Teaching Textbooks for each of our girls is our one major purchase. Since 2 of our girls are such hands-on learners, watching, listening and typing their math on the computer has been invaluable. There is no way one of my children in particular could ever (well, maybe she'll have to one day) sit down with a math textbook for an hour or more and get much done. I am shopping now for new versions because each of them have proven that they are too smart for the level I chose. I pray that I'll be able to find them used as they are around $200 new per child. I will say that I'm not sure what I'm going to buy for our oldest now. She is a textbook, lovin' child. Any suggestions would be wonderful! Oh, and for the record, I'm not a fan of Saxon.
Amanda Bennett Unit Studies are amazing! Amanda puts so much thought and work into each study. I simply go to her site and purchase the CD ($15, $10 if you download) for the unit I choose. In about a week, delivered to my door is a wealth of information. Links, copy work, printables, recipes- all on one CD. Done for me. Amanda even breaks the studies out into different age groups. Each group studies the same material but with a different twist. In just a few hours, the Winter Games study will be released. We are so excited and cannot wait to dive into learning more about the games! Some of her other great studies are Thanksgiving, Christmas, Horses, Heroes of the Bible, Pioneers, Amelia Earhart and many, many more. I urge you to try one of Amanda's studies. I promise you will not be disappointed.
Spelling Time is an online spelling site that has helped our youngest 2 girls alot the past couple of years. Yes, it's one of those sites that also has games, but they must go through several drills and spell their weekly words correctly in order to earn "game tokens" to play the games. The games are not open until tokens are earned. So, bribery to learn spelling words? Maybe, but it does encourage my visual, hand-on learners and they are becoming better spellers. That's all I care about. They do offer a free trial as well as vocabulary, state and math programs. I've never looked into those, though, so can't attest to how good they are (or aren't:).
And the library. It's free! Well, at least it's free if you don't keep your books longer than you should.:) Yes, we are one of those families. I do believe we pay someones salary each year with the amount of overdue charges we incur. But the library is overflowing with so much wonderful information. Many times I even check out juvenile or children's books when trying to decide on a topic of study. So often, these books give great, to-the-point facts that help me decide if we need to dig deeper. Just a suggestion.
Please, let me know what you use, what you love and what works in your homeschool!
In Him,
E
7 comments:
:) We use Saxon Math, Used Miquon math at early levels and loved it.Spelling power new this year. Ill let you know how we like it by the end of the year.Explorong Creation through biology etc. with Dr Wile. Just started Trisms with youngest for deeper History but I want to check into the winter games unit. What a fun distraction!I think they were able to build the newest library or at least a wing because of our overdue fines.
Thanks for the ideas! We LOVE the library. I reserve a ton of books online, and then pick them up. We like to browse, too, but this way, I can get books from all over the state!
We use ABEKA math, and it's worked very well as we are more textbook math people...at least so far. There's a ton of review, so I know the reinforcement is there.
Story of the World is a favorite as my oldest son LOVES history. We're almost done with the series, so we're looking for something to continue next year.
Rod & Staff grammar is another tool...intense, but grammar makes sense to me, now!
Spelling Workout, handwriting practice, games, cooking, outdoor playtime, caring for pets, Bible, family time...there's just so much to do and we love it. I wouldn't trade homeschool for anything!
awesome! thanks for sharing your tips! i'm gonna bookmark them!
Great post!!!
Thanks for the info! My oldest is just three, but I love hearing what other mom's use as I prepare to teach her. In the past, I homeschooled other friend's kids an I used Shurley Grammar and liked it a lot. We used to buy the years worth of readers (we didn't have a library where we were), but it's so easy just to look online at their reading lists and go check them out! I look forward to looking at your choices!
I thought I was the only one out there incurring embarrassingly large library fines!
I've been trying to work through Homeschool in the Woods for some history, but I may just check out Amanda Bennett.
Thanks for the sweet comment you left on our blog...blessings to you!
Kathy
Thanks for posting this, we are currently using Sonlight but my daughter is a little bored with it so I am going to look into the ones you are using since she is also a very hands on learner.
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