When we home-schooled three of our children, the predominant curriculum providers were A Beka and Bob Jones. At home school fairs, many other companies promoted their curricula, with varying degrees of success. Is it still the same today? Are there any new and important players? Are there any obvious gaps in the curriculum market? Are there any lesser known favorites you've found?
Most of the homeschoolers I know don't use one provider. Most seem to, like me, pull together programs from more specialized publishers. Life of Fred and Singapore math for math, Megawords for spelling and vocab, Winston Grammar for grammar, etc. I do still here of A Beka but Bob Jones seems to mostly be out of favour. Ace, Sonlight, Tapestry of Grace, Christian Light, K12 and Rod & Staff are some complete curriculum providers I can think of. The biggest gap I can think of is in secular science materials.
Not any more! :wink: I have worked hard to fill that gap and we even have Middle School Physics coming out this week.
Alpha Omega is another complete curriculum provider. Like Dawn, I don't use one provider. I pull together different materials from different places. I also tend to make my own materials. I also agree that secular materials is where the biggest gaps are, especially in Science & History. You can generally find plenty of supplemental materials, but it's not easy to find a good, comprehensive one year course in either of those subjects.
Cmom.. are you doing full year courses for the secular science? I soo have to get to your site to look around! I have to agree with Dawn.. it seems most don't go with one company for everything.. but the all inclusives do exist. There are more and more publishers that pop up every year, homeschooling is definately growin in every aspect!! Oh.. I hear a lot about Lifepac too.
Oh yeah, I forgot another area where there seems to be a gap - materials for special needs kids. My kids are both gifted, boith have ADHD, and one has Bipolar. Finding materials that actually work for them, because of their special educational needs, can be difficult. That's the reason I started making my own supplemental educational materials. Even stuff that claims to work great for special needs kids in general, gifted kids, or kids with ADHD tends to not work for my kids.
We use Christian Liberty(CLASS), we use to just pull things together, but now that we are starting high school with a child who says"I am going to Harvard"(great goal) we are becoming more structured.
Wow. The answers are really quite telling. It seems that there's sufficient choice of materials around today that we can compile the best in each subject to create our own unique program. hmsclmommyto2: What do you mean when you say you create your own materials?
Yup - Physics is the first one - made for 7th grade. Full year. I will will be working on middle school chemistry and earth science this year as well as high school biology.
whooo hooo!! I think with physics and forensics that will cover science for us. (and you know "stuff")
I think it is a bit stuffy. jmo. I have looked at it, but I don't see it working for us. however, I am not a school in a box sort...more like...hmmm what should we do today and enter it into a google search. I don't want to be tied down to a curriculum. If I could get rid of video games and tv, I think I might unschool. But there is that trust issue. I have met too many kids just doin' whatever...who cannot speak or write or figure out their taxes to really trust that they will learn what they need to learn.
BJUP is quite popular in my house and with the moms I know in my area. I'm a real stoodge when it comes to choosing curriculum, but I was very blessed to have found BJUP. The only thing I don't care for is their spelling, cause there's not much to it.
There are SOOOO many choices out there it can get overwhelming. Last year we did Ambleside Online (which I still think rocks). We are doing Seton because of ds's high school credits and DH wants him to have a transcript. I know a lot of people doing do many different things - Abeka, Bob Jones, Classical Conversations, Seton, Kolbe, Alpha Omega, Sonlight, Rod & Staff ... and the list goes on and on. Most are doing a mix of stuff and finding what works for them. An interesting observation though.... most I have found who have been homeschooling awhile (kids in college or moved on) do not change curriculum from child to child no matter the learning style.....I just found that interesting as a mom who loves to research this stuff
I would love to go back to just create our own curriculum, but with high school we needed more structure. One of the great things about homeschooling is the fact that there are so many different choices, it isn't a one size fits all, like brick and moter(sp) schools.
I create my own supplemental materials - Literature Study Guiudes, Lapbooks, Notebooking Pages, etc. I'm also working on some unit studies & other materials. Math & Foreign Language are the only subjects for which I buy full programs. For all the rest, I put it together myself - Supplemental materials (some I buy, some I make), books (mainly from the library or our home library, sometimes a textbook as a spine), activities & projects, videos, software, websites, etc.
I totally agree w/Dana's post, above. There's just a ton of stuff out there. Everyone uses different stuff, and most people use a variety of curriculum providers even in their own homes - many create their own line of study in at least a subject or two. And I also agree with whichever pp said that the gap is with special needs students. It's kind of ironic, actually, when you think about how many people homeschool at least partly because (at least one of) their children has special needs for which the traditional school systems do not provide. That's why we started homeschooling. There are a ton of writing curricula on the market, but if you have a child with language processing disorders, you're hard-pressed to find anything that works to fill that need. jmho
BJUP is out of favor with some because of some policies they had and upheld that were considered racist by many people. They have changed their policies to reflect the times, but some people still don't trust them. I don't know any more than that. None of that comes across in their materials, and I've liked what we have used of theirs. We are eclectic homeschoolers as well. But Dana, I DO change up curriculum with each of my children and use what's best for each one. My dd is struggling with grammar, so I'm researching what to use. I was using (and loved) Rod & Staff, which is another popular provider, but she needs a change of pace. The ones I'm considering for her are Hake Grammar & Writing, Analytical Grammar (AG) and Junior Analytical Grammar (JAG). Queen Homeschool is another one that has a variety of Christian curriculum materials. Love their stuff! Rainbow Science, Apologia Science, Saxon Maths, Life of Fred Maths, Teaching Textbook Maths are also fairly popular. When I started homeschooling 11 years ago I used materials from Christian Liberty Academy, and it's still going strong. So, no, BJU and A Beka are not the predominant curriculums anymore, as so much is available. But they're certainly still in the running.
There are so many options now it will make your head spin! There is just about something for everyone. I pick the best of what's out there...as best as I can to fit my kids. There is enough out there to change everything yearly! lol. I also make my own unit studies. I don't use any one curriculum. Now, Bob Jones is pretty popular still in my area. I have used it and have liked everything I used so far.
