Does it matter?

[ezrabean2005]

Does it matter to you if the curriculum / book you are working through for a subject is boring? Not to the kids necessarily, but to you.

 

This is not the situation right now (thank goodness!), but it's something that I've experienced in prior years. Is your own boredom a worthy reason to change your method or materials?

 

:bigear:

[raceNzanesmom]

If it's working well for my child then I stick with it. If we're both hating it, I try to make it work. If that doesn't help then I drop it.

[mom2boys030507]

if it is boring to me and I am not pulling it out to get done - I find something else.

 

If I find it boring but the boys enjoy and it is still getting done it stays

[kristinannie]

I agree with PP. If it isn't getting done (and the kids don't love it), I just change things up. I do try to tweak things before giving up completely if I have a lot of money invested. It is much easier for me to teach something that interests me, but at the same time, not everything can be interesting!

[Xilka]

I won't use any Language Arts resources that makes references to Wal-mart or McDonald's.

 

We skip over tedious repetition because my son is a quick learner.

 

Other than that, I haven't run into anything boring in the curriculum I've chosen. But if I did, I would discontinue its use. Life's too short.

 

I let him read Magic Tree House last year, but only because it was his first year reading in English and those books really helped him build confidence.

 

But now that he's an avid reader in English, no more reading fluff.

[ALB]

Part of me feels like the right answer is to say "Of course my feelings don't matter at all, since I'm schooling purely for the kids' sake."

 

In reality, I think there are so many fun/ interesting options out there that I don't really want to be stuck using something I don't personally like. To be honest, one of the reasons we homeschool is because I just think its so fun and want to be learning alongside my kids all over again! So, I strive to keep that alive:001_smile:.

[boscopup]

I have definitely changed curriculum because I was bored. I do it with my eyes wide open though - watching for any gaps that might occur from the switch, that sort of thing.

 

Now if the subject itself is just boring and no curriculum would ever help it, or if the kid loves it and would hate anything else I'd choose to use, I'll just stick with it. Here's an example... I HATE GEOMETRY. I love math, and I'm great at math, but geometry... I just can't stand it! I did well in it, but didn't LIKE it. Recently, we did the geometry section of Singapore 4A. I hated it. I was bored to tears. My son was having so much fun playing with the protractor and learning about angles. I put on my happy face and pretended that I was excited to be doing geometry too. Sometimes you just have to do that. ;)

 

But at the same time, I changed from R&S English partly because it was clearly going too slowly for my son, but mostly because I was bored. :) I found a different grammar curriculum that we both enjoyed, and that moved a bit faster for my son. We didn't lose anything from the switch since we were using it a year ahead anyway. So no big deal.

 

My job is to teach my child. If we skip a subject everyday because I'm bored, I need to either find a curriculum that doesn't bore me or I need to suck it up and just teach my child, bored or not. Which direction I'll take just depends on the situation. As shown above, I've done both routes, and I think the routes I chose in those situations were good choices.