Hello, conpro. With summer upon us, this is usually the time homeschool mothers everywhere start planning for their upcoming school year.
I have been happily and gratefully homeschooling since the beginning with my children, and it's something I thoroughly enjoy and highly recommend! It's a beautiful way to live life alongside your children. It's also something that fathers can and should be heavily invested in, as they are the rocks of their families and so important!
I am just humbly offering my help to any new, seasoned, or interested families who want advice or just to share an ear. I'm happy to discuss curriculum, educational philosophies, setting reasonable goals, how to get started, the logistics of teaching multiple students, or simply pray for you as your family decides what to do this year.
I treasure this group and am praying for you all. God bless you!
I felt very much like you did when I got started. Actually, I felt totally inadequate and it was my husband who pushed us to homeschool lol. But I definitely wanted a curriculum to be the frame to help me feel more confident. There are certain things I've developed from scratch, but for the most part I have used curriculum already created. I tend to choose Christian friendly (either by publishers or authors), things that have great reviews that have stood the test of time, and things that allow for us to go off on "rabbit trails" and not worry about us being "behind."
Cathy Duffy website is a great resource for researching curriculum. Most curriculum also have free samples online, and a lot of mommy bloggers will do flip through videos so you can see what they're like.
I've found I gained confidence as time went on, so if later you wanted to create your own from scratch you can always change your mind! It's one of the beauties of homeschooling!
For HSLDA, I've always felt it worth joining, just in case anything went sideways.
Cathy Duffy, got it. Have you had any interface with Classical Conversations? I just heard about them on a podcast, (The Shawn Ryan Show maybe?) and their pitch sounded good.
Yes I'm familiar with CC to an extent. I've never participated but my friend is a local director. It is neoclassical and it's suggested to read the book, The Core by Leigh Bortins, to understand their pedagogy. Being neoclassical, there will be a lot of overlap with other publishers like Well Trained Mind, Classical Academia Press and Canon Press.
The Well Trained Mind has a book that is great called... The Well Trained Mind lol... By Susan Weiss Bauer. I highly recommend it but don't get overwhelmed by her suggested schedules. She's said in past interviews that it was a stipulation from the publisher at the time.
WTM and CAP both have great products I recommend. As far as I understand, CC recently overhauled some of their programs, including a brand new math curriculum they created. They meet once a week for a community day, which is where I'm told a great value lies. They will focus heavily on memorization in the early years, moving into logic in the middle years and rhetoric in later years (this is what all neoclassical models will use, it's based on The Lost Tools of Learning, a speech given by Dorothy Sayers).
Some people find CC a little... MLM flavored. I have no real opinion myself as I've never done it. It looks lovely, and your local CC should have parent interest events that you can attend and see if it's a good fit. If you wanted similar products you can use at home, sans the community aspect, I can recommend Claritas Press for memory work. It's aligned with Story of the World for history.
Also... I know we hate it, but there is value in Facebook for joining the homeschooling groups. Some groups shun FB and will use things like "Band" but, unfortunately, a lot are still on FB. It is useful for meeting local homeschoolers, vendors, planning park days and field trips, etc. You might be able to ask your local groups their take on CC.