What do you do when you hate your curriculum?

[Mommytoboys]

We are in our second year of using My Father's World. We really loved it last year, but this year (the first of their 5 year cycle) we are hating it. It just doesn't seem to flow like we'd like it to and seems really disjointed. We use MUS for math (and love it). So what do you do when you hate the curriculum you purchased for the year. I'm seriously to the point where I'd like to just scrap it and start over, but budget keeps us from doing so. I think there are some things we can salvage and just not use the lesson plans, but I really have no idea how to go about remedying this for the rest of the school year.
The boys are almost 9 and almost 7.
Thoughts for how to fix this mess without breaking the bank??

[vicki]

What do you do? You stop using it. Period. You sell it or keep it for later, but you do anything else at all. You go to the library, you download things, you look for free homeschooling curricula (there's even a book about that).

Main thing: you stop. You stop because you can! You stop because you're not a public school which plods on no matter what. If I had money for every curricula that we had to stop, I'd be rich. What works one year with one kid, won't work the next year with the same kid, but might work the year after that or not.

We've all been down this road.

OR--you stop for a finite period (like a month). You don't look at it, but you do other things (library books, and free online downloads). Then, during that month, you revisit the curriculum on your own and see what you can salvage out of it.

[HeyThereDelilah]

Are you using ECC? If so, which parts do you really hate and are there any parts you love? You could just use the guide as a...well, guide, LOL. Learn a few things about each country and cook something from that country. If you are not the type who likes to wing it, you'd just have to scrap the whole thing.

I purchased ECC in the 09 school year. I was using it w/ a 3rd grader, 6th grader and 8th grader. We didn't last more than 10 weeks. But, there were certain things I kept saying I liked about it. I really wanted to use it with just one child but I needed to sell it so I could buy stuff for my other kids.

Guess what: this year I bought the whole thing again. But this year I'm using it with one child...my 5th grader. I feel better about it this year.

So you could loosely follow it and veer off and do your own thing when you find something interesting or, if you have the cash, buy all new stuff.

To be honest, I don't think there's anything at all wrong with just using library books and the internet for science and history.

[MaryEllen]

We've tried each of Vicki's suggestions

Most recently, I bought the Little House on the Prairie guide because I had loved the books, but my daughter HATED them. Neither of us was thrilled with parts of the guide so we skipped them from the start. When SJ couldn't get into the books after the second one, we dropped them completely. She loved the science and history portions of the guide - it lists additional books to read and projects to do - so we only did those.

[vicki]

Yes, because you are homeschooling you can definitely pick and choose what you might like to do with part of a curriculum. I know I sure do with PACEs!

[Mommytoboys]

Thanks for the responses! I just seems like such a waste to scrap it but both DH and I really feel like that might be the best thing at least for this year. We both just dread "doing school" with the boys because it's painful.

I'm thinking about just doing unit studies with the kids or doing a little more "self directed" learning. It might be a stretch for my type A personality, but I think the kids will enjoy it. DH seemed interested in having them do time4learning. I think it would definitely appeal to our second son. We could work it into the budget because it is fairly cost effective.

The input we got from the kids is that they really don't like what we're doing and it just stresses everyone out...good reason to stop. My oldest also suggested a unit study on Star Wars.

We'll make it work. I love the freedom of homeschooling and knowing we can stop if we need to. Ahhhh!

[Jean]

Here you go:

http://guiltfreehomeschooling.org/blog/ ... chool.html

More ideas here:
http://www.standard.net/topics/schools/ ... outh-weber

And still more here
http://io9.com/377629/the-many-lessons- ... -can-teach

and here (though you'll have to adapt these a lot for the ages of your boys):
http://www.stjohns-chs.org/english/romod/odsw.html

[vicki]

My oldest also suggested a unit study on Star Wars.

Star Wars novels were some of the only books Vinnie read when he was younger.

And guess what? It didn't hurt him a bit. When he was ready, he read more.

[teachermom]

We love time4learning here! and you are right - very cost effective!

[MaryEllen]

Have you heard of CurrClick (http://www.currclick.com/index.php)
Right now they are offering for free a course outline called "Star Wars: A Study of the Hero Myth"

In this course, the student will become acquainted with the original "Star Wars" movie trilogy. Emphasis will be placed on familiarity with the film adaptations and their relationship to the concept of the "hero myth." An attempt should be made to do some work in all areas: reading, writing, performance, computer, etc.

It's intended to be a high school course, but it might have information you can use for your kids.

But get it fast! They will change what they offer for free each Monday.

O.K. I had to get it.... Within the outline it lists websites and projects. It recommends a college text book called "Hero of a Thousand Faces" written by Joseph Campbell. There was a PBS series of interviews with him - either way the info is cool, but the formats are boring.

I would skip all of the essays it asks for, but the other projects look like fun.