Making Decisions

Last year I used Student of the Word curriculum. I enjoyed it, but it involves a lot from me and my children are young and the amount of writing and depth of it was just too much for us right now. I had planned on using it again this year, but as the time grew near to get going again, I got more and more stressed. I just couldn't do it, I mean SOW is great if your children are older and can be more independent. But my oldest are a bit behind and they couldn't be. So, because I had planned on using it this year I purchased accordingly when I did my buying in February (you know, tax refund time). But I just knew that we couldn't use it again. So, now I am just kicking myself, because I need to buy something else. I keep going back and forth between make do with the hodge podge of collected books I have or go to a traditional textbook curriculum. I have always NOT wanted to use a traditional approach, but with many children and many responsibilities along with health issues, it is starting to look really good. Let's see a hodge podge approach will save us money, but it will cause me more work, I will have to prepare and teach everything. With a textbook approach I can give them the books and make myself available for questions, but once they are reading they can fly.

So now the problem comes on how to finance my new curriculum needs. I am not willing to sell any of my stuff, because the SOW can be used for high school later on. And most everything I bought to go with it is reference material that will be useful to hang on to . So, we will tighten our belts and eat humbly for a short time.

And wouldn't you know, my printer/copier/scanner died yesterday! So that needs to be replaced for school to. Let's cinch up that belt another notch.

I think I have decided on Rod & Staff. The books are good quality and affordable and they are reusable. They are maybe not as aggressive as say, Abeka, but they teach well. And if you need to you can go faster through the books. So, we will give them a try and see how it goes. We can always change next year.