New to homeschooling, need curriculum suggestions!

Hi, everyone! This is my first post on this board. Iā€™m new to homeschooling on the parent side of things - I was homeschooled by my mom from 3rd grade all the way through high school!

I have four children. Theyā€™re currently 7, 6, 3 and 14 mos. The 7 yo is in 2nd grade and the 6 yo is in 1st. They attend public school currently and my husband and I have decided to homeschool, but plan to take our time selecting curriculum and fulfilling some other commitments before we go forward with it. I doubt that we will be ready to do anything this school year, and at this point we are planning to begin our homeschool adventure next school year. Iā€™m fully aware that I have time on my side, but I want to do my best to take the time to weigh my options and investigate the different options curriculum wise.

Iā€™m interested in something that will offer some accountability, ā€œboxesā€ to check off and requires little preparation. I want to be successful at this but due to my personality, and my husbandā€™s work schedule, I know I need to have the work of the lessons planned for me to some extent.

Can you all give me your top choices for curriculum? Iā€™ve began a little research and have requested some catalogs from different companiesā€¦ and was already aware of some of the publishers that have been around since I was homeschooled :wink:

I have visual and kinesthetic learners in my older two, and my 3 yo is looking to be an audible learner. What suggestions do you have that will accommodate our different learning styles?

Iā€™d like to try to combine science and history/social studies with my older two. And for language arts/grammar, math, spelling, etc., Iā€™d like something that will be easy for them to work somewhat independently.

Let me know what you recommend! Thanks in advance!

We are going to begin Trail Guide to Learning from Geography Matters next year (possibly this spring) with my will-be 4th and 2nd Graders :slight_smile: It is multi-age and covers all subjects but Math and has options for older/younger learners. It does offer the boxes to check off and does have the the lesson plan laid out very well for you. I am excited to start it! Currently for Art we love Artistic Pursuits. For Reading and Spelling weā€™ve been using All About Learning Press materials. Weā€™ve had success with G.U.M. Drops for one of our two Grammar programs but I like the looks of what I.E.W. offers in their Fix It! Grammar too (but havenā€™t tried it yet) along the same lines. And A Reason for Handwriting has been good for us too. For our foreign language we LOVE Better Chinese! We are in My First Chinese Words and are learning so much!! Many of our programs will change when we make the jump into Trail Guide to Learning next year, but we will keep our Bible (Bible Road Trip) and Chinese programs the same for sure. I wish I had a good Math suggestion, but we are looking to consider changing programs. I also have a 3 year old at home, but we are not using a curriculum with him yet, so I donā€™t have any suggestions there quite yet :slight_smile: Best wishes on your search!

Welcome to the community @nataliedroz! :smile:

Here are a couple of links that I found that might help you with your research.

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/blog/category/forum

We are planning on using Abeka all the way through for ours, but adding in some ā€œhands onā€ activities to make it more kinesthetic friendly.

If you are interested in group science, I believe Answers in Genesis has a good homeschool curriculum that spans multiple ages at once.

As far as different learning styles: when I taught high school (public) math, I always introduced topics by demonstrating a couple of problems on the board (audial and visual learning), then went to each student and explained the problems to those who did not ā€œget itā€ using play money or other manipulatives (kinesthetic special).

I have always thought audial learners have it easiest because my husband could just listen to lectures and ace classes. Kinesthetics have it hardest because thatā€™s where the most creativity comes in play. You really have to think outside the box: Phonics: drawing letters in shaving cream, scavenger hunts. Literature: collages, design a game around your poem or book, draw a picture History: act out a skit, eat food of the time period/place. For little ones, you can make more active games for drills (for k4 I lay out index cards with a letter on them on one side of the room and hand my son pictures of animals and he has to race to match them with the starting sound).

Science lends itself to multiple learning styles because it includes experiments, lecture, and writing.

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