- Reading the book The Brave Learner was really helpful. And if you haven’t already read it, Differently Wired is another necessity, in my opinion — not homeschooling specific, but about the parenting journey of raising a neurodiverse kid.
- Popular ELA curricula: Michael Clay Thompson (looks boring, but many G/2e families like it — we prefer the ebooks for drag & drop activities instead of the printed workbook style), BraveWriter, Institute for Excellence in Writing, Night ZooKeeper (for younger kids), and The Writing Revolution (about how to incorporate and build writing skills across the curriculum). If dyslexia/dysgraphia are in the mix, Rooted in Language is a solid program but you will probably need to modify the pacing for gifted learners.
- Popular math curricula: Beast Academy gets the most attention, but doesn’t offer enough repetition for some kids — online and/or printed format with graphic novels, video lessons, etc; Singapore, RightStart, Math-U-See, Math for Love (great math games, we use these in conjunction with BA), Wild Math (fun to apply math outside), Life of Fred (super bizarre storybooks that teach math. seems like people either love them or they make no sense to them!). Ronit Bird has great resources for teaching kids with dyscalculia.
- Social studies: Story of the World, History Quest, Blossom & Root has a nicely balanced US history curriculum.
- Science: a lot of people use Mel Science kits, Science is Weird classes, or Mystery Science.
- All-in-one curricula that are well reputed (just know you’ll have to tease out bits and pieces and make them work for you — all-in-ones almost never work fully for G/2e kids): Torchlight, Blossom & Root, Moving Beyond the Page.
- We are using Squilt for music appreciation this year and I love it! You get a monthly calendar with daily listening on a theme. I bought the subscription to get access to previous years, so that if I don’t love that month’s theme I can go back and grab a different one.
- Facebook groups:Homeschooling Poppies
Gifted and 2e: for Secular Eclectic Academic Homeschoolers members (this one is a subgroup of a larger homeschool group, Secular, Academic, and Eclectic Homeschoolers, so first you join the large group and then you can join the subgroup for gifted and 2e)
Any of these are great to search for curriculum or philosophy ideas — just put in “language arts” or “unschooling” or the name of a specific curriculum and see what people have shared. You can also post your “I’m freaking out because I’m thinking about homeschooling and how can I possibly make this work” post and will get lots of love and suggestions.
- Online programs for kids who work at a HS/college level include Stanford Online High School, ASU Universal Learner, Davidson Academy Online, and College for All
- Places to take online classes for all levels: Royal Fireworks Press, Online G3, AoPS, Digipen (online right now but may move back to in-person at some point), Athena’s Advanced Academy, Outschool (some teachers & classes are better suited for our kiddos than others — the FB groups are a good place to search or ask for recommendations), Johns Hopkins CTY (many people feel they’re overpriced, though), Davidson EXPLORE.
- The three big online hubs for neurodiverse parenting/homeschooling are Bright & Quirky, TiLT Parenting, and Raising Lifelong Learners. All of them have great blogs, webinars, resources, etc. and a monthly paid parent support community option. B&Q and RLL also offer online classes for kids, I believe.
- Other notes:
CuriosityStream is a popular and affordable documentary streaming service.
Some days you will do more “school” and some days you will do less and that’s ok. Remember: you are not recreating school at home. You are creating a flexible and adaptive educational fit for your unique learners.
Dive down the rabbit holes. Explore their interests. Bake with them. Hike with them. Play games with them.
You will reinvent your vision and plan on a regular basis, and that’s totally ok! Preferred, actually.
Don’t go overboard on scheduling online classes and buying shiny curriculum right away. Read up on “deschooling” and give all of you some time to get “school” out of your system.
Connect with other parents who are on the same journey. Don’t believe the shiny blogs and Pinterest pages.
If you care about whether they’re “keeping up” with other kids their age or feel lost about what skills they need to work on, you can do online MAP testing through Homeschool Boss. Super easy to schedule and do, untimed adaptive test, and you get a comprehensive report showing what skills the kids already have, need more practice on, or don’t know yet.
Most of all, remember: you know more than you think. Dig in and have fun!
