Curriculum Homeschooling
January 28th, 2006 | 
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Question: What is the best Homeschooling curriculum in your opinion and why?
I am going to be Homeschooling my 7 year old daughter in the fall and am overwhelmed by the choices of curriculum. What is the best and most kid friendly?
Answer: I would recommend starting with the Elijah Company's resource guide -- it isn't only a catalog it has great synopsies of Homeschooling method's and their main strength's and weaknesses. http://www.homeschoolmarketplace.com/ - once you see which method fits your family the best/you are drawn to the most (and don't freak if it's NOT the traditional school at home one!) then it's much easier to weed out curriculum choices.
For instance if you are school at home you will appreciate ABEKA, ALpha Omega, Bob Jones, etc. If you are not they will drive you insane!
Charlotte Mason fans will appreciate - Cindy Rushton, Karen Andreola, and others (http://www.amblesideonline.com is a free website based on her works by the way)
You get the picture...........
K12/Virtual Acadamies by the way are traditional school at home as they truly are just the ps giving you curriculum. What's wrong with this picture? Yes they do work for some but they also allow the ps a toehold in your home - and can be overwhelming.
Personally I don't beleive 7yo/1st Grade/2nd Grade require a canned curriculum. You can pick and choose just fine. Lots of reading aloud, nature study, play time, perhaps musical instruction and the basics of math, reading and writing are more than sufficent for this age. You can cover science, history, geography, etc just with life- a little creativity.You can also find great unit studies on the web for free easily for this age and utilitze your public library. One link is: http://www.thehomeschoolmom.com/schoolroom/unitstudies.php - just search for unit studies or free unit studies.
http://www.timberdoodle.com also has great recommendations and they are cheap and fast. I would start there after the Elijah Company site.
Many homeschoolers start out with traditional and switch soon or use a mixture of materials.
You can do it!!!
ps--- you will also find that there may be several "sacred cows" in the hsing community. Ignore these if they don't work for you and move on. For instance - we tried Saxon for several years and finally ditched it last year. It just doesn't work for us! There are lots of other math curriculums out there. The biggest thing is to use what you have.
You might also check out http://www.homeschooloasis.com for articles on educating Mom - knowing what you beleive about education and school will help you make better choices.
How to Homeschool Your Child : Choosing a Home school Curriculum: Part 1
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