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What curriculum have you never changed?


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I was thinking about this the other day.

Are you still using any curricula now that you were back when you first started homeschooling? Are there any that you initially chose when you started that you've never changed or dropped (aside from a kid outgrowing them)?

I think the only ones on my list, after 12 years, are R&S Spelling and WWE. Those were the first writing and spelling I tried and I've never had them do anything else.

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I chose All About Spelling with my first dc about 5-6 years ago and used it through Level 7.  I wasn’t able to use it with dc2, but I’m now using it with dc3, so I guess I’ve kind of used it all along. That’s the only one I can think of though. 

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I taught 7 of my kids and 2 grandkids to read with Sing, Spell, Read, Write. 

All 8 of my kids have used Horizons math, 7 through the 6th grade bks and our youngest is 1/2 way through Horizons 5.

6 have used Foresters alg. #7 will this yr. 7 have used MUS alg and geo as pre-alg and pre-geo.

 

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None.
I mean, I've used some of the same resources with my kids, but my approach changed so radically that they became much less of me following the script and more me teaching how I thought it worked best.  My oldest's experience with 100 EZ lessons is radically different than my youngest's.  With my oldest, I followed it to the letter, lol, but by the time the youngest came along?  I had hands on games, different set ups, no writing....same with lots of other things on my shelves: Hands On Equations?  So different.  SOTW? LOL  It's just not even fair to say that I taught them the same way.

So, none.

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Math U See! It just works for us. (Occasionally, the program will teach a particular method that is not my favorite, and I'll then teach my kids what I believe is an easier way to solve something, but far and away, it just works. We have used it since Kindergarten and now my oldest is going into 7th grade. Hope it continues to work for us!) 

I don't use a whole lot of formal curriculum beyond this, except Lively Latin. We're also trying out Elemental Science this year. But pretty much everything else I create myself (library books, etc.) 

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For K-6th:
Artistic Pursuits
All About Reading
Handwriting without Tears
Math Mammoth

For 7th-12th:
Analytical Grammar
Video Text
Apologia science (7th-12th, not the elementary series)
Excellence in Literature

Spelling, elementary science, history, writing/composition, elementary grammar have all been changed around a lot.

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I used A Beka phonics for all 5 of mine.  R&S Spelling 2 & 3 for the first 4 and planning on using it for my last little guy.  We've stuck with R&S English through level 5 so far.  And Pentime except for my firstborn who started with A Beka.

That might be it. 

Edited by KeriJ
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Abeka Math 1-3

Saxon Math 5/4 through Advanced Mathematics

Abeka Language and Spelling

Bob Jones Bible

Apologia Science (although I didn't buy any of the elementary books until 3 of my kids were beyond them).

 

We have mostly stayed the same the whole way through.  My kids are all about 2 years apart, so we just moved one kid out of a book, held onto it for a year, and started it again.  It works for us. 

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Most of these have been used differently depending on the kid, but that seems like a given when you use a program so many times....

100 EZL 

Pentime through book 4 

Essential Math A/B (I didn't discover until 2nd child, but I'm about to start it with my 6th so I think it makes the cut)

CLE Math 1-3 

Tapestry of Grace 

I'll give LAoW and WWaT an honorary mention. They've only made it through 2 kids so far, but I fully intend to use these programs with all my kids.

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46 minutes ago, TracyP said:

Most of these have been used differently depending on the kid, but that seems like a given when you use a program so many times.....

I agree. It is curricula, not the teacher. I don't hand my kids books and walk away and let the book do the teaching. I teach. If my teaching hadn't altered at all over 25 yrs, I would be a pretty pathetic excuse for a teacher.

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Singapore  Primary Math 

Song School Latin (but we did not like Latin for Children)

That is the only one all three kids used so far. There may be more as they all go through the middle and high school years. It looks like they will all use Writeshop.

Also, I used AAS for my youngest and would have probably used it for the older two, if I could have afforded it at the time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

HWoT the first few books for all kids

Apples and Pears, the whole series for both of my struggling spellers

WWE1-3 all kids

SoTW at least 1 book for each of them 

Oh and Dance Mat Typing to start to learn typing, 3 kids so far have done the program

 

Edited by soror
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Brillkids Little Reader, Little Musician, and Little Math, all of the Preschool Prep videos and books, all of the leapfrog videos, Memoflix by Monkisee, and Monster Math Squad for all four of my children.  I used ReadingBear.org for three of the four.

I’m not sure Brillkids Little Math was worth it. Little Reader and Little Musician were definitely worth it, and we’re my favorite two resources I’ve used.

Sounds like a lot of screen time, but I’m a pretty strict screen time limiter.  I did all three Brillkids programs in 5 minutes twice per day total.  The rest were done after the age of two in the two 1/2 hour slots I let the kids have screen time when I cooked or cleaned.

 

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All of my kids have used the R&S preschool workbooks.  Most have used at least one Kumon book.  All but one have used McGuffy Eclectic Readers for phonics, my last is going to use Memoria Press, because I went with their whole core. 

We have gone back to some things we started with, like SCM's Scripture Memory System and Memoria Press Latin.  I tried other things, but those work the best for us. 

I wish I'd jumped around curriculum less, but it seems like my family dynamics are always changing.  What worked when I just had littles doesn't work with a mix of ages. 

Edited by Holly
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All 3 of my kids did Five in a Row for PreK - K. All 3 also did the Let's (Cut, Paste, Color, etc) workbooks from Kumon in PreK. After K, all of my children went on to different paths. One child did all levels of McRuffy Math.  If Build Your Library had been around when kids were little, I probably would've used it through elementary. 

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Rod and Staff: math, 1st-8th grades, preschool ABC workbooks, and English as far as a kid can get through them.

Story of the World, all 4 volumes, twice through with both kids.

Well Trained Mind methods in general. I'm about to start my last as I graduate my first. I purchased  the same Rod and staff ABC workbooks and first grade reading and phonics that I used with the others to gear up for the new year. 

Edited by 2_girls_mommy
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I am still using Story of the World, Spelling Workout, Considering God's Creation, Singapore Math, BJU English. The only thing that might be new this year is CAP Latin, but even that is up in the air. I already bought it, the younger one, but still own First Form Latin and recently bought a new pronounciation CD so it would be classical. Mystery Science is new also, but I never dropped the science we used before.  We also still own RS4Kids and Apologia Elementary series so we might still use those. The one thing I sold off and could not stand was Notgrass. I did not like anything I had by Notgrass.

Edited by Janeway
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  • 3 weeks later...

We are not far enough along for my voice to count much, but I'm thinking all my kids are going to be stuck with BFSU, because it is so thorough and presents topics more or less sequentially . And I can't foresee any reason for us to not continue with MEP for everybody.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hmm...we are still using some Michael Clay Thompson grammar and Daily Grammar even though we don't always do them every year (this is a year we are). Things we'll probably come back to are Ellen McHenry and Singapore Math (brief switch to Math Mammoth because we were using US Edition, and I want my son to have a smoother transition to Dimensions Math in 7th). We have also been using Notgrass consistently, though we didn't use it our first year. 

We have other repeats, particularly with supplements, but as for what we started with, that's probably all that's been carried through. We didn't start in K with our first one, and they are 4 grades apart, so there are times when we have gaps between one child finishing a resource and then next aging into it.

 

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Apologia Science for middle school and high school is the only curriculum all my kids have used -- or will use. My 12th child and last student is in 6th grade, so he hasn't started it yet. He's been using the elementary Apologia science, which (like most of the curricula I use now) wasn't even available when I began homeschooling 26 years ago.

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Three children, eighteen years. Used (or soon will be) for all three:

Primary years:
Reader Rabbit's Reading 1/ Reader Rabbit's Interactive Reading Journey
Artes Latinae: Level 1
Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? Teaching Great Poetry to Children
Miquon/ Key To
Scribner School Paperbacks
TOPS Science
Phonics of Drawing
My Path to Heaven
A Child's History of the World (Hillyer)
Word Wealth Junior

Secondary years:
Art of Problem Solving*
Open University S103 Discovering Science
Artes Latinae: Level 2
Sound & Sense (Perrine 1st ed.)
Word Wealth

So many of these are now out of print, or don't work with modern technology. Sigh. Surely, I think sometimes, if people knew these were the best curricula ever, they would be back in demand...

Edited by Violet Crown
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  • 3 weeks later...

We used all of Logic of English Foundations. It was fabulous; we both learned so much! We’re only on Level 3 of AAS, but I can easily see us going art the way with that as well. 

We’re still in the early days & very eclectic, so we’ll likely use a broad range. Here, a decision to switch rarely means anything is “wrong” with a given curriculum... it just means that we wanted to try out a different style or alternate challenge levels. 😊

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