(I never thought much about this but Favorite Daughter is running into these differences directly now, with her “religious studies” major.)

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.

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.

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.

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 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.