Homeschooling curriculum

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beenwashed

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My husband and I are 99% sure we are going to homeschool. That being said, what curriculums do you recommend. I have heard sonlight and abeka are somewhat hostile to Catholicism in certain areas.
 
I used Abeka as a child, and the Science and History are definitely anti-Catholic. However, their English course is AMAZING, and I strongly recommend it. I also remember learning important things about modesty in their Health book. Bob Jones is another curriculum that is anti-Catholic, but I have heard good things about their Math. That being said, I was raised Mennonite, so we used straight Abeka curriculum through sixth grade.
 
beenwashed said:
My husband and I are 99% sure we are going to homeschool. That being said, what curriculums do you recommend. I have heard sonlight and abeka are somewhat hostile to Catholicism in certain areas.
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Just a suggestion, here: piecemeal, supplement, and stay flexible.

That’s the great thing about homeschooling. That said, we’ve been happy with the purchases we’ve found through Adoremus Books over the years. And Saxon, while an oldie, has been a goodie for us as far as math and grammar go (with supplemental stuff tossed in, of course).

Looking back, we’ve home-schooled more than we’ve in-schooled… and we went from boxed curriculum from one source to a patchwork quilt. If you feel, at any point, that something is being left out, don’t hesitate to toss it in there. I often found my kids loved the tangents more than the regularly scheduled programming, anyway. They still do. 🙂

Good luck!
 
We homeschool and have been using Seton from the time my oldest was in Kindergarten. While I can’t speak for other curricula and they are perhaps just as good in many ways, I can say that the part I like most about Seton is that the Catholic Faith permeates the curriculum. It is a textbook based program. When you study History, you get a Catholic perspective with much discussion on how the Church and the saints played a major role in transforming history. In English, the grammar problems also tell about the lives of the saints. The readers are excellent wholesome stories about fictional Catholic families, saint stories and other traditional tales that teach a moral lesson. Many people have told me that students who use Seton end up being excellent writers. The only subject we do not use from Seton is for Math (we use Saxon which is an alternative available through Seton) The main reason is because with 5 children it is difficult for me to find the time to search for supplemental materials when they need more practice to master a topic. You have a variety of options for using the Seton material from simply ordering individual textbooks to getting a complete curriculum with support services and grade reporting. The curriculum ranges from Preschool (relatively new) through High School. setonhome.org/
 
It very much depends on what you want for your family and what your priorities are for your children both in general and educationally.

Additionally, you have to consider what each child needs, what weaknesses need strengthening, what talents need nurturing.

Catholic Heritage Curriculum is a more easy-going curriculum than Seton, altho it covers a lot. I have used materials from many different sources, and different things for different children. And still nothing ever turned out the way I planned!
 
I was homeschooled and used Story of the World for history and Shurley English for English.
 
I like Language Arts through Literature and Saxon Math.
Before using Language Arts through Literature, we used 5 in a row. With 5 in a row, you use the child’s natural desire for repetition while recognizing that parents have a limit to have many times they want to hear the same story. Activities in the arts and sciences are based on the story, a different subject each day. My granddaughter went to an Arts and Basics program that used this same one subject a day approach, as well as teaching a different instrument each day.
We also took the children on nature hikes, as Charlotte Mason recommended. Give the child a small notebook to draw what he/she sees.
To teach them to read, we used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lesson. This book combines Distar, how my daughter learned to read, with SRA. For handwriting, we used Italic handwriting which provides a natural and legible transition between printing and cursive.
 
As a child I was homeschooled w Seton–VERY thorough! I found it dry, but learned a TON!Mater Ambalis is great I use it now with my kids with Heart of Dakota ( a protestant curric but very good and works well w the kids hence why we suppliment w catholic teaching from mater ambalis) I highly recomennd both 🙂
 
sowinskija said:
I was homeschooled and used Story of the World for history and Shurley English for English.
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We used Story of the World (and still use) for the lower grades. We kept reading and using it even while the kids returned to school.

I have to say, I like The Well Trained Mind quite a bit. We’ve used it for both afterschooling and homeschooling. But, we’ve added in additional sources/resources, too.

The biggest problem: THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD and/or EXCELLENT OPTIONS!

And now, looking at this wonderful thread, I see even more I didn’t know about… 😃

Oh, boy…
 
We’re considering homeschooling for next year (Catholic school is pretty far away), and are currently leaning toward Catholic Heritage Curriculum. I got a couple of their K/1st books and am pretty impressed from my perusing of them so far…
 
Your wording leads me to guess that your children are younger than school age? If so, that’s great - your choices are wide open.

I would recommend starting out with a Catholic program, and then adjusting as you go. There are some folks wo homeschool without using a specific program, even in their beginning years of it. Even if you want to go that way, you still might like looking at the Catholic program websites to get ideas:
Kolbe Academy
Catholic Heritage Curricula
Seton
Mother of Divine Grace School
Angelicum Academy

St. Thomas Aquinas Academy
Our Lady of Victory
Regina Coeli Academy
Mater Amabilis
Our Lady of Perpetual Help On-Line Courses

The top 5 are the most common ones that I would consider “can’t go wrong” schools. They vary in terms of style, level of assistance provided, amount of responsibility that you have to them, etc…Enjoy deciding!
 
Yes my kids are young. 2yrs and 7 months. I figure I can’t go wrong starting early with my research for curricula. I understand piecemealing something together, however at this point, since it all foreign to me Im leaning towards staying close to a box curriculum though one group at the moment. I seem to be hesitating about seton (te little research I’ve done through their catalogue) because it is so overwhelmingly catholic. I went to catholic gradeschool, and even there the curriculum wasn’t this overwhelmingly catholic.
 
ThyKingdomCome said:
Your wording leads me to guess that your children are younger than school age? If so, that’s great - your choices are wide open.

I would recommend starting out with a Catholic program, and then adjusting as you go. There are some folks wo homeschool without using a specific program, even in their beginning years of it. Even if you want to go that way, you still might like looking at the Catholic program websites to get ideas:
Kolbe Academy
Catholic Heritage Curricula
Seton
Mother of Divine Grace School
Angelicum Academy

St. Thomas Aquinas Academy
Our Lady of Victory
Regina Coeli Academy
Mater Amabilis
Our Lady of Perpetual Help On-Line Courses

The top 5 are the most common ones that I would consider “can’t go wrong” schools. They vary in terms of style, level of assistance provided, amount of responsibility that you have to them, etc…Enjoy deciding!
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Thanks for all the links. That really helps!
 
beenwashed said:
Yes my kids are young. 2yrs and 7 months. I figure I can’t go wrong starting early with my research for curricula. I understand piecemealing something together, however at this point, since it all foreign to me Im leaning towards staying close to a box curriculum though one group at the moment. I seem to be hesitating about seton (te little research I’ve done through their catalogue) because it is so overwhelmingly catholic. I went to catholic gradeschool, and even there the curriculum wasn’t this overwhelmingly catholic.
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With your children, you would enjoy Five in A Row.
Five in A Row is designed for preschoolers. You read one book for the entire week. Each day you do a different activity based on that book.
When your children are four, you can add How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We supplemented with italic writing.

Read up on Charlotte Mason. Use these early years to lay the groundwork for when you actually begin schooling.
 
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