Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Curriculum recs. for next year?

Hi everyone. It has been a while since I posted. We've been busy here having lots of fun. Anyway, next year we will be officially homeschooling. Right now we just do what every DD is interested in. Next year we will be getting money from the state of Alaska and can chose any resources we want. So can you recommend your favorite curriculum choices?


I am thinking EPGY for math. I have no idea about good ideas for others.

I could use some recommendations for a foreign language- she want's to learn Korean, science (lots of hands on, 4th or 5th grade level), we will need to do language arts, but I have no clue where to look for this. She has basically been self taught and is reading on an 8th grade level, but comp on 4th/5th, word recognition at low 12, vocab at a 9th grade level, so I am at a lost on this one.

To receive money from the state we will have to send in samples of work from each subject twice a year.

Also can someone give me more details or point me to a post about details for EPGY open enrollment.

Thanks so much!

I just bought Glencoe World History (like new) and student resources (new) on CD, and all told spent around $60. I also bought "Get Ready! for Social Studies" books, which are really clearly presented and excellent. I feel like we're set for a couple of years on social studies with these.

EPGY might be good for math; I haven't tried it but checked out the sample videos recently. ALEKS is decent, but I don't know how to stack it against EPGY. DS6 likes Singapore Math, and it lends itself well to acceleration. For math enrichment, try the usual suspects: Life of Fred, Ed Zaccaro Challenge Math, Singapore Challenging Word Problems / Intensive Practice, Mathematics Enhancement Programme (which is free and also a stand-alone curriculum in its own right), Sunshine Math (free), etc.

I know that Michael Clay Thompson is highly regarded for language arts instruction among homeschoolers, but I don't have it myself and am still weighing our options for next year. Our current public school uses 6+1 Traits (for which Evan Moor puts out decent workbooks) and John Collins for writing instruction, and in my opinion they're decent.

For science, I would stay away from the religious curriculums (Apologia, Bob Jones University, etc.) as they tend to be written from a young earth creationist viewpoint, which would only serve to confuse a child and present an obstacle to pursuing a later interest in science. Building Foundations of Science Understanding is often recommended as a secular option, but again I am currently weighing our options and can't make much of a recommendation.

For language arts, we did Modern Curriculum Press workbooks (I think they go up through 5th grade). Now we picked up on Evan-Moor Vocabulary Fundamentals for 5th grade, for my third grader. It's too easy for him but it's a good starting point.

I looked up on the web Glencoe World History. Do you like it? I'd like to buy a history textbook that my son and I can read a little bit at a time at night. How long are the chapters? Is it engaging with nice color pictures? Thanks!

Story of the World is meant to be read just that way, with short chapters and engaging explanations. It's got a fair amount of religious content, which I found acceptable as "useful cultural knowledge," but I knew going into it that it had a fair amount of religious content.

I'm still deciding on Glencoe, but think I will keep it. It is quite nice, although not exactly perfect-- i.e. it is not the sort of book that just pours itself into one's head, though they've done a pretty good job of varying the content. Graphic and infobox content is high for a text aimed at middle and high schoolers. Chapters begin with a decent brief overview, are followed with some review, and run from around 8-40 pages. The entire text came on the CD, as promised; the textbook has yet to arrive.

ETA: One thing that I liked about both Glencoe and Get Ready! is that they contain lots of ideas for extra exploration, including suggested extra reading.

I just can't express how happy I am with the "Get Ready! For Social Studies" books. They're wonderful. They have black and white pictures and no color, though. The "Get Ready" books were described to me by a homeschooler as basically a superb outline sufficient to serve as a "spine", with enough text to suffice as a textbook or review aid. That's exactly what they are, and for a first overview they are going to do very well. They contain timelines, vocabl lists, the whole nine yards.

We are going to begin EPGY open enrollment in the (probably) near future:

http://epgy.stanford.edu/openenroll/signup.html

This is our first year so I've had some curriculum bumps. My DS is 8, in 4th grade and very advanced in reading, math and science(from his grade, not this board).

We are keeping
For math:
Art of Problem Solving (finishing Pre-Algebra and starting Algebra)
Khan Academy

For science:
We did RSO Chemistry this year (loved it!) and switching to Intellego next year for Diseases, as well as MIT opencourseware Kitchen Science

Language arts:
Adding in Athena or Online g3 depending on books. I wrote my own units for lit this year and it was too time consuming for me.

History:
Horrible Histories
Story of the US (Hakim)
Dumping Story of the World (we both hate it- too many crafts, not enough meat to the history!)

And literally hundreds of library books!

Thanks all. I am going to do the 2 month trail for Aleks and see if DD likes it. I think I am going to use this period to experiment on what methods she likes before we purchase and use our homeschool money. We will get $1700 to spend on homeschool/educational items next year. So cool. Loving Alaska at the moment LOL.

Anyway, I liking what I have seen of Micheal Clay Thompson Language arts so far, we have been reading through History of the World this year, but I am about to google Horrible Histories because DD does not like the tone downness (Not a word I know) of the work.

Science is the hard one because it is definitely one of her strengths. I need serious depth for that.

Anyway, keep the ideas coming please I've got a couple of months to research.