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What was your biggest curriculum mistake?


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Add me to Real Science 4 Kids. I bought all of the prelevels expecting to love it and hated it. Not enough information for my kids and they are all well within the age range of the prelevels. I also did the same with Life Of Fred. I heard enough great things that I bought the entire elementary set. Yeah, no. My kids kept asking when we'd do real math instead of this. Maybe I'll pull it out again this summer but they were not fond of it last summer.

 

Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons was miserable for us too and I gave it away instead of trying to sell it.

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This thread makes me laugh! It's funny that we all have so many of these. Now, I have been homeschooling for over 15 years so I have LOTS of mistakes, but here's a few.....

 

Miquon Math -- why are there no divisions on the blocks?? MUS blocks make sense to me, these do not. (We don't use MUS.)

RightStart Math  -- way too labor intensive with me with multiple kiddos at different places. But at least it's got great resale value. Love the card games though. And still think the abacus is just way cool. ;)

 

Drawing with Children - love the principles, but never could really get to substantive implementation of those principles. And then I see it just sooo highly recommended and feel guilty that we don't use. Like, if we USED this book then my children would be in touch with their true artist selves within. But no, I have failed them. 

Barry Stebbing I Can Do All Things Art -- went to an art workshop with him and the kids loved it. Bought the DVD/book. Sits on a shelf. 

 

The Easy Spanish -- oh my, the WORST for what I paid for it as a new release. (Maybe it's improved by now??) Well, the songs/CD was cute. The book had numerous errors, and it felt like it took forever to actually learn anything.

 

Writing Strands -- just boring. Uninspiring. (for me....sorry! No offense!)

 

 

**But the funny (sad!) thing is that I have shelves full of curriculum that we are not using. But I don't want to get rid of it because... well, what if I need it someday? What if it ends up being a good fit for a different child? What if all the furniture in my house needs to be leveled out and then need all those books? Or paperweights...what if we need like 200 paperweights all at once? 

 

Maybe this thread will inspire me to really LET GO of more curriculum! 

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Rosetta Stone

TOG...I love TOG, it just isn't a good fit for my family. I bought it, sold it, bought it, sold it. Bought it again and actually used it for a few years. Sold it. And just this week was looking at it again. Slap me.

Thanks for being so hilarious, laughed out loud.  Cuz this is what I do too!

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I am so glad I'm not the only one who buys a curriculum, hates it and then goes back to it again only to find that.... I still hate it. I mostly do that with science because I can't find a science curriculum we like. I did that with REAL Science Odessey and am considering doing it with A Beka Science, simply because it's cheap and I can't find anything I like anyhow.

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Well, we're only half-way(ish) through our first year, but we had 2 flops this year-

 

DD9 LOATHES Sequential Spelling-somehow I thought since she was a natural speller, this would work...especially since she got to work with a whiteboard...I even did the pretest and started her out where it recommended, but it was still WAY too repetitious/easy for her (I've decided we will just skip spelling altogether-maybe we might try vocab next year, maybe). 

 

Discovering Great Artists-DD9 is just not interested in the projects.  She enjoyed reading about the artists (actually read through all of the artist notes one afternoon), but most of the projects were less than inspiring for her. 

  

 

 

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We haven't been at it long...so far our fails are....

 

Sequential Spelling.....just, no....complete waste of our time

1st Step Science and History from Currclick....loved the format but so much misinformation and spelling mistakes.... :cursing:

Intellego Countries and Cultures....seemed disorganized and not at all streamlined, lots of busywork.

ZB Cursive....I didn't buy the teachers manual to see if there were specific teaching methods because it cost 3xs the amount of the workbook....

BJU English 2...I didn't realize it was religious, that was my big newbie mistake. I love the layout though and wish secularizing would have worked for us...

 

I did order Elemental Science but when I looked through the book it didn't seem a good fit. I will say though that the customer service at ES has been wonderful.

I also ordered AAS and didn't dig it so back it went. 

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Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons - I threw this book across a (small) room with my first child and then picked it up, put it on a shelf, and left it there for about 10 or 12 years.  I think I finally sent it to recycling because I never could bring myself to inflict it upon another child, mine or anyone else's.  

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Drawing with Children - love the principles, but never could really get to substantive implementation of those principles. And then I see it just sooo highly recommended and feel guilty that we don't use. Like, if we USED this book then my children would be in touch with their true artist selves within. But no, I have failed them. 

 

 

LOL.  I too just could not figure out how to operationalize that book.  I feel slightly inadequate whenever I see it, though.  

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Expensive mistakes: Latin for Children, new, all three levels

 

And phonics road, all 4 levels

 

I had done my research and just *knew* they would be great. :(

 

Lesson: don't buy it all at once! Take it year by year.

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Life of Fred (couldn't get past Apples)

FWIW, the middle & high school books are quite different from the elementary books. I have Fractions up through Geometry and my oldest really enjoys them. But when a friend brought a bunch of the elementary books to our support group's curriculum fair I was very underwhelmed by them. So when your kids get to middle school level, you may want to see if you can look over the higher level LoF books at a convention or HS bookstore or if someone in your support group has copies.

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FWIW, the middle & high school books are quite different from the elementary books. I have Fractions up through Geometry and my oldest really enjoys them. But when a friend brought a bunch of the elementary books to our support group's curriculum fair I was very underwhelmed by them. So when your kids get to middle school level, you may want to see if you can look over the higher level LoF books at a convention or HS bookstore or if someone in your support group has copies.

I'm glad to read this. We tried Apples and didn't really care for it, we just started Honey however and are enjoying it and I have Fractions coming from the library. Ds usually learns really well through stories so I'm hopeful that LoF will work for him as we need something to do in between BA releases.

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TOG. I had convention fever. If it sounds good on paper (or in an inspiring workshop speech), I'm sold. I bought the electronic version (another mistake) and was overwhelmed when (at the eleventh hour of course) when I tried to make it mesh with SOTW. That always seems to be the deal breaker for me. Everything I'm drawn to is history-based, but then I can never make it work with WTM unless I compromise, like go out of order, skip chapters, don't use the AG, etc. I think I've finally realized (now that we'll be done with our second cycle of SOTW in a few more years) that it's all we really need, especially now that I'm on a roll with checking out every single available library book in the AG. I still wonder, though, if I should have tried Biblioplan...  :lol:

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"Real Science 4 Kids".

 

Total waste. I can't say I *hate* it, but it was expensive, uses Comic Sans font (ew!) and, we are just a VERY science-y family and I learned the hard and expensive way that there just isn't any science curriculum out there that's really going to do anything for us at the elementary level that we don't already have covered by living our lives and conversing as we normally do.

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Life of Fred - I bought 4 books before we even started Apples.  It just wasn't for us.

TruthQuest History - I paid to have the teacher's guide and the lapbooks printed (for both kids) and we all hated it.  HATED it.

 

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Rosetta Stone

TOG...I love TOG, it just isn't a good fit for my family. I bought it, sold it, bought it, sold it. Bought it again and actually used it for a few years. Sold it. And just this week was looking at it again. Slap me.

 

I've done this with LLATL.  I like the look of it, the idea of it, but DS11 (who I tried it with) hates it.  As in, the kid who usually books through his work quickly and easily and happily was in tears over this program.  He just hated it.  And as if that wasn't enough the first time through, I bought it AGAIN to try AGAIN. :(

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Buying stuff that isn't for "right now". As much as I'd like to plan ahead and buy books all at once, it never works out. DS skips ahead, doesn't work on that level anymore, or we found a different curriculum brand to switch too. Hence, I have a bunch of books that have a couple of the first pages written on and that's it. It just want to be able to plan ahead more.

 

As for actual programs we hate--- nothing yet! Wahoo! We are on a good roll. All thanks to good recommendations from close friends going through the same trajectory of learning as we are and great people on here.

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Uh-oh. What did you not like about this? I just bought it (haven't received it yet)!

It's a fine program *IF* you've got kids at the right stage for it (I'd say about a 3rd or 4th grade level). The problem with it for me is that it's way too easy for DD but DS isn't quite there yet when it comes to writing. I did a few of the easier assignments with him and next week I'm going to try a heavily adapted version of one of the others. But given the fairly hefty cost (IIRC it was around $50), we just aren't getting our money's worth out of it.

 

I am considering trying the "Rockets, Radar, and Robots" theme book with DS when he's a bit further developed in his writing ability.

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Diane Waring History--wasted $$$, terrible

 

Apologia Elementary Human Anatomy--instead of sticking to science it delves into "how to be saved" religious teachings!  I knew it was biblically based but it went to far in pushing the authors beliefs in the lesson on blood---really irked me to find that in a science book.

 

I'm sure I'll think of more...

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what didn't work for us?

 

apologia anything. my dd liked it, but it just didn't get done. i had a hard time picking it up every day. we did astronomy (took a whole year) and started botany and who is god. quit both after a couple of weeks. i really wanted to love it. i FELT like apologia was where we were supposed to be, but it just didn't work. :(

 

right start a. too teacher intensive and too many manipulatives for my highly distractable dd.

 

sequential spelling

 

spelling power

 

considering god's creation. my kids don't do lapbooks. they don't prefer coloring.

 

lof. my dd LOVES it, but we've been borrowing it and i can tell you i am SO glad they don't have anymore.

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I bought and returned RS4K.  I wanted to make it work, but it was just too shallow.

 

Honestly? I thought the RS4K middle grade level chemistry was perfect . . .  for my 3rd grader.  Never used the biology - too shallow, and never tried the physics - too boring.  But for a bright 7 or 8 year old, the middle grade chemistry was great!  :lol:

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Lol! We *loved* 100EZ ("we" being myself, DS6, DD4, and even DD3 who begs for it).

 

And (sigh), we just could not make heads nor tails of Phonics Pathways. The pages were too distracting and confusing for my son, and I just couldn't figure out how to "do" it. I don't always love scripts (for the most part we ignored them in 100EZ) but I was lost in PP (and slightly annoyed by the quippy little bug sayings throughout).

 

Won't resell PP yet, though... Who knows? Kids #4 and 5 may be wired differently.

Wow we hated Ez and I used PP for both kids as a follow up to AIP

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Mystery of History

 

A set of ETC workbooks- I couldn't even figure out what half of those stick figures were supposed to be!

 

Ready Writer- My kids thought it was torture

 

Writing Strands- boring and slow. I can handle boring, but I want it to be boring and fast.

 

Singapore My Pals Are Here Science

 

Shiller Math- The first level was great, but once my child was old enough to write well, it moved too slowly. I don't need to do everything with manipulatives and games! I should have bought the 4-5 unit only.

 

Advanced Academic Writing- The rest of that MCT level was fine although the vocab is not my favorite.

 

A beginning Korean book- I was a fool to think I could facilitate Korean when I speak none!

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Curriculum that I purchased and immediately returned include MOH, Miquon, and Phonics Pathways.

I don't recall the title, but there was a microscope unit that I purchased that didn't include a master answer sheet, and the extra lab sheets that I purchased were printed front to back, so I still had to photocopy them. MUS Primer is turning into a major downer. Teach Your Child to Read in 100EZ lessons was a major bust with my eldest, so I did not attempt to use it with my DD. My DD flatly rejected the pre-AAR materials.

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Could you please explain what you didn't like about History Revealed? I am considering this for fall. Thanks!

Diane Waring History--wasted $$$, terrible

 

Apologia Elementary Human Anatomy--instead of sticking to science it delves into "how to be saved" religious teachings!  I knew it was biblically based but it went to far in pushing the authors beliefs in the lesson on blood---really irked me to find that in a science book.

 

I'm sure I'll think of more...

 

 

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"WWS - I don't understand this program. It's too tedious for good writers, and it's way too complicated for struggling writers. Who is it actually supposed to serve? I was so disappointed. I wish SWB would have devoted her efforts to continuing her grammar program."

 

I agree!!

 

I also didn't like FLL/WWE, but I wouldn't say I hated it.

 

I really didn't care for My Father's World.  That surprised me.

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Not curriculum that we have hated, but those that definitely DID NOT work for us.....

 

Teaching Textbooks - no retention

 

Sonlight - It's waaay tooo much money to spend for me to tweak and redo the entire schedule (honestly it would probably be like this with any other curriculum that is scheduled like SL, it's just that SL was the only one like this we tried. I love the idea, just didn't work for us)

 

Apologia General Science and Rainbow Science

 

Winning with Writing, Growing with Grammar, Sequential Spelling, Writing Strands, Easy Grammar, Brave Writer Help for High School and Analytical Grammar. (AG worked well while we were doing it, but DD didn't seem to retain anything after we stopped using it)

 

Wow, a lot more Language Arts programs than anything else...lol.  And I didn't even list everything that we've tried. :blush:

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Oh! Completely forgot (as in, blocked-out-of-my-mind) the snafu that was 

 

CAP's Spanish for Children

 

:cursing:  :banghead:  Looked okay until we tried to use it.  :ack2:   :eek: 

 

Oh my.. I thought I was the only one. I know I didn't get the DVD, but I understand and speak Spanish fluently, so why is this program so frustrating and incomprehensible in its teaching? It doesn't work for me!

 

The only thing I like about it is the website - Headventureland. DS10 enjoys conjugating verbs on the game charts. All the kids like El Beso De La Sirena, the story which includes words in Spanish.

 

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Oh my.. I thought I was the only one. I know I didn't get the DVD, but I understand and speak Spanish fluently, so why is this program so frustrating and incomprehensible in its teaching? It doesn't work for me!

 

The only thing I like about it is the website - Headventureland. DS10 enjoys conjugating verbs on the game charts. All the kids like El Beso De La Sirena, the story which includes words in Spanish.

Just goes to show that we all have different approaches and different preferences! CAP SFC has been a huge hit in our house. :)

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It is always interesting to see what people like and don't like. It's a really good thing that there are so many choices out there for curricula!!!

 

Behold and See science 3 & 5 didn't work for us this year either. And they got such awesome reviews, I thought there must be something wrong with us, lol. I didn't hate them, but my kids just could not get into them, they find them very boring.

 

We loved 3 and 4. This year we tried something different, for a change...doh...  and going back to Behold and See 6.

 

One other program I forgot to add in my last post was OPGTR was a huge failure here, very boring. We love Phonics Pathways much, much better. Same concept just not as boring!

 

We loved OPGTR, we didn't do every single page, if she had the concept, we moved on. We started at the vowel sounds. I have recommended it to sooo many people!

 

Saxon Math for my big-picture dd. I'd never seen my mathy, laid back dd so unhappy with math or any curriculum.

 

I agree with this one.  We did it for 8th grade, and my dd didn't like it. We did finish it, but it was brutal to go through.

 

 

Other things that were bad ideas for my crew

 

Real Science 4 kids

Apologia Science (this was the junior high level, not the elementary)

Elemental Science

Writers Jungle

Tapestry of Grace

Any Latin

Easy French

Math Mammoth _ Liked grade 1 and 2, but after that she didn't retain.

Easy Grammar

Life o Fred

 

 

We liked but discontinued

CLE Math

CLE Language Arts

FFL

WWE

 

 

I'm sure there were more... but I can't think of it.

 

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Sonlight, Sonlight, Sonlight

 

We are still recovering from their awful (for us) learn to read and language arts programs. We had to back up and go over intensive phonics at third grade! And their whole, 'act as your child's scribe approach' ? Oh my gosh, I trusted that! I ended up with kids who whined and struggled to write a sentence on their own. We still love the books, but simply for read- alouds.

 

CHC's Behold and See series I loved, but my kids were bored. Maybe if we had started with a higher level it would have worked.

 

Faith and Life for catechism. I finally just made up my own living books- style faith formation.

 

MUS

CHC handwriting

ETC

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Let's see, Failiculum  for us include:

 

All American History, Switched on Schoolhouse (we used it for health, but the problem was getting the danged thing to work correctly), Kinetic Books Algebra (guy spoke too slowly for my son, took forever to write out stuff with his markers), One Year Adventure Novel (I think I would LOVE to do this program myself, but BOTH my kids got caught up in convoluted plots that would never work, or at least made it difficult, and then got frustrated AND refused to change their plots because for some reason it was "set in stone" in their minds, and any suggestions I made to try do undo their troubles were seen as "interfering." Heh!) Game Design worked great for one son, the other lost interest quickly. (had to pay for both kids though) Wordly Wise bombed here.

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I feel the need to reiterate my disdain for Mystery of History. Hobar actually uses the term "interbreeding" when describing the reason for the distinct features of Chinese people! Interbreeding is a term that can be very offensive when applied to human beings as opposed to animals.  This and other inaccuracies have made my blood boil reading this book. What was I thinking?

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I feel the need to reiterate my disdain for Mystery of History. Hobar actually uses the term "interbreeding" when describing the reason for the distinct features of Chinese people! Interbreeding is a term that can be very offensive when applied to human beings as opposed to animals.  This and other inaccuracies have made my blood boil reading this book. What was I thinking?

 

I have felt this way about many of the parent- produced materials. I find that I either have the blood boiling response or simply feel embarrassment- and concern- that these materials exist and represent the homeschooling community. I know most people probably don't feel this way, though, and that I tend to be very picky!

 

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Could you please explain what you didn't like about History Revealed? I am considering this for fall. Thanks!

 

Quiver, 

I just want to point out that the Susie who said she wasted $$$ on History Revealed was NOT me! I am a Susie who feels it is $$$ well spent. Just wanted to be clear. :)

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I love this thread. Truly. It is entertaining. :lol:

 

Why is it that most of our "mistakes" still sit on the shelf "just in case?" Maybe one day??? My own train wreck might one day be a treasure or something like that. ;)

 

Mistakes. Ugh.

 

Sonlight. I love love love Sonlight books. We read most/many core books every year...but for some reason Sonlight schedule does not appeal to me...it is so "much"? In the early years. We read the books when we can and a set of readers every year though. But now that dd is ready for "more" I find myself interested in SL again. :lol:

 

Truthquest. I bought it. I don't get it, it's a PDF and I am stuck with it.

 

OPGTR was a huge fail last year with ds...but guess what? I kept it and I am planning on pulling it out to try again next week. ;)

 

SOTW. Love the idea. Too much detail for my kids. Zero retention and they didn't enjoy it enough to make it even just a good "read aloud." And we wanted more Biblical worldview in our history. But hey, we may use them later right? Yeah...1 and 2 are on the shelf.

 

Saxon. We only used grade 1, but you know what? I sold it! Love MM for elementary math. We are set.

 

WWE for dd. epic fail. Great for ds though. :)

 

I have so many great looking things in the shelf that we haven't used...but I keep them because...one day?

:lol:

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