Friday, May 21, 2010

I MADE IT!!!


I got the official word this morning that I've been accepted as part of the 2010-2011 The Old Schoolhouse Crew.  What does that mean you ask???  I have been chosen to be a part of curriculum testing!!  We will get a variety of curriculum sent to us FREE to try out and give our opinion!  The Lord answers prayers...let me tell you!  My husband and I were not sure how we were going to afford curriculum this year.  We were going to have to piece together "cheap" curriculum.  Now we will be able to buy a very nice inexpensive curriculum and have a lot to add to it.  It's a lot of work...But BRING it on...I'm up for it.  I'm am SO beyond excited.  I can not wait to share all this wonderful information with you.  This is their 3rd year of doing this...what a blessing to be a part of it!!  Anyway with all this talk about curriculum I thought I'd talk a bit on how we choose one.

Well it starts off with many many days of prayer for the Lord to direct us to what He wants us to use.  Talk to people!!  Home schooling families are so open to sharing their experience with certain curriculum's.  Another thing I highly suggest is subscribe to the many home school magazines out there.  The first one we subscribed to in our first year was The Old Schoolhouse Magazine we are still subscribers today.  Then we joined a local home school group (LEAH~Loving Education at Home

Many home schoolers will tell you that choosing a curriculum is quiet over whelming.  I remember our first year of home schooling, we had just pulled our children out of public school.  I really did not know anyone who home schooled.  We were doing it blind...we were also newly saved...less than a year.  That first year we did not go with one curriculum.  We bought many different things...wasted a lot of money.

For us cost is such a factor in which curriculum we will choose.  We have 3 children to buy curriculum for that can get pretty costly.  We had 3 curriculum choices in the "running" for this coming year was, Rod and Staff, Switched on Schoolhouse, and Download n Go.  We are still praying about which to use...but we do have one in the lead.  I'll post more about what we choose later.  If there are any of you out there that would like to know more about home schooling please do not hesitate to ask me!!

1 comment:

Kristi said...

Praise God! What a blessing! It's wonderful to see how He is going to answer prayers! I truly pray that the curriculum will be a blessing to you.

Chosing a homeschool curriculum can be so overwhelming. We are coming up on my 6th year of homeschooling and I still find chosing curriculum to be a hard task. Each child is so different, and learns in their own way at at their own levels. I have found that praying and not deciding until God give me peace about it, is sure way to go. Many a times I've bought curriculum and had to sell it later because the Lord had something else in mind. Every family is going to need something different to meet their own individual needs! We currently use

5th grade-SOS for language arts and math.*ACE for Science, Social Studies, Word Building and Literature & Creative Writing. *Lifepacs for Bible *A Beka for summer readers & art.

2nd grade-*Horizons for math *A Beka for summer readers & art and *ACE for all other subjects.

1st grade-*Horizons for math *Scott Foresman Reading for reading and phonics *A Beka for art and *ACE for all other subjects

And we use the ACE learning to read with Ace and Christ for Kindergarten. I've used it for years. I know it, I'm comfortable with it, and it's cheap since I reuse the manuals every year.

I've tried sooo many different curriculums and found peace in these. For me, I have to keep it simple right now because I have so many young children. As the littlest one gets older, I'll be able to do more indepth studies. I try to get the basic education in, and really focus on Godly character traits and family unity.

Once again, I am sooo happy for you and this new found blessing!