Curriculum, curriculum

School used to be somewhat of a chore for us. With all of our freedom and options, that is the last thing that homeschooling is supposed to be. I know of many homeschoolers who thoroughly enjoy schooling. I knew that something had to be done. If I wasn't enjoying it, surely, my children knew that. After many prayers and patience, I got a word that our curriculum was the problem. 

I researched, again, the many different curriculum options. I have quite a few friends using Sonlight who swear by it, but, I admit, I thought it would be boring, just reading all day (I used to LOVE reading but after 12 years in public school, reading dry texts, I no longer enjoyed reading) and boy, was it expensive! I also looked into Apologia, Alpha Omega, LLATL, Mystery of History and My Father's World among many others.

After researching My Father's World, Exploring Countries and Cultures, (MFW, ECC) I decided that it seemed pretty interesting! But, the curriculum was like Sonlight, tons of reading and it was expensive! What to do?? So, I continued looking at others and waited for all the catalogs in the mail. MFW catalog came and I read through it. I loved that it had the "family cycle" and with more children behind our 10 year olds, I knew that we would benefit from something like that.

It was growing on me, but I still wasn't convinced. I prayed some more. I told God I was concerned about spending $450 on curriculum. I didn't believe that the cost was justified.

Then, in February, there it was, on eBay, the complete MFW, ECC set for $170!! I said, okay God, you put this here for me. The last day of the auction it was at $178. I decided to bid at the last second and...I won! I won the entire set for $182.50! I was super excited to get started right away. 


**Update: The verdict is in...we LOVE it!! After the curriculum came, we got started right away! We are so enjoying it! The reading is lively! It is NOT boring at all. Nothing like what I remember from my days in school. We, yes, "we" have learned so much in the just the past 7 weeks with using this curriculum.

Along with changing our curriculum, we have also decided to school year round, taking a week break every 6-8 weeks. This break seems to be just what the doctor ordered with a new little one in the house! :-)

We have also started to school from January to December, rather than July through May. This way, I get to attend the homeschool expos long before our new school year. Seems like by July, when the expo is in our area, one should already know exactly what curriculum they will be using. All in all, this is really working out!