How to Choose a Homeschool Math Curriculum

Math is the subject homeschool parents change most often. Part of that is the sheer number of options, and part is that the thing families get wrong is rarely difficulty. It’s usually a mismatch between how the program expects to be taught and how the family can teach it.

There are 36 math programs on this site. The questions below are ordered by how many they eliminate, so working through them in order gets you to a short list faster than reading reviews.

One thing to know first, because it’s the opposite of what people expect.

Math is the subject you can hand off

If you’ve just come from choosing a reading program, this will feel like a different world. Early reading needs a parent at the table almost without exception. Math doesn’t.

Twenty of the 36 programs here score 1 or 2 on parent involvement, meaning the program does the teaching. Seventeen score 4 or 5 on independence, meaning a child can work through a lesson largely alone. If you are teaching several children, or you are nervous about math yourself, this is the subject where that’s a solvable problem.

1. How far does it need to go?

This eliminates more programs than anything else, so answer it first.

Twenty-Three of the 36 run through grade 9 or beyond. Thirteen stop before high school, including strong elementary programs like RightStart Mathematics, Math with Confidence, Beast Academy, and Miquon Math. Choosing one of those is a fine decision as long as you know you’ll be switching around middle school.

Five are upper-level only and don’t start until grade 7 or 8: Derek Owens, Foerster Math, Jacobs Math, Shormann Math, and VideoText Interactive. These exist because a lot of families use a K-8 spine and then want something built for algebra onward.

If you want one program from kindergarten through calculus and no switching, the field narrows to eight: Abeka Math, ACE Math PACEs, BJU Press Math, Christian Light Math, CTCMath, Math-U-See, Saxon Math, and The Math Map.

2. Who is going to teach it?

Three honest answers, and each points somewhere different.

“I’ll teach it.” The parent-taught programs are where the strongest elementary conceptual teaching lives. Math with Confidence, RightStart Mathematics, and Simply Charlotte Mason Math all score 5 on parent involvement. Owners consistently report these build unusually solid number sense, and that they take real time from the parent every day.

“I’d rather the program taught it.” Twenty programs sit at 1 or 2 on parent involvement. Ten of those carry most of the teaching on video or software: ALEKS, CTCMath, IXL, Khan Academy, Mr. D Math, Shormann Math, Teaching Textbooks Math, Time4Learning, UnLock Math, and VideoText Interactive.

“Low involvement, but no screen.” This is the request that looks impossible and isn’t. Five programs are hands-off and fully offline: ACE Math PACEs, Christian Light Math, Life of Fred, Math Lessons for a Living Education, and Math Mammoth. They manage it by being written to the child rather than to the parent.

3. Spiral or mastery?

This is the classic math question and it deserves its own reading, so there’s a full guide on spiral versus mastery. The short version: spiral programs circle back through topics all year, mastery programs stay on one topic until it’s solid.

The math catalog splits 15 mastery, 13 spiral, 8 blended, so neither camp is a minority. A child who forgets skills without regular review tends to do better with spiral. A child who likes to finish something before moving on tends to do better with mastery.

4. How demanding should it be?

Unlike reading, math on this site spans a wide range of rigor, and picking the wrong end is a common reason families quit a program.

Three sit at the top: Art of Problem Solving, Beast Academy, and Foerster Math. Owners describe these as excellent for a child who finds ordinary math boring, and as a poor fit for a child who is already discouraged.

Five sit at the gentle end: ACE Math PACEs, Life of Fred, Math Lessons for a Living Education, Math-U-See, and Time4Learning. Families who arrive after a hard year with something demanding often land here on purpose.

The remaining 28 sit at or near grade level, which is where most families should start.

5. Screen or paper?

Ten of the 36 are mostly or fully digital on the screen time scale. Sixteen are fully offline, and the rest use a screen for part of the work, usually video instruction with written practice.

The trade from question 2 shows up here. Most of the programs that teach your child for you do it through a screen. If both low involvement and no screen matter to you, the five offline programs listed above are the whole field.

6. How much faith content?

Twenty-One of the 36 carry none, so a secular family has most of the catalog.

Seven are Light, where faith appears occasionally and could be skipped, including Horizons Math, Jacobs Math, and The Good and the Beautiful Math. Seven are Integrated, with faith woven through the material: Abeka Math, ACE Math PACEs, BJU Press Math, Christian Light Math, Math Lessons for a Living Education, Rod and Staff Math, and Shormann Math.

One is Core, meaning faith is central and inseparable from the material: The Math Map.

Putting it together

Elementary, you’re teaching, and you want conceptual depth. RightStart Mathematics, Math with Confidence, or Dimensions Math (Singapore Math). Expect to be at the table.

Elementary, and you need it to run without you. Math Mammoth or Christian Light Math on paper, CTCMath or Teaching Textbooks Math on a screen.

Your child is bored and coasting. Beast Academy through grade 5, then Art of Problem Solving.

Last year went badly and everyone is tired. Math-U-See or Life of Fred, and consider dropping half a grade level rather than pushing.

You need algebra onward and you don’t want to teach it. Shormann Math, Mr. D Math, Derek Owens, VideoText Interactive, or UnLock Math.

You want one program the whole way and no switching. Saxon Math, Math-U-See, CTCMath, Abeka Math, BJU Press Math, or Christian Light Math.

Where to go next

Every score above comes from what owners report across public sources rather than our own testing, and how our scoring works explains the reasoning behind each one.

Browse Math and sort by whichever attribute matters most, or answer a few questions in Find Your Fit and see what comes back. If we’ve described a program wrong, tell us.