxed Curriculum is Less Stressful

School in a box homeschool can be less stressful than trying to piece together an entire homeschool plan yourself.

New homeschooling parents especially can benefit from using a homeschool boxed curriculum while they get their feet under them in this new homeschool adventure. Since you have teacher’s manuals that will give you each day’s plan, you can ditch the late nights making your own plans.

And if you’d rather not follow the instructions to a T, you can still use a homeschool boxed curriculum and just adopt the “do the next lesson” style.

Lesson Plans are Done for You

With homeschool boxed curriculums, lesson plans are done for you. Many teacher’s manuals even script out the lesson so there’s no guesswork as to the daily instruction. Cohesive lesson planning starts with the big concepts and then plans specific lessons for how to teach those concepts.

For many homeschool moms, there is just too much involved in this process. That’s why having instructor guides that have already planned this all out for you will be a huge advantage to using school-in-a-box curriculum.

Another great aspect of many boxed curriculums is that they integrate multiple subjects together. This can make homeschooling a lot more productive and enjoyable as kids see the connection between subjects.

Easy Organization

Homeschool boxed curriculum promotes easy organization! This is because you have all the books and plans for a complete academic year. No need to print loads of worksheets and activities from Pinterest each day and then try to organize all the scattered materials.

Instead, a boxed curriculum gives you a streamlined plan and resources that can be organized altogether on a shelf for that particular child.

Less Learning Gaps

School-in-a-box curriculum results in less learning gaps for kids. While not every child is on grade level for each subject, with a homeschool boxed curriculum, you can be confident that your child is learning what he needs to in that grade level.

Instead of having to track down all the learning milestones and content objectives for your child, you can rest assured that professional educators have already planned it all out for you. Your child’s progress will still be unique, and you can certainly craft the homeschool experience to further challenge or to supplement your child’s learning style.

But when you use a boxed curriculum as your main structure, you typically don’t need to worry about learning gaps.

One Size Fits All Approach

School-in-a-box curriculum gets a bad rap because people think that it will produce cookie cutter children and a standardized education. But this isn’t always true that a boxed curriculum needs to have a one size fits all approach.

All-in-one curriculum can be a good option whether you have young children, middle school kids, or even high school students. This is because you can still supplement, customize, and encourage your child’s natural learning style.

You just have the benefit of a done-for-you plan and not having to DIY your entire year.

All-in-One Homeschool Boxed Curriculum Kits

When you’re looking for complete homeschool curriculum packages with all the core subjects included plus all the educational materials and plans, you’ll love Sonlight’s All-Subjects Packages.

Sonlight’s literature-based curriculum includes:

• All Subjects (history, bible, geography, Read-Alouds, Readers, language arts, handwriting (early grades), spelling (middle grades), math, and science)
• All Materials
• Instructor’s Guides with 36 weeks of detailed lesson plans

Sonlight’s all-in-one curriculum includes everything you need to teach one child for one school year.

The good news is that Sonlight’s Christian homeschool curriculum kit is still customizable! You can choose 4-day or 5-day options and history, Bible, and literature are all integrated and connected.

Plus, you have a choice between multiple math and programs and you can also adapt your choices in science to your child’s level. Just click the customize button under each grade level curriculum to see your choices.

Subject Kit vs. Grade Kit

Here’s what’s different about a Subject Kit and a Grade Kit.

A Subject Kit includes all the educational materials, lesson plans, and books needed to teach one subject for one year. Sonlight’s curriculum kit for Intro to World History (ages 8-10) includes an Instructor’s Guide, student readers, timeline figures, and read-alouds to study history, Bible, and literature for one school year.

In short, a Subject Kit only includes specific subjects, not everything your child needs for one year.

A Grade Kit on the other hand, will include all the different subjects and the corresponding materials to teach every subject to one child for one year. So in addition to the history, literature, and Bible from the Subject Kit, a Sonlight 3rd Grade Homeschool in a box for 8-10 year olds will also include language arts, science, math, plus teachers manuals and all materials.

You can find subject packages and grade packages from Sonlight, all with customizable aspects.

Sonlight. The original real books curriculum. Biblically-oriented. International. With the only full-year guarantee in the industry: “Love to Learn/Love to Teach® or your money back.” LEARN MORE HERE

Is buying a homeschool boxed curriculum worth it?

You may be wondering if buying a homeschool boxed curriculum is even worth it? It’s a great question!

School in a box homeschool can bring years of experience from the curriculum creators to a new homeschool mom. Using a well-respected and complete done-for-you curriculum can give you confidence and allow you to enjoy your homeschooling.

Plus, using a boxed curriculum is an easy way to save a lot of time and energy because you won’t need to plan. Many homeschool boxed curriculum providers also offer homeschool support.

In Conclusion

While homeschool boxed curriculum might not be the perfect fit for all homeschool families, you should consider it if you need more structure, help, and a cohesive plan for your homeschooling.