Homeschool World Forum

[Tiarali]

Well I'm now considering using A Beka Book for social studies and science. My biggest problem with this is that the social studies program is heavily dominated by American History etc. and we're in Australia However, it's one of the programs recommended by the school we're considering going through, so I daresay other parents find it suitable.

My question about it is: How easy is it to implement. I don't mean to imply that I'm lazy, but I'm very new to all this so it looks a bit big and scary (lol) and I am planning to homeschool all 3 children. It will be cheaper for us if the younger children are able to use the same program (use the same teacher's text etc.) but if having three children at different ages doing different levels in the programs is going to be a big headache, I'd like to know now, before I commit to it. Make sense?

I know unit approaches is a good way around this, but in our state we have to inform the education department of our detailed curriculum and the resources we plan to use in advance, and it will be much simpler legal-wise if we can use a purchased curriculum, especially if it's one that's 'approved' by our school - we don't have a homeschoolers' legal defense service here, but the school will do that for us.

[Tabz]

What age group are you looking at? I've heard good reports about "Story of the World" and I used Bob Jones' world history in highschool. I'd also suggest doing some unit studies on your own about Australian history.
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[daisy]

Abeka History and Science for grades 3rd and younger is rather skimpy. The books are approximately 150-180 pages long and are meant to be taught in a 6 week period of time. You could stretch it to a full semester if you added books from the library. The books are meant to be read by the student (at least by 1st grade) and are very colorful with alot of great photos. I actually use the History and Science as a launching point and add all kinds of fun stuff to it. My 1st grader loves both subjects and we want to learn them all school year rather then just 6 weeks. Another great History program that is book-based and great for multiple grade levels is Sonlight and Beautiful Feet (I use the American history so it may not work for your situation). Good luck.
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daisy, mom of
libby, 6 and
red, 4

[OldHomeschoolMom]

Have you checked Usborne books? They have history books of all kinds. I'm sure you can find something you like. I used some of their books, they are colorful and make learning fun for the children. http://www.usborne.com/search/quicksearch_results.asp?SearchText=history
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Homeschool Mom

[ccmmum]

Have you looked at Sonlight? I know a lot of people that live in Australia use them for history. They tend to do more world history than American , and they are set up so that you can teach multiple children at once.

[janette]

Dear Tiarali

I saw your email and wanted to let you know about suppliers of Aussie history books and homeschooling curriculum in Australia.

There's www.homeschoolfavourites.com.au in NSW where a lovely lady named Mary Collis sells Australian My Stories you know by Scholastic and things as well as many other resources. Then there's a second hand resource board for homeschooling resources much like the one in this group at www.homeschoolads.proboards51.com/index.cgi. Might save a little postage there too.

I love doing things 'hands on' as well with my dc and am always looking for ways we can bring our lessons to life like that. Nature study is brilliant for that too.

If you haven't guessed by now we're in Australia too with a dd 12 and ds 10 we live in Canberra and have been homeschooling together now for 5 years. We love doing Australian history as you may be able to tell from my blog.

Anyway hope these links help and there are a lot more if you do a search for instance there's also places like
http://wonder.riverwillow.com.au
built up by a lovely lady named Ruth Marshall but maybe you've heard of all these by now.

All the best with your hunting!

Warmly

Janette
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CLICK here to find out about my Pictures of Australian History...

[Theodore]

You could also try contacting the groups on our Australian homeschool groups page and see what they suggest for the history parts of your curriculum.

http://www.home-school.com/groups/australia.html
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