Choosing Curriculum for your Homeschool

Choosing Curriculum

5 Days of Homeschool 101 -Day 1

Choosing curriculum is a vital part of homeschooling.  It’s right up there with deciding to homeschool.  For me it’s also an ordeal.  I overthink for one.  And of course, I really want to find something that can work for more than one child or better yet for everyone in our homeschool.

Some subjects are easier to find a solution with.  Choosing curriculum for history is far easier than math for me.  For history I want and found something that I could use with all of my school age children that we all could understand.  It’s simple.  It’s thorough.  And best of all I can use it with everyone and then make the changes to what level their at for the discussion and extras we do.  For history we use Story of the World.  

Choosing curriculum for math is a bit more difficult.  I don’t like using lots of different companies.  I’d rather have everyone in the same company so that I myself don’t have to alter or remember which version of teaching I’m using with each child.  We’ve used lots of different math curriculum.  The one that I’ve found that works for all my children is Horizons from Alpha Omega.  I have some who are gifted in math and some who struggle but they all seem to be able to use this one.

Other math we have used and do like and recommend are Math Mammoth and CTCMath.  You can check them out in my reviews when you get a chance or research them on your own.  The concept that they both use for math is more mastery versus the integration that Horizons uses.  My children who have some special needs need the integration so they don’t forget what they’ve learned while my gifted son really enjoys the mastery method more.  Of course, he also likes that the two I mentioned here are online.  He loves getting to use the computer.

 

 

 

Science.  Oh science.  This subject really gives me troubles.  I finally decided to follow a Charlotte Mason approach to this and use a living science curriculum that is focusing more on nature this year.  We’re doing a lot of journalling and exploring.  Because of this we can do this one on the go and call our park play-dates field trips as well as fun. Our science is in the photo above.  We’re also adding in some Apologia Astronomy to go with the astronomy part of our Living Learning Books.

We also have to think about reading and writing, phonics and spelling.  I’ve found that the best way to teach reading to my children involves using Explode the Code.  I love it.  My kids love it.  And learning to read comes along with it.  Once my children have completed the entire Explode the Code series I start them into Learning Language Arts Through Literature.

Because we follow a more Charlotte Mason approach I love using curriculum that highlights her approach.  We use copywork that is Bible verses or other things that I want my children to memorize and learn.  It works on handwriting as well as memorization.  We also tend to add in more books and reading than most of our curriculum requires.  Libraries are one of our best friends and we have cards for four different ones.

Let’s see, what’s left?  What other curriculum do we choose?  The extras we do with each year differ a bit.  We always have some kind of music though.  All of the kids take piano lessons while my husband is also teaching them guitar.  Art is the subject that I have the most trouble with as I am severely challenged in this area.  Because of this I try to let my children do a lot of art within each subject.

Some other things to think about while choosing curriculum are your home management and homeschool planning methods.  You need to make sure that you will have the time needed in your daily schedule for the curriculum you’ve chosen.  Different curriculum require different amounts of time.

Make sure to check out all the blogs linked up below and the Main TOS Crew page for what others have to say about choosing curriculum and what’s important to them.