How Do You Choose??

Since posting on my FB about our homeschooling adventures being in the 14th year for our family I got a couple messages asking what our days look like. Honestly, 14 years doing this and each year still looks different. I have years where we set up at our desks or table and have the strict schedule and strict curriculum and years that we are much more laid back and have more of a laid back, hands on curriculum. I have used full curricula where everything comes from one publisher, all subjects, though if there is something missing like math or any other subject they will suggest what to use and I use that and only that. I have had years I have used very mixed curriculum, different publishers for different subjects. Mixed curriculum takes much more work and research on my part but we actually love it so much more. I do love the full curriculum because I have to do zero to very little prep work as everything is usually laid out for us including the plan book on what to do each day. That is so easy for me as a mom/teacher. I'm going to talk about curriculum right now and do a day in the life of post in the near future because truly the curriculum used can be a guide for each day. How long you spend, how much extra required for each lesson, ect. Pros of full curriculum: Everything is laid out for me and very little prep work needed after I look through what we will be doing throughout the year. Lesson plans for each day so starting the day is easy. The whole year is planned for us and all I need to do is figure out where we will take breaks. I know in a full curriculum they are getting a full year of learning in with ease and I don't have to fill in gaps as much where something might be missed. Cons of full curriculum: The feeling we have to do everything that is listed to do even if it takes all day. The plans are done by week so I feel it's difficult to take a day off or a field trip day in the middle of the week if needed and feel we HAVE to make the day up over the weekend to keep up and transition to the next weeks work easily. It's hard to double up a day because typically with full curriculum the days are full of activity and work. Most days it seems like a lot of work and we are working on school way longer than I feel is necessary. Breaks can be tough. If we are in the middle of a unit I struggle to stop for Holiday breaks. I want the kids to complete what we are working on before we stop so coming back from a week or so off we can transition easily into our next units. Like most people there are certain strengths and weaknesses. Curriculum is the same, you might have a full curriculum strong in history or science but weak in literature and grammar or math. I prefer strength in all subjects so my children get everything they need for the school year. Some full curricula are great getting kids hands on in learning, some too great and I struggle with the messes made, some are pretty expensive to get all the extras for the projects, some focus on hands on with some subjects and not others, and some have hardly any hands on opportunities. I feel when they do have projects we have to do them all (though I know we can pick and choose what our family needs or likes to do). I just feel like something is left out if we don't do it all. Pros of mixed curriculum: I can pick and choose what my kids need and what will cater to each child and their learning styles. I can pick and choose for strength in each subject. I love that homeschoolers can pick for the level they are at instead of a one size. Many kids are strong in some subjects and weaker in others. I can pick different grade levels for each subject to work with the strengths and weaknesses of each child. I love that if we have to take a day off due to appointments we can easily slide back into our routine the next day where with full cirriculum we are trying to rush the school day in a short time around our appointment or just feel out of it all week trying to catch up or working the weekend. Also I feel it's easier to just work on a couple subjects with mixed curriculum if we have appts on a certain day. So much easier to plan field trips, days off, holidays, and vacations around. If you end up with something that's not working you can easily transition to another publisher in just the subject that's not working instead of changing the whole curriculum out. Cons of mixed curriculum: I have to plan for each day and nothing is done for me. Typically I feel there are less instructions so Im researching more. Some publishers give alot of work while others don't give much so you have to really look for a nice happy balance. There is no similarities in the subjects we are working on so we might be doing one thing in one subject and the opposite in all other subjects. You can do deep planning and skipping units to work each subject together but the child might miss something important from an earlier unit that will help with what you are working on in the moment and truly it is just so much work and I am taking off when my kids are taking off so I definitely don't want all my time on our days off working on this. We have done both and loved both. It really depends on where we are in life at the moment. We got a full curriculum a few years ago and loved it and expected to use that through the kids going to high school and possibly even through high school. Then life changed, the kids changed, I changed and we came to the conclusion that it was time to move on. At that point we used mostly workbooks and we did classes online while I really dug deep to find what our family needs. Was it going back to our full curriculum or something different. This year we landed on The Good and the Beautiful and are mixing in other sources of learning. So far this has been perfect for our family. For high schoolers we have always done a mix with the big kids really putting their 2 cents in on what will work for them. Last spring I knew it was time to find something different but had no clue what we wanted to do and what would work best for our little school. We turned to workbooks and online classes after hearing a friend who has used the workbooks with success. Then I spoke to a former teacher who looked into the same books and said it is about as full of a curriculum you can find. Awesome. I thought because it was going so well we would use them this year but I still felt a pull to use a mix covering my kids strengths and weaknesses. So then I found The Good and the Beautiful and guess what? Their math and literature is free online and I only have to fill in with a few manipulitives!! And my boys seem to love the set! For science and history we might even use them for some units but I can easily use some of the sets that my big kids used and also if I find something while out and about or online I can grab it up! Another thing that took me forever to realize, you can repeat units if needed! Ok, yes, if a kid doesn't get something fully you can go back over it but that is not what I am talking about! I am saying history, science, you can repeat. In fact, it is repeated throughout their whole schooling if they are in mainstream schooling and it is expected to be repeated. The main thing when repeating is to age it up. So they might learn 3 facts in 1st grade but in higher grade levels they will learn much more and at a much more mature level. I love homeschooling my kids and learning along side them. I also love that we include God in our lessons. I love the freedom to choose our field trips, when they happen, what projects we will tackle, taking breaks when we all need one, being able to eat breakfast while we work, waking leisurly and having our afternoons free, taking a full day off just for decorating for Christmas, praying together, learning about God together, growing our relationship with God and each other, and I really love having my babies here and being able to teach them. We have had years we have taken on too much life and curriculum but I am learning to say no, we are full. We prefer mixed curriculum most years but our years with full curriculum have been amazing as well! Really you have to look at your little learners and sometimes experiment to find what's best and be flexible to change if needed. If it's not working then don't just home it does eventually, school years are too short for that! So this is what our journey with curriculum looks like. I hope it continues to be easy to know what we need each year. For now though I will relax and enjoy what we are doing.