The Happy Housewife™ :: Home Schooling

homeschool tips, printables, curriculum reviews, and more

Homeschool Planning: Back to Homeschool

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Many of you have asked how I plan our homeschool year. Before I share my methods I want to encourage you to do what works best for your family. In the beginning I tried to be like all the other homeschoolers I knew, using the same curriculum, planning the same way.

Over time I realized I needed to do what was best for me and my family. Of course I’ve learned a ton from my homeschool friends, but I don’t do everything just like they do.

Usually I start planning the school year a few months before we begin. This year that didn’t happen and I found myself planning our year less than ten days before our start date. While this works, it is not ideal. I’m still waiting on curriculum to arrive and schedules to be finalized. Since I’m a planner this is definitely stressful for me. I much prefer to have our year planned out in July if we are starting in August.

Homeschool Planning

Create Our Yearly Calendar

Over the years we’ve done everything from homeschooling four days a week, homeschooling year round, to taking our summer break in October. Depending on our family’s schedule I create a calendar for the school year. This year we are following a traditional school calendar because our oldest is graduating and needs to finish by mid-May. I’m using a free downloadable calendar from Five J’s which I color-code for each nine weeks and holidays.

List Children/ Subjects

For my younger children I fill out a curriculum form for each child. I list the subject and the curriculum we will be using. I have to submit this information to our umbrella school anyway, so having a record for myself keeps me from forgetting about a class. (Trust me with six kids doing different things it is easy to forget something)

For my high school kids I use my high school credit planner to track their subjects and curriculum.

You can download a free copy of the high school credit planner here.

Choose/ Purchase Curriculum

Since I have been homeschooling for eleven years I usually know what curriculum we are using but occasionally I change it up. I have a fairly large collection of used curriculum so I’ve found that over the years I need to purchase less and less for my younger children. This year I switched our history and math so I researched a few different options during my planning time.

I order almost all of my curriculum online from either ChristianBook.com, Amazon, or Rainbow Resource. I usually qualify for free shipping and it is easier than dragging a luggage cart around a homeschool convention.

Make Schedules

After I’ve decided what curriculum each child is using I draft a rough schedule. For many years I made up a complex schedule with half-hour time blocks for each activity. This type of schedule worked well for me for exactly two years. They were the years I had a newborn, toddler, four year-old, and two elementary students.

Once I had more school aged children this schedule fell apart. My older kids didn’t like being told what to do every half-hour of their day until 5pm. I found that some of my younger kids simply couldn’t finish their entire lesson in 30 minutes. Throughout the year children would go through phases of needing to spend significantly more or less time with me.

I finally got tired of revamping our schedule every few weeks and I stopped using such a structured schedule. We still have a schedule, my older children have “milestones” they need to reach by the end of each week and my younger children work together around the table and I am available to help.

Everyone takes turns watching Cora when I’m working one-on-one when she isn’t sitting with me. I have one child who needs isolated (quiet) time with me to learn so that happens while the other kids are fixing lunch.

My older children each receive weekly schedules on Monday that detail what they need to complete by the end of the week and my little kids have blank schedules that we fill out as we go. I’ve found that my little kids often enjoy doing extra lessons so a blank schedule allows us to be flexible with our school day.

Make Copies

I do not like making copies right before our lesson. If I get up and leave the table to mess with the copier one child will disappear, one will start doing something else, one will get a snack and it takes 15 minutes to get everyone focused again. Every nine weeks I print out all the copies before we begin. It helps keep me organized and on track once we begin our lessons. Oh, and I almost never run out of printer ink or paper in the middle of a lesson!

Review the Curriculum

I am pretty well acquainted with most of our curriculum but if we are using something new I take time to thoroughly look through the books and familiarize myself with the program. Looking over the curriculum helps me gauge how many lessons we need to complete in a week to finish on time and how long I expect my child to spend on the lessons. After reviewing the curriculum I make a basic outline of how long it will take to complete each subject.

Create a Supply List

I don’t like to be surprised when I open the book and realize I need a batch of salt dough, four cardboard boxes, and a 9 volt battery for our next project. I try to create a supply list at the beginning of each nine weeks so I’m not stuck paying for overnight shipping or running to Target at 9:30 pm to pick up needed items. My older children are responsible for creating their own supply lists and giving them to me before the nine weeks begin.

Create Hour Sheets and Gradebooks

For some high school classes hours are logged to make sure the course fulfills the credit requirement. I create google docs that can be shared between myself and my high school kids that they use to log their hours.

In the past I’ve created my own gradebooks, but this year I’m using Gradebook which is a free program for either Excel or OpenOffice. So far I like the program, but we haven’t officially started yet. 🙂

I create a simple table in a word document to log my younger children’s grades. I don’t start giving formal tests until my children are in 3rd grade so recording keeping is minimal during the early years.

Pray For Our School Year

Homeschooling is hard. Don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t. I truly love spending time with my kids, but being together 24 hours a day, seven days a week gives more opportunities for sanctification than I can list in this article. I know there will be challenges throughout the year, I know we will fall behind then race to catch up. I pray for grace and patience for me and a heart to learn for my children. I pray for cheerful attitudes for everyone.

I pray that I will make the most of my time with each child and that our relationship will strengthen throughout the year. Finally I pray that we will all survive Cora’s toddler years.

This year I spent two full days alone working through my homeschool planning. For the first time in eleven years of homeschooling my husband was in town and able to take the kids to grandma’s for the weekend so I could plan alone, uninterrupted.

In the past I’ve traded babysitting with friends or set aside a week and planned every evening from 8pm until 11pm. While it is ideal to have uninterrupted time, you can still get all your planning done in spurts if you are focused.

That’s how homeschool planning looks for me. I’d love to hear about your homeschool planning and if you have any specific planning questions leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.

 

Adobe Educator Discount

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A few months ago I wrote an article about what I see as a lack of technology courses for homeschoolers. Many of you commented and shared that your children were learning on their own or using tutorials available on the web.

I was encouraged to learn that so many families are not allowing a lack of curriculum to hinder their child’s education. If your child is interested in learning skills like design, photo editing, or film editing you might want to check out Adobe’s Educator store. Adobe software is great, but super expensive. Homeschoolers are eligible to shop at Adobe’s educator store and can save hundreds of dollars on software.

Here’s who qualifies for the educator discount.

  • University and college students — students enrolled at a higher education institution defined as an accredited public or private university or college (including community, junior, or vocational college) that grants degrees requiring not less than the equivalent of two years of full-time study.
  • Primary and secondary school students — students enrolled at an accredited public or private primary or secondary school providing full-time instruction.
  • Faculty and staff — teachers and staff employed by an accredited primary or secondary school, public or private university or college, school district, or board of education (including emeritus status professors).
  • Homeschooled students and their teachers — students and teachers as defined by state homeschooling regulations

If you are eligible the educator discount is a great way to save on Adobe’s premium software.

Homeschool Flag

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This is a guest post from a good friend of mine, Rebecca. She homeschools her three kids ages 14, 12, and 7. Her family recently created a flag for their homeschool. I thought this was a great idea and was excited when she agreed to share her experience with us.

First we decided, as a family (including dad), what our school colors would be and what our mascot would be. We chose purple for royalty, being we are children of the King, and gold for “riches untold”. Our mascot is the Bible which is our Sword and protector.

Next we went to Joann’s to shop! We used satin for the backdrop- they did not carry flag fabric in purple, plus we were not planning to hang it out doors (one of my sons thought people would come by and want to enroll their children into the Craghead Academy). The letters and bible are also in satin, and the sword is a metallic fabric.

Make sure your needle is small or it will pull and pick the fabric. We used fabric glue to keep the letters in place then sewed them on using a zig-zag stitch to cover the raw edges. If we could do it over, I would not use the fabric glue, you can still see the dots of glue through the fabric. I would use fabric tape and fusible interfacing to keep it in place as well as stiffen up the satin.

We all enjoyed taking part in the creation of our School Flag, even our 5 year old liked using the glue. Our flag is one of the first things you see when you are welcomed into our home. It is fun to explain to visitor what our flag represents. The Bible is the center of our education in our home. It is sharper than any two-edged sword and there is no answer you can not find within its pages.

The Craghead Academy

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This would be a perfect art project to begin your school year.

Toddler Activities: Sponge Blocks

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I’m hoping to resume my toddler activity series this fall. If nothing else because I need to find activities to occupy little Miss Cora during our school day.

sponge tower blocks

Cora is my most active toddler and I need a long list of activities to keep her out of trouble this year.

I found this awesome idea on Pinterest (of course).

Sponge Blocks

sponge blocks This is truly a genius idea! You can find out how to make them on Toddler Approved!

I like these blocks because:

  • If your toddler throws them nothing will break.
  • They are quiet when they fall.
  • They are super cheap.

If your toddler is still putting everything in their mouth you might want to wait until they outgrow that phase before making these sponge blocks. They could choke on a piece of the sponge if they bit a piece off.

I plan on making these for Cora this weekend!

 

Free Homeschool Gradebook

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My friend Joy has created a free homeschool gradebook. Those of you who are familiar with her site Five Js know that her free worksheets are awesome and very user friendly. This grade book has the following:

  1. A Summary Overview of all the current grades in each course
  2. An Attendance Record that is not year-specific, so it does not have to be altered from year to year
  3. Adjustable grading scale and weighted grades
  4. Room for recording grades for up to 12 different courses, including information about the course such as curriculum and resources used
  5. Ability to record up to 5 different types of grades (such as daily, quizzes, tests, etc.) with each type having a different weight if desired
  6. Grades automatically averaged according to weight and number ofcredits for the course
  7. A printable Book List, Extra-Curricular Activities Report, and Field Trip List
  8. A printable Report Card and Course List that are automatically generated
  9. Detailed directions about how to use the spreadsheet template

Head on over to Five Js and download your free copy! And remember to grab your free download of the high school credit planner too!

High School Credit Planner

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Homeschooling through high school can be tough. Recording keeping was one of my biggest struggles (until my friend gave me a high school credit planner).

Keeping good records in high school is very important. If your child plans to go to college, it is essential. The computer or a notebook are both good places to keep records. You can use a spread sheet program or create tables in a word processing program to keep the information organized.

Important Homeschool High School Records You Should Keep

1. All books that your student uses as curriculum and reads for pleasure. Include the title, author, and publisher. If you have an umbrella program, this information may be required for the curriculum books you use. If not, keep the records yourself.

2. Test scores and other graded work. Whenever you give a grade on a test, paper, or project, record the grade. Keep all the grades for one subject together. This makes it easier when you fill out a report card.

3. Attendance. Have a place where you keep attendance, other than your family calendar.

4. Hourly classes. Sometimes subjects such as P.E., music, and art are done on an hourly basis, such as 175 hours for a credit, depending on your particular requirements. This is something your child needs to learn responsibility for. If they mark it on a calendar, be sure to transfer it to another format that would be easy to show to someone evaluating your program.

5. Report cards. Quarterly or semester evaluations are useful for both the teacher and student. Report cards should include grades, attendance, and how many credits each class is worth. Once final grades are given for the year, figure out the grade point average.

6. Monthly reports. This is not essential, but my umbrella program requires it, and I think it is very helpful for me and my kids. The reports list what the student has done in each subject for that month and how close they are to completion. For example, Science: chapters 5 – 10, 10/20 chapters completed.

One tool that kept me on track throughout my kids’ high school year was the credit planner. It allowed us to evaluate class decisions before we enrolled in expensive co-ops or dual enrollment and made sure my kids stayed on track to graduate.

homeschool high school credit planner

I recommend downloading the planner when your child is in the 8th grade.

High School Credit Planner

Why start so early?

In the eighth grade, download your state’s graduation requirements. Unfortunately these vary by state so it is extremely important you know what’s required where you live. All states have a minimum requirement to graduate. However many states offer scholarships to kids who meet additional requirements so make sure you know those as well.

By beginning this process in the 8th grade you will be prepared for high school before you choose your 9th grade homeschool curriculum.

How to use the high school credit planner

On the left side of the planner you’ll find the credits needed and subjects. These are already filled in on the PDF version of the credit planner since the requirements and subjects are the same for most states. However, if you have different requirements use the editable version of this planner to make modifications.

Starting with ninth grade, fill in the planner with the courses your child will take to fulfill the requirements. I always had a paper copy of the planner that I filled in with pencil. I kept a digital copy that I would turn in to the state evaluator or use to create a transcript.

homeschool high school credit planner

Think ahead

At the end of eighth grade, I would fill out the planner completely from ninth to twelfth grade. This will give you a big picture view of what your child needs to complete to graduate. I always made changes to the planner over the high school years, but knowing what was required helped me plan and purchase curriculum.

Planning ahead also gives you time to find co-op classes to supplement their education if necessary.

To download your homeschool high school credit planner just right click and save. You will then be able to open the document and print or edit.

Update the planner every year

At the end of every year, I total the credits at the bottom of the form. (The credits will automatically total on the spreadsheet)

This helps me easily track my child’s progress and I can make changes based on their progress.

Download your free High School Credit Planner



I was able to use this credit planner to help my daughter get into college. Recently I printed out my son’s planner for him to take to the Navy recruiting office. Both the university and the Navy accepted the planner as a high school transcript. (I edited the planner to include grades and gpa)

It’s never too early to start planning for high school, so download your planner today.

More Homeschooling Through High School

Is it Worth it to Laminate Worksheets?

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A question from Sarah:

I’m just getting ready to start homeschooling my 4 year old this fall. Do you think it worth the money to laminate worksheets and have them use a marker? Or is it best to start with pencils and pay for new paper each time?

This is an interesting question. Sarah quoted a price of about $18 for 50 sheets of laminating paper. So it costs 0.33 to laminate each sheet. The cost of a piece of paper is about 1 cent. Depending on type of printer it could cost anywhere from 1 to 5 cents to print a worksheet. The worksheets she is using are free and printed from a website.

The total cost for printing one worksheet is about 6 cents (max), so the child would have to use the laminated worksheet at least 5 times to break even. Of course if there were other children that might also be using the laminated sheets it could be a good investment.

Note: Owning a laminator is not near as expensive as it used to be!  It’s a great investment for any homeschool family.  Here’s my favorite laminator that I personally use.

The next issue is using a marker versus a pencil. Many occupational therapists recommend starting kids with a pencil because it allows them to learn how to exert the correct amount of pressure on the paper. My older children use erasable pens and we use white boards for spelling words, but I do have my younger children start with a pencil.

Personally I have found that my children don’t want to do the same worksheet over and over again. Once they finish a worksheet they want to move on to the next one. But since we have multiple children laminating worksheets might save us money over the long term.

What I have done, which is cheaper than laminating, but allows you to reuse worksheets is to slide the worksheet into a page protector. For my little kids I use a piece of transparency film or a page protector and place it over their worksheet page.

The worksheets can be reused and so can the page protectors. The benefit of laminating the pages is that the page won’t slip out of a page protector and the worksheets will last longer if laminated.

So, I guess my answer is if you want to laminate the worksheets, go for it. Especially if you think you will use them over and over. But, if you are trying to save money there are other ways to reuse worksheets for less.

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Negative Reactions to Homeschooling?

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The following is a post from Tabitha(wife to Tom, homeschooling mom to 8 kids ages 14 to 1, learning something new all the time)

(aka, how we started homeschooling…)

My husband and I first considered homeschooling our children when pregnant with our first child. We were both still in college. I was in a secondary education program, taking classes to finish my degree. One of my electives for graduation was a home education course. It was supposed to help teachers-to-be prepare for this growing movement. It turned into an experience where I was shown a new option which was made real by the child visibly making himself a part of my existence. It became my favorite class overnight. The speakers, the materials, the different presentations all had an immediate impact on my thinking as I considered this person who was joining our family and how he would grow and learn. I brought my husband to classes. I asked the professor endless questions.
I never looked back.

2 year old Michael

My husband took a little longer. It was a, ‘let’s see’ kind of approach. Michael was born a month after this half-semester class ended. I finished my degree a month after he turned 1. By the time he was 2 he knew his ABC’s and numbers, even though he didn’t talk very well. By the time he was 4 he had taught himself to read. No, I wasn’t forcing my child to memorize flash cards or spend hours a day on drills. I was simply playing with him and his little brother and sister.
No, this isn’t typical, but my husband and I were watching what a child CAN do with simple support and guidance at home. By this time my husband was much more supportive of homeschooling. We had started telling friends and family about our plans. We both have brothers who are teachers. We both were products of the public school system. We both had parents who were very involved in the public schools including school board, PTA, volunteering, and odd jobs within the schools.
At first, we were criticized. Both sides of the family had negative thoughts to some degree about the idea and figured we’d change our minds once we hit kindergarten age. They got to know Michael and realized he was advanced in many ways but instead of seeing that this was due to our approach to learning, insisted this was more of a reason to get him into a school early. We simply explained that we were going to homeschool and left it like that. I heard many sounds of disbelief and disapproval, but a kind of acceptance that this wouldn’t last long and we’d see the light sooner or later.
As each of our children grew, we found more reasons to homeschool in their personalities, their strengths and weaknesses, their needs, their learning styles, and even their interests. The reasons we had to homeschool never included the quality of the schools we lived near, safety, teachers, curriculum, though those were all things to consider. The reason simply was that we were doing what we felt was best for our children, both for their education and their growth.
Our family and friends saw some of the same things we did in our children.
We started seeing gifts from grandparents that we could only call ‘educational’. (we took this to mean that they wanted to help, not that we weren’t doing a good job!) We started getting questions about how the kids were doing with schoolwork and what they were learning. We started hearing from friends who were considering homeschooling. We started hearing what family had told others about us. We realized that while we may not have won over anyone to homeschooling (which wasn’t our goal), we at least had earned support of our educational choice for our children.
Over the years, we’ve seen the negativity completely disappear from family and friends. They see our 8 children and that they are well behaved, intelligent, well rounded, and happy. I don’t take the credit for this, not my kids or the change in family. They have read the same news articles I have. They have seen the same changes in schools. Some of them have tried homeschooling themselves, or at least looked into it. They might be just keeping their thoughts to themselves after 10 years of voicing them and seeing that they had little impact.

Morals of the story:

  • Show, don’t tell.  We let our families and friends interact with our kids rather than try and prove they were doing well.
  • Listen, don’t argue.  We heard the complaints, but didn’t try to counter them with arguments of our own.
  • Don’t criticize back.  We didn’t tear down anyone else’s educational choices, just went on with our own.
  • Wait.  Let critics see results over time.
  • Answer questions about homeschooling without trying to ‘convert’ anyone.

It’s not worth fighting anyone about whether you homeschool or not. They have no input to your children’s education.  I trust that each parent who is truly interested in their children will help their child learn and be their best in whatever way they can, whether it be through home education, public school, private school, charter school, tutors, or some mix of all of the above. We can all just support each other without tearing down. We all have the same goals. After all, isn’t a balanced, happy adult what we all want our children to become?

 

Homeschooling and the Changing World

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Last weekend I attended a homeschool convention and something struck me as I walked through the vendor hall. Why does it seem like so many homeschoolers want to go back in time to the “good old days?” There were vendors selling sewing curriculum, wooden swords, farming books, candle making kits and more. It seems like the longer I homeschool the more homeschoolers I meet who want to move to the country, raise all their own food, teach everyone the violin, and become expert fencers.

There is NOTHING wrong with this lifestyle. I took piano lessons my whole life, it was beneficial. I lived in the country, it was refreshing. My husband hunts ( I think cleaning deer is gross, but I do it anyway). What bothers me is that this lifestyle seems to be promoted and encouraged in the homeschool community while other ways of life are discouraged.

Walking through the vendor hall last week I saw booth after booth selling some part of this lifestyle.

Here is what I didn’t see. Computer programing, marketing, economics, or web design curriculum. After walking the entire vendor hall twice I finally found one small booth selling a single computer programing course. I found a few books scattered throughout the rest of the vendor hall on these subjects but they were few and far between.

According to the US Department of Labor the following are some of the fastest growing industries in the US:

  • Management, scientific, and technical consulting services
  • Home health care services
  • Specialized design services
  • Data processing, hosting, related services, and other information services
  • Computer systems design and related services
  • Offices of health practitioners
  • Outpatient, laboratory, and other ambulatory care services
  • Software publishers
  • Scientific research and development services

The industries of tomorrow are computer, science, and health care related, so why as a homeschooling mom do I need to enroll my child in community college in order for them to learn these skills?

I realize there are homeschoolers who have taught themselves web design, computer programing, and other technical skills without a specific curriculum, but not every child is wired to learn completely independent of a curriculum. While there is nothing wrong with a back to basics lifestyle, I think part of the reason so many people send their homeschooled kids to private or public high schools is the lack of curriculum available to homeschoolers that teach the skills needed to find a job in the 21st century.

As homeschoolers we have the opportunity to create a customized education for our children that will allow them to succeed after they leave the nest. Why are publishing companies missing the boat on this issue? I think as homeschoolers we are doing a disservice to our children by not making curriculum that covers skills like computer programing, web design, and marketing available at the middle and high school levels.

In most states homeschooling gives us the freedom to be forward thinking in our approach to educating our children and some times we use that opportunity to focus on the past. While I firmly believe having a well rounded education is necessary, I feel like what vendors are selling these days are dreams of the good old days, with little thought to our child’s future role in a changing economy.

Our children need life skills but does that need to be the focus of our homeschool day? Life skills can be learned by living, not a curriculum.

Let’s face it, unless you are Amish, you are a consumer of technology. Whether you use QuickBooks to run your home business or set up a website to promote it, technology helps people achieve their business goals. Let’s encourage our children to become creators of technology not just consumers.

It is time the homeschool publishing companies realize that creating curriculum for the 21st century is something homeschoolers want and need to succeed in our changing global economy. While building a backyard catapult is fun, that skill probably isn’t going to get my son a commission in the Navy or a job at Microsoft.

Let’s continue focusing on the basics (reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic) and start pursuing electives that will prepare our children for life in this ever-changing world.

What do you think?

Life of Fred Math: Curriculum Review

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Fred is a quirky little 6 year old who is a university professor of mathematics.

Just that bit of info got me interested in learning more about the series known as Life of Fred by Stanley F. Schmidt, Ph. D. He takes real life situations as interpreted by Fred and uses them to teach math courses that can be started at around 5th grade or so and continue into college levels. The great thing about these books is that first, you see where the math is needed. Then, you learn the math.

We were looking for something different and this series was recommended to me. You start with Fractions and move on to Decimals, which make up a sort of Pre- Pre-Algebra course. He has recently written a two book Pre-Algebra course that also includes Biology and Economics. You then move on to Algebra and Advanced Algebra. Each of these books take a page out of the “Life of Fred” and explores how he deals with different situations in his life, and only a small amount talks about him teaching like a professor.

Most of it is how he deals with his day to day experiences, friends, enemies, needs, and leisure time. They can be read as a story and not be boring. They can be taken as review books for later in life (like for a former math teacher revisiting these topics for the first time in 15 years). There are a lot of other topics woven into the story as well. Vocabulary, literature, philosophy, Latin, ethics, nothing is too much for Fred to take on.

Benefits:

  • My kids got interested in the stories and then the math.
  • They can work on their own.
  • They can check their own work for day to day stuff, though I correct the quizzes and tests, otherwise known as “Bridges” to the next part.
  • They are funny.
  • They are inexpensive. You don’t need to spend a fortune to get the teacher’s manual, the student workbook, the tests, the computer program, the bonus activities, etc. You can buy the book and then the companion book if there is one.
  • They aren’t dependent on a calculator.
  • They cover from about 5th grade to college level.
  • Some come with a pre-planned companion so you can see how much to do each day.
  • There is a money back guarantee.
Drawbacks:
  • Kids work on their own. There can be a temptation to just copy the answers down and be done. However, this is addressed in the book.
  • One child might need extra help with a topic. I find that it is easy to find more practice, however, and to work through the difficult part with them or find another way to teach that concept.
  • Not everyone wants to learn this way. Some kids learn better with textbooks, drills, videos or other programs. The nice thing is that there isn’t a large amount of money invested, so you can take it or leave it at this point.
  • The books are not limited to just math. Read the books before your kids do to make sure everything is alright with you.
  • It doesn’t “feel” like a math book. Hmm. I don’t mind this one.
  • Some of the books DON’T have the companion book and you are on your own for how much to do. My son and I worked out a lesson schedule for this year that kept daily work at a reasonable level.

Right now, I have one son using the Pre-Algebra book 2 and another son using the Geometry book. They are both doing well. My oldest has hit a sort of block with Geometry but we are working through it. It isn’t a problem with the books, it’s more of a change in priorities for him. Math is no longer his favorite thing to do since he realized he loves to write, so he’s kind of let this slide.

It’ll work out.

He started with the Fractions book in 5th grade and loved it. We then went through Decimals, Beginning Algebra, Advanced Algebra, and now Geometry. My 2nd son started with the Fractions and Decimals and is now in the Pre-Algebra books and still is very happy with the program. The Pre-Algebra books hadn’t been written with my oldest, but he read them later. One of my daughters started with Fractions but wasn’t quite ready so we are back tracking a bit and will probably try again next year.

Of all the math curricula I have researched and tried without spending a lot of money, this is the one I’ve talked about the most.

The author is personable and has even answered emails about his books, including when we found an error in one of the earlier editions. I love the books’ taglines…. “As serious as it needs to be.”

Overall, this is one of our favorite homeschool purchases and I plan on buying the rest of the set, whether our children use them in schooling or I use them for review. A great resource.

See more information and purchase Life of Fred curriculum here!

Tabitha (wife to Tom, homeschooling mom to 8 kids ages 14 to 1, learning something new all the time)

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