Curriculum junkie

I am definitely a curriculum junkie. I've accumulated homeschool books that I might never use. I've dropped programs after using them for only a week. I've changed what I use for almost single subject. I've even changed to public school, temporarily. And this is with a child who is only in first grade. The only subject where I've stayed with the same publisher is math. And that's about to change too.

I started Sparkle with RightStart Math in kindergarten. Although math is her weakest subject, RightStart Math has done wonders for her mathematically ability. RightStart math does an amazing job at teaching basic math concepts. Unfortunately, it is written as a scripted program that totally drives me nuts. It has you do unusual activities without explaining the point. A single lesson often contains several seemingly unrelated activities. The textbook doesn't differentiate between "extra" activities for enrichment versus key concepts that must be mastered before moving on.

I've been casually looking online at other math programs for a few months. Although some sounded good, I wasn't ready to spend Wander's money sight unseen when RightStart was working for Sparkle. Then I got sucked into an online discussion of cuisenaire rods versus the RightStart Abacus. I started out in defense of the abacus, proclaiming how wonderful it is. Yet the more I learned about cuisenaire rods, the more they appealed to me. Somehow I was converted to the other side. I still love the abacus, but wanted to try the cuisenaire rods. I bought a set of cuisenaire rods and the accompanying Miquon math program. The earliest I could use the program is after Sparkle is out of public school, but I'm anxious to try them out. The only time I've seen the books and rods in real life was at a friend's house and I was mystified by them at the time. In the meantime, maybe Glitter can play with the rods.