What would you do?

[TracyR]

I had pulled my 11yr old out of cyberschool this year (in January). I had to quickly put together a curriculum for her to use after pulling her out and I decided on Christian Light. The curriculum really helps her be independent and that is what I wanted because I have two other younger ones to teach.

Anyways I really like the CLE. She is learning new things finally for the 1st time in a long time. Her English has improved a thousand fold ( the curriculum we previously had just glossed over grammar and she has NO understanding of it at all). We had to go back with math because she really didn't understand concepts though she was using 6th grade math this year with the cyber. Recently, her math abilities have been improving as well and she is getting less, and less wrong.

She's been fighting me with the CLE reading but really its a great program. Its everything I am looking for in a readiing program and the price is in our budget. I could have her read books from the library BUT, I want something more put together for her so I don't have to fight with her to write something about what she read ( she hates writing assignments). All I can say is , look , here is what they want. Please do this. If I assign it she just draggs her feet and feels like she doesn't need to do it.

Fastforward and she just doesn't like the CLE ( except for the LA). My oldest is a very smart little girl and she does know alot . She is also my child where if something challenges her she doesn't like it anymore. She is also my color, bells and whistles kid and likes BJU. But right now BJU is NOT in our budget , not even used. Nor do I have the time to teach it to her. I need for her to have something she can do more independently , at least until her 2nd and 3rd sister become a little more independent.
I personally think that CLE is a good curriculum. She is learning from it and its everything I'm looking for our family right now.

But what do I do? She just doesn't like it. She would consider ACE paces but I just don't like the fill in the blanks that it is. Not that its a bad curriculum. Its not. Its just I want a little bit more then fill in the blanks right now. We live in a testing state so being "behind" because Ace works slower in the early grades just isn't a good thing for us. Should I cave in for this year ? Or should I stick to my guns and continue with CLE? I feel like after 6yrs I've finally found something that I've been looking for in a curriculum and my daughter doesn't like it. Ugh. :tongue_smilie:

[love2read]

I'd stay with CLE. Some things are tough in life and English skills are very important. If she enjoys her other studies then tell her again that it's a great program, time efficient and she needs to buck up and just do it. If mom isn't happy, no one will be happy.

[MIch elle]

slow it down or cross out. Slow down by doing 1-2 pages/day or do it only 2-3 days/wk. Cross out some of the comprehension type questions in CLE reading; cross out some of the math problems. If you do CLE reading 2-3/wk then add a chapter book on the other days (ask her to write a one sentence synopsis of the chapter).

We'll be doing CLE reading 6 in grade 7 and probably crossing out some of the comprehension type questions too.

HTH!

[GVA]

I'm willing to listen to my children's concerns about curriculum, but like you, budget and content sometimes overrule. Once I hear their concerns and have made my decision, they have to learn to work with what they have. There have been times when we've had a family meeting to basically confirm that mom's curriculum choices are final, and that's it. My husband is very good about backing up my decisions even though he's usually not involved in the details.

My "poor" children are prone to complain at times about how hard I work them (which I do in comparison to public school and many homeschoolers), but we remind them that we as adults are responsible to prepare them for life and that in time they'll understand why we did certain things. We truly love them and want the best for them in the end, and I think that they grasp that at times.