What do you use that no one else does?

[8filltheheart]

My own created LA's approach and heavy utilization of whole books that don't come from anyone's list other than my researching topics and finding books that I think meet our needs.

[MissKNG]

I've found only two other families in real life that use Singapore Primary Math (gasp!)!

[radiobrain]

I've found only two other families in real life that use Singapore Primary Math (gasp!)!

 

Now, I find that BIZARRE!

 

I rarely meet meet anyone who doesn't!

[woolybear]

Lessons from History

Brown Paper School history books

Number Stories of Long Ago

 

Things I think I will start using this summer and fall:

Modeling the Classics

The Wonderland of Nature Journal

A Picture Perfect Childhood

[Mommyfaithe]

I am always surprised that more people don't use Reading Reflex. I have found it to be a wonderful reading instruction program.

 

In my parts, I am a freak because I use TWTM as a guide for homeschooling. :lol:

 

Yep.....me too...I am in the most unschooly area in the known world...everyone else uses boxed curricula....sigh.....

 

Faithe

[NCMom]

When mine where young, and this was mostly before SOTW, we used R.J. Unstead's books for history. Some info was a little dated, but my children adored those books.

 

They also loved those big "Great History Search", Great Underwater Search" etc. books from the time they were able to hold a book. We have none left because they literally wore them all out! Who published those?

 

Oh and a friend from the UK gave us a set of books, Ladybird readers or some such, also gone now due to being worn out.

 

We did Main Lesson Books ala Waldorf for several years. Those were so much fun.

 

We used Aesop's Fables Reading, Writing, Thinking from Royal Fireworks Press way before stuff from that publisher became popular. My oldest used Magic Lens I back in 2005? or so. Of course no one here has ever heard of RFWP even now, lol.

 

My oldest also used a set of old high school literature books to fill out his program because he was not a lit guy. Those were actually pretty good, and the only lit texts I've ever used. I got them all for 50 cents each. ;)

 

 

Georgia

[Mommyfaithe]

Dd will be starting with Far Above Rubies next year. She will be in grade 8 and this will take her all the way through high school. It's a unity study and has been around a long time, but I never really hear of anyone using it anymore.

 

We are very excited about starting it.:)

 

I have not heard of the other programs in the original post.

 

I used this with my 2 oldest dd's for high school...and we loved it! I am seriously thinking of using it again for dd...going into 8 th grade. It seems perfect for her.

 

Faithe

 

Eta: we used FAR as our springboard...and plugged in tons of Ambleside books as well as Sonlight books...Veritas Press and WTM type writing. It was awesome. Thanks for reminding me about this program. I had a copy of the older edition with Robin Scarlata...but I think it has been redone since I last used it. Do you already have the Lynda Coates version? How does it look?

Thanks,

Faithe

Edited May 20, 2011 by Mommyfaithe

[AuntPol]

:D I always think that when I meet up with other homeschoolers I'll have buckets of stuff to talk about but when I meet them they're almost exclusively using boxed curriculum like Abeka or Sonlight. They don't get that same excited feeling I do when talking about curriculum and they're eyes don't light up if I mention a fantastic math problem from Singapore PM or babble on about MCT. *sigh*

 

LOL! I feel the same way! Even when people use something I use, they don't have that same vibe that I have. Most moms are much more easily satisfied than I am. It's my Aspie focus -some Aspies are into lawnmower blades and this one is hyperfocused on curriculum.

[MissKNG]

Now, I find that BIZARRE!

 

I rarely meet meet anyone who doesn't!

 

I KNOW!!! Saxon and Abeka are popular in my area.

[hsbaby]

I don't know anyone locally that uses CLE for anything. Most have never even heard of it!!! Yet, it's pretty popular here. As others have said, most people I know use Abeka, Sonlight, BJU. Apparently I am the line curriculum hoarder in my area:)

[morosophe]

:D I always think that when I meet up with other homeschoolers I'll have buckets of stuff to talk about but when I meet them they're almost exclusively using boxed curriculum like Abeka or Sonlight. They don't get that same excited feeling I do when talking about curriculum and they're eyes don't light up if I mention a fantastic math problem from Singapore PM or babble on about MCT. *sigh*

 

As a user of Sonlight, I find this identification of it with curricula like Abeka a little unfair. Yes, you can get Sonlight in a box; however, it is nothing like as canned as Abeka, which is very much a textbook-based program, is. Every "pure" Sonlight user at the elementary level, for instance, has at least picked from one of three math programs--and then there are people like me, who use the core and disregard the rest.

 

This "mix and match" approach, which is central to the program, encourages Sonlight users (or at least it does me) to look around at what might supplement or even replace what they're using now. When the Language Arts module, the only add-on I bought, completely failed me this year, for instance, I looked around until I came upon Writing with Ease, which is exactly what my son needs to increase his comprehension and facility with writing.

 

All of this to say, I've been fascinated by this thread, and am now considering the Christian Gentleman's Series: Lessons in Responsibility for Boys for my own sons. (Maybe their father could teach it!)

 

Why isn't there more praise for All Through the Ages, by Christine Miller, out there? I heard about it somewhere on this board, but it seldom seems to come up, even on the threads asking for book list ideas. I can't exactly claim that that's a resource I use that no one else does, since I don't actually use it or even own it (yet), but I'm certainly headed in that direction...

[Ecclecticmum]

Well we keep it pretty mainstream here (for the moment anyway)

 

But we do double up on certain subjects, for instance:

 

- We are using Sonlights Language Arts K, but we also use Queen Homeschool Language Lessons for little ones.

 

- We have Sonlight P4/5 which has social studies built in, but we also use Succeeding in Social Studies K which is an Aussie Homeschool book, I am using it, because it builds up to Social Studies of Australia, which is hard to find without using yearly unit studies. We also plan to use galloping the globe next year which is geography, but which people still count as Social Studies LOL.

 

- Um,, we have exploring Art with Children, Kids Nature Activities and a few other books like learning Math & Science through Nursery Rhymes, which are more 90's books, so a bit hard to find nowadays.

 

- We also have a big collection of Australiana & Aborigine Picture books which are quite rare. Aussie poetry, tom tom etc.

 

- We use handle on the arts as a supplement to P4/5 which I have found to be absolutely fantastic, but which doesn't seem to be popular.

 

- We also have the rock n learn series, we everyone seems to prefer leapfrog letter factory. My 3yo happily copies along to the phonics Vol1 of Rock n Learn.

 

We also have Artistic Pursuits: The way they see it, preschool program coming, which most people don't use as they usually start from the kinder program.

 

We have Queen Homeschool books coming: Maths for a living Education, home stories for children, Math facts for copywork and Printing with Pictures.

 

Thats about it for any non-mainstream items.

[Hunter]

I like reading the Bedell lessons alongside my Bible as literature studies :-0

 

http://www.bedellcurriculum.com/

 

I'm going to pull apart the early books on Genesis and assemble the lessons according to the secondary scriptures. I don't like how the lessons are lumped all up in Genesis, and then a bit scanty after that.

 

I've seriously learned a LOT from this curriculum. I usually don't use the research questions written for older students, and just read the main lessons designed for the early grades. The vocabulary instruction is very good.

[atozmom]

I don't know anyone locally that uses CLE for anything. Most have never even heard of it!!!

 

It is the same where I live. I mention CLE and they ask "what's that." I am always talking to everyone about my new curriculum finds and I half the time I lose them somewhere along the line. I don't seem to have anyone IRL that shares my enthusiasm for learning about new curriculum choices. I have a friend that has used nothing but Abeka for her kids. I finally got her to try the free download of RSO Life with her son because I just knew he would like it. And guess what, they loved it! She even went with a living books approach for history this year. :)

 

When I go to used curriculum sales, the only things I usually end up buying are legos, knex and literature books. Everyone once in a while I'll end up with a really great find, but usually they don't have what I am looking for. :tongue_smilie:

[----]

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[WishboneDawn]

As a user of Sonlight, I find this identification of it with curricula like Abeka a little unfair. Yes, you can get Sonlight in a box; however, it is nothing like as canned as Abeka, which is very much a textbook-based program, is. Every "pure" Sonlight user at the elementary level, for instance, has at least picked from one of three math programs--and then there are people like me, who use the core and disregard the rest.

 

You're absolutely right and I know this about Sonlight. I think I wrote Sonlight in error, thinking of something like BJU or Alpha Omega. My apologies to the Sonlight users.

[WishboneDawn]

Sadly, I can mention Singapore math and science, MCT, Jensen's, L'Art de Dire and most of my other materials that people here definitely know and my local homeschoolers have blank stares. Not that they're not doing great jobs with their kids, just that it would be nice to chat with someone local about all this great stuff.

 

Probably why I really don't bother much with other local homeschoolers.

[Chelli]

Scott Foresman Art

I love these books! They're cheap (I paid no more than $5 each at Amazon. They're colorful and full of pictures. There are short artists biographies, a little art history, and many different mediums introduced. There are 6 units with 6 lessons each, so it fits perfect in my 36 week school year. Each week has a short lesson, photographs of art that relate to it, and an idea for a project for your sketch journal (I think that's what it's called). After the lesson is another art project for you to practice the technique that was discussed. The projects really do use materials that I already have at home, or something that I can easily substitute in its place. The way it's set up you can easily complete one lesson a week or break it into 2.

Our first year hsing we used Artistic Pursuits. Both my dc and I enjoy Scott Foresman to it hands down.

 

LOVE the look of this series of art books! My dd is super artsy and, of course, I am not (don't we always have children gifted in what we are most out of our element with ;)). Thanks for the recommendation. It's already in my Amazon cart for only $5!!!!

[tiffanyl]

We use the Robinson Curriculum. I find most people IRL have never heard of it, even if they are long time home schoolers.

[SkateLeft]

(2) What do you use that no one else does (or seems to)?

 

We spent a year using Terry Pratchett's "Science of Discworld" books as a spine, which I don't think I've ever heard of anyone else using. (There is heavy evolutionary content, especially in the last two books, so a warning to those who choose to steer clear of that.)

 

That's probably our most out-of-the-box choice.

[Aquinas Academy]

We spent a year using Terry Pratchett's "Science of Discworld" books as a spine, which I don't think I've ever heard of anyone else using. (There is heavy evolutionary content, especially in the last two books, so a warning to those who choose to steer clear of that.)

 

That's probably our most out-of-the-box choice.

Very cool! I'm making my own living books based science curriculum for next year and think my DD 13 would love these books. I'll put them on my list.

[laundrycrisis]

Flash Forward Reading workbooks from B&N.

 

Scholastic Daily Word Ladders.