What is a good classical curriculum for someone new to homeschooling? This will be my first year and my daughter will be a second grader. I'm looking for something that includes lesson plans to make it easier for me.
Thanks!
H.
I used Calvert with my two kids last year (Kindergarten and Pre-K) when we were living abroad and they and I really loved it. I'm not sure if it's classical or not. But it's very well organized, they send you great materials, and you can do a lot of the submission online
i'm with HoH, i really like the waldorf materials. i'm also with amy in that i like a lot of the stuff from 'the well-trained mind.'
enjoy checking out your curricula, and then enjoy your freedom from it when you get tired of it and just create your own.
:) khairete
S.
If you are Christian, you might try Classical Conversations, which is a homeschool program. (it does teach creationism/intelligent design and has a focus on the Bible) My sister has three boys and has been involved in CC for at least four years now. The program does have a tuition fee, however, they meet once a week and have educated tutors who teach the kids the material, then parents help the children at home on the other days.
I know there are other classical homeschool materials available, but am not familiar with them.
Classical Conversations :
http://www.classicalconversations.com/
My guess is the you can be as involved as you want to be; my sister tutors during the one day a week and this is a paying job.
Kolbe Academy Home school
Sonlight
Mother of Divine Grace
Seton
I use Kolbe, and I love it. It is a challenging curriculum. It comes with course plans, tests and quarterly exams. The staff is very nice and helpful. I use Seton with the little one and planning to use Kolbe in 2nd grade. In case you want your kid to get her diploma (8 grade and high school) you will be required to send samples of your daughter's work every quarter (any sample), otherwise you are on your own and at your own pace. They are very flexible,though.
If you need any help, just PM.
Good luck!
We aren't Classical homeschoolers (we're more eclectic, I guess), but you may want to look at Oak Meadow. It's Waldorf-influenced (but I'd say it's quite a bit more structured than traditional Waldorf). After trying a few other curricula, we've settled on this one, and both of my girls really enjoy it. I use Oak Meadow's language arts and social studies. (We use Life of Fred for math, and I use various resources for Science depending upon what we're studying.) The books are divided into 36 lessons, and each of these is intended to take one week to complete. I have found it very simple to break out into daily pieces, and/or to block schedule certain subjects. My girls are learning a lot, and are not over-scheduled or stressed out about it.
It is a non-religious curriculum, if that matters to you.
I'm a Classical Homeschooler, and I use The Well Trained Mind a Guide to Classical Education as a guide. The materials referenced in it are just awesome. I put my 2nd grade daughter into public school last year and she was LEAGUES ahead of her class from using the materials. We'll return to homeschooling if we don't go to France this school year. It's not an all-in-one curriculum with lesson plans, but most of the various materials it recommends are broken down into lessons. For instance the writing and grammar books have daily lessons, the math curriculums have chapters that correspond to weeks, the history books and workbooks are pretty much weekly lessons with book lists to gracefully fill each week at library, spelling workbooks and handwriting books are broken into lessons...so even though there are many different books/materials from many companies for you to research and compare, once you have all your subjects they are broken down into lessons, and the book provides good sample schedules etc. It's a truly superior education style. But it takes TIME to go through the book and figure out which materials for which subjects you want and to order all your stuff, so get on it! There is also a Well Trained Mind website and forums...
We use Math-U-See for math, and Story of the World for history (SO FANTASTIC). Story of the World history includes ALL religions in the history of the world accurately, but there is no religious slant to any general subjects.
Vertitas and tapestry of grace are both classical style. Tapestry of grace is very structured. A great resource book is Cathy Duffy's Top 100 curriculum review. It's a great resource in that it critiques several curriculum choices and tells you how much teacher prep is needed. You can find it used pretty cheaply and I've seen it at the library as well.
Blessings!
L.
