Orthodox6 Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 As soon as I started reading the WTM boards, I was reading references to many companies, products, and curriculum suppliers, which I never have heard or read of in these fourteen years of homeschooling. and I mean MANY ! The only chance I ever have to examine new products is to visit the two annual homeschool bookfairs in my area. These book fairs -- (one of which I have heard cited as one of the largest annual homeschool fairs in the U.S.) -- limit themselves to certain kinds of suppliers. Catholic suppliers are banned, for example. Yet even unfamiliar Protestant and secular products are discussed in the WTM fora. The rare homeschooling magazine on the bookstore shelves advertise "same old, same old" as the fairs. Although we have done ok with our homeschooling, it bothers me that there seem to be other good options -- some of which may be worse, others of which may be far better than the limited run I know about. How do you all learn about these teaching options? Please answer ! (Many thanks, in advance !) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
claire up north Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 I learn about them here! :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orthodox6 Posted June 5, 2009 Author Share Posted June 5, 2009 I learn about them here! :bigear: Aah, but thou side-steppest the question of how one learns in the first place ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forty-two Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 I learn about hs products pretty much exclusively online, mostly through message boards. Anything that sounds interesting, I google it. I look at the products' websites, check out online samples, look it up on Amazon, search for reviews, see if there is a yahoo group, search for posts here on and the old boards for info, etc. Yeah, it's nice to see things in person, but you can learn a *lot* through strictly online sources. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie in MN Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 A couple more ways I can think of: 1. I've picked up something interesting at a used book sale. Especially those "pioneer" homeschoolers who paved the way -- the often had to dig very wide & deep. 2. Ads. I knew a lot of folks who found out about MFW (which I use) through these little homeschool postcard packets. I didn't get one of those until I'd been homeschooling about 5 years. 3. Doing a search online for something at Amazon or just at Google will sometimes turn up another link or a mention of something that intrigues me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forty-two Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Aah, but thou side-steppest the question of how one learns in the first place ! Google or Amazon searches, mostly, for me, as well as reading review sites (many fledgling curricula authors send big name reviewers copies of their product in hopes of getting publicity and a favorable review). But just reading WTM or any active board in an area that interests you is really sufficient, usually. People trying to sell stuff work hard to actively get the word out, and nowadays the web is a major avenue to doing that. If they are at all successful, *someone* on a big enough message board will hear about it, look it up, and mention it on the board, and it spreads from there. Not to mention many hs curricula authors are active members on hs boards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alegnab Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 I've been homeschooling 12 years (plus the five years before it was official). I've learned about products through homeschooling magazines and message boards. I took a 3yr break from boards and magazines, and I learned about very few new products during that time, even though I always attended my state's largest homeschool convention. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted June 5, 2009 Share Posted June 5, 2009 Most of what I learn, I learn online--here, Sonlight, Chatterbee, Homeschool Library, Homeschool Lounge. Some I learn from our local parent support group. Some from talking with friends. Some from looking at catalogs (especially Rainbow Resource--they have TONS of stuff!). If I'm looking for something in a certain category, I'll look in there, or I might visit Timberdoodle or a few others & see what they use. Mainly I ask online--hey, what do you use for..., LOL! Sometimes message boards give better info than google :)! I do google sometimes too. A word of warning...there's TONS out there! Don't fix what's not broken. The grass isn't always greener in the other curriculum yard :). Try to find people who seem to have a similar teaching style, or who seem to have kids in a similar place if you're looking for something new. Just because someone says something is great, doesn't mean it's a fit for you--if one size fit all, we'd all use the same curriculum, LOL! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 Aah, but thou side-steppest the question of how one learns in the first place ! It's turtles, all the way down! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 I move a lot, you find different things in different states! (I have collected phonics and spelling curriculum since I started tutoring in 1994, and Latin and Greek curriculum for about 20 years. I'm excited to have children to learn them with me, I didn't have enough discipline to learn more than a bit of Latin or Greek on my own.) Also, interestingly, there was overall more different things at our small convention here in Searcy, Arkansas than any of the large conventions and curriculum fairs in the DC/Maryland area. My favorite booth where I camped out for several hours both this year and last year was a gentleman who runs a large educational bookstore in Wisconson, Cornerstone. He said he tries to bring products that the other vendors don't have. I bought RS4K from him last year. His wife does remedial reading, so they have all sorts of unique reading and spelling curriculum I was interested in. He also carries Singapore, and normally Miquon, but he forgot to bring it this year. :sad: I had to get an expedited order elsewhere to make sure I got the Miquon book Spy Car said I must read. (We're moving soon, I needed to make sure it got here before we move.) I have heard about a lot of things here that I haven't heard about anywhere else! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orthodox6 Posted June 6, 2009 Author Share Posted June 6, 2009 It's turtles, all the way down! Whatever that means, it shot so far over my head, it's in the exosphere ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orthodox6 Posted June 6, 2009 Author Share Posted June 6, 2009 Thank you to everyone who has posted ! I always have studied whatever catalogues I can obtain. I also do subject searches on the Internet, and explore avenues there. Not particularly suffering from "grass is greener" syndrome. Rather, I'm often seeking materials free from particular "slants", or suddenly needing to shift gears and locate something better suited to a particular child. I'm quite honest when I say that this [WTM] is the first set of fora in which I have heard of so many educational products and curricula which are unfamiliar to me. Everywhere else (magazines, boards) has been, as I wrote earlier, "same old, same old." It would be a good idea, at this juncture, to say "Thanks !" to the people here at WTM, as the information of all types is so varied and helpful ! (Well, it's the people who are helpful -- but I'm trying to say that, too !) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardening momma Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 I learn about most of it here. I've also gone to Cathy Duffy's site and browsed around. Then there's just browsing at various online homeschool supply sites--CBD, Timberdoodle, Rainbow Resource, etc... Browsing at known publishers sites turns up products I hadn't heard of. Then the occasional web search, where I might specify something like +homeschool +kindergarten +science and that turns up stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElizabethB Posted June 6, 2009 Share Posted June 6, 2009 Whatever that means, it shot so far over my head, it's in the exosphere ! Here's the wikipedia entry for "turtles all the way down" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_all_the_way_down Interestingly, I first heard it in a pro-ID context, but it looks like both sides like to quote the turtles! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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