Picking activities and curricula
Curricula refers to sum of what is used to teach students including textbooks and the scope and sequence of learning activities. These experiences are built upon "Benchmarks" which are learning levels expected for student progress. These activities are offered by established text book and cd rom publishers, online courses, workbooks, tutors, independent-study, cooperative classes, work experience, certificate programs, dual enrollment, teacher made activities and more!
Deciding on curricula may be intimidating, but you can mix and match different curricula to fit your goals. Most homeschool curriculum publishers align with each other on what is expected for each grade level, so a good strategy is to pick one or two major publishers to follow, then create, add or replace school work as needed around the publishers you choose.
Review these charts and documents and watch this video about learning methods and documentation.
(Permission is given for private individual use only of our charts and documents whether rolled or not. CLICK HERE to see K -12 Course Descriptions.
It's easy to research online to find homeschool publishers. I would recommend you request samples from them. As a comparison, use this old list of a few established homeschool publishers. Two good examples on this list still popular today are A.C.E. Ministries and Abeka .
Tests are tools used to make decisions. For example, the SAT Prep Test or the free K-12 diagnostic placement test with ACE Ministries will show weak areas you student needs to work on or what levels of the curricula to assign. You can also use assessments to identify gifted students .
Knowing your student's learning style will help you pick more effective curricula. A "visual" learner for example learns differently than a student that learns best by "hands on" learning. Visit Learning Styles or take an Online Survey to help you.
Create lessons or assign community activities as part of your homeschool program. Use "Benchmarks" to guide you. Examples of lessons to assign can be found here: IXL, financial literacy lesson plans, Early Beginnings or Internet4classrooms.