homeschoolers: do you follow a packaged curriculum,?

Question

design your own curriculum through multiple sources, unschool, or some combination of the three?

Answer 1

We unschool. Our resources include, but are not limited to:

about five hundred books in our house, ranging from cardboard, fictions, nonfiction, school texts, to my college texts. The children read from all of them. We have about 200 hundred movies, of all genres, books on tape, and a room full of scales, puzzles, toys, manipulative's, board games, and crafts. We have a dresser full of word searches, workbooks, and sudoku's. We have five computers with internet access, memberships to two zoo's, four museums, three library systems, and our local homeschooling group. We have scouts, 4H, band, orchestra, playdates, sports. We have time to lay around in fields, forests and at the lake.
That's pretty much our curriculum. Take all that in, mix it all, relate it all to what we know, and move on! Packaged curriculum leave you to fill in someone else's blank sheets and are so expensive, designing a curriculum is okay, but unschooling takes the most work as you must always be on your toes, one step ahead of where your kids are going (taking an amount of prescience too) and you have to be flexible and open to how they are learning. I love it though, they've gone the farthest with this.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

We also use all three, but primarily design your own, using some different packaged curriculum (Saxon and Singapore Math, Easy Grammar, Apologia Science).

When I first started homeschooling, I religiously followed the recommendations in "The Well-Trained Mind", but that was taking HOURS each day, so we relaxed quite a bit. I didn't want homeschool to be "school" at home, so we've made lots of adjustments and tried lots of different curricula (even done some unschooling in areas of particular interest).

This year, I had purchased three of the Sonlight teacher's guides (two science, one lang. arts), but only the Lang. Arts lasted very long (a couple of months) before I dropped it. It was what I was looking for, but I realized I could do their plan on my own, so I did.

As someone else already stated, most new homeschoolers feel more comfortable with packaged curriculum that lays everything out for you. Usually, they find it doesn't work for them (or their child/ren) so they eventually end up switching to something else.

Curious how you'll pick a best answer for this question!

Answer 3

This is a personal decisions that you should prayerfully make. When you first begin homeschooling, many people feel safer going with an entire "package" from one supplier, such as Bob Jones University, etc. It eliminates the guesswork, and it makes you feel better, that so long as you complete it, you're not "missing anything".

Eventually, though, you will become a little more confident and realize that some suppliers are better at some subjects than they are at others, and that there are some things that your children might actually not need to do from a particular supplier.
That's when you may stick with the program, but use a different math, for example, or even get to a point where you're doing quite a bit of mixing and matching.

We mix and match. We started out with Christian Light Curriculum (the entire package). Eventually we switched to Saxon Math because they weren't very strong in math at the time (they're better now).

At this point, our 14 year old takes Saxon Math (Algebra I), Bob Jones University (Writing & Grammar 9), Apologia Science (Physical Science), Rosetta Stone (Spanish I--this one is a computer program), and an online class from Veritas Press/Academy called Omnibus I (Biblical & Classical Civilizations). (We plan to increase the number of online classes he takes to three next year by adding Latin I and Logic and continuing with Omnibus II.)

Our 4th grader is taking a mixture of courses too, including studying science from an informational book we purchased at Aldi several years ago for about $7 (I make my own tests, but it really is perfect for her age!). As far as I know, she isn't old enough for any online classes.

I think the key to a successful education lies not so much in the type of program you use (packaged, unschool, design your own, etc.), but in you as a parent having an active interest in having your children excel. Give them the best education you can, with whatever resources you have at your disposal. When one thing doesn't seem to work, drop it and go with what works. Keep your goals in mind (college, a good job after high school, any special character qualities you want to nurture in your child), and work toward those goals.

Answer 4

We use a combo of all three. We use unschooling in most areas, field trips, the computer, tons of books, etc. But the one exception is: I do like to use a packaged curriculum for Math. I have workbooks for my daughter and son that we use and don't unschool in that area. I think it can be done, but is much more difficult and harder to be creative and unschool in the area of Math. I do use Math games on the internet and computer games for fun sometimes and for practice, but the majority of our math work is using packaged math curriculum.

Answer 5

No, I don't follow a packaged curriculum. I tend to use a bit of this and that. I've got math manipulatives and different science books, Story of the World and an atlas, a globe, lots of books :D, some math workbooks the kids picked out for their grade level and other various items. The kids also do a lot of stuff just from their own interests.

Answer 6

Right now, I'm using my own curriculum for my 4 and 5 yr olds. We use the library a LOT, especially for phonics software and books. Once we get reading down, we're going to be using God's Design science curriculum. History and social studies we'll stick with our own curriculum, but for math we're going to be using Math U See. All the rest, like health and Bible History we're going to do ourselves as well.

I did a lot of research into packaged all-subject curriculums, but I think they take a lot of the fun out of planning. Plus I didn't really like every single aspect of any of them

Answer 7

We design our own curriculum using materials from different sources, unschool some topics of interest, use some distance learning classes, some co-op classes, some community classes.

Answer 8

When my kids were little we used Abeka. Many curricula for young kids just don't teach much, and Abeka is real learning starting in K-4. By the time my oldest reached second grade I was not as happy with the Abeka approach. Now my 2 are in grades 7 & 8, and here is what we use:
BJU Grammar, Literature, Science, & History
Abeka Spelling
Explorer's Bible Study
MathUSee Pre-Algebra and Algebra
Spectrum Writing
God's World News for Current Events
Praise Hymn Music
Learnables Spanish
Smaller books I found at Rainbow Resource for penmanship, geography, logic, character, editing, speed drills, etiquette & art.

We also play tennis nearly every day, and hike when we get a chance, and go to museums and zoos and art and science exhibitions, and they go through phases where they take classes like gymnastics and ice skating and fencing, and my daughter has extra art things [nice supplies] that she does on her own time and my son has science kits he does on his own time and we shoot off our model rocket and we play fetch with the dog and we invite people to church and clean the church and have scheduled game days...and we do yard work and clean house and cook and play board games and have books we read aloud as a family at night. We chase each other around the house with nerf toys and throw water balloons outside and jump on the trampoline and go on walks and take care of our ant farm and talk to relatives and friends on the phone. We email and sew on buttons and dip pretzels in melted chocolate and write thank you cards and call my husband at work. We wash the car and shop in used bookstores and splash in creeks and play hide 'n' seek with the dog and eat from the dollar menu at McDonalds.

We have fun. Their childhoods are slipping quickly away and I am so aware of that these days.

Answer 9

I think I do all three! I use k-12 but like for black history we are doing black baseball leagues & Mardi Gras also chinese new year. I might bake or have my son help cook dinner for science or take a nature walk. I want him to learn, but like for thanksgiving we did a Native American theme. I like a package for most stuff but love teaching him stuff on the side as he asks a lot of questions! Next week we are going to a farm some friends own to learn how to milk a cow and other stuff!

How about you do you homeschool??

Answer 10

I use the text books that I get from the book depository and supplement with worksheets. I stay away from the packaged curriculums.