Curriculum is a passion of mine. I LOVE to search for curriculum and keep looking until I find the one that is just right for my family. Right now we use several different core curriculum items and then season it all with several other things that I love:) I look forward to the spring each year because that is when I start planning the next year's curriculum. Some of it doesn't change but a few things do from year to year. Well, that is now...but when I was a homeschooling child it was quite different.
It was really not a difficult decision. There just wasn't much to choose from back in those days. There wasn't all of the curriculum designed specifically for homeschool families that I am aware of (other than ATIA which was still a pilot program when we joined) . My parents used theme units from Advanced Training Institute of America and also basic Math, Language Arts, Literature, History, Science, Geography, etc from Bob Jones. It was books, flashcards, and tests at the kitchen table...or sofa...back in those days. I remember when A Beka first came out with a video homeschool program (on VHS! lol). You would receive the VHS tapes in the mail, watch a classroom teacher teaching their students, and then complete the assignment. It was the new exciting thing! Haha The choices really were slim and sometimes you had to hammer a square curriculum into a round hole to make it work in the homeschool setting.
Oh, how it has changed!!
Now, every summer when I go to the homeschool conventions, I am amazed all over again. There is a plethora of curriculum, materials, etc. designed specifically for the homeschooling family. What a change! And, there are now tons of great programs that utilize multimedia in a way that was impossible twenty five years ago, when I was homeschooling. From flashcards at the kitchen table to full multimedia computer programs in one generation.
Homeschooling surely has come a looooooooong way! Goodbye denim jumpers. Homeschooling has a new face...and new curriculum choices:)
Can't imagine what it will be like in the next generation...
Did any of you homeschool in the 80's? I'd love to hear any memories or funny stories.
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