Day 1 Curriculum ~ Back to Homeschool 2017

The other night in the grocery store, I had an interesting conversation.  See, I was wearing one of my homeschooler T-shirts.  It's funny because I usually don't get any comments, *except from other homeschoolers*!  Kind of a "you too?" kind of reaction.  Although, the kids shirts are pretty funny and they get lots of attention, it's rare for me.  Anyway, I was asked if "they" send me books and tell me how to teach.  I would love to know who "they" are, because I think they owe me a lot of books after all this time.  Maybe "they" is the Homeschool Review Crew.  I do get some books from them...

Anyway, the real scoop is The Dad and I get to choose what and how to teach our punks.  I always thought that would be super easy, but the more *stuff* I know about, the harder the choices become.  I always loved school.  I was a walker and the girl who stayed behind at school to clap erasers and help the teacher clean her room at the end of the year.  One of the perks of these habits was that I often would come home after the cleaning was done (I'm sure it wasn't really done, she was just shipping me home so she could get to the real work!) with a huge stack of her leftover worksheet handouts.  Even weirder was that I would actually do most of them over the summer.

Some of the curriculum that *I* would have loved as a child just does not work for my very active boys.  Desk and workbook school is not for them.  Not that they don't have that, but it can't be the main thing we use or we might all go off our rockers.

There are so many things to think about when determining curriculum picks for the year.

• What kind of learner(s) do I have? ~ Yes, learners.  Because, of course, you will find the perfect curriculum for darling punk #1 only to have darling punk #2 learn completely differently.  I am the lucky mom of three distinctly different learners.  Thankfully, they do share some qualities, which means they can use some of the same products very well, as long as we get in a little reinforcement in each of their languages.
• What kind of teacher am I? ~ Do you need a boxed set and a scripted teacher manual?  That sounds dreamy to me.  (Un)Forunately(?), my punks are all over the place.  A year behind in math? *check*  A year ahead in science?  *check*  Still can't tie a shoe?  *check*  So, no boxed sets here.  Maybe you love living books.  I do, too.  My kids like being read to far more than the reading part, so when I choose readers for the year, I have to be really OK with reading the books aloud.  Certainly, they read (to their ability) on their own also.  Computer learning is a possibility.  In fact, this is one we can agree on for certain topics.  I kind of enjoy using it for the bulk of their math.  There are fewer "emotions" when mom doesn't teach math.
• What can I afford to spend? ~ Determine a realistic budget. Now stick to it.  It's harder than it sounds.  You found the most amazing science course at XYZ.  Then you realize it's 3x more than you allotted for science.  How much do you need it?  What else on your list can you do without to make up for the difference.  Curriculum can be surprisingly expensive when you start shopping for the first time, or the 10th.  
• Does this curriculum fill a need? ~ You'd be surprised how quickly a need becomes a want when you're trying to find a way to buy that science from XYZ!  Sometimes, that science is no longer quite so necessary and sometimes other subjects become lower priorities so you can purchase that science.

So, with lots of consideration and sorting of piles and thinking, thinking, thinking, I've narrowed down *some* of our curriculum choices for the fall.

Math - CTC Math.  I've been using this for a while now and bigfatpuffyheart it.  No matter how much a certain punk whines about it, the teacher never flips out on them.  It's completely worth it to me.  Plus they offer a big discount to homeschoolers and sometimes have sales, buy a year, get X months free.

Language Arts - Merrick is going to be continuing the Learn to R.E.A.D. program and the bigger punks will work some more in The Logic of English.

Science - Punk #1 and Punk #2 are using Science in the Industrial Age.  It's new to us, but I really like it so far.

Social Studies - I do not actually know exactly what we're doing this year, but part of our studies will be about Native Americans and the bulk of that will use a Once-A-Week unit study.  We'll also learn about interesting Vermonters and that will include the Abenaki peoples and Phineas Gage.  I picked up a book about Phineas from Amazon.

Bible - The Bible, of course, and probably Cold Case Christianity for Kids.

Health, PE, and Art - This is the last year Malachi needs to report these three topics to the homestudy office.  Not that we still won't be doing these things, but I don't have to report it anymore for him.  We don't really use curriculum for them in general, though, so I don't have much to list here.

One last thought.  If it doesn't work, try to let it go.  Sometimes, I have pushed us through to the end of a curriculum we *all* hated, just to check it off.  Done!  Other times, I have just let things go.  It doesn't always work out and you might need to decide to cut. it. out. of your homeschool day.  Life is too short for stinky curriculum.

Well, that's where I'm at for now.  I still have more decisions to make.  And then the planning begins.  Prayers, research, and planning make a great foundation when choosing your curriculum.

Come back tomorrow and we'll talk school supplies!