We have 2 children. One is 13 and the other is 11. They have been homeschooled all of their lives. Over the years we have used many different types of curriculum. When they were little we started with Abeka. It was a very nice program. When my daughter was in 1st grade, I realized that it was just way too structured for our liking at the time. From there we started doing lapbooks, hands on experiments, and lots of field trips. My kids thoroughly enjoyed the change.
Through the years we have spent much money on many different curriculum's. Some worked well and some were complete flops. Some that were not great matches for our family were Apologia science, Winston grammar, Shiller Math and Learning language arts through literature. None of them were BAD curriculum. They just did not work for our family. They are all very nice programs. They just did not fit our homeschooling style.
Some that we have enjoyed for the season but for whatever reason had to move on were Heart of Dakota, Sequential spelling, Time 4 learning, writing with ease, and first language lessons. Like I said, we have tried so many different types of curriculum. My children enjoyed most of these at some point. We often find ourselves looking for change and new, exciting things. So we often change what, and how we are learning.
There are MANY other curriculums we have used over the years but I don't want to bore you with all the things we tried in the past. Lets move on to what we use now. This year we are doing A LOT of history. We are on the 3rd book of Story of the World. We are also doing our state history. We also found many lapbooks that we are liking from A journey through learning. We have been using several of their express lapbooks. The children are loving it. They have a wide variety of American history related lapbooks. We are also using Draw and write through history. My kids both love, love, love history. I used to hate it but now that I homeschool, I am loving it. I have learned so much more since teaching my children. OH and for civics, my children LOVE ICIVICS for some fun civics games.
For English we are using Total Language plus. WOW! I am so glad I found this. They have many books and study guides. My children are thrilled with this and really enjoy the studies. I also throw in some Intermediate Language Lessons. I use this as a supplement. We use Grade Spelling for our spelling program.
My daughter loves teaching textbooks for math. It really is a great program. We could not get it this year because my homeschool funds were all used up. So I tried to find something that they would like, not get bored with, and was very good at explaining each lesson. I found CTC Math. So far, I really like it. Since my daughter is now in Algebra, I really needed something that could explain everything to her in a way she could understand. This math does that. Occasionally she gets frustrated, but math is her least favorite subject. My son likes this math because he can jump around the grades. I pay a certain amount each month for 2 children. It includes ALL math for grades K-12th. So my son really enjoys that he can go ahead on certain things he really understands. He can also go back a grade or two if there is something he struggles with. It is a great addition to our schooling this year.
Science this year, they both wanted to learn about Astronomy. So we are using many different free unit studies and lapbooks that I found online. We also do some experiments here and there. My kids also love EDHEADS. We have used this website for several years now. It never gets old. My son is a huge science lover. I allow him to pretty much whatever he wants when it comes to science. Often times he will look up videos about different science topics. He tends to remember every detail when he can watch videos or do experiments. That is the joy of homeschooling, isn't it??? We can teach our children the way it works best.
That is it for now. We have other things we are using this year. Maybe I will touch on those at a later date. If you have any questions please leave a comment. Thanks for stopping by!
Cristince
No comments:
Post a Comment