Do you teach curricula in their entirety?

[Carol in Cal.]

I hardly ever do, at least not 'straight through as scheduled.'

 

I always seem to pick and choose and customize.

 

I was thinking about this because of the thread I started on my DD's education next year. It sounded like a lot because I said that we were going to do IEW, Writing Strands, and subject area writing in three subjects--which was true, but not during the same weeks.

 

I tend to figure out what my DD needs and try to teach to that, and also to figure out how to use assignments for multiple purposes. So, for instance, last year when she was on a robotics team, I folded a lot of specific, directed writing into her research topic report. When she goes on a science lab field trip, I ask her to take notes and then write up an experiment report based on those, and teach her the format and procedure for doing those two tasks using that field trip. When we see plays, I assign compare and contrast papers, or responses to literature, or literary elements. None of these are directly related to her writing curricula, but I am happy to put that aside while she learns these skills and applies them to something else.

 

When we were going through SOTW1, I folded in Bible history. I just interspersed it with SOTW1, and we kept on moving. I never worried about whether we were going to 'finish on time.' I just wanted to cover the material. When we got to SOTW 4, DD was so enjoying the CD's that I let her study it that way, and assigned extra reading in specific topics. Sometimes we stopped to do a quick unit study on some specific issue, like the Pacific Front of WWII, or Hitler, or Stalin.

 

For science, we are using Science Explorer, but DD always has two related books going at once, and we also add in field trips that don't always relate directly to those books, and then in those circumstances she digresses to those topics for a while. Also, last year her robotics team studied climate, so we switched to doing the "Weather and Climate" book when they started working on their project. I figured that she would need to study it anyway at some point, so why not make everything fit together better?

 

When we had opportunities pop up to attend some pretty good plays last year at very reasonable field trip prices, we went and then tied these in with literature studies. I had had some literature picked out, and I dropped it. This was better. I don't feel like I just can't focus; I feel like I'm jumping on the best opportunities when they present themselves.

 

Now, I do keep an eye on whether DD is covering grade level stuff, and when we don't, it's a decision, not an accident. And I do finish grammer and math books completely, although I take time outs to focus on specific areas of difficulty or pleasure--using Editor in Chief instead of grammer some days, and going back and summarizing the last 10 lessons in Saxon onto one page some days, and teaching something before one of those books gets to it so that it will make something else make better sense. But other than grammer and math, I just don't really slog through other curricula as written, ever.

 

Am I alone in this?

[Moni]

No, we don't.

 

:seeya:

[tricia]

Rarely. I always pick and choose what fits us best.

[jonnia]

Sounds like you are of the same mind I am on this. :D

[LanaTron]

but I'm not.

 

We pretty much do everything in the resource, one lesson after another. I even had my ds finish Phonics Pathways once he was reading fluently. Every page. :D

 

 

Maybe it's lack of confidence on my part, maybe it's because four children is a lot for me to keep track of, maybe it's because we are so busy with other commitments that I don't have the time or energy to put into doing my own thing with a curriculum.

 

We open the book and do the next thing, until the book is finished, but I am okay if we don't finish in one year, as long as they're not getting too far behind on their skills.

 

It works for me.

[Laura Corin]

I mess with history, but most of the other subjects I teach pretty much straight through, although I might supplement if it seemed necessary.

 

Laura

[s.z.ichigo]

I do tend to use every lesson, in order, and according to the schedule I lay out at the beginning of the year. Any time I slip behind it's a real hassle to make up the missed lessons so I try my best to stay on track. I schedule 3 math lessons a week. If I don't stick to that I'll end up not finishing the book by the end of the year.

 

I don't find this to be very hard to do though, and it's worked out.

 

The only thing I've skipped a lesson or two with is Writing Strands (level 2). I don't particularly like the program and it didn't hurt to skip a lesson or two when it was a concept my daughter already had a good handle on...which is pretty much the whole thing anyway.

[2_girls_mommy]

In skills areas, yes. Not always in content subjects. I did follow SOTW all of the way through, but not always 1 chapter a week. We took weeks off and did some history out of order when I wanted to cover some American stuff. We did a lapbook once and put away all of our regular curric except math that week, since it covered all other areas. In Science I am currently pulling chapters and info from several different books.