Branching Out with New Curriculum
Traveling Salesman – Branching Out to New Curriculum Ideas with Southwestern Advantage
Is Southwestern Advantage curriculum supplemental or is it more?
A young college-aged traveling salesman arrived at our front door on a bike this afternoon selling curriculum. I thought that only happened back in the 1950’s, yet here he was – a young college student trying to earn money to get through school. He was selling a curriculum based out of Tennessee that is Biblically based and focuses primarily in resource materials. Though slightly more expensive than some other curriculums we knew of, my husband was intrigued.
Struggling to find the next step for our son who is middle school aged and has already devoured most of our history curriculum – both world history and American history, we thought this may be inspired timing. After striking up an extended conversation in our living room about this curriculum, we decided to give it a try. If for anything, to support this young aspiring student and his Christian organization. Plus, the shock of a traveling salesman in our neighborhood of all places was quite a derailment.
But I hope it ends up being a good derailment. Perhaps we don’t need to stay on the well-worn steady path of what we know. Perhaps it’s time after a decade to branch out to a new idea and try something. What have we got to lose?
So what is Southwestern Advantage Curriculum?
Based out of Tennessee, this organization has been in service since the 1800’s. Yes, you read that right. The 1800’s. No wonder they still have traveling salesman. A modest website at best, I assume because they try to keep costs low and profit high to provide for their aspiring students. On the website, we reviewed some of their videos of the Encyclopedia Britannica – like materials.
This seems to be a new spin on the old volumes that our parents or grandparents grew up using – back when the internet just wasn’t a thing. However, this goes a step further. Both color-coded and thick, it provides a well of resources and information in a bright and kid-friendly format. It procures ideas that may help fill in the gaps to some of us who have one or two subjects of expertise, but find our aging kids quickly surpassing our everyday knowledge and the learned high school subjects of many, many years past.
Why Buy Yet Another Extra/Supplemental Resource?
Perhaps you are like us and wondering, why would I spend $100+ dollars on a resource material that is not even a straight forward? The reason is that this resource provides an opportunity to teach a subject in lessons as you see fit. It also helps support a compassionate cause.
How? Because it can take you step by step through the process of a concept. So while it may not have a chapter 1 with worksheets and lesson plans already laid out, it provides information in a concrete, step by step format to teach a concept (or perhaps many!) that your curriculums may not have taught or that your child is struggling with.
For us, we are finding it hard to get more math worksheets for our son who is advanced and needs more explanation for some math concepts. And history content for him when the book we wish to have him start next is now out of print and we can’t find a better history curriculum.
The Results: It’s a bit overwhelming at first, but a fun format – loaded with content.
While the website is not as user friendly, the content in the book is phenomenal. Why? Because even with it’s overwhelming amount of content – you can’t pull your eyes away from it. There are millions of ideas to feast your eyes on. It’s the modern day encyclopedia we grew up with before the age of the internet.
Taking just one section from the book, I have been able to come up with multiple weeks of curriculum outlines. This may be coming more naturally because I have a degree in teaching.
However, due to the dense content in the book, I can go in any direction I want and teach a concept in depth. It’s not as complicated as I thought. After some time reviewing it, I came up with a short practice lesson plan for our eldest son on beginning of American History that can last one or two weeks. So far he’s loving it.
We are very new to this, so don’t get me wrong, we may mess this up. We may get through the book and realize it was way too much effort or not useful.
But our goal this year is to branch out and try something new. To go into the unknown, challenge ourselves and try something new. The beauty and freedom of homeschooling is that you can do that. You can learn just as much as your child when you homeschool.
Stick around as we work through this book and unexpected resource and make some lessons/resources and reviews for you to use.