Posted in Curriculum

I feel that before I move to much forward with this blog I should talk about the curriculum we use.  As I mentioned in my "First Post" there really are no Jewish homeschooling curriculums, so I have sort of a love-hate relationship with curriculae as I try to find one to meet our needs.

I am often asked by new homeschoolers, "how do you choose curriculum?"  I think this is something everyone struggles with.  My advice to a new homeschooler is find a educational philosophy/method that speaks to you.  Once you have that, you can develop a vision for what you want your homeschool to be like and then it become easier to homeschool.  For me, that book that spoke to me was "The Well Trained Mind" by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer.  As I read it, I knew that this was the education that I wanted my kids to have.  There has yet to be a homeschooling book that has spoken to me so clearly.  So, a classical education it is.

From there I read some Charlotte Mason and Montessori and decided to pick some from there as well.  I of course read others, but they just didn't speak to me in the same way.

So, as I look over our years of homeschooling, I realize that i have yet to use the same curriculum 2 years in a row.  It changes every single year, to meet my families changing needs.  But, my vision for what our homeschooling will look like and what I want for my children has not changed a bit.  I can look at the curriculum I chose every year and see how it was the right fit at that time and completely fed into my educational goals and the needs of my children.

Also, when I first started homeschooling, I disregarded anything that was Ch-tian as I just didn't want to deal with that quite yet, and narrowed my choices to secular curriculum.  Then 3 years ago, for preschool I decided on Sonlight.  I had a lot of misgivings, but it was perfect in every way except religion.  We had a fantastic year with it!!  I loved it, and loved that while we have different views on G-d, G-d was still the center and focus of the curriculum.  Since then I have moved towards more Ch-stian programs because I like having G-d as the center of our homeschool, and I really have no other way of making that happen.

This year though, I am stretching this to all new limits.  I am using Tapestry of Grace (TOG) - probably the first Jew to ever do so.

It all started at the homeschooling conference last Spring.  I had heard people speak about TOG, but just assumed it was something I wouldn't be interested in.  I passed by their booth though and decided to see what all the fuss was about.  I had no intention of switching.  So I sat down, pulled over a unit and started to look through it.  A woman can over very nicely and the conversation went like this:

Her:  May I help you?
Me: No, I'm OK.  I have friends who talk about this curriculum so I just wanted to look at it a little to see what it was about.  But I am really happy with what I am already doing, I really can't imagine changing..
Her: OK, that's fine.  Let me know if you need anything....

Five minutes later I am calling her back over to explain this curriculum to me as it looks like something I would really like!

Sometimes I think my main purpose on earth is to give HaShem someone to laugh at....

But really there was so much I liked about TOG:

I loved that it integrated subjects together much better than I had been doing.

I loved that we would spend half of this year doing World History and Half Doing American History

I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the writing program - as that was a main area that I felt we were lacking in.

it seemed to fix the main problems I had with the curriculum we were already using - even though I liked them a lot.  The main problem - it was VERY Ch-stian!  Maybe not a problem for some people, but a definite drawback for us.  But most of the books it used were secular and  I have become a good editor over the years.  I KNEW I could make this work.  So I am using Tapestry of Grace's Year 2 Program this year (we had done ancient history last year) and will be covering basically the fall of the Roman Empire through the American Revolution.

So, is it all that I expected?  Yes, in many ways.  There is a LOT I love about it.  All those things above that I thought I would like about it -well I absolutely love them.  I have also found the curriculum extremely easy to use.  People talk about a fog at first, but we had none of that.  We slipped very easily into the school year.  Honestly, this has probably been the easiest school year we have ever had (so far anyway!).  We have had more time for field trips and other activities and we are having a ton of fun too.  In general it has been a great experience.

All that being said, it does have a really big drawback.  The Ch-stian bias is so amazingly deep that it gets frustrating.  Fortunately only for me - as I edit it before the girls see it.  But still, I am REALLY hard to offend, and there are some things that I have found offensive.  I understand that all history has a bias, and I of course teach with one as well, but the bias here is so deep that it provides for a very limited worldview.

For example:
The Crusaders are treated as complete heroes.  The fact that they killed 1000's for pleasure before even reaching the Holy Land is not mentioned.
The Spanish Inquisition is not covered
This week we are covering a Russian Saint.  He is a saint because he "brought so many people to Ch-tianity".  How did he do that you ask? Well they do admit, it was through forced baptisms.
We covered religion in the Middle Ages one week.  That's fine and legitimate.  The curriculum said read everything on these pages (from an assigned book), except this one paragraph.  What was in that paragraph?  How Jews were persecuted during this time period.  We of course, read that paragraph.
They spend 4 weeks on the Reformation, one week on Renaissance artists...

And we are only on Week 4!  So I know that there is a lot more in there that I just haven't seen yet.  It definitely becomes a bit cumbersome at times.  And just for the record - I am not saying that they should be giving a Jewish bias either (although those are obviously things I pick up on most).  But being a bit more balanced would not be so bad either.

Obviously I am doing a lot to supplement it and adding to it, so that my children will have a broader world view.  My kids of course don't see all this.  They see that they are having a great school year and that school is a lot of fun!

So, we will just keep on moving on, wondering where HaShem will move me next curriculum wise - but sticking with TOG until he decides otherwise.