Yes...I don't plan to get a tutor for my 5 year old. When he wants to do calculus, sure, bring on the tutor!!!! In the meantime, I'm going to give Kate Snow's new curriculum a try. I can totally get down with hopping on one leg to learn the letter one. It sounds more fun, and doesn't fill me with as much dread as opening the TM for Dimensions K.

Thanks, I really appreciate that. I was homeschooled myself by a mother who was not a teacher, but a nurse, and she relied entirely on the curriculum guide. Given this experience, I have rather taken for granted the idea that as long as one has quality curriculum, homeschooling isn't rocket science and anyone can do it. I have hardly ever felt like my education was lacking, and when I did feel that way, it was generally more along the lines of "Why didn't they teach me how to think better for myself at my missionary secondary boarding school?" not necessarily something I felt lacking from elementary school. I was taught Calvert math (old school from the 80s) and then Saxon math in high school (a boarding school, not homeschool). I have always felt like I did just fine in life, not particularly liking math. I just assumed that some people like math/science, others like history/the Arts. And I can tell you, the moment I didn't have to take any more math (college Algebra), I quit, much to my delight. I do have two Master's degrees, so I had to reteach myself a lot of stuff I had forgotten in order to pass the GRE, but I did it. I'm a teacher so I'm all about school. In fact, a course I took for continuing education for my teaching certificate back in January was all about how research shows that people with and without college degrees who choose to homeschool have children who do equally well in school. Sort of along the lines of what you said. The main issue, according to that research, was essentially parental involvement, and that parents who homeschool are of course more involved in their child's education, no matter the level of education achieved by the parent. So thank you for your affirming words!

Are you looking strictly for world history? Or American history? Have you considered a Child's History of the World? I was homeschooled with Calvert back in the 1980s, and that was my first introduction to history, and I loved it. It's not overtly Christian, but it's written from a cultural Christian perspective. It was written in the 1950s so it's not politically correct at all and probably would definitely step on some toes in the current social justice climate with the use of some terms. Or what about Veritas Press? I personally am not thrilled with the idea of the centrality of a timeline, but maybe it works better than I think it does for elementary age. It's definitely a Christian perspective. Or if you wanted to do American history, I believe Memoria Press has a beginning American history book for 3rd grade. My kiddos are just K and 1st, so I haven't actually had to make that decision yet, although I've done some thinking about it already, being a former history teacher. Hope that at least gives you some direction????

I thought that’s why there was curriculum available to buy, so anyone could teach their children. Isn’t that the premise behind homeschooling?

Absolutely NO IDEA. I'm not a math person. I used to get my High School students to check my math whenever I was forced to use it when I taught History, and they all thought it was a great joke. I made no secret of the fact I was awful at math. So, I really have absolutely no idea what's important at this stage.

I felt like it was a lot too, but honestly I thought it was because I've always HATED math. Glad to hear from someone else it is a lot. It seemed like it took us at LEAST and hour to do math with both kids (trying to get one to work while I "taught" the other), and I really really dreaded it. So did the kids.

Hello all! Question about math curriculum for my 5 year old. Background: I began our HS journey when we were thrust into quarantine on March 17. I had already planned to HS for 2020-21, which would have been my first year of HS, but since I already had all the curriculum, I decided to get a head start. I had been a high school teacher for 8 years, and I was not scared, worried or apprehensive about teaching my own children, so I dove in. Not a good idea to start with next years' work, but we survived. Also background: a good math teacher friend of mine recommended Singapore math because it teaches the concepts behind everything. I opted for Singapore Math Dimensions when I was choosing curriculum back in February, mostly because I liked the illustrations better than Primary Math, and I figured it would all be about the same anyway. It's ok for DD (6), who had been in public kindergarten doing Common Core anyway, but DS (who was finishing up his Pre-4 year) ended up throwing a fit whenever we had to do math. Frankly, it was a struggle for the first 8 weeks of quarantine to try to get him to do anything, really...Long story short, I revamped our Language Arts and math to be a little more like preschool and less textbook oriented (aka, I pretty much threw Dimensions out for DS!). It was a whole lot more fun for all of us, and he doesn't fight me nearly as much to do "school" but it really seems to have to be hands on for him for anything. Except when I read to them. He just balks at writing, or doing anything he's unsure of, actually. Anyway, I'm looking towards the start of school and as I was looking up tools to help DD with addition, I discovered Kate Snow. I haven't actually tried her techniques, being on summer break and all. She's just come out with a Kindergarten Math curriculum (that they sell on WTM Press website, aka this one!), and it seems really lovely and gentle and hands-on. So different from the Dimensions book we were doing. I am highly tempted to get that curriculum for DS, and just sell my nearly brand new Dimensions Kindergarten books. Does anyone have any insight or experience with her new curriculum? Any advice about math for my little DS?

The entire thing (science, read aloud) is posted for sale on FB market place for $700, if you happen to live near Farmington, AR...