My wife and I have talked about homeschooling our daughter. She is finishing kindergarten now. Currently goes to a private Christian school that we do like and is doing extremely well.
At first my wife was against it cause she thought she wouldn’t be able to do it and all of the typical negative thinking for it. Now she is really wanting to do it and is researching all different homeschool curriculums. My question is in regards to curriculums. Is there an actual beat curriculum? Is it a pick and choose from different ones? Is it a “don’t worry too much about curriculum” and more if a self pacing? I’ve just seen so many things about different approaches.
So if any out there that have homeschooled or are currently doing so could just give different pointers or tips for a family that is wanting to do it, I would greatly appreciate it.
Congrats to your family! We have been homeschooling for almost 20 years now, have graduated 4 and have several more to go. There really is no best curriculum. The longer we’ve done this, the more we just pick and choose what looks like it will be the best fit for each child at that particular point in his/her development. We have some favorites that we’ve used with most of them, and other materials that were better for one or another.
This is a huge topic we could discuss for hours over a pot of coffee, but in the early years especially, resist the temptation to try to do TOO MUCH. Focus on reading (Logic of English has GREAT resources for really understanding why English behaves as it does), writing neatly, spelling correctly (as it comes up in reading/writing), and basic math facts/functions. Beyond these foundational learning tools, just enjoy experiencing life together and involve her in the things you are doing yourself or topics you are learning about (age-adjusted appropriately as needed).
One of the (many) biggest problems with the whole “school” paradigm is that children and teens are intentionally kept separated from real life, real experiences, and real relationships with a wide range of ages/backgrounds of people. It’s a totally artificial environment that does not exist “in the wild” of life. Academic studies should be a TOOL for engaging life, but they are not life itself.
I hope that helps, and may God bless you all on your new journey!
Look into the Homeschool Legal Defense Association hslda.org for curriculum ideas as well as legal protection for their members. They know the laws in each state.
We adapted our curriculum to each child. One was a voracious reader who wanted American Lit in high school to be SciFi stories, so we found a list of American SciFi authors going back about 100 years and chose stories she had not read before. Our other child hated reading. I found an old set of books called something like Stories Children Love at a library book sale. They were from somewhere around 1920 and were compiled by a teacher. Paying attention to what stories did interest him, we then chose books that featured those interests and expanded into other areas later.
Have fun with homeschooling!!!
No experience there myself, but check here, and Godspeed!
https://gab.com/search/groups?q=homeschool
Ron Paul has a homeschool curriculum that is Liberty based.
Yep, I have several friends who homeschool and use Ron Paul, they swear by it.
Homeschooled my grandkids using the Albeka Christian program and it is awesome.
This is why I love this community!! Thank you all for all of the input.
The more jaded I get about the school system the more I question curriculums at all. My wife might disagree but teach them to read and then support their passions and build their skills. I know the state probably has requirements but you know better than the state does, thats one of the reasons youre homeschooling in the first place.
I personally did an eclectic pick and choose from different aspects of education. I had a wonderful phonics program because reading is essential to learning in every area of study. I also liked Saxon Math because it was so complete...so I can't speak to comprehensive programs but I know that many people I know did some of the Christian programs and their children did well also.
There are some great books on learning styles that might interest you. I had a daughter that did not read until she was 10. This could only happen if you home school. She entered public school in the 6th grade, was a straight A student and went on to earn a Master's degree. When she started reading...she caught up to her grade level in no time...although she always had to work harder than my other kids.
One thing to consider is that we all spend a lifetime learning and so the greatest tools you can give your children is the desire to learn and then the tools to learn (reading skills and vocabulary). After that...there is NOTHING that cannot be learned. While I think the formal part of education is important, I believe that the spiritual and character aspects are equally important. We always read copiously.
The love of learning is the greatest gift you can give your children....but I will say...it is so important to get in a support group and have plenty of other home school families that you are in touch with...we always had lots of church friends and home school friends...so it seemed perfectly normal to "be different"...
God bless your decision to home school...I believe it is God's desire that children be educated by their parents...so that the children carry on the beliefs and values that the parents hold dear...God bless you and yours....
Check this out!
Hillsdale College K-12 at Home
We are in our 3rd year homeschooling...we started kindergarten at the start of school mask mandates/covid so we were somewhat forced into it.
I was very apprehensive of it and I did not like our kindergarten year or the program suggested by homeschooling family members.
For 1st grade (and still mask mandates) I researched for hours and hours all the different schools, we decided on bjupress. (Bob Jones university) It set us up with a full christian curriculum. Video lessons, textbooks and workbooks. (they have other options too) I personally needed the structure provided.
Maybe as I get better at this stuff I will venture off Into using multiple sources for different subjects. I did have to spend a few hours watching veteran bju moms on YouTube for ideas on organizing everything. Hope this helps.
Definitely join HSLDA
Look into the Sonlight curriculum. We've graduated 3 on that program. Lots (LOTS!) of books and reading, but they link everything. For example, if your kids are doing Ancient Egypt in history, they'll be reading books about (and fiction set in) Ancient Egypt. Their spelling words will be Ancient Egypt related, and their science unit will be something like "the ecosystem of the Nile river". When everything is interrelated like that, it's very reinforcing and your kids seem to learn faster.
This curriculum does not include math, so you'll need to choose a math to go along with it (we use Teaching Textbooks).
Keep in mind that the public school system is designed to be a baby sitter while the parents are away at work. Do NOT get caught up in spending 6 or 8 hours per day on school work. You can literally get done with the school work in 2-3 hours, and your kids will be learning more than their public school peers.
Homeschooling allows you to customize your curriculum to support your children's' interests. My 15 year old loves art and music, so she has a couple hours each day to compose her own music and draw her own comic strips. My 13 year old is into computers and coding and is learning how to write his own iPhone apps. Allow your children to pursue their interests and watch how excited they'll be to do school each day.
Do not turn your nose up at "unschooling". For some kids, that is the best way for them to learn.
Best of luck to you! You are helping ensure your kids will be productive, critically thinking members of society.
I started with a curriculum but soon realized we could cover a LOT more material (and more quickly) than they did in the schools. So I started picking and choosing usually something sorta standard plus then a really cool supplement for each subject. It does NOT take 7 hours a day to homeschool your child. Probably 1-2 hours at your daughter's age. 2-3 by middle school. and they're more self-directed in high school. And we did LOTS of field trips with our homeschooling group.
there are a lot of great resources out there. Also homeschoolbuyers co-op.
We supplemented the kids socially with groups and teams.
They both had full tuition scholarships to college.
When I first started homeschooling 22 years ago, I was overwhelmed with all the curriculum choices and wanted to make sure I didn't miss any subjects. We used Sonlight Curriculum pre-k thru 3rd grade, because I liked the detailed teacher's guides. (I found great prices on used sets on ebay or individual books on Amazon and filled in missing books, science kits, and disposable workbooks from Sonlight's website.) After a few years of homeschooling and understanding individual learning styles, I became comfortable enough to piece together subjects from different sources and write my own teacher guides by determining how many pages or lessons needed to be completed each day or week to finish that school year. It's important to be flexible, and not feel like you need to follow gov't school calendars or school times. If it takes 2 hours to figure out math that day, and only 10 min of spelling, then so what. Or you have an appointment on Tues and want to make up missed lessons on Sat, so what. You have the freedom to do what works for you. I like materials from christianbook.com, homesciencetools.com, timberdoodle.com. Years ago, we had a house fire and lost everything. We temporarily used allinonehomeschool.com website for free while living in a hotel, then camper for several months with 5 kids.
In your area, I am sure there are homeschool coop's or other organizations. Each state's laws vary, so it is best to find someone locally. For the most part when our kids were at elementary level, it was mostly do things with them such as natural history museums. Also find a phonics reading program and get them reading. It is usually pretty easy till you get to Junior High School, at which point we did partially us teaching them and we farmed out to the coop the subjects we were not good at. Keep in mind that normal school is mostly busy work, homeschool is mostly independent study. It is a completely different mind set, you do not, I repeat, do not need to keep them busy from 8AM to 3PM like the school does. Most of the time they only studied a few hours every other day and they came out great. They can think for themselves.
I would say a fantastic grasp of the English language, and an even better grasp of the constitution serve as a great foundation for everything else.
Why not check out Hillsdale College? They have curriculums for all grade levels.
Congratulations! You are making a fantastic decision that will revolutionize your family!
I highly recommend educating classically, and if neither of you were educated in that manner, then you're in for an amazing ride as you discover how God designed our brains to work. We have graduated two this way and have four more to go.
We use Classical Conversations. They offer parent trainings (even if you don't use their curriculum), and my kiddos love meeting up with their peers one day a week. Families are supportive of each other, and everyone agrees on the same statement of faith.
There are other options for classical education, too, and I've known people who curate a curriculum on their own. Whatever you decide to do, I recommend you read Dorothy Sayer's 1948ish essay, The Lost Tools of Learning (Dorothy was one of the Inklings and wrote some fun mysteries, as well). You can download it for free just by searching.
Find out what your state requirements are. I second joining HSLDA--it's money well spent. We also are members of our local honeschool organization, which keeps us update on local offerings and resources.
I think we only bought the whole offering from one source one or two years. The rest of the time was more a-la-cart. This worked well for us. All three of them are now grown, working, successful and they aren't afraid of math!
There are some book-and-pencil type curriculums from Abeka that my family used growing up. There was also digital courses called Switched-on Schoolhouse offering curriculum up through high school level. I'm sure there's a lot out there these days