‘Tis the season to inquire about homeschool curriculum and as I’ve been reading along in these discussions, it occurred to me that we have our own cliques in homeschooling circles. “What curriculum do you use?” seems the quickest way to size someone up and file her away neatly with others like her.
But I write my own. I don’t know what that says about me, or where I fit in. Maybe that’s just it. I don’t particularly like to “fit in.” Sure, I like to be accepted, but I like to be me. And that me isn’t content with following other people’s lesson plans. Nor the dollars attached to the lessons I invariably end up feeling somehow beholden to.
Over the years, I have come across a few resources that I find helpful. And this year, I am very excited about a few discoveries, two of which are available free online, a nice perk for those who like books old enough to be out of print. So, in celebration of turning in my paperwork to the state FIVE WHOLE DAYS EARLY (a first in this household), a list of the resources I use in planning. And a general outline of our year to come.
1. Bible.
I use the Bible to plan this. I have the Judah Bible Curriculum and have listened to one tape. I like the idea of it, but just haven’t gotten through it myself. Our main theme for the year is “God is sovereign.” We started out using the KJV only (not because we think or thought it was the only inspired word of God) and I liked the idea of it, but it just wasn’t going well. The kids connect much better with the NASB and I do think that we will be doing all right even if our children don’t graduate speaking Elizabethan English.
2. History.
We’ll be studying ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. I am only part way through the planning phases of this, but I am really hoping we can make a trip to see the King Tut exhibit at the Goss Opera House and Gallery. I love teaching history and have no textbook. Instead, we read whole books and look at primary source documents wherever possible. I’m struggling a bit with ancient Egypt because it isn’t a topic I know that much about. I am, however, looking forward to what discoveries I make alongside the children.
3. Handwriting.
I hate handwriting. I hated it in school and I hate teaching it. Evidence may be seen in my handwriting and the handwriting of my daughter. But this year I came across something that has gotten me excited about teaching handwriting and has gotten my daughter excited as well. I will never feel guilty about never getting around to all that copywork everyone seems to think is vital to a decent education again. It’s called The Palmer Method to Business Writing and is available for free. I like its emphasis on free and easy muscle movement rather than exact replication of printed letters.
4. Mathematics.
Mathematics is the one subject I do not plan myself. We have done Singapore Math which I loved and my daughter hated, Math U See which she sort of liked and I didn’t and this year I decided to give Ray’s Arithmetic a try. Mostly because it is free, and if I’m going to be dissatisfied, it may as well be with something that I didn’t pay for. Back up plan is Right Start.
5. Science.
I love teaching science. This year, our focus I believe is on the properties of water. At least that is what we’re beginning with as we tackle how to tame the River Nile and the connections between irrigation and the Great Pyramids. I have several binders from Facts on File which I use to build a science curriculum around. To me, science is all about reason. Most of it is hands on, observing, studying and experimenting.
6. Grammar & Composition.
After years of searching, I finally found the kind of resource I was looking for. Rather than a series of texts taking us from beginning to more advanced skills, it is a single resource that can be used and referred back to for years to come: Warriner’s English Composition and Grammar. I also really like Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary of American English. I can get lost in a good dictionary, and this one qualifies.
And all that will begin sometime after we finish The Hobbit. See, when I started my planning, I just got too excited and decided the August 1 start date was arbitrarily set. So we dove in and my children are now mad at me when the informality of summer gets in the way of a “school” day.
What resources do you find most helpful?
while we do use an eclectic mix of cirriculums – I’ve found the lessons done outside of that are the lessons the kids remember. We do our own history. I wish I was more comfortable with my knowledge (or lack thereof) in science to do that on our own, but instead we’re doing Sonlight this year. have a great school year!
LOL My kids hated Singapore Maths as well. It’s been about one school year since we started, and they are coming around. They still miss the colourful Horizons workbooks.
I hope you are able to make that Tut exhibit. That is a chance of a lifetime! :]
Oh, I fail the “what curriculum do you use” all the time. “The what do you use” questions takes about 10 minutes to answer and I always feel compelled to explain that we we use Saxon Math because my girls love math and it really works for us, but I’m not sure we’ll use it for the boys. We’ll have to see.
I follow no one set philosophy religiously enough, no one set of curriculum. I use Saxon Math, so that definitely gets me looks from the more unschooly types. (I love them though. Won’t they let me eat lunch at their table?) We’re joining a hard core Charlotte Mason co-op this fall and I’m definitely not hard core. I’m my own weird clique. Just like high school.
April, I follow my own philosophy pretty religiously. My own brand of Danafied Principled Approach. Somehow, no one else has written the text on that.
I resist calling myself “eclectic” because I’m not, really. That always seems to me a bit of this and a bit of that, “whatever works.” Which isn’t really what I’m doing. I know very specifically what I want, but what I want is usually nonexistent or out of print.
I spent several months searching out the bible I wanted for the kids and it cost $1000 because it was a collector’s item. Not in our homeschool budget!
The only subject area I don’t do that is the only subject area I’ve found myself switching continuously…mathematics. And that comes from not having confidence.
I would totally buy the “Danafied Principled Approach.” I say eclectic because I take that to mean a wide range of curriculum. I know what I want out of it, but it sure looks random to everyone else.
Math has actually been the easiest choice for us, because my girls responded so well to my first choice–Saxon. Of course, I’m more, um, flexible with my use of Saxon than is probably acceptable in Saxon circles. But they aren’t the boss of me, so there!
What Bible cost $1000? Wow.
It was illustrated with beautiful pictures. This isn’t what I was looking at way back then, but this one is over $5ooo!
And it says to scroll up, but you need to scroll down for the photos.
Using the Bible to teach the Bible seems like a novel idea (I’m teasing).
We (by we I mean mostly my wife) use a mish mash. For Math though we’ve been really happy with Math U See. This is great for kids who are active learners, as well as, who need visual aides.
I know this wasn’t your point, but this post got me thinking about why I use so much purchased curriculum. I think it’s partly because I’m lazy. Or maybe I just like having a starting point. I am less tied to curriculum now, but I wonder if I really embraced the whole research thing if school would be more interesting for all of us. Hmm…
I am going to use that handwriting book though. Bug did fine with printing, but cursive has been a struggle. Thanks for sharing it!
I’m becoming more budget conscious this year, so I only bought LA and math – I’m using things I already have for history and science, and a free blog site for art/art history.
I wish I were confident enough to write my own like you! I had been scouring Ebay for a particular publisher’s LA resources that used to be available from two places, but now it seem that has been whittled down to one place – the publisher. They charge an arm and a leg for shipping, too. I had been stuck on the fact that the kids enjoyed this particular publisher and their LA is regarded as a good traditional curriculum. However, I became so frustrated with the expense that I ordered Primary Language Lessons and Intermediate Language Lessons. I know I could have gotten the original Intermediate Language Lessons for free on Google books, but by the time we pay for the ink and paper to print it all out, it would probably be about the same price as I paid for the actual book on Amazon(shipping was free). Anyway, I got out for about 1/3 of the price of the previous curriculum. I was quite pleased with myself, actually.
I use Saxon Math for my 6th grade daughter and Abeka math for my 3rd grade daughter. Different needs.
Have you ever looked at The Book of Life series? The illustrations aren’t as nice as the one you linked to, but it does have nice black and white photographs and drawings.
The second volume (in my set) has a wonderful history of the Jewish people. It helps to put all the Bible stories into context. I learned as much as my then 8 or 9-year-old. I look forward do that study again with my girls.
Hmm. I’m assuming it isn’t the one by Stephen Jay Gould that is coming up on my search. I’ll have to search a little more, methinks.
And Mia, budget conscious is good! It isn’t that hard to write your own curriculum, but then I used to be a teacher so I guess I had a little headstart just in feeling competent to do it.
I like to know what others use because I am always looking for interesting resources and learning ideas.
I’m with you, though. We use the Dixon plan of curriculum. We did already experience the full curriculum path, though, and we all like this path much better.
Thanks for sharing. I REALLY love the FREE links! And, I think you can learn as much from comments as posts a lot of times.
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I have been working on what we’ll be using, trying to use what I already have on my bookshelves.
Renae, that series sounds interesting.
Hope you all have a super year of learning!!
That’s a pretty Bible. Although the “CLEARANCE! EVERYTHING MUST GO!” is a bit dischordant. (Auto spell really makes me doubt my learnin’.)
You’re right. It’s not that one. Here is The Book of Life on Amazon. The middle volumes are the entire Bible interspersed with relevant information and pictures. The Bible Educator volume has lots of good information, too. Distracted reading it now…
I found this set referenced in the Noah Plan stuff. I think they used it to help create their lesson plans.
I always hate that question at homeschool gatherings — or when you find out your orthodontist homeschools — because everyone expects you to say something neat and tidy like, “Abeka” or “Sonlight.” They don’t have time for the eclectic list of materials I like to use and “a little of this, a little of that” sounds so unorganized, even though I know it’s not.
To April from the unschooler table — we love you too but we’re not there! (who needs lunchrooms, we tend to graze)
I bought the closest thing to curriculum we buy from the Teaching Company last week, some history dvds Young Son chose just because he increasingly thinks of himself as a future history professor and he’s enamoured with the United Kingdom. But just today, as I was dropping him off for summer Shakespeare camp (he’s Richard II in a production this weekend) I heard a radio interview with the author of “Dangerous Games: the Uses and Abuses of History” so I went straight to Border’s for it (with my 20% home education discount of course.)
While I was there, I got him a season of the Smothers Brothers on dvd for exactly the same reason: the power of history and how we clash over how to tell it.
Sigh – it is Richard the THIRD.
One other thought — Favorite Daughter is a writer now, double majoring in English and religious studies. When she took her first college English class, she’d never had a minute’s formal instruction in any reading, writing, grammar, composition, spelling or vocabulary. Her professor absolutely LOVED her, picked her out after the very first paper as the freshest and most authentically able writer in the class (she was 15.)
Writing to her is almost like performing (which she also loves) except without the stage. My only point is that she became his favorite student and his student tutoring assistant, because he saw writing for the love of it as so rare compared to “schooled” writing these days. And also because she naturally loves it, she wasn’t doing it for a grade or for credit and had never learned to think of it as work. Professors love that! So there can be valuable academically demonstrable college prep-applicable learning in NOT using a curriculum, too. Just something to think about if you find you’d rather read and watch movies with your kids than school them in the power of story. . .
I was always the favored writer in my college classes, though I went through the public schools. I’d say most of what I learned was in spite of formal schooling, but sometimes when you truly love something, it can’t be beaten out of you.
We’re not very structured which is probably why I don’t like any of the packaged curriculum. I like resources to refer to and things we may use again. Mostly I like sitting down with my daughter and just starting the planning process and seeing where it goes.
Me too, Dana, on all counts.
WOw! How refreshing to read about so many other families who create their own curriculum! Even my fellow homeschoolers look at me like I have a horn growing in the middle of my forehead when I tell them I don’t buy a boxed set, or take part in any of the organized programs offered here.
While I understand state standards are merely a guideline for the public school system, and while we have no plans to enroll our children in that system, life has its surprises. If, for some reason, our situation changed drastically and the girls headed to “regular school,” we would want them to be at least up on the standards in some fashion.
That said, before each school year I review our state’s standards (available online), make a list for each of our daughters in each of the subject areas, then go forward from there planning our year. (In K-3 we were able to get through the state’s minimums in the first month or two, then move on and expand on subjects in which the girls had more interest.)
When my oldest was in “kindergarten” she was obsessed with princesses. Don’t ask me how…she’d never seen a princess movie, though she had begun reading and found plenty of material at the local library. Anyhow, I decided to expand upon that and based our curriculum for WEEKS on modern royalty. We studied the existing royal families, their countries and cultures, geography, history and even foods. (Cooking IS math and language arts in our house.) I did something similar with our youngest last year. Her focus is equine.
For early math, the girls and I all enjoyed the Reader Rabbit workbooks, which, sadly, Riverdeep seems to have let go by the wayside in favor of math software.
I don’t know what we’ll use this year, but it’s all basic math and early algebra, some geometry, so I may go back to what we did in K-1: create our own problems and challenges, using everyday life examples where possible.
I introduced English for the Thoughtful Child last year. I liked this method which so veered form anything we’ve used in the past. When we wrap up the books we have, I may move ahead with this system.
Thanks for reminding me that it’s THAT TIME OF YEAR again. Time to begin our planning, I suppose.
I still like the word eclectic- “selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles”.
Even after all this time, when someone asks me the curriculum question, I pause for about 3 seconds trying to decide how to answer- “Do they REALLY want to know?” I also use the term ‘relaxed’ to describe our educational attitude. I can imagine that it seems arrogant to some that I would pick and choose and write my own curriculum when there are ‘professional educators’ out there with a veritable alphabet soup of degrees behind their names, earning the big bucks, working for the major publishers… but I’ve never been comfortable substituting someone else’s judgment for my own.
Math is the only subject for which I use a curriculum on a consistent basis, but last year I created a sort of consumer math course for my younger kids. I’m following it up this year with Dave Ramsey’s Foundations in Personal Finance, and my 12 yob is using Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1. I’ve never used TT before, but I hear good things about it.
We do about 6 weeks of grammar at the beginning and end of every ’school year’- an overview that increases in complexity and depth each year is IMO all that is necessary (to pass the yearly CAT), in addition to a well-rounded TBR pile. I’ve always liked the Italics method of penmanship- it’s nice and neat and lends itself to an easy transition into cursive, which I do not require them to learn, but they always seem interested in it, so there ya’ go.
We also use biographies, original documents, DVD movies and documentaries for history. I like blending history and science by following the path of technology through the ages, and this really fascinates the kids. It’s amazing how some little ol’ math equation or invention changes the whole of society- from fashions to vocabulary.
For Bible studies we use the KJV, and this year I’m supplementing with charts and outlines from Dr. Peter Ruckman and Dispensational Truth by Clarence Larkin. Right now we are reading Do Hard Things by Alex and Brett Harris together. My oldest at home is 12- but why wait until the horse is out of the corral?
We are getting back in the groove Aug. 3 after a short, weird, hectic summer, and I am tickled pink to have my routine in place again. I’m such a stick-in-the-mud about having my own little schedule.
Btw I just saw something in the Chronicle of Higher Education that we parents can school ourselves with, as we in turn plan what to teach the kids as “Bible studies” — it makes the case there are important, academically defined discipline differences between “theology” and “religious studies” in comprehensive college prep.
(I never thought much about this but Favorite Daughter is running into these differences directly now, with her “religious studies” major.)
I am home schooling for the first time starting in Jan. Your list of resources is so helpful!
I write ours too (and with the whole ‘less is more’ philosophy). I love it! I have built a huge library over the years that keeps my kids browsing our bookshelves for something to learn/read about and that is my idea of a fantastic education! ( ;
Have you ever seen the Scholastic Grammar Guide and the other little grammar helper books in this series? Love these! The kids research their own mistakes with these and look up their own questions as well. I am trying to get a good children’s math dictionary to use in the same way – I am leaning towards Usborne for this – do you have one?
My oldest will be using Ray’s this year too – we have always used Rightstart, but with 4 now doing math – I just don’t have the time – and she does not seem to need my hand holding anymore anyways – so I am going to hand her the Rays and have her find where she is and go – we’ll see how it goes! ( :