Come, Follow Me

Come, Follow Me is the official home-centered, church-supported gospel study curriculum of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is not a homeschool curriculum in the conventional sense, it is a scripture and gospel-study program used by LDS families alongside academic coursework.

Last updated: 2026-10-03 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Literature-based (scripture-based), discussion-driven, home-centered
Worldview	LDS (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)
Grades	PreK-12 (family study scales across ages)
Formats	Print manual, digital via the Gospel Library app
Cost tier	Free
Parent intensity	3 (family study requires active parent facilitation)
ESA-common	No (religious scripture study; typically outside ESA-eligible categories)
Accredited	No (religious curriculum, not a school)
Established	Announced June 29, 2018; Sunday School and Primary resources began in January 2019
Website	churchofjesuschrist.org

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	3	Designed for gospel study rather than academic measurement; scripture coverage is systematic
Ease of teaching	4	Manual supplies weekly pondering questions, activities, and scripture blocks ready for family study
Content quality	4	Produced by the LDS Church's curriculum department with consistent editorial standards
Flexibility	4	Rotating four-year scripture cycle; families scale depth to children's ages and availability
Value for money	5	Print manuals are distributed free through wards; digital access is free on the Gospel Library app
Worldview scope	1	Specifically LDS; not intended for cross-worldview use
Visual/design	4	Clean, modern layout; rich imagery in digital versions
Support resources	5	Gospel Library app, podcasts, companion children's books, and weekly auxiliary lessons integrated across the church's program

Who the publisher is

Come, Follow Me is published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly referred to as the LDS Church, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Church's July 2018 Ensign report states that the First Presidency announced Come, Follow Me—For Individuals and Families in a letter dated June 29, 2018, that the Sunday School and Primary resources were to begin in January 2019, and that the resources take a home-centered, Church-supported approach. The institutional context is important: this is not a commercial publisher competing for market share, but the official curriculum produced by a worldwide religious body with approximately 17.9 million members as of December 31, 2025, according to the Church's statistical report.

The curriculum is developed by the Church itself, and the Church's Come, Follow Me page describes the manual as the study guide the Church provides for the current year. The content is written by the Church and, according to Wikipedia, is available in about 72 languages. The Church's July 2018 Ensign report states that local units automatically received one printed copy of Come, Follow Me—For Individuals and Families for each household at no charge, and digital versions are available in the free Gospel Library app. In our assessment, the editorial consistency across the curriculum's many components is high because production is centralized.

Come, Follow Me is explicitly the curriculum of the LDS Church. It presumes Latter-day Saint doctrine, uses the LDS Standard Works (the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price), and teaches scripture through the interpretive framework of the Restoration. It is not designed for cross-tradition use and would require extensive substitution by families outside the LDS tradition.

The core pedagogy

Come, Follow Me is built on a four-year rotating scripture cycle, which the Ensign report described as a rotation based on the four main books of scripture. In 2022 the curriculum studied the Old Testament; 2023, the New Testament; 2024, the Book of Mormon; 2025, the Doctrine and Covenants and Church history; 2026 returns to the Old Testament. The cycle repeats on a four-year loop.

Each week of the year covers a defined scripture block, typically three to ten chapters, with the expectation that families read the block together, discuss the pondering questions printed in the manual, and apply the principles across the week. The weekly structure is integrated across the full Church program: adults and teens study the same block in Sunday School, children study age-adjusted versions of the same block in Primary, and families close the loop at home. In our assessment, this integration is the defining pedagogical choice. Unlike curricula where home study and church study are parallel tracks, Come, Follow Me treats the home as the primary site of gospel learning and the ward as the reinforcing community.

Signature mechanics: (1) Home-centered, church-supported framing. The weekly rhythm places parents as primary teachers and the congregation as a support network rather than the reverse. (2) Age-scaled family study. A single weekly section supplies discussion questions, activities, and scripture blocks at multiple cognitive levels, so a family studying Genesis 1-2 can engage younger and older children in the same conversation with different prompts. (3) Gospel Library integration. The free Gospel Library app bundles the manual, the scriptures, conference talks, videos, and audio recordings into a single study environment; family members of any age can follow along digitally. (4) Companion children's resources. A separate Old Testament Stories children's book is distributed free for ages three through eleven, and illustrated weekly activity pages scaffold early-reader engagement.

What they do exceptionally well

Integration across home, church, and generations. In our assessment, the strongest design feature is that Come, Follow Me assumes an ecosystem rather than a standalone family-study product. When a child attends Primary on Sunday, the songs, the lesson, and the Sharing Time all reference the same scripture block the family studied at home.

Age-scalable family study. The manual supplies prompts at multiple levels of depth for each week's scripture block, and the companion children's book handles the youngest learners. A family with children of different ages can genuinely study together without requiring a separate track per child.

Free distribution at global scale. The manuals are printed and shipped by the Church at no cost to families, and the digital version in Gospel Library is free worldwide. A Latter-day Saint family in any country with LDS congregational presence has equal access to the curriculum.

The Gospel Library app as a study environment. The Gospel Library app bundles the manual, the scriptures (with footnotes and cross-references), archived General Conference addresses, videos, and notes into a single searchable environment. Families using the digital version can highlight, annotate, and share passages across family devices. The app is polished, fast, and available on iOS, Android, and the web.

What they do poorly

Not a standalone homeschool curriculum. Come, Follow Me is not a full-school religious curriculum comparable to, say, Abeka's Bible track or a Catholic Home School program's religion track. Come, Follow Me is a scripture and gospel study program. It does not include worldview-integrated reading, math, science, history, or language arts.

The four-year cycle means uneven coverage per age. Depth increases with maturity, but families who want a grade-by-grade systematic theology or doctrinal sequence (the kind a Lutheran or Catholic catechesis program provides) will find the cyclical scripture-block design less systematic. The curriculum is catechetical by implication rather than by explicit doctrine-block sequencing.

Pacing assumptions favor a Sunday-anchored family. The curriculum's weekly rhythm assumes families attend their ward's meetings on Sunday, hear the same scripture block taught in Primary or Sunday School, and use the home study as reinforcement. Families who cannot attend ward meetings regularly, due to distance, schedule conflicts, or other constraints, lose a meaningful portion of the curriculum's reinforcement structure. Home-only use works, but loses the ecosystem effect.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Come, Follow Me if: you are a Latter-day Saint family seeking the Church's official home-study curriculum; you want a curriculum integrated with your ward's weekly teaching; you are studying scripture as a family across multiple ages simultaneously; you value free distribution and digital app access; you want a religious-formation spine to run alongside academic homeschool coursework.

• Skip Come, Follow Me if: you are not a member of the LDS Church (the curriculum presumes LDS doctrinal framing and the LDS Standard Works); you want a full academic curriculum (Come, Follow Me is scripture study, not school); you want a grade-graded systematic doctrinal sequence (the four-year cycle is not age-graded); you want a curriculum developed outside the LDS institutional publishing context.

Cost honest assessment

Come, Follow Me is free. Print manuals are distributed through LDS wards at no cost to families, and digital versions are available free on the Gospel Library app as of April 2026. The companion Old Testament Stories children's book is distributed free to ages three through eleven. Families wanting additional copies of the manual beyond what their ward distributes can order at cost from the Church's distribution services.

Compared to alternatives, Come, Follow Me is at the free end. Grapevine Studies sells its Bible studies individually, by grade and by topic, and AmblesideOnline describes itself as a free homeschool curriculum with Bible readings scheduled across Years 1-12. Notgrass History's From Adam to Us is a paid one-year world history course for grades 5-8 that its publisher describes as taught through a Biblical worldview.

The all-in cost for an LDS homeschool family using Come, Follow Me as their religious spine is effectively zero, with optional spending on supplemental materials (scripture journals, children's activity books, illustrated Bibles) that families choose based on preference rather than necessity.

ESA eligibility notes

Religious scripture study programs are generally outside the eligible categories of most state ESA marketplaces, which typically fund core academic curriculum rather than religious formation. Because Come, Follow Me is free, ESA eligibility is not a practical concern, there is no invoice to submit. Families in states with broader ESA definitions (Arizona, Florida, Utah) who want to count gospel-study time toward enrichment hours should verify with their state program administrator. Because the LDS Church distributes the curriculum free through congregational channels, there is no vendor-reimbursement workflow to engage with.

Alternatives

• Seminary & Institute Manuals, an LDS family with high-school aged youth would pair or substitute Come, Follow Me with the Church's Seminary and Institute curricula, which provide more systematic scripture-study progression for teens and young adults.
• Grapevine Studies, a family outside the LDS tradition would not choose Come, Follow Me at all; in our assessment, Grapevine's stick-figure Bible studies are an alternative for a family that wants a chronological Bible study in which, per the publisher, the Master Teacher book guides all levels simultaneously and doctrine is left to the parent or teacher.
• AmblesideOnline Bible readings. AmblesideOnline's free Charlotte Mason curriculum schedules Bible readings across Years 1-12, which a non-LDS family could use as a cost-free home-study scripture rhythm.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed the Come, Follow Me manual pages, the Gospel Library app, the Church's statistical report, the 2018 announcement of the home-centered program, and the companion Old Testament Stories children's materials. All materials and access details verified April 2026.