Home school program? - I have a child who is in 5th grade. I want a home school program. Maybe dvds, books?

Question

Looking for something with books and maybe dvds, as inexpensive as possible. Tired of the pathetic public school system.

Answer 1

When we first started... a few weeks into the school year... we really had to scramble to get our curriculum and materials together.

After that first year, we make a point of attending a yearly book fair that takes place not too far away from us.  Not so much help to you now but... you might want to consider picking and choosing your material for this year rather than getting locked into a particular curriculum (although you are never truly locked into anything with homeschooling).  Look around in your area (contact local support groups) for book fairs / homeschool conventions.

We had a hard time picking our books and stuff that first year because we really wanted to "hold and look at" the materials.

Now, every year, we spend a day roaming around the booths at a book fair looking at the material (we know ahead of time the course schedule), talking to the representatives, etc.  This approach helps us a lot.

Answer 2

I would highly recommend googling homeschool stores and asking for their catalogues.  Then you can sit and look through them to see what you think might interest you and your child.  There are so many programs out there.

Personally we love Math U See.   It does come with DVD's.  We do A Reason for Science (a Christian science curriculum).   Five in  a Row.     These work for my kids and their learning styles - well my girls anyway.   For my son when he was in grade 5 we did Math U See and KNex educational kits.   That was a lot of fun!

Answer 3

Hi! I have been homeschooling for 6years now & 2 years ago I started to use Bob Jones Press. It is a satilite or dvd system. Everything is mapped out for you.

All the guess work is done for you. I love this system & will continue to use it. My kids have learned alot with this system. I am very pleased. Good luck I hope this helps.

Answer 4

it might not be "cheap" but it is by far the best program out there,

abeka.com

Answer 5

You need to do some some research. Most of the programs reccomended thus far are christian curriculum. That usually means a specific brand of evangelical christian and when it comes to their science programs, creationism rather than evoltution. that's fine if that's what you're after but if you're not a particular kind of Christian or a creationist you'll be disapointed. I think those who reccomend those programs really should start making that clear.

That said, I've heard great things about TeachingTextbooks.com and it has CD lectures.  Cozy Grammar is a grammar program on DVD.

Don't be afraid of looking at more traditional forms of homeschooling curriculum either. Even though many suppliers don't offer CDs or DVDs they've developed their courses to account for the fact that it's parents guiding the work or else they're often self-directed.

You can also go with a school like Oak Meadow or K12.com. It's a much more expensive route but provides you with all you need.

My real advice however is that you simply spend several months researching whats out there and finding the style of homeschooling that suits you THEN go out and get what you need for curriculum. Too often people decide to homeschool and spend hundreds or thousands on curriculum that doesn't suit them and that they barely use (trust me. I've got stuff sitting on my bookshelves that I bought when we began and NEVER touched). You could still bring your daughter home in the meantime. Most homeschoolers recommend a period of rest when kids come home from school so that kids can get their curiousity back and adjust to the difference before starting curriculum. Usually anything from a few weeks to a few months.

Answer 6

We are using Sonlight. It is expensive, but if you just get the instructor's guide and check out books at the library, you can really cut costs. Their guide is the best, I highly recommend it. The curriculum is lots of reading, which we enjoy and very academic.  We check out the dvd version of books we've just finished as a treat and discuss the differences.

Amazon has great prices on other curriculum, as does other websites. We love Apologia for science and Saxon for math.

Hope it works out for you! Homeschooling has been a blessing for us!