If  this sounds like you maybe you would be interested in what we use in our homeschool:

Our first subject of every day is Bible. It really helps to set the tone for the rest of the day. Of course the main book we use for that is..the Bible. We use different translations. I think each of us has a different one. Primarily we like the KJV. Sometimes it is a little harder for the little ones to understand and they will read us the verse out of their “easy reader” Bibles.  I came across a topical reference guide  a couple of years ago called For Instruction in Righteousness and it has been indispensable. This has been by far our favorite way to study the bible as a family. We can sit down with the kids and talk about maybe what we see them struggling with or with something the kids may see us struggling with. All the verses we need are just laid out for us. This week for us the topic was shifting blame…I didn’t mean to…Daddy did it….It’s not my fault…He spilled the fish food….she flooded the toilet..I forgot….you didn’t give me enough time…it’s not my fault.. This book gives lots of verses 50 topics of sin such as this. I will write the verses we are going to look at that day on a note card and then they will write them on note cards of their own(just the book, chapter, and verse number). Then we will look up the verses and talk about what God is telling us. The verses For Instruction in Righteousness outlines tell what the Bible says will, or should, happen to a person who sins in this way, what the Bible likens the person who sins in this way to and how God blesses the person who resists indulging in this sin. There are enough verses that you could visit the topic for well over a week if you wished. We usually work on memorizing one or two of our favorite verses from the topic during the week or sometimes just memory verses from Bible classes at church. The kids really look forward to this every morning and so do I. There is no better way than to start out the day in God’s word with my children.

For Math we are using Math-U-See. I used Abeka, Saxon, Math Mammoth all without much success. I want math to be fun and not some daunting task that we just have to suffer through. I was looking for a program that was visual, interesting, easy to understand with clear instruction. Not to mention that the material had to be presented in a logical progression. I was looking for something that based on the child’s previous knowledge and builds on it and didn’t skip all over the place. Oh, and actually working on memorizing the math fact families in the program was an absolute must. Math U See was it.

This is our first year using it and we absolutely love it. My kids went from suffering through math to actually looking forward to and enjoying the subject. My oldest daughter who always had a hard time with math is finally breezing through. She is no longer in tears because she is frustrated that she just “can’t get it” because she is getting it! You start out the week by watching an instruction video that shows you how to teach the lesson to your child. Or you could be like me and just watch the video with your kids. Then for the rest of the week they work on the one skill that they learned in the video and test at the end. Its just that easy. The lessons are fairly short so if you have a child that has a short attention span or would be overwhelmed with 50 problems on a page this is great for them. My son is in the Primer level and sometimes there may be only 3 problems on a page and that is all he wants to do that day. On another day he may do a weeks worth of work.

The manipulatives they have are a great visual help without becoming a crutch. It really helps them to see what they are doing in the problems. My older kids might only use them for the first couple of problems and then they put them to the side. If they have trouble they can just pick them back up and figure out where they are going wrong.

Math U See even has an online worksheet generator just in case your child needs a little extra practice and online drills to help solidify the memorization of the fact families.

Compared to many other math programs we have tried, Math U See is also much more affordable affordable. I bought 4 levels this year and 2 sets of the manipulative blocks plus a set of the fraction manipulatives (which are awesome by the way) and it didn’t break the bank. Especially considering I will be able to reuse the teacher’s manuals and videos for the next child.

For Language Arts we are using a couple of different things. I am teaching my 5 year old son how to read with The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise. It is very slow going because he has no interest whatsoever in reading. And that is OK! He loves to be read to and loves to look at books and visit the library so it makes perfect sense that eventually he will want to read. I am almost sure of it. He and I also do a lesson every now and then in First Language Lessons also by Jessie Wise. He likes this a lot because it is ryming/games/ stories. I like them both because they are idiot proof. Seriously. You can’t mess it up. And it is fun. Jessie tells you exactly what you need to do and say and there is little to no prep work required. You just sit and spend time with your kid. And you can use both of these books for all of your children without buying another thing. Inexpensive and cost effective.  There are also no worksheets!! Yeah!

For the girls in 2nd, 4th, and 6th, grades we use Rod and Staff English. We have been using it for 3 years now. In my opinion it is the best English curriculum you can get. *Rod and Staff teaches grammar and mechanics (capitalization and punctuation) in a traditional way. You know like how your grandparents learned and knew more in 5th grade than we did in college. It takes a conservative approach in matters of usage. The lessons carry a Biblical tone and promote Christian virtues. Exercise sentences deal with a broad range of topics—Bible stories and concepts, Christian living, family life, and historical and scientific facts. The lessons are such that they get good practice in handwriting as well. To me it looked a little “dry”. But my girls love it. They love the little drawings of the Mennonite children and the bible characters that they are familiar with being someplace outside of their bible. I think it is wonderful that sometimes it even asks that they use their bible to find the answer. How is that for applying bible knowledge to real life?! My oldest loves the fun facts they throw in. We do not do an additional writing program, there is no need.  Any other writing they may do is in History and Science and book reports, along with journaling and writing letters. Did I mention it is dirt cheap? Don’t let the price fool you. It is a fantastic program.

Later to come in part 2 is what we use for:

Latin

Logic

Science

and in part 3:

History

Handwriting

Spelling

Do any of you use these programs? How many of you use the prepackaged curriculum? Do you just piece together different things like I do?

* as descripted on RodandStaffBooks.com

When I started homeschooling , NumberOne was only about 2. I didn’t actually know that I was homeschooling, in fact I had never heard of it. One is a super-smart kid and totally in to everything so I was just trying to keep her occupied and out of trouble. By the time she was preschool age she was reading and knew her numbers and all that jazz, just from playing. She also could speak quite a bit of French thanks to the wonderful French family we befriended at the park. Hubby and I were starting to wonder where we should send her to school. At this time we were living in the bay area in California. We looked into the local schools and we even tried out a Montessori Academy. She already knew all the stuff that they were teaching, but all kids have to go to school, right? Honestly I felt like she was too little to be off at school all day. I missed her. At this point I had heard the term homeschooling but wasn’t sure how it all worked. I really started looking into it. I went online for most of my information because I didn’t know any other homeschoolers. In fact there weren’t any around! I gradually built up the courage to talk to Hubby about giving it a shot. At first he thought I was nuts. Seriously, I will never forget the look on his face. He was not going for it one bit. But I laid out all of the pro’s I could think of and quoted all the statistics that I had read online about how much better that homeschooled children fare on standardized test and such. That had his interest. Who doesn’t want their kid to be the smartest around? He finally conceded and decided to let me try it for one year.

That first year was pretty great. I didn’t have a curriculum. I didn’t know there was a such thing. I just made up little activities teaching her what I thought she needed to know and it was great! Hubby was convinced that this was the best way to educate our children. He was very pleased with how things went and was totally sold. The only problem was that it took a lot of time to plan all of the lessons. The next year I learned about this fancy thing called curriculum and I picked one up. That was the worst year ever. We decided to hang in there and try to find a curriculum that would work for us. I started curriculum hopping (for the next couple of years) and hated most of what I picked up. A lot of them were intended for schools and require too much preparation for just one student. Some of them were boring, some of them were too “New Aged” and some were just plain stupid. I spent hundreds of dollars on so many different programs that were supposed to make it easier for me. After all ,I was spending a whole lot of time planning all those lessons and by our third year I had four children so time was at a premium!

I spent many a sleepless nights planning out our schedule. I would plan for weeks in advance, and then someone would get sick and we would miss a few days and I would have to revise the whole schedule! On the other hand I didn’t want to unschool. I am really too much of a control freak for that! I just had to find something that would work for us and not be totally stressful. So after many trial and errors, I would like to share with you what has worked best for us.

Here are some of the things that have stuck and that we absolutely love to use:

* italics indicate quotes from the publisher

Math:

1) Rod and Staff This is a bible-based curriculum that is our top choice. It is hands down our absolute favorite. It teaches in the old

fashioned way. If you want your children to be able to understand math in a practical way, this is the way to go. And is also extremely

inexpensive in comparison to most others. Especially if you plan on using it for more than one child.

2) Switched on Schoolhouse Switched-On Schoolhouse is a comprehensive, Bible-based curriculum that offers computer-based learning

for grades 3-12. With 3-D animation, video clips, and other fascinating multimedia, Switched-On Schoolhouse is the perfect

homeschool curriculum for today’s generation. With this flexible, best-selling curriculum, you can customize student learning to fit

individual educational needs. This is great if space is limited or if you spend a lot of time travelling because all you really need is a

computer. It even keeps up with the amount of time children are spending on the lessons and most importantly it keeps up with grading!

We also like this website for fun, free activities:

www.arcademicskillbuilders.com

Part 2 is coming soon with tips on teaching your children to read and our Language Arts curricula.