A New Homeschool Year

I did something totally unexpected this year.  I changed our homeschool curriculum.  I have changed it a couple of times before because I needed something different or I just wasn't satisfied with parts of our program.  We have used My Father's World at times and a mixture of mostly Abeka and a little of Rod and Staff at other times.  There were things I liked about each, but things that I did not like also.

I don't know about you, but around the time of year that everyone else is preparing for school, I get very excited about getting new school books.  We school through the summer, but there just comes a time at the beginning of the "school year" when I get that urge to order the new school books...

This year I had to wait a little bit to have money, and maybe that was the Lord.  If I had had the money earlier, I may have just ordered more Abeka books.  Now, don't get me wrong: there is nothing wrong with Abeka.  They produce wonderful Christian textbooks.  I have been pleased with their materials.



However, there were some things in the homeschool experience that we were missing out on.  All of the children did their school work individually, and I would just meet with them one on one every day to teach them certain subjects.  It was fine for the time that we did it, and the children enjoyed their books in the beginning.

But after some time (I think we have been using this curriculum for a couple of years straight now), I noticed my children were starting to tire of just reading textbooks every day and taking lots of quizzes and tests.  I even heard one girl say she only memorized history facts long enough to take her tests and quizzes!  She had lost total interest in the subject.

As a mama who wants her children to enjoy learning about God's world, this was very disheartening.

Then one day--I'm not sure exactly what happened--I began looking for something on the internet, and then I ran into information about a different curriculum.



I began reading, and reading, and reading some more.  I really liked what I was learning about it.  I even found that the problems I had with our other curricula were not problems with this curriculum.  We would also be able to do a lot more of our school together.  But while the older children learned at their level, the little ones would not be left behind, confused by the material.

Well, after lots and lots of reading and research, I decided to switch over our curriculum to Heart of Dakota.  So far, we have been very pleased, though there are some optional elements that we are leaving out.  My children are all loving homeschooling again!  We are learning through living books that are Christian, and are relishing it.

I know every homeschooling family is different, but I'm very much enjoying this curriculum.  I hope you all can find one that you love too. It took me many years.

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