Before you decide that a curriculum is not working for you? I dont know if thats clear. Lets say you buy a Math Series and begin using it with your student. If your student struggles in that area, do you assume its the product or just not their academic strength? How long before you decide to change curriculums? I guess it would be easier in the upper grades, because you'd know if your student has ever struggled in that subject before and what it took to get around the block. But in the early years, K-3, isn't it harder? (I dont know if this question makes sense outside my head or not...My brain is fuzzy today. Sorry)
Yes, it does make sense. I'm currently schooling Other People's Kids (total 37 as of this year), and I would have to say that it depends on the kid and the subject as to how fast you'll know. I'm a very textbooky person myself, and most of the kids we get are coming from public school, so textbooky/workbooky is an obvious first choice. I do lots of placement-testing before we start, so I'm pretty sure of the level and what skills they have/need to work on. BUT sometimes what I choose still doesn't work for that kid. Usually I'll try another level, or another publisher, first. Usually that works better, but not always. Sometimes it's the kid and his/her attitude that's what's not working. It's not always the materials or the approach. Sometimes I find that my first choice of reading/LA/math/Bible works just fine, but it's the science and history that sort of ... don't... and sometimes it's the other way around. This year I tried 100EZ with my grandson (he was 4-turning-5) for awhile - it worked just fine ... for awhile. We got through about lesson 12, though, and then poof! he didn't want to, wouldn't look at it, even if I wrote his letters on paper to practice on, just wouldn't have it in any way, shape, or form. Then he moved, so I didn't get the chance to try anything different. Was he not ready to learn (although he said he was)? was it the format? was it influence from the other side of his family? I may never know.... ETA: Sometimes I know in a week or two, sometimes in a month or two, sometimes a whole semester, that it's truly not working - and that's mostly with older kids, as I said, who have come out of ps to me.
Yep... what she said. (LOL) I think the only thing that makes it harder in the younger years than older (because my experience is mostly older) is that you're unsure of the child's learning style(s). That's something that would be hard (or impossible) to figure out without a great deal of trial and error anyway. That said... I usually give it a semester as a general rule. Like she said, I'm also more likely to change levels or publishers before throwing the whole thing out the window.
I am not sure if I am a good person to respond, since my oldest is only 6yo. But I have done a few things, where I knew it was my ds and his unwillingness to try. Then there were other things that were just not meshing well with him. For example I tried MUS, we did it for 2 months. My son didn't like it, but he also was struggling with it. Things that he would have gotten easily before just didn't seem to stick. So now we are using CLE Math 100, and ds still doesn't like it ( get a picture he isn't a math kind of kid) but he is retaining a lot of information easier Now for reading we used 100EZ and he loved it for a while then stopped (about 50 lessons). So I switched to Bob Books, some online things and some from the library. Nothing was working. Back to 100EZ and I just made him do it. That was ds and not the 100EZ he just had a road block that he didn't want to cross. After I decided to force the issue he was fine. I think in the younger years it might be harder, because you don't know if the child really can't do something or is choosing to be a pain about it. Also because if you are new to homeschooling we tend to second guess our selves and abilites. Does that answer the question? I don't know if I did or not, I have a teething child who doesn't sleep. LOL
I can usually tell in a few weeks, but I'll hang on for a couple of months to give it a try, just to make sure it's not an off week or other outside things (i.e. life) causing the problem. After a couple of months, you can usually tell if it's going to work or not. Sometimes sooner. I have definitely switched curriculum a few different times in a year. Some people may say that it's not good because it doesn't promote stability. But I feel that I would rather get rid of something that is causing a lot of strife and no success and try to find something that works for us.
