We've All Been There! Some of our Biggest Curriculum Fails Over the Years

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We've All Been There! Some of our Biggest Curriculum Fails Over the Years

Рет қаралды 3,216

Жыл бұрын

We've all experienced a curriculum fail (or two...or more!) in our homeschools. Today I'm sharing some of our curriculum fails over the years, as well as giving some feedback as to what I would do differently if I had to do them over again.
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Пікірлер: 46

@SevenInAll Жыл бұрын

I feel like one good takeaway from this video is for new homeschoolers not to judge the homeschool experience too harshly in the first year. The first year of anything is...just that: the first time we've ever done it! We aren't skilled at something when we first start!

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

For sure! I totally feel like the first year is the hardest, just because it’s all brand new

@katiacleroux7376 Жыл бұрын

Our biggest flops were TGATB math and MB math. We switched to math mammoth and restarted first grade even though she was going into 3rd grade with MB. We are all caught up and confident! This year's flop was trying to stick to Ambleside Online to a T with 4 kids, working nights, and a lot of family situations that arose through the year... We're burnt out! We crawled to summer and didn't finish. I'm very excited for next year, now that we know what doesn't work for us!

@kayegenin123 Жыл бұрын

lol at the vocab words in that MB social studies book...food, birds, night. Like what 5 year old wouldn't know that.

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

I’m not sure 🤔 lol

@homeschooloutsidethebox Жыл бұрын

We tried Masterbooks math, Science, and My Story and I had the same complaint with all of them. It seemed very random and disjointed to me. Their science was teaching about fish gills and how they differed from human lung - but they didn't learn about lungs until later in the book.

@tatyana1324 Жыл бұрын

You are an amazing mom 👍 thanks for sharing 📚😊

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

You are so sweet! Thank you 🥹

@kdrudolph1 Жыл бұрын

I actually loved the Masterbooks math for my daughter because she needs the slower pace but I supplement a lot with stuff off of Teachers Pay Teachers. This math, however, DID NOT WORK for my son who is a faster learner. That’s where my stress comes in. Loving something for one kid and buying it for the other and see it not work for them!

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

Yea that too! Thinking “I finally Found what works!” Then another one comes along and throws the whole plan off 🫣🤦🏻‍♀️😮‍💨 haha

@karivanhorn1765 Жыл бұрын

I used masterbooks our 1st year and a little bit the 2nd year. It was gentle for me starting out.. But I feel that my kids are "behind" in math due to this.. And now we are playing catch up with bju.

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

I felt that too, but I promise they’ll be ok! It all really does even out ❤️❤️

@VCDCN Жыл бұрын

This master books book is so boring! I agree with everything you said about it. I used the Math and the Social Studies one (first grade). I got a terrible impression of the company. Are all their books that bad? I told myself I would never get anything else from them again. 😂

@saraguaraldi6559 Жыл бұрын

I also tried Math Lessons for a Living Education, so much copywork! It was too slow for my daughter as well. She is still a bit behind, but we’re catching up with her new math program. I wish I had quit it sooner.

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

I completely get that!

@annacbrown1986 Жыл бұрын

Abeka penmanship is intense 😱 we love it for K4 and K5 but then I switch to draw write now cursive

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

Indeed it is!

@shelbybuttimer1397 Жыл бұрын

We gave up on Abeka 1st grade penmanship. It was so intense and my son hated doing it, and worst of all, he wasn’t improving. I ended up ordering a grooved writing tablet and with that extra feedback, his handwriting is starting to slowly improve. I’m still looking for a less intense, more engaging handwriting program.

@lifewithginab Жыл бұрын

I like keeping my past curriculums that we used too lol 😆 wow level 1 of MB a lot of copy work! 😅

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

So.much. 😮‍💨😳

@HomeschoolMom515 Жыл бұрын

We did The Good and the Beautiful Math for Kindergarten and 1st Grade and this year (2nd Grade) I dread pulling it out. I don't know what the difference is but it's not working anymore. We have tried both the old Math 2 and the new one. We are trying Apologia next year.

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

If you dread it, it’s not worth it! Life is too short to dread something that you have a choice in. And thankfully there are options! I hope apologia works for you…it looks great! ❤️

@whitneyvelie2070 Жыл бұрын

We are currently on math 1 ,going to math 2 with the good and the beautiful. What do you not like about math 2?

@HomeschoolMom515 Жыл бұрын

@@whitneyvelie2070 it's hard to explain. It's just not enjoyable to teach for me (and I love Math). Concrete reasons: it's all over the place topic wise. Better than the old version but still a lot on a page. Doesn't reinforce concepts well. My daughter struggles with money and time and I don't like the way either are taught.

@tanyacagle2423 Жыл бұрын

@@whitneyvelie2070 we enjoyed the math almost done with kindergarten and I’ll do lots of practice through the summer with master books and something else too. Then start level one ma to good and beautiful about September. I like the spiral and that it’s open and go I hate the teacher manuals of other ones like Abeka was soooo over whelming for me. Everyone is different and just how we need to get out of the mentality of it being like a classroom and take our time.

@Svargasc3 Жыл бұрын

@@HomeschoolMom515 you nailed the exact reasons we switched from TGATB math, to MWC. So far we love MWC and it’s teaching the concepts in depth with a mastery approach and then a splash of spiral.

@shelbybuttimer1397 Жыл бұрын

The biggest flops for us this year (1st grade and first year homeschooling) were Sonlight HBL K (disjointed and a lot of it not right for age 6) and Lifepac Bible (waaaay too dumbed down).

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

Bummer! Hopefully next year is better!

@rebeccaarmitage12 Жыл бұрын

Don’t give up on sonlight! I totally agree with HBL K, it’s not anywhere near age appropriate it sonlight is so greT

@shelbybuttimer1397 Жыл бұрын

@@rebeccaarmitage12 we’ve enjoyed Science K, although it’s definitely more for first or second grade than Kindergarten. So much of HBL K was completely over my son’s head though. Even some of the literature books were a bit over his head. We might revisit in a few years but I think we’re going to try Notgrass for history next year.

@bethart1985 Жыл бұрын

We just purchased My Story 2 for my 2nd grader for fall. I looked for months at MasterBooks and I finally decided on getting that one. My husband and I had a flip though last night and I completely agree with you. It is kind of all over the place. We were not impressed. I honestly think it will be my last purchase from them. I wanted to love it but the content is lacking.

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

Sorry it doesn’t look like a good fit 😕 I know many people do really like it. I didn’t try level 2 but it seems like it’s laid out the same way?

@evalinemama Жыл бұрын

I felt the same way about Masterbooks My Story 1 and Math Lessons. Even in level 3 Math Lessons they are still doing lots of copywork. They waste a whole day doing copywork instead of learning/practicing a concept. We did not finish the level 2 of Math Lessons and that's when we switched to Good and Beautiful Math. I do like Masterbooks lower level science God's Design: Life for Beginners. It is gentle, there is some tracing, but everything is presented in a simple way that the child can grasp, and the activities are simple. Heaven and Earth for Beginners looks good too, except they teach that dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark. We don't believe that, so I went with something else. Language Lessons level 2 from Masterbooks was ok but I didn't go past that level. In levels 3-6 they are copying a picture and passage from their Bible reader every week. I guess that's good for retaining Bible stories but I didn't like the idea of wasting a whole day doing that for language arts every week. We switched to Good and Beautiful LA at the same time that we switched the math. The instruction in TGTB is so much better.

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

I totally get all of this! (We’re liking the Gods design for beginners too), but I agree that math and LA should be a bit more than copywork once a week (but that’s just me, I know not everyone feels the same).

@sieraorr6315 Жыл бұрын

I am on my first month of homeschooling my 1st grader. I pulled her out halfway through the year. For several reasons and I did tons and tons of research ahead of time but gosh i am so nervous if I picked the right things, if it's too easy, is it too hard, will she retain it, do we do enough each day? I'm scared of getting through a year and feeling like we didn't achieve anything.

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

I totally get that! But as you could see from our first year, nothing really worked out, but here we are, all these years later and I think we’re doing pretty good 😉 sounds cliche, but you got this!! ❤️

@MamaD_and_Family Жыл бұрын

Yes yes yes about the Abeka writing we didn't use level 3 but we had the same experience as you with the grade 2...very lacking in teacher instruction and way too much workload for early elementary. The worst for us: we had a very bad experience with Horizons Language Arts and Math, Abeka 2nd grade writing and Abeka Phonics/Language All those lead to many tears and break downs so we no longer use them and won't use them again We have many others that have just been like lukewarm or underwhelming, we haven't found any curriculum we LOVE yet (still trying to find that 🤪)

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

I hope you find something you all love! ❤️

@leslie6562 Жыл бұрын

I am still up in the air with math. Some of the good and beautiful math works for us. Other times I feel it is either not enough practice or as in depth as what she needs. Have you decided yet? I feel like all I do is research curriculum in my spare time lol I also thought about supplementing but haven’t found a good source yet.

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

I have…I’m sharing both girls math updates soon! I did share in another video my oldest is doing math mammoth. I totally feel you! It’s like curriculum research could be it’s own little part time job 😂 at some point we just have to pull the trigger I suppose!

@leslie6562 Жыл бұрын

@@thepracticalhomeschooler Yes it is definitely a job lol Figuring out if it is a good fit, is it working, the cost, the time it will take… so much to factor in when making a decision. I pretty much got everything else for our school year figured out, just stumped on math.

@MM-yt2hq Жыл бұрын

What do you recommend for 4th grade writing?

@thepracticalhomeschooler Жыл бұрын

I have yet to find anything I love for formal writing. We’re looking into BJU for next year. For handwriting, we love the good and the beautiful handwriting

@MM-yt2hq Жыл бұрын

@@thepracticalhomeschooler Thank you, we use abeka , but would like to try something else for next year