I basically have only ever used Sonlight Curriculum successfully. I enjoy it. It is my style. It isn't everyone's style but we love the format and it is easy for me to manage. We never do all of it but we have fun and are challenged to do what we can. I have tried several other curriculum and......I have never like them as much........so.....I am selling the rest off to focus on what I know works for me. Writing programs have probably been my biggest headache as writing to me is the hardest to teach. From everything I have read about teaching writing, I think I am going to use all that brain filed information and still just use Sonlight. It will be more effective now as my experience with other programs will translate to better use of my time and the SPACE in my house. Some other homeschoolers will be blessed with discounted curriculum and space on my shelves is steadily increasing.
I have set up a book store of sorts on Amazon to get rid of my stuff and a few other people's stuff. So far so good, my buyers have been happy and I am happy. I have admittedly slowed down a bit in my listing but will do a stack of five or six a few times a day. My poor brain however has been perusing my shelves and thinking of other stuff I own which needs to go for lack of use. I have forever been searching for the off button in my brain but haven't found it yet.
Focusing all the harder on what works is sort of exhilarating as I don't think I will have the tendency to impulse buy as easily and I don't have the guilt when I see the stuff laying on the shelves. Curriculum flies out of the house pretty easily or at least it jumps in boxes and goes to the post office. If anyone local has a postal scale.......I might either buy it from you or borrow it if you don't mind.
Must go chase a bartering deal with the piano tuner so ttfn!
Hmm...It's a bit early for me to actually start homeschooling, but I've wondered lately if I should start reviewing any. I'd hate to purchase stuff, then find it doesn't work or I don't like it. Any idea how I go about that?
ReplyDeleteTry hard to resist purchasing. Read your brains out to the kids and use concept books - alphabet, 1,2,3's, counting, shapes, colors, and of course great poetry and story books. Get them used to sitting and listening and half the battle is over. Homeschool curriculum sellers want you to buy their stuff so of course they are going to make it look good and necessary but honestly, most of what kids need the first few years can be done pretty cheaply. I can tell you why I like what I like in light of all the kiddos and time to 'get organized'. We have graduated two and the third one is well on his way to success......only six more to go.......
ReplyDeleteI've been reading "The Well-Trained Mind," and appreciate it's approach to home education. It offers a lot of curriculum ideas. Some I know from teaching, but others I've never seen. What is it about Sonlight you like so much?
ReplyDeleteI haven't forgotten your question. Sonlight......great books, dictation included with English, I don't have to plan anything as they have done it for me and I frankly don't have time. The kids like it because sometimes they see a guide as a sort of authority and I am pretty absent minded too so the book/guide is easier to chase and cross off so we can see how we are making progress. It works for me. Reading to your kids everything you can get your hands on and setting a routine would be what I call school for you for quite a while. Teaching to read.......depends on the kid how to approach that I think. Feel free to keep picking my brain. We have been at this a long time.
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