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What is your child’s favorite subject in school? In our family, my girls’ favorite subjects are electives—music, Spanish, and Chess. They love doing their “fun stuff.” In fact, Spanish is the one subject my girls beg me to continue each year even though I know that it is something we could put off until middle school.
Electives are like that; they promote fun in learning. They are the subjects that excite our kids into learning something THEY want to know as opposed to what WE want them to know!
When it comes to choosing homeschool curriculum electives I always check the resources available on the Homeschool Buyers Co-op first.
Why the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op?
The Homeschool Buyers Co-op has an award-winning selection of electives, including typing programs, health curriculum, driver’s education, foreign language learning, arts and music programs, critical thinking programs, and more at a fraction of the cost found elsewhere – Savings up to 89%! In fact, sometimes, I can redeem my SmartPoints (earned from previous purchases) to get a homeschool curriculum elective for no more than the cost of shipping and handling.
Through the use of the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op, my girls have been able to learn from several award-winning curriculum that we might not afford otherwise. Below are just a few examples.
As a fine arts teacher, I have been very impressed with the quality of music and art electives the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op is able to provide at a deeply discounted price. The following are two of my personal favorites, although we have also enjoyed one of their art curriculums and look forward to pursuing their theater program soon.
The MusicLearningCommunity.com membership gives students access to literally hundreds of colorful, interactive music games – from beginning through intermediate levels – that speed them on their way to becoming Lifetime Musicians. Their goal is to help students master the music reading and aural skills they need to achieve satisfaction and success in increasing levels of music performance and creativity. In short, this is one of the best programs for music theory that I’ve found. It’s fantastic!
Maestro Classics produces Stories in Music, a classical music series for children ages 5 to 12 that has won over 45 national awards. If you are familiar with and enjoy classic musical stories like Peter and the Wolf, then you will love these musical stories too. They feature new, sophisticated performances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, child-friendly, fun-filled stories and musical explanations. My girls are currently listening to these for their bedtime music and can hardly wait for a new story to begin.
The Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op offers several well-known resources for foreign language study at discounted prices including Mango Languages, Rosetta Stone, and Whistlefritz. Our current favorite is Middlebury Interactive Languages.
I’ve mentioned this before, but Middlebury Interactive’s Spanish program is one reason my girls can’t wait to learn Spanish each week. Middlebury Interactive‘s curriculum was developed exclusively for the education market by Ph.D. level academics and linguistic experts. The online courses utilize real-world reading, writing, listening and speaking activities combined with task-based activities to accelerate language acquisition. These self-paced courses are available in four different languages: Spanish, French, Chinese and German, from elementary through high school.
Besides music and Spanish we have also used the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op’s homeschool curriculum electives to get both physically and mentally fit each week. Prior to our participation in a local physical education class, we completed PE as a family with the help of Family Time Fitness. Fitness 4 Homeschool is an award-winning, online fitness program for homeschoolers from Family Time Fitness. It includes lesson plans, demonstration videos, and game ideas for the whole family. The program can also be done with a small budget and with only a few players.
My oldest has especially enjoyed this online elective. She now knows more about playing chess than I do! Basic membership to ChessKid.com is free, but by joining this GroupBuy Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op members save 50% off the price of a Gold Membership for the entire family (one parent and up to 5 students). PLUS, parents get their own Gold Membership FREE when they signup a child for a Gold Membership! These savings are unavailable elsewhere — ONLY at the Co-op!
These are just a few of the amazing homeschool curriculum electives available on the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op. You can also find other well-known resources such as Mark Kistler’s Virtual Classroom, Driver’s Ed, Type to Learn and much more. For more information visit the Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op.
Where do you shop first for homeschool curriculum electives?