I'm brand spanking new at this and I'm trying to figure out my game plan. Should I buy one of those all in one box sets or just go it alone? Do you guys know of any curriculum planning sites? Thanks for reading! I'm sorry if this has already been discussed!
For some subjects I make up my own curriculum using the library, internet, and ABC Teach. Others I purchase a curriculum for, but I have never purchased a box curriculum like Abeka to use for every subject. We have used many different curricula over our years, some we've liked and some we didn't. Really it's just a matter of knowing your kids and getting curricula that works for both you and them.
I don't believe in boxed sets. I don't like people "boxing in" what my x-grader should be doing. You might find a 10yo might be doing 6th grade language, 4th grade math, 5th science and history....
I started out by simply making sure to cover what we needed to for our state, we have no specifics, just subjects. I used a wide variety of resources and a few workbooks from Sam's Club... back then they regularly carried Spectrum, we used some of them, some of the Complete Book of... workbooks (I think they have now quit carrying them, but they are cheap and available all over the place), and a Comprehensive Curriculum book. These cheap workbooks made a great spine for the things like grammar and writing and math. Our social studies came from a variety of places, we loved "living books" for both and still enjoy them. I also used the Worldbook's typical course of study as a guide to make sure what to cover each year. I enjoyed the planning and we never seemed to get bored. Eventually I found all these wonderful message boards, and with them all the different curricula items available. Big downfall for us, I started trying to keep up with the Jones' and well we have all started to hate our day to day schooling. I'm going back to making my own for the most part. I will be using a different guideline, because it has more detail. Now my oldest will be working on things that are "bought" but it's because he does better if "someone else" is giving the assignments and he can work independantly. My younger kids will be using the Core Knowledge Sequence as my guide, with a little Well-Trained Mind and Charlotte Mason flair thrown in. The Worldbook guide can be found here: http://www.worldbook.com/typical-course-of-study.html
I make up my own curriculum for some subjects. If you are just starting out I would pick a subject or two where you will design your own curriculum and purchase what you need for other subjects. When I design a study I choose a topic, find the main book or books I want to use and fill it in with more books and some activities. In my signature I have a link to a botany study I put together. I used one main book and a couple other books.
When I first started homeschooling my ds, I bought the 5-subject set of Lifepacs. From there I found out what worked for us and what didn't. By the time he was done and I retired from public school, eleven years ago, I have chosen my "favorites" for each subject and usually start out a new kid with what I think will work for that kid - but if I find something doesn't work, I'll change over to my Plan B for that subject or even Plan C, but it's still "boughten" stuff. I have my favorite supplements, too.
I've been homeschooling for 7 years now...well, almost finished my 7th year...anyway... When I first started out - I sorta winged it...I was only teaching one and i was living in a state that had no regulation (or none that effected me due to my child's age). I tried a bunch of different things. When I moved to PA, I felt like I needed to have a boxed curricula b/c the state would be checking in on me, PA is one of the more regulated states. We used Lifepacs for two years, and then they just started to not work, boring my daughter, etc. I encountered Sonlight through a friend, and thought oooooo prettttyyyyyy....I couldn't afford it, though. So I designed my own Sonlight-esque curricula. We did do MFW this year, but we're going back to my own designed curricula. I like to pick the history text, THEN wrap everything around that history. With each chapter of history they'll read books based on that period/chapter, they fill out a form with each chapter that includes copywork, narration and dictionary work. Science usually follows History, too. My kids do science through a co-op, so I can just add what I feel will not overwhelm them. After using someone else's schedule this year - and even though I adored the material - I am really looking forward to going back to my own thing again this year. You need to do what will make you feel confident in what you're doing. It took me several years just to realize that I know my kids best, I know how they learn best, and even if my closest friend has something that works for her does not mean it's going to work for me, and I have to be okay with that. I finally am. I am who I am, I am the homeschooler I am, and just because it doesn't look like someone else's day it's not worse or better, just different. I hope that make sense, my doc has me on heavy duty pain killers until I can get into see them tomorrow! LOL
I went with the big "box" this year. Some of it was good, some of it was OK and some of it was never touched. They wanted my 5th grader to read 1-2 chapters of a book and move on. (Ummm, no!) Though I guess if he liked the book, he could have read it on his own and if he hated it he only spent a small amount of time on it. My 3rd grader was worse, the reading was way to young for him, the vocab and spelling were ok and he didn't get the math at all. I spent a lot of time and asked LOTS of questions and finally "built" my own curriculum. I really thought about going with Moving Beyond the Page but the fact that Social Studies and Science were switched off didn't work for me. We decided to go with Sonlight (I've purchased some of the IG's used and will buy the others next month.) I picked Spelling Power which I can use with all 3 that I have AND my 2 younger children coming up. I went with Wordly Wise for Vocab. Easy Grammar for Grammar. And Wordsmith for writing. I'm checking out 2 science programs (real science 4 kids) and Singapore (both Secular programs). And I'm still stuck on Math. My 3rd grader did great with Aleks this year (after struggling with a regular text) but I'm considering Teaching Textbooks for my 6th grader and Apex for my Math genius.
I currently make up ours. I look online for lesson plans, units, lapbooks etc. Some amazing things can be found by looking at resources on various university/college sites. I tune them to what level the kids are at and go from there. I will be looking for a french curriculum and a math curriculum for Ds who is going at math heavily.
I started my first year with a box curricula. Well not like you get from AO or anything. I got one like this. Where they pulled from this and that an through it all together for me. It was alright for our first year, there were a few things that did not get done. Like science, reading, history from a textbook, way too boring. Yet I did find somethings in it we ended up loving. The following year we did it differently. I researched like crazy and found other stuff I believed would work for my son (my oldest) better than what we did before. This has worked awesome for us. I still use someone else's plan on what to do, but not to a T. I am not confident enough in myself to make my own curriculum for a full subject. I tend to over do it, get off track and well it doesn't get done like it needs to. Like I have found we LOVE R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey and I have no problems following what she has written out to do. We have found that Saxon math works for us. So, my suggestion for you is get a Rainbow Resource catalog and start reading and reading, asking questions and more questions. Read this forum and read at wtm also. You will end up with a huge amount of information and tons of help.
