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Home > Support > Curricula > How well does mixing other programs with CHC materials work?
 
 
Question: Hi, I am just planning to start the CHC kindergarten curricula with my oldest child. However, we have already completed the 100 Easy Lessons reading book. Should I just order the other materials and supplement with other things I find for the reading component? Does mixing and matching like that make things more complicated as the years go by? Thanks!
Answer:

AMDG+

Dear Parent;

First, congratulations! It is so exciting to see your child take off with reading, participating in his/her success.

You bring up a good question about mixing programs and then attempting to make them fit together. Certainly, one of the benefits to homeschooling is that you really can tailor the program to fit the child. However, because different programs proceed at different paces and to different levels, trying to piece together a program can sometimes result in academic holes. At other times, the piecing can create a tedious redundancy, so that the child covers the same material twice.

A good example of this is trying to fit the 100 Easy Lessons book with the CHC kindergarten program. The student who has completed 100 Easy Lessons has reached approximately the same reading level as the child who has completed CHC's Little Stories for Little Folks, Level 2. [Little Stories for Little Folks ends with Level 4, taking the child to approximately 2nd to 3rd grade reading level, depending on which school is doing the assessing.]

CHC's spellers also reinforce the vocabulary from LSLF and vice versa; the student who skips the reading segment of CHC's lesson plans will lose the benefit of a curriculum whose individual parts work together to make a whole. As you have indicated in your question, mixing different programs can, indeed, make things more complicated as the years go by.

The advantage to using materials from one program alone is that you can still progress ahead if you find that your child is advanced in one or two areas, but without worrying about leaving academic holes or creating unnecessary work for the student.

Good question!

May our good Jesus guide and bless your homeschooling days.

Nancy Nicholson

   
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