Torchlight vs Build Your Library
The main differences
Both are low-cost PDF plans built on books you buy or borrow, with literature, history and science on a 36-week schedule and no math. Torchlight runs from pre-K to Level 5, centers each book on a discussion guide and adds a year-long project, for $47 a level. Build Your Library runs from kindergarten to 12th grade, follows Charlotte Mason methods with narration and copywork around one history theme a year, for $39.95 a level.
| Torchlight | Build Your Library | |
|---|---|---|
| Subjects | All subjects: language arts, science and history and geography | All subjects: language arts, science and history and geography |
| Grades | Levels Pre-K to 5, roughly the matching grades | Level 0 (kindergarten) to Level 12 (12th grade) |
| Method | Literature-based | Literature-based, Charlotte Mason |
| Format | Books and workbooks | Books and workbooks |
| Faith label | Secular | Secular |
| Cost a year | $47. Level 3 (Innovation & Inquiry) PDF download with 36 weeks of lesson plans, prep pages, book lists, literature discussion guides, a vocabulary journal and a year-long project: $47. Books and art supplies are extra, and math is not included. | $39.95. Level 3 (The Early Modern World) lesson plans, a 302-page PDF with a 36-week schedule, reading list, narration cards, activity pages and science lessons: $39.95. The books are bought or borrowed separately, and math is not included. |
| Placement | Level placement quiz ↗ | Level, grade and age chart ↗ |
| Parent time | Not stated by the publisher | Not stated by the publisher |
| It fits | A family that wants literature, history and science planned around read-aloud books and discussion, at a low price. | A family that wants a book-centered year planned for them at low cost, with time to read aloud together. |
| It doesn't fit | A family that wants math and reading included, printed books, or schoolbooks a child reads alone. | A family that wants math included, printed teacher guides, or a box that arrives with every book. |
Torchlight
Torchlight is an eclectic, literature-based curriculum sold as one downloadable PDF per level, from Pre-K to Level 5, with levels that roughly match grades. A level such as Level 3 is a 36-week daily and weekly plan for literature, poetry, vocabulary, history, science and arts, with discussion guides for each book, writing tied to the reading and a year-long project. You buy or borrow the books and add your own math and reading programs.
Does well: A full year's plan costs $47 as a PDF, and you may print it for your own family.
Watch for: Math and reading instruction are not included after Pre-K, so you add your own programs.
Build Your Library
Build Your Library is a literature-based curriculum with Charlotte Mason methods, sold as one PDF of lesson plans per level from kindergarten to 12th grade. Each level follows a history theme, and the plans give a daily and weekly schedule for 36 weeks with a reading list, narration cards, copywork, vocabulary, poetry memorization, timeline figures, mapwork, science lessons and art projects. You buy or borrow the books yourself, add your own math, and may want separate spelling and grammar programs.
Does well: A full year of lesson plans costs $39.95, so most of the spending goes to books, which you can also borrow from a library.
Watch for: Math is not included, and you may need separate spelling and grammar programs.
Lists with both
- Homeschool all-in-one curricula 22
- Secular homeschool curricula 30
- Literature-based homeschool curricula 12
- Homeschool curricula for pre-K and kindergarten 48
- Print homeschool curricula 44
- Homeschool curricula under $100 a year 17
- Secular homeschool all-in-one curricula 8
- Secular literature-based homeschool curricula 6
How we label
Every fact on a card was read on the publisher's own website on the date shown, and the page it came from is linked. A fact we could not confirm there is left out. Costs are for one child and one year of the main package, as the publisher's page showed them that day; prices and sales change. Method and format are the publisher's own description where it gives one. The only thing we say about religion is one label, secular or faith-based, given by the rule above; where the publisher's pages don't settle it, the card has no label.
Something wrong or out of date? Send a correction; publishers can send corrections, never money. Every program compared