Our Favourite Curriculum

Yesterday I was sharing about some of the homeschool methods that I like, today our topic is curriculum. This is another big subject! I've often said that one of the hardest parts of homeschooling is choosing what curriculum to use.

Within every subject, there are so many choices! Living in a remote area without easy access to a homeschool store, I rely heavily on the opinions of friends and reviews I've read online.

Over the years there are a few products that have really stood out to us, things we keep coming back to over and over again. The first is Five in a Row (FIAR). FIAR is a literature-based unit study curriculum. We own volumes 1-3 and there is now a volume 4 for older children.

They were written by Jane Lambert for her own children and I'm so glad that she put these together for others to use as well. Each unit is based on a quality picture book. The stories are interesting, touching and you can learn a lot from them.

Each day we read the book and then pick a few lessons from the FIAR teacher guide for that day's subject. We often add in extra lapbook selections from Homeschool Share, to add to the fun.

FIAR also sell lapbooks for some of their books. We enjoy these as well but find they are more a collection of clip art to decorate their notebooks with.

I will do a longer post on FIAR soon, as it really deserves a dedicated post!

Our next favourite is Ambleside Online. Ambleside Online is a curriculum that has been put together by a group of homeschool moms and is based on the Charlotte Mason approach. It is a free program and many of the books are also available free online. Not only are many of the books free, but they are of a high reading quality.

Our children love their selections. I do end up adapting Ambleside to add more Canadian content, but otherwise, I love it.

We enjoy both programs so much, that we use both and just pick and choose our favourite parts.