What do you do when your curriculum isn’t working?
My husband has a saying, “All good plans are subject to change.” I’ve had to adopt that saying recently in our homeschool when a chosen curriculum didn’t pan out for one of our children.
Here’s the scenario. You are plugging away homeschooling your children. You’ve done your best and think you’ve accommodated their unique learning styles — only to discover that you have a curriculum FAIL on your hands for one of your blossoming students.
So, what do you do?
– Quit?
– Run away?
– Hide?
– Pull out your hair??
– Cry?
– All of the above??
A history curriculum that I recently reviewed, LOVED, recommended and even switched to has fallen with a responding “THUD” on the curriculum floor. As a homeschooler, reviewer, and blogger, I felt like this issue was magnified 100 fold.
Focusing on my child instead of my pride, we get to the heart of the matter and pin down the problem. It’s not the content of the material itself, but, for this particular child, the way it is presented.
This child learns history best in smaller chunks chronically rather than studying a broader, more open-ended view of a ruling ’empire’ start to finish. This is just the opposite of what I would choose. No wonder why I loved this program and he didn’t.
I could try to ‘make’ the curriculum fit the kid. But, we all know how that works. It usually doesn’t! So, I’ll chalk it up to a good learning experience and admit that I made a curriculum choice faux pas and move on! With so much to choose from, I know we’ll hit on a good fit.
If (and most likely when) this happens to you, know you aren’t alone! Switching to another curriculum that works for your child is one of the blessings and unique qualities of homeschooling!
Check out a wide variety of homeschool products at Rainbow Resource Center!
