So you’ve decided to homeschool. Great! Now what are you going to teach? Choosing curriculum can be an overwhelming task. Many people start by attending a curriculum fair and looking around….. but THAT can be an overwhelming proposition.

I always recommend to people that you should teach in a style and with a curriculum that you find teachable and enjoyable yourself. Are you structured? Flexible? Teach the way you function yourself and your kids will adapt. Later on as you see reasons to modify according to how they learn you can. But when starting out, go with what strikes a chord with you.

To help new homeschooling families decide where to look, I created this flowchart to get you at least pointed in the right direction. Make some basic decisions to get to some google search terms and narrow it down.

Remember. There are plenty of ways to do this the right way. You might have to make changes. But don’t be so overwhelmed that you never start. You can do this!

Homeschool Enrichment magazine recently published an article by Jennifer from Middle-Aged Mama.  It listed some online military homeschool resources.  What a great idea!  Military homeschoolers, especially those overseas, are often in a whole different ballgame when it comes to homeschooling away from friends and family.  Frequent moves mean uprooting and learning new laws in each state, and getting re-organized each time to continue pursuing excellence in homeschooling!

Here are some of the resources listed by the article, and a few more as well:

The Military Homeschooler

The Homeschool Diner: Military Homeschoolers (this is a wonderful website for all sorts of curriculum and resources, not just for military, if you haven’t stopped by)

DoDDS Guidelines for Homeschool Overseas

Wives in Bloom: The Online Magazine for Christian Military Moms

HSLDA’s page on Military Homeschooling Overseas

The Home Front– “Serving military homeschooling families as they serve throughout the world.”

Eclectic Homeschool Organization’s page on Military Resources

Simple Homeschool’s wonderful post on Homeschooling and Moving

Got any other great resources to share?  Leave a comment!  And thanks for serving our country to all the military families out there!

I’ve been busy this week, but the latest revision of Hands-On Science is finally complete!  This book is for K-6, and for multi-grade families it is perfect.  It is chock full of experiments and activities on these topics:

• Matter
• Density
• Volume
• Thermodynamics
• Weather
• Climate
• Rivers
• Oceans
• Erosion
• Aerodynamics
• Four Forces of Flight
• Astronomy
• Orbital Motion

My favorite activity in the book is The Molecule Game, which the author, Liz Brough, has introduced throughout the text to demonstrate concepts from molecular motion to erosion.  Basically it is a bunch of kids running around the room in organized chaos under guided instructions to demonstrate a point.  Children careen off the walls with instructions like “heat up!” and “cool down!”.

Folks, its 200 pages of experiments and activities that use everyday materials you already have around the house such as bricks, ping pong balls, balloons, modeling clay, and jars.

And I need 3 bloggers to review the new book!

Do you think you would be a good candidate?  Do you have children being homeschooled in the K-6 grades?  I need someone who can set aside time enough to do 4 or 5 experiments at least throughout the book in order to provide a review by May 30th.  Think about it, because I know we’re all busy with the school year!

View Product Listing and Sample Pages

Leave a comment stating why you think you’d be the blogger to review Hands-On Science.  Head over to the Castle Heights Press store website to look at the product listing.  You can follow Homeschool Science on twitter and facebook if you like, but that’s not how I’ll be selecting the reviewing bloggers.