This is an exciting time of year for me. Yes, it's spring and the garden is calling me to till and plant and track mud through the house. It's almost Easter Sunday when I stuff baskets with treats for my children and watch them hunt through the yard (or inside if the weather is lousy). I love the warmer weather and the promise of a summer of camping and playgrounds. But what I really enjoy is choosing our curriculum and books for next year. As a former school teacher, I was never able to do this because the curriculum was chosen for me. But now? Oh, the possibilities are endless!
And those endless possibilities open up worlds of research as to what curriculum is best for my family. It's like buying a new appliance for the house - you do research, you study the comments on the website, you ask friends and people what they recommend. And after all that, you combine everything you've learned with what you know about your family and lifestyle, and you make a decision. Homeschooling curriculum are no different.
First, look at your family. Do you have several children at various levels? Or are you homeschooling one child? How is your day organized? Do you have time to sit down and teach math everyday, or should you invest in the CD-ROM or DVD programs for math? If Reading and writing are your strongest subjects, you can purchase the lesser expensive programs and supplement with what you know and love. If your child struggles in Science, or you struggle to remember to teach science, spend a little more on a program that does most of the work for you.
Secondly, consider purchasing all your curriculum from one place. That may sound obvious, but for the first few years I homeschooled, I used a variety of resources from no less than six different companies/organizations. I did this because I was given a kindergarten and first grade Sonlight curriculum, which was rich is reading, writing, grammar and bible studies, but didn't include (in that particular folder) science, math. I used Miquon for math (great format, but be prepared to be flexible as the directions are always clear and the Annotations book isn't always helpful). I was introduced to the Apologia Science books and love them! They are written for Christian homeschoolers and there is virtually no preparation necessary - just open and learn right along with your children.
Now that my daughters are older, I was interested in a specific accredited curriculum with Internet support and high school diplomas. I chose Seton Homestudy. It's a Catholic curriculum and meets all my needs. The website is easy to use and my girls can ask questions online, send in work to be graded and even check their lesson plans on line for what to do each day.
There are dozens of wonderful hoomeschooling curriculums out there - My Father's World and Sonlight are just two that I'm somewhat familiar with, but the list goes on. Just step into a homeschool conference to see all that available - that is a great place to start.
And third, I have a recommendation. If you do choose a homeschool curriculum that sends you all the lesson plans and books, that's great! It's worth a little extra money to have all that planned out. It's important to remember to break away from that day-to-day schedule every now and then. I don't mean taking a fall, winter, and spring break, but dropping the normal schedule for a day or two and doing something fun and educational. Tour three museums. There are art museums, children's museums, science museums, public museums, historical museums and so on. Ask a local business for a tour. Take all your school work to the library and work in a different setting (it's amazing how fun this is - it's so simple!). Watch a different educational DVD each afternoon for a week. Go see a play. Go camping at a State Park that has interpreter programs. Each day for a week, explore a different park and make a display of what each park offers. Look into the caching or letterboxing programs online (using GPS to find hidden boxes). Join a homeschooling group and benefit from the variety of opportunities available. Host a week-long Vacation Bible School at your house for the neighbor kids if there isn't something available in your neighborhood (great for those who live in the country).
See, so many possibilities, so little time, so little money required!
I'm off again to peruse the new Seton Homestudy catalogue and plan out 2011-2012 for four weeklong educational explorations.
Happy Learning!
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