Oh, look at this. It is shiny and new. My kids would love this. Look at all the pretty pictures! The sales guy said that after just 2 weeks of doing this my kids would be able to do statistical math while standing on their heads and quoting Shakespeare. The cover is red and red is Keira's favorite color. It is so crisp and NEW!!!I have discovered that I am not a good candidate for buying curriculum ahead of time. Most of the time I am great with buying ahead, especially to save some money, but for some reason I can not do this with homeschooling.
Today I cleaned out our homeschool room, yet again. I found curriculum that I forgot I had, curriculum my kids wont be old enough to use for a good 5 years and curriculum that I am not even sure why I bought. Probably just because it was on sale and it looked good at the time. I am easily distracted by pretty pictures and a well played sales pitch. While of course my initial examples were silly, if I was to take an honest look back I would have to admit that my purchases were, if not for those reasons, still pretty silly. Worst of all, I am now guilty of being wasteful, and a poor steward of resources purchased and given to me. I was contributing to chaos and because of the chaos was being a poor manager of my time. Who knew that my having too much curriculum clutter would contribute to my sinning? Wow, it sounds bad when I look at it from this perspective.
Too much often leads to losing things, losing things leads to re-purchasing things, which leads to coming home and finding the thing you lost and just re-bought. It is a vicious cycle!
I actually stopped buying ahead about halfway through last year, (and yes my girls are only in 1st and 2nd grade. Does that tell you something about this bad habit of mine), and over the last few weeks have been pulling out things that were forgotten and are no longer needed or that my girls can not use within the next year. Some is going to go on Amazon and some will be donated. I just can not stand the clutter any more!
So here is my oath from now on, "I, Anna, do solemnly promise from here on out, to only buy curriculum after I have done serious research and prayer, and to only purchase one semester ahead."
I encourage you to take some time in the near future and sort through your curriculum. See what can be sold or given away. Simplify. Make sure that you are not being distracted by mounds of unused curriculum and next time you go to buy, think and pray first.
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2 comments:
I should join you in that oath. I get distracted by the "THIS curriculum will make your life so much easier! Your children will complete it while making dinner and vacuuming!" LOL
I am trying to SIMPLIFY for next year. I also get trapped with the "I paid a lot for that!" "I might need it some day!" Need to get another box sent to The Book Samaritan ... much preferable than stuff just sitting on my shelves!
I can totally relate! Boy oh boy can I relate LOL!!! In fact, I'm getting ready to do some sorting. It's hard to sort out too much when the kids are young cuz ... what if they end up liking or needing that thing??? ROFLOL. We need a curriculum addicts anonymous group... sigh
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