What is your favourite new (in the past 5 years) resource or curriculum?

[mazakaal]

I'm in the midst of trying to figure out what to use next year for dd (going into senior year) and ds (going into freshman year), and I've stumbled on what look like some very cool new resources. I used to be addicted to these boards, but haven't been around much in the past 5 years (treatment for dh's cancer, 2 international moves, and working part-time has meant priorities have been elsewhere). I'm wondering what else I've missed in that time. So, what is your favourite new resource or curriculum to use as either a spine or a supplement?

Thanks!

[Miss Tick]

Well, what did you find? My older two will be freshmen next year, so I'm just shamelessly mooching on this thread. I'm intrigued by the Reading History Like a Historian site. Knowing my personal limitations I already know it won't work wholesale for us, but perhaps as a supplement.

Other than that, the stuff I'm "discovering" is stuff that veterans have been using around here for awhile.

[2_girls_mommy]

 We have been using SchoolhouseTeachers dot com for a couple of years, but I never did a lot of exploring. I bought it for access to Mr. D's geometry a few years ago, and kept it this year to look over it more. We have mostly used the art classes which are nice for my teens. But I have been exploring it more, and have found three high school classes for next year that I am super excited about, plus about three more that aren't that exciting, but that will get the job done. The plans are completely made for the courses I like and I don't have to schedule or create worksheets or anything, just grade, which I do anyway.  Yes, purchasing homeschool curriculum does the planning and such for me, but it is a lot more expensive, so I usually do it all  myself. The price is right here and my main expense will be ink and paper to print several things. 

[mazakaal]

1 hour ago, SusanC said:

Well, what did you find? My older two will be freshmen next year, so I'm just shamelessly mooching on this thread. I'm intrigued by the Reading History Like a Historian site. Knowing my personal limitations I already know it won't work wholesale for us, but perhaps as a supplement.

Other than that, the stuff I'm "discovering" is stuff that veterans have been using around here for awhile.

Reading History Like a Historian looks fantastic, but my fairly unmotivated kids would probably not appreciate it. 🙂 But feel free to mooch away.

The things that I've found are: 

Masterbooks - I'm interested in the Applied Engineering for ds

Crash Course - I love this for a supplement

The Great Courses Plus - I've used their DVDs for things in the past but never knew they had an online membership. I think I'll be using their Economics for dd and possibly Astronomy for 10th grade

There were some other interesting, new things that I stumbled across, but these were the ones that I wrote down and plan to use.

[mazakaal]

1 hour ago, 2_girls_mommy said:

 We have been using SchoolhouseTeachers dot com for a couple of years, but I never did a lot of exploring. I bought it for access to Mr. D's geometry a few years ago, and kept it this year to look over it more. We have mostly used the art classes which are nice for my teens. But I have been exploring it more, and have found three high school classes for next year that I am super excited about, plus about three more that aren't that exciting, but that will get the job done. The plans are completely made for the courses I like and I don't have to schedule or create worksheets or anything, just grade, which I do anyway.  Yes, purchasing homeschool curriculum does the planning and such for me, but it is a lot more expensive, so I usually do it all  myself. The price is right here and my main expense will be ink and paper to print several things. 

Very cool! I've never heard of that, but it looks fantastic! Thanks!

[2_girls_mommy]

Our co-op science teacher introduced us to Crash Course videos. Now I use them in the science I teach at home too. And I said Mr. D's for math in passing, but that is definitely new to me in the last 5 years, and it's been a Godsend! 

[hollyhock2]

The only ones I can think of that I'm using or planning to are stuff from Master Books and the 101 DVDs. I've used and plan on using some of the MB science courses. We really like the 101 DVDs as supplements for science, but I wouldn't do them on their own (even though they say they are full courses alone).

[mazakaal]

5 hours ago, hollyhock2 said:

The only ones I can think of that I'm using or planning to are stuff from Master Books and the 101 DVDs. I've used and plan on using some of the MB science courses. We really like the 101 DVDs as supplements for science, but I wouldn't do them on their own (even though they say they are full courses alone).

Excellent! That's one I've never heard of. Thanks!

[klmama]

I'm not sure when all of these became available, but here are some online resources you might not be aware of.  All are free, but some have extra features for a fee:

flashcards, games, and tests for vocab you enter, or you can practice with a vocab set someone else has entered: https://quizlet.com/

history videos for regular and AP students: https://www.tomrichey.net/  

review courses to help prep for CLEP tests, plus reimbursement of CLEP test fee for first 10,000 students using program: https://modernstates.org/

online courses from Hillsdale College: https://www.hillsdale.edu/academics/free-online-courses/#history

accounting help: https://www.accountingcoach.com/

music theory practice: https://tonesavvy.com/music-practice-exercises/

music sight reading practice: https://practicesightreading.com/

 

Edited March 7, 2019 by klmama

[mazakaal]

2 hours ago, klmama said:

I'm not sure when all of these became available, but here are some online resources you might not be aware of.  All are free, but some have extra features for a fee:

flashcards, games, and tests for vocab you enter, or you can practice with a vocab set someone else has entered: https://quizlet.com/

history videos for regular and AP students: https://www.tomrichey.net/  

review courses to help prep for CLEP tests, plus reimbursement of CLEP test fee for first 10,000 students using program: https://modernstates.org/

online courses from Hillsdale College: https://www.hillsdale.edu/academics/free-online-courses/#history

accounting help: https://www.accountingcoach.com/

music theory practice: https://tonesavvy.com/music-practice-exercises/

music sight reading practice: https://practicesightreading.com/

 

 

These are fantastic! Quizlet is the only one that I had heard of. Thanks so much!

[klmama]

Also, you do know about Khan Academy, right?  Lots of people love it for the math and for the test prep, but the art history is wonderful!  There are other options, as well. Registration keeps track of what you've watched and how you did on exercises, but you can still use the videos and practice exercises without registering, if you prefer not to do that.  https://www.khanacademy.org/

[mazakaal]

44 minutes ago, Plum Crazy said:

Big History Project - Overview of science and history. Free lesson plans and multiple delivery methods. BHP website, Khan Academy, books, YouTube

ClutchPrep - Science & math videos by course, textbook or college

Podcasts - so many

Audible - been around but there are so many audiobooks and it's a lot easier to access them than it used to be

I'm sure there's more but I'm stumped at the moment.

 

 

I'll check these out, thanks!

[Mom0012]

Crash course videos and Khan Academy have been two that we’ve used a lot over the last few years.  ANKI flash cards (for longer term subjects like languages) and quizlet (for content-based classes, like anatomy or history) are other tools we’ve used pretty heavily.