Curriculum

Jenny L. asked which curriculum I'm using. After much thought, some research 3 years ago (long story), more thought, and talks with Dan, I narrowed down the list of what I wanted in a curriculum. Bible-based, and a one-room schoolhouse approach were at the top of my list. I wanted something where all 4 of my kids would be learning the same concepts but at their level. I also preferred a holistic approach to education, something that integrated all the subjects and showed their interconnectedness.

So, knowing what I wanted, I googled "Bible-based homeschool curriculum" or something to that effect. A few different names of publishers came up. I already knew A Beka wasn't for me. I went to the websites of the others and first determined whether they were doing what I wanted to do spiritually and educationally. Alpha Omega turned out to have exactly what I was looking for with their Weaver program. We're using The Interlock, their preschool/kindergarten curriculum. Oh, and it turned out that another family at church has used the Weaver, and the mom was willing to talk to me about it and let me borrow her copy. That was awesome! So I checked eBay a couple times and ended up finding it for $15 with S&H (Brand new it's $89 without S&H).

My advice: stay far, far away from those catalogs, at least until you know what you're looking for. It was important to me to have a full curriculum for the first year, I'll add what I feel is necessary later but for this year I wanted something easy to follow that would cover all the bases. I prefer at this point to go with publishers I trust and get what I need from them, rather than picking stuff out of a catalog that might not be any good, or might not be what my family needs.