What do you dislike about other curriculum?

[Happygrl]

I've read a lot of reviews about the positives of various curriculum but not much on the negatives of different curriculum. My brain tends to process well reasons why NOT and gives me a different way to evaluate. So instead of asking why you chose the one you did, I'd love to hear reasons why you didn't choose others.

[Codi]

:cup

[domesticzookeeper]

I didn't choose A Beka because it was pretty much the only curriculum I had for all twelve years of my schooling (both in private school, and then doing their correspondance school at home). I don't feel the curriculum is at all designed to help students *think*, just to memorize facts. Important words in bold, questions written with the same wording as the text, etc. I could go on :shifty Of course most of that was GREAT for me as a precocious kid with high retention. I sailed through with high marks...until I hit a brick wall in college because I hadn't learned how to really learn :shrug3

[doubleblessings]

:popcorn

[tempus vernum]

Bear in mind that I am an unschooler ;) so my reviews are tainted.

Five in a Row - my kids couldn't stand reading the same book every day. We didn't always re-read but I found the curriculum pretty blah. . . and a bit forced. But they have great book lists and I am going to use some of their book lists this year :grin

Sonlight - loved all the books . . . didn't love the schedule. 9 out of 10 times when we first started, the kids wanted to read more more more. . . so I ditched the schedule and we just read through all the literature. It worked way better. :yes In fact, we finished it at lightening speed. This year, I just bought some sonlight books and we read as much as the kids want on a given day. The rest of the books I am just going to get one at a time from the library and read them. ETA - we also liked the "readers" list (for dd). She finished her assigned books in just a few weeks and read most of our read alouds before we did :giggle but she's a reader so that's how it goes ;)

Sing. Spell, Read, Write -- loved the first book - you go through a sound a day and learn it, write it, sing it, play it. The second book was WAY to hard and fast for my ds. He has certain learning difficulties and was VERY frustrated by the pace. ANd we couldn't move faster because he wasn't getting it. And he didn't like the 2nd book much. I was *just* hoping to try again and see if it worked better this time and add a lot of activities to reinforce the curriculum and help him "get it". I *think* he may actually be ready now :think

Trying to think what else we've used. . . not much as we are relaxed and unschooly ;)

[swimming with sharks]

:popcorn

[tempus vernum]

I didn't choose A Beka because it was pretty much the only curriculum I had for all twelve years of my schooling (both in private school, and then doing their correspondance school at home). I don't feel the curriculum is at all designed to help students *think*, just to memorize facts. Important words in bold, questions written with the same wording as the text, etc. I could go on :shifty Of course most of that was GREAT for me as a precocious kid with high retention. I sailed through with high marks...until I hit a brick wall in college because I hadn't learned how to really learn :shrug3


I was :giggle at this because I too used A Beka for much of my schooling (private christian school) and I HATED it. I too had high marks and hit a wall in college - hadn't learned how to learn or think :think

Hmm.. . . a trend or just similar personalities . . . . :think

[twinmomma]

I'm going to share in this post....I'm usually hesitant to share this because it's a new favorite curriculum among many. We tried...and tried and tried some more...Heart Of Dakota LHFHG this yr. It just did not work for us. I found that it was a little unbalanced *(for us)..parts too advanced/parts too easy. It felt a bit school at home too. We are leaning toward trying it again next yr(Beyond LHFHG). But, I will quickly put it on the shelf and move on if it's not working again. I have a couple friends who love HOD, so each family truly is different. HTH someone.

[sweetpeasmommy]

Sonlight - loved all the books . . . didn't love the schedule. 9 out of 10 times when we first started, the kids wanted to read more more more. . . so I ditched the schedule and we just read through all the literature. It worked way better. :yes In fact, we finished it at lightening speed. This year, I just bought some sonlight books and we read as much as the kids want on a given day. The rest of the books I am just going to get one at a time from the library and read them. ETA - we also liked the "readers" list (for dd). She finished her assigned books in just a few weeks and read most of our read alouds before we did :giggle but she's a reader so that's how it goes ;)


I'm glad you said that because this is exactly what I was thinking of doing. I can't see my Ds wanting to read a few pages a day.

[diamondintherough]

Sonlight - loved all the books . . . didn't love the schedule. 9 out of 10 times when we first started, the kids wanted to read more more more. . . so I ditched the schedule and we just read through all the literature. It worked way better. :yes In fact, we finished it at lightening speed. This year, I just bought some sonlight books and we read as much as the kids want on a given day. The rest of the books I am just going to get one at a time from the library and read them. ETA - we also liked the "readers" list (for dd). She finished her assigned books in just a few weeks and read most of our read alouds before we did :giggle but she's a reader so that's how it goes ;)


I'm glad you said that because this is exactly what I was thinking of doing. I can't see my Ds wanting to read a few pages a day.


If you use Sonlight you will not have too little reading overall--especially in Cores 2 and up. There's lots of reading--some Readers and some Read-alouds. The curriculum may say to stop in the middle of a chapter, but you can keep going if ya want ;)

That being said, I will answer the OP---

Hated A-beka, except the Math. The LA program is way too intense IMO. 25-30 spelling words each week is over the top in our house.

I don't like anything too structured and I especially do not like Textbooks, so for us Bob Jones is out as well.


Edited because part of my response sounded snarky and I didn't mean it to be that way at all! :O

[gentlemommy]

:popcorn

[tempus vernum]

Sonlight - loved all the books . . . didn't love the schedule. 9 out of 10 times when we first started, the kids wanted to read more more more. . . so I ditched the schedule and we just read through all the literature. It worked way better. :yes In fact, we finished it at lightening speed. This year, I just bought some sonlight books and we read as much as the kids want on a given day. The rest of the books I am just going to get one at a time from the library and read them. ETA - we also liked the "readers" list (for dd). She finished her assigned books in just a few weeks and read most of our read alouds before we did :giggle but she's a reader so that's how it goes ;)


I'm glad you said that because this is exactly what I was thinking of doing. I can't see my Ds wanting to read a few pages a day.


If you use Sonlight you will not have too little reading overall--especially in Cores 2 and up. There's lots of reading--some Readers and some Read-alouds.


We did level 2 readers for my dd -- the problem is that she is a reading addict would be the best word to describe. Just like me. . . . and she reads several chapter books a week . . . so new books in the house. . . read them before we ever got started :giggle

[diamondintherough]

Sonlight - loved all the books . . . didn't love the schedule. 9 out of 10 times when we first started, the kids wanted to read more more more. . . so I ditched the schedule and we just read through all the literature. It worked way better. :yes In fact, we finished it at lightening speed. This year, I just bought some sonlight books and we read as much as the kids want on a given day. The rest of the books I am just going to get one at a time from the library and read them. ETA - we also liked the "readers" list (for dd). She finished her assigned books in just a few weeks and read most of our read alouds before we did :giggle but she's a reader so that's how it goes ;)


I'm glad you said that because this is exactly what I was thinking of doing. I can't see my Ds wanting to read a few pages a day.


If you use Sonlight you will not have too little reading overall--especially in Cores 2 and up. There's lots of reading--some Readers and some Read-alouds.


We did level 2 readers for my dd -- the problem is that she is a reading addict would be the best word to describe. Just like me. . . . and she reads several chapter books a week . . . so new books in the house. . . read them before we ever got started :giggle


LOL---we did have some of the same thing happening here, but not to your degree! That is the nice thing about homeschooling, though. You can use the curriculum any way you see fit (or not use it :giggle). OT, but if they are reading good books, that is half the battle.

[Havilah]

:popcorn

interesting discussion

[Katydid]

I have not actually purchased any curriculum, but from checking out the three FIAR volumes from our library and looking at samples of other stuff online (HOD, MFW, etc.), I have found that I tend not to like stuff that is "scripted" for me. It feels forced and it turns me off right away. :shifty

[teamommy]

Well, you asked, so here it is ;) but my opinions have been known to change. :)

Sonlight -- didn't like the way their IG's were scheduled, my kids and I have a strong dislike for most Usborne books as the
main teaching text (they are okay for occasional supplementing but that's it), thought there is way too much "fiction" in the historical fiction component, though I think those books are wonderful as free reads and we use and will use many of their classic selections. From looking at SL and WP I know I like having a general game plan but do not like being told which pages to read on which day. I also think some of the lit. is not as rich as, say, Ambleside or a similar curriculum. Their LA, like any LA program that is all-in-ne for a grade level, doesn't work for us because my son was ahead in reading/phonics but not ready for the writing and grammar that would be required for the package on-par with his reading level. I know it is possible to work around this, but it seemed easier to piece together other things. For the higher cores and LA levels, I am more willing to consider it and I am thiking we may do SL core 3, 4, 5 when it is time for those, but I'm sure I won't be following their IG, I just don't work that way right now.

MFW-- tried K, it was okay but there was a mismatch with phonics and ds got tired of the repetitiveness of the routine very quickly. A lot of the science activities were great. Tried First grade, but again, it became repetitive so fast, we were both bored, droped it quickly.

Miquon math -- do't like the cusenaire rods and ds wasn't that interested in exploring with them. We do use similar things like base 10 and linking cubes, but just not the rods. :shrug3 But the main thing was that I couldn't wrap my mind around this curriculum.

Abeka, Bob Jones, Calvert, etc. --I didn't even look at these because I knew from the start I wanted a lit/living books based curriculum and I like the emphasis on lit. and history that is in a CM or neoclassical education. I steered away from textbooks that felt like "school" especially because my eldest is not the type to like doing a lot of workbooks. I expect that could change as they get older. Alpha Omega -- I had to do Lifepacs as a homeschooled kid and I would not want to put any kid through that. :shifty I don't know about now, but at the time they were behind the ps level and the most boring form of schooling I ever experienced.

[ReedleBeetle]

I can tell what I used in Christian and homeschool from a student perspective....

Abeka....same as mentioned. We do have some readers from Abeka for just reading...but I can already tell you I don't like the 1st one. :shifty
Alpha-Omega...borign and didn't like.
ACE Paces...not as boring as AO, lots of memory without thinking.
Saxon Math....HATED this, but I started with it in Algebra 2, so I don't know if that is why. I mean...detested it and didn't get anything from it.

SSRW I loved!

[Blue Savannah]

We use sonlight--the downside is definitely the cost. :/ But I plunk my money down for it, so. . . :giggle


My dd is a book snob. She LOVES the Usborne books, especially for science. I have a lot of friends who use Apologia with Sonlight instead of their science. There have been a few text book like books that she's hated (Landmark History being one of them), and a few written by Sonlight that weren't her favorite. For the most part, we've been quite happy with it. If we read ahead, we read ahead, and then she's done with a book early. No big deal from my end. I love the IG :bag I grab it and am ready to go for the day.

[emski4379]

Can someone help me out? What is IG and SSRW?

We haven't used any curriculum yet, really. We've been working on Getting Ready to Explode the Code and Handwriting Without Tears. SO far, DS has loved those. Haven't found anything we don't like yet though.

[MomtoJGJ]

This is coming from someone who has only used one curriculum (HOD) and I like it a lot...

I saw MFW in person and it looked to be too much for ME, it was "messy" on the pages to my mind and I couldn't figure it out..

I wanted to do Sonlight, but my children are weird and do not like being read to, so TOO MUCH reading is not good right now.

Abeka is too schooly for me (and my kids) There is a reason we are homeschooling, and it isn't for ME.

I also saw... hmm... Tapestry of Grace?? that sounds right, but I didn't really like the way it looked for my children and myself.

I want to get Mystery of History, but for me... I'm not sure my kids are ready for that much reading yet... we are working on it....

[Mama Calidad]

I'm just too "I did it my way". :blush We've used a couple great programs (Galloping the Globe and Tapestry of Grace), but I still spent a lot of time researching my own books and my own ideas that it just seemed like an extravagant waste to spend money on ideas that I was only going to half listen to. :shifty :O So, this year we are skipping the nicely laid out program and I'm pulling together my own thing with the help of All Through the Ages. :giggle

[phathui5]

Saxon 1st grade math - I didn't like it because it was scripted and too teacher intensive and the lessons seemed to take a long time.

Christian Studies 1 by Memoria Press - Awfully dry. Didn't seem to inspire a love of learning about the Bible. We switched to CLE Bible, which ds loves.

[diamondintherough]

Ugh. Someone just reminded me of Lifepacs. :sick We did lifepacs for one whole year with ds18yo when he was 2nd grade and a couple of lifepacs the year after. Not for us. At all. Read this. Spit back what we want to hear.