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• Aug. 26, 2008
Curriuculm Recommendations
While I am thinking along school lines, I often have people ask me what curriculum I use. Because I have been asked that several times recently I decided to write up a list of some of my favorites so far. Some of this I am using this year, some I will use in coming years and some has been used in the past. I will try to put links with each thing I list but the best place to find these things at the best prices is Rainbow Resource Center or you can try to find them used on E-bay or Homeschool Classifieds.
First of all, I have mentioned that I began home schooling by purchasing a kit that had everything I needed so I didn't have to do too much work. I began by using Abeka materials. These were great for me in the beginning because as a teacher they really hold your hand with all the instructions they provide. But let me stress that it worked for me only because Sarah was a very compliant learner. This curriculum is structured very much like public or private school work would be. Mostly worksheets, lots of busywork. It is a fine program but you need to understand it's limitations. I could never use the program with Timothy because I think it will be years before he is ready to sit for extended periods of time and do worksheets!
After I broke free from the box, these are the things I have enjoyed.
Art:
I really enjoy the How Great Thou Art curriculum. My friend Michelle told me about them and I have been very happy. Sarah has a lot of interest in art so I was very concerned about getting a good program. I had tried a few things but this by far takes the cake. They have programs for every age level from pre school to High School. What I liked best is that, while the books are easy to understand and work on their own, you can also buy a DVD set to go with the book which has the artist who created the program teaching each lesson. I highly recommend this if you have a art oriented child.
Typing/Keyboarding:
We love Typing Instructor Deluxe! We had used Type To Learn in the past however the program seemed repetitive and Sarah got bored quickly. Typing Instructor Deluxe (not the kids version) starts with the basics so you can start at the earliest ages. It then keeps track of progress for each student (and mom and dad) so that each lesson builds on the previous lesson. Then there are dozens of games that can be played to reinforce the lessons. Not only is this a great teaching program but it is really fun.
Spelling:
I confess to kind of piecing this one together. I like the lists from Spelling Power and I think they have a pretty good program. However I don't really use it. I have taken their lists (they put like words together to help the phonetic concepts stick so a list would contain words like, knoll, knives, knack, knotty, knead, etc.) and I load them on SpellingCity.com . I have blogged extensively about this program here. The first day of the week Sarah writes the word list 3 times. The rest of the week is spent at Spelling City where she can play games to learn the words. The test can also be taken on-line.
Math:
Saxon Math is by far my first choice. Let me say that we transitioned from Abeka to Saxon with one year of Horizon's Math. That was a good transition for us because Abeka was bright and colorful worksheets and Saxon is black and white all the way through. Horizon's made the transition easier but I still prefer Saxon. If you like the Horizon's format for the younger years I would switch to Saxon by 3rd grade. The reason I like Saxon so much is because of its self-teaching format. There is no teachers book except for the answer key, that is because all of the teaching material is in the student text. That means that as soon as your kids can read they can begin learning math on their own! Of course they need more help the younger they are but isn't the goal of home schooling to raise thinking kids? What a joy when they can take their book and teach themselves. Another nice product to go along with the Saxon program are D.I.V.E. CD's. I believe Saxon is beginning to put out their own CD that does the same thing, but D.I.V.E. CDs are put out by a Christian company who even talk about God's plan during math! These CD's have a teacher going over the lesson material on a virtual 'blackboard'. It is a great tool, especially if you find yourself in, shall we say, 'high-stress', mode at math teaching time. Sometimes hearing the same material from another source can diffuse the tension. I started using them in 5th grade and have had many less hair pulling sessions since then.
History:
World History: History Alive by Diana Waring is the way to go. Let me confess that I hated history in school. To me it was unrelated places and dates. When I first heard Diana Waring speak I was captivated and have not lost my love of history yet. She teaches history from creation to the World Wars, in order in a fascinating hands on way. The course has 3 separate books so it is a great 3 year program though you could go faster if you wanted. On top of that this is a program you can use with your whole family from k-12 at the same time! She has a Elementary grade set and the upper grades set that cover the exact same material at the different levels. Plus in both levels you find that for each segment she has an activity for the visual, auditory and hands on learner. No matter how your child learns best they will discover God's story throughout history with this program.
American History: I have a book lover. Because of this I like it when I can find a way to use interesting stories to teach. There is a great series of books called the American Adventure series. (Please note: the link I have included here is to CBD's website. They show a picture of a book with a green cover which looks like the books I have. However these books have been re-written as a Sisters In Time series. They are the exact same books, I guess they were just trying to broaden the appeal to girls. You can see some of the titles at the first link or view them at the Sisters in Time link.) I actually bought them as part of a book club when Sarah was about two. We started using them last year. They begin with the pilgrims coming over on the Mayflower and go through the world wars. I believe there are 48 books in all. These are historical fiction and decidedly Christian. They take a fictional family with 2 children, usually a boy and a girl ages 10-12 and have them interacting with real people and events in history. The books tell you up front who the real characters and events are so that you can be clear as you go through them. We have been reading through them for the past couple years and pulling out the real people and events and studying them further.
Science:
Look no further than Apologia science no matter what grade your child is in. Seriously, I don't believe there is another program that compares. For the Elementary grades there are 5 books that can be done with every elementary grade level at one time. All of the titles begin with Exploring Creation with: then the titles are as follows, Astronomy, Botany, Zoology 1: Flying Creatures of the 5th day, Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the 5th day, and Zoology 3 Land Animals of the 6th day. As you can see these are Christian courses that look at Science through the lens of God's creation. These beautiful hard back text books use note booking and experiments to really immerse your student in the subject so that they truly learn instead of just giving them snippets of information about a broad scope of subjects. Again, all of the needed information is in the text. No teacher's manual required.
For Junior High and High school science again Apologia is what I will use. Written by Dr. Jay Wile these science courses are intended to be self teaching. They also come in many formats from traditional text book to fully interactive text on CD-Rom. These are college preparatory courses and highly lauded.
Vocabulary:
We started by using Wordly Wise. While a fine program it was boring and Sarah hated it with a passion. Since vocabulary should not be such a difficult subject I was frustrated. By divine providence I happened to see a book called Painless Vocabulary while at a curriculum fair. I picked it up and fell in love. The vocabulary words are first presented in a short narrative so that they make sense contextually. Then, instead of a dictionary type definition the definitions are given, 5 at a time, in a conversational way. There are 3-4 lessons going over 5 words at a time, then a review lesson going over all the words from the chapter. No more vocabulary tears!
English/Grammar:
Finally we come to Rod and Staff. This publisher puts out text books for all subjects but we really like it for grammar. First of all, the publisher is a Mennonite company and I believe their school only goes through the 8th grade so the material is pretty advanced. I was told to go a grade below where my child was when we made the switch. I was moving from Abeka to Rod and Staff. I didn't really believe the person who told me that, until I picked up the book and looked through it. I promptly put it down and picked up the earlier grade level. It is a very traditional text book format but I have found it to be the most effective way to learn all those concepts. We cut out some of the work because they can tend to have a lot of busy work occasionally, but it is by far my recommendation for this subject.
Well, this has been a long post and I have probably forgotten something, but I hope that someone finds this information helpful.
Shannon
