Home School?

Question

I have recently started homeschooling my 7th grade daughter. While I am an elementary school teacher by training, this is a new adventure for both of us. Does anyone have sggestions on curriuclums etc. I want a classic approach - and one with a Christian slant is fine. I have found the "prepackaged" programs to be fairly expenisve. I would love all input. Thank you.

Answer 1

I have experience with Texas Tech. It does not follow a classical approach, and it can be very expensive. Your basic 6 highschool credit year can cost you close to $2000. They follow the Texas Education Agency mandate for public schools (which means your basic high schooler enrolled in this program will be learning the exact same thing the public school students are learning)

For a classical approach, The Well Trained Mind is excellent, but may I add:
All Through The Ages by Christine Miller (excellent reference book)
Educating The Whole Hearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson
Veritas Press, Beautiful Feet, and Tapestry of Grace all are literature based programs and work nicely with a classical approach
www.classicalhomeschooling.com which is a series of four magazines that discuss classical homeschooling in depth
and
homeschooling.gomilpitas.com which has TONS of info on approaches, programs and so on. (go to methods then choose Classical.)
You can keep your cost down on this type of homeschooling by using the library and their online resources.
Kudos to you, this is an awesome approach to education!

Answer 2

The best "guide" for classical homeschooling is "The Well-Trained Mind" (TWTM) by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise-Bauer. They are a mother-daughter team who are now homeschooling a second generation (Susan's kids). BTW - Susan is a college professor, so yes, homeschooling does work and no, your child will not necessarily become a social misfit if you homeschool.

I agree that the prepackaged curricula are expensive, and rarely does an entire curricula work for even one child in all subjects. TWTM has a list of resources for every subject at every stage (grammar, logic, rhetoric). It is literature-intense, so much of what you will need can come from the library. It is not particularly Christian, although it is certainly not athestic - all of the major religions are discussed in their history series, Story of the World (SOTW).

Personally, I prefer the 1st edition of the book, but there is no difference in the PREMISE between the 1st and 2nd ed. The main change was in some of the resources (they have included Susan's works, like SOTW and First Language Lessons, as recommendations in the 2nd ed.) There is also a Yahoo! Group for those following TWTM.

Your other option for classical education is Charlotte Mason (very similar in thinking and implementation). There is a website called Ambleside Online with a complete list of resources for each year.

We follow classical education for our homeschool, although not too formally (my older son studied Latin for 2 years, we learn history chronologically), so if you have more specific questions, feel free to email me.

Answer 3

Well, one thing you could try is looking at a program you like, and then getting the books yourself off of eBay or similar ones at a bookstore. At some point, somebody has to pick the material so since you know your daughter, you can figure what you want her to learn and pick that.

I.e if you want to teach her philosophy, just get a book of philosophy --I got my copy of Thus Spoke Zarathustra for eight bucks at Barnes and Noble-- and a book explaining it.

The big differences between school books and real books are as follows:

1) School books are much more expensive because they have some unnecessarily pedantic footnotes.
2) School books endanger the mind by providing 'right answers'. First of all, in most things, there are no right answers --really, we'll never know what the writer meant when he put that chapter in-- and it will just teach her to look for the 'right' information.

So really, if you want her to learn about something, just get her the real thing. I used Saxon for a while and liked 8/7 a lot, but Algebra 1, which doesn't have Stephen Hake working on it, was kind of boring.

The beauty of homeschooling is that you don't have to commit to any one thing. Take the cheaper route of libraries, Internet, and local bookstores. If nothing else, you'll at least have some decent new books.

Answer 4

I'd get a foreign language book and tape set. Spanish or French.

History from ground up

Math as far as you can take it

What are your skills. Can do teach Geometry, Trig, Calculus.

There is NO reason why you can't do all three in the 7th grade.

REading, books, books and more books.

English. Papers on those books.

If I were you, I'd have her do COLLEGE level papers now, that means annotations, footnotes, citations, multiple references.

Double spaced, single sided, 1" margins

If her papers lack lustre, make her go back and do them again.

I'd set a daily newspaper down and have her read it by 11 am and then ask questions

Your taxes. Have her do them for you.

Answer 5

Alpha Omega is a good program... there's also Rod and Staff they actually have a pretty nice LA program (from a teen who's been homeskooled all her life)... there is a math program called "teaching textbooks" that is the only one I've done moderatily well in and then theirs saxon---not many people like that program, and theres many others. My mom goes to a place called vegsource I think... but try and get your daughter in roled in a local sports program or something social, if she doesnt have time out of the house it will kill her, and if you can get other mothers together try to do a Co-op, my cousins do that, but I go to a one day a week school that is basicly like going to school except they give you homework for the rest of the week (and lots of it...), I also play on 3 basketball leagues and do stuff with my church and youth group... if anything my mom claims im too social lol.

Answer 6

A lot of homeschoolers who want their child to have a classic education, use Charlotte Mason's method to learning. You could check out books at your local library about her and her method. You could also search 'classical homeschooling'. You do not have to use a prepackaged program to teach this way. There's also Charlotte Mason Yahoo Groups. Hope this helps. Good luck, from a fellow homeschooler!

Answer 7

We are using Sonlight curriculum -- it's rather pricey, but you can certainly reduce the amount you need to pay for their materials by simply purchasing their schedule & "consumable" materials -- math workbooks (we like Singapore Math), language arts activity sheets, science activity sheets, etc.

The Sonlight Curriculum catalog (available @ http://www.sonlight.com) is a fantastic resource in and of itself. It lists each every book they use in each level. You can take it with you to the library to find the books you need.

The biggest advantage I've found is that they've already done the hard work for you by laying out the schedule for you. Very nice when you're only getting started!! Best of luck & God's blessings to you, whatever you decide to do!!

Answer 8

For math, Saxon is covers the basics well, but can be tedious. Math-U-See is more interesting, and lets you move at your own pace. Both are good choices.
For science, check out www.apologia.com. They're courses are very thorough and easy to understand, and offer a Christian perspective.
My Mom gets her ideas from Carole Joy Seid. Go to her website, www.carolejoyseid.com, for more information.
Make sure your daughter is reading plenty of books, even if they all aren't educational. This will help her more than anything.
Good luck!

Answer 9

I grew up with Beka books. They were very good (When I finally went to regular school they had to bump me up to eighth grade so I could repeat the work I'd done in sixth grade. They wouldn't allow me to skip two grades).

When your girl hits highscool look at getting her into some local community college classes. They count as both highschool and college credits (and can tackle chemistry and physics or whatever else you might be weak in personally).

Hope this helps

Answer 10

I would go with Alpha Omega. Its a Christian curriculum, self teaching, and is fairly inexpensive. You should really buy the whole set (math, english, history & geography, Bible) together and then what you don't want you can sell on Vegsource.com or another homeschool forum. I wouldn't use there math though, as I found it not as good as Saxon. I did pre-algbra in 7th and then in 8th started in on Algebra 1 by Keyboard Enterprise. I hope that helps!