When it gets to selecting the material you wish to share with your children when homeschooling, it can get a bit overwhelming because there are such wide variety curricula available.
The basic difference between curricula is that some follow the normal school approach (i.e. more school-at-home, complete with exams, tests, grading, report cards, etc.), and others follow a literature-based and more relaxed approach (with assessment rather than exams). Then there are people who choose to follow either of these methods, but prefer to select their own resources in order to put together their own curriculum.
And then there is unschooling, which allows children to learn through life experiences (like household tasks, frontline business experiences, or game play), rather than following a curriculum. This approach allows for children to explore their immediate world and activities in a “real-world”-approach, and is usually followed by people who believe that traditional schooling and its features do not allow maximum education for a child. They believe that children are naturally inquisitive, and that they should be taught in those areas of interest when they arise.
You will have to decide which way you agree with and will work best for your family, including your children’s learning styles.
Back to curricula though, the best would be to attend as many expo’s, workshops and/or information meetings, and speak to other homeschoolers and hear what works for them, before deciding which curriculum to settle with, because once started in a specific one, people usually find it difficult to try out something else. At an expo you can find the answers to your questions, and you can view the curriculum provider’s material. An alternative is to visit curriculum provider websites, and request sample material, which most providers are more than willing to send.
Following are different curriculum providers:
Literature Based Programmes:
* Footprints on our land
* Sonlight
* Love2Learn
More formal school-type curriculums:
* Accelerated Christian Education (you can contact Sue Searles at 031-5736500)
* Clonard
* Brainline (Bilingual)
* Delta Education/Impak Onderwys (Bilingual)
* Kenweb (Afrikaans)
* Moria Tuisskool Materiaal (Afrikaans)
* Nukleus (Afrikaans)
