Overwhelmed and needing some direction!

[desertpenguin]

Ds1 will be 8 in November. I have bought one school year for ds1 from Sonlight, because I liked the literature based approach but no longer feel it is right for us, since we aren't Christian (more like some Christian, Buddhist, Pagan, and Native American beliefs all intermingled). Ds1 is "behind" and not really reading much yet, I haven't done well in keeping up with teaching the past 2.5 years or so due to lots of things (stress, depression, a divorce, moving half way across the country twice, crappy living situations, etc) but I'm determined to get back on track immediately. But I have no idea where to start to find curriculum for us. I liked having something all packaged and ready to go to minimize the amount of time trying to pick and choose as well as something more organized and structured to help me stay on track. Loved the idea of being able to reuse the majority of the program with my other children. I like some of Montessori but not sure how well I could do that, we're very limited on funds and somewhat limited on space.  I think ds1 is perhaps more right-brained and maybe a kinesthetic learner. Is there any way to test to determine those things? I imagine that would help narrow down the options as far as curriculum goes. I tried to start researching last night and felt instantly overwhelmed. I don't want to spend months having to research since ds1 is behind already. 

[NellieKatz]

How about, rather than just one curriculum, instead follow something like the World Book guide that provides a "typical course of study" for each grade level. That way you can teach any way you like, using any resources you like (perhaps from the library) depending on the child's style and needs, and you can feel like you're not missing anything. And if the child is "behind" in a certain subject, it doesn't really matter because they may pick it up later. I found this guide EXTREMELY helpful.

http://www.worldbook.com/typical-course-of-study
 

[desertpenguin]

Wow, thank you so much! That is very helpful!

[onlyzombiecat]

We have used Sonlight as secular homeschoolers. We just leave out books with religious content. If you have a question about whether a book is religious or not I would be happy to answer. The majority of the books are non-religious. If you still have the Sonlight curriculum you bought you could still use it this year.

Even leaving out a few books there is plenty of content with Sonlight. When we did Intro to World History part 1 (core B) we actually stretched it out over 2 years.

I do not use the Sonlight science instructor guides or the Sonlight language arts instructor guides.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SonlightSecular/

[desertpenguin]

Yes, this is what we were doing previously however I no longer feel I can conscionably use the Sonlight curriculum. After I learned about Abeka books having curriculum teaching that “God used the Trail of Tears to bring many Indians to Christ.” I became extremely appalled and I started to ponder the issue more, thought about some of the books we had received as part of the curriculum from Sonlight and felt that they teach and promote things that we do not wish to support with our own hard-earned money.

 

 

 http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/08/17/bible-based-curriculum-says-the-trail-of-tears-was-a-path-to-christ-129744

[onyxravnos]

I also use sonlight in a secular way but as a curriculum suggestion have you looked at Oak Meadow? Not too exspensive and good for right brained kids. You can always add bits here and there if you want to and feel up to it but if you can't then it's all right there for you. The website gives you a  breakdown of what is taught at each grade and you can order a sample for any grade k-8 to get a feel for it.

[zebra15]

To address some of your previous questions:

Have you been to barnes and noble or a similar bookstore?  Most have a 'school' type section with workbooks.  My son liked the 'Kumon' books when he was younger and if I remember correctly they have a series for reading and writing.  He also still likes the 'Spectrum' series for reading and writing.  We've also used 'Reading for your gifted student'. Don't be deterred by the title. There are tons of open ended questions and non-traditional type pages in there.  My kiddo is G/T but many on grade level and below level kids could benefit from this line of books as well.

Here are some amazon links

http://www.amazon.com/Grade-Reading-Kumon-Workbook/dp/1934968773/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345401849&sr=8-1&keywords=kumon+reading+grade+3

http://www.amazon.com/Phonics-Grade-3-Spectrum/dp/0769682936/ref=pd_sim_b_7

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Gifted-Student-Grade-For/dp/1411434293/ref=pd_cp_b_1

Another thought for reading is just to go to the library as well. (the childrens librarian can be your best friend!) My kiddo is almost 12 and reads everything and anything from picture books to adult non fiction.  He watches DVD's with the Closed Caption on.  Leapfrog has a series of DVD"s to help with reading as well.

http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-Talking-Roy-Allen-Smith/dp/B001U7NW20/ref=pd_cp_mov_2

[desertpenguin]

Thanks everyone, I will be checking out the other links. I just purchased a book about learning how to read for my son from Amazon, it should get here soon hopefully. I have a few workbooks for him that go over basics in math etc but I have a hard time remembering to do it with him every day like I should. It's hard to keep up with everything, :-/

[greenmagick]

From what I have read, Moving Beyond the Page and Five in a Row are both similar in ways to Sonlight but are secular (well, technically FIAR is written by Christians but they have a separate guide and resources for religious stuff, its not part of the main program),