I have heard a lot about the online schools, a few of them are free. I am looking into curriculums for the future. What specific ones do people use? I am interested in Saxon Math, and the Five in a Row books. Lets critique curriculum.
I might be interested in helping you out. I am a high school teacher, but I am interesting in homeschooling generally, and also for my own children at some point in the future. I will look up some of those programs and get back to you soon.
I am curious, as a high school teacher what are your reasons for wanting to homeschool? I have worked in American schools and sort of assumed that so many of the problems that were so pervasive in American schools were sort of an American phenomenon. Must make it short- two year old on the loose, has my phone, prob calling Germany. H
I am an American high school teacher, working in Germany. I am originally from San Francisco area. Here in Germany, homeschooling is actually illegal! That hippie christian group, the Twelve Tribes, tried to homeschool some of their children and the parents were arrested and sent to jail for non-compliance. I am sorry I haven't had more time to look up information, i hope to get to it today.
What age / developmental stage are these courses for? even though I am a self admitted internet junkie, I still think that hands on multi-sensory learning hands down cannot be matched. For humans of all ages.
I have been homeschooling my kids (I have 5 and one on the way!) and a bunch of other kids (I live communally) for quite a few years now, and have been through a lot of different curriculums. Now all of my kids and the kids I teach use Saxon math. It's a bit expensive, but it is well worth it. The younger grades are a lot of fun, with tons of hands-on learning. You don't really need to get the manipulatives, but you can come with the stuff, like clocks and things to count. There are a few things that are helpful to buy with it, like a tangram set and counting tiles, depending on what grade you are doing. The older kids in our house like this curriculum a lot more than any other we have used. It's really thorough, but moves along fast enough to keep it interesting. One cool thing is that you only have to buy any grade once, and it can be used again, as it's just a text book plus some stuff to photocopy. I know you can find it used, if you prefer.
I Love Saxon Math, it has made math a much better experience in our house. I never used the five in row. For the first three years I would recommend Miquon Math. It is simple easy to teach and does a great job of teaching the basic idea of thinking mathematically. I have been looking for a good history program for 6 years now, I would love to hear if anyone has found one. I find that science is best taught through unit study with materials from the library and internet. McGraw hill has some really good spelling and language books that my kids loved, but all kids learn differently, so may not work for your kids.
We love Math u see, the old version. You can find it on swap boards like vegsource.com The older version covers three years and uses vhs. The newer version is more expensive and you have to have a dvd player. Saxon math never worked well with my kid's learning styles.
