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How long do you give a curriculum before you ditch it?


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I was wondering what others do. I hate to lose out on the money I spent, but it seems that the subjects we don't get done are the ones that use curricula that doesn't "work" for us.  Last year I started Elemental Science 3 different times, each time thinking it was us, not the curriculum. 

 

So how long do you try to use it before you feel like you have given it a fair shake? It is making me crazy!

 
Sara
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I generally try to avoid switching mid-book, but there have been a few things that we dumped after only 1-2 months. I just jumped ship from Latin for Children A to Latin's Not So Tough 3 after the first unit (5 weeks). It helped that I found LNST at our charter's lending library so it didn't cost me anything to make the switch.

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It depends on why it does not work, how urgently I need to cover the subject, and what alternatives I can see.

 

For example, we made Saxon 8/7 work for us for one semester through extensive tweaking because I knew we just had to get through the prealgebra as quickly as possible to have a really perfect fit for a math program waiting for us on the other side. OTOH, I ditched LLLOTR in the second week when it became clear that it was a lot of pointless busy work for my kid and there was no compelling reason to stick with this literature program. Other programs I have used for a semester before switching for the next, some language practice books I have discarded after the second exercise because they were poorly structured.

 

I see no point in sticking with a  curriculum I dislike just for the sake of sticking. Life is too short, and my kids' schooling too valuable to waste it on working with unsuitable tools.

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It depends on why it does not work, how urgently I need to cover the subject, and what alternatives I can see.

Yep.

 

I give everything a 3 month trial. Sometimes it takes several weeks to just learn how to teach a program. Then Ill spend a few weeks trying to tweak it. If after 3 months it's still not working, and it can't be tweaked into working, it's a question of, "Can/should I drop this subject?" and "How expensive is the replacement?"

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I'll admit I have a problem, lol.  I usually stick with something that's not working for about 5 minutes.  You would think I could have seen it coming before I bought it.  But no, I must spend funds and spend time planning and then hold it in my hands and sit down with child next to me and then something magical happens in my brain and I know we're not going to use it.  And so we don't. 

 

ETA:  Thankfully, it doesn't happen as much as it used to.  Just part of "teacher training," lol.

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I see no point in sticking with a  curriculum I dislike just for the sake of sticking. Life is too short, and my kids' schooling too valuable to waste it on working with unsuitable tools.

 

 

:iagree:

Although I have sometimes stuck with something longer than I should have because I was scared to change, like ds with RS math. I should have seen the signs sooner and ditched it long before I did. I made it nearly 1/2 through E and should have not even started that level. I tried it a few different times with dd and it was a horrible fit and now Im still trying to get caught up due to using that too long and fear of switching. 

 

I nearly always have regretted not switching when I think I should have more than switching too soon, but that is just my personality. I'm sitting on that fence right now with Sassafras Science, everything says I should drop it but I hate the thought of it still. Same thing happened with Noeo Science, pre-fab science (and history too for that matter) does not work for me at all. I bought Noeo knowing I would tweak it some but I was stressed out, exhausted and depressed, probably not the best time to buy anything. Lesson learned.\

 

 

If I think it is a bad fit it probably is, some things are tweakable as I tweak most things but some things just dont work period.

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I used to hop math curriculum like it was going out of style.  Huge mistake.  It wasn't the curriculum that was the issue.  My child has learning challenges that were making ANY math curriculum a challenge until I took a few steps back and started over with the basics at a much slower pace.  If something isn't working, I now try to determine exactly what it is that isn't working before I switch.  Otherwise the next curriculum might not be any better than the last one for our needs.

 

That being said, if my child and I are miserable with something, I move on pretty rapidly (I try to give it about 30-60 days)

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I make things work. I cant afford to curriculum hop and I dont really see anything positive happening from changing horses midstream...

If something was *truly* bad, I suppose I would make it work for the semester, then change out.

Because I think continuity is fairly important, I spend *months* researching before I buy something new. I then spend nearly that much time organising and preparing before getting started in it.

I've had things I needed to tweak, but I've never had something that I thought was a bad choice...

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 I spend *months* researching before I buy something new. I then spend nearly that much time organising and preparing before getting started in it.

I've had things I needed to tweak, but I've never had something that I thought was a bad choice...

 

Oh, I spend a lot of time researching, too (except when I just started homeschooling mid-school year and needed a math curriculum right then, which was the only truly bad choice I ever made curriculum wise).

But even extensive research is insufficient if you can't get your hands on the actual curriculum. For example, for LLLOTR, I read, and relied on, the dozens of glowing reviews I read on these boards (and elsewhere), many from posters I highly respect... but it still was an unsuitable choice for my children, something that was impossible to discern before actually trying. No amount of preparing and organizing and tweaking could have transformed it into what my kids needed, and there would have been absolutely no point in sticking with it and being miserable for a semester.

 

I learned my lesson and have never again tried to adopt a prepared "curriculum" with prescribed, scheduled "lessons" and "assignments". I construct my own.

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Well you can do whatever you want, obviously.

 

I was just answering the question what *I* do :)

 

No need to be defensive - I merely wanted to point out for other readers that extensive research is not a guarantee for preventing curriculum failure, and that having chosen an unsuitable curriculum does not have to mean they did a bad job researching.

I am very glad you never made a bad curriculum choice... but I don't want others to feel that they just did not put enough effort into research and preparation if it happened to them.

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We got through ten lessons of Winston Grammar and tossed it.

 

I learned that I need to see something with my own eyeballs. It wasn't enough for others to tell me they liked something (or disliked something, for that matter). I need to SEE it, and preferably hold it in my hot little hands, and read many pages of it. It is how I decided between the Weaver and KONOS (KONOS won). I became better, as time went on, of knowing when something would Work For Me; I knew that Easy Grammar would Work For Me after skimming through just a few pages.

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I used to give resources much longer that I do now--months and months or even years because I thought it was me or my kid and that we *needed* to do whatever it was.  This went on for maybe five years (this is my 12th year of homeschooling).

 

Now I am better at picking things as well as tweaking things so resource mismatch doesn't happen as often, but when it does, it usually takes me less than a week from determining there is a mismatch and moving on to something else.

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I learned that I need to see something with my own eyeballs. It wasn't enough for others to tell me they liked something (or disliked something, for that matter). I need to SEE it, and preferably hold it in my hot little hands, and read many pages of it.

 

This. I've found that the worst flops have been when I acquired something sight unseen.

 

Yesterday I read through the first 5 weeks of Hewitt Lightning Lit 3 beta and realized that it's not likely to be a good "fit" for DS. It's not a bad program per se, just not something that looks like it will be right for him personally. We're going to try it because I signed up to be a beta tester and maybe he'll turn out to like it more than I suspect based on the preview. But if I'd had a chance to preview it before signing up, I would've passed on it.

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I need to see something with my own eyeballs. It wasn't enough for others to tell me they liked something (or disliked something, for that matter). I need to SEE it, and preferably hold it in my hot little hands, and read many pages of it.

I agree. The only time I've ordered something sight unseen, it was after perusing a pretty lengthy sample...

Personally, Ive never really cared about reviews unless they give *very* specific examples and references.

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We got through ten lessons of Winston Grammar and tossed it.

 

I learned that I need to see something with my own eyeballs. It wasn't enough for others to tell me they liked something (or disliked something, for that matter). I need to SEE it, and preferably hold it in my hot little hands, and read many pages of it. It is how I decided between the Weaver and KONOS (KONOS won). I became better, as time went on, of knowing when something would Work For Me; I knew that Easy Grammar would Work For Me after skimming through just a few pages.

 

Ditto. If I see it, then I've learned we almost never toss it. If we do hit bumps, I usually will stick with something for awhile. I buy less and less curricula as time goes on.

 

Ellie, don't tell me you hated Winston Grammar! I was thinking about it for next year. But there's no way to see it... That might be my red flag right there!

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If it helps to make anyone here feel better, I usually do lots of research here and try to look at samples. So the moment I received R & S English and flipped through it, I put it aside. Some lucky person will be able to buy it now for $.25 at Goodwill, I'm sure, as it took me awhile to actually kick it out the door (almost 2 years).

 

Then there are other times when I read a few reviews here, check out a sample that does not do the book justice, and taken a chance with it. That would be AoPS Pre-A. I've been ordered to not donate this beloved, well-worn book, which Goodwill will probably sell for $.99.

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Ditto. If I see it, then I've learned we almost never toss it. If we do hit bumps, I usually will stick with something for awhile. I buy less and less curricula as time goes on.

 

Ellie, don't tell me you hated Winston Grammar! I was thinking about it for next year. But there's no way to see it... That might be my red flag right there!

 

I bought WG in 1987. At that time, if you were a Real Homeschooler, you used Winston Grammar. ::rolls eyes:: So I figured since I was a Real Homeschooler, I should use it for older dd, who was 12. She did 10 lessons and refused to do another one. This was my compliant child, who would do anything I gave her. But not WG. Whole lotta nope goin' on. And that was the last formal grammar we did. Somehow she managed to get a BA in English Literature anyway. :-)

 

A couple of years later, I was at the state Christian homeschool convention in Southern California and saw Easy Grammar for the first time. I knew after perusing a few pages that it would Work For Me (by which I meant that it would work for my younger dd). And it did. :-)

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Since last year was my first year homeschooling I felt that maybe I couldn't make things work because I just didn't have enough experience.

 

I have never been to a convention and the used curriculum bookstore is quite a drive so I don't get to lay my "hot little hands" on copies of the books I want to look at very often ;) 

 

Thanks for the responses, I should trust myself more! At least for the curricula that isn't working…

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I often will try to "just make things work" when they are a definite flop. I've made my kids suffer through at least a semester (and sometimes a whole year) of Spanish for Children A, Classical Writing Homer (which just didn't work *for me*), God's Design for Chemistry, MegaWords, and several others.

 

Many of these were well-researched purchases. I agree about getting your hands on them - but the real test is being able to try them out with your real live kids. Nothing like some on the job trying it out. . . 

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Oftentimes I will have doubles or even triples in subjects, like using Math Mammoth alongside Saxon for a 3rd grader. Then, after several weeks, when one works better, we just drop the other. That way no time was lost in the school year and the "winning" program gets used the whole school year.

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I used to take much longer to ditch something, early in our HS years.  Now, its pretty darned quick.  Why waste time?  If I can tell right away that something is a total bomb, I'd rather take my losses and move on to something that will work better, and not loose more time trying to make something work.

 

However, the further down the road we go, the less often this seems to happen.  Maybe I've finally figured out a thing or two!

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