Common Homeschool Curricula

COMMON CURRICULUM APPROACHES USED BY F.A.I.T.H. MEMBERS

1. Traditional and Conventional Text Books: Graded textbooks for each subject; most commonly used approach in institutional schools.

2. Early Academics: Stresses reading, writing, and arithmetic skills at an early age; uses workbooks, visual aids, and manipulatives.

3. Workbooks and Programmed Learning workbooks: Consumable books; questions or projects included; condenses instruction; programmed, step by step sequence of small units of facts which provide immediate feedback

4.  Unit Study: All subjects centered on a common theme; supplemental skill materials may be needed; multi-age level use.

CURRICULA

Note: The numbers after the curriculum reflect the Curriculum Approaches shown above.

• A Beka, Bob Jones, Christian Liberty Academy {1,2,3}

Christian, patriotic, creationist; developed for classroom use, therefore if done as recommended would be a whole day’s school work; must be adapted to home situation; books may be good reference materials.

• Rod and Staff {1,3}

Mennonite, creationist; textbooks and workbooks with helpful teacher’s manuals; emphasizes farm lifestyles, political non-involvement, family togetherness, strict morality

• Calvert {1,2,3}

Secular, but has traditional moral values; relaxed early academics; developed for tutorial method and therefore takes less time than other traditional approaches, especially in the early years; mixing of grade levels is not allowed; courses are prepackaged for each grade level; fully prepared daily lessons.

• Sonlight {1,2,3}

Christian, creationist, heavily reading based with the parent reading to the child. Teacher’s manuals with daily lesson plans available. May purchase all or part of their curriculum, at whatever grade level you desire.

• KONOS {4}

Christian, creationist; based on character traits; many activity suggestions; offers an optional character time line; provides book lists, vocabulary words and pertinent historical character examples; emphasis is discovery learning.

• Advanced Training Institute of America (A.T.I.A.) {4}

Christian, creationist; unique family program that emphasizes life training and holiness; requires attendance at three week-long seminars and agreement with their Biblical approach; commitment to parental accountability to the Institute.

• Tapestry of Grace {4}

Integrated, classics-based Christian curriculum for the whole family. www.tapestryofgrace.com

In addition to these complete curriculum packages, those who prefer a mix and match approach commonly use the following courses:

• Math - Saxon, Math-U-See, Math Their Way, Moving with Math, Making Math Meaningful, Miquon Math, Math-it, VideoText Algebra and Geometry.

• Reading - Sing, Spell, Read and Write; Alphaphonics; Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.

• Language Arts - Learning Language Arts Through Literature, Writing Strands, Daily Grams, Simply Grammar, Easy Grammar, Institute for Excellece in Writing.

• Science  - Apologia Educational Ministries
  

For more information, see Cathy Duffy’s Christian Home Educator’s Curriculum Materials (2 volumes) and Mary Pride’s The Big Book of Home Learning (7 volumes). Available in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library.