Friday, March 13, 2009
Curriculum poll
As we embark on this overwhelming process of making decisions regarding Madelyn's education, we are asking for help! If you homeschool your child, please share with us what curriculum you use and why you like/dislike it. I'd also love to hear your opinion if you are in the same stage as we are - praying, researching and choosing!
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I learned the hard way not to do "too much" during the first two years of schooling. I also learned the hard way that all they really need for Pre and K is to learn to read, write , understand beginning math, love listening to stories and play lots of games.
ReplyDeleteA perfect mixture for me has ended up being Math U See Primer and Alpha with Kumon math books on the side for some colorful supplement.
Phonics Pathways for an excellent and frugal way to teach them to read.
A Reason for handwriting or BrainQuest workbooks are perfect for handwriting practice..
and for crafty stuff and literature we have loved Winterpromise.
The book selections and activity ideas are just great great great. And you can take it or leave it on the days when you want to fill in or pare down.
As for some extra bells and whistles...I highly recommend logic things...like Mighty Minds, Math Start books,Triominoes,etc.
If you want to do some science...Noeo Science is really fun and the kids just love it.
Have Fun!
I'm going to stick with Horizons math. The teacher guide is so easy to follow and very very thorough (I like how it has objectives each day, which is the most important and then you can do the recommended activities as you are able and with whatever materials you have). Tori finds the worksheets too fast to go through, so I supplement other little workbooks or worksheets.
ReplyDeleteI liked the Sonlight K curriculum but once I did it for a few weeks, I noticed that we just opened a lot of various books each day and read. Then we did handwriting, our math, and some other craft or cooking. I didn't think it was totally worth all the money for how simple that idea is. (But I really liked almost every book we got from that! They are quality reads and we will get lots and lots of use out of them.)
I will continue using A Reason for Handwriting. And the Draw Write Now. But today I also discovered janbrett.com that has lots of free how to draw videos that are awesome.
We also use lots of flash cards for reading and math. And make games out of them. And use for spelling and memory.
For next year, I'm researching what to do so that it combines T and A's interest (except will keep spelling and math separate). I'm seeing what is best for us from Sonlight, WinterPromise and MFW, maybe combining some. Basically I am searching for a history/culture/social studies theme to follow and might purchase just the parents guide and then by whichever materials I like the most separately (and of course cheaper) elsewhere.
so what did you think of rod and staff? people like me, who don't have many homeschoolers around, need as much input as possible :)
ReplyDeleteI have been using My Fathers World and really have enjoyed it. My focus this past year and probably for next year, has been reading and math. I have been looking into Winter Promise, Sonlight and MFW for next year. I like that Sonlight is planned out (I used this the previous year for preschool) and I like the Godly focus of MFW. WP appeals to me as well as it is so literature based, plus I like their notebooking idea. However I need to learn more about it. Next year I will be starting "Phonics Road to reading and Spelling" it is a K-4 curriculum on speaking, spelling writing, reading, grammar, composition and preparation for Latin. It is a bit more intensive (and expensive) than what I am currently using (Scardey Cat). But I really want the kids to have a good foundation in Lang. Arts. I am using Math-u-See and will continue with that...I think it is great. Again those are my main focus for now and I will take the summer to decide between MFW, Sonlight (although I will probably always use the read alouds from theis no matter what) and Winter Promise. Sorry it is sort of jumbled, but that is our plan!! Oh scardey cat reading was great for Claire...it was the only program that worked to put it all together for her and I will probably do a bit with Matthew next year with this, but it is currently out of business, so I will just reuse (ie erase Claire's work on the worksheets) to help Matthew. It puts learning to read into a story format...just what Claire loves!
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