Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum
Posted on : 17-03-2010 | By : Kathy | In : Child Training, College At Home, Frugal Living, Homeschooling, Organization Tips, Teenagers
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- ACE – We mostly use these cute booklets for Math, but we use them for other subjects, too. Especially if you have many children, do not make homeschooling too hard on yourself! This is an example of a great curriculum that makes your life much easier.
- I wouldn’t recommend a Christian school that uses this curriculum because you have to sit in cubicles all day and do nothing creative! But they are perfect for the home. We sit on couches, cuddle, talk about what we don’t understand, and use different books if the ACE ones aren’t cutting it.
- The kids love this curriculum! They enjoy the Scripture memory within each book, the comics within each book, and the clear explanations.
- They are so self-explanatory, so the children are able to figure out the directions by themselves! They are able to teach themselves the math concepts — even Algebra. I have one-on-one meetings with them and help with questions.
- There are 12 little booklets per subject per grade, so when they finish one, they are rewarded by getting to have a totally new booklet! This gives life, freshness, and a sense of accomplishment.
- They are a little on the easy side, so that helps to keep the kids above grade-level.
- They add Godly character lessons to most subjects.
- They teach Godly history and science.
- They make it easy to be organized since they are workbooks.
- The kids can grade their own work.
- ATI – We don’t use this one like we’re supposed to, but we love it! When we have time, I read it aloud to the kids, and there are such amazing insights that I’ve never heard before about history, medicine, Greek, law, and other subjects — all based on the Sermon on the Mount. To use it you have to go to 3 seminars, though! The seminars are well worth-it and have changed our lives.
- Sequential Spelling – I only think this is necessary with your poor spellers, if you have any. It has been great for my poor speller, and it has helped him in other areas, too, such as handwriting, vocabulary, and mmmmm … can’t think of the others.
- Japanese for Young People – This only works if you already know how to read the phonetical Japanese alphabets. But you could probably find an explanation of that online. If you don’t already speak Japanese you should order the tapes that go with this curriculum so you can use it with your kids. But you don’t have to teach them Japanese! I just thought you might be interested in what I have started using with Josh, Matt, and Beth… I also have some old flashcards from a friend that teach tricks on how to memorize the letters.
- Tons of used books from garage sales, curriculum sales, second-hand stores, etc. My rule is that the kids have to finish their Math first thing, and then be doing something educational all morning until lunch. If they would rather read Flies Taste with Their Feet than their ACE Science book, that is okay with me. We collect old used textbooks, too, that look boring to me, but often the kids devour them because they are reading them out of their own interest. We didn’t have many books when we started schooling but have just sort of collected them over the years. We often give them as Christmas and birthday presents. One thing that helps them to be interested in things, too, is that we don’t have video games, videos (except on date night or family pizza parties), or television as options (any time of day).
- An old set of encyclopedias for the same purpose (But remember there will be ungodly pictures and information in them) Old encyclopedias and used educational books are very economical!
- Never Too Early to Pass On the Faith – This book convinced me to try to (based on how many little ones I had to take care of at the time!) begin teaching my kids how to read when they were three years old. Some of the kids have read their first word when they were three. For my dyslexic child, it took him a bit longer. He was glad I started him early because that gave him lots of time to catch up to his grade level. When he was seven, he could read!
- Christ-centered Alphabet Wall Cards – I feel that my first job with my little ones is to give them a firm foundation in reading. Then they can learn, learn, learn!! These cards are designed to hang on the wall, but I use them as flash cards for my 3-year-olds. (I do not recommend the Christ-centered workbooks because they were difficult for the kids to figure out and very boring)
- The kids like the cards because they are so big!
- They are colorful!
- They teach Bible concepts (although the deep theology on the back is too involved for the kiddos)
- I started with short vowels and consonants. For most of my kids, that was all that was needed. For my dyslexic child, I went back through every card to make sure he understood every sound. I told him that it had been my mistake, and I apologized for not teaching him everything.
- Various Phonics Readers – I was not taught to read with phonics as a child, and I didn’t feel confident in reading for many years. My teacher just sat me in a circle with “See Jane Run.” It’s probably fun to watch a kid memorize those words (just by looking at the first letter in some cases) and take off reading those books, but in the real world that child will have to be able to de-code! Teaching phonics rules doesn’t have to be boring. With the curriculums below it is fun! I almost think it is cruel to hand kids books without letting them in on the rules of the English language. Then they are left to “guess words” the rest of their lives. When I read Why Johnny Can’t Read as a teacher I finally understood why I never was able to understand those Agatha Christie novels that my mother wanted me to read. (I guess that could be a good thing! :O) I have heard it said that English doesn’t have rules, that it is just like Chinese or Japanese in that every word is a “sight word”. As a Japanese speaker (and somewhat of a reader!) I can say that English is totally different than those languages. And even within the Chinese characters there are radicals (parts) that the kids learn.
- Decodable Little Books – This is actually one reproducible book for $11.95 that I love! It has 20 little stories inside that only use short vowel sound words. The stories are very short, so they don’t wear out the beginning reader. And the pictures are so cute. I usually have the child read each story only once and then go on to the next one the next day, unless they seem to need more practice.
- Max the Cat Readers – These are so interesting to the kids and get them excited about reading. I threw away a few that I didn’t agree with.
- Bible Stories for Early Readers – I’m doing these with Andrew right now, and he really enjoys them. (He also liked the other readers. We are taking a bread from the Max the Cat series because our next one is Squire’s Square Deal, which is pretty hard. Bible Stories for Early Readers are kind of long. So I got him past long vowels, short vowels, and consonant blends in the Max series, and now we are going back and doing the short vowel books in BSforER. That way, since he is confident in short vowels, he is not getting bogged down with the length of the BSforER stories, but is gaining confidence since now they are pretty easy for him. Don’t worry! I don’t really know what I’m doing — It just sort of happens! If you don’t know what consonant blends and short vowels are, it will still happen just great! :O)
- Handwriting Without Tears – This is an amazing handwriting curriculum that honestly is the first one I’ve used without tears. The kids love the illustrations, and somehow she has thought of every way to make cursive or other handwriting learnable for the student. There are so many unnecessary ways that we were taught handwriting that made it so complicated! But these books have ways to remember and do-able techniques that just make sense! After I had had several years of doing baby care and not much handwriting instruction, I took the kids through the book that is designed for older kids to improve their printing. That has been great, too.
- Memorize in Minutes – The Times Tables – My kids have never had a problem with math, but suddenly this year I realized that one of my children was just drawing pictures in his math book because he truly didn’t understand the problems! (I’m a little slow… :O) Going through this book and having the kids act out the stories finally cemented the facts in his brain. And it was fun, too!
- Math U See – I do not use this the way that I am supposed to! But when I had a child who was just not getting his times tables, I found it very helpful for him to watch the (used) videos and just make sure he was understanding what the teacher was saying. I did not buy the workbooks. I am a certified math teacher in Texas, but I was just not getting through to this child about multiplication. I got the manipulatives (used) so he could do the work with his fingers and “feel” what the teacher was saying, too. The man on the videos is a very skilled and patient teacher, and I like the way he presents the material. Each lesson is very thought through. The other kids watched, too, and thought it was interesting. We watched several videos in one day and paused if the aforementioned child didn’t get something.
- God’s World News Top Story for current events. I like the Top Story edition — I get only one copy for all of us to share. It is designed for young kids, but the older kids enjoy it, too. Top Story doesn’t cover a lot of heavy subjects, and it is relatively short. I read it out loud to everyone, and when I have tried to read the longer, more advanced versions, I got bogged down because it took too long.
- College at Home for kids who have finished Algebra – See other articles on this site about this. Micah has two tests left to graduate! (age 16) You really don’t have to be a prodigy to do this! Woohoo!! Thank you Lord.
Most of all, hang in there, Mom. Christ in you can do this! Even homeschool moms who are not high school graduates have better educated kids than public school kids. Tests show it!



