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With over 2 million books sold, the Complete Canadian Curriculum books from Popular Books are a common starting point for many homeschoolers. Affordable, colourful, fun, easy to find, covering multiple subjects, and good all the way to Grade 8- it’s easy to see why.
In this post, I will show you how to you can use the Complete Canadian Curriculum books in your homeschool.
Complete Canadian Curriculum – A Misnomer
Looking at the title of this book series, one might assume it’s the answer to all your homeschooling needs as is. Unfortunately, it’s not quite accurate.
As much as these books are labelled as a complete curriculum, they aren’t really designed to be an all-in-one complete school year curriculum for your child. They only include a few pages on each topic per subject: Math, English, Social Studies, & Science. There is no such thing as a “Canadian” curriculum because every province has variations in each grade. And they aren’t a curriculum. They are a resource.
But don’t write these books off yet. They have great potential!
Here are 4 ways you can take advantage of these books in your homeschool.
Using the Complete Canadian Curriculum Books As a Base
One thing that these books are helpful with is creating a plan for the school year. Although each province has its own curriculum outcome expectations, these books have done a pretty good job of finding the common topics for each subject. You can use that as a base to build your own learning plan for the year.
Grab the grade level that you are working on with your child and take a look at the topics and subjects covered inside. You can see what
For example, the Grade 6 science section includes several pages about flight and air. There’s a unit study that you can focus on! You can then look into books, videos, experiments, other resources, and field trips, etc that are related to that topic, and use the worksheets in this curriculum book as part of the complete picture.
Build your year of school plans around the whole book and the lessons inside.
As a Supplement
While you do school throughout the year with whatever program or method you decide to use, you can use the pages inside these books as an add on. For example, let’s say your child has been studying long division in their math program and could use some extra review. Using the pages in this book gives them an extra opportunity to practice. Plus, often the novelty of having a book that’s not their “usual work” can give them some special incentive too. It’s a fresh way to add in some extra practice wherever needed.
Great for Review and Looking Ahead
Summer slump can be a real thing for some kids. If you take a break for the summer, but want to keep minds fresh and stimulated, you can challenge your child to use the Complete Canadian Curriculum books as a quick and easy review. A page here, a page there. No heavy learning, but simple review. Plus, you can also use them as an easy way to get started looking at the levels ahead. Kids love when they think they are beyond their current level, so it can be fun to get started on the next thing in a new book.
Whether that be as a review for the year past, or as a jump ahead at the skills for the upcoming grade – they are fantastic for this purpose.
Great Books For A Breather
Sometimes, we just need some downtime in our school days – whether that’s because of illness or days when you are running around to appointments or everyone is uncooperative to the usual plan, etc. Sometimes, you just need to do something a little less intense. These books are perfect for those times. Just doing some colourful and whimsical pages of essentially independent work is a great way to have a break without giving up school completely.
Where to Find the Complete Canadian Curriculum Books
These books are available in many places. I’ve seen them at Chapters Indigo, Walmart, and even Costco! You can also grab them on Amazon. But they are also available on their website at https://www.popularbook.ca/ – which is a fantastic place to look through all they offer and to take advantage of their Parents’ Club, a free membership which offers you up to 50% off the Complete Canadian Curriculum books along with many other sales and exclusive opportunities – like free worksheets.
Other Resources From Popular Book Company
Popular Book Company – the publishers of the Complete Canadian Curriculum – have many other resources available as well, including their SmartSeries books which are individual subject books that dive deeper into french, language, math, science, etc. They have so many great early learner fun books, which are great for preschool when your little one wants to do school like the big kids or if they are eager to learn.
Final Thoughts
I do recommend these books as they are a great tool for homeschoolers in Canada. I have used many of them with my own kids over the years. Lots of hard work, design, and experience have been used while putting them together While they might not be a full, ready to go solution for homeschooling curriulum, they are a handy resources to have in your schoolbox – however you decide to use them.
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I love these as a base. It helps me to feel ‘on track’.
Does each grade come in one book or more then one book?
If you buy the “Complete Curriculum” books, they have multiple subjects per book covering 1 grade.
If you buy the “SmartSeries” books, they have multiple books per grade (Math, English, Science, etc.)
Are all of their books following the Canadian curriculum? Like, what’s the difference between “Canadian Curriculum English Smart 5” and “Complete English Smart 5”?
The “Complete Canadian Curriculum” isn’t really the complete curriculum. It’s mostly just a review book that covers multiple subjects in it with a few worksheets. It’s a great review book, and you can use it as a base. The SmartSeries books have each subject separated – so EnglishSmart for example. That is more in-depth(ish) than the general book is. I hope that explains it clearly lol.
What is the difference between the revised version and the enriched version?
Hey Sabrina,
I think some of the books have additional downloads and audio clips on their website (https://www.popularbook.ca/) – those might be the enriched editions, but I’m not 100% sure. You can find their contact info on their website and they might be able to give you more details!
I am very interested in the Kindergarten Wookbook (Margaret Ann Hawkins)…it is presently sold out online and in bookstores.
How can I get a copy without waiting so long?
If they are sold out, there probably isn’t a place that you can get them faster, unfortunately. This year has been quite crazy for learning resource providers!