oursaviorloves Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Just curious. :) I can't say I've purchased anything *really* terrible, but I was pretty let down by MFW K. What about you? You are NOT the only one!!!! We ordered it RIGHT before school started this year for my DD5, and while I wanted to LOVE it, liked the idea of it, we did NOT love it! lol. The bible concept was great, but that was pretty much it. It might be a good program for a child who never had any pre-k, but for us it didn't have enough "meat". I tried supplementing but it was too difficult. We switched. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DandelionMom Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 K12 by far...a few times actually. The advertising kept sucking me in. What a nightmare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBS Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 The program was not a klunker, it simply did not appeal to my son, and was so unappealing that he would not even agree to try it out. Life of Fred! Who'd have thunk? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ereks mom Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 ABeka history (elementary grades) I can't believe I made my poor ds sit through that when there was so much else out there--or maybe there wasn't so much out there back in the 1990s when we first started homeschooling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsbaby Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Little Hands to Heaven--hands down. The songs were weird....something seemed not right about hearing my 4 year old sing "the Phaoah's dead...". Some of the activities were just as strange to me....beat your stuffed animals and then love them and talk about how God wants you to treat things? My dd preferred the beatings and didn't get the lesson there;). MUS-another bust Scaredy Cat Reading- I just didn't get it. Appetizer, salad, entree days? Too many games, not enough meat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lots of boys Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Little Hands to Heaven--hands down. The songs were weird....something seemed not right about hearing my 4 year old sing "the Phaoah's dead...". Some of the activities were just as strange to me....beat your stuffed animals and then love them and talk about how God wants you to treat things? My dd preferred the beatings and didn't get the lesson there;). MUS-another bust Scaredy Cat Reading- I just didn't get it. Appetizer, salad, entree days? Too many games, not enough meat. :lol: Little Hands to Heaven does sound strange... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorrelZG Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Little Hands to Heaven--hands down. The songs were weird....something seemed not right about hearing my 4 year old sing "the Phaoah's dead...". Some of the activities were just as strange to me....beat your stuffed animals and then love them and talk about how God wants you to treat things? My dd preferred the beatings and didn't get the lesson there;). I bought this TWICE. :banghead: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Not saying this *item* is the worst, but the worst homeschooling purchase I made was to buy 3 levels of TT in my first couple weeks of homeschooling, without seeing whether it was a good fit for us first. What was I thinking??? I think I got sucked into the whole ebay bidding thing and went *nuts*. So now I have 3 levels of a really expensive math program that I'll use as a supplement, at most . . . D'oh! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyto2 Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 I bought this TWICE. :banghead: Thank for sharing, I am literally laughing out loud. (it has been a long day and I needed to laugh!) Horizon math 1 and Lifepac Bible have been TOTAL busts at our house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 You should. Mine sold fast. Hah, hah, hah!!! :tongue_smilie: Teach Your Child to Read in 100EZ Lessons I have a brand new copy sitting here, really should sell it! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MicheleinMN Posted April 12, 2012 Share Posted April 12, 2012 K12 by far...a few times actually. The advertising kept sucking me in. What a nightmare. Thank you for this!! Every time I start thinking that maybe an online all in one school would be a good idea, I'm so thankful when someone reminds me that I wouldn't like it AT ALL. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jpoy85 Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 Math U See was the BIGGEST mistake! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2Es Posted April 15, 2012 Share Posted April 15, 2012 FIAR. The activities were all over the place. Either way too obvious to even bother with or over my kids' heads. I'd pull out the book the second day, and my kids would protest, "We already read that yesterday!" By day three, they weren't having it. I thought maybe it was just that selection, so I put it away and tried the next one. Same result. I tried to make it work for two months before I finally put it down for good because we all hated it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted April 15, 2012 Share Posted April 15, 2012 Saxon Math was the worst thing we've ever used. TOPScience didn't go too well for us either; we found the instructions for many activities confusing/lacking so we gave up on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted April 15, 2012 Share Posted April 15, 2012 Little Hands to Heaven--hands down. The songs were weird....something seemed not right about hearing my 4 year old sing "the Phaoah's dead...". Some of the activities were just as strange to me....beat your stuffed animals and then love them and talk about how God wants you to treat things? My dd preferred the beatings and didn't get the lesson there;). Umm seriously? :001_huh: that is really an activity? Craziness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plucky Posted April 15, 2012 Share Posted April 15, 2012 I bought Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons and began lessons with my DD (just turned 4) last week. Now I keep reading that people hate it. We're not far enough into it yet to know how it will work for us, but I could sure use some encouragement! So...if there's anyone reading this that had a GOOD experience with this book I would LOVE to hear about it! Also, if you had some difficulties with it but found ways to make it work then I welcome any suggestions :) I taught all 4 of mine with it. So easy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2Es Posted April 18, 2012 Share Posted April 18, 2012 I think it would be interesting to see this list weighted and indexed against one of the "what's the most awesome curriculum ever!" threads to see which products are the most polarizing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afruitfulbranch Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Journey Through Grammar Land has been very disappointing. Format Writing by the same author was great though. Also, Saxon Math. I didn't mind it but my children REALLY didn't like it. I just gave away a whole box of various grade levels. (My children started with Math-U-See but we switched to Saxon when we tried the Robinson Curriculum. Now we are using MUS again.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockhopper Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 (edited) I've used this with my first three, and now I'm watching the magic unfolding again with my dd5. Very easy going with my dd5 (fourth one to teach the book to), especially since she knows the names and sounds of the letters from watching LeapFrog. Love this book, and used together with Victory Drill, Alphaphonics, and Saxon Phonics. I've used 100 EZ lessons with two very different learners who are both now very, very advanced readers. Love it! But from homeschooling group to group and board to board, there are, it seems to me, definite cultures, with group favorites and trends, and there certainly seems to be an anti-100EZ bias amongs WTM-ers! I wonder if there'd be the same feeling if OPGTR wasn't available? With OPGTR in the picture, it's sort of like preferring CHOW to SOTW around here, LOL! Oh, and we like LLATL too - another on the "most-hated" list! Now, the Blue and Red books were busts but my ds has really liked the Tan and Green books. The lessons are quick but over the course of the year quite thorough except for writing, and my ds has really solidified his grammar with the diagramming instruction this year. Edited April 20, 2012 by Rockhopper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockhopper Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 i really disliked Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. lol. i just realized this thread is very old. i posted that i hated 100 EZ lessons on page 3 too :) That's hilarious! And now, months later, I've just posted and THEN discovered that the thread is... (guess what?) OLD! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicklepede Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I had to laugh when I did a search on a curriculum that I was considering ... and this thread came up. Ha! But then I scrolled through and read it all ... and I think just about every curricula that we have had a good experience with has been mentioned, some several times. So I won't take it as too bad a sign. Maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Honestly, FLL and WWE would rank right up there. 45 lessons on what a noun is (FLL). :banghead: And as of right now, I'm not loving TOG. I want to love it. I love the concept behind it. But it's not working for us...at this moment. And FIAR. That was a waste of $70. Hooked on Phonics...it was great the first level or two. But then, WOW, it was just bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhaddon Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 I couldn't understand the point of Singapore Early for K. My son flew through it without trouble, yet still struggles in math. IMO money better spent on a cheap workbooks for early math. Readingeggs.com was a letdown because my boys could work the system and move on to levels way beyond what they could really read. OPGTR- too many memory things, the boys did better with just learning the letter. Couldn't get past the first few lessons to make it work. SL LA K- what a let down for a LA program/phonics program Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idnib Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Muzzy Spanish. Thank goodness I bought them used. I didn't even try to resell them or donate them. I threw them away. Yes! I had blocked this memory from my mind. What a waste of money. My other item that didn't work out was also expensive: EPGY. Horrible interface. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
................... Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Saxon Math K. - really? Do we need 120 boring scripted lessons just to learn shapes and how to count? (And not even writing the numbers?!) and all for the not low cost of $80? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaHappy Posted December 16, 2012 Author Share Posted December 16, 2012 Well, it's been two years since I started this thread and I have a new one to add... Christian Liberty Press's math. I think it's called Liberty Mathematics. I bought the 2nd grade level. Do not like this at all!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Well, it's been two years since I started this thread and I have a new one to add... Christian Liberty Press's math. I think it's called Liberty Mathematics. I bought the 2nd grade level. Do not like this at all!! I've really wanted to see this series. Do you think your hate has anything to do with jumping in at the last book, instead of starting earlier? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChocolateMom Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Just wanted to state Saxon Math didn't work here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dereksurfs Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Lial's Pre-Algebra - These books have the worst layout and are the most cluttered I have ever seen in any math textbook. Add to that way too many pages to wade through. MUS - While ds seemed to do fine with the elementary series (Primer thru Pre-A) our dd's hated it. And they weren't retaining the subject matter either. CLE is working much better for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 This thread is super old, but ours has to be Winning with Writing. Nothing but busy work that quickly got chucked into the corner, and I wish I had my money back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeacefulChaos Posted December 16, 2012 Share Posted December 16, 2012 Hmm, I thought I had commented on this before but it doesn't look like I have, so I'll jump in. This year has brought out a few more duds for us that I have to add! 100 EZ Lessons - we never actually bought it, it was given to us - thank goodness I didn't spend money on it! I looked through it and started 1 lesson with Astro and knew there was NO way. Blech. Saxon Math - just blah. Writing Strands - we stuck with it for several weeks this year, but Link hated it and I just didn't consider it worth the struggle. I didn't particularly love it, either. Apologia Astronomy - AWFUL! We didn't even finish the book. I couldn't handle it any more!!! FLL 3 - way too dry and the lessons are just too long and blah... Telling God's Story - a little too simplistic I think that's it. Hard to believe I've already found that many we didn't like in this short amount of time we've been homeschooling! (1.5 years) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetpea3829 Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 I have to add that HWTs, while GREAT for initially teaching the mechanics of handwriting, is a complete waste of time and money once the mechanics are learned. IMO, of course. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdownie Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Truthquest American History... While I love the concept, I can almost never find the books she suggests and sometimes can't even find a book on the topic at all. Just too much work, since I bought the Binder Builder too. My dd enjoys it when we get to it, I just don't take the time to get to it very often. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaHappy Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 I've really wanted to see this series. Do you think your hate has anything to do with jumping in at the last book, instead of starting earlier? It's possible that's part of the reason, but what I really didn't like is how there are no daily lesson plans. I really didn't like the layout of it. You need to figure out which drill and how much of it do as well as how to teach the concept. And it didn't seem like there was enough practice. It was just weird. But yeah, maybe if you started at the beginning, it would seem better. Who knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saddlemomma Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 The ENTIRE Weaver set including the 7-12 supplement....I had no idea how to organize and schedule it, so I resold it. Thank God I bought it used.... Faithe I tried the Weaver set for two years and I was always supplementing (extreme). It just wasn't enough for us. DD really likes to delve into a subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Alright, I have a new money-waste for this year: Hooked on Phonics. Hugely expensive for basically readers and word-family lists, with some workbooks thrown in. IDK, it's not terrible, but for the price I was expecting something a little....deeper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaHappy Posted December 17, 2012 Author Share Posted December 17, 2012 Oh my goodness, I totally forgot about Little Hands to Heaven! I regret that one too....it wasn't terrible but I *so* wish I'd just gone with Carol's Affordable Curriculum instead, I like CAC so much better. I don't feel like my ds really learned anything with LHTH and it wasn't even that fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saddlemomma Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 I've really wanted to see this series. Do you think your hate has anything to do with jumping in at the last book, instead of starting earlier? I tried this series for 1st Grade, and it was too simplistic for us. In fact, I had enrolled DD in CLASS and had to withdraw her. That's not to say it wouldn't be fine for someone else, we just like to dig deeper and get more meat out of a subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saddlemomma Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Thank for sharing, I am literally laughing out loud. (it has been a long day and I needed to laugh!) Horizon math 1 and Lifepac Bible have been TOTAL busts at our house. Wow! My dd loves Horizon Math. However, she needs the spiral method in Math, so it makes sense that she does well with it. That is the one thing we have never changed in her curriculum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taz007 Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 Brainology hands down. The absolute WORST! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justme824 Posted December 17, 2012 Share Posted December 17, 2012 This has been a fun read :) I'll agree with those that stated WP American Story. I tried. Really tried. But... For me, most of the failures have been things that just didn't fit. After our experience with WP I learned quickly to avoid that type of curriculum and stick with reading stacks of books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtsmamtj Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Analytical Grammar - the sentences had no literary quality at all. What would be a good alternative that had literary quality? Our losers were: Saxon, LLATL, Horizons math, and Wordly Wise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicMom Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 100 EZ: I tortured my first child with it (poor bubs) and should have moved on sooner. Some of my worst memories of homeschooling. :crying: Sonlight LA: My kids needed more explicit instruction and it was just a terrible fit. They learned virtually nothing from the copywork, etc (other than they hate copywork :laugh: ). (These were awful for *us* - not saying they are terrible programs for others.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsmith Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 The worst one for us was Monarch language arts. It's one of only a few programs that I really hated. We've had many programs that didn't work out with ds that I love. I have all 4 years of History Odyssey level 2. I can't bring myself to sell it because I love the program, but it is just not a good fit for ds. So there it sits on my shelf... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kfamily Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Saxon Math Math U See First Start French Spelling Workout Exploring Creation....Astronomy These have been our worst, but we didn't care for First Language Lessons very much either. Happily, we made most of these mistakes when my older dd was younger and have now settled into what we know we like or at least tolerate.:) Unfortunately, I think my older dd had to endure the worst of my curricula hunts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 I've tried a lot of curriculum that is GREAT curriculum, but just wasn't a good fit for one reason or another. AAS, R&S phonics, spelling, & math, Exploring Creation, FLL, Phonics Road, WRTR, WWE, singapore math,... I'm sure there are more.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 What would be a good alternative that had literary quality? Our losers were: Saxon, LLATL, Horizons math, and Wordly Wise SWR & KISS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murphy101 Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Oh my. When I think of all the money spent on trial and error over the years. Ouch. Voyages in English Spelling Power Saxon math Rosetta Stone Seton high school grade 9 (all of it) Prentice hall chemistry Worldly wise IEW MP logic Learnables I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton. Probably blocking out the memory of the money wasted. :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murphy101 Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Oh adding Lukeion Greek. Poor interface and almost no feedback. What a waste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaHappy Posted December 18, 2012 Author Share Posted December 18, 2012 I have more to add....GWG and WWW (especially WWW). I am so utterly bummed by this. What did you not like about these? Please do tell. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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