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You are here: Home / by interest / creatively homeschool / Q&A: What is Your Favorite Program or Curriculum?

Q&A: What is Your Favorite Program or Curriculum?

creatively homeschool· for the teacher

16 Jan

Can you help?  A reader would like to know what you'd recommend as your favorite program or curriculum.  It can be one that is free or one you have to pay for; a physical product or a virtual one.  It can cover any subject, or perhaps it's only loosely educational. 

If it's your favorite, we want to know about it!  Tell us in the Comments section below. 

Freely Educate
p.s. Do you have a question?  Ask on our Facebook community wall and I'll pass it on to the 1,400 other members there.  They're a very helpful bunch!

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Comments

  1. Robin at Stone Soup Homeschool Network says

    January 16, 2011 at 12:30 AM

    We really like SpellingCity.com—and it’s free!
    Daily Grams: I have used them for YEARS (and they are reproducible!)
    Lesson Pathways (also free) is proving to be a valuable resource too.

    Reply
  2. Denise Burgmon says

    January 16, 2011 at 6:20 AM

    My favorite curriculum is Ambleside Online. My family and I have been using it for 3 years now. Ambleside Online has enriched our lives in so many ways and has opened up our minds to endless possibilities…and it’s totally free!

    Reply
  3. Rachelle says

    January 16, 2011 at 6:24 AM

    We love Lesson Pathways

    Reply
  4. wendy says

    January 16, 2011 at 7:13 AM

    We love Michael Clay Thompson’s Language/vocab/grammar books found at Royal Firework’s Press. Our favorites have been Caesar’s English 1 and 11.

    Reply
  5. Nancy B says

    January 16, 2011 at 10:30 AM

    For free math online – MEP (Mathematics Enhancement Programme), especially Y7 and Y8 Interactive.
    Math you have to pay for – Life of Fred and Murderous Maths
    Science – Rainbow Science (not cheap, but worth it–comes with everything you need for the labs, has wonderful, simple explanations in the textbook, and designed for the student to work independently–my son loves it) and the Basher books – The Periodic Table, Elements with Style and Physics, Why Matter Matters
    Gosh, there are many others, but I’ll stop there!
    Nancy in NH
    Greek – The Greek Alphahbet Code Cracker (not free, but a fun introduction to the Greek alphabet) and Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek (not free, but we love it)

    Reply
  6. Charise Cole says

    January 16, 2011 at 11:14 AM

    I recommend Your Baby Can Read for parents who want to get a good foundation for their children before they are school age. I was an elementary school teacher for 17 years before we had our son, and so I have a bit of a researcher mentality in me. I started the program when my son was 4 months old and he is now able to recognize several words (he is a year now). I am hoping that if I give him a good foundation now for literacy that reading will come naturally for him so it will be all about enjoying good books not reading to learn to read.

    Reply
  7. Emma Filbrun says

    January 16, 2011 at 12:42 PM

    Our favorite is Sonlight Curriculum. Costs, but look at all the great books you get!

    Reply
  8. Linda Moore says

    January 16, 2011 at 1:09 PM

    I have been so impressed with Thesimplehomeschool.com and the massive amount of courses available. She covers every age range with science and history, using online videos and print materials. Her new site on American History is amazing. The cost is per year but it is extremely reasonable for the service provided. Free samples are available of course!

    Reply
  9. Andrea H. says

    January 16, 2011 at 1:56 PM

    Definitely Sonlight. It’s not cheap, but it’s so worth it.

    Reply
  10. Julie says

    January 16, 2011 at 2:50 PM

    If you want a classical education in a community of like-minded home schoolers, try Classical Conversations. One day a week we cover history, science, math, English, Latin, geography and fine arts with other families. We also do science experiments and public speaking weekly. It costs, but less than your average music lessons. It is $13 a week for each student, for a 3 hour class.

    Reply
  11. Wilda says

    January 16, 2011 at 3:00 PM

    We are fans of several different teaching/learning programs. I have a middle schooler who enjoys Time4Learning.com. It costs, but is reasonably priced. We also use Enchanted Learning online for a lot of subjects; it’s free unless you become a premium member, but again we have found it to be quite affordable.

    Reply
  12. Colleen says

    January 16, 2011 at 3:04 PM

    We enjoy The Head of The Class and Lesson Pathways. For a complete curriculum that costs (not too bad) is Connect the Thoughts.

    Reply
  13. Gwen says

    January 16, 2011 at 3:25 PM

    http://www.AmblesideOnline.org — We have used this free but oh-so-rich! curriculum since beginnning our homeschool journey seven years ago and love it 🙂

    Reply
  14. melissa says

    January 16, 2011 at 4:50 PM

    I am super in love with All About Spelling!!!

    Reply
  15. Paula says

    January 16, 2011 at 5:41 PM

    We also use Charlotte Mason/Ambleside Online and completely agree that it has enriched our lives in amazing ways…our children reason and think for themselves (7 to 14) and are quick to relate current events to past literature or history.
    We also use “pick up” curriculum, for example, I wanted to do a study on US Presidents, so when I was at Target and they had $1 workbooks in the dollar section last year, I snatched them up and we’re using them now. A great advantage, no matter what curriculum, is to be prepared and aware of upcoming topics of study so things can be picked up and stored until needed.

    Reply
  16. Erika says

    January 16, 2011 at 5:59 PM

    We love Learning Adventures! It is a wonderful curriculum that is cost effective, involves all your children together (except learning to read and math), does history chronologically starting with creation, and implements Bible with your daily lessons. It is very much based on the Charlotte Mason method using real “living” books for your literature and even the grammar lessons are based on the literature you read. We love it and have been using it for years.
    As far as teaching young ones to read…I still like “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” best. For math we have used a multitude of curriculums and are currently using “Life of Fred” (so far so good) and I just ordered “Professor B” for my younger son, so the jury is still out on that one!
    We have been homeschooling for 19 years now with at least 15 to go! Hope you find what you are looking for without much problem!

    Reply
  17. Elaine says

    January 16, 2011 at 6:36 PM

    My favorite programs are:
    All About Spelling – kids love it and really learn the rules to spelling not memorizing words.
    History Odyssey – great lit. based problem.
    RightStart Math – hands on fun for everyone!

    Reply
  18. ProFlowerChild says

    January 16, 2011 at 10:23 PM

    A Beka

    Reply
  19. Kathleen says

    January 17, 2011 at 12:54 AM

    I really like Mrs. Silver’s Phonics and Phonics in Song. After struggling and failing with a workbook heavy program last year, I decided to try different approach. He doesn’t mind (on most days) one or two pages of workbook and learning a little phonics song to go with the new sound.
    I first read about Mrs. Silver’s Phonics and Phonics in Song on the Mott Media website and I bought them from Christian Book Distributor. At this point, I’m planning to continue his reading with McGuffey Readers and Classic Curriculum workbooks.

    Reply
  20. Kerry says

    January 17, 2011 at 7:04 AM

    By far, our favorite curriculum is Time4Learning! This is a multimedia online curriculum and works SO well with my younger son who is a right-brained visual learner. We’ve been using it for almost four years now and we still love it. I highly recommend you to check it out if you have a visual learner.

    Reply
  21. Luke Holzmann says

    January 17, 2011 at 7:09 AM

    Here’s another vote for Sonlight’s homeschooling curriculum. It’s definitely my favorite. It’s also the only one I’ve ever used [smile].
    ~Luke

    Reply
  22. Leslie says

    January 17, 2011 at 7:14 AM

    The Intellego unit studies are really fantastic. Loads and loads of info packed into these unit studies. The B a l d w i n P r o j e c t which has books for Waldorf and Ambleside is a great free resource. In fact I myself read The Little Princess last night,lol. I discovered this for free
    http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_intro.html which is great and has these as well
    Biology4Kids: Scientific Method
    – Physics4Kids: Heat Expansion
    – Geography4Kids: Earth Structure
    – Geography4Kids: Hydrosphere
    – Geography4Kids: Atmosphere
    – Cosmos4Kids: Vacuum of Space
    I’ve also gotten some ideas from http://www.greatbooksacademy.org
    This is a neat free site that is still adding info:
    http://www.sciencemonster.com/ and another I somewhat like it’s free http://www.msnucleus.org/curriculum/curriculum.html
    Khan Academy is a fantastic free resource as well for anything from basic math,science,humanities and more.
    IXL is a good math site. It’s a pay site for you can do 20 problems a day for free which it what we do.
    This has been part of Art:http://www.getty.edu/art/
    and we used the free materials from the http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/loanfinder/
    Shew,that’s only the tip of the iceburg. We switch around alot to suit his changing needs;)

    Reply
  23. Kel says

    January 17, 2011 at 8:08 AM

    We’ve used Time4Learning for several years. It’s an online program that has made my life easier. The program grades my kids’ work for me, and they enjoy the animated lessons. It’s a great fit for our family.

    Reply
  24. Katie says

    January 17, 2011 at 8:18 AM

    We use Time4Learning and love it! We have a sixth grader who has been using it since second grade and a first grader who has used it for Pre-K, K and first.
    It’s an online program, which is great for our techy-gadget junkie family (book work just doesn’t work for any of us). We use it as our core curriculum and we supplement as/if needed. The best part is the reporting…I don’t have to keep up with anything, because Time4Learning does all that for me. All I have to do is print what I need for portfolios and such, when I need it!
    Would definitely recommend. 🙂

    Reply
  25. Kathi Weiss says

    January 17, 2011 at 10:42 AM

    We are currently in our fourth year using Time4Learning.com. My son loves the video game aspects of it and the cartoon like characters. I love the way the program is all laid our for me and the way it keeps records. I can print them out whenever I need them. It is definitely affordable. We supplement with All About Spelling and Handwriting Without Tears. Oh and lots and lots of field trips.
    Kathi

    Reply
  26. Carol says

    January 17, 2011 at 11:34 AM

    My favorite is Time4Learning. My children get to work independently.

    Reply
  27. Jackie says

    January 17, 2011 at 12:43 PM

    My daughter(age 13)HATES school, so when we found Teaching Textbooks and Time4Learning, it was a godsend because she really likes them both, and she is very hard to please! Spelling City/Vocabulary City is another great one. It has a free version and a premium version.
    This is our first year using Teaching Textbooks and we have been using T4L for over 2 years.

    Reply
  28. pandahoneybee says

    January 18, 2011 at 6:17 AM

    The curriculum that we use the most and love is Time4Learning,which we have been using since 2007! My boys never complain when I say they have to do their lessons, mainly because of the animated lessons! It works really well with my ADHD right brain learner, he seems to be able to pick up new concepts better using Time4Learning. We also love even though its not a curriculum SpellingCity, its free and my boys love the way they can play with their spelling words on there!
    Happy Homeschooling!
    Michelle
    Homeschooling two boys, three dogs, eight fish and a grown man in North Carolina since 2007!

    Reply
  29. Wendy says

    January 18, 2011 at 8:03 AM

    We love History Odyssey! It’s a history program based on the classical approach to homeschooling. There is a four-year cycle: ancient, middle ages, early modern, and modern. I highly recommend it!

    Reply
  30. Linda says

    January 18, 2011 at 5:01 PM

    When I pulled my daughter out of public school in the middle of 1st grade, I panicked. I never wanted to be a homeschooler, but I found Time4Learning, and I will tell you that the curriculum eased my fears, kept records for me, planned my lessons, did not impose deadlines or contracts on me. My daughter, who is a visual learning enjoys the online curriculum and retains a good portion of the lessons she gets through that curriculum. We do suppliment when necessary but we really do love Time4Learning!
    Linda
    Homeschooling one child for 4 years with Time4Learning!

    Reply
  31. Katrina says

    January 19, 2011 at 10:19 AM

    We love http://www.Spelling City.com!! We use it weekly for my sons spelling words and then I print them out as cursive practice for their writing, so it does double duty for us! The boys have really improved their spelling in the past few years using this and I think because they take a test, play vocab games, hear/see the word in sentences and get to play games with the words…. that it really makes a difference. Plus, it takes me a few minutes to insert the words for the whole school year and then print out the cursive pages which makes it a sweet deal for myself as a busy Mom!

    Reply
  32. Kimberly says

    January 19, 2011 at 5:26 PM

    This is our first year homeschooling so we haven’t tried a lot, but there are a couple of things we’ve really liked. We’ve been using Mammoth Math for math and I really like how it just keeps building on itself. Also, Growing with Grammar. We’ve used both the grammar and the spelling/vocabularly. My first grader has enjoyed the simplicity yet thoroughness of the program and retained so much from it. The spelling only covers six words at a time for first grade, but my ds has been able to recognize similar words not on his lists and sometimes likes to add his own words to the list. My daughter (11) has been doing the eighth grader version of both and found them to be challenging enough.

    Reply
  33. Jennifer says

    January 19, 2011 at 9:22 PM

    My family has really enjoyed Time4Writing. They offer one-on-one instruction with a writing teacher, from elementary school up through the high school skill levels, and even an online course in SAT essay writing. Definitely helped my kiddos!

    Reply

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