Answers to the questions families ask most.

Charlotte Mason (1842–1923) was a Christian educational philosopher in England. Her method is built around living books, narration (the child tells back what was read), short lessons, slow reading, and a generous feast of subjects. Mason looked to Scripture first and explicitly rejected the divide between sacred and secular knowledge. Read more on our full Charlotte Mason method page.

That depends what you mean by classical. We follow the Charlotte Mason method, not the modern Trivium-as-Stages method. The two get conflated often because both reject modern progressive education, but they differ in significant ways. Mason believed in ideas and imagination before facts and synthesis (fitting together) over analysis (picking apart). Mason also believed in reaching the heart and not just teaching the brain. But the Charlotte Mason method reads the classics, primary source material, whole books rather than textbooks, and holds to a pre-Modern understanding of education. Listen to this episode of the Living Homeschool Life podcast for a more full explanation.

Yes. We hold to the historic Protestant confessions (1689 / Westminster / Three Forms of Unity), and partner with G3 Ministries. See the Biblical Foundation page.

While our books are faithful to Reformed theology, our aim with Living Heritage is not to convert people to Reformed theology. We do not have students read on the five points of Calvinism or books that are apologetics for predestination or unconditional election or other similar doctrines. Rather, students read Reformed theologians like the Puritans, the Reformers, and other classic works like J. I. Packer’s Knowing God. Most of these books center around the ideas of living a faithful, holy Christian life. We also hold to traditional Reformed positions like not viewing images of Christ. You can view all of our books (including the Bible selections) at the bottom of each Shop by Grade page. Parents are, of course, always welcome to pre-read the books and swap out any that do not fit with their family’s theology.

This means two things. First, all your children study the same cycle of history at the same time, with age-appropriate reading and assignments for each group. Second, your children are grouped together as much as is appropriate. In non-skill subjects, for the most part Grades 1-4 read the same books, Grades 5-8 read the same books, and Grades 9-12 read the same books for each cycle. Additionally, Together Time happens with the whole family in the room. See Family-Style Learning.

Living Heritage schedules Koine Greek rather than Latin as its classical language, introduced in Group II and continued through Group III (though we also offer Latin options in our plans). Our reasoning: Something is always lost in translation. If we are going to read anything in its original language, it should be Scripture. The pragmatic benefits of learning Greek are similar to that of learning Latin — discipline, inflected language benefits for understanding grammar, root words for English — but the spiritual benefits of Greek outweigh Latin.  See the Languages page for more.

Dr. Becky Aniol — pastor's wife, mother of four (one homeschool graduate and three still being homeschooled), MA.Ed and PhD in Christian Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary — is the founder and primary curriculum designer. See Dr. Becky Aniol's bio. But she didn't do it alone. She consulted with experts in various fields to make sure all the selections were excellent and worthy. She  stands on the shoulders of a whole generation of Christian professors, not to mention Charlotte Mason. And she had a team of helpers, each with advanced degrees, without whom Living Heritage would not exist.

It depends on the ages and number of children. Together Time is about thirty minutes for everyone. Kindergarten is about an hour of gentle read-alouds and games. Group I days are around 2.5 hours of read-alouds and lessons, including Together Time. Group II middle-schoolers usually do around 3.5 hours of independent work, including Together Time. Mom helps with math and grammar and listens to narrations. Group III high-schoolers do about 4.5-5 hours of independent work, including Together Time.

We list every book used in the curriculum with links. About 60% of our books are available free online (and we provide links to those as well). We also offer exclusive discount codes from several publishers in our book lists. All of our books are still in print and some may be available at your local library or a nearby living library. And in our Getting Started Guide, which you receive with the curriculum, we have a whole section on tips for saving money on books.

It varies depending on what you already own, what your library has, and whether you buy used. Many families spend an average $200–$300 per group on books for a cycle; many spend less by using libraries and free online editions. The plans show you which books are essential vs. optional.

Here are few things to keep in mind regarding the cost of books:

1. Our books are not consumables; you can reuse them for each of your children. Therefore, you’ll spend $0 on books for children who do that cycle after the first child (except for language arts books).
2. We do not assign all the books at once; they are started at various times in the year. We indicate in the book lists the week in which each book starts. Most of our families spread out their book buying over the year.
3. Some of our books are spread over multiple cycles, so the first year you buy books will always be more than subsequent years.
4. Children within the same group (grades 1-4, 5-8, and 9-12) share all of the books (except language arts), so you'll spend less per child overall than you would with a traditional curriculum.
5. Our books are time-tested classics. Therefore, our families can usually find used books very easily. (We even have a private Buy/Sell Facebook group just for Living Heritage members.) Most of our families do not buy all (or any) new books. Also, because we use classics, many people utilize the library.
6. About 60% of our books can be read free online. We have done the work of linking them in the book lists for you, so they’re just a click away.
7. In comparison, the books for one elementary subject (not one grade, but just one subject within the grade) from BJU Press costs on average $190. Multiply that by 8-9 subjects (science, Bible, English, etc), and you’d spend over $1500 per child, and many of those books are consumable or will be outdated in a few years. Similarly, a complete grade level package from Veritas Press ranges from $1000-1700.

We feel that these seven things, as well as the fact  that we include all grades K-12 in the one low-price cycle purchase, make Living Heritage a great value for families! We also have a whole section in our helpful Getting Started Guide (included in the curriculum) which walks you through “Saving Money on Books” and provides many helpful tips.  

Living Heritage schedules 30 weeks (150 days) of Ordinary Days (regular school) and 6 weeks (30 days) of Festival Days for Advent (2 weeks), Reformation Week, Passion Week, a Thanksgiving Week, and a Patriotic Week. Festival Days have their own special plans — short stories, hymns, Scripture passages, art, and themes appropriate to the season. These Festival Days provide flexibility for your school year and the opportunity to read and worship surrounding holidays without having to cut or cram regular school. Many families use Festival Days to catch up on work such as math and science experiments or to take exams. Other families skip some of the Festival Days to take an educational family trip. We find that built-in flexibility leads to a peaceful school year.

Pre-written semester exams are included for every grade. How you grade is up to you — you're the parent, teacher, and school administrator. To help you, we have a whole section on how to give grades in our Getting Started Guide (included with the curriculum). Many parents in reporting states give completion and effort grades for daily readings and narrations. Premium + Syllabird auto-generates transcripts at the high-school level when you input grades. For college placement testing (and standardized testing, if that's required in your state) we recommend the CLT over the SAT/ACT. We have an exclusive Living Heritage discount code for all CLT exams.

Your plans live in our member portal at livingheritagehomeschool.com. After checkout you'll create an account (or log in) and your purchased cycles appear in your library. Premium members also get access to the Premium Member Benefits there. You'll need to make sure to accept all invitations from the Mighty Network after purchase in order to access your cycle and any other benefit tiers you may have purchased. You can also download the Mighty Networks app and follow the instructions to connect to Living Heritage to have your homeschool plans right on your phone or tablet.

Syllabird is a digital homeschool planner with a downloadable app for mobile devices. We have partnered with Syllabird to have Living Heritage plans pre-loaded into the planner so you can have access to all of our courses and daily plans in a digital planner. This allows you to bump assignments, schedule vacations, substitute books, attach completed work for portfolios, input narrations, auto-generate transcripts, and check of daily work on the go. Students can also get free student accounts under your account to keep track of their own assignments — and you'll see it in real time. The Syllabird account is included with Premium + Syllabird subscriptions. Syllabird is not available with Basic plans, as the digital planner contains our daily Premium plans. To access our pre-loaded plans, you need to purchase Syllabird through Living Heritage and not through Syllabird's independent site.

Yes. Basic plans are spreadsheets, and while they are optimized for digital viewing, printing instructions are included. Premium plans are easily printable Google Docs in a planner format. Premium + Syllabird can also be easily printed as customizable daily checklists through the Syllabird website/app.