I don’t know about you, but as soon as a school year closes, I am hot on the hunt for new curriculum. Part of my process of choosing materials is to read and watch curriculum reviews. In particular, I enjoy watching the “curriculum hits and misses” videos on YouTube. I find it very helpful to find out what worked and didn’t work for others. With that, I figured I’d “throw my hat in the ring” and post my own 2022-2023 curriculum hits and misses post.
The Disclaimer
As with every hits and misses video, I will also give my disclaimer. If I label a curriculum as a “miss,” it means that it didn’t work for my (emphasis on the “my”) family. Or the issue was with just one or more of my kids in particular. This doesn’t mean that the curriculum is flawed or that you shouldn’t check it out for yourself. In other words, take what I say with a grain of salt.
With the disclaimer out of the way, let’s move on to my 2022-2023 curriculum hits and misses.
Math hits and a miss
Teaching Textbooks
Teaching Textbooks was a big hit. I love being able to outsource math! Teaching Textbooks (TT) is an online program that does it all. It provides instruction, practice, tutorials, and grading.
In the Parent Portal, you can check on your kids’ grades. You can also delete scores if you would like your kids to redo an entire lesson or specific problems in a lesson.
Big families (families of 4-8 kids) might benefit from the large family discount. With the discount, a family’s annual cost for using the digital app is capped at $216.95. We have definitely taken advantage of this discount!
Math-U-See
Before we discovered Teaching Textbooks, Math-U-See (MUS) was my go-to. The only reason I parted ways (temporarily) with MUS was convenience. As I mentioned, outsourcing math was a game changer for me.
With that said, I came back to MUS for one of my sons who has an intellectual disability. I’ve tried numerous programs with him (we’ll get this year’s miss with math next), and I just had to go back to my tried and true.
MUS is a no frills program that provides many opportunities for students to work on a concept before moving onto the next lesson. Before each lesson they watch a video of Mr. Demme, the creator of MUS and a homeschool dad, teaching the new concept. For each lesson in the workbook, there are 6-7 worksheets. The first three solely work on the new concept, the last 3 include the new concept plus a cumulative review of past lessons. The 7th page is sometimes more like an enrichment page. My son needed all those extra pages, so this was a win.
McGraw-Hill My Math
This math book was a miss for us. Granted, I did not have the Teacher’s Edition which may have helped, but I don’t think it would have made a huge difference. I was drawn to this curriculum because it was colorful and didn’t have a lot of problems per page. This seemed like it would be a good fit for my son who struggles with math. Instead, he had difficulties with the pace of the book. It moved too quickly for him. In addition, some of the common core strategies just didn’t help him.
History misses
Sigh, it seems like I am always trying something new when it comes to history. Since I like to keep history as a group subject, it’s challenging to find a ”one size fits all” curriculum. This is particularly true when it comes to American history. We covered Early American history last year, piecing together resources. This year I wanted to focus on Civil War era history to the present (yes, it was rather a tall order).
The Good and the Beautiful
As of the writing of this post, The Good and the Beautiful is discontinuing their Years 1-4 history curriculum. Per their website, they are working to revise it and will release it in 2024. I’m thinking maybe I wasn’t the only one who struggled with this curriculum!
At first I was intrigued by the methodology of the curriculum. Each book would cover four different periods over the school year. For example, Year 1 would cover: Ancient History, The Middle Ages and the Renaissance; the French and Indian War through the Revolutionary War; and the Victorian Era, the History of Flight, and the Cold War Era.
The intrigue didn’t last long. The “time traveling” proved to be more confusing than beneficial.
Beautiful Feet -Modern America and World (5-8)
I really wanted this one to work out for us. Using “living books” is a wonderful way to teach history. But alas, this was a “miss.” For me, (and again this is a “me” problem not a curriculum problem) we weren’t able to go as in-depth as I wanted to with certain events. In addition to portions of two history texts, we were supposed to read 20 additional books. That was just too many extra books for me to try to read aloud.
History hits
We quit Beautiful Feet and switched to
Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn’t Tell You About the Civil War
by Steve Sheinkin, to study the Civil War.
We used Sheinkin’s book, King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn’t Tell You About the American Revolution, last year and loved it. Sheinkin used to be a textbook writer who felt like all the good parts of stories had to get left out. Therefore he decided to write history books that, “kids and teens actually want to read.” He left out “parents,” though. His books are very interesting and fun to read.
Evan Moor History Pockets: The American Civil War
Along with Sheinkin’s book, I chose parts of Evan Moor History Pockets The American Civil War for the kids to make an interactive notebook. If you don’t know what an interactive notebook is, it’s essentially lapbooking with a different name.
We also used a free printable timeline from Skip the School.com.
Time Travelers: The Industrial Revolution through the Great Depression
After we finished the Civil War, we used the Time Travelers set from Homeschool in the Woods. Because there are so many projects included in the pack, I really had to pick and choose what we’d include in the notebooks. I appreciated that in addition to the projects, we had source texts to read. This way I didn’t have to find another history book to read.
America: The story of us
America: The Story of Us is a set of 3 DVDs that chronicles 400 years of US history. The videos are a mix of re-enactment and commentary by famous people. Note that I did say “famous people” and not “historians.” I was a little perplexed by some of the choices of those who were commenting on famous events. Michael Douglas? Despite my confusion on casting, my kids enjoyed these videos.
I think they are geared for upper elementary and higher. Each of the 12 segments runs about 45 minutes.
Keep in mind that the stories are presented and chosen most likely for their entertainment value. Reading one of the reviews, a history teacher was balking at how inaccurate he viewed some of the storytelling. Still, I would recommend the videos alongside other history materials.
Language Arts hits
Writing
Essentials in Writing
This curriculum was new to us this year and we liked it. One of the reasons I chose it was because the kids watched instructional videos from the program’s website before each lesson. I consider it a win to be able to outsource writing. To accompany the videos, the students also used a textbook which I would correct. The lessons were typically short.
In the EIW program, for Levels 1-5, half of the book works on grammar skills. The other half works on writing skills. For Level 5, these were the writing assignments:
- Paragraphs (descriptive, expository and persuasive)
- Writing a summary
- Compare and contrast writing
- Personal narrative
- Expository personal letter
- Persuasive essay
- Research project
Students are taken step by step through the process of each kind of writing. It’s very comprehensive.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary Words in Context
This year we tried out Vocabulary Words in Context. I appreciated that the lessons were short. For each lesson, students read through a list of definitions. They then match the definitions to the correct words which are used in a paragraph. Hence the “vocabulary words in context.” They have two other activities to complete (such as putting words in alphabetical order) per lesson (which is one page).
Reading Comprehension
Daily Warm-Ups Reading
Students read short passages and answer four multiple choice questions to test their comprehension. I appreciate that the lessons are short and simple. A big bonus to me is that the passages are interesting and teach the kids facts from history, science, etc. This is from the description given on Rainbow Resource:
“Comprehension questions focus on a variety of activities including: recall, main idea, supporting details, cause and effect, sequencing, vocabulary and context clues for new vocabulary, inferences and drawing conclusions.”
Those are our 2022-2023 curriculum hits and misses. Hopefully our experience can help you in some way as you research curriculum for your own family. Watch for our 2023-2024 curriculum picks!
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