vintage vs modern curriculum

[vaquitita]

Every time threads on vintage materials come up, I start drooling. Lol. I would love to use strayer upton for math, McGuffey to teach all of LA, maybe add dictation day by day at some point, and have the kids read through all the yesterday's classics books. But somehow I can't let go of the modern stuff. Lol. Maybe it's the open and go ness of modern programs I'm afraid to let go of, or maybe my kids are too modern. They aren't raised with a Victorian-o-phile for a mother like I was. LOL . But somehow having started with modern stuff I can't seem to make the switch to vintage. Being with a charter school probably doesn't help.

 

Any one switch to using vintage books and methods after starting with modern?

 

Eta: at this point I feel like I've found stuff that works for us, so the smart move is to stay the course. I may just need to let go of the vintage stuff and get rid of the ones I've collected.

Edited August 7, 2016 by vaquitita

[J-rap]

I used old Mcguffy readers off and on.  Then in high school, I tried out different Trig curriculums and didn't like any of them.  I finally went with an old Trig textbook my father had from the 1940's.  It was exactly what I was looking for, so that's how my kids who took Trig learned Trig.  :)

 

 

[HomeAgain]

I think there's always a balance.

 

We use vintage language arts programs because they work for us, but I'm not about to cut out something like Moving Beyond The Page because that works for us, too.  I like the vintage stuff because it's no fuss.  Very simple to use, and most books were written without having to have a teacher's guide for them.

 

I like modern math.  Vintage works and gets the job done, but MEP, Fred, and Beast Academy are so lovely they shouldn't be shunned because of their age.

 

We started out fully modern.  Over the past several years I've become a better teacher, and slowly gravitated more toward older, free/low cost methods that I can adapt to a modern household. 

[cabritadorada]

I'm always drawn to the vintage. I got hooked on reading via my mom and grandma's ancient Nancy Drews (first edition The Secret of the Old Clock! I can't believe they let me have it!). And I've started teaching dd by raiding my mom's (a former teacher) shelves for curricula and books on teaching.

 

I found a reading/phonics series I love (Stern-Gould Structural Reading) that is long out of print--and I ended up tracking down relatives of the author so I could make copies of the books in the series that I'm missing.  :o  (If I could only hound them into getting the books in print again, or to scan them and get them online...)

 

I absolutely LOVE Miquon and Stern Structural Arithmetic--both 1930s to 1960s developments in math instruction that have similar roots. 

 

Some things are so wonderful they shouldn't get an update -- but definitely supplement with some modern stuff for balance right? and I'm learning a lot of modern stuff is well-grounded in what works and in a very user-friendly format. Nothing to knock about that. :p

 

[Hunter]

Neither vintage or modern is superior or inferior to the other. And different periods of vintage are totally different from other periods of vintage, so we cannot make many generalizations about vintage books.

 

For ME, with my crazy surreal lifestyle, vintage ebooks are a godsend. I just cannot hold into hardcopy books to save my life. Last year a major construction project disrupted a giant outdoor cockroach nest and sent them scurrying up the pipes of my high rise building. Refugee cockroaches are scary stuff, let me tell you. I left that place with only what me, a friend, and the maintenance man carried in one trip in the elevator.

 

Now, I'm told my new building has bedbugs. I am certainly not going to collect paper.

 

Today I bought a new microcard for my tablet and was going through thumb drives to see what I wanted to put on it. I have lost so many ebooks to corrupted files. So I cannot count on still having ebooks that I purchased, either.

 

The vintage books are my backup. I rely them more and more as I lose my other stuff. As I learn to use them better, I just do. Then I can spend my money on stuff other than books. I walked so much the past couple months I actually put holes in my sneakers in 11 weeks. Sand gets in the holes when I walk and it is irritating. I need new sneakers or I'm going to have to wear hiking boots with my shorts. I will if I have to. I have before. Sneakers, for me, are like wrapping my feet in tissue paper. The cement sidewalks just eat them up. But I'd rather have new sneakers than buy books.

 

I'm REALLY close to a beautiful beautiful library right now. Using vintage books as a core doesn't mean that is all a student uses. None of us live in a bubble. My library offers Hoopla streaming video. I have Amazon Prime and now that means I can download videos onto my tablet at a public wifi and bring it home to watch it.

 

I'm not tutoring right now. I've been taking some time off to take some novel writing classes and move into my new neighborhood. I had a lull between the last two finals and sign ups for the new round and I took some time to brush off the Rainbow Curriculum and work on tightening it up more. And when it sits for awhile, I get to look at it with fresh eyes. I take it out every few months and work on it some more.

 

It is a comfort to me to know I'm getting a one page booklist together that I can confidently use if I want to. That I can start over from scratch and in one day be up and running without it costing me a cent, as long as I have a large screen cell phone. And I always will because I insure it to the max to make sure I do.

 

Most people don't live my crazy life though. You people have fancy stuff like cars and your own washing machines and TVs and home wifi. I kinda sorta temporarily have home wifi, probably for a few more weeks, but...well, that isn't a given and wasn't for the last 2 years. Me, my phone, my hiking books--that is about all I can count on. :lol:

[Kat w]

I use both. I think for anyone pondering this I would say, try both.

 

The free Treadwell readers, nothing like them.

 

If my boys were missing out on beast? Oh. I would be so upset lol.

I think both have their place and to use both when possible it beneficial .

 

I used the McGuffey readers when my girls were young, they still remember them fondly . one if the books are on my mantle :)

 

I'd say, use both when you can. The kids benefit from both.

My boys love those Free Treadwell readers so much.

 

Can't beat a classic :)

Edited August 8, 2016 by Kat w

[vaquitita]

I use both. I think for anyone pondering this I would say, try both.

 

The free Treadwell readers, nothing like them.

 

If my boys were missing out on beast? Oh. I would be so upset lol.

I think both have their place and to use both when possible it beneficial .

 

I used the McGuffey readers when my girls were young, they still remember them fondly . one if the books are on my mantle :)

 

I'd say, use both when you can. The kids benefit from both.

My boys love those Free Treadwell readers so much.

 

Can't beat a classic :)

 

Aw man, I got rid of my Treadwell readers just a few months ago. I had five sets of readers and decided that was just too many. LOL. Actually, six sets if I count the Elson readers that are included in RLTL. At the time we were using AAR and pathway readers, and I figured I'd want the BOB books for my last kid. So I gave back the Treadwell readers to our school and took the McGuffey readers to a used book store (though actually they didn't want them, so I still have them).

 

I suppose a lot of what appeals to me with vintage curriculum is the simplicity, not a lot of moving parts. Well, the modern stuff I've found that works for us is like that too. RS was too many manipulatives, Singapore was too many books to shuffle. MUS and Miquon are working for us, 1 book + 1 manipulative = Happy Mama. AAS was too many peices, RLTL is great. AAR is too many pieces. 

 

Writing that out has made a light bulb go off for me (that it's the simplicity of vintage materials that appeals to me). Maybe now I can let go of my vintage curriculum fetish. LOL.

Edited August 8, 2016 by vaquitita

[Hunter]

Humans manage to overcomplicate everything, but without household machines and cars and tech, the older educational methods had to be less complicated than ours. There was no ability to sustain our level of complication without our labor saving devices.

[Kat w]

Aww, I would have loved to have your Free Treadwell's Nd mcfuffeys! :)

 

My daughter put my granddaughter in a charter school p/t and between she and I are homeschooling the rest . id love a set for my daughter ...she's not gettin mine lol.

 

Yea hunter, that's so true isn't it? We complicate things.

 

I've often thought ,I was born in the wrong timeframe. I wouldn't mind a bit if I lived before the industrial revolution . I'd want my same hubby tho :)

And...a/c...Nd the dishwashers kinda cool...and washer...OK! I guess I love the fantasy lol. Or...jus want to be born after a/c, dishwasher, and clothes washer :)

 

Sigh. Life's a changin. I was on Pinterest earlier and the 4 th grade stuff teachers were doing had texting and ...zap I think it's called...where u can stand like 50 ft from someone and zap pics to them. And the kids having Fb. I was like...wow. Complicate things we do.

Edited August 9, 2016 by Kat w