Why thank you! I have picked up some public school stuff but as Crazymama said it requires a lot of work as well to make it suitable for homeschooling. And I typically find it sort of uninspiring anyway.
UGH! I hate that! Even Alpha Omega is written to a "school" setting even though it's touted as "homeschooling" curriculum. I always got annoyed with that. Wow...it MUST be hard for you guys to find stuff.
Wait, though- I've used Houghton Mifflin and McGraw-Hill and I didn't find it hard to use these school publishers. I'm really liking our McGraw-Hill science.
I just bought Christian Liberty Press Math to use after the life pacs. It's a Christian Curriculum site but I got there math and it's nuetral. I was all for AO lifepacs but I got CLP's Math much cheaper. Hubby says that I can make anything work so fingers crossed that it does.
But the whole point of the way this post went is that those of us who are secular should not have to "make it work". There should be more options out there for us. for those strongly opposed to religion they should have just as many options as those who want the religion in their curriculum. They should have to go straight to public school books just to get what they want from a curriculum, because honestly, part of why we homeschool is to get away from public school.
I really does suprise me that that so many of the books re christianized. I would have figured that I would have had to change it to suit MY methods but not that way. kwim? I also don't realy understand why they put Bible verses in math, but my ds likes them so hey thats cool! ACSI? Does it have them? also howhigh does it go in math I forget? I jjust remember we were given some in lower grades annd it was cool the way it explained things.. I didnt recall seeing scriptures in the kids work, we didnt have teacher books either
I completely agree with this. There should be secular material made for homeschoolers, with activies & experiments that can be done with ONE student, not a group (yet easily adjustable to groups for those homeschooling more than one in the same grade or using it for a co-op), that's just as rigorous as some of the Christian curriula seem to be. Using Christian materials means ignoring,altering, or leaving out parts of it. Plus, sometimes the Christian aspect is so intwined that you can't ignore it & have to use other material for a whole topic, just to get a secular view. Using public school material means adding supplemental materials to go more in-depth, adding activities, trying to alter group activities to be workable for ONE child, and skipping stuff that requires materials that are not commonly found in the home & aren't always aforable for the average person (I don't know about all of you, but I don't have a fully functioning lab complete with bunsen burners & tons of chemicals). Not to mention that public school materials are dull, bland, boring, don't go that in-depth of the topics, and are only aimed at one learning style.
I guess the only way to get the secular material we want is for us to start writing it... I think this alot, but then I don't feel confident in my knowledge to even write a first grade science book
HEY! I was going to suggest that. !!! I think 70% of the Christian Curriculum out there came out because there was a need - and someone wrote it. I find that MOST of the curriculum I buy (aside from AOP) is self-published and the whole family is in on the game!
Ummm does that mean that we need to start being like science geeks and write out a curriculum? Honestly my attention span wouldn't allow that one.. unless I picked up a curriculum and just rewrote it.. if that makes sense.
It is easier than you think Sommer, do a little research on a subject and write questions to find answers to. Give web addresses for the students to research and find or books named to look up in. Easier than you think, really!
Goodness... I wouldn't know where to start. I think as far as elementry goes, I could pull it off as unit studies type things... but once I got to higher levels I might have a very hard time. I would want to make it very user friendly.. like the Apolgia books.. where they talk to the student, and the parent doesn't need to be a brain to figure it all out... I have never looked at their books.. maybe I should try to find a killer deal on one and look at it... a highschool or even middleschool level that is.
I meant by making it work was do to style of the math as to what is or isn't in them. There are some things I wished that my math progam had but it don't so I had to relearn myself how to teach it cuz I just know it. Making it work for me instead of me working for it. Does that make sense? I just need a guideline.
I'm confident enough with supplemental stuff - literature study guides, notebooking pages, lapbooks, unit studies, etc. I don't know that I could (or could find the time to) do a full, comprehensive, grade specific curriculum.
Tmom.. I looked at MUS once. When the free sample thing came in the mail I was so excited.. then I realized in there was a good amount of "push" of their religion in the advertising. That in itself turned me away from it. The only 2 that I know of that are 100% secular is Teaching Textbooks and Singapore.
Math Mammoth, Miquon and the Key to Series. Can believe I didn't bring those up earlier. Math Mammoth is also cheap, immediately downloadable and (this impresses my daughter to no end) written by a woman!
OMG Dawn.. how did I forget those??? I guess I had just let them out of my head since I figure I can wing all grades up till the point of being at a level of TT.
