Had a great year with Bookshark. But I want more for the older kids. I’m switching to Memoria Press. Here’s what I said on instagram.
I’m switching our homeschool around for next year. I’m keeping Dorothy in Bookshark for her first grade year, but I’m moving Gilbert, Trixie and Gloria to Memoria Press. Everyone liked Bookshark very much but I was already finding it difficult to keep up with 2 read-aloud levels at once. I realized that there was no way I could manage 3. I was cutting so much from the plans that they were gutted. .
Also, the kids’ test results this year, while just fine really, showed some weakness in grammar. That makes sense because they have never, ever studied it, and we did no formal Language Arts last year at all, just journal writing and lots of reading. I was looking at other LA programs because Bookshark’s LA was not a good fit, and I just didn’t really like anything I saw (well, except for Institute for Excellence in Writing, but it is expensive.) So that was two reasons why Bookshark was not going to keep working for us. And a third reason, the history spine is Story of the World, which I was already not using, opting for TAN’s Story of Civilization. SoC is nicely Catholic, and the kids actually remembered those parts. SotW is nominally secular but has an anti-Catholic bias. .
I stand by Bookshark as an excellent curriculum, just not for all of my kids right now. .
So, I’m keeping some of the Bookshark history, especially for Gloria, but putting the lot in First Form Latin and the corresponding English Grammar level, and Christian Studies III (which is the New Testament.) They’ll do some literature together, and maybe science. They’ll all have appropriate math and Gilbert the lucky dog will do Logic too. Gloria’s Social Studies are in Rome, Trixie’s and Gilbert’s Greece. I may add other stuff as we get closer but that sounds pretty good.
