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!
These are my favorite just in general, but if you want to share your circumstances I'm happy to help personalize some ideas that may work for your family. You're welcome to send me a message if that's better for privacy sake.
Phonics: All About Reading (phonics only), or Logic of English (includes handwriting and spelling). I personally like to separate the subjects and teach the skills sequentially; decoding to read is often easier than encoding to spell.
Spelling: All About Spelling (parent intensive) or Memorial Press Spelling (more independent).
Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears. The Good and the Beautiful has nice handwriting books that you can buy as a PDF and reuse with multiple children.
Composition: IEW and Writing and Rhetoric are fabulous. They begin around 4th grade; we spend the younger years focusing on copy work, narration and dictation.
Literature Studies: Memorial Press
Grammar: Michael Clay Thompson is my absolute favorite, but I also really like First Language Lessons (based on the Emma Serl books from the 1900s). Grammar is better taught in upper elementary, they can understand the concepts more but FLL is a wonderful oral curriculum for young years. It includes picture studies, copy work, narration etc. I've also really liked Cottage Press Primers as well.
If you want an "all in one" language arts, then disregard all of the above! Lol. A popular option is The Good and the Beautiful, which is not a personal favorite of mine but I can appreciate it. Learning Language Arts Through Literature is not as pretty, but it's better quality imo.
Math: Right Start is probably one of the very best (and most expensive!) and works great if you have like... One kid lol. If your child is mathy, Singapore, Math Mammoth and Beast Academy are a great way to go. If they're average, Math with Confidence. If they need more time for concepts, Math U See.
Science and History (primary and lower elementary): Reading good books and watching documentaries, buying science kits and going on hikes for nature studies. Memorial Press and Beautiful Feet Books have wonderfully curated book lists for these subjects and ages.
Science (upper elementary): Berean Builders or Apologia
History (upper elementary): I haven't found one I love and am considering just making my own this year. I prefer literature based, which means using a "spine" and then supplementing with lots of quality books and primary sources. Popular options are My Father's World, Beautiful Feet Books, Ambleside Online, Gentle Feast, Story of the World, Mystery of History (author dispensationalist so heads up).
"Morning Time" is a buzzword that is basically moms selling their cute packages online to support their family and yours by making life easier lol. It's usually a PDF of all the "good, true and beautiful" things and often includes things like Bible, picture studies, composer and poem studies, hymns and folks tales, etc. A lot of families like to start their day with it. My favorite is Brighter Day Press. She's a lovely gal and has made a great product imo.
Hope that helps give you some ideas! Here if you want to chat more. Sorry for the formatting, I'm not super techy and don't know how to make paragraphs separated!