How long do you give it a chance?

[Jen500]

We've hs'd less than 6 months, and the curriculum choices are overwhelming! I try to buy carefully, trying samples first if I can, but we've already given up on several items that just didn't work for us. I'm wondering how everyone decides to stop a curriculum?

Jen

[Julie in Austin]

I think I would need more specifics on your situation:

 

Are you giving up a curriculum because you read about something on the message boards that sounds better?

 

Are you doing it because your son cries every time it is time for math?

 

Because you can't find that materials for science projects?

 

Because after three months of daily practice your kid still can't define a noun?

[Aunty Social]

I switched a lot the first couple years. I'd find something that looked great, buy it....and it wouldn't work. Not because it wasn't a good curriculum, but because it either didn't fit my teaching style, the kids hated it (and weren't learning, I've kept some that they hate because they learn from it anyway:D), so on and so forth. Now that I'm finishing my third year, I have found what works for us in most subjects. You know what your family needs, so don't hesitate to drop something if it really isn't working. I usually gave it a fair trial of 6-8 weeks, just to see if it was a transition period thing. If it wasn't getting any better, out it went!

 

My problem is overscheduling! I wind up dropping 2 or 3 subjects every year because I've just planned too much. :tongue_smilie:Luckily, I don't think their academic careers will be ruined because we didn't do two foreign languages, health every year, and 4 critical thinking books every day.;)

[clwcain]

We started with determining the objectives: what is the desired result of home schoooling.

 

That led us to examine why we were home schooling, beyond the superficial answers we could toss off to baffled family.

 

Once we had the Goal and the Why, we looked about for means that were acceptable. That narrowed the field considerably. If a program doesn't teach what I want taught, or in a way that is acceptable to us, it doesn't matter how "good" it seems to be.

 

That left us with a very manageable pool of possibilities. We looked around, took the plunge, and decided to make them work until further notice.

 

HTH

[Diana in OR]

Oh, man! I feel your pain. When my dc were preschool age, I went to my first hs conference. One of the speakers said the best curriculum you will ever buy is.......the third one! Over the years, I've learned there's more truth than humor to that statement, lol.

[Jen500]

Well, ds1 wanted to learn Latin. We did one lesson from Prima Latina-it wasn't horrible for us but we had no enthusiasm. Then I found Lively Latin and both sons and I love it. They're motivated because they like it. They had started Wordly Wise 4, said they liked it but it was too hard, so I ordered WW3. That was too easy. They did a few lessons and now say they don't like WW. They say it's too work-booky. I'm thinking if they don't like it, they aren't going to learn as much. And they've already been learning new words from derivatives that come up in Lively Latin. (On top of that, I bought Vocab. from Classical Roots which I don't want to try now because it feels like overkill)

Jen

[Ohio12]

What are the ages of your kids?

[G5052]

My children don't like school that much in general. In fact, they aren't terribly enthusiastic about any subject other than recess and field trips. We've been homeschooling for almost eight years now, and it's always been that way. That said, we have a peaceful, happy homeschool. They work hard and are ahead of my goals for them. They just would rather be playing outside or hitting the Legos versus doing spelling and Latin...

 

While I applaud you for wanting to find things they like, in the end some take the "mom knows best" approach in your situation. That's when you teach them to work with something that's basically presented well with decent content even if they don't like it. I've taught part-time at the college level for some nine years now, and despite what I consider to be an all-around good course (good texts, online helps, clear assignments, fair tests, etc.), over half don't "like" my course and freely admit they wish they weren't there. That's real life though.

 

I'm very careful to limit the criticism of the curriculum that I pick too. If you get them in the habit of complaining about your choices eventually they'll want to throw out everything because they can! If something is boring but is working and has decent content, I overule as the mom and don't take further comments. If the instructions aren't clear enough or the stories aren't interesting, I'll consider that, but my decision is final in the end.

 

Yup...I'm a mean homeschool mom all right!

[Julie in Austin]

Well, this is a personal parenting philosophy thing, but I would never ditch a curriculum because my kids didn't like it. I'm the mom, I do the planning, I pay for it, and if it is working reasonably well, then I consider that my children are developing the valuable life lesson of learning to deal with something that they don't love.

[Jen500]

nt