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Do your research about homeschool curriculum choices. CHECK!
For someone new to the home education world the choices for curriculum seem endless. So, I got to work, doing my research about every type of curriculum I could find. Any moment I had; when the boys were playing outside, when they were napping, or after they were in bed I would crack open my laptop and do some more reading.
The wonderful thing about homeschooling these days is the opportunity to discover all of this from the comfort of my own home, on my computer... most of the time in my pajamas :)
I quickly discovered that there are several ways families go about educating their children at home (or on the road).
Some of these methods include:
*Traditional- where your day at home resembles that of a public/private school setting.
*Charlotte Mason- instead of using traditional textbooks you read "living" books (a.k.a. novels, biographies) to bring that information to life for your child through read-alouds and/or readers.
*Unschooling- when you don't force the child to learn anything they aren't ready or showing an interest in learning, it's a student-led approach.
*Unit Studies- you implement all subjects into a unit with one theme/topic.
*Eclectic- taking from several different approaches and creating your own unique experience.
These are just some of the many examples that I've read about in some books and/or blogs over the past few months.
Once I had a handle on the different methods I did some experimenting with the boys at home, getting into a routine and figuring out what works for us. As homeschooling itself isn't for everyone, one homeschooling approach that works for one family may not work for another.
I quickly found that although I love working within the traditional school method (because, let's face it, that's what I grew up doing and how I was taught to teach) my boys could only take so much of it. After the first week of doing calendar time and worksheets together it was no longer new and exciting and they didn't want much more of that and I knew we needed to change our approach a bit. I know part of their reluctance toward this approach is their age and short attention spans so I decided to try breaking up the couple of worksheets I wanted Josh to complete in a day (usually only 2 or 3... Nathan only a little when he feels like joining us, since he's only 3) in 15-20 minute increments. I also stopped doing a full calendar routine every morning, which they seem to appreciate.
One method that I was very interested in during my research was Charlotte Mason's approach. I know from my own experience that history didn't come alive until a professor in college told us the information in story form and we didn't have to read it in a textbook and fill out countless worksheets. I then started reading the Magic Tree House series to Josh and he LOVES being read to and remembers the historical parts of the stories better than I ever thought he would.
So, after looking at a couple of different curriculums that use this approach I have decided to use Sonlight's program as the Core of our curriculum. This will include read-alouds and using "living" books for History/Geography.
We are, however, taking a traditional approach to Language Arts and Math with Horizons (since there are just some things that are best taught through worksheets).
As for Science I'm still a little torn. I have heard wonderful things about Sonlight's science program but I'm intrigued with Apologia's science program. Apologia uses a notebook approach and has recently included junior notebooks for children in primary grade levels. Since I am holding off starting Sonlight's Core units until Josh's first grade year (until Nathan is a bit older and I can use one core for the two of them) I decided to start with Apologia's Swimming Creatures of the fifth day along with their junior notebook. (Notebooking along with a student-led approach since Josh specifically requested to learn more about the ocean this year :) (I also got a good deal through Christianbook.com with their overstock discounts.) I will then be able to make an informed decision on what science program to go with later.
So for now, call us Eclectic ;)
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