One of the biggest complaints I hear from homeschoolers is that their child hates doing schoolwork. Honestly though, who can blame them? When they look around their home and see so many other fun things to do, it’s hard to focus on getting their schoolwork done.
But often times, kids are not actually resisting schoolwork, but instead, they are trying to avoid a curriculum that doesn’t work.
As all parents know, what works for one kid won’t automatically work for another. Each child has different strengths, weaknesses, learning styles and personalities. Instead of fighting against these things, we need to try to work with them to make our kids as successful as possible.
But what should you do when you dumped too much money into a curriculum that doesn’t work for your child?
Don’t panic. That’s the first thing you should do. Then check out these 5 ideas to help you get yourself together.
5 Things To Do With Your Curriculum That Doesn’t Work
Take a Break:
So often, we feel like we have to be on schedule so we don’t fall behind. But who are we worried about falling behind? Homeschooling is a completely different ballgame than public schools so we need to remember not to play the comparison game.
Often times, taking a break from a curriculum that doesn’t work is the best thing you can do, both for yourself and your child.
Try taking 2 weeks off from using the curriculum and see if that helps. If it does, then you know where the problem lies. If not, pick it back up and start again, while removing a different curriculum from your day. Do this until you’ve found which curriculum is the issue.
Try Hands-On Learning:
We get so set on using a curriculum that we often forget that kids learn best through hands-on activities. Try to use your curriculum as a guide, instead of as a “must-do” list.
You might find that swapping boring textbooks for hands-on learning isn’t just more appropriate, but also way more fun for your student!
Skip the Repetition:
Bear absolutely despises diagramming sentences. We fought and fought for months over our language arts program until I finally threw my hands in the air and gave up. I told him that if when could correctly diagram 3 sentences for me, without any errors, we would skip that part of our lessons.
And guess what! He was able to diagram sentences easily within a week. He just felt overwhelmed when he thought he would be doing them everyday for the rest of his life. But once he mastered the skill, I allowed him to skip over any of the sentence diagramming in his lessons. Now he just has to do it on quizzes to prove he remembers how.
Removing an issue from your day-to-day learning can help ensure that your day flows much smoother!
Scrap It:
It’s hard to toss a curriculum that doesn’t work for you since you spent so much money on it. But the truth is, sticking with something that is causing you and your child stress isn’t worth the fight.
Cut your losses and get rid of the curriculum if it isn’t serving you.
You can always recoup some of your money lost by selling the unused curriculum. Try listing it on Facebook Marketplace, eBay or Craigslist. Chances are, you’ll be able to get more out of it than you think!
Choose Wisely:
It’s hard to narrow down which curriculum to buy, but it’s important to choose wisely. When shopping for a curriculum, be sure to check their support they offer, returns and how they handle dissatisfied customers.
CTCMath offers the best guarantee that we’ve ever seen from a homeschool curriculum. You can try their (already super affordable) math curriculum and, if you hate it, you can get a 100% money-back guarantee for up to 12 months. They won’t ask you any questions and the process is simple: just email them and let them know you’re unhappy and they will give you a full refund, no matter how long you’ve used the curriculum.
Why does CTCMath offer such an awesome guarantee?
Because they know you’ll love their product!
- For the cost of ONE other math subscription, your entire family can get access to ALL levels of CTCMath!
- Short, to-the-point lessons make learning less overwhelming.
- Self-paced lessons allow students to work at their own speed.
- No big, bulky books! CTCMath is all online!
- You’ll see an improvment in your child’s confidence after just a few short lessons.
- Perfect for grades K-12
- It’s a parent’s dream! No teaching is necessary and parents can easily stay up to date through the detailed progress reports.
- Teaches to several different learning styles, making it multi-sensory.
Right now, you can get a ONE YEAR subscription to CTCMath for HALF OFF!
