Curriculum Boost is a Christian memory work supplement for grades 1–12. Students learn the key facts of science, history, and more through short questions and answers, then review them until they stick.
How We Got Here
Curriculum Boost began in a homeschool co-op. Our founder, a homeschooling mom, started writing memory work for the group because she wanted her own children to be exposed to every major concept. She kept hearing how many students, homeschooled and traditionally schooled alike, finish school with gaps in what they know.
She also knew the other half of the problem from experience: most of us forget what we learned. Many adults remember very little of the history they studied in school. Learning something once is not enough. It has to be reviewed.
So the goal became simple: give families the strengths of an expensive private-school education, a full sweep of every subject plus serious memory work, in a form a busy homeschool mom can actually use.
What We Believe About Learning
Every student should meet every concept
Curriculum Boost introduces students to the major ideas in each subject so that no big areas are left out. When students meet a topic again later in more depth, it is not brand new. They already have a place to hang it.
Memorization matters
Understanding grows best on top of knowledge that is already there. Memory work gives students a store of facts, vocabulary, and key ideas they can draw on for years.
Questions and answers make it stick
Each lesson is written as short questions and answers built around keywords and short descriptions, the same principle behind flashcard programs like Anki. Research supports this approach. Answering a question from memory, called retrieval practice, strengthens learning more than rereading. In one well-known study, students who practiced recalling a passage remembered 56% of it a week later, compared with 42% for students who simply reread it (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). A major review of common study methods rated practice testing and spaced practice as the two most useful techniques (Dunlosky et al., 2013).
Review a little, often
Without review, new memories fade quickly. Short daily reviews, with older material coming back at longer and longer intervals (called spaced repetition), keep knowledge from slipping away. Curriculum Boost is organized in three cycles, so students keep returning to each subject, reviewing what they know and building on it.
An old Christian way of teaching
Teaching by question and answer is not new. For centuries, Christian families and churches taught children through catechisms: short questions with answers to memorize. Martin Luther popularized the format so children would understand what they learned, not just recite it, and the Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647) still opens with “What is the chief end of man?” Curriculum Boost applies that same time-tested method to science, history, and other subjects.
Partly Classical
Curriculum Boost borrows from classical education, especially its emphasis on memory work and on building knowledge in cycles. It is not a full classical program, though. We do not include Latin or classical literature such as Homer. Our focus is the memory work itself.
A Biblical Worldview
Curriculum Boost is distinctly Christian. Our history memory work begins with the creation of the world as described in Genesis 1, and science is taught from a biblical creation perspective. Students learn that living things can change over time: traits can shift as plants and animals adapt to their environment, and we can observe that. What we do not teach is Darwinian evolution, the idea that all living things developed from a common ancestor through unguided natural processes.
Works With Any Curriculum
Curriculum Boost is a supplement, not a replacement. Families in our original co-op used it alongside two-day-a-week private schools, Christian Light, Charlotte Mason, and many other approaches. Whatever you use for your core subjects, Curriculum Boost adds a strong layer of memory work on top.
How Much Time Does It Take?
It varies by family, grade, and lesson. Many families do a short daily review of questions and answers, a song, or flashcards, and spend a little more time when a new lesson is introduced. Our Memory Work Practice Methods page has ideas for every age.