I did get some feedback yesterday on some of my postings on Alpha Omega.  The main feedback was the cost of the programs and books.  This is definitely a prohibitive aspect of looking into their program.  There are definitely alternatives out there and I am building a list of some ideas there.  Also, Alpha Omega does have some free resources for Christian homeschooling.  If you look at both quality and price, I still think this is one of the better resources out there.  If price alone is your consideration, you will be able to find alternatives, definitely.  Good luck!

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One of the most frustrating things for me when I got to the US History part of my Christian homeschool curriculum was the terrible resources available.  The current trajectory of the dicipline of history is left-leaning historians writing revisionist history that goes too far in attacking Christianity’s role in the making of the United States.  I am not looking for a glossy portrayl of the situation, but every single textbook that I picked up was a little over the top in its condemnation or even worse subtle reproach of the role of Christianity in the making of the United States.  I didn’t want an entirely Christian view of the topic either, but something more balanced.  What I learned is that this was largely impossible.  This is one of the frustrating things of teaching Christian homeschool.  I am not looking to indoctrinate my children, but the unfortunately reality is that there are so few balanced curriculum sets for US History out there.  I eventually went with the Alpha Omega Curriculum
edition, just because of my luck with their works in other areas.  I cannot say that I was disappointed, but the whole experience made me want to develop my own history curriculum for Christian homeschools that provided a nice balanced approach.

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I’ve been using Alpha Omega Publications’ LIFEPAC mathematics curriculum for some time.  I figured I should give it an honest review on the blog first, since it was one of my first ‘purchases’ of their curriculum.  I especially like how the curriculum is set-up to include repetition, drill, and application.  I know that drill is somewhat passe, but from my experience a simple ‘application’ curriculum that avoids rote drill totally trulys affects the depth of knowledge of my students (my kids ).  The curriculum is set-up to allow both guided and independent learning.  This was the key for me.  I am never looking to fill up my child’s time with ‘busy work’, but independent learning is one of the best parts of homeschooling and you need a curriculum that supports that.  I also found that the early chapters do a good job mixing a seemingly ‘play’ mentality into education, which ‘tricks’ the students into learning (was good for my son with ADD).  This may be a difficult curriculum in the upper grades for parents who are totally clueless as to Algebra as the teacher’s edition certainly isn’t for the novice, but any parent with a working knowledge (even at the basic level) will have no problem wading through this curriculum

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One of the biggest trends in homeschooling is online instruction.  No matter how innovative and wonderful parents are as teachers, we cannot offer all opportunities to our children.  Online collaboration now offers a wonderful supplement to our existing curriculum.  One of the reasons you see the Alpha Omega ‘ads’ on this site is because I’ve had so much luck with them.  Granted, the stuff isn’t free, but it is top notch.  I tried to scrounge up my online homeschooling resources for free, but it took so much time and I often was using pure junk.  Part of the reason I created this blog was to help pay for these books .  In any event, I will be putting together my favorite books and pieces of homeschooling curriculum to help those just starting out.  I will also do a full review of some Alpha Omega products.

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