Sometimes curriculum works and sometimes it doesn't. I think it has to work for both the parents and the children. Here are the conclusions I've come to over the past thirteen years since I began teaching. For the parent, it has to "make sense". It has to be easy to follow and give the parent the information they need in order to teach the material. For the child, it has to "make sense". They need to be able to understand the material, process, and remember it. Learning is much easier when both parent and child also want to study the curriculum and enjoy it. If this is missing, learning can turn into a long, grueling period of pulling teeth. Not always, but it can happen. Sometimes you just have to plug and chug away knowing that there is a subject that neither of you enjoy and you just make the best of it. Yesterday in the car on the way home from art, my middle daughter said to me, "Mommy, I don't like our s...