We homeschool our 7 year old. When we started looking at the possibilities of homeschooling, we realized that homeschooling is not very popular in India. It also meant that we had very less support to help us choose curriculum. This is a short post on the books we have chosen to train our children.
How did we come up with a curriculum?
One of the first things that we look at while choosing books to teach is the syllabus we want to follow. We are looking at training our kids in classical education. We want to follow a method that would be simple to teach and yet so solid in its foundation.
In the Indian method of education, we give more importance to the writing first. Comprehension, listening skills and writing skills are developed much later. In the method that we have chosen, the child is exposed to a vast majority of information. This tickles and awakens the child’s ability to be inquisitive and absorb more from the very day interactions. Comprehension and Listening skills are fist on high priority.Though writing is introduced, the child is only expected to form small and grammatically strong sentences at this point. It focuses on adding precept upon precept in a non threatening fashion. This allows the kid to learn without tears! Who knew learning could be so much fun?!
We looked for books that would come with an exhaustive teacher’s manual/guide with clearly laid out lesson plan so that I would have very less to do in terms of preparing a lesson plan. For a first time teacher/homeschooler, this is an added advantage!
We want to educate our child with Christian values and world-view. The books on Science and History ties up the with the Bible.
Considering all our requirements, here is the list of books that we put together:
- Math: Saxon Math
- Science: Apologia
- English:
- Grammar: First language lessons for the well trained mind by Jessie Wise
- Writing: Writing with Ease by Jessie Wise
- Handwriting: Reason for Handwriting
- Phonics: Phonics First by Hunter Calder.
- History: Story of the world by Susan Wise Bauer
- Geography: Daily Geography Practice by Evan Moor. This is US geography. The technique of teaching is excellent. So we used this as a guide and also taught a bit of Indian geography.
At the end of the homeschooling year, I will put an exhaustive review on the books , subject by subject. Look out for those to know more.
