Curriculum

Before I start I want to state that I know there are plenty of families who homeschool without using curriculum, but as a newbie I wanted something I could follow.

We may change next year but I’m a really big list person. I feel really good after crossing something off a list and Sunshine is the same way. She needs to know what is first, what comes next, and what is after that. Needless to say, for at least our first year in this journey, we will be following a list of things we need to accomplish. 😉

If you decide you want to homeschool, I’m pretty sure that you’d start out by googling “homeschool curriculum.” Don’t do it.

No really.

DON’T DO IT!

There are so many options it is overwhelming.

I wasn’t sure where to start so it took a while. We spent months reading reviews, blogs, and asking other homeschooling families what they do in order to find what would be the best for us.

Many homeschool families are religious and incorporate that into their day. We are not religious and are not homeschooling for religious reasons. Because of that, we were able to cross off A Beka and Sonlight from our list, among many others.

We narrowed our options down by searching for secular homeschool curriculum and were primarily looking at Timberdoodle and K12 until a fellow Hawaii Homeschooler recommended Bookshark!

Sunshine is a HUGE reader. She has been reading on her own for over a year and would be happy to spend all day with her nose in a book. I loved how they set up their Full Grade Package and the fact that I could customize it based on Sunshine’s current level!

Last week I posted that I ordered her curriculum. We got the Kindergarten Full Grade Package with 1st Grade Readers and 1st Grade Saxon Math. I skipped Handwriting Without Tears because she has been writing letters and numbers for the last three years.

Yesterday we received our first package! She was so excited when she saw it and asked if that meant we could start to homeschool already.

Unfortunately this package was full of math manipulatives, resources, and reusable materials. We had to tell her that she will continue to go to school until next week when they stop for Christmas break.

The next and final package is due to arrive their last day!

We will take some time off to familiarize ourselves with everything and start shortly after New Year’s Day!