Marianna and I are just about to come to the end of our first "school year." Back in August I decided we would start a very loose, very flexible school schedule. She was four when we started, too young to officially be in Kindergarten, but she is a fantastic student and loves to learn so I didn't see any reason to wait. I ordered the Kindergarten curriculum from A Beka Books, and we began working through that at our own pace.
By Christmas, we had pretty much wrapped up all of the K-5 books, so I went ahead and ordered some of the first grade materials, and Marianna has been working her way through those this second semester, completing about 1/3 or her books. She has a passion for reading, a girl after my own heart, and a great love for science, a girl after her daddy's heart as well. We are just about to bring our psuedo school year to a close, but I am already beginning to gear up in earnest for our first real homeschooling year.
Now that is getting close to being official, I'm feeling the pressure of making sure I get her started on the right foot. I love to teach, but I know very little about what is out there and available as far as home school curriculums are concerned. I need to decide fairly soon, but before I order strictly A Beka again, I thought I would see if anyone had any insight into a good program for reading, history, science, math or Bible. I am all ears!
13 comments:
We haven't started homeschooling yet, as my oldest is 3.5, but we will be starting in about a year like you because she is so ready to learn already. I am going to try Horizon curriculum. It seems to be a little more exploration than ABeka in Math, which I like. But, both are great curriculums. I would look to see if there is a bookstore in your area that has things to look at. I know there is one Christian store in our town that has used curriculum, especially the parent books which don't change much from one edition to the next and give you a view into the actual curriculum.
I'm an often reader/lurker and rare commenter (on all blogs b/c i do it from my phone usually!) but thought i should share with you! check out prayerofhannah.blogspot.com. and search for school or homeschool. the authors all write lots about different curriculums and ideas.
We use Alpha Omega. It's a solid educational curriculum as well as biblically sound. We use Lifepacs. The first few years I did a lot of mismatching/piecing together on my own. I am so thankful that a friend shared Lifepac with me, as it's been everything our family was looking for.
I know quite a few friends use Abeka, but it wasn't for our family. We HATED, DETESTED the science of it, and all of our friends who use Abeka confirmed that it's their weakest subject and they all use Abologia Science.
We used a few things from SonLight and I have a few friends who use them and love them as well, which for readers is an excellent choice.
There's also Classical method of Charlotte Mason.
Go to www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com
The mom's name is Jolanthe and she has a fantastic blog about homeschooling her 4 kids! She would be a wonderful resource to use and shares all of her ideas and projects as well.
Best of luck!
I'm a reader/follower but rarely (if ever) have I commented, but I thought I should share this blog with you.
http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/
I have been following this blog for a few years now and while I am not in a position to homeschool this mom is amazing and I love getting ideas to supplement at home some of the things both my children do at school. She homeschools all three of her children 9y/o, 5y/o and does tot school with her 2y/o. I hope you find this blog helpful. Lost of great resources.
I have heard good things about Veritas. http://www.veritasclassicalschools.com
hiiiiiii angie! in my most recent post, i have awarded you with the versatile blogger award. accept if you wish :D :D
We have used Sonlight for several years but are switching to My Father's World for this coming year. I have a son who will be in 5th and a daughter who will be in K. But I agree with what Staci said. Jolanthe's site is great. I also love Confessions of a Homeschooler and Mama-Jenn. Another GREAT source is The Old Schoolhouse--if you will follow them on Facebook, you can get all kinds of insight because moms are always posting questions and then other homeschooling/FB moms will post their answers and opinions.
How about: Language Arts, Social Studies, Science, Art, Applied Math and Bible - All in one curriculum, that you could use (easily) with both of your girls, at the same time?!
Check out Five In A Row (FIAR) at http://www.fiarhq.com - The plan is to read an incredible children's book 5 days in a row, focusing on a different subject area each day.
I've used it with each of my girls, so I've been ROWing (off and on) since 1999!
Do you know about:
MHEA
http://www.memphishomeschool.org/
HomeschoolChristian
http://www.homeschoolchristian.com/
You are going to love the fun and freedom in homeschooling! If what you choose doesn't work, SOMEONE will want to buy your resources and you can try something else!
Hello. I am a very devoted reader but I hardly comment. However, I teach, so I wanted to tell you about some websites to use with her for schooling. There is starfall.com that will send you things for reading. You can also print off sheets from them. Spellingcity.com is a good one because you can put your list of spelling words in there, and they will give practice tests, real tests, and play games with you while you learn to spell. They also have handwriting sheets that you can print off. Very cool.
Studyisland.com is another good one. You log on and they teach you a lesson and then you answer questions. There are games as well. When you pass each section, you earn blue ribbons. At our school, when the school year comes to an end, they have an island party and you can only go if you have all blue ribbons.
Funbrain.com, brainpop.com and brainpopjr.com are all good ones as well. Brainpopjr and brainpop have videos you can watch and then quizzes you can take on the videos.
Mathfactcafe.com is a good source for learning math facts and playing math games. Poptropica.com is a site you get to from funbrain.com- It is not educational at all. Hope these help :)
We are not homeschooling next year, but I really liked our math-u-see curriculum this year. I was also considering spell to read to write for next year prior to deciding not to homeschool. Mystery of History and Hamm's science (can't remember name of it- but the creation museum guy) both interested me.
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I was also considering spell to read to write for next year prior to deciding not to homeschool. Mystery of History and Hamm's science (can't remember name of it- but the creation museum guy) both interested me Speed Test Internet Click here for Check Now
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