Walk Beside Me Learning

Walk Beside Me Learning is an LDS gospel-based homeschool curriculum that integrates world history, language arts, and scripture into a four-year chronological rotation for grades 1-8. It is designed explicitly for Latter-day Saint families and does not market itself outside that audience.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Literature-based / unit-studies / chronological history
Worldview	LDS (Latter-day Saint; gospel-integrated)
Grades	1-8 (Volumes 1-8)
Formats	Print workbooks, digital PDFs, video component via Teach Me Grandpa!
Cost tier	Standard
Parent intensity	4
ESA-common	No
Accredited	No
Established	1998 as LIFE School
Website	walkbesidemelearning.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	3	Strong narrative history and language arts; math and science are external
Ease of teaching	3	Parent-heavy; scripted enough for confidence but not hands-off
Content quality	4	Cohesive chronological narrative from pre-earth life forward; well-edited
Flexibility	2	Designed to be used whole; mixing is awkward
Value for money	4	Reasonable per-grade cost for an integrated spine
Worldview scope	1	Specifically LDS; publisher states this explicitly
Visual/design	3	Clean, readable; not premium production
Support resources	4	Active author community, YouTube channel, Covenant Path Academy option

Who the publisher is

Walk Beside Me Learning is the current name of a curriculum formerly published as LIFE School. It is run from Manti, Utah, by Patti Landes Adams together with a small team of LDS homeschool educators. The program was first released in 1998 as a response to what Adams and her collaborators identified as the absence of an explicitly gospel-based integrated homeschool curriculum for Latter-day Saint families, one that presented world history as continuous with scripture from the pre-earth life through the present day.

The publisher is unambiguous about its audience. Its published FAQ and the opening pages of Volume 1 state that the curriculum is written for Latter-day Saint families and is not intended as a general Christian or ecumenical program; families from other traditions who adopt it will encounter doctrinal frames, the Book of Mormon as scripture, the Plan of Salvation, modern LDS prophets, treated as foundational rather than peripheral. Per Every Homeschool's classification rules and the publisher's own self-description, the program carries an LDS worldview classification rather than any christian-* label.

Walk Beside Me Learning is supported by two adjacent projects. The first is Covenant Path Academy, a subscription-access online learning track that layers video lessons and assessments onto the print materials. The second is Teach Me Grandpa!, a free YouTube channel hosted by Adams's husband that produces short history and scripture videos aligned to the curriculum's chronological rotation. A portion of sales is donated to the LDS Church's General Missionary Fund; this is stated publicly by the publisher. The operation is small by homeschool publisher standards, measured in thousands of families rather than tens of thousands, but it is among the best-known LDS-specific integrated curricula alongside Latter-day Family Resources and The Red Headed Hostess scripture study tracks.

The core pedagogy

Walk Beside Me Learning is organized as an eight-volume chronological sequence that covers grades 1-8. Each volume corresponds to one academic year, and the full set cycles through world history twice: Volumes 1-4 cover pre-earth life through the early Christian era at an elementary reading level; Volumes 5-8 cycle through the same chronological arc again at a middle-school reading level, this time integrating deeper scripture study and reading the Book of Mormon alongside the Bible and secular world history. The repetition is deliberate: LDS families will use the same chronological framework in church seminary and institute classes later, and the curriculum is designed to scaffold that eventual encounter.

Within each volume, a typical week covers four to five subjects together: history (narrative readings from the publisher's history storybooks, often drawn from public-domain sources like H.A. Guerber and the Baldwin Project alongside LDS-specific texts), language arts (reading, handwriting practice, and short writing assignments drawn from the same source material), scripture study (daily reading from the Bible, Book of Mormon, or Pearl of Great Price depending on the chronological position), and fine arts (hymn study, art appreciation, and handicraft rotations). Math and science are not included in the curriculum; the publisher expects families to pair Walk Beside Me Learning with an external math spine (Saxon, Math-U-See, or similar) and a separate science component.

Signature mechanics: (1) Chronological integration of scripture and world history. The organizing claim is that the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and secular world history describe the same continuous sequence of events, and the curriculum treats them as one narrative arc. This is distinctive among homeschool history curricula and is the single strongest reason LDS families choose the program. (2) Two passes through the same chronology at different reading levels. Students see the same historical material twice, once in elementary and once in middle school, which mirrors the LDS seminary model of returning to scripture at progressively deeper levels. (3) Handwriting and spelling drawn from the history content. The language-arts work is not a separate workbook, copywork, dictation, and composition assignments all use passages from the current history reading, which keeps the week's content integrated. (4) Covenant Path Academy supplement. Families who want an online video component can subscribe to Covenant Path Academy, which provides pre-recorded lessons keyed to the print curriculum; the base curriculum does not require this subscription.

A day in the life

A fifth-grader using Volume 5 starts at 8:30 AM with scripture study, twenty minutes of reading from the Book of Mormon section assigned for the week, with a short narration or written response in a scripture journal. The parent, working from the teacher guide, prompts discussion questions linking the reading to the historical period under study. Next comes history (forty-five minutes): the child reads the assigned chapter from the volume's narrative history text, works through two or three comprehension questions, and completes a copywork or dictation passage drawn from the reading. Handwriting practice runs another fifteen minutes.

After a break, language arts proper begins (thirty minutes): a short grammar or writing exercise built from the history passage, followed by silent reading from the current literature selection. Fine arts, hymn memorization, a brief art-study card, or handicraft time, rotates across the week, filling fifteen to twenty minutes on most days. Math and science sit outside the Walk Beside Me Learning block and are scheduled separately using the family's chosen external program.

Total instructional time for the curriculum proper runs two to two and a half hours per day; adding an external math block and a science rotation brings the full homeschool day to three and a half to four hours. The parent's presentation role is substantial, roughly half of each subject is read aloud, discussed, or demonstrated by the parent, which places the program firmly in the parent-intensive tier alongside Sonlight, Tapestry of Grace, and My Father's World, rather than the independent-student tier.

What they do exceptionally well

Integration of scripture and world history for LDS families. No other homeschool curriculum available in English integrates the Book of Mormon chronologically alongside the Bible and secular world history as thoroughly as Walk Beside Me Learning does. Families who want their children to see scripture and history as continuous rather than compartmentalized find this framework difficult to replicate with ecumenical Christian curricula like Mystery of History or Sonlight, both of which treat the Bible as scripture but do not include LDS distinctives.

Use of public-domain classical texts. The curriculum draws heavily on the same nineteenth-century history and literature texts that underlie Ambleside Online and the Yesterday's Classics catalog. H.A. Guerber's history series, Charles Morris's historical tales, James Baldwin's readers. This gives the curriculum a Charlotte Mason flavor that many LDS homeschool families explicitly want: rich, narrative-driven prose rather than textbook summaries.

Supporting free video content. The Teach Me Grandpa! YouTube channel produces short history videos aligned to the curriculum's chronology and releases them for free. For families whose children learn better by watching than by reading, this is a meaningful scaffolding layer that the publisher does not charge for, which is rare in homeschool publishing.

Publisher transparency about audience. Walk Beside Me Learning states in its own marketing materials that the program is for Latter-day Saint families. It does not market itself as non-denominationally Christian, which is unusual in the LDS-adjacent curriculum space and which saves non-LDS families the experience of buying the program and then discovering theological frames they did not expect. This editorial honesty deserves recognition on its own terms.

What they do poorly

No math or science. Families adopting Walk Beside Me Learning must pair it with external math and science spines. The curriculum is not a complete homeschool program on its own; the publisher is clear about this, but families comparing total cost against all-inclusive curricula like Abeka or Sonlight should budget for two additional subject areas.

Audience-specific by design. Families who are not Latter-day Saint will find the curriculum's doctrinal frames, the pre-earth life, the Book of Mormon as scripture, the Plan of Salvation narrative, integrated throughout rather than bracketed. This is not a weakness in the program's terms, and the publisher is explicit about it; it is a weakness only in the narrow sense that the program's total addressable audience is a single tradition rather than the broader homeschool market.

Limited independent-student design at middle-school level. Volumes 5-8 are marketed as middle-school content, but the parent's presentation load does not drop significantly between Volume 4 and Volume 5. Students working through eighth grade still depend on the parent for discussion, dictation, and assessment. Families who hoped the program would support a more independent upper-grades student should plan to supplement with Covenant Path Academy's video component or accept that the program is parent-led throughout.

Physical availability and ordering friction. The publisher is small, sales are seasonal, and some volumes regularly go out of stock during the spring curriculum-shopping season. Families should order early (January-March for the following school year) and confirm stock before building the rest of the year's plan around the volumes.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Walk Beside Me Learning if: your family is Latter-day Saint and wants a scripture-integrated chronological history and language-arts spine; you value the Charlotte Mason / literature-based aesthetic; you already use an external math and science program and want a single curriculum for history, scripture, and English; you appreciate the two-pass chronological structure that mirrors LDS seminary.

• Skip Walk Beside Me Learning if: your family is not LDS (the doctrinal frames are integrated, not optional); you want a complete K-8 curriculum that includes math and science; your student needs a more independent upper-grades workload; you prefer a textbook-based history approach over narrative and literature readings; you need ESA-friendly materials in states that restrict religious curricula.

Cost honest assessment

Walk Beside Me Learning sells its volumes directly from the publisher's website. As of April 2026, a single volume (one academic year of history, language arts, and scripture study materials) runs roughly $180-$250 depending on whether the family selects print or digital and whether the companion readers are bundled. A family using Volumes 1 through 8 continuously across eight academic years will therefore spend roughly $1,500-$2,000 on the curriculum spine, before adding the external math and science programs.

Covenant Path Academy video access is a separate subscription that runs roughly $20-$40 per month per family. This is optional; the base curriculum functions without it. Compared to Sonlight (approximately $800-$1,100 per grade level for its core integrated program, which also requires an external math spine) and to My Father's World (approximately $400-$650 per grade level), Walk Beside Me Learning sits at the lower end of the integrated-curriculum price range. All-in annual cost for one elementary student. Walk Beside Me Learning plus Saxon Math and a basic science program, runs approximately $450-$700.

ESA eligibility notes

Walk Beside Me Learning is LDS-distinctive religious content and faces ESA eligibility challenges in states that restrict religious curricula. It is not currently listed on Arizona's ClassWallet ESA marketplace, Florida's MyScholarShop, or Utah Fits All as a first-party approved vendor, though families report mixed experiences with reimbursement when ordering directly and submitting invoices. Utah's ESA program, despite its majority-LDS state population, has not generally approved explicitly LDS religious curricula, consistent with its religious-neutral posture. Families interested in ESA coverage should verify with their state marketplace before ordering; Walk Beside Me Learning does not publish a dedicated ESA workflow and direct reimbursement is the typical path.

Alternatives

• Sonlight, a family would pick Sonlight over Walk Beside Me Learning because Sonlight's literature-based chronological history spans K-12 with a fuller scope including math and science references, and its Christian-ecumenical worldview is broadly accessible across Protestant and LDS families who want a less denominationally specific frame.
• The Good and the Beautiful, a family would pick The Good and the Beautiful over Walk Beside Me Learning because TGTB is also authored by an LDS founder and user base but markets itself as non-denominationally Christian, and covers math, science, and language arts as a more complete K-8 package.
• My Father's World, a family would pick My Father's World over Walk Beside Me Learning because MFW offers a complete K-8 integrated curriculum including math and science, at a similar parent-intensity level, with a Protestant-ecumenical Christian framing that LDS families can adopt selectively.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed the Walk Beside Me Learning website, the published scope and sample pages for Volumes 1 through 8, the Covenant Path Academy subscription page, and the Teach Me Grandpa! YouTube channel's alignment with the print curriculum. We cross-referenced the publisher's statements about LDS-specific audience against the product documentation and verified the LDS classification with the Every Homeschool editorial standards. Prices verified April 2026.