changing your mind about a curriculum

[leeannpal]

Have you ever totally dismissed a curriculum or homeschool material and then later had a chance to really look at it or use it and completely changed your mind about it? If so, what curricula and what changed your mind?

[PeterPan]

Hehe, there was a thread like this on the high school board a while back, with people sharing stuff they had slammed for years that they had to eat crow about. It was the usual suspects: Saxon, IEW, and so on...

 

I've had some that I threw aside in disgust and had to go back to. The things that bugged me were still there, but I found ways to make it work. (Shurley, WRTR which actually I think jumped from and got SWR because I realized WRTR wasn't going to have enough structure)

 

My two bugaboos or never do's for me have been Saxon math and MFW, so this year, just for fun, I thought I'd try them with my ds. Admittedly they'll be the lowest levels (K5 of both), but still, should be fun just to say I did and see if any off my issues were rooted in reality. :)

[Hunter]

McGuffey's Eclectic Readers. I didn't know the difference between the ECLECTIC readers and the older Mott Media version.

 

It's the word list and the method of delivery of the list that has me hooked. And CBD has audio versions so the student can listen over and over to the story to learn correct pronunciation and elocution.

[black_midori]

YES!!! Just this year, in fact! lol

 

I totally and completely dismissed Sonlight as a curriculum that would fit our needs for years - I never even really looked into it, because I knew it was very heavily Christian, very super-structured and very expensive.

 

Then I ended up with a situation where I needed to provide a very structured curriculum choice for LA & History/Geo for a very religious person & expense wasn't a big issue... and I STILL didn't even bother to look into it, because I already "knew" that I wouldn't use something like that! lol

 

Then I went to the CAPE convention in NM in April and actually SAW Sonlight while browsing curriculum for something to fill the above needs and thought "wow, that just might work!". I came back to the table several times to check things out, looked over booklists, and grabbed the catalog. Within a few weeks, I had placed my very first Sonlight order - and we will be starting it at the beginning of July. Hopefully all will go great - I am now very excited! :)

 

I think the main reason that I ended up going with it was because I just LOVED the booklists - when I saw all the books laid out on the table, my first thought was that most of them were ones that we had already read, or I loved and planned to read later. I had always pictured the books & everything else involved as heavily religious & therefore (to me) not very appealing. The Abeka table was just like I expected (another curriculum I would never picture me buying) - and I was completely uninterested. But SL turned out to be much different from what I expected & filled a specific need at a specific time.

[yobella]

Well, after using Rightstart, Singapore, and Math Mammoth, I'm ready to give Saxon a try. Incremental, drill, and lots of review may be just what we need here.

 

Paula

[MamaBear]

Abeka - not my teaching style and not interesting enough for dd. Thought we would give it a try last year for the first time and I am so glad it was just one subject. I can't imagine doing all subjects. But what works for one family doesn't always work for the next. Live and learn:)

[Dawn E]

R&S English. I stayed away from it so long because I thought it looked very dry. We started using it last year, and we love it. I guess what changed my mind was how flexible the material was. We don't have to complete every exercise if she understands the material, and a lot of it can be covered orally or on the board. It is also very thorough.

[raceNzanesmom]

Heart of Dakota. I tried LHTH with my preschooler at a time when I was starting high school with my oldest and beginning full time child care services in my home. As simple as it was I just couldn't pull it together enough to do it. So, I assumed HOD wasn't for us. Looked at again when I was struggling to keep the fun in 1st grade. Tried Little Hearts and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it. We've now finished Little Hearts, Beyond, and I have Bigger waiting on the shelf. :D

 

I was also reluctant to try R&S English. Finally gave it a chance when my 9th grader still wasn't getting english. He learned SO much and scored well on his ACT. He'll tell you it may not have been fun, but it was great for teaching him what he needed to know. And, it's affordable. I'll approach it a bit differently with our youngest, but will definitely be using it again.

[laundrycrisis]

WWE. When I looked at it for 1st, then 2nd, it was way beyond what our son was capable of. But I ended up using WWE1 and starting WWE2 in 3rd grade, and it has been perfect and incredibly helpful. I accelerate it though - he did a full week of WWE1 in one day and with WWE2 he does two days worth in one day. It turned out to be perfect for him, just two years later.

[Scuff]

TOG. I first looked at it a few years ago when they sent you a folder full of stuff. I was instantly overwhelmed and didn't understand why they couldn't just give me a catalog so that i could quickly get the gist of it and decide if it was something to look at or pass by. I tossed that folder and moved on. A little while later they had the 3 week trial online. Even looking at that briefly, I passed it by without spending much time. Honestly, if not for the word of mouth on this forum, I probably would have never used TOG. But, it's just what we need. I love that I can tweak it to fit and that I can teach all my children the same period of history at once. I still think it's unneccessarily complicated. Some parts of it I would organize completely differently to make it more user friendly. But, overall, it's the best history for us.

[Mrs.Gregg]

Yes Teach your child to read in 100 easy reading lessons and First language lessons. Both I thought were two "scripted". Come to find out this is a method that works really well with my youngest and she is blooming.;)