A look around the homeschooling space that our family uses to educate our children at home, along with a discussion of the educational materials that we employ in our lessons.
When our plans for the upcoming school year at our public school were still in limbo because of COVID-19, I started making plans for homeschooling our children. I did some study on the curriculum, and I started looking for simple and low-cost solutions to convert one of our bedrooms into a homeschooling space for our five children.
Homeschooling Pedagogical Content
During the spring of 2016, we participated in online school for two months, and again during the first month of this academic year. Mason and Addie, who are in grades 4 and 1, did not do as well as their older siblings did with the amount of work and the organization of the learning. They found it difficult to learn and interact with their teacher and classmates when they were forced to spend the entire day in front of a screen. It was both aggravating and uninteresting to do!
After making the decision to homeschool my children full-time, I wanted to be sure that the curriculum I chose did not involve any usage of the internet in any way. (These days, there are a lot of homeschooling programs available online!) And while I do believe that it is vital to educate children to type and be proficient with computers, I also believe that it is just as important for them to know how to write with a pencil, to improve their penmanship, and to be able to solve issues on paper.
The Curriculum for the Good and Beautiful Homeschooling Program
During the course of the summer, I researched and considered over a dozen different homeschool curriculums in an effort to choose the one that would work best for our family. In the end, I decided to use The Good and Beautiful. This curriculum is not only reasonable in price but also easy to implement, making it an excellent choice for our household. It is one that provides you with physical textbooks and worksheets for the fundamental subjects, in addition to online materials that you can augment with as you see fit.
The textbooks are not only elegantly written, but they also make education an enjoyable experience. I also liked that the majority of the sessions are “open and go,” which makes it easy to arrange for a classroom full of children.
The disciplines of mathematics and language arts are taught according to grade level in this curriculum; however, the subjects of history and science can be completed together as a family. Their book contains optional activities for students of varying ages and grades, after which it provides a lecture and a discussion that can be had with the whole class. During this time spent together in group sessions, we have had some of the most enjoyable times ever!
You are able to test out The Good and Beautiful’s content before committing to purchasing it by downloading a free sample of one of their many topics in the form of a PDF. This educational program comes with my highest possible recommendation. If you are dissatisfied with the education provided by the public school system or if you are seeking for something new, you should give this program a shot.
If you have any inquiries regarding it, feel free to leave a comment for me in the box below, and I will do everything in my power to assist you.
Ideas for Decorating Your Homeschooling Space
When it came time to convert this space from a bedroom into a classroom, my primary objectives were to make the transition as painless and inexpensive as possible. Because the ages of my children varied from first grade to senior year of high school, I made sure the activities were not only enjoyable, but also sophisticated.
The majority of the items I utilized in here were stuff I already owned and used in other sections of the house; nevertheless, I will try my best to connect whatever I can find online in the event that you are interested.
