Tell me about about curriculum in a box or all inclusive curriculum

[Paxjourney]

I'm thinking about using an all inclusive curriculum. I know about Abeka, Sonlight and Calvert. I've ruled out Calvert, my SMIL (step mother in law) homeschools as well and used Calvert this past year with my 1st grade and 5th grade nieces and it wasn't a good fit for them and I've had a good chance to look it over and I don't think it would be a good fit for us as well. We don't homeschool for religious reasons but I've heard good things about Abeka and Sonlight. I'm looking more for a core program. I can supplement and add too.

[tankgirl73]

One of the great things about homeschooling is that you can try something, and if it doesn't work, you can change it.  Many folks like to use a planned-out curriculum-in-a-box when they're just starting, or if they're facing a busy, stressful year.  If you try it and it's not flexible enough for you, you can always try something different next year, or you never know maybe it will be perfect!  :)

In addition to the ones mentioned, look into things like Oak Meadow, Enki, Christopherus, Moving Beyond the Page, K12, and Earthschooling. Many of those have different types of approaches than traditional 'school at home' but they're still a 'laid out for you' program.  There's also things like Ambleside Online, which is not a curriculum but a guide for doing a Charlotte Mason style education on your own.

[Paxjourney]

Thanks! I'll look into those. I feel confident in not using a box curriculum with my 4th grader but for some reason not so much with my K/1 grader.

I think because DD1 came into homeschooling already knowing how to read and write and DD2 Is now learning those skills. We don't so much "school at Home". We are pretty relaxed and go in the direction of their interests for most things. For core subjects we do keep with a weekly goal of things to accomplish but if that happens over the course of 2 days in one subject and 4 in another that's fine to.

[lmonter]

I used Sonlight last year and am going to again this year for my oldest (my younger ones are still a big young for it).  You can still kind of ignore the religious bent if you want, but there are a few missionary/religious/mention-of-God books in there, and the Bible schedule is the very first thing on the page.  We're Christian, but on a fairly relaxed path about it (rather than being forceful) and went with a different Bible that was better for the attention span of last year.  I really like the books (that I don't dread reading, except for the older Mother Goose book we had, I switched it out for a different one), and that I can check off the boxes as we finish things.  Sometimes we hammer out a week's worth of reading in a few days, sometimes it takes two weeks if we've got a bunch of other things going on.

Ambleside Online can also be seen as somewhat similar to Sonlight, but you do make up more of your own schedule and plans and such (vs. having it all in front of you with definitions of less-used words and mapping ideas and such).  Just depends what all you're looking for.  For my 5yo and 3yo I'm doing my own little version of BFIAR, and activities all of us can do (or that at least the 7yo and 17mo can tolerate).

[Reebekah]

alpha omega offers several choices...lifepacs, weaver, switched on schoolhouse, horizons.

[emilys_mom1]

Have you looked at My Father's World.  We have use the kindergarten, first grade, and now Adventures with them and really love it.

[wombatclay]

We are not a Christian family, but we use Sonlight thanks to the "tweaks" provided by the SecularSonlight yahoo group.  There is also a message board for secular homeschoolers (here) that has some great threads about adapting "complete programs" to the needs of your individual family.  Either of those might be good resources to check out.

You might look into the Intellego unit studies too.  Although they can be purchased and used like traditional unit studies, they've designed a framework and progression to create a complete curriculum.  You would need to add a math program and phonics/reading/writing type program but the core is all there.  Ambleside Online and Simply Charlotte Mason also offer free complete curriculums for the preK-12 set.  These are pretty easy to tweak since they are really just "reading lists" and possible time lines for completing the reading list.  They both have forums and yahoo groups associated with them (including a secularCM group) to help with scheduling and with finding the books used in the different grades.  The upside is it's easy to tweak and it's free.  The downside is that you still have to go and find/buy all the materials and the Charlotte Mason approach to science may not be what you have in mind.

We have used Oak Meadow and Moving Beyond the Page in the past,  We liked them both, but they are very different programs.  Oak Meadow is "complete complete" with math and language built into the core program, but it is very "laid back" in the early years.  Reading and Math concepts are taught, but at a much slower pace than they are in many other HS programs or public/private schools.  My dd1 found the progress too slow (the pace picks up and evens out around 3rd-4th grade or so and we might go back to them then) and although we enjoy a lot of the Waldorf philosophy we didn't really like the way that philosophy was used for Math and Reading in the early grades.

Moving Beyond the Page is more or less complete... you purchase a basic package and then add the math and language program of your choice (language is combined with the core program in later grades, you can buy math programs through MBTP but have to find your own language program).  Again, we liked it and we had a good time, but I found the art distracting and in places it even made the program difficult to use (it's hand drawn in a "child like" style and both kiddos and I would prefer to have a picture of a "real" penguin if we're learning about penguins rather than an oval with a cutsie face drawn on it) and although there was a lot of hands on activity which was great, it also involved a lot of work on the part of the teacher (sections that would end with "now go to the library and find books on X" or "now go online and find 5 different pictures of Y to share with your child").  We're keeping several parts of the MBTP program (specifically RighStart Math and Life of Fred) but I don't think we'll go back to MBTP.

While Sonlight isn't perfect, the more or less complete nature of the Core rocks.  We're expecting our fourth child in late August/early Sept, we live far enough away from the library that we can't go frequently, and I live in a state with pretty detailed/significant HSing requirements so I really really REALLY wanted a curriculum that would take care of as much of the work as possible.  We're finishing our fourth week of Sonlight and so far it's exactly what I hoped for.  The secular sonlight group tweaks have been great, we kept RightStart Math and are using REAL Science Odyssey (a secular program) instead of Sonlight Science, but really the instructor guide and Sonlight provided daily framework is taking care of any planning I might have to do, everything I needed came in the box, and it provides the record for my reporting... so I'm a happy camper.

[spruce]

We used Sonlight Readers  for years, and we're a VERY non-religious family. 

For 2 years now, we've been using Moving Beyond the Page, and we've really enjoyed it.

This year, we're thinking of moving in a more Waldorfy direction, and trying to fit it into our non-religious way of learning.  Live-Ed is what I'm looking at right now for my 10yo, 7yo, and 5yo. 

Good luck!

love, p

[spruce]

I meant to add that MBtP is wonderful, until it comes to standardized testing time.  My son can do very difficult math in his head, but Right Start Math really doesn't give them many tools to help them with passing tests. 

I *KNOW* it's not the tests that matter!  however, in our state, our funds come from a "correspondence" homeschool that lets us pick our own curriculum as long as we take the standardized tests, beginning in 3rd grade. 

This past year, we spent a considerable amount of time teaching our son how to do math on paper, not just in his head, so he could pass the math standards test.   I love Right Start Math because it makes sense, but it does add another level of necessity to your teaching...that of teaching them how to write down their math processes.