I use a mish-mash curriculum.  I use different publishers for different subjects, based on what works for us.

Some of the things I consider are price, what I like, how the children learn, how I teach, and what will hold their attention best.  Not one of those factors is the deciding factor, though.  They work together to influence my decision.

For two years, I used Learning Language Arts Through Literature.  I love, love, love that curriculum.  And I bought the teacher’s books at eBay and the student books at Christian Book Distributors (see sidebar), so the price was right.  But the boys just did not like it.  It did not suit their learning styles and it did not hold their attention.

I blame them, not the curriculum.  In fact, I might try it with Little E, just to see if he likes it.

The point is that you cannot make a curriculum work if it doesn’t.  I finally gave in and found a language arts program that works.  Actually, it’s more of a system.  I use Spectrum Language Arts workbooks for grammar units, they choose books for their own reading practice, I choose books for literature studies (usually with a purchased literature study guide), and I use a spelling workbook for spelling reinforcement.

A similar situation happened with Math.  We started with Saxon, which is a terrific curriculum, but they didn’t quite like it.  Then we tried Switched-On Schoolhouse, a computer-based program, which just did not suit us.  Finally, this year, we tried Singapore Math, which was a resounding success.  We all love it.  It is an excellent math program.  It suits my teaching style to a T.  They love it, as it fits with their learning styles (both!).  I even started Little E on the kindergarten books.

As with pretty much everything else in homeschooling, finding the right curriculum is a trial and error process.  If you are struggling with homeschooling, you might want to try some different materials before you throw in the towel.

What about you?  What do you use for curriculum materials?  Did you go through trial and error, or did you get it right on the first try?

As you can tell, I kind of took the summer off from this blog. There is something about the summer that makes it impossible for me to think about homeschooling.

But summer is nearing its end. The public school starts three weeks from Wednesday. I have to have my homeschooling paperwork in to the state by the end of the month. School is once again on my mind.

This year, I am switching from Saxon Math to Singapore. The kids just were not responding well to Saxon, as much as I liked it. We are going to start in with the new Singapore books this week. They just arrived today.

Another big change this year is that Little E will start kindergarten! He just got his new math book, too, and is very excited. (Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics book 2A)

I can’t believe that he is going to be 5 at the end of next week!

I am looking forward to getting back into school. This summer has been very hectic, emotional, and disruptive for all of us and having the sense of normalcy that a school-y schedule will provide us will be a change most welcome.

I also look forward to sharing about our home school life with you here on this blog.

The boys and I have been playing a dice game to practice multiplication facts.

Simply roll two dice and multiply the numbers, write down your score, and add them up at the end.

The kids get practice with single-digit multiplication and adding a column of numbers (we rolled ten times each).

For added practice, we roll one die for a final multiplier. This gives them a problem to work out multiplying a (usually) three-digit number by a one-digit number.

One drawback is that the dice only go up to 6.

One possible solution is to buy dice with more sides. Another is to draw cards, instead of rolling dice.

To help my boys strengthen their multiplication tables, I downloaded a game called Timez Attack. The boys really liked it because it has high-quality graphics that look like a “real” video game.

Another great math resource I found is a website called Math Playground.  It has math games, printable worksheets, manipulatives, and other math resources.

You may already know that PBS has a show that teaches math skills, targeted to children in grades 3-5, called Cyberchase.

But did you know that the PBS website also has math lesson plans designed to correspond to the different episodes of the show?

What a fun way to teach elementary math skills.