Choosing curriculum for our Mandarin bilingual homeschool used to be overwhelming for me.
I would stare at the vast sea of resources like a deer in the headlights, with the full weight of my child’s academic future on my shoulders.
Perhaps you find yourself today with the same exact struggle?
Good new is, as I ready myself to enter our fifth year of bilingual homeschooling, it’s been so nice to finally feel more confident and at rest.
Seeing other family’s curriculum picks over the years has been a tremendous help for me in my homeschooling journey. Therefore, I wanted to share our curriculum pics in hopes of doing the same for you.
Our homeschool style leans toward a Charlotte Mason approach, and as a Christian family, I do choose faith-based curriculum for certain subjects. I’ve marked those with a cross symbol (✝ ) for those who prefer to use secular options.
Please keep in mind that what works for us may not work for you.
One of the gifts of homeschooling I treasure, is figuring out what works for you and your child because every family, and every learner, is wonderfully unique. Remember to give yourself lots of grace in the process of this oftentimes messy but beautiful discovery process.
I will include links and discount codes below to make accessing the curriculums easy for you.
Here is our 2025-2026 Mandarin Bilingual Homeschool Curriculum Picks
Some links on this page are affiliate links which means that, if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I greatly appreciate your support!
Chinese Homeschool Curriculum
I get asked all the time what curriculum we use for Chinese so I’ll start with Chinese.
The challenging thing is that there really isn’t a Chinese homeschool curriculum out there especially for older kids like my daughter unless you want to just use Taiwan’s textbooks.
How I plan our curriculum is by focusing on our learning goals and then choose resources accordingly.
Our overall goal with Mandarin Chinese is to be able to carry on basic conversations and for her to enjoy reading Chinese books. For this school year, my short term goal for jiejie is to continue to develop her conversation abilities and stoke the joy of reading Chinese books. So below is what I’m using to achieve these goals.
We love Lele because these graded readers are short and not intimidating for kids, plus the illustrations are well done.
I have her read three books a day and add characters that need more review into our Pleco app for daily review.
When you look up characters in Pleco, they give you the option to add it to a flashcard deck that uses spaced repetition to help learners review. We do this about 5 minutes a day.
Use my discount code: spotofsunshine to get 5% off Lele graded readers.
I’m still using these two books to help jiejie work on some light Chinese writing.
- 部首國字 (Chinese radicals writing workbook)
- 筆畫國字 (Chinese character stroke order writing workbook)
- 漢字拼拼 (Chinese radicals, we read this together then I have jiejie write 4 characters with the radical in her Chinese writing workbook)
I like how these introduce radicals and stroke orders to kids and helps them recognize characters through learning radicals.
These are appropriate for any age who are wanting to get some light writing practice.
The two workbooks are open and go so jiejie can just do it on her own in the afternoon during her independent work time.
She usually just completes one to two pages each day.
Afternoon Independent Reading & Evening Reading
Assigning a 30 minute independent Chinese reading time for jiejie has been a game changer for us.
Now that she knows enough characters and zhuyin to read on her own, setting aside time each afternoon for her to read something she enjoys has been a win for both of us.
For Jie Jie, it’s daily reading practice and exposure to new characters in a way that feels fun and meaningful. For me, it means she’s continuing to grow in her Chinese independently without always needing me beside her to “teach.”
This is something people often miss when they say, “Oh, I could never do what you do.” Homeschooling gives kids the incredible opportunity to develop one of life’s most important skills: self-initiated learning, driven by their own interests and curiosity.
As your child grows this skill, they become increasingly independent and need less direct instruction. Plus, with the wealth of online resources available today, teaching your child doesn’t have to fall entirely on your shoulders.
Online Mandarin Class
I haven’t decided whether we’re going to take an online Mandarin class yet.
Jiejie grew to enjoy Mama & Me Mandarin classes last year but I didn’t realize their classes sell out really quickly….so now I’m considering either taking Motherly Notes classes (use spotofsunshine for 10% discount) or hiring a private tutor through iTalki.
Math Homeschool Curriculum
We’ve been using Singapore Math ever since I started homeschooling jiejie and continue to enjoy this curriculum.
We’ll be using fourth grade dimensions math. I typically only buy the textbooks, workbooks and home educator guide. There are sufficient practice problems between the two books that I feel the test book isn’t necessary.
When jiejie attended third grade in Taiwan, I was worried whether her math would be up to Taiwan’s standards.
But it was amazing to see how Singapore Math really prepared her well for Taiwan’s math class.
After seeing how she was able to jump into math class in Taiwan without a problem, I was even more on board with using Singapore Math.
I love how easy it is to use and that you can purchase a home educator guide plus, they offer a video option if you prefer to have your child learn from someone else.
(I haven’t gotten the curriculum in the mail yet so will update with a picture later.)
English/Language Arts Curriculum
The other major subject we focus on is Language Arts. As a former high school English teacher, finding a high-quality curriculum was especially important to me.
For English, I use a combination of resources alongside a daily 30-minute independent reading time in the afternoon.
Since we finished the last set of All About Reading, we’re moving on to IEW this year after hearing Tricia at Juice Box Homeschool‘s review.
I’m excited to dive into this with jiejie to take her writing to the next level.
I love that it comes with video lessons so she can learn this independently.
IEW also offers live online classes for kids to join too but I found out about their program too late so we weren’t able to join this year.
This was another curriculum recommended by Juice Box Homeschool that I’m excited to try out this year.
This open and go workbook will strengthen learner’s comprehension and reading skills through dictation, spelling, unit studies, poetry, oral presentations, and speechmaking.
This is also something else jiejie can do independently.
The initial flip through reminded me of Brave Writer’s Dart program ($149) but at half the cost ($75) and the layout seems more straight forward and easier to use.
We tried out Dart last year and although I liked the book recommendations (they focus more on modern quality literature for kids instead of older classics) the layout was a bit confusing for me.
We loved how easy it was to learn grammar through Fix It grammar workbook last year and will continue to use it this year.
I think every homeschooling mom recommends this workbook for grammar for it’s ease of use and how well it helps kids learn grammar.
History Curriculum ✝
We started Sonlight’s intro to American history curriculum a little bit in the summer and will continue with it this year.
I love how it’s a literature rich curriculum, which helps kids learn through reading stories about people from that time period in addition to textbook reading.
History was one of my favorite subjects in school so I wanted to find something engaging but will also stretch her.
We will also be using their lapbook and timeline since jiejie loves hands on activities and it really helps her retain what she learns.
Science Curriculum ✝
For science we will be using Apologia’s Zoology 3 since this is what our co-op will be using on Mondays. (It is a Charlotte Mason inspired Christian curriculum.)
I did purchase their notebook as well to help jiejie apply what she learned through the different activities assigned in the workbook.
She’s really looking forward to this because she loves animals.
Family Worship & Bible ✝
I usually read a Bible story in Chinese to jiejie and didi at breakfast and do a short prayer afterwards by using Daily Grace’s 31 Days of Prayer cards.
This year, I would like to start using Charlotte Mason’s laying down the rails to help instill good habits and continue to use the prayer cards at breakfast.
For independent Bible study, jiejie will be doing Not Consumed’s Keep Thy Heart study.
At dinner time, my husband usually will read a short Bible passage, explain the passage, lead us in prayer and sing a Hymn or worship song.
We’ve also been working through The New City Catechism for kids (this is available on their app in Chinese!) and reading Little Pilgrim’s Progress together once a week.
Additional Curriculum and Classes
In addition to her core subjects, Jie Jie will continue building her typing skills using Typing.com, a free, kid-friendly program we’ve really enjoyed. She will also be staying active with soccer and basketball this year.
We recently joined Restoration Schole ✝ , an online Christian classical co-op that helps young learners cultivate a global perspective through rich, diverse literature, theology, and current events.
I’m especially excited about this because many homeschool curricula and communities we’ve encountered tend to be America- or Eurocentric. Restoration Schole offers a refreshing and Christ-centered emphasis on diverse global cultures, something I’ve been really wanting to add to our homeschool.
They’re currently at capacity but you can join their waitlist if you’re interested.
Jiejie was taking procreate all last semester through Outschool and we may continue that, I need to evaluate.
We’ll also be continuing with our bi-monthly art study with our Chinese art history book Vincent’s Starry Night and Other Stories/藝術史的一千零一夜。
To keep up with current events, we watch World Watch News ✝ (English) a few times a week and listen to 兒童世界報報 Broadcast for Kids (Mandarin Chinese) at lunch.
Hope what I’ve shared here was helpful. I know it’s a lot of curriculum and resources but keep in mind, half of the material take 5-15 minutes and we’ve slowly developed our own unique homeschool rhythm through the last seven years.
So if this leaves you overwhelmed, my encouragement is to take it one year at a time and focus on one main goal for each year. Simplifying my focus in the beginning really helped me not get overwhelmed and also reach the academic goals I set out to cover.
As always, don’t hesitate to reach out to me through email or DM me through instagram. I’m happy to help!
Other Helpful Bilingual Homeschooling Resources
- What we do for Art Study in our Mandarin Chinese Bilingual Homeschool
- Anchia: Mandarin Bilingual Mom Homeschooling Youtube Channel (anda
- Guavarama’s Mandarin Bilingual Homeschooling journey
- Little Chinese Learner: Great affordable online option for homeschooling families learning Chinese
- How to Teach Chinese to Kids (When It’s Not Your Native Language) from Oaxacaborn
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