Choosing and using a homeschool curriculum can be more daunting than the actual decision to homeschool your child. Finding the right curriculum for you family’s needs and your individual children is absolutely necessary. Talking about it is easy… but actually getting there is the hard part.
There are a few questions that you can ask yourself to help you discover the perfect curriculum:
Over the past two years, we’ve been sharing a wealth of information about homeschooling here at MomSCHOOL. I appreciate the comments that you have made and hope that I have
been able to answer your questions! I like to think of all of you as my online friends. So, just between friends… I’d like to introduce you to my family.
My husband of twenty years and I have six children. We started homeschooling in 2004, and just recently graduated our oldest daughter. Homeschooling is probably the most rewarding task I have taken on… but it is also the most challenging! I am a veteran school teacher of 14 years, I also have 3 college degrees… all that to say that homeschooling is still challenging even for the educated parent. Again, though challenging it is vastly rewarding! I encourage you, even if you haven’t gone to college or even finished high school you can homeschool. If you are intimidated, there are great resources out there that do all the hard work for you. Many of them are video based or online homeschool programs, but each of them make it a simple task to homeschool your child.
We have six children ages 17, 15, 12, 12, 8, and 6. Needless to say our house is always busy, always crazy, and we are always headed to the grocery store! I retired from teaching when w
e made the decision to homeschool all of our children. It was a good decision, and though I still tutor and teach college courses… we never looked back! My husband works for a local charter school and is a great supporter and encourager of our homeschool endeavors!
When we started out, we used an “out of the box” curriculum called ABEKA. We simply ordered the entire thing for the grades we needed. We did this simply because this was the curriculum I was used to as a teacher and what I had used when I was in school. This is an awesome curriculum, and one that is very challenging. However, not every child does well with this curriculum, and it isn’t the easiest to use for a large family. Those first two years were pretty insane. I was trying to homeschool at 5 different levels as well as care for a toddler. It wasn’t working to say the least! I finally stumbled across a few options that were great for large families. One of the best was Vocabulary and Spelling City. This online program allowed me to put each of my different students in their own account with their own individual assignments that would be automatically tracked by the program. This one resource saved me hours each week!
The second homeschooling resource that I fell in love with was Apologia. I began using this curriculum (one book) for all of my elementary level students, and an individual book for my highschool student. It worked great. I could augment the curriculum with additional assignments for the older students while requiring a lap book for the younger ones. All of this with only one well written science text geared specifically for homeschoolers! It was getting better and better!
I have used a variety of curriculum over the years, some written for homeschool and some not. We typically have a blended schedule each year, finding the best curriculum to meet the varying needs of each of my children. In fact, I might use Saxon for one of my children in 5th grade and then use Singapore Math for another child when they reach 5th grade. I try to monitor their likes and dislikes, passions and interests, and then fire them up with homeschool curriculum that targets those strengths.
I have to say that with each new year, I learn more about my children and homeschooling. I hope that if you are “on the fence” about homeschooling… our blog may help you see what a great blessing it is!
Everyone has struggles now and again… even the best of homeschoolers. So, don’t let it get you down if your kids have a few learning gaps. I know when I find out my children have a few weak areas it really gets me down. There isn’t any one else to point your finger at and say – Why? There is only yourself and your thoughts of “What could I have done different?” I have been there many times, but I realized that it happens. The question is, now that we know there are some issues… what are we going to do about it?
Summer is the perfect time to bridge those gaps in your child’s learning. If you found that they have weak areas as a result of a standardized test, then most of your work is already done for you. You simply need to take the test and find the sub sets where your child scored low. You can focus on those particular areas during the summer to try to strengthen the areas that were troublesome.
I like to do this with my own children each summer. Yet, I personally also like to have the summer as a time for me to recoup and refresh myself. If I can’t recover and refill my mother’s heart I will be of no use. I seriously use the summer to do that. That doesn’t mean that my kids get off scott free with no schooling. Ohhh… no way! I have tried to find ways that they can still get the remedial work they need without it stressing me out or requiring much thought on my part. I love to use online summer programs that fit the areas that were troublesome especially homeschool science. I set it up on each of their computers that the favorites bar on their browser has all the link to the summer review programs that I want them to use. This allows them to individually access these websites without asking me for help. Granted, they don’t do school everyday, but they do it whenever they are bored or it is raining! I look at it as automated summer homeschooling!
What do you do to help your kiddos bridge their gaps during the summer?
I don’t know if you are anything like me, but as a homeschooling mom of six… there are times that I just need a bit of refreshment. Schoolwork becomes overwhelming, housework becomes tedious, and patience runs thin… it is then that I know I need to get my “cup filled” back up. How can I continue to give to my children and my family when my cup is empty. Frankly, it’s nearly impossible. That’s where these carnival of homeschooling editions come in. There have been so many times that I have felt exhausted and my homeschool motivation level way past E… that I’ve opened up one of these Homeschool Carnival blog posts and have found refreshment and encouragement in so many areas of my life. It is my hope and goal to return the favor for each of you this week. I hope that somewhere in the posts of this blog carnival you will find the refreshment, motivation, inspiration, or just plain old laughter that will help you get through the next few months of school! It really is so great when the homeschool community helps each other…
So, sit back, relax… and get your cup filled today…
Sometimes refreshing can come in different forms. There are times when I can read a fellow homeschool mom’s blog post and immediately I can see that I am not alone in this daily struggle to make sure my children go forward and not backward. At other times, just hearing about a new curriculum can give me hope that it might possibly be the one that will help us turn the corner! In any case, I hope that these posts inspire you with a breath of fresh air…
Laura Grace Weldon gives us a new perspective on Respecting a Child’s Urge to Discover in her blog post about encouraging our children to discover on their own.
Dewey’s Tree House reminds us of some great time tested homeschooling “tools” in Tools of an Old Homeschool Mom: “Key to” Math and more.
Remember, You Are Not Alone! is a great post by the Read Aloud Dad… he encourages us to keep up the “good work” of reading to our children daily!
Here’s something that was fresh for me… Dorothy Sayers and the Lost Tools of Learning by Petticoat Government present a different perspective on how to compare the study of math and science at home to this book.
Sometimes we can see the “big picture” when we look at the pros and cons of something… The Drawbacks of Homeschooling is presented this week by Letters from Nebby.
How we teach affects how our children learn… The Thinking Mother encourages us to …Stop Telling Students, “Said is Dead.”
New Curriculum ideas are another great way to add some freshness to your homeschool. Just because it’s spring doesn’t mean you can’t start something new! In fact, that may be “just what the doctor ordered.”
Online Education for Kids submits a post delineating all the homeschool greats… in their post The Super Heroes of Elementary Homeschool Curriculum.
A great way to get a fresh perspective is to get outside! Gardening – Project Based Learning You Can Eat! is a great blog post by the Time4Learning Community Blog to encourage you to do just that!
I love to look at making plans for next year and Homeschool vs. Public School encourages us to do so with their post Homeschool Plans for Next Year by giving us a glimpse of unschooling.
DenSchool provides much needed inspiration in her post about a March Homeschooler of the Month. You can read about this achievement and learn how to submit an entry for another Homeschooler of the Month award!
Fill Your Bookshelf has a great idea for a new unit study, read her post John James Audubon unit study and see if your family might like to try this!
Sometimes refreshment just has to come through taking a look at things that are bigger than ourselves and even our homeschool. Sometimes it just takes a word from a friend… I often realize that my struggles are very small in light of what so many others have to face. Getting a look at the “bigger pictures” often cures our frustration with the little things!
Proclaiming God’s Faithfulness really makes it plain on how we can “finish the race” well in their post, Don’t Be Blue; Strategies for Fighting the Winter Blues.
Katherine over at No Fighting No Biting helps us take a look at why we have an epidemic of underachieving boys and men who don’t want to grow up through her post Underachieving Boys.
Nerd Family Things presents a great post called 10 Math Card Games. It gives us 10 math card games to try with our kids.
I love a recipe for new things… In fact, craft recipes are such fun I know that whenever I pull one of those out – my kids are usually thrilled!
Homemade Goodness sends us a post about Two Easy Homemade Glue Recipes that would work great for your next craft session with the kids… or if the wiggles get really bad… you could even use it to glue them to their chairs.
Sometimes we have to respond to negativity… Alasandra does this over at her blog Alasandra’s Homeschool Blog.
I’m so glad that you stopped by, and I hope that this week’s Carnival of Homeschooling “filled your cup” and refreshed you today!
Next week the carnival of homeschooling will be hosted by Home Grown Mommy.
If you want to find out more about the Carnival of Homeschooling you can visit the link, submit a post, or even host – if you are brave enough!
Hi everyone… please take a minute to check out this week’s carnival of homeschooling over at Small World!
We have an article included this week too!
I know homeschooling isn’t the easiest job I’ve ever done. Though it is very rewarding, it requires so much of me… personally, physically, emotionally, etc. Sometimes, I need to just step back and review what I’m doing and how my life is going. If I don’t… well, let’s just say I feel like I’m holding my breath!
Here are a few things that I do on a regular basis to keep myself sane, and to keep the stress at bay… (You can find more along these lines at Time4Learning)
1) Make time for the important things in your life… your family, God, your spouse. Don’t just mark off a time slot in your busy schedule, slow down, take a walk, play a game, do something completely relaxing and enjoyable and TALK with those your love! Seriously… take time to smell the roses! Don’t just rush through your day, live in every moment.
2) Don’t allow the small pesky things that will tend to keep us crazy busy… to build up. Say “no” to things that aren’t all that important… (just don’t forget to return the 40 library items that you checked out last month… or you might have a $30 bill!)
3) Adjust your educational goals if they are just not doable for the time being… (You won’t believe how freeing this can be. If you have set goals and are not able to make them, an automatic level of stress accompanies this. Formally change your goals. Write it down if you need to. You won’t believe how big of a difference it makes!) Make a no stress plan for your life.
4) Take a moment to just enjoy life… take a warm bath… sip a cup of cappuccino… light some candles…paint your toenails a wild shade of purple…take a bike ride and enjoy that sunset… do something completely relaxing! Enjoy the blessing of life!
Homeschooling is awesome, just sayin’ – but sometimes it isn’t easy to make sure that you are covering everything that your child needs. I have to admit that I have had a rude awakening in the last year and a half. Once my daughter hit 11th grade it was serious crunch time for college. We were just coasting along – doing a good job – but still not really thinking about details of what we would need once we hit college years. So, here we are and needless to say we are finding out alot of great information. I’d like to share some of what I’ve been learning, but I think I’ll start with English. Here is a sample of what you should be teaching your highschooler for Language Arts.
Vocabulary and Spelling
100 Most often misspelled words
Grammar
English Grammar and Mechanics Free
Writing Basics
Guide to Grammar and Writing Free
Indepth and overview study of literature
Overview – texts from BJU press or ABEKA work great
Grammar
texts or workbooks from major homeschool publishers work well!
Essentials of Good Writing Course
Comparing and contrasting - helps students understand how to write this type of essay
Spelling and Vocabulary
Literature study and Literature Analysis
Classic literature study guides
Classic pieces of literature online
Oral presentation
Grammar
Vocabulary
Spelling City – use this to enter your lists and it will help you drill
Writing – Essay and Research – poetry writing
Voices and Visions (poetry unit)
English Literature
Old English Literature
Middle English Literature (Medieval to Restoration Period)
Research paper
How to write a research paper
Grammar
Grammar quizzes -great for CLEP prep
Vocabulary
Spelling City
American Literature
Writing and Research
Public speaking
Here’s a sampling of final exams for the different grades.
You may want to consider a serious SAT test prep class in the Junior year.
I love the freshness that a new year brings! I love the feeling that I have a clean page… and can start anew. In review of what we had done in our homeschool last year I felt that we were really lacking in the area of creative writing. I felt that my kids needed a greater challenge this spring, and that is exactly what I hope to do. So, today I’m just gonna take a minute to share my plans for integrating a better fostering of creative writing.
Here are a few of my New Year’s plans for writing at our house…
1) Write more frequently. Like any skill, it only gets better with practice.
2) Use creative writing prompts like these.
3) Purchase special paper – colorful, bordered, or make your own… to make your child’s writing experience a little more exciting. You can print your own here.
4) Do pre reading activities. Read a story, or talk about something that interests them, and then have them tell you what they think orally. For older kids, have them go write it down.
5) Sign your children up for an online writing course. You can take a couple minutes to watch a tutorial of what is taught on Time4Writing. This is a good solid way to give your kids foundational writing skills.
6) Give your older elementary children the essential essay writing format. Review it frequently and write at least one essay per week. I started doing this just a little when mine were in fifth grade. This year, they are sixth graders and we are trying to incorporate essay writing frequently into our daily schedule. I’ve also just
purchased “Don’t forget to Write.” We are hoping that this will boost our resolution to write more and better this year.
7) Every good writer must be a reader! Encourage your children to read, read, read!
Just want to give a Happy New Year shout out to all my MomSCHOOL friends… thanks for being a part and for all your great encouragement!
Secondly, the Carnival of Homeschooling post is up over at Why Homeschool… if you have a minute pop over. There is always so many great articles to encourage homeschooling parents!
My dear friend Kerry from Let’s Homeschool High School has just posted a very thought provoking article, take a look…
In the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, social networks are lit up like pinball machines with comments, questions, and ponderings from parents about whether they should just pull their children out of school to homeschool them. While I completely understand the reaction, I want to share my thoughts on why I think choosing to homeschool should be more than a reactionary response to specific current events.
1. Quick choices based in fear make children feel unsafe
While we ALL feel less safe in light of the recent attack at Sandy Hook and previous attacks in other public places, the chances of us or our children being a victim of a mass shooting are still infinitesimally small. While the constant news media coverage makes us have strong empathy for the victims, the downside is that we feel, perhaps unreasonably, that the same school we have felt comfortable sending children to day after day is suddenly unsafe. By making a quick decision to homeschool a child based on this feeling of fear, we are likely confirming to the child that the world is a generally unsafe place instead of putting the tragedy into perspective and realizing that while these incidents are beyond heartbreaking, they are still quite rare. If you feel uneasy about sending your child back to school, it would be better not to voice that fear to your children directly, but instead, to take some time and do your research about homeschooling, and then make the decision after the initial fear has passed.
2. Homeschooling requires real time and commitment
Maybe you feel as though homeschooling is the best choice for your family in light of recent events – – and maybe it IS – – but be aware that it requires time, energy, and dedication that you may not be fully prepared for. 
Even if one of the parents in a family is already staying at home full time, he or she would probably be quite surprised by how much their day would radically change if homeschooling became part of the equation. No matter what style of homeschooling you use, or what curriculum you follow, parents who educate a child at home are deeply involved in their learning. They need to be available all through the day for teaching, support, guidance, and direction. I might even dare to add that homeschooling parents aren’t well known for having an abundance of “me-time”. Not that this should discourage anyone who is considering homeschooling, but it’s definitely a factor to think about before making a quick decision to pull a child from their current school situation.
3. Homeschooling is a lifestyle
And by that, I don’t mean the stereotypes that people have of homeschooling families such as they are all required to have eight children or that they are all precocious little adults-in-kids-bodies. What I mean is that becoming a homeschooler can have it’s own form of “culture shock.” While you might envision pulling your child from school and schooling them at home as merely an EDUCATIONAL choice, the truth is that you are making a choice that will affect most every aspect of your child’s life – – their self-image, their friends, their hobbies, their priorities, their outlook toward society and their place in it. ALL of those things will be markedly different once they move from the realm of the “schooled” to the “homeschooled.” These changes are often quite welcome for parents who have slowly and thoughtfully made a decision to teach their child at home, but for parents who pull a child from school quickly, these changes can feel sudden and not necessarily easy to adjust to.
My positive experiences with homeschooling have made me one of the strongest proponents of it anywhere, and I feel disingenuous by ever discouraging someone from bringing a child home to learn. But, with fourteen years of homeschooling experience under my belt, it feels only fair to at least advise parents to really put a LOT of thought into the decision and to be aware of all the factors involved before committing to something as life-changing (for good or bad) as becoming a homeschooling family. My best wishes of peace, sound judgment, and surety for all those of you who are pondering this choice today.
Kerry Jones is a freelance writer and online marketing consultant in North Carolina. She has two sons, one who recently graduated from homeschool, and has been secular homeschooling since 1999. You can also visit her website to read more of her articles about homeschooling in the digital age.
