I need a curriculum!

My nine year old grandson, Paul, is being home-schooled indefinitely owing to the Quarantine.  Ordinarily he attends the local public school.  Paul’s teacher sent home a few books and online math assignments—for one day.  The school system took over and posted resources.  As an educator, Paul needs a curriculum, which I am cobbling together.  I chose Zoology 1, Saxon Math 5/4, Heritage Studies 5, and grammar, vocabulary, and literature such as Narnia.  Kids need a structured curriculum—not a hodge-podge of activities.  As a tenured teacher, I am comfortable focusing on the basics, creating tests, selecting timelines and mapping exercises, etc.  We do have guitar and cooking lessons and play outside.  Paul does a number of science projects and experiments.  I can imagine many families are stressing over which activities are most important.

What can you do if you are not comfortable creating a curriculum?  There are marvelous curricula.  Memoria Press is hosting a Virtual Classical Convention.  Here are other Catholic curricula: Mother of Divine Grace, Kolbe Academy, and Seton Home Study School.  Many Protestants use BJU Press Homeschool.  BYU has programs for middle school, high school, and college.  As a Roman Catholic, I am most familiar with the Catholic curricula.  Many families of different faiths use Saxon and Apologia.  Home Science Tools offers lab kits for many home school science programs.

Are you concerned by the costs to implement?  eBay has Saxon Math, Heritage Press, and Apologia Young Explorers Science textbooks at half price. Start with your child’s grade.  If your child is precocious, go up one grade.  Many schools teach Language Arts, not English, Composition, Grammar, and Vocabulary.  Start with an basal reader such as Open Court Reading and Writing Series (1989).  Hear me out.  Yes, by all means, let your child read a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction books.  A basal reader include a wide range of stories from beyond Pete the Cat or Big Nate.  Basal readers include exercises and vocabulary.  You can add Easy Grammar, Hand-writing, Elementary Literature, and Vocabulary and Spelling.  Start with the basics: English, Math, History, and Science.  We could be home bound for months!  Get to it!