*This entry will be a "sticky post" until 4/18. Scroll down for more recent entries.

This is the time of year when many of us are thinking about curriculum choices for next year. I have found it extremely helpful over the year to find out what my friends have used and what worked (or didn't work) for them. So I'm hosting an Online Curriculum Fair for the next 10 days. All you have to do is post an entry on your blog about the curriculum you have used this year and tell us why you loved it - or why you think you'd rather do something else next year. Then link back to your post using Mr. Linky here so we can all get ideas from each other.

This isn't a contest - just a fun opportunity to lay our curriculum out on virtual "tables" for others to peruse. But feel free to post links to places where you buy your curriculum. And everyone gets to share in the reward of possibly helping another homeschooler evaluate curriculum choices. I'm excited to read about what others have been using!

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Here's what I have used this year:

Adventure in My Father's World (www.mfwbooks.com): A unit-study US History curriculum written for 2nd & 3rd grades. It covers Bible, History & Science along with learning patriotic songs and some great read-alouds. Bible lessons are about the names of Jesus (Light of the World, Lamb of God, Bread of Life, Ressurection & Life, etc.) with a memory verse for each topic. I loved this since my children know all the Bible "stories" and would be bored with any Bible curriculum that simply repeats and re-teaches what they've learned in Sunday School. Science lessons are often related to Bible - for example, we learned about stars when learning about Jesus the Light of the World and about yeast & bread when learning about Jesus the Bread of Life - as well as other general science topics. In History, it covers basic US History, the lives of important people in our country's history, and each of the 50 states in order of joining the Union. This has been a fun, simple curriculum for us. There are a lot of hands-on activities for the kids - some crafts, some things they can cook, some science activities. I loved this and would definitely recommend it for families with kids in 1st-3rd grade who aren't ready to jump into a full-scale history curriculum.

Math-U-See (Alpha & Beta): This curriculum really works well for they way my children learn. It approaches math in a great conceptual way, so that they learn from the very beginning about place value and have a basis from which to learn multiple-digit addition and subtraction. Lessons are structured to achieve mastery before moving on (with review of what has already been learned at the end of each lesson). Plenty of worksheets give them as much practice as they need, but the curriculum allows them to move on without doing all the worksheets once they have mastered each lesson. We'll be sticking with this one for a while!

Language Arts:

Handwriting Without Tears - My daughter finished the 1st Level Printing book weeks ago. My son has been working slowly through the cursive book. I love the way this teaches handwriting. It's definitely the way to go for a child with fine motor skills problems - but still good for a child who doesn't have problems with handwriting. (Can you tell I have one of each?)

Easy Grammar: Daily Guided Teaching and Review for Grade 2 - Even though my son is technically 3rd grade, I thought I'd start with this since we haven't done any grammar yet. I'm one of those who believes in waiting until later to teach grammar, but I thought it would be nice for him to have some basics down. This hasn't worked well, mainly because it takes a "spiral" approach to teaching - in other words, each concept is introduced and taught for a few lessons, but then it drops that concept, teaches something else, teaches another new concept (does that with a few different things) and then comes back to the original concept, the second concept, etc. repeatedly. This way of teaching does NOT work for my son, so we'll find something else for grammar in the future. (At the same time, it is a fairly common approach, so I'm sure it works for other kids - probably those who prefer to move on to new things and eventually master each concept - just not mine.)

Vocabulary Workshop - I guess I picked this up because I thought I should be teaching vocabulary. Using it has taught me that my brilliant son doesn't really need formal vocabulary lessons. But it's a good book (or series of books) with a variety of activities and the "mastery" approach to learning (as opposed to the "spiral" approach).

Typing Instructor for Kids 3 - If you want your kids to learn typing, this is a great program! Fun lessons and games teach keys in a logical order. Kids need to master each key set by passing a challenge (and earning gold) before moving on - but if they need more practice, they can visit "Explorer Isle" to review lessons or play games using they keys they have already learned. And it's a great value - only $15.49 at amazon.com!