We have been homeschooling our children for the past 5 years, since our oldest was in Kindergarten. Like other homeschool families, our reasons for homeschooling are many, ranging from wanting to individualize the learning to discipling our kids in faith.
Our family started with My Father’s World curriculum, and we have continued with it every year. As a school counselor by trade, I liked the idea of a curriculum that was already designed for me, so I know they are not developing gaps in their learning. I also love their choices in books, including lots of Usborne books that illustrate concepts wonderfully. It is a literature based curriculum, and ‘book basket’, or reading topic oriented books on their own every day is a big part of the learning. There are also a lot of read aloud assignments, which I love. My Father’s World does a great job with read aloud book selection, and we have found a few new favorites from each year’s curriculum.
Creation from A to Z/Kindergarten was a wonderful, gentle way to help my son adjust from public school to homeschooling. He loved it and really flourished. We were sold, and we never looked back! Two years later we added our younger son ‘officially’ when we began the 2nd grade curriculum, Adventures in U.S. History, although he usually tagged along with us anytime we were doing school work. This year we are working through Exploring Countries and Cultures, and we meet weekly with another family we found who is in the same place in the learning cycle. The other mom runs the science experiment for the week, and I teach the art lesson. I find myself getting so excited about the lesson and scouring the internet for an art project that will go along with the unit we are working through. It is nice for us to get together, and even nicer to divvy up the teaching load.
What do you use for homeschooling curriculum? What are your favorite aspects of it?
Scrappy Crafty Mama 