This
topic for this week's Heart
of the Matter Online Meme is Favorite
Curriculum or Books.
My favorite curriculum is definitely Tapestry
of Grace. This will be our fourth year using TOG, and it has worked out
really well for us. TOG covers history, geography, literature, writing, fine
arts, government and philosphy using a classical style unit study approach.
The main focus of the program is to teach your children to identify God's hand
throughout history.
Although TOG is an extremely rich curriculum, I do supplement with Diana Waring
"What in the World's Going on Here?" CDs. We listen to the appropriate
topics as an overview before each TOG week.
I also love the resources by A
Blessed Heritage. I used This
Far by Faith Volume 1 last year, and it meshed well with our TOG studies.
I used it as a supplement, adding to or replacing some of the TOG literature
selections. It is very important to us to incorporate an in-depth study of African
American history into our curriculum, and these inexpensive unit studies, written
by a homeschooler, are a perfect fit.
For math in the younger years, I like the Living
Math website, Miquon Math
and Math Mammoth books.
I also love the Key to... Series
books. Last year, I decided to purchase Teaching
Textbooks 7 for my two oldest boys (then 7th & 8th grade). Nathan is
almost finished with that, and it looks like he will be ready for Algebra I,
but I'll have to let you know about that when he is done. :-) As you can see,
my approach to math is pretty eclectic. Nathan, my oldest, is the guinea pig
(sorry, son); we'll see how it goes.
The Heart of Wisdom Bible
Study is wonderful and free! I also really like Robin Sampson's Heart
of Wisdom Teaching Approach (I have the e-book). Although I use and
love TOG, I have gleaned a lot from HOWTA. It has helped me tweak my curriculum.
In fact, it has inspired me to organize a high school earth science curriculum
for my oldest son's ninth grade science course. We are working on this together.
We really enjoyed Christian
Kids Explore Biology. It is recommended for upper elementary, but I
adapted it for my older two (7th & 8th grades). I just found out that there
is a Christian
Kids Explore Earth & Space! I definitely have to look into that;
maybe I'll use it with the younger kids this year. I wish I had known about
it before Nathan and I started working on his earth science "curriculum."
The list of extra resources at the end of the Biology book was worth the cost
of the book itself, so I am guessing that it is the same for the Earth &
Science book. Hmmm...
This will be our first year with a high school student, and I found Homeschooling:
The Teen Years, to be extremely informative and encouraging.
Well, that is enough from me. :-) Time to check out everyone else's favs. If
you would like to participate, go here.
It's time to enroll in Blogger Friend School! Last year was my first year participating in this meme, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It looks like this will be a full and exciting year, beginning with a "Back to School Giveaway."
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