We began homeschooling our oldest son, Nate, in 2003. We picked a patchwork of elements to put together the “perfect” curriculum and anticipated a “perfect” year full of classical readers, Latin, art appreciation, etc, etc. Bah! After a few months, we were scratching our heads and wondering why Nate, Mindy, and I despised the curriculum. We realized that some things just were not working. Nate didn’t like reading, we didn’t like how things were going, and Mindy seemed to be spending every waking hour trying to keep things duct taped together.
In 2004 we entered into Homeschool 2.0. We found a great curriculum that worked well for us. There were lots of pre-prepared lesson plans that alleviated some of the preparation burden for Mindy. It had a good emphasis on the Bible, and there was a connectedness between the history and grammar elements that we liked. The curriculum was flexible so we could adapt and include other elements easily. When Lela hit kindergarten, she and Nate were able to do the same history curriculum, and we were able to adapt and accommodate two children. The curriculum was built around living books for history, and what an incredible selection of good books for the kids to read! The curriculum has served our family very well for three years.
However…
We began to look ahead to next school year, and the years beyond. How is the curriculum going to scale up for us? Next year, Justin will begin kindergarten, then CJ in two years, and Brianna a year or two after that. With five children in our family, how were we going to manage teaching a spread from kindergarten to eighth grade with possibly three completely separate core curricula?
What was clear to us is “times they are a changin’.” We needed to adjust, and maybe it was time for Homeschool 3.0. The hunt was on for a curriculum that could scale up to what we needed and keep our mission and values intact, and, by God’s providence, the search was pretty short.
I’ll follow up with more info about what we are doing, and why we are excited about Homeschool 3.0.
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