Sigh... I'm suffering from grass is greener syndrome...

[BlueTaelon]

Its the last day of the semester with our charter and this quarter was really hard on us. So tempted to drop the charter and go independent but I know I need to be accountable to someone or else I let things side. Shiny, fun materials are calling my name...

 

Who else has grass is greener syndrome?

 

(In case your wondering, no I won't drop the charter but I will order the shinny stuff to supplement the lessons, I'm very much a teach to the objective kinda person:)

[IsabelC]

Grass is Greener Syndrome is pretty common, I suspect. When we homeschooled the first time, I had bouts of feeling jealous towards schooling families. Then we put the kidlets in school and I missed home schooling.

 

Were your issues with the charter school things that can be mitigated or resolved? 

Would independent home schooling be an option at all? Maybe there is some other way to maintain structure and accountability?

Or maybe you just need a break and the enthusiasm will return next semester?

[BlueTaelon]

Grass is Greener Syndrome is pretty common, I suspect. When we homeschooled the first time, I had bouts of feeling jealous towards schooling families. Then we put the kidlets in school and I missed home schooling.

 

Were your issues with the charter school things that can be mitigated or resolved? 

Would independent home schooling be an option at all? Maybe there is some other way to maintain structure and accountability?

Or maybe you just need a break and the enthusiasm will return next semester?

 

They already are resolving, we just had a really rough quarter as a family which put us behind and we were trying to rush through to catch up which is stressful. The program works for us, just not so much when were feeling the time crunch because then its very obvious were more or less using K12 as a spine and I'm having to search out visual materials which is takes time. The new stuff has those visuals built in but I doubt its at all rigorous, it just doesn't seem high school level to me even though they claim it is. It will make a good supplement though:)

[LLMom]

I had to quit looking.  It took me forever to realize that the new shiny items didn't change any of our problems.  We still had to do it, the dc were still reluctant, and it got old...like everything does.  Honestly, most kids can learn from almost any material if they do it consistently. 

[MerryAtHope]

Yeah, I used to get that a lot! You might like this article on Grass is Greener Syndrome! 

 

Maybe instead of changing something big, find a new, fun read-aloud, or a craft project to work on with the kids--something to spice things up a little while you continue to work through what you have. Only change things that are really not working at all. Hang in there! These feelings do pass (or they are finally appeased when we buy curriculum for next year!)

 

Merry :-)

[MotherOfBoys]

I've got that problem with math right now. I know saxon works but he can handle more depth in the concepts, topics, and wants more information at a time. Buying mm, because it was cheap, opened my eyes to this. So I'm grateful to mm but I think beast would be greener. But what if beast is a flop? Then I have three math curriculums for one child. What a waste.

[clemota]

Yup, dealing with it right now.  I have a meeting with our assigned teacher next week, and am planning to see if we can resolve our differences.  But I am loathe to leave our charter, mostly because they provide the youngest with speech therapy and are working with me on documenting accommodations for my elder DD.   But the curriculum required is at odds with the curriculum I prefer (CA public school standards vs. WTM-style with some CM thrown in for good measure). 

 

My kids test very well, so I'm hoping that will be my bargaining chip.  They don't want to lose families who make them look good to the state, so she may be more willing to work with my "non-traditional" methods.  There are several other teachers with the local charters who do this, so I know it's possible.  I just need to try.  Then *maybe* the grass will be green over here.  Until the next new curriculum comes out, that is.

[BlueTaelon]

Yup, dealing with it right now.  I have a meeting with our assigned teacher next week, and am planning to see if we can resolve our differences.  But I am loathe to leave our charter, mostly because they provide the youngest with speech therapy and are working with me on documenting accommodations for my elder DD.   But the curriculum required is at odds with the curriculum I prefer (CA public school standards vs. WTM-style with some CM thrown in for good measure). 

 

My kids test very well, so I'm hoping that will be my bargaining chip.  They don't want to lose families who make them look good to the state, so she may be more willing to work with my "non-traditional" methods.  There are several other teachers with the local charters who do this, so I know it's possible.  I just need to try.  Then *maybe* the grass will be green over here.  Until the next new curriculum comes out, that is.

 

If your in So Cal check out Sky Mountain Charter School or another IEM school, we used them and talk about being spoiled! They give you $1600 per child, per year and can get pretty much anything (including classes like art, dance, karate ect) except religious stuff and they even work with unschoolers as long as your making progress. I used pretty much what ever I wanted and the teacher would translate what we were doing into state standards. Only thing I didn't like was the fact we had to drive to LA for STAR testing and NEVER miss the required  monthly meeting. You miss 2 or have to reschedule and they boot you out. You don't show for STAR and they drop you immediately, we had the flu that week and it wasn't pretty, especially since it was our 2nd strike since we'd had to reschedule a monthly ES meeting at the beginning of the year due to the flu. Other then making the required meetings they leave you alone and I LOVED having $3,200yr for school for the girls, since dd7 was in kindy she didn't need much and I was able to shift that money over to dd13 who used more expensive stuff and was going though multiple levels in a year. I really miss that budget lol:)

[BlueTaelon]

I've got that problem with math right now. I know saxon works but he can handle more depth in the concepts, topics, and wants more information at a time. Buying mm, because it was cheap, opened my eyes to this. So I'm grateful to mm but I think beast would be greener. But what if beast is a flop? Then I have three math curriculums for one child. What a waste.

 

Its not a waste and you can always resell it if it doesn't work:) I totally forgot about beast, I want that for dd7 when we get to that level:) I need to go see what they are up too, I haven't seen anything since it first came out.

 

I had to quit looking.  It took me forever to realize that the new shiny items didn't change any of our problems.  We still had to do it, the dc were still reluctant, and it got old...like everything does.  Honestly, most kids can learn from almost any material if they do it consistently. 

Spoken like someone who does not have a visual learner, especially one with CAPD:)

[Coco_Clark]

I hate grass is greener. Im having it too. I want to drop our science, because another science I didnt know about before looks better. I'm bored with this history cycle, I want to skip to the next one. Our classical composer study, which I was perfectly happy with a week ago, now doesn't seem like anything special. Math is suddenly hard, I've convinced myself for some reason that with another curriculum we'd never hit these hard spots. It goes on and on.

 

Im using the inspiration to begin planning next year. Thankfully I dont have the funds to switch gears mid-year, or else my kids would have no continuity at all. ;)

[clemota]

If your in So Cal check out Sky Mountain Charter School or another IEM school, we used them and talk about being spoiled! They give you $1600 per child, per year and can get pretty much anything (including classes like art, dance, karate ect) except religious stuff and they even work with unschoolers as long as your making progress. I used pretty much what ever I wanted and the teacher would translate what we were doing into state standards. Only thing I didn't like was the fact we had to drive to LA for STAR testing and NEVER miss the required  monthly meeting. You miss 2 or have to reschedule and they boot you out. You don't show for STAR and they drop you immediately, we had the flu that week and it wasn't pretty, especially since it was our 2nd strike since we'd had to reschedule a monthly ES meeting at the beginning of the year due to the flu. Other then making the required meetings they leave you alone and I LOVED having $3,200yr for school for the girls, since dd7 was in kindy she didn't need much and I was able to shift that money over to dd13 who used more expensive stuff and was going though multiple levels in a year. I really miss that budget lol:)

 

I'm in the Bay Area.  We get the same amount, and can use it pretty much the same way.  I just have a new teacher who needs to learn to let go.  Standards can be easily translated in many different ways....!