curriculum

I spent a lot of time researching, reading blogs etc. etc. before deciding which curriculum I wanted to implement being it my first year home educating. There are so many resources for us out there and although wonderful, can be A LOT  of info to thumb through. It first depends on what type of home education you want for your family, for instance, eclectic home educators choose not to follow curricula at all but instead make daily activities lessons. I needed something a little more "organized" for my brain to follow. There are also options of Christian based curriculum, District curriculum etc. I finally narrowed it down to Sonlight. I have the website on the right hand side of my favorite websites visited. I chose a Christian based curriculum and because I was a little nervous for my first year, we spent a little more money and chose the newcomer package. The teacher guide takes you through the lessons weekly right down to the questions you would ask your child after reading a chapter or two in his or her chapter book. You can choose obviously how much or little you want to use and if your week is a four or five day plan. I found myself going off course adding things here and there, letting my kids explore topics of their choice and so on. I did appreciate the raw and truthful history of America and the chapter books were very interesting to my son and daughter being four years apart in age.
I would recommend Teaching Textbooks for Math. There is a lesson plan and worksheet to follow. Teaching Textbooks also offer computer work following that particular lesson with a teacher grade book so their progress can be tracked and the both of you can then work on the problems missed.
Although I have become a believer that home education should be an interesting exploratory experience for our children and that we are simply guiding them to the resources they need, there are some subjects (like Math) where some workbooks are beneficial.
Each child is  different, obviously with their own personality, interests and ways of retaining information. When they can explore what interests them, they will in turn retain more and continue learning and teaching themselves on that particular subject. Getting away from the public school mentality of memorize memorize and shove, the brain is only being filled with info for which most will be forgotten. Let us take on the challenges of parenting our own children which is also giving them the guidance for education.