Saturday, August 31, 2019

Great Places to Purchase Homeschool Curriculum

FEBRUARY 2, 2018

By Tasha Swearingen

We asked and you voted on your favorite homeschool curriculum! We gave you our in-house favorite at homeschooling programs and you told us who your top 100 favorite homeschool curriculum providers were in each category. Thank you so much for participating! We’ve covered everything from textbooks to homeschool online! Below, you’ll find the results of YOUR votes. Be sure to check out any that interest you!

#1: Homeschool Buyers Co-op

With over 200,000 participating families, the Homeschool Buyers Co-op is the world’s largest buyers club for homeschoolers, with savings of up to 93% on award-winning homeschool curriculum, including Saxon, Explode the Code, Wordly Wise, Britannica, and much more! Membership is free and includes free homeschool ID cards, free SmartPoints (a Co-op currency), and access to their popular databases of homeschool field trips and free curriculum.

Time4Learning

Time4Learning is an award-winning, online curriculum for PreK through 12th grade covering math, language arts, science, and social studies. With flexible scheduling, student-paced learning, automated grading & more, homeschooling your children just got easier!

Classical Academic Press

Classical Academic Press is an educational publishing and media company that supplies curricula, media, and classical education training; with a dash of delight, creativity, and flair thrown in. For information by grade, click here.

Rainbow Resource Center

Christianbook.com

Calvert Education

Calvert Education provides a proven, time-tested homeschool curriculum, with flexible program options. With Calvert, parents and students can select the program that best meet their needs and receive unlimited support throughout the child’s educational experience.

Gryphon House

Gryphon House, Inc., is an award-winning publisher of resource books for parents and teachers of children from birth through age eight. Filled with developmentally appropriate and easy-to-use strategies, Gryphon House books provide parents and teachers with the tools they need to bring the joy of learning to young children.

Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd.

Sonlight is a complete, literature-based, Christian homeschool curriculum with every subject for students from Preschool through high school. Our curriculum uses a variety of materials to deliver an engaging and complete education that extends beyond textbooks and memorization. Backed by a 100% money-back guarantee, Sonlight provides you with everything you need to homeschool with excellence.

Outschool

Outschool is a marketplace of live online homeschool classes for K-12 learners. With 3,000 classes across all subjects and age levels K-12, they have the broadest selection of online classes for families who love learning. Join for free at https://outschool.com.

The Great Courses Plus

The Great Courses Plus is a subscription-based, video-on-demand homeschool service with more than 6,000 courses taught by the world’s greatest professors. You can access your Great Courses from your laptop, desktop, tablet, or phone. Learn everything about anything wherever you are.

CHSH-Teach

Offering a low-cost solution for PreK-12th. You’ll love the ease of finding curriculum, unit studies, worksheets and more with an ever-growing collection of great educational resources. Whether you have 1 child or 10, everything is available for one affordable price.

Acellus

Mentoring Minds

Mentoring Minds is a national K-12 publisher with a mission to put critical thinking at the center of instruction. Our research-based resources support technology integration and standards mastery for Math, ELA, and Science.

MyEduCrate

MyEduCrate, an award winning monthly subscription that delivers educational themed items to motivate and engage your child’s mind. Each item is hand-selected by our team of teachers and parents, ensuring that your child is exposed to diverse opportunities to grow. Subscribe today and get your child excited about learning!

Get Ready 4 Kindergarten

GR4K’s Build a Bridge to Kindergarten is developed by two experienced early childhood professionals (an urban elementary school principal and an early childhood teacher) who are also moms and grandmas. Based on the 5 Building Blocks of Early Literacy, our 3 programs focus on building a child’s vocabulary, comprehension, critical thinking, and communication skills through high-quality children’s books, games, learning activities, crafts, and cooking. Monthly subscription boxes are available as is a FREE monthly newsletter.

EASY GRAMMAR SYSTEMS

Easy Grammar Systems publishes an award-winning grammar series specializing in the prepositional approach. Concepts are taught in a building-block manner and incorporate a cyclical approach that promotes mastery learning.

Math, Science, and Technology Homeschool Curriculum

#1: Science4Us

Science4Us is an early elementary online science program that delivers digital and real-world science experiences while building literacy, math, and engineering skills. Interactive and inquiry-based, Science4Us appeals to young learners and provides a solid foundation upon which a deep understanding and interest in science can be built.

Apologia Educational Ministries, Inc

Apologia is the #1 publisher of creation-based science and Bible curriculum with more than 70 top awards from homeschool parents and media. The resources we publish and the services we provide are designed to help homeschooling families learn, live, and defend the Christian faith.

RightStart Mathematics

RightStart Mathematics uses the AL Abacus to provide a visual, auditory, and kinesthetic approach to elementary math. Fractions are approached with a linear perspective. Card games are used to learn concepts and strategies and to practice facts. The lessons guide the teacher day-by-day, helping children understand, apply, and enjoy mathematics.

Saxon Math

CTCMath

CTCMath is an interactive homeschool online math curriculum used by over 210,000 students. Provides over 57,000 interactive questions and over 1,367 animated lessons. Our goal at CTCMath is pretty simple. To have a positive impact on as many families as possible through the enjoyment and understanding of math.

Fascinating Education

Fascinating Education takes advantage of the brain’s ability to process images more efficiently and more effectively than reading the text alone. You can find sample lessons on the site for our courses Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Anatomy & Physiology, and The Logic of Medicine.

Singapore Math

DadsWorksheets

Do you need exciting and interactive resources for teaching math? Dad has you covered! Games, animated calculators and of course… Worksheets! This site has gradual levels of practice for learning math facts, fractions, word problems, long division, and many more math skills with detailed answer keys to show HOW to solve problems. These work great for creating your own homeschool curriculum.

National Flight Academy

The National Flight Academy, located aboard Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida, offers one of the most exciting and immersive educational environments in the world, inspiring students to take an interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in an aviation-themed adventure aboard a simulated land-locked aircraft carrier.

Math U See

Math-Aids.com

Math-Aids.Com provides free math worksheets for teachers, parents, students, and home schoolers. The math worksheets are randomly and dynamically generated by our math worksheet generators. This allows you to make an unlimited number of printable math worksheets to your specifications instantly. Works great for creating your own homeschool curriculum.

Conceptual Academy

Conceptual Academy offers full credit courses based upon the popular “conceptual” science textbooks and the author’s library of 500+ engaging video tutorials. Each course also provides study advice, homework, worksheets, chapter summaries, automated quizzes, a grade book, and unit exams.

Techknow Training Studios Inc.

Complete online technology curriculum for homeschoolers.

Learning Games

Gifted and Special Needs Homeschool Curriculum

#1: Achieve Beyond

We provide pediatric therapy and educational services to children, students and families throughout the United States including CA, VA, MD / DC area, CT, NJ, Long Island, Hudson Valley, Albany and the entire NYC metropolitan area.

Wings to Soar Online Academy

Wings to Soar Online Academy empowers dyslexics and other outside-the-box learners through personalized online Path to Success Learning Plans (in just the subjects you need) to build skills and confidence to not just survive but thrive in school and life. The great at home schooling program for special needs!

Senseez Pillows

Senseez are the award winning sensory vibrating cushions for kids and pillows for teens! These colorful, lightweight, fun-shaped portable vibrating cushions offer a gentle sensation when they are squeezed or sat on, relaxing, calming and soothing the body. Senseez eases the senses!

College Prep Genius

Free college is our business. 85% of colleges admit and give scholarships based on test scores. We show you how to ace standardized tests like the SAT/PSAT/ACT/CLT…These are beatable tests and students can learn to answer every question in 30 seconds or less. The higher the score-the more money you get!

Barton Reading & Spelling

Giftedandtalented.com

Easy Spelling Aid

Verticy for Struggling Students

Lexercise

Down Pat Tutoring

Reading and Writing Homeschool Curriculum

#1: VocabularySpellingCity

VocabularySpellingCity, is a game-based website and app for K-12 students which helps build vocabulary, spelling, phonics and writing skills through the use of engaging games and activities. Students will feel like they’re playing while they master each week’s words.

Novel Ideas, Inc.

Our materials are ideal for homeschoolers. They are scripted so parents know exactly what to do and everything is there. We also give significant discounts to homeschoolers. Unlimited email and phone support are given by the author of the materials.

Reading Kingdom

Reading Kingdom is an online program that teaches children 4-10 to read and write with comprehension at a 3rd-grade level in only 12-18 months. It is the only at home schooling program that uses the “Phonics-Plus” model of instruction developed by Dr. Marion Blank, one of the world’s top experts in literacy. It is the only program that teaches all key six written language skills in an integrated fashion so that they complement and reinforce each other. The website offers a 30-day free trial. It also has a program for children on the autism spectrum, www.ASDReading.com

Time4Writing

Find out how easy homeschool writing can be with a curriculum that takes care of all the aspects of teaching writing from elementary through high school.

Institute for Excellence

All About Learning

Brave Writer

Foundations (Logic of English)

Write Shop

Reading Eggs

Epic!

Phonics Pathways

Switched on Schoolhouse

Read Right Systems

Read Right is a highly structured reading intervention program guaranteed to produce rapid reading improvement for children, teens, and adults. Highly effective with ELL and Special Education, including dyslexia, ADHD, autism, and even non-readers.

History, Art, and Music Homeschool Curriculum

Songs for Teaching

Creative homeschool educators can use music to teach content across the curriculum to students of all ages.We offer thousands of children’s songs, lyrics and teaching suggestions.

Notgrass Company

Atelier

Bring the Art Teacher directly into your home with Atelier’s video-based art program designed for ages 4-16. Our lessons are developmental and sequential and teach the elements and principles of art as well as art history and art appreciation. Each video lesson is accompanied by lesson plans, drawing aids, vocabulary, review/assessment, and much more.

Learn to Play

The Learn to Play series was developed to help beginning students become truly proficient at reading music. Most good music teachers will tell you that over the years, the biggest issue they have faced in teaching music was the fact that there just wasn’t enough easy-to-play music at the elementary level for beginners.
Lessons on line that work PIANO, GUITAR, VIOLIN, MANDOLIN, UKULELE RECORDER, DULCIMAR * MORE COMING.

Artistic Pursuits

Squilt

All American History

Maestro Classics

Home Art Studio

Jam.com

High School Homeschool Curriculum

#1: Khan Academy

University of Nebraska High School

The University of Nebraska High School has been serving homeschool families and students since 1929. Homeschool families appreciate UNHS’s rigorous, college preparatory high school courses in a flexible self-paced format. Choose from more than 100 courses.

Master Books (American History)

Video Text Interactive

College Prep Genius

Lightning Literature and Composition

American Academy National Home School

The Learning Community International School

The Learning Community is the perfect marriage of private and home school since 1984. Advisor & teacher video conferences & support throughout the year. Curriculum options; customized & interest-based courses; college/career counseling. Visit TLCI to discover our unmatched educational value. Accredited.

Forest Trail Academy

Forest Trail Academy is an accredited private K-12 online school. Several of their many accreditations are the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI) and Middle States Association.

Free Rice English Grammar

Foreign Language Homeschool Curriculum

#1: Memoria Press

Memoria Press is a family-run publishing company that produces simple and easy to use classical Christian education materials for home and private schools. It was founded by Cheryl Lowe in 1994 to help promote and transmit the classical heritage of the Christian West through an emphasis on the liberal arts and the great works of the Western tradition.

Rosetta Stone Homeschool

Mango Languages

All-In-One Homeschool

Lingo Bus

Panda Tree

Bonjour

10 Minutes A Day

Lang Master

Online German Course

Other Curriculum Resources

#1: FreedomProject Academy

FreedomProject Academy is a Classical, online school that is Faithfully Educating America. FPA is grounded in the Judeo-Christian belief system, offering more than 100 live classes for students in Kindergarten- High School. FPA can help with one class or a full curriculum. View the full list of accredited classes here. (www.fpeusa.org).

A Beka

Bob Jones University Press

K12

K12 provides personalized, online education solutions for students in grades K-12. For almost two decades, K12 has been an established leader in online education throughout U.S. At K12, they believe every child is uniquely brilliant and deserves a high-quality education to help them thrive and reach their personal potential.

Brain Balance of Woodbury

DRUG FREE, proven program for kids struggling with academic, behavior or social issues. Read real testimonials from Brain Balance parents: https://www.brainbalancecenters.com/our-stories/

Teaching Self-Government

Through courses, training, mentoring, workshops and materials, Teaching Self-Government mentors help parents analyze family relationships and problem solve difficult situations by teaching principles of self-government, the structure of a unified family atmosphere, and the tools and skills needed for self-mastery and personal freedom.

Bridgeway Academy

Bridgeway Academy is a fully accredited virtual homeschool academy, meeting the highest levels of accreditation. The academy customizes learning options for each student based on their unique learning style and needs while providing year-long support to parents.

Brainware

Lemon Lime Adventures

Bridgeway Academy

Edheads

Beestar

Red Comet

Discover Praxis

eAchieve Academy

For More of our Top 100 Back to Homeschool Episodes click below!

More Top 100!

#EDUCATIONAL WEBSITES, #HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM

Tasha Swearingen

Tasha is a homeschooling mom to 5 and has been homeschooling for 14 years. Currently, her children's ages span from toddler to young adult. Tasha has a Bachelor's of Science degree in Social Sciences from Florida State University and is working on her MBA through SNHU/Berklee School of Music.

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Raising Awake Children in a Broken School System

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By Nanice Ellis

Contributing writer for Wake Up World

Why don’t we tell our children the truth about ‘the System’ as soon as they are old enough to understand?

Regrettably, I was not awake enough to tell my young children about the game that we are all playing, and that their participation is optional. Fortunately, my kids woke up and after years in the traditional school system, they each independently saw through the holes in the system, and they left before they could be rewarded with completion. I’m the proud parent of three brilliant, and awake, high school drop outs. Luckily, by the time they had the wisdom to make their own choices, I had the courage to support them.

We are waking up but if we are still raising children in an antiquated school system, so what? We are just passing along the hypnotic trance to the next generation. I want to be clear – there are excellent and well-intentioned teachers, but they too are restricted, and pressured, in many of the same ways that distress our children.

Systematic Programming

Traditional schools, in the U.S and many other countries, are training grounds, intentionally constructed to prepare children for The System. Public and many private schools are designed to program children to be asleep and stay asleep so that they will later follow along as adults. Our innocent kids are systematically programmed with worthiness issues, depression and the abhorrent need to fit in. Once a child is programmed for twelve or more years, he or she is well primed to move into the “real world” with beliefs and behaviors that feed and perpetuate a systematic agenda.

Schools are structured, in such a way, that rewards are given for following along, being good, doing as you are told, memorization and repetition. Punishment is given for speaking out, thinking for yourself and not following along. Schools effectively teach students to feel powerless and to question their worth at every turn – breaking the precious spirits of our impressionable children.

In many ways, schools use a military template in order to roll-out obedient citizens; long structured hours, endless homework, tests that create anxiety, and ceaseless memorization, with little time for recess. Keeping children sitting at desks all day also disconnects them from their bodies and the wisdom that is in the body. Many schools even look and feel like depressing military barracks.

When I was a kid, I would sleep walk as a result of PTSD from school stress. Years later, I would still have nightmares that I failed a test. I would wake up sweating – needing to remind myself that school was over. There is even more school stress these days than when I was a kid.

It is not uncommon for pre-teens to be on Prozac or other depression/anxiety medication because they are overwhelmed, anxious or depressed. An eleven year old should not even know stress! Kids should be free to create and express – to enjoy life and especially to delight in learning. No wonder the teenage suicide rate continues to increase.

Medicating Our Young to Stay Asleep?

Raising Awake Children in an Antiquated School System - Blue Pill - Matrix

Of course, there are children who don’t respond to school programming and do not go along with the agenda. These children are diagnosed with ADHD or ADD, but what we are calling a disability or a problem is actually natural creativity – energy that has no positive channel for expression in a school environment. Schools cannot handle “normally evolving children” – so these children are labeled and diagnosed in order to have an excuse to medicate – and sometimes separate.

But that is only part of this problem, the real problem is that in order to appease teachers and school officials, many parents agree to medicate their children. Giving our kids dangerous drugs to stay asleep is like forcing them to take the blue pill in the Matrix! These children are asking us to evolve and we are responding to them with sedation.

The Death of Imagination

Our greatest power to consciously create lies in the “mental technology” known as Imagination. Everything begins with imagination. It is stronger and more powerful than any action that we take in the world. Isn’t it interesting that traditional schools shut down imagination?

If you cut off a child from his imagination, you have cut him off from his power to consciously create his life. The System does not support imagination because it needs people to follow along and do what they are told in order to feed and sustain it. If everyone used their imagination and thought for themselves, most dysfunctional systems would break-down very quickly.

To The System, a child’s imagination is the enemy, and therefore must be suppressed at any cost.

Unknowingly, we, as parents, do the same to our children – only because it was done to us, and we have been brainwashed to believe that children must let go of their imaginative powers in order to succeed in life – or rather to succeed in The System. When we are awake, we can easily see that true success comes from the power of one’s imagination and the freedom to express it – ultimately manifesting in tangible results.

Let me be clear – there are some schools that support and encourage the free and natural development of children, but the schools to which I am referring are established, and run, by government institutions that are invested in keeping future generations in line and asleep.

Higher Learning

Education is essential, but there is a huge difference between memorizing information that you will never use and being able to learn something because it will positively impact your life, or open your mind in some expansive manner, allowing you to create and contribute to humanity.

There is so much to learn in this world, but traditional schools don’t address the most important elements of life, like communication skills, relationship skills, growing food, building homes, nutrition, natural healing, and the list goes on. If schools taught our children to be self-sufficient, confident and well-equipped for real life, The System would crash, or at the very least, dissolve naturally over time.

What Can You Do if Your Child is in The System?

I am certainly not saying that we should take our children out of schools or not put them there to begin with. I am saying that if we must send our kids to traditional schools that, at the very least, we tell them the truth in a way that is empowering and freeing and we not allow The System to raise our precious children for us.

If your child is in the traditional school system, it is imperative that you be a strong parent and resist the pressure of teachers and school officials who try to tell you how to parent.

Take your power back as a parent.
Take a stand for your children.
Stop caring what others say about you or your children.
Don’t be bullied by school authority figures – who want you to bully your own children.
Support your children in thinking for themselves.
Overcome your own fears of breaking free.
Find other parents who think like you.
Form support groups for parents – and for the children.

Let Us Become Responsible for Our Children’s Education and Development

Instead of teaching children how to get along in a dysfunctional world, why don’t we teach our kids how to create their lives based on their highest values? Whether you are a parent or a school teacher, you have the power and ability to teach children to:

Trust inner guidance.
Make positive choices.
Use their imagination.
Be able to say no and set boundaries.
Think for themselves.
Experience inner power.
Develop intuition.
Acquire skills for self-learning.
Gain high self-esteem.
Express inner confidence.
Master communication skills.
Experience and process emotions in healthy ways.

This might mean that you first embrace these things for yourself so that you can teach your kids, but that is also the point.

Raising awake children in a broken school system - Carlin - Teach Children to Question What They Read

When I took a stand for my children, each time the school initially fought back but ultimately backed off. I watched the school system (and a conventional ex-husband) bend in surprising ways to support each of my children.

It is important to acknowledge the restrictions placed on your child’s teachers, but this doesn’t mean that you should take no for an answer. Your child’s teachers can be your best allies in creating a superior school experience. And, don’t be afraid to kindly and respectfully educate your child’s teachers to a more enlightened approach to teaching. We are all learning and waking up together.

Most of all, trust yourself as a parent, and don’t be afraid to go against the grain, in support of your children.

My three children have excelled in extraordinary ways – for example, when my son, Travis, broke free of the school system at sixteen, he took all that “military time” he would have spent in traditional school and he used it every day studying things that he was truly interested in. In under two years, he mastered a musical instrument, taught himself how to draw portraits, developed communication skills, become an expert in body building and he even started his own business at the age of seventeen. If he had followed along like society demanded, at this time, he would be scratching his head and moving into the next phase of an inauthentic life.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, we must own the education experience for our children and not leave it in the hands of a broken system that is asleep and that is invested in keeping our kids asleep. We must create a school experience that, first and foremost, supports the well-being of the child – mind, body and spirit. Then we must structure education in a way that empowers children to thrive and to use their minds in ways that support the growth, empowerment and sustainably of the world. Education should instill confidence, inner strength, wisdom, intuition and the ability to learn.

Eventually our school systems will be built on this fundamental foundation, but until then, we as conscious parents must bridge the gap by raising conscious children and helping them to develop these essential attributes, in or out, of the current school system. This requires that we wake up and pay attention – that we are not afraid to speak the truth to our children, nor do we hesitate to empower them to think clearly for themselves. As parents of awakening children, we must be fully awake ourselves, and we must embrace the courage to raise and support extraordinary children.

Children who think for themselves grow up to be adults who change the world!

Zest Point – The Power of Choice

From the editor…

Magic happens. Miracles happen. But nothing happens until you choose.

You have the power to create the life you really want through your power of choice. Are you ready to choose?

Nanice Ellis’ book “Zest Point – The Power of Choice” can help you learn how your power of choice can empower you to transform your life, overcome challenges, open your heart to love and joy, and be the change you want to see in the world.

“Zest Point – The Power of Choice” is available now on Amazon in kindle and paperback editions.

About the author:

Nanice Ellis has been a professional Life Coach for over 20 years, successfully coaching women and men from all over the world. She is also an author, Theta Healer and Master Neuro Linguistic Practitioner.

Helping people to make quantum jumps in their lives, Nanice’s very unique coaching style is often referred to as the “Nanice Effect”. By using powerful and proven manifestation techniques, Nanice coaches people to tap into the power of the Universe and live their dreams, bridging the gap from the imagination to the realization of that dream. She works with leaders, coaches, healers and anyone who wants to live life to the fullest. You can learn more about the coaching programs offered at: Coaching Programs with Nanice.

Nanice is the author of several books, including the inspirational “The Infinite Power of You!” and “Even Gandhi Got Hungry and Buddha Got Mad!”, and her latest book, “Is There a White Elephant in Your Way? The Guidebook for Awakening and Self Empowerment” She is also the host of radio show Chai with Nanice. Her books are available at Nanice.com/6/Books and right here on Amazon.

Connect with Nanice at Nanice.com.