# picking curriculum and subjects



## Guest (May 12, 2010)

hi, 
we are getting ready to start homeschooling our 3 munchkins.. they will be 3rd, 2nd and K. 
i picked out a math curriculum and also spelling. but what do you use for phonics, and reading there are about a million, how do you choose? I feel like i am throwing blindly at a dart board. ... also how do you choose what subjects to teach... if i taught them everything i wanted to we would never get out of school. ?


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

Start with your state requirements, if you have any. We have a list of subjects we much teach.

First, how do you want to teach these? I find knowing the style I want to teach each subject narrows things down a bit. Do you want Christian, secular, etc...that also will narrow down your options.

After some trial and error we found textbooks worked best for us for Math and English/grammar/reading. We love Rod and Staff for these. My son would like everything to be textbook, but I just can't bring myself to do that. If I did we'd likely use all Rod and Staff.

I like hands on and unit study so we use those for history and science. We use KONOS as a guide for much of that. Science is a favorite here, so we double up by doing Apologia as well, often with lap booking and journals.

Fine arts - We get some art in our unit studies. Music my kids get at church by playing bells and singing in the choir.

PE - Swim classes at the Y, Wii in the winter, and outside: play, bike riding, hiking, canoeing whenever they weather allows.


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## Guest (May 12, 2010)

so that everyone knows the perspective we are coming at this from... the state of Wisconisn requires that i promise to teach the kids for 875 hours a year. no other requirements. and note i said promise, they are not allowed to check up on us. its almost too loosey goosey for my taste but better less rules than more.


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## Our Little Farm (Apr 26, 2010)

You may want to talk to a local homeschooling group or go to a homeschool convention in your area. That way you will get to see all of the curriculums available.

I would say that most homeschoolers switch curriculums at least once over the years, before they find what works well for their family.

.


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## halfpint (Jan 24, 2005)

Like you said, there are now tons to choose from, and it's best to talk with people that have used them considering your children's needs. If you have a child that learns things musically, then Sing, Spell, Read and write might be good. One who likes texts but is distracted by pictures may like either Teach your Child to read in 100 easy lessons or Rod & Staff. One who is helped by pictures might like Abeka or the many other texts out there. If you want to stay away from, or stick to a religious curriculum may affect your choices. I'm personally not a fan of science or history/social science curriculum for elementary ages. I tend toward the unit studies for these, and often incorporate writing assignments to what we are studying. For history we typically study from creation to current times in 6 years. Thus they go over each period of history twice, and in high school they double with doing American Government and Economics (AG&E) supplemented with Teen Pact, and we often study the art, music and technology of the period with our history. I move toward texts (Apologia) for science but still don't use a lot of history texts except for reference and the AG&E. I find my children seem to learn more by working on projects, so I try to have them do several a year. PE tends to vary with what they are interested in. 

We use the library for most of our science and history, and often the librarian will purchase things I'm looking for if I tell her ahead of time. I like 'living history' books - especially good biographies.

As far as what subject to teach, you need to cover what your state requires (if any). Most require math, science, social studies, PE, language arts (grammar, writing, spelling, reading) and some art and or music. In elementary grades probably a larger portion of their work is spent on math and language arts than other subjects.

When I started our home school convention would only have about 15 vendors, and was considered a fairly large one. Now they have several hundred vendors and it's overwhelming. If you go, take the beginning home schooling topics but avoid the ones run by vendors, and don't purchase until you've looked at everything and made a list up of what you want. If you can join a home school group, try to do that - some have libraries of curriculum and resources that you can check out or look at, which gives you more time to peruse them to help decide what to use.

Dawn


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

Well, to answer your question... I tend to opt for the "no bells and whistles" versions of reading instruction books... They are thorough, they do the job very well, and cost a fraction of the programs that come with bobbles, trinkets, and games... Then I supplement with really good actual BOOKS with rich text, beautiful pictures, and thought provoking themes. 

*The reading instruction books that I use are: *
*FIRST:* Teach your Child to Read in 100 easy lessons. - a good start, but not complete. 
*SECOND:* Ordinary parents Guide to teaching reading, starting at around lesson 40. It finishes the job. The early lessons though are insufferably boring for little boys in particular, so I use TTCTY instead. It at least has funny blackline drawings.

*READERS:* I use the Veritas Press readers from the phonics museum. (Warning: They are decidedly christian in their message and presentation). The pictures are rich and beautiful, the stories are (for the most part) historically based and interesting. 

*BEYOND THAT:* I use books by grade/reading level (which is normally not the same thing. Using this method, all my kids read above grade level) from the 1000 good books list here: http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html The books are listed by grade level. 

*TO CONTINUE TEACHING VOCABULARY* after the early years: We teach Latin starting in about 3rd to 5th grade depending on the child. MATIN LATIN works well and isn't horribly expensive. It teaches english grammar too. We also teach roots/suffixes/prefixes from other languages. You can use RUMMY ROOTS, or any of a number of workbooks for that. I believe Critical Thinking Press puts out a few. Also, if we come up against a spelling/phonetic rule we don't understand. (I.e. "Why is that spelled THAT way?"), we use the book "the ABC's and All Their Tricks" to find out why it works that way. Usually it is because a word came to us from French, German, or and older version of English. We have found that there usually is a good reason for the different spelling.  Unfortunately, that doesn't make us great spellers though, so you're on your own with that one. L! 

HTH, Cindyc. (who is not yelling - I keep forgetting that you can't delineate subject headings in all caps in cyber space like you can in other documents.)


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## Guest (May 12, 2010)

Cindyc. -my husband types in all caps all the time (the program he uses for work requires it and he doesnt switch to talk to me) so no problem. 

i have been looking at a number of books today and reviewing my materials from convention .. our convention didnt have a ton of vendors. Christian Liberty Academy. Rod and Staff and a bunch of science and math vendors. i was thinking about phonics pathways for my K, and rod and staff for the older ones... for reading and then books, we are planning unit studies for science, and social studies and decided to wait on language until we have our feet wet. we are going with Saxon Math because it has been recommended by a number of folks. i have been writing down titles as they are suggested. and then researching them onlne. we have a homeschool store in the next big town north and i hope to get there tomorrow.


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

idigpotatoes said:


> Cindyc. -my husband types in all caps all the time (the program he uses for work requires it and he doesnt switch to talk to me) so no problem.
> 
> i have been looking at a number of books today and reviewing my materials from convention .. our convention didnt have a ton of vendors. Christian Liberty Academy. Rod and Staff and a bunch of science and math vendors. i was thinking about phonics pathways for my K, and rod and staff for the older ones... for reading and then books, we are planning unit studies for science, and social studies and decided to wait on language until we have our feet wet. we are going with Saxon Math because it has been recommended by a number of folks. i have been writing down titles as they are suggested. and then researching them onlne. we have a homeschool store in the next big town north and i hope to get there tomorrow.


Cool. Most homeschool stores that I have been to have a curriculum consultant. They may be able to help.  

Cindyc.


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## Ezekiel's Garde (May 10, 2009)

For us, we chose to go with a pre-packaged curriculum. We personally use Sonlight. You can pick and choose some parts of it. The history/geography, language arts, and science are more or less proprietary, but within that, you can choose some aspects of it. For example, if we actually get to do Sonlight next year, my 9yo (2nd grade reading level) will be doing Explode the Code and Wordly Wise on appropriate level for phonics and vocab. Science right now is still pick and choose, but you could opt not to purchase a Sonlight science package and choose your own.

If I don't get to do Sonlight next fall (budget may not allow both a machine milker and homeschool curriculum & I can't make my own machine milker), however, we'll be doing Ambleside's free curriculum. I have enjoyed using some of their things as a supplement to what I'm already doing anyway.


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## rhondajk (Apr 1, 2008)

Thanks, Cindyc for that great book list link. I found a book on there I have been searching for, for many years. I didn't know the title or the author but I knew I would recognize the title if I ever saw it again. I was scanning the book list and there it was!! _A Girl of The Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter. I even found a copy on line, guess what I'm reading tonight.

I'll use the list for my daughter this year too._


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## cindy-e (Feb 14, 2008)

rhondajk said:


> Thanks, Cindyc for that great book list link. I found a book on there I have been searching for, for many years. I didn't know the title or the author but I knew I would recognize the title if I ever saw it again. I was scanning the book list and there it was!! _A Girl of The Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter. I even found a copy on line, guess what I'm reading tonight.
> 
> I'll use the list for my daughter this year too._


_

Oh yea! We have that book, along with Keeper of the Bees and others by that author. Great Book! One of my daughter's favs. It has been reprinted, btw. The copy we got is new. 

Glad you are enjoying the list.  

Cindyc._


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## jamala (May 4, 2007)

we use abeka for most subjects, saxon for math and apologia for higher science classes


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## Cashs Cowgirl (Jan 26, 2006)

we used Abeka when I took my daughter out of school (1/2 way through 1st grade) since that was what they were already using and I figured we'd already paid for it and we were going to use it.

I switched fairly quickly though. I felt that there wasn't enough meat to the history and I wanted the kids to read other books by many authors to get a feel for different styles of writing and books that were caldecott and newberry winners...things that I remember reading and loving.

I use Sonlight now. Their book lists are really great. I get many things also from Rainbow Resource. Inexpensive and an extremely vast array of items to purchase. Both of those catalogs are free. Rainbows is about 3 inches thick, but has great descriptions of all of their products.

I used Teach your Child to read in 100 easy lessons. My son liked it and it helped, though he wasn't ready to read until he was 8 1/2. He really balked at it until then.

I use now, Grammer Ace, Wordly Wise, MCP Phonics, Singapore Math (though I'm about to start using Teaching Textbooks for my daughter since I think she needs a little more 'teaching instruction' that is not coming from me, lol. She likes to do things on her own as is, math gives her a bit of a fit and combine that with Mom telling her how to do it all....ugh, lol. She likes the way Teaching Textbooks is laid out and explains things.

Look on Yahoo or ask around and see if you can find a homeschool group. That is a vast source of information. We love our eclectic group. 

Remember, if it isn't working for the kids, then don't be afraid to change to something else. Homeschooling is great like that


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## uarelovedbygod (Nov 1, 2003)

check out Sonlight and consider using K or 1 for all 3 then add their own LA's/Math.

Also, take a look at My Father's World and Heart of Dakota.
Save your sanity and combine them all for everything except LA's and Math.

I use Bob Books/Leap Frog Letter Factory DVD's and Explode the Code for my younger ones learning to read..then we move into Abeka Language Workbook only and just assign age appropriate books.

Misti
Homeschool mom of 7 in KY


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## Jakk (Aug 14, 2008)

I also use Explode the Code for my 5 yr old, she loves it.


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## BlueberryChick (May 12, 2008)

I've homeschooled for 13 years (oldest just graduated), and I'm agonizing this year like a newbie! 

I agree with OhioDreamer, you should consider your preferred teaching style as well as your child's learning style. If they love unit studies, but you hate doing them, it won't work well (ask me how I know). 

Unit studies:
KONOS
A Prairie Primer
Five in a Row (for younger ones)

Complete curriculum:
Sonlight
Calvert
An Old fashioned Education (online, K-12, mostly free curriculum)
There's tons more, I just haven't had enough coffee yet to think of them.

This site has tons of links:
Home Sweet Homeschool


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## ovsfarm (Jan 14, 2003)

Don't forget that there is a thriving market in used homeschooling curriculum. So if you see something you'd like to try but not at full price, consider purchasing a used copy to peruse. If you find it lacking, you can always resell it. If you like it, you can decide whether to buy all the related materials (if any) used, or to spring for them new from the publisher.


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