Thursday, August 9, 2007

HomeSchool Curriculum

Friday's topic for Back to HomeSchool week is Curriculum.

What curriculum do you use? Where do you buy it? Have you found a "gem" that you must share with others? Was something in particular a complete failure for you and your kids?

Oh, a chance to get link happy!!

I was surprised to find that we are embarking into our 4th year of homeschooling. But still, in curriculum years that's not very long. Our first two years with Mini-Me, we did ABeka Academy. While it had its good points, it was very rigid. It worked well for us, but with a new baby brother in the house we quickly fell behind. Catching up was not easy. Bible memory was fast and furious and I don't think she remembers much of it any more.

Our 3rd year we opted to not do the academy, and use just ABeka Book supplies. They use the same books, they are just two different entities.

This year we are using the following:

Mini-Me:

ABeka Language, Writing Skills (though I don't know how hard we will hit this book), Arithmatic 3, and a smattering of spanish that I've picked up here.

For G:

ABeka Phonics 1, Language 1, Arithmatic 1, and Writing 1 (manuscript).

For both we'll us Adventures in My Father's World. It has History, Science and Bible lessons integrated into small, doable lessons. With this curriculum came the art program, I Can Do all Things. I have one book that says I can make copies for both the kids (as it is a consumable text).

I had also purchased reading books from Sonlight. Without getting up to look through my receipts I can't tell you which package I purchased. I really only wanted the reading books as the books seemed to go along with Adventures.

Last year, I bought KONOS. While it is a great product, it just didn't work for my family. For some reason, every time I looked at it to sit down and plan things out, I couldn't. I became convinced that it just wasn't going to work for my family at this time. Especially considering we could only do certain parts of our school work. So to me, it seemed like I was just doing the hard stuff and none of the fun stuff. When, in reality, I was getting the basics done. And that was just fine.

That falls into the category of I wish I'd known... that it is okay to just do reading, writing and 'rithmatic. Easy on the writing. :-) Even though I've got the Writing curriculum from ABeka, if it's painful for us, I'll move on to something else. Something like copy work. Mini-Me really liked copying poems from a little book that we absolutely loved. Oh, and this year, she has her very own pen-pal. I hope that will help her writing skills, too. She is beside herself with excitment.

That is our curriculum in a nutshell. I still get curriculum envy when I look about because not everthing I have is perfect. So we'll keep what works, and toss out what doesn't. (I guarantee we won't be doing all of the "seatwork" prescribed by ABeka.)

I can't wait to see what curriculum others are using.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

The only Abeka that I use is language, but I have had others tell me that if your kids don't like lots of bookwork, dont use it. My oldest daughter probably would have loved it because she is the worksheet/grades/tests kind of kid. She loves college because of that!

Katie said...

Yeah, the forks are a good profile pic. The forks stay!

The Family Jewels said...

I REALLY like your new profile picture!

My computer is having issues and hasn't wanted to pull up your blog the last couple of days, so I had to catch up this morning.

Good luck with your new curriculum! If you need any art projects let me know. My favorite excuse for shopping was that it was a math lesson for the kids...yeah, it didn'y really work that much for Hubby.

Have a great day!
~Tonia

DebD said...

looks like we will be using some of the same curriculum this year.

Tracy said...

I started out with A Beka too. Actually my husband and I both used A Beka growing up. It does have its good points, (structure, lesson plans etc.) We just had to adjust to use what fit our kids better. I have enjoyed reading your posts and plan to visit often!

Anonymous said...

Yep!! It was Konos that I mentioned on my blog!

Kelli said...

We cyber school (Connections Academy) mostly because I really enjoy the curriculum. It is pretty time consuming, but I feel like it is well worth the effort.

Halfmoon Girl said...

We are an eclectic homeschooling family- we use several different curriculum, depending on subjects and learning styles. I am just catching up on your blog after being away, so i will be back with a couple of our favourites!

Gayle @ thewestiecrew said...

I started all my kids with Abeka, and then move to a hodge-podge when they are proficient readers...however, this year my 9 year-old will be doing straight Abeka again. It just seems to suit him better. :)

Dapoppins said...

I just noticed the forks too!

that is so forkin'cool. I am like, all forked out!

Monkey Giggles said...

We started out using Abeka as well.
But now we use a little bit of this and that.

There was a season (one year) that we used the DVD Abeka program. My hubby's Grandma (mom) was in a serious car accident and came to live with us. She required 24/7 care. I used the DVD Program to lift some of the load. It was a blessing for me that year. I can't say the kids really enjoyed it. The best was that Grandma "went to Class" with the kids everyday. She would laugh and sing right along with them. Well I am rabbling AGAIN.

Chat later

Hanley Family said...

We came close to using Sonlight at one time. I still look at their catalogs...but I love curriculum catalogs more than any other kind of junk mail. I actually ask companies to send them...all the glossy pictures and promise of MORE materials. Yeah!

Tammy said...

It's late and I guess I'm tired since I meant to reply to this post, and replied to the Nintendo post instead...LOL

I'm getting the feeling that the forks is a new profile pic...love it!

Great to "meet" you, and hope to be back!
~Tammy

Mrs. Darling said...

I didnt join this because all my regular readers know what I'm doing because I talk excessively about it on my blog. LOL But you can see my curriculum on my side bar.

It is hard to figure out what to do but its also exciting and fun! I always change something midstream thats not working so I know my sidebar pics of curriuclum will change even before september ends! LOL

jugglingpaynes said...

Hello! Thanks for your kind words and prayers. Chase is doing much better. He's down to one crutch so he doesn't need to suction drinking cups to his mouth any more...
We still use Well Trained Mind. Loosely. We've used it since Marina was in first grade (this year we start ninth. Yikes!)What can I say, I'm a creature of habit. It's a good outline that I can adjust to our needs.
Peace and Laughter,

Melanie said...

I love all the home school information you've been sharing. Great information even though Hailey is a ways away from school age.

Unknown said...

I do admire all you home schoolers and wish I'd known how to do it when my children were young. Congratulations, every one of you, for being such awesome moms.

TobyBo said...

ya might want to have a look at all these fine ads. :) http://www.tabasco.com/arts_pavilion/label_ads/index.cfm

and I'm glad to hear you love Miss Language. So do I.

Anonymous said...

Oh wow... you're certainly on the roll - I guess that should be "load", aren't you? LOL!

Hope you are doing well!

Jocelyn

Paula Vince said...

I've never seen the ABeka curriculum, but I get the idea of what it must be like from you & others. I have seen some Sonlight catalogues, which looked great. We used formal curriculum for our first couple of years but now pick up bits & pieces from various sources. The kids hated doing lots of bookwork & it got hard on me to be "the bad guy" who'd have to make them buckle down. Logan could already read well when we drew him out of school but I taught Emma using a phonics based curriculum passage that she grew to loathe, and stills talks about with great venom! I'll be looking out for something different for Blake.
And I'm excited about the new pen pal too, for the same reason you mentioned.
Paula

Debbie said...

I no longer homeschool, but used Abeka when I did. ALOT of worksheets!