Curriculum Changes | Homeschool Curriculum Update | Why we are using Gather Round Curriculum

[@lifewithginab]

Have you tried gather round? Let me know below!

[@karynnekrasowski3525]

I'm honestly so torn with supporting a mom who bashed another company based on religious beliefs. I love so much about gather round, just wish someone else created and sold it.

[@lifewithginab]

@@karynnekrasowski3525 yeah I remember the scandal... with the good and the beautiful right? I get why you feel that way. I wish that didn't happen too! 😕

[@karynnekrasowski3525]

I'm not Mormon but I feel like of this sort of thing happened with a Jewish curriculum author, or Muslim, there would be outrage. It just doesn't sit right with me. It's such a shame because it all looks so beautiful, but I feel like she has hate in her heart and I don't want to support that. Interested to see how it all works out with you guys!

[@lifewithginab]

@@karynnekrasowski3525 yeah, I am not Mormon either and totally didn't agree with how all that was handled at the time. Thank you so much! We finished off the curriculum and it was a nice change ... I'll have my honest thoughts in a later video :)

[@AbidingHomeschool]

@Karynne Krasowski Same thoughts and feelings here. GR looks great and I've eyed the career unit, but I just can't support someone who went SO far with all the hate. We use and LOVE TGTB! We've uses every level across all our kids and I don't see us ever changing.

[@Boringcountrylife]

My oldest is 20 now (mom of 3). I home schooled from the beginning. I switched curriculums so many times I lost count. The conclusion I have reached is that the curriculum really doesnt matter. What matters is how you balance your time based on your goals and if your kids are finding joy. Go really easy and slow when they are in their single digits. The more hands on, real life, non-book education they get the more they will have a life long love of learning. Don't try to make them little memorization machines. Reading, writing, math really are the basics (but probably best not done at public school pace when they are young). If they can do those things they can learn anything they ever want to. We are in our early 40's and are still teaching ourselves brand new stuff. Have fun! Snuggle your babies! Blessings!

[@lifewithginab]

Thank you so much for sharing this! ❤️🙏 love that you homeschooled from the beginning! What a blessing to see them grow and learn ❤️

[@Boringcountrylife]

@@lifewithginab And each kid can have very different learning styles and abilities. It can become a lot to stay on top of once all the kids are all school age. Interest-led learning will become more important to you then. For a while I was able to have some classes overlap for my younger two. Now they each get 1 hour alone with me a day to go over stuff they need me for and the rest of the time they are responsible to get their goals done. But family read-alouds have always been a big part of our learning, especially for history.

[@SevenInAll]

Loved hearing about your journey and your first try with Gather 'Round. For our family, we've done 3 units of Gather 'Round, we liked it for interest-based unit studies and exploration, but we didn't stop the big girls' core curriculum--it was more of some extra "together" fun studies for the two girls who are about five grades apart. We didn't do just bits and pieces, we did all of it, but we did those three units at about 1 lesson spread over a week, over the course of a semester.

[@lifewithginab]

I love the way you all used it Rachel! And I think we think a like 😉 I've actually watched your videos on gather round! Thanks for sharing mama! ❤

[@kgn61]

Gather Round is great for supplement, interest lead. We’ve done Pirates and Christmas, but I love The Good and the Beautiful! There is nothing better!! There is nothing over the top religious about TGATB at all!! It is wonderful!! Blessings to you!!

[@lifewithginab]

I agree with you completely!! We finished gather round and will have my thoughts soon in another video. But my heart is definitely with the good and the beautiful ❤ blessings to you too mama ❤

[@littlecozynook]

Thanks so much for ur honest review! I've been eyeing GR and may try out a unit for our science and social studies.

[@lifewithginab]

Thanks for watching! It was a fun curriculum to try out!

[@tialatouche345]

I plan to start using a curriculum soon. We are Homeschool Newbs so we spent our first term/semester doing hands-on fun learning and life skills . You have me very interested in trying out a Gather Round Curriculum. Looking forward to more videos!

[@lifewithginab]

Thank you so much! My first year homeschooling I didn't use a curriculum! So I can definitely relate to you!! ❤ thanks so much for watching 🌺

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

I always love hearing peoples’ stories and how and why they choose their curriculum. I didn’t realize you only had to do a month or so at a time! Good to know!

[@lifewithginab]

Yeah I looked into it and each unit is about 20 lessons and a lesson a day! So I thought that was super interesting!

[@frrb8305]

That's for sharing your experience Regina. You're such a valuable resource for anyone looking to embark on the homeschool journey!

[@lifewithginab]

Thank you so much 💓

[@adrianqueen8167]

Hey! New subscriber here 👋! We love gather round! We also use the good and the beautiful along with it! We live in a state where we have to test each year so we use certain pages of TGATB language and we exclusively use their math. But gather round just adds that extra. The fun richness that you get with science and history but so much more than that. I hope you enjoy it and that both curriculums bless your family as much as it has mine💜

[@lifewithginab]

Aww thank you so much for sharing!! We have been truly enjoying gather round' and I can totally see how you can make both work! Thanks for subscribing and being here ❤❤❤

[@chocolatelips2]

Super interesting! It’s nice to know that you can change things up when you’re homeschooling to fit your family needs! Great video. 👏🏻

[@lifewithginab]

Yes! Thank you xoxo

[@HomeSweetHomeschoolLife]

We absolutely love Gather Round. It’s our 3rd year with them.

[@lifewithginab]

You inspired me to try it! And so glad I did ❤

[@HomeSweetHomeschoolLife]

@@lifewithginab ❤️

[@inspirationalmotherhood]

I love hearing this. My cousin used this curriculum and really loved it I think it’s so nice to change things up.

[@lifewithginab]

Thank you!! I agree! It's so nice go change things up for sure ❤ thank you so much for being here ❤

[@SummerMeyers]

Way to go Dad! Love that he is involved and helping you out. ❤️

[@lifewithginab]

Honestly he's a blessing ❤

[@Panda-hv3rt]

Thank you for this video. So nice to know I’m not alone at changing up my curriculum right now!

[@lifewithginab]

That makes me happy to know that I am not alone either!! 😅❤ thank you for watching ❤

[@The_Loop_Homestead]

I forgot this was coming out!!🤪 We haven't tried Gather Round and I was going to try it when this came out. So glad I clicked on this video

[@lifewithginab]

Thank you so much for watching! If you end up trying it hope you like the unit!

[@samibuck]

We use GR for history/social studies/geography/science. We like it! Last year we used the entire curriculum as it is intended, but it wasn’t a good fit. We start living off the land this coming week!

[@lifewithginab]

That's so exciting! I hope you like it!! I think we will be using it the way you do in the future! :)

[@Jas111ld]

good for you guys ❤

[@jenniferchristopherson]

Thank you for this. I have committed to using Gather Round next Fall 2022, in addition to a few things I already use, and videos like this really reinforce my choice! I homeschool 8 year old twins, and we did Christmas GR this past Christmas and they really liked it, especially the activities and all the discussion questions. They said they loved talking about every lesson, and making the cards and nativity, etc. For math, I jse Math Mammoth and Simply Charlotte Mason Math textbooks. Not a lot of materials to buy, pretty much open and go, and it’s cost effective and also good in explaining concepts. In addition , since we are Catholic, we use a Religion curriculum from RC History called “Connecting with History.” It is crazy how much it covers for the price! It’s not just history! It’s got elements of history, literature, spelling, writing, art, and of course, Bible. RC History have four volumes that rotate- (you finish 4 and cycle back when the kids are older.) I figure that if I ever feel that GR has some holes that need to be filled, I can turn to RC History to supplement. The author of RC also says take as long as you want moving through all the time periods. It basically goes from Creation to Modern era, which is fantastic.

[@lifewithginab]

Wow this is so awesome! I've heard so many good things about their Christmas unit! I haven't tried it yet but maybe this year? 🤔 there's just such great curriculum out there and it's sometimes hard to choose and make decisions. I'm glad this video was helpful and thank you so much for sharing what you are using! ❤ happy new year!! And thank you for watching!

[@SummerMeyers]

Sounds like fate to me! Talking to your hubby, want to try incorporating more self sufficient lifestyle in school, and then Gather Round comes out with a new unit? 👏👏 Go with it mama!

[@lifewithginab]

Honestly I think it was fate for sure! Totally agree! Thank you mama ❤🌺

[@HerDailyJourney]

I really like that you're going all in and that you're doing everything. I think that's how you get the most out of their curriculum. I've only done the Christmas unit last year, but I do have some that I've been eyeing that I want to eventually try.

[@lifewithginab]

I love that you are doing the Christmas unit! I've heard so many good things about that particular unit ❤

[@happyhalfdozen]

Always easy to add more but we just did our first lesson today and it’s so nice to have the base all laid out. It’s plenty for us (1st and 2nd grade) but we can add whatever we want as far as activities and stuff to make it our own. 🥰 I want to do it all the time now!! I have added a few units to the cart and am contemplating what to sell since I clearly already purchased curriculum for this year lol

[@lifewithginab]

I love that!!! Love that you are enjoying it! ❤️🙏

[@RockSimmer-gal4God]

We use both TGTB and gather round but we take a break from TGTB Language Arts when we are doing a gather round unit!!! Idk what we are doing in 2022 as my new daughter will be doing some homeschool work at 4 and she’s definitely not going to be independent at all. We love that gather round makes school fun and we love the links!!! My kids have strength ready their reading and really learnt to read though TGTB!!! Our together time takes us longer when we do gather round but it’s worth it!!! We break the lessons up sometimes. Nothing wrong wiv a lesson taking more than one day. Homeschooling is awesome when we get creative!!! We don’t do gather round half way we do everything we can. We reschedule some of the optional activities and experiments!!! We changed math curriculum and love it!!! We didn’t use the old TGTB math but we love simply math!!!

[@lifewithginab]

Yes simply math is so good!! And thank you so much for sharing this!! I love how you have incorporated gather round to your homeschool! So great!!!

[@flourishing.flowers8201]

I can't wait for your review I am particularly curious about this unit and my children this will be the first year trying TGTB & Gather round we are going to be doing a mix of them for science and history.

[@lifewithginab]

That's awesome! I hope you like them! I can't wait to share my thoughts!

[@stephandlife43]

This was helpful! I’ve been on and off about using gather round with my middle daughter and youngest. We have switched curriculum and usually it has worked out 👌

[@lifewithginab]

I love when it works out! And it's a great learning experience too! Thank you for sharing mama! ❤️

[@linneaslittlehome5178]

Off the grid living is so interesting and very cool! I think it’s a great thing to learn as a kid especially when your brain is like a sponge! ☺️

[@lifewithginab]

Totally agree!! It has been so interesting learning about living off the grid!

[@teresathompson449]

We use gather round with master books for 4 children and we love it so so much!

[@lifewithginab]

I love that! ❤️ thank you so much for sharing!

[@paularodillo]

Good for you... We are doing the Gather Round, Christmas unit. But I’m planning on Human Body this January then Dinosaurs after then maybe Space. I am worried too because I have already laid out the curriculum. Plus, we are also bringing in Sonlight. My sons are already doing TGATB LA. I have a 2nd and 9th grader, so I’m not sure where I’m going with this and would it be too much?!?

[@lifewithginab]

Let me know how it goes!! Dinosaurs looks so good too!! I've heard really good thing about the Christmas unit ❤

[@ThatOtterMomma]

My sister uses The Good and the Beautiful too. We started with Gather Round this school year and didn't super love it honestly. It wasn't bad, but I have found that creating my own curriculum for each kid works better for us. I haven't seen this living off the land set though. Maybe I need to check them out again! We really want to start living more independently as well.

[@lifewithginab]

I really love the good and the beautiful too! And this unit from GR specifically was a great experience for us! The topic was really what we needed. I haven't tried their other units... but I do enjoy my one on one time with my kids... I love that you create your own curriculum! 🙂❤

[@keeperofmyhome]

I just added a Math Curriculum for my 4th grader! First time using Saxon Math… because what we were using was not working! I hope your new curriculum works for you all! 👏🏽👏🏽

[@lifewithginab]

Thank you so much mama! How is Saxon going? I love that we can change things up when something isn't working!

[@sjones9944]

I did their free unit and it was okay! I think for your kids ages it will be perfect 😉

[@lifewithginab]

Thank you friend ❤

[@joepotter106]

After 23 years of homeschooling, GR has been a total game changer for our family. - Shell

[@lifewithginab]

Amazing! Love that it works for you and your family ❤️

[@nichole_danielle2083]

Are you using it for high schoolers? If so how do you handle the transcripts for your typical science levels? Like chem, biology, physical science? Thank you!

[@joepotter106]

@@nichole_danielle2083 I do use GR for high school. I could send you a document that I created that has the high school 4 year plan that we are doing. It includes which GR units create a credit for high school and the course title for transcripts. I'm not sure how to attach here but I could email or FB message you the information if you would like. - Shell

[@nichole_danielle2083]

@@joepotter106 I just found it on the Facebook group!! This is incredible. The science stuff was really my block that made me super hesitant to go forward.

[@rachaelmilne5574]

@@joepotter106 I would love a copy!!

[@KAR2788]

I would love to see you doing a lesson. I really want to try living off the land. My boys would love it

[@lifewithginab]

Hi Katie! Thank you so much! I do have the video up already :) I'll link it here kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z53ZomqOjJ2dl8k Thank you so much for watching ❤

[@KAR2788]

@@lifewithginab oh how awesome!!! Sorry I didn't see this! 🤦‍♀️ excited to watch later!

[@lifewithginab]

@@KAR2788 no worries xo ... have a great day!! :)

[@KAR2788]

@@lifewithginab you too!!!!

[@EverydayBlessings]

We stared with the good and the beautiful and still use it but made a switch too.

[@lifewithginab]

How are you liking the switch? I love that we can switch things up in homeschooling ❤

[@ourfamilyvideos7283]

Sounds like you’d be a great lapbook / unit study mama….enjoy the seasons of the middle and younger grades!!

[@lifewithginab]

Aww thank you!! Yes I am trying to enjoy it... it passes by so fast! Thank you so much!!

[@livingbyfaith32]

I always, always get an itch to change curriculums whether it works or not 🤦 I tried TGTB in 2016 and did NOT like it. Here I am using it now with level 4/kinder, and I really like it lol. We are using them for everything except Science which is God's Design. I did Gather Round Christmas study 2 years in a row and I thought it was ok. I know for sure I couldn't use them as a sole curriculum. Excited to see how the unit goes for you guys 🤗

[@lifewithginab]

I love how as the years pass our kids and we change! I can't wait to share more ... we are actually finished the unit and I filmed us doing a lesson already and can't wait to share my final thoughts! Thank you so much for sharing your experiences ❤

[@lifewithginab]

I've hear good things about God design!

[@SummerMeyers]

But your daughter is so cute! Look at that face!! She's allowed to destroy. Give her all the books and papers to chew on and rip up. 🤣❤️ I hear you, mama! Trying to school with an active baby/toddler can be ROUGH. 💕💕

[@lifewithginab]

Hahaha she's a professional paper ripper! Love my little munchkin ha!

[@aimtok]

I haven’t tried Gather Round yet but would like to sometime! Mostly my changes have been year to year with changing companies. But this year we have decided my 2nd grader needs to move up a level in TGTB language arts and Math. In the mean time we will skip lessons that are just too easy for her in the current level and finish out some lessons that are still applicable to her. They are coming out with new TGTB Lang. Arts Summer 2022 so we may wait for that.

[@lifewithginab]

The new edition looks to great 😍 I'm excited for that! I won't have any kids in the new levels yet but it's still exciting lol thank you so much for sharing mama ❤

[@rachelfaith9169]

• Amy • the Gather Round sale is happening now. It’ll be my 1st year too (K).

[@thepracticalhomeschooler]

“Ok Rebecca I’m sorry” 😂

[@lifewithginab]

🤣🤣🤣

[@mirhanson08]

What did you end up doing moving forward? Did you completely cut out TGATB and switch to Gather Round? We’re trying to pick our first curriculum for our very first year (kindergarten) homeschooling.

[@lifewithginab]

We had a lot of fun but I love TGTB and TGTB is definitely a better fit for us but I liked the experience!

[@mirhanson08]

@@lifewithginab very good to know thank you! We had already decided on TGATB so I may add this in for a unit study here and there. Thanks so much for your reply!

[@lifewithginab]

@Miranda Hanson no problem! Yes that's what I do... I add it here and there! ❤️

[@HerDailyJourney]

if you got an itch you got an itch lol. Had me laughing when you mentioned it wasn't your bum. I saw you scratch but didn't pay attention to what you were scratching if that helps lol.

[@lifewithginab]

Hahaha !!! When I was editing I was like how to edit that out 😑😳 but I am in the middle of talking hehe ... glad it made you laugh 😃 LOL you got an itch you got to itch 🤣

[@keirajones5062]

Yeah , my kids were bored out of their ..... minds . We changed to Harbor and sprout which suits our secular style more, it's subscription based, a new unit comes out every month and each month you get a credit which you can use on any of the units, newest or past. It's similar in that all your kids can use it together, there are 4 levels based on ability and each unit includes math, writing, language arts, art, nature, science, history, Geography, music. So far we've done forensic science, paleontology and visual arts.

[@lifewithginab]

Oh I've heard of Harbor and Sprout and only have heard good things!!

[@bree-annairis5285]

Do you have an update on how you liked it?

[@kiiramac7630]

I’m changing our math curriculum after Christmas break. We’re currently using teaching textbooks and I want to try the good and the beautiful math 5. Looking at the table of contents they have some concepts that aren’t taught in teaching textbooks. I still plan to use TT as extra practice if we need it. But my biggest concern is that we really like it and they don’t have math above grade 5. I don’t know what I’ll do next year.

[@lifewithginab]

I've heard great things about TT! I wonder why they don't go above 5... I hope you enjoy the Math from the good and the beautiful! We are doing Math 2 and honestly it's been so great!

[@ourfamilyvideos7283]

@@lifewithginab TT goes all the way up..it can be a “busy” “a lot going on” curriculum. If you find struggles in Middle/ high look into Learn Math Fast. Great math curriculum that’s not well known

[@lifewithginab]

@@ourfamilyvideos7283 oh great! I will keep that in mind! Thanks for sharing ❤🙏

[@numbersandstars]

We tried it and loved it! But I think the content was too much for my 7 year old (then). He can only take the lesson one day and the next day he does the notebook. I don't think it is worth to buy the big pack for early elementary. So I would buy a $20 dollar PDF for a Second Grader and that is it. It is not going to teach your Pre-Reader how to read nor teach Spelling. I personally feel you have to teach Language Arts separately. I wish they completely took the LA part out so the units were less dense. BUT I still like them a lot! You really feel accomplished with that one lesson! :)

[@lifewithginab]

Thank you for sharing your experience. I agree with you regarding the language arts portion and pre reader portion. It is a lot of fun and we have enjoyed it too! ❤

[@brittanyolga]

We have tried it but I don’t think I really gave gather round a fair try. I was potty training and breastfeeding at the time an only did one lesson lol 😆. We have been enjoying simply math 4 it’s been a great fit for Bri too.

[@lifewithginab]

You know what with littles this curriculum can be tough! So I can relate! Yes the new math has been so great ❤

[@samanthagraveswalters8443]

Are you still using Gather Round?

[@lifewithginab]

We finished this unit and we are back to using our previous curriculum that i originally bought... i am still not sure what I will use for the next year and still deciding:)

[@tuathadesidhe1530]

Is this a religious curriculum

[@lifewithginab]

Hi :) it does incorporate the Bible so yes I would call it a christian faith based curriculum.