Homeschool 2011-2012: Timberdoodle's Complete Curriculum

I love Timberdoodle.  As a self-confessed homeschool curriculum junkie, I have been drooling over their catalogs ever since I decided to homeschool six years ago.  I have even done a few reviews for them on this blog (find me at Because Mom Said)!  Last year, Timberdoodle created their own Complete Curriculum Packages, with everything you need for one year of homeschooling.  But by that time, I was pretty much sure of what I was going to use each year, with just tweaks here and there.  Plus, I couldn't use some of their curriculum choices due to the secular nature of the school district program I participate in.

One of the biggest problems I have each year is deciding what should I do with S?  He doesn't fit into any boxes, which is why we chose homeschooling in the first place.  I usually plan my curriculum choices around IJ and E, and then S joins in on whatever level he is capable of.  Which works, and works well for some families.  But I often feel like S falls through the educational cracks...which is what we were trying to avoid by homeschooling.

A few weeks ago, I saw this post about customization on Timberdoodle's blog.  "Well," I thought to myself, "That's cool.  But I dropped out of my program and I'm homeschooling on the shoestring this year."  Remember, I dropped out because I didn't think I could keep up with the reporting.  But now my schedule has opened up, and back in the program we go!  Saturday night, as I was finalizing my shopping lists, I remembered the post about customization, and dropped an email to Timberdoodle about making something work for S.  I assumed I wouldn't hear from them on Sunday, but boy was I surprised when they got back to me today, Monday morning!  S had a perfectly customized curriculum package created, and sent to the school district, within two hours!

This is what S is going to use.  Only he is going to use Teaching Textbooks 5, Story of the World 4, Sequential Spelling 1, and the Italic handwriting program.  We are also substituting a science kit about the human body for the creation-based science. The process of substituting and eliminating things I already own or are not secular was so fast and so easy.  And the fact that I had to send it on to my school district for purchase order payment was no problem for Timberdoodle.  The people at Timberdoodle are so easy to work with.

And just for the record, I was not compensated in anyway for this review.  This was just such a great experience that I wanted to share.