Trish’s Blog

When you’re clueless about homeschooling, this is the book to buy. It will help you solidify your decision to homeschool, decide what kind of learners you have, what kind of teacher you are, what kind of approach to take, and which curriculum will best suit your needs. It does exactly what it advertises–narrows the search for curriculum.

There’s a ton of stuff out there on the internet, in teacher supply stores, and even the dollar section of Target. A LOT. Once you make the decision to teach your children at home, your eyes open to the different things you can use to teach them. Things will jump out at you and you’ll want to buy them all. Unless you have unlimited funds, that is a problem that you want to keep in check. One of the pros is being able to reuse curriculum you buy for the oldest when the younger ones grow up. Another is being able to sell curriculum back to your local homeschool store. 100 Top Picks helps gives a list of what to look for when you’re in the used sections of such stores. You will find treasures in the piles and piles of stuff they accumulate. My advice is to not write in any books or on any worksheets so that you can sell the stuff back. It’s economical, saves the Earth, and provides yet another teaching opportunity. (I’m telling you, they are everywhere. It’s like buying a car and then suddenly seeing the same car everywhere you drive when before ownership you never noticed them.)

One of the great mysteries that this book solved for me was helping my husband and I see eye-to-eye on what and how to teach our kids. I thought that we would be on two sides of the spectrum with him being more traditional and  me firmly on the unschooling side. I learned that we are more on the same page than I thought. Both of our second choices were for the Charlotte Mason method. We are still going to be eclectic so we won’t abide by CM solely. Traditional worksheets and unschooling experiments will definitely come into play. It was great to discover a good jumping off point, however, and it has helped me to stay afloat in the giant pool of curriculum choices.

I am just diving in and keeping my eyes open for when learning clicks for my children and the lights go on in their heads.

Posted on September 6th, 2009 by trish
Filed under: Homeschool, In My Opinion