How much do you use textbooks?

Question

As a public high school student, I've noticed that my best teachers teach 100% from their own knowledge and never (or very rarely) use textbooks. Also, as a person who attended a Montessori school for 9 years, I don't really like text books. So I was wondering how often do homeschooling parents use textbooks (or any text really, whether physical or online) to teach their children.

Answer 1

I know a lady who homeschools her children and she uses textbooks more than an ordinary teacher. Her children has to know things according to the textbook in order for her to continue to do it. The schoolboard is a little harder on homeschooling because they think if you didn't go to school to become a teacher you are not qualified.

Answer 2

The only "text book" we use is math. I have Abeka text books for history and science, but I use them more of a reference of what to cover vs. as a text book.

Answer 3

We have a LOT of reference books which we use to answer specific questions but nothing you would call a textbook, like schools use. I guess if at some point my daughter wants to take a specific exam we might want to get something like that, but even then I'm not sure.

Answer 4

I used them very little in the early years.  More in the high school years.  For math, I feel after grade 3-4 a text is a must. Other than that, I use mainly novels, non-fiction books, games, maps, encyclopedias, bible, etc.

When people use the word curriculum many assume it means texts.  It doesn't.  It means a scope and sequence learning plan. If you write your goals out of what you want your child to learn, you can use anything to teach them. For a 6yo, you might have a health plan of learning-

basic safety rules

basic hygiene

teeth care

bike safety

water safety

easy first aid

tobacco deterrence

choosing healthy snacks

handwashing

manners

etc.

You can teach all that without a book.  Or if you want a book, you could borrow books from the library or read books about manners and safety.  You don't need a textbook.  You can make a curriculum very detailed, or even copy it from your state board of ed website. The methods and materials you use can vary.  You just need to follow your curriculum. Texts are not that important.

Answer 5

We almost never use textbooks, preferring instead to use source material.  The one exception to this is math, where we use a program called Math U See.  Math U See does not use textbooks per se, relying instead on DVDs, manipulative's and a workbook.  There is a teacher's manual as well, and that is as close as my child comes to using a textbook.

Answer 6

We use textbooks for math (VideoText Interactive, formerly used Math U See) because it's not my strongest subject; the DVD lessons teach in a way that makes sense to my son, and the texts are well laid out.

We use them for about half of his science, as well - he really likes the layout and tone of Apologia, so we use those as a spine and build out from there.  We add a lot into them though, from video telecourses on the net to lapbooks and field trips.

That's really about it.  Everything else I build units for him around lapbooks and projects.

Answer 7

I rarely use textbooks.  There are way too many problems with textbooks for me to consider using them often.

Most homeschool parents I know, use them sparingly, but there are those that use them extensively.  

To each his own :D

Answer 8

This year we've only used math workbooks. Oddly enough my son, that can't sit for two seconds, has chosen all workbooks for next year. Most of our learning is done through conversation, and movies.

Answer 9

I use work textbooks all of the time.  The main reason is becasue I work better with them than without one.  

My textbooks are different from regular textbooks because they allow me to learn on my own.  My books have many step by step examples.

Answer 10

saddly now the schools are trying to make text books a must. ( lucky me i'm out of high school)

text books are all BS goverment, " what the students should be learning" aka gorverment writen. Not all the facts

Answer 11

It depends on the teacher. Some teachers will frequently use the textbooks for homework and reference. Others will make you check them out, but only use them once.

Answer 12

i was homeschooled for eight years and used text books the entire time. there was one year that i watched videos (taped classes) but still used the text book. when i started high school, i went to several "real" schools where the teachers seemed to not teach out of the text books. it could be that the teachers either have prepared from the book before hand or have taught the info for so long that they don't need to use the text anymore.

i am in lawschool now and all we do is use the text books - glad i was prepared.

Answer 13

my mom and dad dad teach me and they use a lot of text books with me and it costs a lot of money

Answer 14

That's the funniest thing about Y!A....people don't understand what they read..or intentionally disregard the question.

Anyway, we use them for about 50% of assignments.

We don't have the advantage that public school high school teachers have of teaching the same class 3 times a day.  If we did that for a few years, we probably could lecture without the use of textbooks.   As it is, many times I am learning as I teach.  I am a product of the public school and don't remember the things that I "learned" 30 plus years ago.

We also use many free online lectures from the colleges as well as other audio/video materials.

Answer 15

I use text books when teaching my son, but thats because he requires the structure of a curriculum. I hope to eventually move more towrds unit studies as he gets older and just use texts for math.

Answer 16

I go to college and about 45% of teachers teach from textbook. I've had teachers who required textbook for class but I never bought one and still got an A in the class and it also goes other way around. There are professors that I didn't buy a book for their class and I didn't do that well. It just depends on the professor but most in college, don't really put much emphasis on text books.