My son started school last school year in 2019. He joined a local public school and worked extremely hard. When everyone came home for covid, he finished his year strong. This year we really tried the distance learning approach through his school but it wasn’t healthy for him. We moved to homeschooling so I wanted to share our homeschool curriculum choices for the 2020-2021 school year.
Homeschool Curriculum Choices – 2020-2021
Please keep in mind that these are my choices for my eleven year old. While you can learn about options we use, it is important to research curriculum before choosing it for your family. It is more important to find an option that teaches the way your child learns than anything. If your child can’t learn with a curriculum, it won’t matter how good it is.
I do still work full time so many of the options I have selected will involve independent learning. Working and homeschooling can be possible depending on your personal situation.
Math Curriculum
Disclaimer: I do work for Teaching Textbooks. However, I have been using TT long before I worked for them. Teaching Textbooks is a fit for us because of the way that the material is presented. My son is able to sign on, do his lessons, and work without much input from me. He is a big fan of the product and has been succeeding with it so far!
Things I like about Teaching Textbooks
- Automated grading – All problems are graded by the program. This means that I don’t have to keep up with grading school work.
- Hints and second chances – The program includes hints to help him if he gets stuck on a concept. This means I don’t have to babysit his math.
- Audio lectures and solutions – All lectures, problems, and solutions are read aloud to the student by the program. This means he can focus on the math instead of on reading each piece of the work.
- Able to work on paper. – While the program is fully digital, my son can work on all math problems on paper. This means he can still show his work and show me how he solved his problems if he gets stuck.
Science Curriculum
Power Homeschool is an online homeschooling program that offers classes with video teachers. All lessons are taught via video teaching. I pay $25 a month for up to seven courses for my son. He is able to take a variety of classes on many topics and switch between grade levels depending on his needs. Their science curriculum is easy to use and he does great as long as he takes detailed notes.
Things I like about Power Homeschool Science
- Highly visual – All videos include graphics and creatives that engage a younger learner. These videos also include experiments and visuals that get kids thinking.
- Self Grading – The entire program grades it as he is working through the different concepts. This saves me time on record keeping while giving him instant feedback as to how he is doing.
- Full Course Syllabus – With a sensitive subject like science, it can be good to have a complete syllabus to understand how the topic is being approached.
Language Arts Curriculum
Power Homeschool is an online homeschooling program that offers classes with video teachers. All lessons are taught via video teaching. I pay $25 a month for up to seven courses for my son. He is able to take a variety of classes on many topics and switch between grade levels depending on his needs. Their language arts curriculum challenges him to understand grammar rules.
Things I like about Power Homeschool Language Arts
- Self Grading – I love that the program is actively grading as he works on it. This helps him to see how he is doing in real-time.
- Interactive Lessons – When working on language arts, he has to actually interact with the different components of the lesson. This gives him the ability to make sure he is staying engaged.
- Experiments Included – There are experiments built into the program. However, they are not mandatory. If you don’t have the items on hand, your child can still watch the experiment being done.
Social Studies Curriculum
Power Homeschool is an online homeschooling program that offers classes with video teachers. All lessons are taught via video teaching. I pay $25 a month for up to seven courses for my son. He is able to take a variety of classes on many topics and switch between grade levels depending on his needs. The social studies curriculum is also very comprehensive and doesn’t stay on the surface.
Things I like about Power Homeschool Social Studies
- Self Grading – I love that the program is actively grading as he works on it. This helps him to see how he is doing in real-time.
- Covers Real Topics – A lot of social studies curriculum on the market doesn’t cover topics like slavery and the realities of the impact of Christopher Columbus on the indigenous people.
- Engaging Lessons – The lessons are engaging and use a variety of teaching methods to keep his interest. It’s easier for him to stay focused when they vary their teaching approach to better engage with him.
Coding Curriculum
Power Homeschool is an online homeschooling program that offers classes with video teachers. All lessons are taught via video teaching. I pay $25 a month for up to seven courses for my son. He is able to take a variety of classes on many topics and switch between grade levels depending on his needs. The Introduction to coding course challenges him with an introductory course to coding.
Things I like about Power Homeschool Coding
- Starts Out Easy – This coding course is designed for beginners. My son has really enjoyed learning more about coding on a basic level.
- Drag and Drop Practice – A lot of the coding practice involves a drag and drop method that is simple for him to work with.
- Challenging – Many of the coding programs I have tried in the past have been over simplified or too challenging. This program does a great job of balancing complicated steps with simplified approaches he can easily grasp.
Engineering Curriculum
Power Homeschool is an online homeschooling program that offers classes with video teachers. All lessons are taught via video teaching. I pay $25 a month for up to seven courses for my son. He is able to take a variety of classes on many topics and switch between grade levels depending on his needs. The engineering course is a simplified course designed for younger learners that he’s thriving with.
Things I like about Power Homeschool Engineering
- Lots of Hands-On – My son loves that these lessons give him practical hands-on things he can do off of the computer to test different skills.
- Easy to Understand Lessons – Another thing that’s great about this engineering course is the simplicity of the lessons. He is able to sit down, study, and enjoy the class.
- I Don’t Need A Lot On Hand. – One of my first thoughts was that I would have to buy a bunch of supplies. Many of the supplies needed are items already in the house.
Supplemental Curriculum
There are some subjects he works on additionally so that he can keep busy and do things that he enjoys while I work. A lot of these options are free and fit his interests. I try to give him a lot of flexibility after he finishes his main schoolwork for the day. However, I also have him on his sister’s school schedule so we prioritize learning throughout the day in different ways.
- Art YouTube Channels – My son loves how-to-draw challenges and art tutorials. I let him pick one from this list I compiled and he can work on as many of these videos as he wants.
- Science YouTube Channels – As a supplement my son will pull from this list of science YouTube channels to check out experiments and learn about science.
- Duolingo – My son has been working on learning spanish as we live in Florida. He didn’t want to invest into the time into an entire spanish curriculum but he wanted the chance to work on spanish. Duolingo is a great free program for him to work through.
