Reading Assignment

As always, please choose the material that applies to you to read at this time.

Please read the following chapters:

Chapter 2 - Learning and Teaching Styles

Chapter 7 - Choosing a Curriculum

Chapters 16, 17, 18 - The Elementary, Middle & Teen Years

Appendix B - Curriculum Providers and Programs.

If you have questions about college admission for home schoolers, this site may be of interest as well.

The book is also available through Amazon.com:

There's more information out there about curriculum than any well-intentioned parent should ever read! To help you narrow things down a bit, I'm going to ask you to choose a subject and a grade level that might be of use to you.

HomeSchoolReviews.com is a great site! They have reviews on almost everything from a wide variety of people who have actually used the material. You'll hear how and why they like it or didn't like it. You can look at individual topics or categories in general. You'll find complete curricula as well individual programs.

Use Home School Reviews to read the reviews for at least two programs in the subject you've chosen. You'll see that within each subject, the reviewers have indicated which grade level they are working with, so you can judge their concerns and comments in relation to students of an appropriate age.

Here's their site:

Unit Studies are a fun way to break up a routine, fill a summer, or just study a subject that's of interest. You can put these together easily, buy packages that guide you through the process, or let your children devise them!

For this activity, visit this site:

Now calculate how long it would take your family to work through this unit study. Would you spend a week just working on this? Would you spread it out over a semester? Would it include a summer vacation or field trip? How could you add to the list to expand the study in a way your family would enjoy?

Whatever curriculum you decide on, adding a unit study can be a nice break. You may like it so much you won't come back to your planned studies, but what could be better than children being excited about learning?

Arrange a Field Trip ☼

Field trips are great and some home school families like to plan one a month or even one a week. My son's grandparents look forward to them as much as anyone!

Consider the interests of your children and plan a field trip for your family and a few friends if that seems appropriate. Call a bakery, fire station, post office, or other public or commercial facility and see if they have tours available. If you'd rather, contact a local museum and see if they have a special exhibit or presentation. Make arrangements to take a small group.

A couple of tips to avoid the school groups (which are often huge and very noisy) at museums and public places.

• If you want to go during the week, plan your visit for Monday or Tuesday. Most schools aim for later in the week.
• Plan your visit for later in the afternoon--arriving about 2:00 usually insures all the school kids have gone back to school
• Consider the weekends, first thing in the morning as an option. You'll find individual families, rather than groups are there. Sundays are often an excellent day for museum visits.