It seems like we homeschool moms are always on the lookout for a better curriculum, something wonderful that works for everyone with no problems, is probably what we want. Real kids aren't that easy though. They're all different and things that worked for your first might not work for the subsequent kids.
When we first started homeschool, we got Switched on Schoolhouse for our oldest, but he really didn't like it. It wasn't a good fit for him. I supplemented his world history study with a lot of hands on unit studies and that was fun and memorable, but a lot of work for me.
I found Konos that first year and it is a good curriculum, with a lot of hands-on stuff to do, but it does take a lot of prep work. That's my problem lately, is I don't want to do very much prep work. That's why we've been doing the basics lately without much else. Konos is still what I use for the younger two kids, as our main curriculum. I also use Scholastic Success with Grammar, Sequential Spelling and Homeschool Math E-books with them. All of these are working pretty well, I think.
For my older son, I ordered a workbook based curriculum because that is what he wanted, but let me tell you, it's awful. The explanations are difficult to understand, the questions are difficult to understand and both of us were ready to pull our hair out yesterday.
So now I am on the lookout for something to make 9th grade do-able and tolerable if not fun, at least not too frustrating. I'm still making him do the workbooks, but I don't want to do this curriculum for the next 4 years! So I'm looking again. It's frustrating. Any suggestions?
No, but I sure will be glad that by the time we need it, you will have already done all the work of figuring it out for me!
ReplyDeleteGreat, I'm the guinea pig? Maybe I can find someone else who can give me the benefit of their experience so I can pass it along.
ReplyDeleteToo bad my sister Ann doesn't blog. She has a freshman and a senior in her house! Of course, the freshman locked himself in his bedroom and wouldn't come out over poetry... *Grin*
ReplyDeleteDoes he like to read? We're using Sonlight for History, Literature, Geography and Language Arts. And we have Math-U-See, and Apologia Biology. I'll be ordering a driver's ed course soon, but I can't remember the name of that one, it's one approved by the state. We also have some tapes for learning Italian, and he's learning guitar on an internet course plus books I bought at music store.
ReplyDeleteHmm. I have a friend who uses sonlight. I may have to look into that. He loves to read.
ReplyDeleteI may have to avoid poetry though, LoL.