I research the curriculum I'm planning to use that school year prior to purchasing it. Read a lot of online reviews, even check on these cafemom homeschooling forums and see what others have had to say about them. Then I make my own decision. Each year I will keep what I like, and replace what I don't by trying something else, or sometimes I will change it up just to do something new.
There are so many types of curriculum in each subject out there for homeschoolers. I suggest figuring out what type you're wanting i.e., secular or maybe religious based, a boxed set or bits and pieces, online or text/workbooks or both. Then search and see what you find, research what you think might work, explore.
Prior to the school year starting I pre-plan what each child's monthly goal for every month in the school year in each subject will be and I type it out in a calendar I made. This gives me an idea of what we're covering each month and what we're working for.
Every family I've met does things differently, some don't even use curriculum, rather they just get things from here and there and go with it, or print up what resources they can find online.
There are so many ways to go about getting started and staying organized I would just go with what you feel is right and tweak your method as you go to fit your family best.
I have cirriculum for most of our subjects, so we lead off of those. I also supplement other activities though, such as lapbooks and anything they have an interest in.
I use Rebecca Rupp's Home Learning Year by Year to give me a rough guide as to what they need to know by the end of a particular "grade". But I am...I think they call it eclectic? I don't buy a curriculum. I put our stuff together myself. I find some stuff already put together online, like worksheets for some stuff, or unit studies that are put together and I just need to work through them with the kids. Other stuff I create myself, like a worksheet with questions about a book they're reading.
I plan out only about a week or two in advance. Right now I have our first two weeks planned, even though we won't start until September. I prefer to keep it to only one or two weeks, that way if they don't grasp something in that time frame, I can feel comfortable putting it back on the schedule for more time rather than panicking that "omg, we have to do this, this, and that, and he doesn't get this yet and how am I going to do this all?"
Usually, I sit down on Sundays and get my plans completely ready for the next week. I use a spreadsheet to keep track of the week's skills/lessons, and have a column where I list websites, books used, etc. so that I know where I found materials to use. I also use the highlighting function to put various colors in so that I can see what they've learned, what they've struggled with (if it's on there 5 times, and four weeks are the color of "need to do again", I know that was difficult for them), etc. Last year, I would print out Monday's stuff on Sunday, Tuesday's on Monday, and so on. But this year, I'm considering printing it all out on Sunday to be prepared.
As far as how my teaching day goes...I have 2 boys, technically different grades but they both do a lot of the same work because my youngest is way more advanced than I ever would have dreamed. But they also have some stuff that is individual to each of them. I usually teach the combined stuff first, because then we're all working together and generally moving at the same pace. Then I work with them on their individual things. But it also just kind of depends on the day, what we're doing and what outside things interfere. Like Fridays we go grocery shopping, so those generally end up being short days, mainly review, quizzing, etc.
As for curriculums, you can buy a full one online? I was trying to figure out how to get the proper materials for him that is state approved. I knew there are sites but I didn't know they sold full curriculums. We are moving to CT and I'm still reading up on all the requirements I have to meet. Thank you very much, you have helped me a lot with your reply.
Quoting Knightquester:I research the curriculum I'm planning to use that school year prior to purchasing it. Read a lot of online reviews, even check on these cafemom homeschooling forums and see what others have had to say about them. Then I make my own decision. Each year I will keep what I like, and replace what I don't by trying something else, or sometimes I will change it up just to do something new.
There are so many types of curriculum in each subject out there for homeschoolers. I suggest figuring out what type you're wanting i.e., secular or maybe religious based, a boxed set or bits and pieces, online or text/workbooks or both. Then search and see what you find, research what you think might work, explore.
Prior to the school year starting I pre-plan what each child's monthly goal for every month in the school year in each subject will be and I type it out in a calendar I made. This gives me an idea of what we're covering each month and what we're working for.
Every family I've met does things differently, some don't even use curriculum, rather they just get things from here and there and go with it, or print up what resources they can find online.
There are so many ways to go about getting started and staying organized I would just go with what you feel is right and tweak your method as you go to fit your family best.
Quoting wendythewriter:I use Rebecca Rupp's Home Learning Year by Year to give me a rough guide as to what they need to know by the end of a particular "grade". But I am...I think they call it eclectic? I don't buy a curriculum. I put our stuff together myself. I find some stuff already put together online, like worksheets for some stuff, or unit studies that are put together and I just need to work through them with the kids. Other stuff I create myself, like a worksheet with questions about a book they're reading.
I plan out only about a week or two in advance. Right now I have our first two weeks planned, even though we won't start until September. I prefer to keep it to only one or two weeks, that way if they don't grasp something in that time frame, I can feel comfortable putting it back on the schedule for more time rather than panicking that "omg, we have to do this, this, and that, and he doesn't get this yet and how am I going to do this all?"
Usually, I sit down on Sundays and get my plans completely ready for the next week. I use a spreadsheet to keep track of the week's skills/lessons, and have a column where I list websites, books used, etc. so that I know where I found materials to use. I also use the highlighting function to put various colors in so that I can see what they've learned, what they've struggled with (if it's on there 5 times, and four weeks are the color of "need to do again", I know that was difficult for them), etc. Last year, I would print out Monday's stuff on Sunday, Tuesday's on Monday, and so on. But this year, I'm considering printing it all out on Sunday to be prepared.
As far as how my teaching day goes...I have 2 boys, technically different grades but they both do a lot of the same work because my youngest is way more advanced than I ever would have dreamed. But they also have some stuff that is individual to each of them. I usually teach the combined stuff first, because then we're all working together and generally moving at the same pace. Then I work with them on their individual things. But it also just kind of depends on the day, what we're doing and what outside things interfere. Like Fridays we go grocery shopping, so those generally end up being short days, mainly review, quizzing, etc.
There are so many options out there you really just have to decide what it is you want to use. Here is what we used last year http://blog.denschool.com/what-we-use/
But this year we are trying something totally different. Sometimes you just have to start and see how it works. As for creating lessons - we use a lot of prepared lessons because I have so many kids. But we love to do unit studies. In fact, we have started creating some little unit studies and posting them to DenSchool - the one for today is Ice Cream Sandwich Day http://blog.denschool.com/ice-cream-sandwich-day-august-2nd/. I love to research and put things together but sometimes I am not as great as carrying it out.
I often recommend Cathy Duffy's book Top 100 PIcks for Homeschool Curriculum. At the beginning she has a quiz to help you understand your learning style and the learning style of your children. Then she gives suggestions of curriculum for each style. I wasted a lot of money when I first started homeschooling because I did not know what was best. Of course, we are still trying new things - there is no right or wrong answer.
As for planning - I usually only plan one week in advance. When I started homeschooling I had the entire year planned out all fancy in my planner and as soon as we started it got messed up - one kid would have a problem with a lesson and need extra work on it or something else did not take as long as I anticipated. So I quit planning too far in advance. It is important to have a general plan or rather goals that you want to accomplish over the year but not the detailed daily lesson plan.
I hope this makes sense. Let me know if you have any further questions - this is just what comes to mind right now.
Good luck!
The Magic School Bus ... thoughts?
- Ruthzaad
on Jul. 26, 2012 at 11:52 PM