Never let your schooling interrupt your education.

Q&A Friday: What curricula will you be using next year? (2011 Curriculum Fair)

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Written by Jamie Martin, editor of Simple Homeschool and founder of Steady Mom

Over the past month we’ve heard from all of our contributors, each sharing the resources they’ve found helpful (or not), along with their homeschool plans for the upcoming year.

I hope this information has been helpful to you as you contemplate your planning for the fall. I know I’ve jotted down a few notes here and there of recommendations for future years, as well as browsing through materials I’d never heard of before. And all from the comfort of my laptop!

Now it’s your turn to share!

Whether you’re an unschooler, a traditionalist, a Charlotte Mason fan, a Waldorf follower, or any and all in between, at Simple Homeschool we respect the unique choices you make for your family. And I’d love to hear from you today.

If you’ve written a post on your blog about the curriculum you use or will use, please feel free to share your link in the comments. Even if you don’t have a blog, you can still leave a comment letting us know about your favorite resources. Enjoy browsing through the links–I’m looking forward to your responses!

About Jamie C. Martin

Jamie is an introverted mom of three, who loves books, tea, and people (not always in that order), and avoids answering the phone when possible. She co-founded SimpleHomeschool.net in 2010 and began IntrovertedMoms.com in 2020.

Jamie is the author of four books, including Give Your Child the World (reached #9 on Amazon's Top 100 Best Sellers list), and her latest release, Introverted Mom (an ECPA bestseller). Her work has been featured by LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow, the Washington Post, Parents, Today Parenting, and Psychology Today.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Erin

    I’m planning on using My Father’s World for Kindergarten with my 5 year old daughter in the fall. I’m looking into reading curricula for fhe summer and fall – not 100 Easy Lessons, maybe something else? Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading…? We’ll see….

    • LaToya

      Erin I’m doing MFW K with my 5 year old and will be using Ordinary Parents and Explode the Code for phonics. My son loves doing the worksheets and have really progressed with his CVC words using Ordinary Parents.

      • Erin

        Thanks for letting me know that you’re enjoying Ordinary Parents. I was hoping that 100 Easy Lessons would work, but my girl does not like it and I figure at 4-5 years old, I want to make learning to read fun. I’ve held off on doing it since she started to not want to do it. But, reading is super important and I want to try something else. Thanks for your feedback!

        • LaToya

          My son didn’t care for 100 Easy Lessons either. He does well with Ordinary Parents. We have sandpaper letters and I use the word family inserts from Education Cubes to make it a little more fun and he LOVES it.

          Good luck! You are right that its so important to read that it needs to be as enjoyable as possible for them and us.

    • Sea

      I would also rec. looking into McRuffy, maybe it’s more formal than you desire, but it looks like a solid program that I plan on using with my 1st grader next year.

    • Paula

      I would wholeheartedly recommend Ordinary Parent’s Guide. I used it with my daughter who just finished Kindergarten and will be using it (going very slowly) with our 3.5 year old this fall. In my experience it is excellent, but if you have a younger child you may need to go more slowly that one lesson a day. We would just do a lesson for as many days as it took for mastery…one of the lovely things about homeschool : ) Happy reading!

  9. Lindsay Sledge

    Next year will be my first homeschooling year with my 7 year old daughter. I have been reading and praying about homeschooling since she was a newborn. I’m excited to finally be doing it after years of doubting. I decided to go with the package kit from Sonlight. I do love their philosophy. After laying out all our plans I realized that if stick to the curriculum all the way I will be missing out on some of the things I really wanted to share with dd. So I’m going to incorporate many of my own books and ideas and basically just try to remember why I wanted to homeschool in the first place when I get boggled down with all the expectations I have.

  11. LaToya

    My 5 year old with be doing My Father’s World K, Handwriting without Tears K, Explode the Code 1, 1.5 along with exercises from Ordinary Parents Guide and Saxon K for some math (his favorite subject I think next to reading)

    My soon to be 3 year old with be doing activities from Before Five in a Row and letter activities from Confession’s of a Homeschooler’s Letter of the Week curriculum.

    And we are going to be doing weekly science experience and art projects with some friends in a mini, unofficial co-op.

  12. Tracy @ Hall of Fame Moms

    I use some of this and some of that- and I keep it frugal. As a blogger I’ve received some of what I wanted for FREE in exchange to review it 😉 this past yr and some of that was… Math Mammoth for 1st grade ( and I liked enough to BUY my 2nd grade math for next yr), ClicknKids phonics and spelling (online)- we get it free as long as I review and keep a link on Facebook page for them, I also use my swagbucks to earn Amazon egift cards so I can save money on purchase expensive stuff like Story of the World and Veritas Press History Cards for next yr.

    http://www.halloffamemoms.com/2010/09/homeschooling-with-clicknkids-a-review/
    http://www.halloffamemoms.com/2010/08/what-im-using-to-homeschool-my-boys-curriculum-weekblog-hop/

  14. Erin

    We just made an out-of-state move, and have chosen not to enroll in preschool in our new city in anticipation of homeschooling in a couple of years. Might as well get used to having them with me full time. 😀 So, we are preschooling this year, with my kids who all have birthdays later this month. They will be 4, 3, and 3 (twins). We plan to start in the fall with the Sonlight P3/4 read alouds and some relaxed work in Kumon first steps workbooks (coloring, folding, cutting, pasting). In January (at 3.5 and 4.5), I plan to add All About Reading and Handwriting Without Tears Pre-K. We’re excited!

    • Jamie

      Your family sounds a bit like ours, Erin, with three so close together like that! Makes for an exciting life, for sure!! 😉

      You’ll love the Sonlight P3/4 – so fun!

      • Erin

        Yep! That’s one of the reasons I like reading your blog–it encourages me that if you can homeschool and being an intentional professional mommy with three kids who are more or less the same age & stage, then I can too! We also have both bio and adopted kiddos. My oldest was adopted through the foster care system and my twins were conceived when he was just 4 months old. An exciting life for sure!

  15. Kristin

    I will have a 1st grader, 4th grader and a 4 year old this year. The 4 year old will be doing Rod and Staff’s preschool workbooks, as well as some phonics (probably a combo of Starfall, Leapfrog DVD’s, and 100 Easy Lessons). First grader will be finishing up 100 easy lessons (we took it way easy this year), Math U See, and Explode the Code. My 4th grader will be doing Math U See Delta, Apologia Astronomy, Sequential Spelling, Story of the World 3, and I feel like I’m forgetting something. 🙂 I’m a little confused about language arts, so we are kind of trying things out. We’re starting out with Karen Andreola’s book (Simply Grammer?…I’m not sure), then when that is finished we will be using First Language Lessons. I also bought Easy Grammer, so we’ll see how things go! I feel like I might need a little more hand holding for writing (my least favorite subject), but haven’t found anything so far.

    • Lisa

      We have done Apologia Astronomy twice (with two different children) and it is my favorite in the series! Hope you enjoy!

  16. Tracy @ Hall of Fame Moms

    I’m still working on what we will do for next yr but in addition to the Math Mammoth I mentioned above and ClicknKids we will be using Rod &Staff Readers, and Natural Speller, Story of the World and Explode the Code. I don’t necessarily follow any of the “guides: how to”. I incorporate the subjects as I wish so we don’t use all of the work books, etc..

  17. Melanie Rudd

    I will have a 4th and 10th grader this year! My 9 year old daughter will be using The Prairie Primer, Story of the World, Apologia Zoology 3, Italics handwriting, copywork for Girls, Dance Mat Typing and Math-U-See Gamma,and lots of great books and narrations for literature. We also have All About Spelling, which we use sporadically.

    I love the Charlotte Mason method and believe that most children pick up great spelling and grammar skills through reading good literature. This has definitely been true for my older son, who had a bit of spelling in 2nd grade before I settled into our method of education. He is a great speller and writes very well. However, I am working him through some more formal grammar now that he is older to make sure he’s prepared for the SAT.

    My 15 year old son will be using Saxon Algebra 2, Apologia Chemistry, Truthquest Age of Revolution 2, The Institute for Excellence in Writing, Tell Me More Spanish, lots of classics and narration for literature, and Easy Grammar Plus along with Jensens’s Grammar. We also have tons of electives that he is slowly working his way through and he is preparing for the PSAT.

  18. Julie

    For kindergarten the plan is:
    Reading: Ordinary Parent’s Guide, BOB books (and other early readers), and Explode the Code A, B, and C (I’d rather move quickly through those three books rather than jump into book 1 and it be too far ahead.)
    Math: Saxon 1
    Handwriting: Zaner-Bloser Kindergarten
    Bible: Continue family devotions and weekly scripture memorization
    Everything else: Five in a Row
    And LOTS of read-alouds. We’re compiling our list with help from Honey for a Child’s Heart, How to Raise a Reader, The Read Aloud Handbook, and the list found here http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000-primary.html.

  21. Anne @ Modern Mrs Darcy

    We’re heading into our second year of homeschooling–next year with a 1st and 3rd grader. This year’s Memoria Press pre-packaged classical curriculum with lesson plans worked so well for us we’re doing it again for the next grade levels. I’m excited about 3rd grade–we’re adding subjects like astronomy and Greek mythology. I don’t know anything about these fields so I’m excited to get my own education!

    We’re adding Susan Wise Bauer’s Story of the World for history.

  22. Recovering Noah

    I haven’t blogged about Noah’s curriculum for this year yet, but will be doing so soon. We started using the Well-Trained Mind a few months ago (well, started using it consistently) and we really like it. For those who don’t know, Noah is 9 1/2, is nonverbal and has severe autism and mild cerebral palsy. So his lessons have to be refined and they do go at a slower place. We are really concentrating on getting him to spell by pointing to letters on a letterboard and will try to introduce handwriting this year. Will be hard because he can’t hold a pencil, but that’s our goal. So, Story of the World I, Language Lessons A, Science according to the Well-Trained Mind, LOTS of reading out loud and spelling words to him as we read. Math is really hard for me b/c it’s my least favorite subject and Noah’s favorite. Last year, we just did all the math homework that my 1st grade brought home with him from public school. Will probably do the same this year. And because I firmly believe that Noah is a typical 9 year old trapped in a body that fails him, and because I firmly believe that he hears and understands everything that goes on around him, we read a lot of age-appropriate books and do a lot of audio books in the car and story CD’s while travelling to various therapies… Jim Weiss is our favorite. We also supplement his school work with BrainGym exercises and lifeskills work… like working with him on learning to dress himself, brush his teeth, empty the dishwasher, put clothes from the washer to the dryer. It’s hard and exhausting but seeing his progress is so worth it!

    Leslie

    • Jamie

      Leslie, it is SO good to hear from you!

      Blessings on all of you this year – wish we could get these girls of ours together. Maybe one day?!

      • Sarah G

        I love hearing from parents whose children need adaptations to curriculum who are homeschooling! I got my masters in special education and as much as I love love loved my work I think 1:1 time is so important for all students, but especially my students. Who better to give that time than the one who loves them most?

        I also love all the age appropriate reading you are doing. My “someday” dream is to write easily phonetically de-codable books that are age appropriate for middle/high schoolers.

        Nice work mama!