How we chose our curriculum...

So here we were called to home school Tommy, so we rushed home and started looking at curriculum.  All I can say is WOW!  I had no idea there were so many options.  We had discussed several different types of curriculum with the couple from our church, but there was so much information that we quickly became overwhelmed.  So we sat the computer down and discussed why we were doing this and what was important to us about home schooling.  Here is what we came up with.

• The curriculum we choose must be challenging to Tommy and be flexible enough for him to accelerate in the subjects that he had a natural talent in.
• It must be organized.  There was no way in my busy day that I was going to be able to come up with a daily schedule that would keep him at pace or ahead of his peers.  So what ever we picked must have a daily schedule that would automatically update as we progressed. 
• Must be a Christian study or be able to easily have a daily bible study of our choice enter grated into it.
• Must not souly revolve around Christian beliefs.  We feel that Tommy needs to know world views as well as Christian views.  He must not be sheltered from the real world, instead he must understand it so he can combat himself against it in the future. 
• Since we were starting in the middle of a school year it must be easy for us to do this year.
• It must use a variety of means of learning: books, computer, self and parent taught instruction.
• It had to fit into our budget.
• It must use some form of grading system for positive reinforcement
• And finally, it must have an assessment test so that Tommy is placed at the correct learning level from the beginning and will be allowed to advanced if needed in the future. 

We considered many curriculum:  Sonlight, Alpha/Omega, ABECA, K12 and several more.  It basically came down to Sonlight and K12.  Sonlight is an excellent program and it met most of our requirements.  It is however very expensive, but you get a lot of material for your money.  We did not like the fact that they did not have set grade levels or assessment programs.  They also did not keep grades and you were responsible for making your own grading system if you wanted one.  K12 is not a Christian based curriculum, but it matched almost every other criteria we had on our list.  It offered a wide range of education options, it kept your weekly schedule up to date for you and it gave detailed instruction for both the teacher and the student.  When we move back to Georgia it is a state funded program so the materials will be free to us and Tommy will have a teacher that he meets with on line for his instruction.  They schedule field trips for the students and they also give one on one time with the students if needed.  They have a wide variety of clubs for the kids and they have a positive reinforcement system.  We selected this program, with a Alpha Omega bible study for Tommy and I have to say after looking at the material I don't think we could have made a better choice.

Tommy's school supplies the day they came... 100 lbs.



I know our choice is not for everyone, but please feel free to contact me if you have any questions and I will do what I can to help you out.  Tomorrow I will be giving a review of our first week (very busy) to let everyone know how it went and what Tommy's thoughts of being home schooled are.