Homesteading: A Woman's Journey

Homeschooling

It is hard to imagine that in about 2 years, we will begin to officially homeschool our little ones.  Abigail will be old enough to start Kindergarten level and Micah will be doing Preschool.  In preparation, we have been looking at homeschool curriculums for the children.  We have certain criteria that we are looking for that we feel are important considerations to make.

1. The curriculum must be Christian-based.  No exceptions.  The curriculum must come from a reputable Christian resource that will not only teach the courses needed, but also include the Bible's teachings along with the material.

2. We want their curriculum coming from a single source.  We realize that many homeschooling families use the "buffet" method in choosing curriculums.  Math form one source, science from another, language arts from yet a third source, and so on.  For the sake of simplicity and also a continuity of the scope & sequence of the curriculum material we want to use one resource for all the curriculum.

3. We want the curriculum to come from a source that offers accreditation.  We wish for our children to be able to receive a diploma from an accredited school once their homeschooling years have been completed. 

4. We do not want to use a correspondance school system.  We do however want a curriculum that will allow us to homeschool & grade the children's work with us sending in reports so that the school can keep the records.

Part of the reason for the accreditation requirement is that we want our children to have the advantage of having a recognizable diploma after they finish their homeschooling.  We are also looking ahead.  Oklahoma has very few requirements made of the homeschooling families at this time.  We want to be prepared in case this should change at some point in the future.  By already being established with an accredited school program, we would be able to continue as we always have with very little changes needing to be made to accommidate any new regulations or laws that should come up in the future years.

We have been looking at Bob Jones University's homeschool program and are very impressed with it.  We are still researching though to make certain that the Bob Jones University program is what we really want to use before making the final decision. 

We have 2 years yet to make our choice.  There are so many options available that it is taking time to find the one that will be best for our family.  I would love to hear from other homeschooling families who use accredited school programs.  What program do you use?  What made that curriculum stand out and become the one you chose for your children?  Are there any out there that we should use caution with?

Homeschooling

06:20, Sunday, December 7, 2008 .. Posted by Citygal

Hello from New Zealand!
I was interested to read about your plans - I think it is a wise thing to start researching well before you start 'officially' to homeschool. I did that too, and am so glad as it can be overwhelming looking at all the options that are available. We're going into our 5th year of homeschooling next year.
We mostly do the Sonlight curriculum, as we liked their scholorship options and the christian curriculum, and the literature based subjects. I'm not sure about grading, as we are an international user and don't have access to that at this stage, anyway, but I do believe they have one. I really like their 'world view'. From a foreigner's perspective so many of the curriculums focus on American history and the American worldview, but Sonlight have really made an effort to make it international and include other countries and a broader outlook with a particular emphasis on missions as well, which I liked (coming from a missions background). They also have an excellent American history program too, which we will be learning as well, even though we're not Americans.
The other one that I liked was ABeka. Very colourful for the children and easy to teach for the parent. They have affiliations with a christian university in Florida as well, and offer scholorships too, I believe. I don't know if you've heard of ATI (Advanced Training Institute: http://ati.iblp.org/ati/. If you're wanting a predominantly Biblical curriculum, this is it! The Bible is the handbook, and everything else flows on from that. It is many years since I was involved with ATI, so I'm not sure what their accreditation program is, or if they have one, but you can check it out anyway if you want.
I've heard good things about Bob Jones - everyone I know who does it speaks very highly of it.
All the best with your researching. It's quite fun!
Rachel L from NZ

ideas

07:18, Sunday, December 7, 2008 .. Posted by smallisbeautiful

Hi,
My children are similar in ages. My oldest is 4 and my youngest is nearly 2. I have been homeschooling their whole lives. We do a few supplementary classes like music and a church group, but I have to say it's been wonderful. I can rec. to you Five in A Row. I've been using it for over a year now and my son's reading way above level. Honey for a Child's Heart is a great resource as well. And I love Charlotte Mason and Karen Andreola's books. We spend a lot of time outside, at the beach, with family, and at the library. I have heard that Robinson Curriculum is very good.

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07:36, Sunday, December 7, 2008 .. Posted by seventhheaven

I first thot of homeschooling before our first child was born.... I too researched and researched until she was four when I finally officially decided to homeschool.. She is now 13 and I have never regretted that decision.

I have tried many curriculum and the best Ive found is Sonlight. Its a one stop curriculum and my children love it as much as I do. This would not be an accredited program, yet until the high school years it would be perfect. Then you might consider somthing else if you wont the accredidation.

The thing I like most about Sonlight is the time I get with my children reading to them. Its very much a parent involvement program. The second best thing I like, having 5 children, is being able to teach most of the subjects together. The curriculum is set to combine age groups. If you are interested go to Sonlight.com. Requesting a catalog will give you the best view of the curriculm.

Happy researching ! For me that is always part of the enjoyment !

sonlight

10:33, Monday, December 8, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

I also highly recommend Sonlight! Especially for the younger grades! if you enjoy reading you will like Sonlight! Don't let the price shock you - use the library or used bookstores or sources for it -that's what we do so we can afford it. If you ask our children their favorite part of the day it's when we curl up on the couch for reading time! It's my favorite time also!!!!! I too was one sourced in my original direction - but we are branching out more eclectic as we go. I started out using ABeka (what I knew from growing up years) and mixed Sonlight with it. THen I went to Sonlight. I don't like that Sonlight's early grades use secular science sources - so we will be using ABeka this next year and Apologia for our science - being able to use and reuse books and not buy all new workbooks every year is a Plus!!!!

wendy

www.homesteadblogger.com/urbansteaders

correction

10:35, Monday, December 8, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

I didn't log in - to leave the previous comment - so I cannot correct it. We will be using Sonlight this next year and Apologia Science with it. Not ABeka k- Abeka is a good strong Christian program - but it is very tradition and bookwork and seatwork oriented since it is geared also for private Christian schools - I grew up with ABeka - and used the correspondence section for older grades and DID NOT like it - to be stuck in a room with textbooks to read and glean from - I'm more of kinesthetic and visual learner - so I want something different for my children. :0)

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12:12, Thursday, December 18, 2008 .. Posted by SisterLori

Blessings!
I have been homeskilling for 26 years and I don't regret a moment of it:)
Here's what I found. I wanted all the same curriculum too. Over the years I ended up doing exactly what I didn't want to...a hodgepodge of curriculum:P Why? Because not all curriculum will have everything you like. For instance, the math that the set curriculum had wasn't friendly at all. It was more than just difficult and for someone like myself who wasn't all that great in math it was doomed to fail. I found Saxon Math...I have never used anything else since:) It was the friendliest of math curriculum that I have ever found. Methodical, complete, self explanatory and progressive.
I also found, over the years that most of what we do at home is educational. We turned that into "homeskilling" instead. We ended up dumping most of the planned curriculum not only because of the fact that it simply recreated the public classroom in my home, but it didn't fit our lifestyle of farmsteading at all.
I'm not trying to talk you out of it at all. Many folks I know, go with the same stuff all year every year and they like it just fine. You just need to find what suits your families needs and lifestyle.
Keep in mind that you don't need accredited schooling until highschool. Elementary grades are actually not accredited even at the government school level! Sad but true. The only thing that they really care about, it seems, is the accredited highschooling.
We have used Abeka which worked well for three of our children. We only used it for a year however because it was just too expensive for us. They have a "video" program that we used. This put the children in front of a tv, however, while they watched all the videos and then did the bookwork. These videos are of the actual classroom with real live students and teachers. Three of mine found this helpful but I found it to be too restrictive because they were in front of that television and doing their bookwork for 7 hours a day!
We found that it was too time consuming to sit doing that sort of thing rather than being a family and enjoying our farmstead. They were learning more from doing than from sitting and listening so we went a different direction the next year.
All of our children with the exception of our youngest who is a sophomore this year, graduated from our homeschool and took the GED (General Education Diploma) and went on to college.
Our youngest is now on an accredited program through the state. It's still homeskilling as we are able to incorporate what we do here with their curriculum and she gains credit for it. A visiting teacher comes out once a month to meet with her and our friends daughter who is on the same program now. They do most of their work on computer along with a free program of Rosetta Stone language. Taking care of the animals and gardening etc is accepted and graded as their science and PE, choring around the house and cooking/baking is accepted and graded as Home Economics and some others:)
This program is not just accredited but they will put her into college classes next year at their cost (not mine) and she will receive highschool AND college credit. By the time she enters college she will be 2 years into a 4 year degree.
I didn't mean for this to get so long:) Homeskilling is my passion:)
Enjoy your journey into educating your children. It will have it's moments of frustration but in the long run you'll never regret it:)
God be with thee!
Sister Lori