Curriculum is such a personal choice. There is no one size fits all – thank goodness! After almost 8 years of homeschooling it seems like I should have it all figured out, know exactly what works and what doesn’t.
Believe me I wish I did!
However, my kids keep growing and changing on me, not to mention our family dynamics as a whole.
I was excited about using Tapestry of Grace, I thought it would be a good fit for our family. I loved the idea of all the kids on the same page as far as the time period we were studying.
I was wrong.
What Didn’t Work in Tapestry of Grace for Us
– Mom intensive each week. In a big, busy family it was just too much. (If mamma ain’t happy…) I needed to take my own advice and ditch what wasn’t working and what was ultimately causing me more stress.
– Many of the books for the younger grades were too challenging for my younger kids. (We have some special needs)
– A ton of reading. I like that part, but I don’t have a bunch of strong, independent readers so that put more work on me.
– Units moved very quickly. I realize I could slow things down at any time however it left me feeling like we weren’t getting anything “done”. I know that’s my own issue.
– Too many different books each week and our week felt too scattered.
What We Missed About Trail Guide’s Path Series
– Notebooking. I know I could have searched for my own note booking pages each week but it seemed like a huge amount of extra work and time I didn’t have and didn’t want to spend.
– Discussion. We had a ton of great discussions when we were using Paths of Exploration. I just could never get the same types of discussions going with TOG.
– The books included are all very engaging.
– Copywork & Dictation. Again, I could have done this on my own, but it would have taken more work.
The final and most important reason I switched?
My kids would talk over and over about how much they loved learning about Christopher Columbus and Lewis and Clark from Paths of Exploration. More importantly they still remember a ton from that one year. So often they would say “remember when we did POE?” Even my hard to please 13 year old said “I can’t wait to start Paths of Progress”.
I try not to be a curriculum jumper. I resisted switching from Tapestry, I really wanted it to work for us. Reluctantly I had to fact the fact that it wasn’t working.
No curriculum is perfect, that’s true. But the time has come for us to just move on.
My three older kids 8th, 6th, and 5th will be doing Paths of Progress and my younger three will be doing volume 4 of Five in a Row. I’m super excited to be getting back to FIAR!
What about you? Have you ever abandoned a curriculum in the mid part of the year?
Pinterest Board Helps
FIAR Ideas
Trail Guide to Learning
Tapestry of Grace
Looks like there is some good music in what you are doing!
I’m not a curriculum jumper, either! It was hard for us to make the jump to CC, but once we did it was such a relief!
Mary recently posted…Why I Have Nothing Against Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Yes! We are looking forward to all of Paths of Progress 🙂 Thanks
Jen recently posted…Why we are switching from Tapestry of Grace to Paths of Progress
I could have written this post….in fact I will be writing one very similar. We are changing up history too. Searching for the right fit this year has been a challenge. I bought one curriculum and never used it because it was not right for us. My second choice is good but very dry and boring, too “school” and while I am not abandoning it completely, we are making a huge change and not doing a curriculum but something I put together myself (A History of the World in 100 Objects). If I am excited by it, I hope my excitement rubs off on the girls!
Jessica recently posted…Around the World
I love the things that you do with your girls 🙂
Jen recently posted…Why we are switching from Tapestry of Grace to Paths of Progress
No curriculum is right for every family. I’ve done my share of switching in the middle of the year. Three years ago I ditched all my plans for the coming school year 2 weeks before it began. We switched to Tapestry! I thought about switching away this last year, but the kids rebelled. Tapestry has been a God-send for us.
But happy kids make for a happy homeschool. It’s far easier to educate your family when the kids are eager and happy for the studies. It sounds like POP is a far better fit for your family than Tapestry. I pray POP is the God-send for you that Tapestry was for us. 🙂
Sara recently posted…Bully Bean by Thomas Weck and Peter Weck
We just switched to Tapestry of Grace this school year. While we love it, I do get everything you’ve said. I have (currently) only one child and she’s in 7th grade. She’s a very good reader and independent learner. It is intensive on my part occasionally, but less so that what we’ve done before. I worry about the speed too, but our daughter has a chronic illness so I’m learning to let go of the anxiety when we can’t keep up with a curriculum’s schedule.
It’s good to know what alternative works for your family. I don’t like to curriculum hop, but we have to do what works.
Christy recently posted…Permission to Do What You Need
Good luck! It sounds like the changes will go over well! We switched our math program 6 weeks into the year (I’m just glad that I hadn’t bought anything yet since we were completing books from last year). We are doing ancient history and my oldest wants to do modern history. Which is what I had originally planned to do but I wasn’t loving modern history for my youngest. Now we will do modern history for my oldest and keep the ancient history for my youngest. I got lucky and my youngest can do all of his reading alone and that is the only way this will work. There is no way I could teach two different time periods at the same time.
Cassie recently posted…Learning Notes~Week 12 {2014-2015}
We used TOG the first year it came out. We were actually using it as it was printed so would get different units as they were written. We loved it! But my kids were in high school. Now I have a third and fifth grader and am getting ready to use POE. I’m excited because it is thorough without taking a ton of work from me. 🙂
Would like to hear how the year is going with trail guide.
We are very happy with Paths of Progress! My kids and I both enjoy the program.
Hi Jen, How did this work for this year? I am thinking of switching to it for my 12 year old next year. I am not sure how that will work for my older boys as I usually try to do as much as possible together.
laurie recently posted…Calendar Command Center
I’m a big fan of the TGTL model. Paths of Exploration was our favorite, but I’m very glad we switched from TOG. It’s a great program, just not a great fit for us.