HELP!!! Tooo many homeschool cirriculums to choose from!?

Question

I have chosen to homeschool our 7th grader. We just relocated to SC and I need some guidence please. I would like some subjects to be via CDROM and some books since she tends to get bored very easily. Any advice would be appreciated. Also.....anyone know where I could get some old books someone used last year for a 7th grader?? Funds are very limited since the recent move. Thanks!

Answer 1

Borrow Cathy Duffy's book:  100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum.  It's a great book, very easy to use and informative.

See if there's a homeschool group in your area.  Someone probably has resources you could buy or borrow.  Good luck!

Answer 2

We have the same problem...except the learning material is in our home.  We purchase from yard sales, Goodwill Stores, and used homeschool book stores.  We have enough to last 10 years and son only has 3 years before he will be graduation age.

Take it slow.  Use what you get online and from library.  Next year at this time, you will have your bookshelves full of textbooks, video, and CDroms.  Your computer will be full of weblinks.   You can back up and redirect at any time.  Especially using free and cheap material, it won't upset you when a particular resource just doesn't work for your student.

Please do not listen to people who say that unless you are trained to be a teacher that you cannot teach.  If you love learning and are able to learn, you can teach.

I would have laughed a few years ago at the reply concerning going to public school to get resources.  I heard this year, from a public school teacher, that our particular school district will issue text books to homeschool students in the district. We have not tried it yet because our house is full of stuff and so far, not needed public school text books.

Best wishes to  you.  Homeschool has worked for us, and I think it will work for anyone who gives it a try.

Answer 3

A few used resources... we are a limited fund family too ;)

http://www.homeschoolclassifieds.com/

ebay of course

Some for sale or trade boards

http://wtmboards.com/saleswap/

http://www.homeschoolchristian.com/cgi-b...

If you have a local freecycle yahoo group you may do a wanted post for 7th grade homeschool books.

I've heard lots of great things about Math U See which uses a DVD to help for math.

A really great book for helping choose curriculum is 100 top picks by Cathy Duffy. I know our library carries it. It goes over your childs learning style as well as your teaching style. There are some other good learning style books too! Good Luck and when you pick something realize that you can usually make most things work (though some end up being really bad) and to try and feel confident when you pick something instead of getting in the always looking for something better trap that I've found myself in before! Have Fun and enjoy having your daughter home!!!

Answer 4

I love hearing that the problem is too many curriculums to chose from. LOL. When we started homeschooling 15 years ago, there wasn't much to choose from.

Are you near Greenville, SC? I used to live there. BJU used to host an annual curriculum fair there at the campus. It was nice to get to peruse a huge array of curriculum form all the major vendors and see it all first hand not just in a catalogue.

I have had three go through 7th grade, one more yet to go. My favorite curriculums for that age have been:

Math - Saxon Math

Language Arts - Grammar and Writing (Hake Publishing), IEW has a terrific composition program. For literature, we loved just reading and talking about the elements of the stories. K12 has a good language curriculum too.

For science, we live it as much as possible with good texts (Apologia) and research sources as a spine. We did stream studies all summer one year because we have a stream on our property. The kids took regular chemical readings (pH, oxygen levels,nitrates, nitrites, etc), took biological sample counts, we did long-term indoor observations of tadpole development and crayfish behavior (don't put them in the same tank!). The kids did lots of reserach on macro-invertibrates. They are quite fascinating. In other years we did biolgy activities revolving around body structure and design and did dissections, learned about genetics, studied nutrition, etc. This year, we are doing chemistry again (we did it 4 years ago too). It is a very fascinating topic. October 20 to 27th is National Chemistry Week. Check to see if there are events at universities near you. This year's theme isn't as exciting as in past years (careers in Chemistry), but I bet universities will find ways to put on a great chemistry show. Last time, we took a fieldtrip to a plastics manufacturer. The chemist was great in showing how what they were learning applied to the manufacturing environment. K12's curriculum is really good. I heard you can buy it course by course for about $29/month. We used it for one of our children for four years through a vitual school. He loved computers and this curriculum invoves computers quite a bit in content delivery.

History - Good historical fiction adds wonderful spice to the dish of history. There are bookoodles of great stories out there that teach history right along with the story. Move systematically through several consecutive time periods though to get the most out of using fiction to teach history. A good overview resource is important to tie it all together too. A great place to locate fun history overview resources is http://www.dianawaring.com/

If you are curious about some of the things we have done, we tend to make things to record our studies as we go along. You may enjoy perusing some of them. Note - sometimes the links split at the question marks, just copy/paste the two halves into your browser if that happens.

To see some e-notebooks (cross between scrapbooks and notebooks) go to http://www.virtualhomeschoolgroup.com/co... and sign in as a guest.

To see my 7th grader's portfolio of concept maps and a few work samples, go to http://cmapspublic2.ihmc.us/servlet/SBRe... and click the little icons in the bottom of the nodes to access concept maps.

This year, I am teaching online in an online classroom with Virtual Homeschool Group. You may want to take a look at the neat idea of co-oping free online courses with other homeschool families. The addy is http://www.virtualhomeschoolgroup.com/.

Good luck on your decisions. There are some fantastic curiculums out there and it truly does make for some tough decision making to pick which ones you want. :)

Answer 5

The local public library is a great resource and it's free. Your public library can borrow books from other libraries in the system and sometime other libraries in the state.   If there is a state university or community college in the area, members of the public are only charged a small fee for the privilege of checking out books.

Answer 6

Sometimes the board of education in your state will have a textbook library. In my experience they allow you to keep these books for a couple of months at a time. It may take some time to do the research but this type of resource is very helpful to parents who wish to homeschool. I'm sure you've looked into whats going on in your area but looking for other families in your area who are homeschooling their children could be very helpful. They may have some advice on a curriculum that they have tried or even have some resources to loan you. Often these groups will have some type of cooperative classes in their homes that parents offer and share with other kids.

Answer 7

As one who has taught in regular classes both in public and private schools, I can also say that the best home school curriculum I have ever seen is published by A BEKA in Pensacola, Florida.  You can go to their website to get contact information, though you may be a little late for this school year.  All of my students, after they had received at least 2 years of A BEKA training, were scoring at least 1 - 3 years higher on standardized tests than those who were taught only by public school curriculum.

By the way, they also can put you in touch with a local private school who can supervise your child's testing, etc. so you will meet state requirements as a home school.  You might have a fee to pay, but at least then you will know everything you do will meet state accreditation standards.

Answer 8

you should go directly to the school and ask for material!!!

home schooling will not be easy there is a lot of material to cover in this grade!!!!

Answer 9

choose everything! that's my only advice to u.

Answer 10

Well It depends are you a reliious Homeschooler! Also Look on Ebay and Amazon and you are sure to find things! I Like Alpha Omega and Rod and Staff ( Both Reigious) But You are sure to find some unreligious!

Answer 11

Unless you have a teaching degree, send that kid to school! 7th graders especially need to work on social interaction. Won't be getting that at home!