Homeschool World Forum

We are eclectic. We use a curriculum for math (BJ until 4th grade and then Saxon). We unschool for science and history. In language arts I follow the "Read something every day, Write something every day" approach.

Once my oldest son reached 7th grade, however, he is pretty much taught by the textbook/structured method. He had no problem (or very little) easing into it. Hopefully it will go as well for the rest of them.

Since we are overseas homeshoolers we are quite limited on our choices. We do all textbook work since we don't have libraries available to us. We do bring in as many books as we can and I frequently order books for my avid readers. I also like the structure of the curriculum guides since teaching isn't really my thing but I am learning to love it and boy and I really learning too! We use a variety of BJU, ABeka, Saxon math.

We were struggling with homeschooling after the first two months, and I was feeling like such a colossal failure. Then we found out about literature-based homeschooling (Sonlight, in our case) and it revolutionised my attitude. We're already a very literature-oriented family, and when a friend told me about Sonlight and showed me her newest shipment of books, and I recognized some of them right away as wonderful classic titles, and the others as unfamiliar (to me) but good new material, I was deeply impressed.

Other than that, we try to pull in as many educational resources as possible. We currently live in a very culturally rich part of the US, with free or reasonably priced plays, concerts and art shows happening year-round on a regular basis, museums and historical sites everywhere, and a large homeschooling community where we all keep each other updated on what's happening--from the latest visit by some famous musician or author, to information about farms where you can pick your own strawberries, apples or green beans in season. I really appreciate being able to do these things with my kids and not have to write excuse notes to get them out of regular classrooms.

I shouldnt even be allowed an opinion here............... I am an absolute newbie.
Rookie.
I am just starting to homeschool my 5 year old.
Having said that, I am approaching his whole education with a literature based curriculum.
As few "textbooks" as possible, and going right to the original sources -
age appropriate of course.
He just doesnt seem to understand "Crime and Punishment" yet.

We love a structured approach in our family with a little twist. Instead of following the lesson plans, my DD can progress at her own rate in the subjects she loves and must keep grade level up in the subjects she doesn't like so much. Then we supplement a great deal with a science lab, Chinese, Spanish, typing & other computer classes, guitar, piano, sports & dance. We're lucky in that this approach works well for her and satisfies her old traditional parents. Ha!