When we officially started out on our homeschool journey, we had 3 children. At that time I was just trying to wrap my head around all of the curriculum options out there and hoping I was making the perfect choice when choosing our first curriculum.
Fast forward 4 children, and now my thought process is a little different. Of course I want a curriculum that is effective and that we like, but over the past 7 years I’ve discovered that their is no perfect curriculum (but some days I still dream that there was). And as our seasons of life change, so do our curriculum and homeschooling needs.
Here are the things I consider when choosing a curriculum for our family:
How much does it cost?
The cost of a curriculum is a huge factor in deciding on whether or not to buy. I think that is probably the case regardless of your family size. If it’s not in the homeschool budget, it’s not an option.
Is it consumable?
If a curriculum is consumable that means only one of my kids will get use out of it. I’d rather buy something that can be used with subsequent children without having to buy it each time. A lot of curriculum will have a teacher’s manual or text and then a student workbook; in that case, I would only have to buy a workbook for each child allowing, us to save some money.
Is there a digital version?
I’m so happy that quite a few curriculum companies are going digital and offer PDF (downloadable) versions of their curriculum. This option is usually a bit cheaper and I can use it over and over again.
How much prep work is involved?
Some curriculum requires quite a bit of prep work; sometimes the prep work is just at the beginning of the year before you start, but some curriculum can require way too much prep work before each lesson. With 7 children, I just don’t have the time to spend preping for every single lesson; I need something that is pretty much open and go.
How much teacher involvement is required?
Of course I expect to spend quite a bit of time teaching my younger children, but as they get older and become independent readers, I like to find curriculum that fosters that independence and also frees up time for mom to spend with other children.
Can I use this curriculum with multiple children at the same time?
I like to find curriculum that the whole family, or multiple children can do together. That way I can teach many children at once. Subjects that are really good for this are Bible, science, history, art, and literature.
Here are some curriculum options that I feel are great for large families:
Apologia Elementary Science
I just love Apologia’s elementary science curriculum – Young Explorers Series. It is geared toward grades K-6, so you can easily use it with several of your children at once. Plus, it’s reasonably priced and it’s non-consumable (unless you use the Notebooking Journals, which are optional).
Mystery of History
Mystery of History is adaptable for grades K-12. The book offers suggestions for activities and books that you can use to expand the learning for your older students. The book is non-consumable and they offer PDF versions of their notebooking pages, coloring pages, challenge cards, folderbooks, and reproducibles.
See the Light
I really like using See the Light for our family’s art curriculum. All of the instruction is on DVD, so I don’t have to actually teach art (which I’m terrible at). I do help the kids as they are doing the actual project and I can do it with all of my kids that are of school-age.
Progeny Press
I really like Progeny Press’ literature guides, not only because they are thorough, but because I can do them with 2-3 of my children at once. They have guides for several different age ranges, but it will all depend on your child’s reading level – lower elementary, upper elementary, middle school, and high school.
Teaching Textbooks
I really like Teaching Textbooks for math because it is non-consumable (there is a workbook, but we don’t use it) and doesn’t require much teaching on my part. All of the lessons and practice problems are done on the computer. I check in with the student each week and go over any areas they may be struggling with.
Apologia makes great, non-consumable high-school curricula too, I took their Bio, Chem, AP Chem, Physics, and AP Physics, and loved them! At least I assume they are still making the same good stuff! Sonlight can also be a good option for large families–it worked pretty effectively for the 7 kids in our family!
Those are 6 wonderful points to keep in mind while looking for curricula for the large family.
Tapestry of Grace, Saxon Math, and Apologia for 7th grade and up are three of my favorite curricula. Both favor heavy teacher involvement with the little ones and foster independence in the older children.
Such an informative read! I don’t homeschool my kids but I know people who are interested in it. I’ll be sure to lead them your way!
Thanks for sharing with the SHINE Blog Hop!
I was contemplating The Mystery of History but I ended up choosing The Story of the World (I loved that it had accompanying CDs that I could play while shuttling the kids to places.
These are wonderful tips – I only have two children but I would like to be more mindful of choosing highly consumable resources.
Thanks for sharing (and for linking up to the #SHINEbloghop).
Wishing you a lovely day.
xoxo
Great post. Thanks so much for linking up to Good Tips Tuesday. You are featured today. 🙂 http://abirdandabean.com/2014/07/good-tips-tuesday-30.html
I have used Easy Peasy Homeschool and my older ones LOVE it! It is all online but the kids do their work in their own notebooks. The only things you need are your basic school supplies — no textbooks, workbooks, etc. It is written by a homeschool mom for her own kids and she put it online for them to use and do it independently. It now has an app too through Puffin Academy app, so my kids can use their tablet when the other computers are in use. The app got rave reviews for the Android tablet but not so good for the IOS aka Ipad ones. Easy Peasy homeschool covers ALL grades from Pre-K through High School.
I love Sonlight Curriculum for history/geography/social studies. Everyone in the family listens in as we read. I don’t use the instructor’s guide for discussion as much as I would like to, but we do get a fairly good overview of history. I have started adding in a lot of extra books the last few years.
Five in a Row is great for early elementary. It’s suitable for a wide age range and it’s non-consumable, so I can use it again when the next two are ready.
Great tips! I have 6 kids, 4 are old enough to homeschool. We have used Sonlight for the younger years and as they got a little older, switched to Trail Guide for Learning. The first level is typically geared for grades 3-5 and there is a middle school supplement. However it is easily adaptable for younger grades. All in one (except math). It has the open and go that I needed!
I recently had to get a job so we are changing tactics and using individualized self-paced for each of them.
We LOVE Easy Peasy All-In-One Homeschool for our large family. 🙂
8 kids (3 are graduated), and 19 years of homeschooling 🙂
We are truly eclectic. I have used as many non-consumable things as I can over the years, and not only did it help for passing down, when money got tight I had the option of shopping my own shelves (and being able to lend to others who were in need).
Our stand-bys include Saxon Math (5/4 and up), Apologia high school, Pathway readers (accompanying workbooks are cheap), MOH, Abeka items (some consumables in there, but they are the cheaper part of the programs, and shipping is free now), and Donna Ward Canadian studies resources. Our few consumable stand-bys include Explode the Code, Easy Grammar, Canada Map Books, and Rod & Staff preschool workbooks.
Easy Peasy is good, as is Khan Academy. I’ve also sourced free stuff from An Old Fashioned Education. But, I don’t like the kids to have that much screen time, or to have to juggle who gets on the computer when, and printing everything off gets expensive! Plus, there’s always the issue of if the computer crashes, and your curriculum is online- or cd-based, your school suffers if you can’t fix/ replace right away. Or, like happened to us, we were using an expensive cd-based program (that I justified b/c it would be used by so many kids), and we had to upgrade our computer– and the newer operating system wasn’t compatible with the program. $500, gone. Last fall I gave it away to someone with a Mac (and this week was given an older, works great computer, with XP on it… grr).
Happy homeschooling everyone! It’s fun to see what works for others.
Thanks for sharing Jen!
Hello! I was wondering why some suggestions are crossed out, and if you have any updated suggestions? Thank you!
Hi Stephanie – it’s a technical thing really. It’s because those links likely don’t work anymore, not that I don’t like or use the curriculum anymore. It’s on my to-do list to go through and check for ‘broken’ links and fix them. Some of the ones with the line through them actually do still work just fine so I’m not sure why it’s doing that. Another thing to research….