Curriculum

Everyone does Homeschool differently. In the state of Florida the only requirements are that you send a letter of intent to your school district, which you can find at Florida Parent Educators Association, and that you have a Florida Certified Teacher do a portfolio evaluation on your Homeschool anniversary every year. There is no curriculum requirement and your children can learn at their own pace. I will be attending an event next month to learn more about the evaluations.

The first thing I recommend to do is find Facebook groups for Homeschooling in your area. This is where I found several different curriculum. Some people use free curriculum, some pay, and some go to co-ops. There are so many more options then just those three. The ones that I see a lot of people talking about are Easy Peasy All In One Homeschool, Time4Learning, and PowerHomeschool. I joined several Facebook groups and read about so many curriculum. I was looking for an online curriculum that is easy to keep track of and didn’t teach common core. I found Easy Peasy All In One Homeschool. 

All In One Homeschool has the perfect online set up for us. They also offer workbooks or PDFs you can print. I purchased the workbooks since we don’t have a printer right now. Through All In One Homeschool I teach Math, Science, History, Art, and PE online and I teach Language Arts using the workbooks they offer. Reading is the one subject that I am creating the curriculum myself. One website that is very helpful is Teachers Pay Teachers. Teachers Pay Teachers is awesome for any subject and I even got some great field trip worksheets from there. 

All In One Homeschool allows the kids to log in and click on the subject they want to do. Once they click on it, the link brings them directly to the next lesson. The lesson gives them directions as to what to do and includes links for them to watch a video or read about what they are learning. When they have completed the lesson they click on “needs work” and then I can go in and check it off, which will move them to the next lesson. Every time they finish a lesson they get 100 points. I’m still trying to come up with ideas to use the points.

Every Sunday, I organize the week. We have a cart with school supplies and a filing system. There is a folder for each day of the week with a To-Do and a Completed folder for each kid. I fill the To-Do folders with anything they will need that day. At the end of the day, everything is moved from the completed folders to the back in each subject. On Monday this is all moved to a filing cabinet for their portfolios, after I review it with them to make sure they are retaining what they are taught.

I will use all their work at the end of the year for their portfolios. Everyone in Florida does portfolios differently. Some I have read about use Instagram, they take pictures of the work and what they are doing and post them on Instagram then a certified teachers reviews their Instagram. I’ve heard of some doing blogs and Facebook. It’s really up to you and what is best for you.