I’m not sure if you’ve tried it and, honestly, my kids aren’t as old as yours so I can’t say I’ve used upper levels, but I LOVE with emphasis Math U See. We are in our fourth year of it. We’ve done it from the beginning and while I understand some take issue with the zoomed in focus year by year I think it has made my oldest so confident with math. Easily the favorite subject of our house. We are a Memoria Press family for the most part, but I have refused to give up MUS especially after trying Rod and Staff for 6 months while I tried to be a “totally MP core person”. MUS has a program that is for remediation, or you could do the placement tests and figure out where to start. There are video lessons but they are so short. The mastery is everything I think MP is trying to accomplish with Rod and Staff, but, in my opinion, so much more streamlined and with an eye toward taking the curriculum all the way through vs to middle school. Not sure if it’s one you’ve looked at, but as a person who CRIED for years as a kid having to deal with extreme math issues I wish this curriculum had been available to me back then.

A few things- The class I’ve been assigned is a lot of prep work. Some interpersonal drama with teachers I don’t feel the classes are great. We tried Scouts and that wasn’t for us. 4H is really disorganized in our area. Our current church doesn’t offer anything for kids. So that’s where I thought of Wild and Free with park days. That said- I know a few people in it have said it’s hard to make friends because participation is so random and the group so large.

I’m debating trying to move over to a local Wild and Free group, but again- so not my thing. The co op we are currently in has a massive waitlist and so if we would drop we wouldn’t get back in, so it’s one of those things I need to be super sure about. My oldest loves it, so I’m feeling the guilt hard.

I remember SWB saying years ago that co-ops were more trouble than they’re worth. (I’m paraphrasing HARD here, but that was the gist I got.) It’s hitting me now that we are in one that she was on to something. My kids like it. Oldest loves it. I HATE it. It is just the worst. There’s no time for me to make mom friends, I have to plan activities (a LOT of busywork), and it cuts so much time out of one of our days. I’m trying to research other options, but how do you decide on co-op vs not? To be clear- we have no real family involvement for the kids and DH and I have always been sort of to ourselves, so I’ve had to work really hard to be mindful of making space for friendships. It’s getting harder the older the kids get. I probably need to shut up and keep my head down with the co-op, but I just totally dread it every single week. Any advice?

I really wish they offered that as a single order for homeschoolers. :((

But what’s curious to me in reading through the threads and the lack of SWB’s participation in the forum anymore is that so much of the conversations don’t seem to skew outwardly classical to me. Which is totally fine, but it does make me curious if that’s because products that aren’t as outwardly classical in nature/ are being adapted for use in classical ways, or if it’s because folks are coming to a realization that their child’s unique interests or needs may not always be suited to classical products or styles of teaching. I say this as a person doing some serious soul searching with regard to whether classical is what I’m really aiming for. I want rigorous and excellent, but I feel as if I’ve become too regimented and too strict. Perhaps an all MP curriculum will do that to a person, but I’ve been on the classical train from the beginning and before using MP. Sooo, it’s just sort of a, “Where are we with this in 2023?” I do appreciate SWB’s new podcast and she mentioned even classical as we know it is just an imitation of an imitation of classical. (episode 2 Well Trained Mind podcast)

I’ve read the Well Trained Mind. She provides several examples of programs you can use. I am still that person that begs to ask, “But what did you use with your own kids?” Or perhaps, “But, really. If you were choosing curriculum today which ones would you pick.” Another question- I wonder if because she publishes Math With Confidence if that’s the math she would choose or if it’s just one that she recognizes as filling a niche in the market. Anyone ever come across any interviews where she’s given personal opinions?

Thanks!! BJU is one I’ve never looked into. Is it Protestant, or what is the religious view? MP has it, but I really like the mostly ecumenical approach.

I’m pulling my kindergartener away from First Start Reading right now. My issue is we did Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons last year and First Start starts the year with spending a week on a says “ah”, the second week on m, the third week on s. It goes at that pace. If you follow FSR you will have your child writing A about 100x times before the week is over and so on. It’s SO much writing and I say that as a person who has a child who is excellent at writing. If you have a child who has NO phonics background at all this may be a good fit. Otherwise it’s just too much. I tried LOE with my oldest and I hated the format. Just personal preference, but so so much going on with the program. Of your three options I’d choose AAR. I used it when my youngest was three for pre-reading and thought it was good.

We started pandemic schooling with TGATB for LA and Math U See. I’ve tried a lot of math, but always come back to Math U See because it’s the one math that seems to stick. For language arts I started to lose faith in TGATB because they repeatedly turned over products to roll out new lines and I couldn’t stand their in-house stories used instead of actual children’s books. That led me to MP because I loved the book selections. That led me to a full year of exclusive MP only. This year I have two cores, but I feel the magic of homeschool being sucked out of our house by doing only MP. I need to start bouncing around ideas for other products. What I loved with MP was the literature and book selection. Like, two thumbs up on books. I also loved that the company has a long history and isn’t going to switch things up every two years. I would love to be a K-12 homeschooler and I need a company with a vision for high school. I would really really love to find some products that are academically rigorous, but maybe infuse a little life back into our homeschool. Hopefully that makes sense. Any ideas?

That’s incredibly true and encouraging! Thanks so much!

Really valid point on the math. Hmm

That’s so interesting! What drew you to MP? I was so into the community, the podcast, and the professionalism of the whole thing. But now it’s the thing that’s driving me bonkers! When people talk about how to run multiple cores I notice a lot of hemming and hawing around answers. I wonder how many stressed people there are…

Absolutely know what you mean! I did two years of piecing things together and almost burned myself out. Does it bother you to sub math? I don’t know what it is, but MP’s math is easily their most hotly debated thing and, while I know a lot of people sub it out, I am becoming really paranoid that I’m goofing.

We used MP2 last year and I loved it. It was nice to just follow a plan and have a big picture. The only thing we swapped was math because we already had a program we loved. The more time I spent diving into the MP world the more stressed I became with following the cores. There is a mentality in the community that I’ve only seen in places like Classical Conversations with the whole “Follow the process” mantra. A year later I feel so stressed when I go off the guide. Whenever my kiddo misses problems in math I have this nudging guilt that it’s because we aren’t using Rod and Staff, which MP and Co swear by. I still genuinely like most pieces, but as I get ready to add another child to the homeschool I am having actual anxiety thinking about how we will get this done with multiple cores. I know the phrase “Don’t be a slave to the curriculum”, but the MP community culture does make you feel like your child is missing out if you don’t “follow the plan”. I’ve read old WTM threads and I know it’s not the most popular choice here. I’m also curious because I’ve read old threads where users were so excited about it and then a few years later it sounds like they’re off MP. So those who have used it are you still using it? What are you changing? If you’re an MP enthusiast how do you make it work?