Hello, I am currently exploring options to start my kids in homeschooling. I am looking for a good christian based curriculum, and while my wife and I have found a few, I figured it wouldnt hurt to ask on here as well. Any tips/recommendations are welcome, thanks frens! And my kids are still young, so besides the current private pre school my oldest is in, they've never been to school.
You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.
Comments (63)
sorted by:
Remember that every kid is different, meaning that brains create their connections at different times, pace, completeness, complexity etc... we have family on both sides who did four kids each and wound up with self-created curricula customized for each. Common collections of great readers were there, but math and science evolved for each child (Life of Fred, Saxon, Singapore...). But at the very beginning, not much more than workbooks and games, with lots of read alouds, were more than sufficient.
We've used Abeka, Sonlight/Bookshark, Charlotte Mason, looked at Classical Conversations and video courses, but enjoy the freedom of light schedules and opportunities to just play hooky on a nice day. Also bring able to take off-season vacations, when it's way cheaper. We're using Biblioplan right now, because you can do multiple levels of kids simultaneously, and it presents history holistically instead of countries in isolation. You can use any books from any other curriculum together with it- they've mapped the chapters on many major curricula. Apologia and Berean books have great creation science, and we're checking out Answers in Genesis as well, but we intersperse food science, CSI/forensics, and whatever young minds come up with, because we can.
Duolingo is a free and fun app for language studies, our whole family got into it and this year we bought the family plan (on sale). One is doing French, a couple Spanish, and they even have Latin. Start them young, so their brains get the sounds right from the start.
Join local groups for Mom Night Out, field trips, future sports, and to get to know the nearest families.
Join HSLDA if you can to keep protected and up to date with legislation and other actions going on basically and in your state. Use their free resources and information, regardless.
Cathy Duffy reviews of curricula are thorough and very useful, search filters are accurate and helpful.
Don't neglect art, art appreciation, music and music appreciation... Check out what local museums/ historical /science etc have to offer, especially if an annual membership gets you benefits like free entry at other associated places. We buy one membership at a state museum and get half off or free entry at a bunch of others. Check out what your libraries do, for free, also.
Even (cringe) Facebook has a lot of groups and info, but, like us, create a flat account that has nothing personal nor revealing. It's useful to keep track of local family events, get local specials (support local shops!)