We’re beginning our second week of homeschooling for the 2015-2016 school year.
We have been homeschooling now for 21 years! Each year brings unique success and challenges.
Homeschooling for 2015-2016 is off to a great start. Teaching Textbooks, The Mystery of History, Illuminations, and The McGuffey Readers are our curriculum favorites, so far!
Each of these curriculum choices have some huge strengths I thought I would share-
Teaching Textbooks:
We are continuing to use Teaching Textbooks for math. We love it– there are no other words.
The children are learning. It is self-teaching and self-grading. You can read more about our experience with Teaching Textbooks here.
We currently have six students using this math curriculum.
Illuminations:
Most of our other curriculum is scheduled through the Illuminations software.
I was excited to give it a try this year and a little nervous.
I always have this fear of starting something new for two reasons: not being able to fully grasp how to use it properly before the school year begins, AND spending money on something I end up absolutely hating that I have to use for the rest of the year. (UGH! I really hate that second reason!)
My first week with Illuminations was AWESOME.
I love everything about this software.
I was able to choose the homeschooling curriculum choices I wanted to use and with one click, my entire schedule is created.
I posted about Illuminations here. There is also a short video here:
You can view it here:
The Mystery of History 1:
We are also using The Mystery of History 1 with the MOH supplemental collection. (I’m going to write a post devoted to this curriculum along. I have been so impressed with the creation-based lessons and how they are teaching my children to relate history straight to the Bible.)
Each day it tells me what I need to read through with my children, as well as the suggested assignments.
Emma and Meredith working on their creation notebooks:
We’ve been following the plan and MY CHILDREN are coming to tell me that they ADORE what we are learning!! (Now THAT is worth it’s weight in gold!)
Ben and Tim drawing self-portraits:
The McGuffey Readers:
Another addition to our homeschooling curriculum this year, are the McGuffey’s Readers
.
I can’t even tell you how many years I have wanted a copy for my home. I a very dear friend at church blessed us with a brand new complete set this summer. WHAT A HUGE BLESSING!
My littles are already several pages into one of the books. It is absolutely amazing to me that children can be drawn into such simple lessons. So many homeschooling publishers try and make everything bright and shiny. In the end, if it’s written well, chances are the children will love it!
Week 1 was a big success.
I’m looking forward to this school year more than I’ve looked forward to one in a very long time.
Just for the sake of keeping things real this week…homeschooling just makes a mess!
So how about all of you?
Are you using something that adore?? What didn’t you like about your last school year?
We are using Teaching Textbooks for the first time this year…my children are loving it (we are using 7th, 5th, and 4th). Seriously, we have done it for one month now and I have yet to hear, “I don’t want to do math.” That is a huge thing for our house! I’m pretty sure this is something we will continue using throughout the years. We are in our fourth year of My Father’s World. This year is Rome to the Reformation. It is really neat so far.
I too, seem to be much more excited about this school year than I have been in quite some time.
Kimberly, I hope you like TT as much as I do! I am having the exact same experience with that math and we’ve been doing it for a year. In fact, I have one child who asks to do math because he enjoys the learning style. You will have to tell me more about My Father’s World. I don’t know anyone using it, but I have heard good things! Thanks for the comment!! 🙂