HS newbie-intro & curriculum ?'s

[Lisoula]

Hi everyone! I am 99% sure that I will be pulling my ds#1 out of PS and homeschooling him. I have LOTS to learn, though, so I wanted to introduce myself, as I know I will have lots of questions for all of you wiser and more experienced HS mamas! I am very excited to start this new adventure, but a little nervous, too!

My first question is for those of you who use a purchased/pre-packaged/complete curriculum, which one do you use?

I am really drawn to the unit-based ones, and I would like one that is Christian-oriented. Have any of you used My Father's World or Creating a Sense of Wonder?

Thank you in advance for curriculum help...I'm going to really need it!

[elizawill]

hi,
i think you will find www.homeschoolreviews.com very helpful. i am also christian, and we really like "galloping the globe" mixed with some "five in a row". FIAR has a christian supplement. i don't own it though, as i teach bible as a separate subject. my dd is 6, and i'm not sure how old your child is. i have also heard good things about my father's world -- but i've honestly never seen it IRL. homeschool reviews should have feedback though....and i'm sure others here will chime in with what they use and like. good luck mama!!

[briansmama]

Hi Lisoula,

First, I want to say Congrats and good luck! We love homeschooling.

Second, I want to mention the importance in deschooling. I'm not sure how old your son is, but I've heard that the longer they have been in school, the more deschooling time they may need.

Schools can encourage children to dislike learning and may promote passive learning. Time for a child to decompress is necessary before they will be interested in learning again. It's that love for learning that many homeschoolers want to foster.

Enjoy being home with your son and watching him become absorbed with what he finds interesting.

[Lisoula]

Thanks for the input. My son is 6 - almost 7 - and in 1st grade. I'll check out the Galloping the Globe link........

[Lillian J]

Since you're just getting oriented, I'll take it upon myself, as someone who's already finished the homeschool journey, to suggest that it might be a good idea to wait before buying a curriculum, especially if you're going to be withdrawing him from school before this school year is over. Most experienced homeschoolers I've known who bought a curriculum as they began would say, if they were here , that they wasted their money. I've heard this over and over again. When you're just getting started, you don't have a good perspective yet on what's going to work well for your unique child and/or what his particular needs or your needs are. And children who have been in school usually need some time for decompression/deschooling in the beginning. Some even feel that it requires a month for every year they've been in school. And during that period, you have lots of time to investigate your options for materials while you relax with your child in a new way the doesn't involve the need for formalized studies. If a child has been having a hard time in school, there's all the more reason to allow for plenty of time to morph over into a different way of thinking of themselves and of themselves in relation to learning - they've often been through a lot more than a parent might realize, because it's so hard for a child to be able to articulate the feelings going on inside - and they've often lost some self-esteem and have taken on a skewed and unpleasant idea about what learning is.

If you'd like to pursue Christian-oriented materials, you can easily do that without buying a fully packaged curriculum. It's both fun and satisfying to be able to customize materials to your child. There are lots of articles of all kinds, and lots of wonderful materials of all kinds discussed in the Eclectic Homeschool Online website, a large Christian site run by some wonderful and very experienced people who have already homeschooled some of their kids all the way through. I really think it would be a wonderful investment of time to just kick back and read there before even thinking about buying anything.

Enjoy the journey! Lillian

[elizawill]

lisoula, if you do check out "galloping the globe", i want to be sure to explain what it is first. it's not a curriculum that is mapped out for you at all really. it's a unit study approach with suggested resources compiled together that you can choose from to teach your child (but you will need to collect the resources yourself through the library or buying them). it does have reproducible worksheets/activities to go along with the countries, which my dd enjoys. i personally love GtG, but i also really prefer creating my own curriculum through picking and choosing what best suits my dd's learning style. it is not a day-by-day "teach this" curriculum at all, and it's really just a book of ideas for doing a unit study. i just wanted to tell you this, as i would hate for you to purchase it and be disappointed. hugs mama

[homeschoolingmama]

We use Sonlight. It is a curriculum that is basically mapped out for you. It is a literature based program. For example..Learning about a war would be more of a story than a text book. Get what I mean? You can choose their Math program that they suggest or you can choose from somewhere else. Their website is Sonlight.com. Good luck and congratulations on deciding to homeschool!

[swellmomma]

I have never used it but have heard KONOS is a create unit study program that is christian based. Like the above poster we use SOnlight a literature based program as opposed to unit studies. Though in addition to the science program from sonlight we do mini units with lapbooking and experiements etc.