ashmanra

Do you use a particular curriculum, or do you make your own? I am researching a couple years early for my toddler; are there any curriculums that you didn’t like?

In the early years, I found the little books from Dr. Ruth Beechik very helpful – A Strong Start in…various subjects. She shows how you can teach your children without spending a fortune on a curriculum. ( Some require text book, teacher book, quiz key, test key, quiz book, test book…and that is for one subject!) You Can Teach Your Child Successfully was a great book. To teach mine to read, I loved Alphaphonics and very much disliked the Abeka style of teaching reading. They do it backwards, in my opinion. I loved Saxon for math, very thorough. For a philosophy of the way to teach, read The Charlotte Mason Companion: A Reflection in the Gentle Art of Learning. Using the narration and dictation methods worked wonderfully for us. And if your child is male you may especially want to read Better Late than Early, a great book on the different rate of development of boys and what they need and when. For the early years, I loved Learning Language Arts through Literature – great program and works beautifully with the Mason method. Later on, the Abeka curriculum offers the most demanding, most thorough grammar and composition program you can get. All of my children are very good writers, and I credit the toughness of that curriculum. It was recommended by a professor at The College of William and Mary as being the best and hardest be out there, so of course, I bought it! :) There are thousands of great choices!

I need to take your Stampin Up course by correspondence!

That would be fun! Maybe we could Skype you in sometime! :)

Thanks for the info! :)