Homeschool Curriculum - Deciding where to start in choosing the right one

Well, hello again! Becky Teacutter here at homeschoolwithheart Today's focus for my video and the ones that follow are going to be about homeschool curriculum. I've previously talked with you about the reasons you decided to or wanted to homeschool I've also given you some insight on some things you need to do to get ready to begin. Today, I want to give you some information on curriculum. There are many different ways you can go with books and curriculum, so I'll be sharing some ideas with you on what worked for me as well as other choices and options that may work better for you and your children. First, you may be wondering How do I know which curriculum to choose? Well my advice is first think about your child's learning style and have that in mind. Are they more of a visual learner, an auditory learner or are they more hands-on. The visual learner will learn best when seeing the information so having charts and graphs will help. The auditory learner will do best when hearing the information and then repeating things out loud Whereas the hands-on learner may have a short attention span and need to learn by doing such as with experiments and using creativity. Once you have an idea of this then you are ready to begin your search for curriculum. By all means, if you know someone who already homeschools their children, Talk to them about what they use and take a look at it. But, if you are starting from scratch, my best advice is to go to a homeschool book fair. They have many of these all across the United States where home school families will go to sell their curriculum as well as buy what they may be needing for the upcoming school year It is a very good resource for you. Through the years, this is where I've purchased a majority of my books at a great price Keep in mind that most book sales like this are offering used books, so for the budget conscious family you are able to get most of what you need at a low cost. Then, each year you too can be a part of the book fair and sell what you are done using. Not only will you be helping another family get started by being able to purchase your used books, but you in turn can use the money you get from the sale to fund your next year's curriculum. It is truly a great resource! One of the many reasons book fairs are good is because you can physically page through the books and see what the curriculum looks like. this will help you decide if this is something you could teach well and something your child could use well. It is so important to make the curriculum fit you and your children. So you may be asking How do I find book fairs in my area? Well, if you simply Google homeschool book fairs in your city and state listings should come up of when and where they are located. For example, if I was looking for book fairs, I would Google homeschool book fairs in Central Texas Another site is home school classifieds dot com. This site has a section called groups and activities. Just click on your state or area and it will list upcoming book fairs as well as other events you may want to participate in. I will tell you that the best time to shop for homeschool curriculum is in the spring and summer Most homeschool book fairs will take place during the months of March through June. This is because this is when most people will start preparing and lining up what they will need for the upcoming school year. Another way besides book fairs for you to find your homeschool curriculum is online. There are many websites that sell used curriculum. I will start with home school classifieds dot com. You can buy and sell used curriculum on this site. They have been around for years and are very reputable. I have bought and sold things on their site. If you are looking to purchase brand new curriculum, you will need go to the specific publisher. For instance, I used mostly the ABEKA curriculum They also have a website where you can search by subject or grade and order directly from them. So, to close up this video, I would say get ready to do a little researching find out what homeschool curriculum suits you, then decide if you want new or used and go from there. I will be posting more about different types of homeschool curriculum that is out there. So stay tuned and once again here's to homeschoolwithheart.com