I LOVE our curriculum!!

I have been researching different options for next year...cheaper options, less time consuming options...problem is, I love our curriculum!! DD5 is learning so much. The math makes sooo much sense and teaches everything in such a nice order. The curriculum gives me all the tools I need to review old concepts and teach new concepts. Its amazing!!

I got The Well Trained Mind from the library again, thinking it would give me some insight for next year. I remember reading that book & it sounded so right. After reading it again, I see how our curriculum provides the SAME thing, but with less work on my part and less pain for DD5. It basically provides all the same objectives as TWTM for Math and Language Arts. Why wouldn't I use it again next year?

I also looked at the store workbooks that I used for preschool and really liked "Learn Every Day". It still looks like a nice series, and visually very attractive. However, it doesn't present the lesson part of it. I like having a teacher's manual that tells me all the different ways I can present the material, give us hands on activities to practice the lesson, and then colorful workbook pages that show a skill has been mastered. I like things organized in a way that makes sense - because my brain is full enough of creative ideas and jumbled thoughts and chaos. Its nice that I can rely on something that has the basics in order for me. I've realized that I don't like an organized curriculum to provide reading comprehension or art, so that part has gotten thrown out. I have even skipped the science & heritage studies part of it. I prefer to do Art when my DD5 decides she wants to create something. I prefer to learn history from living books and use it for reading comprehension too (like when DD5 excitedly told Daddy how we finished reading Charlotte's Web and then told him everything that happened in the book). I love learning science in our backyard as we watch deer graze in our yard, identify animal tracks in the snow, and name the fuzzy caterpillars munching on leaves. But for Math and Language Arts, so far we have done really well with BJUP. Does that make me a School-At-Home Mom or Eclectic?