On the facebook page we were discussing homeschooling and what people use. Since I mentioned I put in my order for this year’s schooling, I said I would share some more info here on the blog.
What I purchase each year can be quite random. We’ve been schooling for fifteen years, so there’s a lot of things I already have.
Here in British Columbia, Canada we are given a few choices for homeschooling. We can “enroll” our children, and they basically do the same thing at home, that the public schools are doing AT school. With this choice you are supplied with a budget and/or the text books etc. needed for each subject. Your child is also provided with teachers for each subect. Basically, it is public school at home.
Another option is to “register” your child, which is what we do. If you register, you are allotted 120.00- 150.00 per child to help you with the costs of curriculum etc..
Each year I choose to use these funds for books and other book-like activities, such as homeschool curriculum, science project kits, art kits, readers and/or novels. I also purchase things such as math manipulatives, or even foreign language lessons. Over the 12 years we have lived in BC, we have accumulated quite a library, both for my husband & I as the teachers, and for our children as the students.
Each year I choose to use these funds for books and other book-like activities, such as homeschool curriculum, science project kits, art kits, readers and/or novels. I also purchase things such as math manipulatives, or even foreign language lessons. Over the 12 years we have lived in BC, we have accumulated quite a library, both for my husband & I as the teachers, and for our children as the students.
This years order:
- Building Spelling Skills (for all three of the younger girls)
- Audubon First Field Guide – Rock & Minerals
- Audubon First Field Guide – Birds
- Attracting Birds(Shaylay LOVES birds, so this is mainly for her but we all learn what she learns)
- 10 Days To Multiplication Mastery Teacher Edition & Workbooks (for all three, to strengthen their multiplication)
- Write a Super Sentence– (I like these ‘extra’ workbooks to help the girls master anything I feel we need some extra work on.)
- Adobe Photoshop CS3: The Official Training Workbook from Adobe Systems [With CDROM] ( Classroom in a Book (Adobe)
- Solar Cooking Science – Kit– (I remember doing this in school and loved it, I think the girls will as well. I’m sure we could make this on our own, but our lives are so busy sometimes it’s simply easier to get’er done if we order the kit)
- The Jumbo Cookbook– (the girls ALL love cooking. No worries we miss out on Home Ec in this house!)
- Signing – How to Speak with Your Hands (ASL)- (I learned some sign language as a teen and feel it’s a very important language for our children to learn. I’m excited to get this book! The older version is the same one I used!)
- The Jumbo Book of Space
- Science Vocabulary Readers (these are for all the girls, but mainly Elsa. Her reading is not up to ‘snuff’ yet, so I thought it’d be a nice change to get some science readers this year)
- The Earth
- The Moon
- Horse Life Cycle
- Beautiful Birds
- The Solar System
- The Planets
- Stars and Constellations
- The Sun
- Awesome Amphibians
- Tornadoes!
- Lightning!
- Frog Life Cycle
- Chick Life Cycle
- Your Brain
- Hurricanes!
- Considering God’s Creation Teacher’s Manual- (we have been using this science curriculum for many years. I used it with the older two, and now with the younger three. It’s is Christian based, but very comprehensive. I’m ordering the teachers manual because my old copy has become so worn!)
- KLUTZ – Backyard Stars– (even Alesia, our eldest, will love these books. We all enjoy learning about the night skies! I expect when we move to the Prairies we’ll learn all that much more!)
- Space Exploration Experiment Kit
Besides what I’ve ordered, we will continue to use the Prairie Primer. This past year we made it through Little House in the Big Woods and started on the next book near the end of the year.
We will also continue with History of the Horse. We made it through Justin Morgan Had a Horse, and just loved it. Of course it’s very fitting for this family of horse lovers/owners.
I know I’m missing other things we use, I have a very wide range of stuff I draw from right here at home. With house selling the last few years, a lot of it remains packed and every fall I go through the boxes and pull out what interests us that year. We add in anything and everything we feel like studying along the way as well. This fall I’ll add in some things about Saskatchewan and the prairies as we prepare to move there. Hopefully that will also be a part of our learning this year. A move to the prairies. My husband leaves in one week and we really don’t want our family to be split up for very long. In the meantime, we’ll be here learning as much as we can before we go.
I’ve used many many books & curriculum over the years geared towards homeschoolers. We’ve done the full gamut. Everything from full boxed curriculum such as LifePacs from Alpha Omega, Abeka, Five in a Row (one of my favorite all time curriculum!), to many, many individual subjects/books/curriculum. We’ve also used MANY unit studies over the years. SO many! Too numerous to mention, and I still have them all (packed up of course, ha!). If my children decide to homeschool their children, they’ll have a full library of homeschooling materials at their full disposal!
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
Thank you for this post! I will be homeschooling my children and have no idea where to start. There’s so much info out there that it can get overwhelming. Thanks for the ideas!
Oh wow, lucky you to get some money to help toward their schooling! We don’t get any help here.
Looks like some fun stuff coming in the mail! 🙂
There really is a TON of information out there.
Just remember mainly that you don’t have to do it all, the first year! And give yourself lots of wiggle room in your ‘plans’ for unplanned fun and learning! 🙂
Yes, it is a blessing. 🙂
We didn’t get any help where we used to live either, or where we are moving too, but I always found what I needed some how, some where, for a great deal anyways! It always works out. 🙂
Yes! I got notice most will ship fairly soon. Yay!
Where do you get the $120-$150 from? I was reading on the Ministry of Education website here in BC it says you have to register them at a school of your choice within your school district and the school is given $250 but the parents aren’t given any. I’m still a few years out from school age for my youngest but thought I would get started learning about it now.
Michelle, in BC we have to register, or enroll. We register with Traditional Learning Academy: http://schoolathome.ca/
If you register, you receive 120-150, there are many other ‘schools’ you can register through as well. If you enroll your child, the funding is much greater but we choose to go with registering to keep it more of a learning at home atmosphere, rather then a ‘public school at home’. If that makes sense.