Do you remember the very first thing you bought for your homeschool? What was it? How did you decide what to buy? Did you regret your first purchase?
When I first started homeschooling, I just grabbed some worksheets from one of those "Comprehensive Curriculum" workbooks available at Sam's Club. I think that I bought it because it said "Comprehensive" on it and also? Because it was all in one book and available at Sam's Club.
Looking back on it, those are TERRIBLE criteria for purchasing schoolwork for a kid! But it turned out *just fine* for teaching Elf as a first grader. It gave me lots of time to check out what's "out there" in more specialized subjects like cooking or art, and considering that first graders know very little in the way of math or handwriting, just about anything I bought and actually used would have worked for a while.
I've been homeschooling for five years (as of next week). I'm still discovering new homeschool resources each year that I had no idea were out there before. I enjoy going to conventions, and (I must be crazy) I enjoy looking at homeschool ads and spending time trolling homeschool curriculum websites to compare their scope and sequence with other brands. I've found myself changing homeschool brands as 1. I've learnt about new products, 2. my children have grown and changed, and 3. my confidence in my ability to homeschool has increased.
But I still remember that first purchase. What was yours? I'm going to try to do a Mr. Linky thing and see if YOU want to post about this topic as well. If it doesn't work, leave your link in the comment section! I'm hoping to try new things and see how they go. :)
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Look Out, Dad!!
My father is the purple dot above the blue weather station. He's juuust outside Milton's evacuation zone. Well! My brother and I jus...
The first thing I bought was the entire Sonlight Pre-K core. I didn't even think I would be able to homeschool at that time, but I fell in love with Sonlight the first time I got my hands on a catalog, and I wanted all of those great books to start our English "library". We enjoyed those books so much while they were getting Japanese at Japanese kindergarten, then we ended up homeschooling after all once my oldest was starting first grade (and are now on our eighth year with Sonlight). We still have most of the Pre-K books - at least the ones that haven't fallen apart already from frequent use. No regrets at all!
ReplyDeleteWow, Sue... that's a heavy investment ESPECIALLY considering the shipping to Japan. And no regrets? Wow. That is a big, big praise for Sonlight right there.
ReplyDeleteMamaK, I love the Letter Factory as well! I hadn't even thought of it as "homeschooling" just b/c children are so small when they learn these things. But even I have to admit that I actually liked watching it... just not so continuously... :)
Do you really expect me to remember something I bought in 1995?
ReplyDeleteHa!
Hmmm....the first thing that I bought was rubber mud boots for both kids. What can I say? It was fall, I had no idea what we were doing, I just knew were NOT going to replicate what they had experienced in school. So we headed outside for some science and our adventures as unschoolers began. I actually just cleaned out the old shoe closet last week and passed those very boots onto another homeschooling family. ;)
ReplyDeleteTammy, it truly would NOT surprise me in the least if you remembered your first homeschool purchase in 1995. G was born that year, and he had low blood sugar. They took him away and bottle-fed him. Threatened me that if he weren't bottle fed on a schedule, that social services would be involved.
ReplyDeleteI well remember my first trip to buy stuff for G involved lots of tears and bottles and formula. :( I know now how dangerous the low blood sugar he had was, but it still saddens me...
Blondee - I wish you took pics of the mud boots! I love unschoolers. Even though I am not one and not *quite* brave enough to go there. I have to love 'em. :)
It was like 9 years ago, and I still remember my purchases clearly. Two of them are still on my bookshelves too.
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