Homeschool Curriculums - Elementary Age

1,530 Views | 3 Replies | Last: 3 yr ago by Rocky Top Aggie
waco_aggie05
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AG
Howdy! My wife and I, who both are blessed to work from home, are seriously considering backing out of public school and going to a Christian based homeschool curriculum. For any of you who have walked this road, do you have any reccomendations, curriculum or otherwise?

TIA!
Patriarch
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AG
waco_aggie05 said:

Howdy! My wife and I, who both are blessed to work from home, are seriously considering backing out of public school and going to a Christian based homeschool curriculum. For any of you who have walked this road, do you have any reccomendations, curriculum or otherwise?

TIA!


Sure. Just saw your post. Will try to circle back tomorrow. How old are your kids? [edit: just saw the subject says "elementary age" -- I was trained in public school.]
histag10
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AG
I dont, but i have friends who use Memoria Press for elementary aged kids and love it.
Patriarch
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histag10 said:

I dont, but i have friends who use Memoria Press for elementary aged kids and love it.
We've used Memoria Press (for latin and logic I believe) and were happy with the materials.

I haven't had time to write a comprehensive response to this question, but it really depends on the ages of your students and what your goals are. We've homeschooled our kids for 20 years and used various curriculum and approaches over that time.

If you have relatively young children and are making this lifestyle change, I'd recommend The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. It was one of the best resources for us early in the process. (https://www.amazon.com/Well-Trained-Mind-Classical-Education-Fourth/dp/0393253627) It not only talks about approaches and goals, but also recommends curriculum.

Our most successful and enjoyable curriculum have been Saxon for Math (with scattered attempts to supplement with Singapore); Rod and Staff for elementary and middle school English; WTM's books for elementary and middle school history; Veritas Press' materials for high school history, literature, and theology; and Apologia for middle and high school science. One of the "best" curriculum I've seen for history/literature/theology is Tapestry of Grace, but we were never able to get our arms around it or have the time to use it correctly. We've also used online classes from Veritas Press and Monarch.

Rocky Top Aggie
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Hi! We will be starting our second year of homeschooling (2nd and 4th graders) in a few weeks. We decided to homeschool last year after finally getting frustrated enough with the public school system.

There are TONS of curriculum options and it can be overwhelming.
Here's what helped us last year as we were getting started:
-watch this video with your spouse (keep an open mind, it kind of sounds cheesy at times but it is worth it) and take the "quiz" independently.
This will help you figure out which curriculum will be a good fit for your educational philosophy/style.

-then research curricula that fall within that style

-know that your homeschool day will NOT look like a public school day (that's the beauty of homeschool!!!)

-don't stress out.

My husband actually does the homeschooling (and runs our livestock operation/farm) while I work outside the home. It works for us but is certainly not the norm of other homeschool families near us.

Our kids go to a co-op once per week where they take a science class (from a Christian/Biblical/Creation perspective), art, and choir.

With all of that being said, we use Simply Charlotte Mason curriculum. The Bible is the core for bible, geography, and history lessons and is family taught (all grades together with some added books/lessons depending on grade level). Then we add in math (we use Singapore) and language arts based on grade level/ability. We also do poetry, music, and art studies plus lots of life skills (farm work, chores, etc) and physical activity and play time.
Their typical school day starts with doing Bible memory verses during breakfast around 7:30-8 am then progressing through Bible/geography/ history, math, language arts, P.E. and some chores. They're typically finished by 11:15-11:30. Then lunch, farm work/outside play/reading, etc. until I get home and we do 20 minutes or so of the poetry, music, art, etc (one topic each day of the week).

Our state is flexible so we can also count church services, Sunday school/bible class as school hours as well as anything else educational. For example, we all attend our state Cattlemen's conference each year and the kids sit in on some of the talks and take notes, plus they talk to people in the trade show.

My kids know wayyyy more Bible and their math has greatly improved during the last year. They're both excellent readers but that has just gotten better as well. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we plan to homeschool from here on out.

Best of luck and if you have questions let me know.
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