Curriculum Choices

After making our decision to homeschool, we were now faced with the big decision of what curriculum to use. I have found this to be the dilemma of every homeschool family. We had a lot to think about. We had some questions that we needed to face, such as: Why did we start homeschooling? What do we want the boys to learn? We almost had to ask, what do we want them to be when they grow up?

I have already shared one of my reasons for homeschooling in the previous post. Now, for what I wanted them to learn… well, our number one thought was that we wanted our boys to know God. We wanted to make sure that the Bible was included in whatever their actual curriculum was to be.

My girlfriend and I discussed several alternatives and finally went to a homeschool convention that was held in our area. We knew of two different Unit Studies and we wanted to review them at this convention. One was studies was “Weaver" and the other “KONOS.”

When we looked at “Weaver” we really liked it a lot, but it looked so intimidating. There were five binders that were bundle together and truthfully, this was my first year and I wasn’t ready for something so complex. So together, my friend and I chose “KONOS.”

“KONOS” was an interesting character unit study. I used “KONOS in a Box.” Each box you bought was another character trait that you would study. The box contained all sorts of projects that taught different aspects to the character trait. For instance, we studied Kings and Queens and made crowns. We studied horses and made one out of paper and brads.

The only trouble we had been, understanding how the Bible was tied into all of this. They had a Bible study, but it was disjointed at best from the rest of the unit. I have always said that I don’t have a creative bone in my body… so this was hard for me to put it all together in an understandable method.

The following year, even though my boys loved “KONOS” and all the fun stuff in it, I went to the next homeschoolers convention and my friend and I sat at the Alpha Omega Publisher’s table for two hours or more reviewing the binders of “Weaver.” The AOP representative took time to explain to us how to use the binders. From that moment on, I was sold and I have been using “Weaver” as my main curriculum ever since.

“Weaver” has the lessons all laid out for me with the Bible lesson tied right into the whole Science, Social Studies, Creative Writing, Art, etc. thing. It is so much fun for all of us. Even I am learning stuff I never knew or considered.

We are now working on our fourth year using “Weaver” and we’re still going!