My husband and I were both homeschooled and now we homeschool our own children. We believe that homeschooling is the best choice for our family and take full responsibility for our children’s education.
We feel pretty confident knowing that my mom homeschooled 4 children and his mom 13 children. Between my mom, my mother in law and I, we have a pretty good idea at what works and what does not work. I want to share with you what we have found that works.
I will be starting with just the lower levels and eventually will be adding more. So what is the best curriculum?
Elementary Curriculum
Math
So as far as lower level math I have chosen this curriculum. They do a great job as putting math into real life situations which makes it a breeze to teach. I grew up doing Math-U-See and my Husband grew up using saxton math, these are both great programs but We have really enjoyed Lessons for a living education.
Phonics/Reading
Teaching kids to read can pretty so tedious and time consuming. Sing spell read and write have done a great job at combining reading, spelling and phonics. This bundle is for kindergarden and first grade. It seems pricy but I will say it makes your life easier having everything in one place.
This bundle comes with all the work books, games and sheets. But if you just want the books you can grab those seperatly as well.
Writing
Penmanship is a lost art I feel like. I want my kids to have good handing as well as learning cursive. These work books are awesome. I would highly reccomend them.
Classical Conversations
I do a classical approach to schooling and use classical conversations for all my other subjects. My kids are apart of a co-op and they love it. But you can still do classical conversations at home.
You can purchase the foundation’s guide which has everything you will need in it but it cost close to $100. I found that I hardly ever used the book and only used my app.
You can purchase the app on apple or android for around $15. It is super easy to use. Your kids will go through the weeks and memorize the facts for that week. Classical conversations have 3 cycles. You can start with anyone of them. To purchase the app just search “classical conversations” and choose which cycle you want.
I know I barely explained what classical conversations are but I really won’t do it justice. You can either search their official website or If you want more information on classical education this book is awesome.
Odds & Ends
When you homeschool you will need more than just the curriculum. You will also need other tools to help you out. Below are a few of the things that make homeschooling possible for me.
Laminator & Sheets
As a homeschool parent, this will save you! You can seriously laminate anything you don’t want to get damaged. Flashcards, worksheets, coloring pages Etc.
I avoided getting one for so long because I thought they would be very pricy. But I was shocked to see how cheap they really are. You can find the one I suggest here. Here are some sheets as well!
Printer
You also need a good printer. My old printer went out for a couple of weeks last school year and I was lost. I am constantly printing things off for my kids. Again, you would be surprised at the low price point. You can head over to Amazon to grab one.