If you work from home, what curriculum have you found

[BamaTanya]

that requires less parent involvement? For middle school and into high school?

 

I'm not trying to cop out. I need to finish my graduate program this year, but we've decided not to send the dc back to ps.

 

I've checked into A Beka videos, but they are too expensive.

 

I'm sure this has been discussed at length before. Can you refer me to another thread? Or tell me what you've streamlined (curriculum-wise) in order to work and keep house and homeschool?

 

tia

[Sunshine State Sue]

Some of what I use is more teacher-intensive than others. I'll indicate using a scale of 1-5 with 1 being the least teacher intensive. I've linked my reviews as well.

 

Analytical Grammar - 2

Write Shop - 4

Megawords - 1

Lightning Literature - 2

Math-U-See - 2

Life of Fred - 2

History Odyssey - 3

Science Explorer - 3

Exploration Education - 3

TOPS - 3

 

Some depends on how independent and motivated your student is. Too much independence fosters mediocrity in my ds, therefore, I have to be more hands on than others, particularly in the subjects he's not so interested in.

 

Writing Strands is a writing program that is meant to be used more independently than Write Shop. It didn't work here.

 

HTH!

[lauracolumbus]

I work from home too (or at least I try) and here's what I've found to be less teacher intensive:

 

Math: Saxon (my kids do this independently--I even let them grade) and/or Math U See. I think we're going to switch to Singapore and I'm bracing for my learning curve.

Spelling Workout

SOTW CDs

For logic, the Mindbenders CDs

 

Science and writing are two areas that take a lot of my time. I love the CW program, but it does take a lot of my time. I think that's one of the reasons my kids love it.

 

Laura

[JenniferB]

I work from home also, and I use our state virtual academy. It's state funded, so no out of pocket expense for us as a family. It uses the K12 curriculum, which is very rigorous, and becomes more independent in middle school, and totally independent in high school. Some lessons are on-line and some in books. If you go to the K12 website, www.k12.com and click on your state, you'll find what programs are available in your state.

[ezrabean2005]

Both DH and I work outside the home (me full time at a corporate job 40 hours a week - spread over 3-4 days and DH running our cafe full time). We use CLE for all of our subjects. The teacher's manuals are very straightforward and after K and 1st grade, the curriculum is very independent for the student. We also looked at AO Lifepacs and CLE is more rigorous with less "fluff" in our opinion. The core subjects DH and I can lead the kids (four of them) and then we also have a science lab kit of some kind always going on. We may only get to the science kit once a week but that is the "only" thing we have to remember to add in.

 

It works for us. We school every night after work and a full day on Tuesdays and Saturdays. We also school year round. CLE has allowed us to be very efficient with our time and with our children's education. They are growing by leaps and bounds and the accountability is really good also (quizzes, tests, and correcting work). Hopefully someday we won't have to fit in as much - once we pay off some old debt, I'll reduce my hours more or even be able to quit working outside our home. But even then, we'd be hard pressed to find a reason to switch from CLE. HTH.

 

Oh - and if you use CLE, definitely have the kids take the diagnostic tests. Our 2nd (going into 3rd) grader was ahead in a lot and our going into 5th and 6th graders were behind. We wouldn't have known it otherwise since we just took them out of public school this past year. Our Kindergartener just started at the beginning.