Searching in VAIN!!!

I have been searching in vain for WEEKS for what curriculum to use for Sierra for 7th grade. So much of what she is doing I like, but not enough to keep. Like many things in life, it is hard to find a perfect match...there is no such thing as a perfect church...there is no such thing as a perfect house, car, life, etc. I know I will not find the perfect curriculum, but I have to try to find what is the best for my daughter....and it is amazing the amount of pressure I feel in accomplishing just THAT.

Good news is, I am a natural researcher. I have people coming to me all the time to ask me to research things for them because they know I will explore all avenues at my fingertips and give them what advice I gleaned from what I found. Homeschool Curriculum is a VAST and very POLARIZING field to research, though. SO MANY PUBLISHERS....SO MANY REVIEWERS....SO MUCH MONEY!!!! lol

I recently had a mom recommend to me the curriculum her kids use...so I did what I do and I researched it. I went to their website and I watched videos, I read information, I read testimonials...................and than I saw the COST!!! WHOA!!! The concepts were OUTSTANDING, but the cost was through the roof. Time to get realistic with time, Sierra and BUDGET!!!

Each day I have spent significant time looking up different publishers. I spend most of my time reading users reviews of the product...wanting to learn from others mistakes or achievements. This can be VERY discouraging and can also be VERY enlightening. I was able to cross many publishers off my list.

Teaching Textbooks, the math program Sierra uses now, ALWAYS gets the highest of ratings and if I were to put my review out there, I would agree. Sierra is excelling at it...going at her own pace....and it slows things down and breaks them up so much that Sierra is GETTING the concepts. She has a straight A average in math now. Today, she finished a week's worth of assignments in one morning. I am fairly certain she will be done with 6th Grade math by mid-February and we will move on to 7th Grade math.

Science, History, and Language Arts are the more nail biting subjects, mainly because I have a program for Math that I am MORE than happy with and have no plans to discontinue. All these other subjects I am on the fence on. Though....

I think I did it....I think I have found what we will do for 7th Grade in all the remaining subjects INCLUDING a foreign language. Switched On Schoolhouse.

I had read a LOT of negative things about the curriculum and had automatically crossed it off the list...something told me today to look into it. I read the same bad reviews, but I became aware of something as I continued my research..........most of the bad reviews came from OLDER versions of the program. Most reviews of the 2010 version have been stellar. I am so jazzed, I have decided we will buy History/Geography, Science, Language Arts, French, and Texas History ALL in this curriculum form.

One of the biggest selling points for this curriculum is it is like 95% computer based for Sierra. I sat down with her tonight so she could watch some demo videos with me and she got SO excited by what she saw. Everything contained on her computer!!! This makes it easy for her to move around with...if she needs to go somewhere (she will accompany to church on Thursday for bible study so we can zoom out after and pick Daniel up for a field trip to the museum) she can have it all handy on her laptop. No books...no papers.... Let's face it, the world we live in IS computer based. Matt's company is working towards being paper free. This is awesome for her.

It is awesome for me, too. I love technology. It will be so nice to set up her plans (the program keeps track of what she does and does not do) and let her go. I am so excited for her and I am so excited that she is excited.

Tonight, I can lay my head down and not think about what in the world am I going to do next year. Ah heck, who're we kidding?? I will check, double check, triple check and beyond...making sure I am making the best decision I can for my daughter.