Curriculum what we do and questions to guide your choice
Once you have made the choice to be a homeschooler the next step is to decide what type of curriculum you want to use. Do you want all books, all online? Unschooling or structured? So many choices it can be down right daunting to even look through. Each family is different. Each child is different. So first thing one needs to know and understand is that what you chose may not work the first time or the second or only with one kid but not the other two. It's all ok. You will figure it out with a little trial and error. Very often families pick this from here and that from there to create their own versions.
For our family we have a lovely online curriculum that we pay a monthly fee for. Not an expensive one but we do put a bit out there. This is our go to for busy days I cannot sit down with them, days Mom just can't do it (we all have those days it's ok you deserve a break once in a while too,) as well as a base for the "school" stuff they need to know for state tests and typical education needs. So the younger kids are on the online classes for about 3 hours 3 days a week. I know they are hitting benchmarks and they like the computer games.
The rest of the time is split because of age and well the two I have learning at home now just learn very differently. So one we immerse in a subject and surround everything around that. So if we are learning about Norway (that was a favorite) our reading that month was Norwegian folk lore. Science was about their green initiative and how the country all works towards that and how they do so. We cooked Norwegian foods, learned the history of the country and side tracked on some other things like Viking boats, fishing, economy and geography.
The other, younger child we are primarily working on reading as it is key to so much, but we also do a lot of hands on like knitting which is a great way to practice counting and following directions. A lot of time and money because we can do so worked into so much of everyday life. Here we do a lot of workbook and writing as well because we are at the age to learn to write and work on handwriting skills.
So how do you chose? As I said trial and error. Take the curriculum sites up on their free trials. See which programs work for your kids. Jump on to Pinterest and print off different age appropriate worksheets or curriculum plans to create your own study guides. Make the check list and see where your ideals lie.
Once you have a clear idea of what you want you can then search it out.
For our family we have a lovely online curriculum that we pay a monthly fee for. Not an expensive one but we do put a bit out there. This is our go to for busy days I cannot sit down with them, days Mom just can't do it (we all have those days it's ok you deserve a break once in a while too,) as well as a base for the "school" stuff they need to know for state tests and typical education needs. So the younger kids are on the online classes for about 3 hours 3 days a week. I know they are hitting benchmarks and they like the computer games.
The rest of the time is split because of age and well the two I have learning at home now just learn very differently. So one we immerse in a subject and surround everything around that. So if we are learning about Norway (that was a favorite) our reading that month was Norwegian folk lore. Science was about their green initiative and how the country all works towards that and how they do so. We cooked Norwegian foods, learned the history of the country and side tracked on some other things like Viking boats, fishing, economy and geography.
The other, younger child we are primarily working on reading as it is key to so much, but we also do a lot of hands on like knitting which is a great way to practice counting and following directions. A lot of time and money because we can do so worked into so much of everyday life. Here we do a lot of workbook and writing as well because we are at the age to learn to write and work on handwriting skills.
So how do you chose? As I said trial and error. Take the curriculum sites up on their free trials. See which programs work for your kids. Jump on to Pinterest and print off different age appropriate worksheets or curriculum plans to create your own study guides. Make the check list and see where your ideals lie.
Once you have a clear idea of what you want you can then search it out.
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