in selection of curricula.

the ideal curricula:

- should be something YOU can understand. if you can't figure it out as an adult, it probably ain't gonna work for your child, unless you have a specific struggle in an area that your child does not

- should work with your child's learning style / personality. we have children that are tactile, auditory, and visual learners. we looked, for example, at one math curriculum and it was INCREDIBLY boring. no illustrations, just endless page upon page of problems. that would have bored the hell out of us so we knew it would not fly with our kids and their attention spans. the good thing here is that YOU have the flexibility. there have been times, particularly early on, when we changed our minds about a particular curriculum mid-semester. he or she was just 'not getting it' or there were flaws in the books that did not manifest themselves immediately. switching halfway through was not ideal, but MUCH better than forcing our kids to do that additional several weeks worth of work for naught.

- should be in line with your educational goals. while we don't *have* to, we looked at the entrance requirements for the state university system (ie, how much math, science, english, electives, health and phys ed, etc) and made sure that what we are doing is consistent with that.

>I think I'd be pretty competent in teaching my kid math and
>English/Lit. But stuff like Middle /High school level Science
>and History, I'd be absolutely awful without intense prep.

depends also on when you start. if you start early w/ them you'll be surprised that you are learning right alongside them.

>>How difficult was it to teach subjects you have little to no
>>knowledge of?

really not that bad. case in point, we used Rosetta Stone for Spanish (I and II). the early stuff is easy, but as you move forward, everything is in spanish. it gets harder to grade when some of the questions are open ended. but we make it work.

my middle son did spanish 1 one year at co-op, and then we didn't like it and had him redo it using rosetta stone at home. he tested 3 points away from placing out of Spanish 2 in college.

all else fails, if you can't find a local co-op class, there are plenty of online alternatives.


peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

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I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad