Another Year Of Homeschooling

Choosing curriculum, each year, proves to be more than a little overwhelming. My first year I made the mistake of walking into a giant homeschooling expo in the Phoenix conference center…by myself. My first mistake, I should have had some backup. By about the third isle of brightly colored books and every conceivable workbook, I was ready to curl up in the fetal position and cry.

My second mistake was going to the expo needing to purchase materials. After wandering around that conference center for five hours, I went ahead and made my decisions. I purchased everything and had it shipped to my home. What I should have done was pay a little extra, and gone to a bookstore for homeschoolers to have the privilege of choosing my materials with the option of returning anything I was less than pleased with.

The expo was filled with books and binders from floor to ceiling, and every single sales person claimed their materials were the best on the market. I could not get a single sales rep to give me one downside to their program. I’m a big fan of companies who are willing to admit to the pitfalls of their products. I tend to be more trusting if there is an acknowledgement of possible buyer’s remorse.

I am only in my fourth year of homeschooling my kids, so I have not had to make these decisions for very long. The first two years I struggled to cut away from public education and opted for an online version of the brick and mortar schooling my children were used to. The second year of online public schooling was torture and we opted out of that insanity. I have kids in every phase of the schooling experience. We have had to find a high school, middle school, and elementary school options for the kids.

We are utilizing BJU Press for the following courses for both 6^th and 3^rd grade.

Heritage Studies

Science

Reading

English

Spelling

Evan-Moor has some wonderful writing and editing course work. We are using their materials for both 6^th and 3^rd grade for the following courses.

Vocabulary

Writing

Language Fundamentals

Paragraph Editing

I was sad when I heard the public schools were starting to do away with handwriting curriculum. I have two boys, and they both need to practice their handwriting, or they will only be eligible for work positions that require prescription writing. We have done Writing Without Tears for two years. I’ve only cried twice.

Saxon Math is the program of choice in our home for both my 3^rd and 6^th grader. It has a strong building block methodology. The new material is taught and then tested over and over. I still believe that repetition is the master key to most learning. And Saxon has that down.

We have been reading Story of the World, by Susan Wise Bauer, for the last two years and will continue again this year. She lays out the history of earth from the beginning through modern day. It is a chronological layout of the big and important wars and times of great peace that shaped the world we now live in. I have a feeling the kids are going to want to go back and reread all four books once we get through round one. It is a favorite in our home.

If I could go back and give myself some advice four short years ago, it would be to go to Mardel Book Store, or one of a number of other homeschooling supply stores to make my purchases. Those stores are happy to tell customers what others have said about each program carried by the supplier. They will tell you the good, bad and ugly of each education style. They will also accept returns on items you are not thrilled with—just keep your receipt.