On the heels of our post exploring the definition of 'curriculum'.  I thought that it would be beneficial to briefly address one of the most common mistakes that we make when choosing a specific program for our math students.  First of all, we all choose to teach our children elementary arithmetic.  That's the official curriculum.  but we also choose the order, process, and method of how it's presented. That's the program.   

Our failure to understand that the curriculum of elementary math spans many years which are not mutually exclusive leads us to treat each year as an individual.  My friends, these things ought not to be.  Programs used to present the curriculum to your student are different.  They don't all present fractions in the second grade year.  Some of them insist on intense place value understanding, while others brush past it.  These differences bring us to the mistake that we often make: 

Continually switching programs 

While the curriculum remains the same, elementary math, the order changes.  If this happens too many times in a child's course of study, it can lead to gaps in the curriculum and frustration with the course.  

This understanding of the differences between curriculum and programs that present the curriculum is how you can meet people who love and people who hate the same program.  In truth, if you've tried one program for one year, then you aren't experiencing the full program.  

What do you do to avoid this problem?  Do you stay with a program that you hate? How do you know when to switch?  Those are the types of questions that we should be asking when we address issues that we have with a particular book.  These are also questions that we at Scio Academy think about continually and love to work with you on in our forum and our webinars.