Homeschool World Forum

[daniellet]

I want to begin homeschooling my daughter for 1st grade next year and I need advice on choosing a curriculum. I will also be working late afternoons/evenings teaching piano in my home so homeschooling will be a morning activity for the most part.

My daughter is not a "workbook" kind of kid. She hates repetition, enjoys hands-on learning, arts/crafts, music and anything active. Though in public school kindergarten, she is at 2nd grade level for reading and math. However, very behind in handwriting and does not like to practice that.

I feel that she would do well with a unit-based approach and was looking at My Father's World. I am intrigued by the Charlotte Mason approach but my daughter gets easily bored so reading many books would discourage her. "the Weaver" curriculum is too expensive and time consuming for me, but I like the idea of units and having a strong bible base.

Would love to get others opinions on what would be a good choice for a kid who needs to be active and hands-on but yet get a good foundation for basic skills. Also, personally I need a curriculum that is laid out for daily study because I am running a home business. I am not afraid of putting lessons or units together; I was a public school teacher for 7 years. However, I lack tons of time to be super creative and would like some of that work done for me.

Any advice? Thank you all very much.

[hscoach]

I hope you will get some answers from others on the forum, but I thought I might suggest Home Ed Expert to you. It is free and it might be helpful. You don't actually have to purchase anything on the site; you can just use it and see what curriculum it will suggest. Here is the link:

http://homeedexpert.com/nav.aspx

If you end up putting together your own mix of things, you might want to do all the planning in the summer when you have more time. Then it's done for the year. I have never used a boxed curriculum. I have always used a variety of things.

Best wishes as you begin homeschooling.
_________________
Laura L. Barth
http://www.freehomeschooladvice.com

[daniellet]

Thank you very much, that site was very helpful!