Cirriculum question

[steffk]

How do you find what cirriculum that is right for your child/children? I look online and there are SO many different kinds. How do you know how to narrow it down?

What do you use and why?

Thank you so much for any help you can offer!

Health, wealth and happiness!

[CammiB]

I agree that it can get overwhelming when you start going through all the different cirriculums. One thing that might help you narrow your options is by setting some goals for your homeschool (are you looking for alot of structure, do you like the idea of unschooling, how many hours a day, what are you trying to accomplish, etc.)

We use My Father's World. We like their progressive History that also integrates with their Bible History and their Science, Art, and Music. They have suggestions for English and Math, but we have pulled from other sources, like the Robinson cirriculum and from Sonlight.

[craftydelisa]

Also think about if you want a fully religous or a secular curriculum. Do you want to have books and workbooks or everything on CD? I use Learning 2000 right now because it is all on CD. All of my kids can use it and it gives us flexabilty to pursue what ever the kids are interested at the moment.

[mybrokengnome]

I know from when I was homeschooled for most of our science books we used the Apologia series. It was written by a professor and geared towards homeschoolers. I know a lot of people who use writeathome.net for help with their writing and English. Check out Live & Learn Press - Every home is a school, what do you teach? for some good homeschool resources too. If you have any questions feel free to ask.

How old are your kids? When I was homeschooled I took an online programming class one year, but its no longer available. I'm thinking of starting my own programming class online for homeschoolers, would this be of any interest to anyone on this board?

[steffk]

Thanks for the responses so far! I will keep looking into all of them. My kids are 6 and almost 10.

[shyronn]

I use Alpha Omega's Switched on Schoolhouse and both my 11 year old daughter and I love it!!

Hope that helps!

[mrshannigan]

I'm not a fan of pre-packaged curriculum. Kids are so much smarter than any boxed kit can accommodate. We used to use The Well Trained Mind and now we're more Thomas-Jefferson-method unschoolers. Life is BUSY and learning is SO MUCH FUN, even for my teenager.

[AlisonMSmith]

steffk, in all honesty I think this is the #1 hardest thing about homeschooling, because it takes thought, time, effort, slogging through a gazillion things, and really figuring out what your educational philosophy is.

IMO, if you don't do that last thing, you will never optimize your homeschooling experience. It's hard, but it's worth it. And it's completely independent of what others do or think.

For starters, when I speak at conventions I always suggest that homeschoolers define specifically what they think it means to be "well-educated." Then figure out how to gear your actions toward that result. You might be really surprised where that takes you!

As for methodology, I have researched most of them and find them to be fundamentally flawed. For example, reproducing a very school-like setting at home is unnecessarily rigid and structured for a family. The Moore method ("better late than early") has useful info, but isn't relevant across the board as some underlying foundation because it simply doesn't fit all kids. Unschooling isn't based on a logical evaluation of how children (or people in general) learn, grow, and progress. Thomas Jefferson Education (TJEd) is based on nonsensical positions and, fwiw, isn't remotely what Thomas Jefferson actually did. (The most cogent presentation of it's myriad problems in one place is probably the blog Why I Don't Do TJEd.)

The method I like most, in the most general, etherial way, is Well-Trained Mind, but still find it way over the top in it's specificity, almost gruelingly overbearing for young kids, and much too confined to book work.

I use what I call Principle-Centered Home Education (based on an article I wrote in the early 90's), which is underlying principles that can be used for every child, not a specific set of actions that only works with some.

Hopefully some of those ideas help you get started.