Brave Arrow Press: 2011

It is a known fact that I am addicted to curriculum okay? I am constantly perusing curriculum vendors and publishers. Of course, everything I don't have always looks more spectacular than what I do have. Over the years, we have sampled many various curriculums; some great, some not so great.

For the review only scroll down to the paragraph 11th from the bottom or 11th from the top. Yes this post is 22 paragraphs long. I am in shock myself.

Let me back up a bit and explain how we began homeschooling and how my philosophies have evolved over the years.

Never in my wildest dreams did I grow up even remotely planning to homeschool my children. I was never homeschooled myself; although my younger brother was and I pitied him. (not because my mother did a poor job, only because I felt sorry for him as he stayed home while my other brother and I ventured off to school every day) We attended a private school for all of our elementary and high school years. This was a tremendous sacrifice for my parents and I think by kid #3 they were just too broke to consider a private school education for him. He eventually went, once I graduated and relieved their pocketbook.

Anyhow, the thought never crossed my mind until I actually had children as to how I would educate them. When my oldest was reaching school age, we had recently moved to an area where there was a wonderful charter school. This was the perfect solution, it was based out of our church and was everything we desired in a school. She attended K and 1st grade there. My son attended K when she was in 1st. All was well.

They were enrolled for their 1st and 2nd grade years respectively when two weeks before school was to begin, we were notified that the school would be closing. After the initial shock wore off and the whirlwind died down, we began to discuss what we would do instead. Many of my friends were discussing homeschooling. That sounded very far fetched and foreign to me. I had recollections of my younger brother's face as he peered out the window each morning as we departed for school; and visions of his face peering out the window each afternoon anticipating our return haunted me as well. I thought of my children becoming social recluses, turning into uncontrollable aliens due to lack of authority, and lastly, I imagined myself losing my sanity and transforming into a Madame Medussa with talons and a whip unable to control Thing One and Thing Two sufficiently.

So in this state of mind, I marched down to the local public school (that had already started) and signed them up. I did this hastily, paying very little attention to the little boys and girls I passed who looked as if they hadn't seen a hairbrush or a toothbrush in a month. Who were hungrily scarfing down cheese whiz and crackers like food was a rarity. (you know, the kind with the little red plastic stick-so nutritious) I ignored the harried teacher bustling children out of the classroom to catch the bus. All of this was dismissed as normality and I hurried home to gather the proper paperwork to complete the enrollment process.

So everything was in place and they were to begin school Monday morning. We bought backpacks and lunch pails; pencils and pencil boxes; all the regular necessities they had already had in the past and would need for the future. Sunday night came. As well as a cantaloupe sized knot in the pit of my stomach. I visualized my little toothless 1st grader boy being dropped off into a den of who knows who and turning around and waving at me with a look of panic on his little face. My daughter I did not worry so much about as she is a social butterfly and doesn't meet a stranger; yet I pictured her meeting the wrong group of friends, or being harassed by a teacher with vastly different views and morals than her father and I embrace. Suddenly, despite all my previous thoughts and ideas, I knew I could not justify following through with this decision.

Now, let me quickly insert some balance into this equation. Homeschooling is NOT for everyone. You will never ever ever EVER hear me trying to convince ANYone that homeschool is the ONLY and most wise choice in the world. PLEASE keep that in mind while reading my post. There are many, many MANY, wonderful and fabulous schools and teachers out there in the great big world in which we live. HOWEVER, in the area we lived, and the type of community it was, something simply spoke to me, and did not allow me to feel okay with making that choice. There are many parents I would beg NOT to homeschool, as well as many I think would do great; but I know the choices they've made are also good choices. So please don't take my position wrongfully.

So...late that Sunday night, I told my husband of my apprehension and he asked, "Well, what do you want to do?" At that point I still did not know, but in the back of my mind, I remembered someone mentioning a lady in our church who worked for an independent study charter school. I told my husband I would call her the next day and go from there. Needless to say, we chose that school and that's all she wrote! Now we are in our 7th year homeschooling and have had two more little ragamuffins to hop on board.

I said all of that to say this; I did not study to be a homeschool mom. I did not plan. I did not have everything all lined out knowing what I was going to do. I didn't even do preschool with my kids! They went to school, brought home their homework, and learned almost everything without my input. Suddenly, I had a teacher asking me, "So what type of curriculum would you like to order?" Me, "Curriculum? Ummmmm....hmmmmmm what do you have?" So she showed me a plethora of various publishers and told me to take my pick. I didn't have time to research and explore.

So we began. All I knew was for History I wanted to study Native Americans. I don't know why. I think only because it sounded fun to build a little Indian campground replica. Using clay to make pots sounded exciting too. So that's what we did. The teacher guided me a little here and there; a few other homeschool vets gave me advice, and we limped through our first year. By the end of the year I was exhausted, I felt inadequate, but yet, I felt accomplished. I felt satisfied that I had spent so much time with my children. I felt rewarded.

So when it came time to make decisions for the next year, we knew that we were committed to being a "homeschool" family.

Over the years, I have learned so very much. I obtained my B.A. in Early Childhood Education, plan to obtain my Teaching Credential, and overall have become what some would say, a veteran. Yet I still struggle with the feeling that the "other curriculum" is greener. I lean towards a free flowing gentle approach in our homeschool. This can be detrimental, however, if the kids embrace this philosophy too readily. They can easily become WAY too "free flowing"! But overall, our system works. We've learned to be flexible while yet remaining structured. We've learned to set goals and accomplish them. And most of all, we've discovered that our children are not social recluses, they have not become uncontrollable aliens (well not usually) and even though I have good days and bad days, and sometimes I think I've broken all the loving mommy rules, I am not Madame Medussa and I keep my talons in check.

And NOW the review!!!
I had never tried my hand at Unit Studies until this year. I had friends talk about them and I'd seen some publishers at conventions but I was intimidated and thought perhaps I would not stay on track if we used one. This summer, however, I had this panicky thought that my kids are getting older and that it won't be long they will be too old for much "hands on, touchy feely, do-everything-together" activities and the thought hit me that if I was ever to try a unit study approach I'd better do so now! So I began the hunt. I lurked on homeschool forums, I picked the brains of other moms I know have used them, I surfed the net till the wee hours of the morning. Each publisher looked better than the last. I'd weed one out only to read a raving review on it and throw it back into the mix. Little by little, based on finances and availability, I settled on one to try. I was also concerned because I do try to stay in alignment with state standards but with four children in four different grades therefore four separate sets of standards, this presents a huge issue. I settled on a historical time period based on my oldest student. Then planned to rotate the rest of the children accordingly.

I finally chose "A New World of Adventure" by Learning Adventures. The website samples looked marvelous. I could just TASTE the "Pony Penning Pot Pie" we would make, and I was enthralled with the thought of using a mortar and pestle to crush our own corn meal, and best of all, the character development and Bible lessons made me feel our school would be so much more enriched.

I even planned to put together "packets" to make all the projects come together smoothly and easily. Unfortunately, we had to move suddenly during the summer, and that plan went out the window with the stashes of costume jewelry and musty fabrics we'd stored for years but could not take with us to the new house.

Regardless, we began the school year with great anticipation and excitement. Well three of us did anyway. After two days, the bigs were already rolling their eyes and using the hand as chin rest like they'd lost their best friend. However, regardless of their lack of interest, the literature selections are fabulous. The younger three kids can't stand it when we only need to read two chapters. One day we went ahead and read ten! But then we were stuck with TEN days of science to catch up on, TEN days of Bible reading, TEN days of Fine Arts, TEN days of....well, you get the picture. Thus, my sense of flexibility was dashed. My sense of structure was also dashed as I am an over-achiever and those undone lessons haunt me unmercifully.

Another issue we had is the unit is written for grades 4-8. That should have clued me in as well but I'd read reviews stating it would easily adapt to the younger student, and in fact could be souped up for the older students as well. That may or may not be true; however, in my opinion, one would need to sit down and basically rewrite the entire curriculum to do either. You can't look at 15 pages of curricula, and know immediately what is appropriate for the littles, and what to add to it for the bigs, without taking a lot of time to evaluate it. Time I don't have.

Thirdly, I decided to sit down and skim through the lessons to at least get an idea of where we are going and when. I read through the lengthy history passages and found many references to events that take place outside of the chronological storyline. Way too confusing even to me, much less a 2nd and 3rd grader.

I also have issues with the Science. The Science is great, don't get me wrong, but while the History and Literature is aimed for about a 5-8th mind, the science is dumbed down for perhaps a 3rd grade level. Not thorough or intense enough IMO.

I really really hate to knock a piece of work that I know took months, even years to compile and write. And I will say that we have not thrown it out completely. We are still using it because the Bible is fantastic, and the Literature questions and how they relate to the History is fabulous. The activities are very enjoyable and overall, I think it is a great program; I just don't think unit studies at all are something I'm interested in sticking to primarily. I feel that each subject is watered down in a way that makes it meaningless but the History is so thick even I get tired reading it to myself much less reading aloud to the kids.

So what I have done to circumvent my choice, and to feel I haven't wasted my time and money, is I have gone through the first section highlighting every topic or activity I want to make sure we cover. For example, the literature reading will be "Little Pilgrim's Progress" which is a fabulous read that I don't want to miss. But I have purchased some other supplementary materials to replace some of the heavy reading and we have completely separate Grammar, Spelling, and Science curricula. I have also purchased separate History supplements for my bigs, so learning gaps can be avoided and state standards can be mastered.
We have History Pockets, Story of the World, and various Lapbooking kits that accentuate the lesson plans.

Okay!!! I think this post will most definitely qualify as my longest and most rambly post ever but I seriously wanted to get this review cranked out as it's been weighing on me heavily-not only because I feel it would be useful to some, but I wanted to give newer homeschool mom's a glimpse of what it's like to tweak things to work for your specific needs. I firmly believe that not one publisher or author can truly identify with the particular needs represented in your family. Each child is different, learns differently, and needs individual attention in order to achieve his or her full potential.

Don't ever be ashamed or feel bad if a curriculum you thought was perfect suddenly does not work for you or for your child. And furthermore, just because it works for one child does not mean it will work for another.

Cheers to you and yours!