I have to say that everyone is in agreement that there is not much for special needs children. We pick and choose from different curriculia and then modify it to suit our child's needs. We include doing unit studies because it has been most effective with our oldest son who has Asperger's and learning disabilites.
I am jumping in late on this thread... But...I have to say, when we started we were more "out of the box". I started out winging it. Then I used FIAR (which we loved), in conjunction with starfall. After that, I got scared my oldest was missing things so I got what I thought was a good out of the box type curriculum. We used Lifepacs for last half of 1st through 3rd grade. WE continued to use the math and l/a for 4th...but dropped th eother stuff. This coming school year, I'm designing our curriculum. Using Abeka as our base for history, and adding time period appropriate literature. I've even scheduled that all out already. The rest is an eclectic mix of this and that. I will say, that entering our 6th year of this adventure, I finally feel (most of the time...there are "those" days) confident to pick what they learn, how they learn it, etc. I'm really excited to get started this year.
I am excited about next year too. This will be year 8 and things have been almost insanely easy the past 2 years. My DS is going into 7th grade, he's ahead in math, he's starting a second year of Japanese, and will be my curriculum guinea pig for science and history. I know it was tough way back when, trying out new things all the time so you could match up with learning styles, but the rewards of today far outweigh the stress of those past years. I think new HSers really just need to accept that they will make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and try to keep learning more about how your kiddos learn. I do get a little panic in my chest when I think of all the money I've spent for this or that - like Classical Education (I bought everything and it didn't mesh with them at all!) but now I know. If I hadn't tried it out I would never know that it wasn't a good fit. By far the best addition to our curriculum has been Teaching Textbooks and Rosetta Stone. They are just so easy, and I like easy. Curriculum is so personal - there is no way that one will fit every kid. It is a process.
Hey, guys!!! I'm on vacation, but have a bit of time to kill so I snuck into the computer room to catch up on e-mail. (Actually, the girls get out of a teen activity at midnight, and I'm waiting to walk a group of them back to the campsite. Christian conference center or no, my girls aren't going to take that walk at midnight! Mamma Bear, GRRRR!!! LOL!) First of all, special needs. Yep, the material isn't there, but it also doesn't exist in the "real school" world. That's because the special needs kids are so diverse to begin with. I mean, where the heck am I going to find a curriculum that will encompass an 11yo I was teaching to count to three consistently, another with CP who couldn't give me a consistent yes/no response, another with CP who could read anything you put in front of him but with maybe 25% comprehension.... Yeah, right!!! That's why, when I started hs'ing my own kids, I was quite comfortable with pulling my own resources! As most of you know, I resist just about anything that smacks of "tradition" school. As someone else mentioned, you really do have to be a bit more "traditional" for the older grades (or perhaps more "scheduled" is a better word!). I like curriculums that allow me a lot of versitility (which is why I LOVE Mystery of History!!!). Oh, and guess what!!! I FINALLY FOUND A SCIENCE CURRICULUM FOR NEXT YEAR THAT I THINK WILL WORK FOR ME!!! Maggie Hogan, from Bright Ideas Press, is here with some of the books. One of them is called "The Science Apprentice". I've looked over it carefully, and decided to give it a try for Phillip. It covers astronomy, oceanography, anatomy, and earth science. Will let you know later how it works! For language, I finally took Deena's advice this past year and went with Rod and Staff, and love it. We also use Teaching Textbooks for the higher math, and Apologia for the higher science.
This year I have pieced together history and health. Although I have enjoyed A Beka's history for the past six years, there is too much information yet not enough meat. This year I have put together four units and if we complete them early, I will make more. Actually, I am wrong. I put together three units and bought Christian Liberty Press Story of the Middle Ages to use as a unit. Then I bought supplemental material to help out. I have used A Beka and Bob Jones for math. Last year I used Making Math Meaningful. It wasn't my favorite curriculum for math but my daughter did very well and actually understood the why to each problem. This year we are trying Life of Fred. Some people do not care for it but I like the approach. Indeed, it is unconventional.
I should state what gave me the impression that it's out of favour. I don't see it with any local homeschoolers and not at our provincial curriculum fair. I rarely see it recommended on message boards and when it is is seems responses are fairly critical. The criticisms I see tend to be along the lines of it being "stuffy" as someone mentioned, the racist concerns Deena brought up (I've never seen the BJU materials so I don't know personally) and the particular kind of Christianity it reflects. I know a lot of Christians, nevermind non-Christians, particularily liberal Christians, Catholics, Mormons, etc. either aren't comfortable with it or don't feel it's a good fit. When there's such a variety of curriculum to chose from these days a lot more people can feel free to leave behind some programs where 15 years ago they might have made due or tried to make it fit.
BJU is still widely popular around here.I use it for math,science and history.Granted I am using it in the lower grades,and will probably switch to something else in the future.For now though,it works well for us. The racist thing was in relation to their school(collage?I believe)not to their homeschool materials.I read the story,but I'm tired tonight and can't remember the whole story,lol.
I agree Deena. We were left with a negative opinion of BJU when the racist issue came up. My dh and I are a mixed marriage (I won't specify which because it does not matter) and not cool with their type of racist thoughts. We do realize they changed their policy but feel they changed it out of pressure rather than belief. On that note, we decided Abeka was a good fit for us, which really worked out well for our boys. K-12! http://www.bee.net/cardigan/attic/031200.htm This is a link to an article regarding BJU's reversal of their interracial dating policy.
