Curriculum Choices

I have used many different homeschool curriculum over the years.  From my experience, I have learned that less is more when it comes to lower grades.  Kids should to lots of reading and tons of math.  It's that simple.  Once your kids get into the middle and high school years, and the college or professional goals approach, it would pay to purchase recognizable curriculum.  Colleges especially, when reviewing the child's transcript and portfolio like to see that the child used programs and textbooks that they recognize as being stringent.  You don't have to do this across the board for every class, but using recognizable curriculum helps colleges to know that you put some effort into buying good curriculum.


For her senior year, my daughter is using mostly free curriculum.  I am putting the bulk of my homeschool budget into her electives.  She will be entering quite a bit of competitions this year, and will have a great deal of voice and music lessons. In addition, she will be attempting to CLEP through several classes this year.


16 year old Senior

Math:  (may attempt college math or college algebra CLEP)

• Personal Finance Math: Free program from the Actuarial Foundation
• Grade 12 math:  Khan Academy (attempting to get through college algebra although math requirements will have already been met)

Science:

• Science requirements met

Social Studies/History: (Government CLEP)

• Hippocampus.org
• Politics in America by Thomas R. Dye (a Pearson Education book) 

Language Arts: (Analyzing and Interpreting Lit CLEP)

• Learner.org (Annenberg Media) Literary Visions
• Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing 

Foriegn Language: (Spanish CLEP)

• Spanish 2b:  Mango Languages online

Electives: Artios Academies (Acting, voice, world view, directing, etc)




Some of the curriculum I have learned to love over the years includes: 
Time4learning.com
Brainpop.com
Teaching Textbooks
BYKI.com (foreign language instruction)
Learner.org
Hippocampus.org
Teacher wraparound editions of major textbooks