Homeschool Community

I have to say after a few years of Saxon, I was tired of the repetition and wanted to do something that made math time more exciting and involved. I tried Miquon Math because math seemed so boring and I wanted to do some drills that were more interesting than worksheets, so I purchased a lot of math games to spice things up. I discarded it the next semester and went running back to Saxon. Any drawback to Saxon's repetitiveness is felt more on the part of the parent, and not the student who is doing the material for the first time.

Another time when I changed books was when we followed The Well-Trained Mind suggestion to buy Spelling Workout. The gist of it is, with more than one student it became too expensive for us. Now we use Natural Speller, an 8-year non-consumable text.

One time I felt burned by buying without handling was when I bought Color Adventure! Unit Study by Kym Wright, a homeschool mom. I paid $15 for it and decided it wasn't worth it... it had at least 6 pages of ads at the end for her other products and I felt like I could've gotten the same instruction on color wheels by googling it.

Are any of you trying something new, and either loving or hating it? Anyone been burned by buying something without handling it?

One of the reasons we began homeschooling was to be able to choose what books we used.  It takes me a long time to choose something new.(I am still looking for a good basic plan for art instruction)   My kids are not unit study comfortable.  They like arts and crafts on a hit and miss basis.   Unschooling?  Blessings on those for whom it works but it gives me anxiety attacks thinking about my 14 yr old who prefers texting and facebook to biology and algebra. Using a prepackaged curriculum seems to go against the grain.  I chose Saxon math from the start because of its reputation for repitition. We learn habits from repitition, is that bad?   I chose Rod and Staff for English because of its solid foundation in the basics and its repitition factor.  Other subjects are chosen based on  several factors.   It helps me to talk to several families about their curriculum. I read the reviews Rainbow Resource offers. Sometimes a page or two might be previewed on  CBD and on the publisher's website.  Right now, I have several books here that I made a mistake buying. Maybe next year they will be a better fit or another family might be able to use it.  One thing that helps is knowing that what the 9th grader uses will eventually be used for the 5th grader which helps when considering the costs.  I also do not hesitate to make copies of consumables for our own future use to help cut costs.  I have a friend who homeschools.  Her kids work at a level between ours so we lend her a lot of books for the year and borrow some of hers.