What curriculum do you guys use?

Ugh! I typed up my answer before, and lost my internet connection (thanks to a Cat who thinks the wires are toys.)

Anyhoo, here goes:

Lets see, I have a 9th grader:

Faith At Work

Apologia Physical Science

Hewitt Lightning Literature and Compositon

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1

Switched on Schoolhouse Health

Switched on Schoolhouse State History

Rosetta Stone French Level 1

The Essentials of French 1

Wordly Wise 3000

Curves (for P.E.)

Co-op art classes.

I also have a 2nd grader:

Bible Beginnings 2

Horizons Math 2

Horizons Phonics 1

Some A Beka Readers

Some Rod and Staff Readers

Spelling Workout B

First Language Lessons for the Well Trained MInd

Writing Strands 2

Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space

Story of the World Volume 2 (With the activity book)

Co-op classes for Art

Audio Memory Addition Songs

Flash cards

My third child is in Kindergarten:

Horizons Math

Horizons Phonics

Co-op classes for Art

She also takes part in her brothers Bible,Science, and History studies.

All of them also make use of a lot of library books and the younger 2 enjoy making lapbooks about things they study.

1

For the simplest and concise way to go, I stongly suggest going to amazon.com or bn.com online if you can't get into a store and buy the appropriate grade level book from the

"Making the Grade: Everything Your 1st Grader Needs to Know"

It only goes up to 6th grade but it is so worth it for those grade levels. Every lesson plan is outlined for you and they are learning exactly what they are supposed to know for that grade. Of course you can add other things to your day that you want to incorporate because you want to cover it or expand upon it. But the main reason is to give you a solid foundation to start with and that is priceless. The books are fairly cheap too, about $15 per grade and they're comprehensive meaning they cover the core subjects of Language arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies.

Of course you'll want to add music lessons, and some physical exercise to your routine through outside classes or interests would be good. Splurge on the lessons since the books are so cheap! Ski lessons, piano, karate, archery, art, horse riding, whatever you want to do.

We don't use a set or premade curriculum. I make my own as we go along. I love to use the library and internet. We also shop thrift stores, used bookstores, and teacher bookstores. I like Saxon math when I can find the books.

We use several, but Christian Liberty Press is our foundation.

We use Sonlight, and Bethlehem readers, Saxon math, Key books for additional math practice in concepts that need it, Write Shop for writing, Wordly Wise 3000 for vocabulary/reading comprehension/spelling, Memoria Press for Latin, Apologia, and CLP/Abeka for science, CLP for Bible, and later for Bible we also include some books from Positive Action for Christ; as you see over the years you will pick what works best for the children; it is on hand when they want it, and when they are ready for it; we use a unschooling approach in everything but math, reading, and writing.

For the ones that prefer to do the piano on their own, although they do enjoy their lessons, I have Piano for Life on the book shelf; this is a self taught video/DVD series that is really good.

Mix and match. We use Harcourt language arts that we found in trashcan at school. We use Saxon Algebra that we bought used at homeschool store. We use an Abeka world history that we bought at yard sale. We have bookcase full of used text books for future use. We use library and online. We particularly like using video and audio because that seems to be most effective way for son to learn. There are many online videos that are educational, plus we record from PBS, History Channel and other learning channels.

2

Well, I'm not a "guy" ;-) But my son, the guy, uses K12 and Teaching Textbooks. We also use a TON of books and he attends HS co-op and is involved in the local running club.

http://www.k12.com/

http://www.teachingtextbooks.com/

We don't use a curriculum; we're unschoolers.

I used A-Beka (spelled something like that) and then found out that it wasn't accredited at the time, so I switched to another curriculum which I can't remember the name right now.