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The single best curriculum you ever used


podoba01
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Well, I like a lot of things but honestly, the Weaver curriculum has been a wonderful breath of fresh air. We had a terrible case of burnout and I was seriously thinking of sending my girls to public school. I received volume 1 and 2 for free along with MFW Adventures and MBTP. I looked through all of those intending to use one to just finish the school year. I also considered TOG but there is no way in the world I could afford $1200.00 a year for books.

 

I am happy to say we will continue to homeschool using the Weaver. It has lesson plans for grades k-6 in each volume so I can teach both girls together at their own levels. This was so much better than the "teach for your oldest and the youngest will pick it up too" mindset. I will use this until it is over.

 

Thanks,

 

Penny

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Well, I like a lot of things but honestly, the Weaver curriculum has been a wonderful breath of fresh air. We had a terrible case of burnout and I was seriously thinking of sending my girls to public school. I received volume 1 and 2 for free along with MFW Adventures and MBTP. I looked through all of those intending to use one to just finish the school year. I also considered TOG but there is no way in the world I could afford $1200.00 a year for books.

 

I am happy to say we will continue to homeschool using the Weaver. It has lesson plans for grades k-6 in each volume so I can teach both girls together at their own levels. This was so much better than the "teach for your oldest and the youngest will pick it up too" mindset. I will use this until it is over.

 

Thanks,

 

Penny

 

I looked at the Weaver curriculum, but I thought I might have trouble using it. It looked like it hasn't been updated in a while, so I was concerned that it might use a lot of out-of-print books. Is my impression wrong? How are you making it work for your family? Is it something that you can use the library and make substitutions? Sorry for all the questions :blush:

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I was looking at Miquon. What do you like about it? Do you think it would be math overkill to use this along with another math curriculum?

 

I like Miquon because it develops deep conceptual understanding in a simple, unpressured way. It fosters true enjoyment of manipulating and understanding quantities. My kids are wide awake and very attentive when doing Miquon, taking real ownership of their work. It's hard to explain, but it's like math magic!

 

Lots of folks use Miquon as a supplement, so that is definitely possible. I prefer to use it alone so we really hold onto the Miquon mindset towards math. I did use Singapore a bit this past year to supplement Miquon, but we've mainly just use it alone.

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I thought I had figured most of the abreviation out, but what does AG mean? I plan on using SOTW, and I noticed that the couple of you who mentioned SOTW also said AG. Thanks!

 

ETA: Nevermind. Right after I responded it clicked. It means Activity Guide, doesn't it?

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All about Spelling! It not only taught my son spelling, it also cemented his phonics in reading. I use the sentences for dictation and handwriting practice. I also used the readers that go with the first couple of levels, but I don't know if they still do that now that they are selling AAR as well.

 

Edited to add-----oh and when we began with the first level we also used it for grammar a couple of times when my Dad was critical. I had him diagram the subject and predicate, underline verbs or nouns, circle adjectives.....that type of thing. All from the sentences that we used for dictation.

Edited by In2why
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Heart of Dakota. Both of my dd's love it because it's fun and hands on.

 

 

The Sentence Family. This program has single-handedly cause my dd to fall in love with grammar. Next up is Grammarland, then MCT for 3rd grade. We're going to keep this story-telling, grammar train rollin'!!!

 

Apples and Pears Spelling. After just 15 lessons, my dd's spelling has improved 200%. It's been amazing!!!

Edited by pw23kids
forgot one
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Do you find this hard to plan out? How do you use this guide?

 

Not hard at all. In fact, TruthQuest feels quite natural/organic to use and the commentary is wonderful. Would have sworn I was a box checker, but this is working great for us.

 

I found a PDF on the TQ Yahoo group site (where the author posts almost daily), downloaded it, and used it as a base to plan out the year (we're only in our second year of HSing, so I was pretty intimidated by TQ at first). I made a lot of changes to the schedule, but it helped me ballpark how long to spend on the Vikings versus, say, Jamestown or Ethan Allen.

 

We spend close to an hour reading from living books every day for history (we're doing Am History for Young Students I--exploration to Am Revolution), though you could easily plan fewer books and read for less time. My son is absolutely soaking up the stories. We have a timeline book to paste pictures into, and we've used all of the 3-D maps for American history that have applied. We are watching the Liberty's Kids DVDs (which the other gal had already put in her schedule) right now as we cover the Am Revolution.

 

A lot of people use the various binder-builders but my son doesn't like too much writing/cutting/pasting, and I haven't seen the need. He's only in second grade and seems to be remembering things well. He often acts out scenes from the day's history with his army guys or Star Wars figures (my favorite was the day he reenacted a pirate ship scene, but the "pirates" were all Clone Troopers).

 

Feel free to PM me if I didn't answer your questions well enough. Hope this helps!

 

Christina

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My Father's World - I am very sentimental regarding the lessons learned during the MFW K year; it was a wonderful introduction to homeschooling. We have used MFW for 5 years now and have enjoyed each year. Because it's well organized, varied, and includes time in the Bible, this curriculum inspires me to keep going. My kids enjoy it, too.

 

and I have to add a 2nd curriculum . . .

 

RightStart Mathematics - This curriculum has taught this math-phobic mom a lot and has given me confidence to facilitate my children's elementary math learning. My children understand math so well -- much better than dh and I did at their ages. RightStart has been a huge blessing to us! Now I am trying to figure out what to use for junior high math . . .

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My Father's World - I am very sentimental regarding the lessons learned during the MFW K year; it was a wonderful introduction to homeschooling. We have used MFW for 5 years now and have enjoyed each year. Because it's well organized, varied, and includes time in the Bible, this curriculum inspires me to keep going. My kids enjoy it, too.

 

and I have to add a 2nd curriculum . . .

 

RightStart Mathematics - This curriculum has taught this math-phobic mom a lot and has given me confidence to facilitate my children's elementary math learning. My children understand math so well -- much better than dh and I did at their ages. RightStart has been a huge blessing to us! Now I am trying to figure out what to use for junior high math . . .

 

These are my favorites too! :)

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My Father's World - I am very sentimental regarding the lessons learned during the MFW K year; it was a wonderful introduction to homeschooling. We have used MFW for 5 years now and have enjoyed each year. Because it's well organized, varied, and includes time in the Bible, this curriculum inspires me to keep going. My kids enjoy it, too.

 

and I have to add a 2nd curriculum . . .

 

RightStart Mathematics - This curriculum has taught this math-phobic mom a lot and has given me confidence to facilitate my children's elementary math learning. My children understand math so well -- much better than dh and I did at their ages. RightStart has been a huge blessing to us! Now I am trying to figure out what to use for junior high math . . .

 

I'm hoping this will be my experience with Rightstart, too!

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I looked at the Weaver curriculum, but I thought I might have trouble using it. It looked like it hasn't been updated in a while, so I was concerned that it might use a lot of out-of-print books. Is my impression wrong? How are you making it work for your family? Is it something that you can use the library and make substitutions? Sorry for all the questions :blush:

 

My library has all of the books and http://www.christianbooks.com has the titles available. I don't think any are oop. Honestly, it is very easy to substitute books. For example, in science we studied volcanoes. I just went online and chose several library books on volcanoes and that was it. The schedule does not tell you to read DK Volcanoes pages 6-20 or something like that. You will have a reference page in volume 1 that shows a few diagrams of the different parts of a volcano and you choose whatever library books you wish to use to read for reinforcement.(atleast for k and third grade) Day by Day has a daily schedule on what to teach if you don't want to plan your own way through. I do use Day by Day and find the creative writing to be a great addition. I still do some planning(tweaking) and ordering library books but it is actually pretty fun for me.

 

I started off with unit studies. Fiar was excellent. I used Beyond Fiar and Konos briefly before going full WTM. WTM frustrated my dd and I just kept going until we were about to throw in the towel. Weaver really made a drfference for us. I know that what works wonders for one family wont work for the next though. They have a very helpful yahoo group

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/u-weaver/

and you can tour Weaver here by scrolling down a click on try the weaver basic five tour.

http://www.aophomeschooling.com/theweavertour.php

Those are the best samples I have seen.

 

HTH,

 

Penny

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I'm hoping this will be my experience with Rightstart, too!

 

FWIW, we love RightStart, too! I almost listed it but TQ edged it out just slightly. My son thought he hated math and wasn't good at it. Within just weeks of starting RS Level B (we are at the start of Level C now), he was going around singing "I'm a math genius! I'm a math genius!"--and he was only six at the time, so it was cute, not obnoxious.

 

You have clearly done your homework!!

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My Father's World - I am very sentimental regarding the lessons learned during the MFW K year; it was a wonderful introduction to homeschooling. We have used MFW for 5 years now and have enjoyed each year. Because it's well organized, varied, and includes time in the Bible, this curriculum inspires me to keep going. My kids enjoy it, too.

 

and I have to add a 2nd curriculum . . .

 

RightStart Mathematics - This curriculum has taught this math-phobic mom a lot and has given me confidence to facilitate my children's elementary math learning. My children understand math so well -- much better than dh and I did at their ages. RightStart has been a huge blessing to us! Now I am trying to figure out what to use for junior high math . . .

 

Do you think you'll use it through high school? I'm looking at MFW AHL for my ds. It looks pretty impressive and well balanced. I think the guide written for the student looks very orderly and easy for my ds to follow. Ive heard ithas great writing/composition instruction included. I'm very excited about it!

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I have to say I really love TOG. I know we will get even more out of it, though, when they are older.

 

I really liked RSO chemistry for 3rd-5th. I taught it for a co-op and it was awesome.

 

I also really appreciate GWG! Next yr will be our 3rd year with it (for dd and 2nd yr for ds).

 

Dd is begging daily for latin with GSWL. She wants to do 3 and 4 lessons every day. She asked for a composition notebook so she could take notes. :lol:

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My Father's World - I am very sentimental regarding the lessons learned during the MFW K year; it was a wonderful introduction to homeschooling. We have used MFW for 5 years now and have enjoyed each year. Because it's well organized, varied, and includes time in the Bible, this curriculum inspires me to keep going. My kids enjoy it, too.

 

and I have to add a 2nd curriculum . . .

 

RightStart Mathematics - This curriculum has taught this math-phobic mom a lot and has given me confidence to facilitate my children's elementary math learning. My children understand math so well -- much better than dh and I did at their ages. RightStart has been a huge blessing to us! Now I am trying to figure out what to use for junior high math . . .

 

My favorites too!

 

We've loving FLL too!

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