As your packages arrive at your door, what are the winners and losers so far?

[Wendi]

If you've started buying next year's curriculum, what are your impressions? Is there anything that looks really great and exciting? Anything that doesn't look as good as you expected?

 

Here are my impressions so far:

 

Around the World in 180 Days looks very good. It will provide a good framework for us to do a fun world geography/cultures/history year.

 

Since we'll be studying Africa first, I ordered a few resources. The board game "10 Days in Africa" looks like it will be a good combination of fun and educational. And the book Africa for Kids is fabulous! Lots of information, and good activities.

 

The Usborne Encyclopedia of World Geography seems a little young for ds; nice to look at, but not enough info. So maybe we'll try the Kingfisher Geography Encyclopedia.

 

I like Spelling Workout and Outlining; we'll be doing those over the summer.

 

What about you?

 

Wendi

[MrsMe]

:lurk5:

 

I only received HOD' Bigger and so far it looks good. Still mulling over math and printing out samples.

 

Bigger also includes Cheerful Cursive (looks good)

We'll continue R&S Reading 2 which is going well

Edited May 17, 2009 by alilac

[apCrazy4Jesus]

:thumbup1:

AAS (All About Spelling) - This looks so fun and the teachers book is nicely layed out. I can't wait to start spelling!

 

CLE Math 400 - I sat down and gave LU 402 a trial run with my son and the next day he was asking to do math.

 

VP History Cards - They are a wealth of information wonderfully integrating Bible and world history.

 

:thumbdown:

I was not impressed with Imitation in Writing Aesop's Fables ( So I got WWE and will interchange them. I am hoping my opinion will change as we use it).

 

Classical Conversations Memory work CD - The info is good, but the layout of the ppt presentations is not good. You access by subject and not by weekly memory work. That means I will be clicking all over the place.

[dsacco]

I tried to do more computerized stuff for grading and was trying out some Switched on Schoolhouse. I ditched it all except math. My kids would just sit and click answers until they got the right one and would continue. They can't do that with math ;) so that will work ok - especially the fact it grades the questions and honestly I was tired of grading math for daily work all the time.

 

Purchased the Business Math book from Simply Char. Mason and LOVE IT!! Got the eBook format so I can print it out for both kids and I really think it will help my son see what it takes to run a "business" (even though he does it with his 4-H animals he still doesn't get the real value of money yet)

 

I'm still debating on vocabulary and spelling - but I think I might just work with some lists I have for spelling - at least for my daughter. She's taking sign language locally and she needs to spell the words for next years class. However, I'm still looking (I think that's 1/2 the fun)

 

Most of the rest are all book for our Ambleside Online year (year 3 & 5) and I threw in GrammarLand for both kids.

[Karen in CO]

Every week either amazon or the library is providing me with a fresh supply of books to review.

 

So far I have dismissed lots of books to use as the spine and decided some would be great supplements or great reference for now and spines for later.

 

A History of Us - vols 1-4 Keeping for reference, too much detail for this age, but I really like the way it reads. I think it would be much better to use next time around.

 

Discovery of the Americas and other books by Betsy Maestro - not deep enough to use as a spine, but the illustrations are nice.

 

The Story of the USA workbook, yuck. Don't like the way the history is presented.

 

More Than Moccasins and Colonial Kids - I like many of the crafts, and I'm going to use these, but I can't build a year of history around them.

 

Journeys in Time: New Atlas of American History. I bought this one as a supplement, but is was a wonderfully surprising find. I really like the maps and the details. I am definitely working this into whatever I am using.

 

I still have a lot of work to do, but reading all these history books gives me good background information. This is a lot more fun than reading the federalist and anti-federalist papers.

[amtmcm]

I'm cautiously optimistic about IEW Phonetic Zoo, Life of Fred & Christian Kids Explore Earth & Space. They look good, and I'm hopeful they will work well with my DD's learning styles.

 

I love the CLE Science 4 (God's Marvelous World) text and the Simply Charlotte Mason 4 hour seminar. Those are definitely at the top of my list along with Write with the Best.

 

I bought some Queen's items and I like the layout and overall they seem pretty good. I don't love them, but I'm glad I bought them.

 

Oh, and the Holling C. Holling books are outstanding! I can't wait to use those with BF Geography. They are wonderful to read even without the Beautiful Feet guide.

[Mesa]

I ordered AAS, and SL Core 2, with Science 2.

 

I they both look like keepers to me!

 

I have yet to order, Lively Latin, and Wordly Wise.

[ChicoryChick]

I am doing HOD next year and so far I have received the Beyond and Bigger Manuals, both look good, but am super excited about Beyond. I am liking the looks of Singapore too!

[coffeefreak]

Winners:

A Beka Math

Rod and Staff English - we're returning after a year of A Beka

Apologia Science by Jeannie Fulbright - so inexpensive; so easy to use; my kids LOVE the pictures.

 

Losers/Not what I thought:

Hmmmm nothing from this year's ordering (so far), but from last year it was PLL, A Beka English and Horizons Math. I tried to give them a go and the only thing I just couldn't do was PLL. We muddled through the other two, but we'll be switching this year. I guess that's what I do. Even if I'm not sure if I like it, since I ordered it, I give it a try.

 

I have history on the way, so I'll let you know. Hopefully it will be a winner and I can breath easy:D I've ordered BF's Early American History Intermediate Guide for my oldest and HOD's Beyond Little Hands to Heaven for my youngest. I was going to buy Bigger Hearts for my oldest, but I just couldn't see how to make it work for her. BF is so inexpensive, I decided to try it out. If we don't like it, I didn't lose that much money.

 

Blessings!

Dorinda

[Amy+2]

Exploration Education!

 

No work for me, and the boys can't get enough of it!! It is proving to be a wonderful addition to our homeschool. :)

 

You can find it here...http://www.explorationeducation.com. I bought each level.

 

Jury is still out on the rest of our new additions. We school year round though; so, within a few weeks, I should have more of an idea of the winners versus the losers. ;)

[Paintedlady]

Veritas Press History & Bible w/the cards. We're pairing it with books from the library and enjoying the combo.

[Brindee]

I have almost everything now, so here are my thoughts........

 

Things that Look Like winners:

All the stuff from Queen Homeschool looks great to me!

LoF Maths--Beginning Algebra for dd, Geometry for ds

Harmony Fine Arts stuff--Art & Music Appreciation for dd, and Music Appreciation for ds. I've been looking for something like this for a long time, so am excited to have found this!

 

Catiously Optimistic:

For dd--Hake Grammar, Draw Your World, Vocab from Classical Roots A & B, TTC Early American History (worked well with the boys, and she asked to do it this year!), Rainbow Science, CLE Math 8 (haven't recieved it yet)

For ds--Notgrass World History, BJU Grammar & Writing, Apologia Chemistry

For both--Write Shop

 

Not What I Thought, but Not Neccessarily Giving Up on It:

Spanish Now!

Edited May 17, 2009 by Brindee

[LunaLee]

So far New for this year...

 

Looks good-

Kym Wrights Photography Unit Study

R.E.A.L. Chemistry

10 Essential Herbs Unit Study

 

Not impressed with-

NOEO Chemistry II

 

Got but will probably not use-

Hakim's History of US Vol 1-4, but changed my mind and will use those for

8th grade instead, when we devote a whole year to US History.

 

Lightening Lit Early British History, I bought, but it might be too much for dd in addition to her co-op English class.

Edited May 17, 2009 by LunaLee

[nmoira]

We school year round, so don't have a beginning per se, but we have a few new and exciting things coming up. They all look good.

The Elements and Carbon Chemistry by McHenry

The Art of Construction: Projects and Principles for Beginning Engineers and Architects

Engineering the City: How Infrastructure Works

Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis: Projects and Principles for Beginning Geologists

The Science of Life: Projects and Principles for Beginning Biologists

A Game of Logic by Lewis Carroll

Becoming A Problem Solving Genius and Challenge Math by Zaccaro (DD just started these)

Edited May 17, 2009 by nmoira

[Audrey]

Awesome!:

 

• Oak Meadow Ancient Civ
  
• Oak Meadow Basic Life Science
  
• Calvert's Child's History of Art courses (I bought the whole set which include Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture)
  

Good, but doesn't exactly elicit an "oooh!" :

 

• Growing with Grammar 5 (we've already used 3 & 4, so maybe I'm just getting a little complacent about it)
  
• Writing with Ease (the hardcover text; well laid out; looks doable even though I'm starting it with an older child)
  

Not what I thought it would be:

 

• Latin-Centred Curriculum (it's definitely good, but not at all what I'd expected after hearing people discuss it and reading reviews)
  
• Learning Latin Through Mythology (overpriced for what was there; way over our level; didn't have the CD that was claimed to accompany it)
  
• WWE Workbook level 2 (all the writing pages are big huge kindergarten lines, hence too babyish to try using as is; what was in the wb was pretty much in the book already)
  

IMO, Cr*p:

 

• WriteShop (can't even begin to describe my disappointment; sent it back)
  
• Learning History Through Art (would have liked to send it back, but I bought it as an e-book)
  

 

[SonshineLearner]

Awesome!:

 

• Oak Meadow Ancient Civ

 

 

Hi Audrey...

I'd love a s/o review of this...or here if it's proper:-) I think you're "secular" and I am coming from a "Christian World View" do you think it looks overwhelmingly one way? Or kinda down the middle? I've looked at OM forever! And we're doing Ancient next year...(With a 6th grader and a first grader) I'm looking for some add-ins to what we're doing.

 

Carrie:-)

[2greatkids]

This looks good, thanks for posting!

 

Exploration Education!

 

No work for me, and the boys can't get enough of it!! It is proving to be a wonderful addition to our homeschool. :)

 

You can find it here...www.explorationeducation.com. I bought each level.

 

Jury is still out on the rest of our new additions. We school year round though; so, within a few weeks, I should have more of an idea of the winners versus the losers. ;)

[nukeswife]

What we're excited about

Sonlight Intro to American History Part 1

Sonlight Science 2

the end of CLE's Learn to Read

CLE Math 2

TT math 6

 

Cautiously Optomistic

IEW Phonetic Zoo

Life of Fred Fractions and Decimals/percents (to use with his much loved TT math)

Daily Grams (because my sons weak points in LA are Capitalization and Punctuation

 

What I've decided to not use after all

Easy Grammar, looked nice but I just can't see starting a whole other way of learning grammar since what we've been using isn't broken

Sonlight LA 3 and 1, I wanted to like this and it looks ok, but just not our cup of tea.

 

Things we have yet to receive that we really want to love

IEW's All Things Fun and Facinating Theme based writing. We are currently using IEW's SWI-A and my son is having a blast, I thought AAFF would be a great way to keep that going and give him much needed reinforcement. IEW was the only thing that got him writing and liking it, which was a huge relief for me.

[Tree House Academy]

Almost all of my choices for next year, so far, are huge winners. :)

 

I really love all of the CLE materials I have purchased - Math 100 and 400, LA 100 and 300, and Bible 100 and 300. I also got the Music elective and Art elective sold by CLE and those are going to be great additions as well.

 

I purchased Beyond from HOD and really am thinking it will be great for ds who will be 6.

 

I am very happy with Bigger for my almost 10 year old because I think the "extensions" will beef it up to his level.

 

I am impressed with DITHOR. :)

 

I like Speedy Spanish I ordered from CLE.

 

New American Cursive has been perfect for ds5 who needs it in small doses.

 

Not so sure about: Song School Latin. I have NO IDEA how to teach it and the TG is a copy of the student book...with answers. :( It says for Kindergarten, but the kids are writing the words from memory in the workbook in LATIN. Ummm...am I missing something?

Edited May 18, 2009 by Tree House Academy

[Guest]

LOVE the look of:

 

Singapore Math(Earlybird standards ed.)

Miquon Math (with accompanying teacher's notes, lab and diary!)

CLP's The World God Made (I was expecting a cheesy book but it's beautiful!)

WinterPromise Hideaways in History

Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt

 

Not thrilled about:

 

Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook

[Jane Elliot]

DK First Animal Encyclopedia (recommended in 3rd ed. of WTM as a first grade science spine) - This is a gorgeous book. 6yods loves it.

 

Life of Fred - dd is halfway through Fractions and says she's bringing it on vacation with her because she "can't put it down."

 

Creepy Crawlies and the Scientific Method - looking forward to doing this during the summer as it's the only time we can find insects up here.

 

A few of the workbooks recommended in the 3rd ed. for reading remediation look just right for our summer school, too. (These are Story Elements and Summarizing.)

Edited May 17, 2009 by Luann in ID

[Annie Laurie]

We school year round.

 

My 8 and 6 year olds are in the middle of a bunch of things, since their new schools stuff ended up starting at the end of December.

 

My 5 yr old is starting SL Core K and (the new) Science K soon and I think they are awesome.

 

My high schooler is using a lot of new stuff this year:

 

Wordsmith Craftsman- this looks basic and thorough and the price was right. Nothing exciting but I think it will do the job since I'm fairly comfortable with writing. If it doesn't work out we'll just buy IEW later this year and stick with that.

 

Analytical Grammar- I'm missing Rod and Staff already. But I have high hopes for this and it may be a better fit for ds.

 

Sonlight Core 100- I regret buying this. I'm beefing it up a little and finding it to be a pain, but I'm not one who likes planning. I usually love SL, I don't know why, but the book selections don't seem as good in this core. Already bought it though, so we'll stick it out and just sub some other books.

 

Oak Meadow Biology- I LOVE what I see here so far. It looks like ds will be able to do this independently without a problem and it looks thorough and rigorous.

 

LLATL Gold- I am irked that the answers are with the lessons, sometimes printed on the back of the lesson page so that I can't just rip the answers out. The rest looks good but now I have to scan this and print the lesson pages out, making it not as inexpensive as it first appeared to be. Seriously, am I the only parent of a kid who will just look at the answers instead of putting any thought into the lesson? :confused:

 

There's more I haven't looked over thoroughly enough to comment on yet.

[MIch elle]

Winners:

CLE math, reading, LA

LFBC physical science

Vocabulary for the High School Student

 

Losers:

SOS Spanish I

 

 

To be determined:

IEW Fix-It

IEW The Elegant Essay

Land of Fair Play

[Bee]

I think I'll be glad that I decided to use Sonlight's Core 100 as a 2 year history course. I'm only using some of the books as literature this year and I have a couple that I picked from core 7 and the core 7 books look more challenging than the core 100 books. But I think dd will enjoy all the books I did pick.With the exception of Christy which 13 yo dd picked up, read the blurb on the back and said "That must be for you;it has romance." The IG is enormous, almost overwhelmingly so.

Key to Algebra makes algebra seem so easy. LOF Beginning Algebra I'm a little (a lot) nervous about.

Lightning Lit 8 looks to be just right for oldest dd. Same with FLL 3 and WWE 2 for younger dd.

 

I'm disappointed in the Homeschool Planbook family edition. I used the elementary edition in the past and like it because the spaces to write down what we did every day were large enough and it had enough pages for 52 weeks worth of work. In this edition you write down things by weeks instead,2 children/page/week and the spaces are much smaller. If I don't write it down every day I forget to do it at all. It is 3 hole puched though so I can make copies of the pages.It's the only thing I've pulled out of the box so far, looked at it and thought "ehhh...not really what I wanted."

[Ali in OR]

I received my last box on Friday and have just started to go through it all.

 

Looks good at first glance:

-WWE 1 workbook. Wish this was around when my older dd was starting out--may just have to get the 3rd grade book for her if 4th isn't available this year.

 

-Discovering the World of Geography. Bought the "basic skills" 4th/5th grade book and the U.S. 5th/6th grade book. I think I found a couple of mistakes or at least unclear explanations in the basic skills book last night, but I'm impressed with how much is covered and think dd will learn a lot.

 

-Every history book we've purchased looks good! Dd and I have each read several even though they're for next year! I loved Number the Stars.

 

Haven't yet looked at R.E.A.L Science's Life Science, but hope that we will like that. Need to look at WWE in more depth and the U.S. geography book.

[Mom-ninja.]

We just started AAS and I like it. Ds thinks it's boring, but he does it.

[rafiki]

.

[Aurelia]

Winners: All About Spelling - we started this already and are nearly halfway through level 1.

Writing With Ease - I was kind of lost on how to do narration, this looks like WWE will make it so much easier

Story of the World Activity Guide - this looks like a lot of fun

 

 

Losers: Galloping the Globe - it looked good before I bought it, but it's just too religious for my needs

 

 

Undecided: Sonlight Science 1 - I got all the supporting books and materials, but I won't have the TM until the end of May, so I have no idea if we will keep this or not.

[Mom-ninja.]

 

Losers: Galloping the Globe - it looked good before I bought it, but it's just too religious for my needs

 

 

 

 

Interesting, I've heard that it's pretty simple to eliminate the religious content. Is that not true? If it's too much of a pain I might skip this program.

[Homeschooling6]

Winners:

• Character Quality Language Arts (for 3rd & 6th grade ds, if I can swing $$ it I'll also have my 2nd grader use this too)
  
• CLE Math (3rd)
  
• Schoolaid math (1st & 2nd)
  
• Meaningful Composition (4th dd)
  
• CLE Science (2nd-6th)
  
• CLE Social Studies/History/Geography (3rd-6th)
  
• Christ Centered Curriculum Math & Phonics (K-1st)
  
• CLE Reading (1st-6th)
  
• The Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading (1st & 2nd)
  
• The Bridge to the Latin Road (4th & 6th)
  
• CLE Language Arts (2nd & 4th)
  
• R&S Bible (6th ds)
  

Okay stuff:

• CLE Bible (still going to use it though)
  
• GWG (not using after all)
  

Some of the curriculum we haven't used yet, so we'll see :001_cool: some we already use.

Edited May 18, 2009 by Homeschooling6

[LanaTron]

Haven't bought much yet, but I did get History Odyssey Ancients Level 2 from the SS board. It looks really fun! We were planning on taking a year off history, but now I'm not so sure.

[Mom0012]

I'm happy with pretty much everything I've received recently.

 

SL 3

WWE 2 - (Though I have to agree about the kindergarten lines for the worksheets. I don't even like to use those in kindergarten.)

Daily Paragraph Editing by Evan Moor

BTS 1 cd by Critical Thinking

CLE 2

GWG 4 - looks like it will work well here, but we haven't started it yet

Mark Kistler's Online Drawing Lessons

Dictation Resource Book by Susan C. Anthony

 

I did buy R&S English 4, but decided to try GWG with my son instead because I wanted something that he could do on his own in a fairly short amount of time each day. I hope that doesn't wind up being a mistake. I've gone back and forth on this decision many times.

 

I also just bought Daily Grams 4 to use over the summer. It looks good. I chose it over Daily Language Review by Evan Moor because I liked the sentence combining in DG, but I do prefer the shorter length of the Evan Moor lessons. Hope I made the right choice here as well.

 

Lisa

[coffeefreak]

OH! I forgot! Drawn into the Heart of Reading is a HUGE hit! We LOVE IT!:D

[Aurelia]

Interesting, I've heard that it's pretty simple to eliminate the religious content. Is that not true? If it's too much of a pain I might skip this program.

 

 

It is, but most of the historical stuff is based around missionary stories, so you would have to find something else to replace it.

[3byzaz]

Looks good so far:

Biblioplan Ancients

MOH Vol 1

And the resources for both of these

God's Design for Heaven and Earth - looks great!

Character Building for Families

 

 

Eagerly anticipating:

BJU Life Science

Videotext Algebra

 

 

Still need to order and hopeful about:

Great Latin Adventure

 

 

Still loving:

CLE Math, LA and Reading (1st, 4th and 6th)- Excellent!

Meaningful Composition - Excellent!!

Life of Fred

[Carol in Cal.]

Winners:

Real Science 4 Kids Level II Chemistry. Wow, just wow. This chemical engineer is VERY impressed. My plan for this is to have DD quickly read the analogous chapter of Level I first (we have covered that already), then we will read the RS4KII chapter together and talk about it, and then she will do the experiment(s) and write them up. We may also incorporate the TLC DVD's about the math of chemistry--I have not decided yet. That might be a little bit too tough.

 

I also purchased two of the KOGS books--philosophy and technology--and am pleased with those as well; although they are not really at a seventh grade level I think that they will be valuable extenders for Dd.

 

TWTM 3rd Edition: What can I say? It's great!

 

The 10th Anniversary trip: WEP!

 

LCI: Technically, I bought this a year and a half ago, but I never did crack it open until last week. So I'm counting that as new! Again, it's too easy for DD's age, but she likes it and I'm relieved to have the DVD's available as I don't know any Latin. We are both learning a lot, and it's sticking. Great for exposure and word roots; not sure how far we will go with it.

 

"Help For High School" from BraveWriter--This is helping me to balance the great writing info from TWTM/SWB/Conference with my goal of maintaining DD's writing voice. So far I'm not using it with DD, but it's going to be helpful this fall and I can already tell that I like it.

 

Losers:

The new DK world history book--ho hum. I have so many world history books now, I'm practically a collector. As a standalone book this one is pretty good, but it's not detailed enough for a good text book and too detailed for an overview. It's a beautiful book, but I'm not feeling that it will be all that useful.

 

The Lewis and Clark games from Rainbow--both are way to juvenile for us. Can't believe that they are rated through DD's grade level and beyond. Waste of money, totally. Not cheap, either.

 

Voyages in English 7: I scored this used and cheap, to maybe use as a supplement, and was gratified to see that it's recommended at grade level in WTM as a good grammer alternative. I thought of switching to it because it's so much easier than RS, and I thought that it would help DD focus on what is most important, not so many trees that the forest is not noticed. But she objected--she likes RS (I did not faint or even flinch when she said that. My former grammer hater is now proficient, so naturally she loves grammer now, and can only vaguely recall her former passionate hatred. May it be so for math one day.) and wants to continue with it. It's more interesting and challenging. She says. (Even though she is doing the 6th grade text and we were comparing it with the 7th grade VIE one, I agree with her. RS6 is much harder than VIE7.)

 

To be determined:

Critical Thinking math books--just don't know yet. Is it better to mix things up by coaching DD to think more mathematically or better to just leave her be and let her plow through Saxon? Given that she hates math, these questions are quite iffy. This is a kid who can take two tests in a row and get 85% on one and 55% on another, with very little difference in material between the two. I wish I knew what switches math off and on in her brain. Sigh.

Edited May 18, 2009 by Carol in Cal.

[Jean in Wisc]

The last package that arrived at my door was the right-angle finderscope for my telescope. It's MARVELOUS! And I'm waiting with baited breath to get a second base for my Telrad! Oh...and I want to buy a laser pointer finderscope SO BAD. Do you think if I saved all my money when my birthday comes that I MIGHT have enough to cover it?

 

Um.

 

Err.

 

Oh.

 

You meant homeschool BOOKS and such?

 

Well...I'll use these with my class I hope to teach next fall. Does that count?

 

:) Jean

[walkermamaof4]

we are enjoying

Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization

 

I bit the bullet and bought the cd too. Although I don't like the way he talks, my ds-6 has taken a real liking to it and says his poems just like it! (This is good bc/ then he is enunciating well!) I offered my kids a quarter for every poem they memorize as long as they can recite each one plus all of their previous ones. They are loving this! They had been asking how to earn money bc/ we don't give a standard allowance. So that made this a fun incentive in our house to get the memorization wheels turning.

[MamaAkins]

So far, Mystery of History and Life of Fred have been a huge hit with the kids (and me!).

[Heather in VA]

I haven't bought much yet and I'm mostly using things I've already used but I just got Classical Writing Primary today and I love what I see. I don't know if I'm going to use it next year with my youngest or wait until 2nd grade but I wanted it now so I could see when it would be time.

 

Heather

[s.z.ichigo]

12 weeks into third grade now.

 

WINNERS

 

NOEO Chemistry. Love the large collection of books to learn from. An improvment over R.E.A.L. Science, which we also loved but the simple black and white pages and bad illutrations were uninspiring. Plus the "preperation time" vs "stuff learned" ratio wasn't good.

 

Saxon 3. Seems to be a lot meatier than Saxon 1 or 2, and it's good to see the foundation laid in the prior years paying off. We've been using Saxon since Kindergarten and she's so used to the style of instruction that she learns new things very very quickly. I'm glad we stuck with one program.

 

Latin for Children. I can't express how much we love this program. The dvds are home-movie quality but we don't much notice or care. The teacher is clear and easy to understand. I get it the first time through and am able to help her through each week's lesson. a good thing as I have no latin experience. My mother, who is learning Latin with a book for adults, just saw what we use and wants it for herself!

 

FLL 3. I can't believe how effortless we're (both) learning what I believe is really hardcore grammar. Thanks to FLL 1 and 2 for laying the foundation. Couldn't make it through FLL 3 without it, I think.

 

LOSERS

 

History Odyssey, early modern. I thought it would be easier to learn history with this program, which lays things out more accordning to geography and doesn't go through chronologically. Big mistake. I find it to be confusing as we jump back and forth between centuries. Chronological learning was so much better. Definitely going back to SOTW order next year. I AM glad, however, than the American Revolution is going to get several, uninterrupted weeks. but that's a subject dear to me so I'm biased.

 

Writing Strands. We're planning on doing level 2 and 3 this year. It seems fairly useless so far, maybe because my daughter seems to have a natural writing ability and doesn't need to be taught the real basics. I'm hoping it gets more useful later on. I don't really like the anti-grammar stance the introduction takes either.

 

That's pretty much it. Hope somebody finds this useful.

[gingersmom]

I have only so far received Saxon Math 5/4 and Saxon Math 7/6. This will be our 3rd year using Saxon Math and I am really very happy with it.

 

Paperback swap is nice enough to deliver books to my mailbox on an almost daily basis.

 

Currclick keeps me busy downloading study guides and notebooking pages.

 

I have a long long list of curriculum to order.

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

I like the look of what arrived from Critical Thinking. Those will be fun quick exercises!

[Colleen in SEVA]

:lurk5:

[beezus]

Looking forward to:

 

Life of Fred Beginning Algebra - my daughter hates math so I thought we'd try LOF. We won't actually start until later, but she looked through the book and was intrigued by it, so I am hopeful this will make math more interesting for her. We will also be using the Key to Algebra workbooks, because I was a little concerned about using LOF by itself.

 

Vocabulary from Classical Roots - my daughter is a word lover and she has enjoyed learning to take apart words and figure out what they mean. She's used the word roots she's learned here to try to figure out the meanings of words she runs across in other places, so this program has been worthwhile for us

 

Split the Deck from the Stack the Deck writing series - we started this already and it has worked pretty well for us, because is breaks the assignments down into small parts, so less staring blankly at the page and not knowing how to start.

 

Not sure:

 

Beautiful Feet Medieval History guide - I was hoping there would be some study notes about all the books that were included in this package. There are for some, but for many others there are no summaries or discussion questions.

 

Not what I expected:

 

Sonlight Language Arts 6 - seems to cover a lot of territory, but not quite in the depth I would have expected for this level. I feel like I'd have to add a lot to it to beef it up, which kind of defeats the purpose of forking out my hard-earned money for a curriculum.

[amandajh]

This is exactly what I have been looking for!! We have not started it yet, but I am extremely confident that my kids are gonna LOVE all of it!

You know how you can think of all these cool ideas for your school year, but never actually do them? Winter Promise has it all scheduled for you so that you don't leave out the "fun stuff". I love that!!!

We will be using:

 

-American Story 1- notebooking pages came with it, and I ordered the timeline pages and timeline figures...also gonna add in our own Bible pages to the notebook using this site: http://www.notebookingpages.com/index.php?page=Free-Bible-Notebooking-Pages-Quiet-Time-Forms

 

-The World Around Me (science)- this looks soooo fun. My kids love to draw, and they will be keeping a science journal. The TM has scheduled for them to sit outside and draw something they see once a week, for the first 4 weeks.(this is what I mean, an idea I had this year, but never did it) They are gonna absolutely LOVE that! Plus the activities look simple, but fun.

 

-LA 1 & 3- once again, AWESOME!! Lots of fun, and not just boring worksheets. LA 3 is all there for you, not one thing to make or do before hand. LA1 does have some file folder games that I have to color and put together, but I don't mind that kind of stuff.

 

-Saxon Math 2 & 3- love the TM since I am not a math whiz :) Also like the way they group addition and subtraction facts. My kids do really well with this curriculum.

 

I'm really excited about next year, and can hardly wait to begin!!!

[mom2jjka]

Winners we've used in the past - and will continue to use this upcoming year:

CLE Math, Language Arts, and Reading

Growing With Grammar

R&S Spelling

HWT

What we're excited about:

MFW: RTR (for the oldest 2 kids)

Heart of Dakota- LHFHG (I think this will be a great fit for my DD who needs a 'gentle' yet thorough program)

 

Cautiously Optimistic:

Singapore Math (for my middle DD)

SOTW2 Activity Guide (adding it to RTR)

Story of the Middle Ages text by CLP

A Reason for Handwriting (decided to try that over HWT for DD)

Explode the Code (once DD is ready)

LOF - Fractions (as a supplement for my oldest)

 

What I've decided to not use after all:

DITHOR

Writing Strands

God and the History of Art (didn't care for it at all)

[sagira]

I haven't gotten everything in yet (I still have $230 worth sitting on my Rainbow Resource Wish List, mostly books).

 

Winners we've used in the past - and will continue to use this upcoming year:

-MCP Math (now Level A)

-Tanglewood's Really Reading Program (so simple, so effective)

-Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding K-2 (also known as BFSU :001_smile:)

 

So-So (it works, just don't ask me to jump up and down about it ;))

-Spectrum Phonics

 

What I'm excited about:

-Miquon Math Orange Book

-SOTW Volume 1: The Ancients

-Nature Crafts for Kids

-Usborne's World History Encyclopedia (Internet-linked)

-Living Memory (for use as a resource, copywork and memory work fodder)

-The Well Trained Mind (third edition -- yes!)

-Books Children Love (love the recommendations, layout and the descriptions)

 

Cautiously Optimistic:

-SOTW 1 Activity Book

-Our Island Story (History of Britain) by H.E. Marshall

-First Human Body Encyclopedia

-Young Discoverers's Series: The Human Body and Weather and Climate

-Handbook of Nature Study (crossing my fingers this will work)

-Readers Digest North American Wildlife

-Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers 1 and 2

 

I also bought American History Stories Volume I and Volume II by Mara Pratt, as dh gave me $60 to spend at buy.com for our anniversary :D I won't be using these until third grade, but I really do like them a lot! I read the first one already (in half a day), it was so interesting and made the period come to life IMO. Thanks, Trivium Academy, for recommending it.

Edited May 20, 2009 by sagira

[siloam]

I haven't bought much yet and I'm mostly using things I've already used but I just got Classical Writing Primary today and I love what I see. I don't know if I'm going to use it next year with my youngest or wait until 2nd grade but I wanted it now so I could see when it would be time.

 

Heather

 

Ohhh, I am looking for an excuse to buy that one! :D

 

It would really be nice to use with my 3rd dd, but I am not sure she is ready for it. Her narration (CM style) is good, her summary ability isn't, so I really need to do WWE with her. I just don't think I could pull off both as it would probalby be too much writing (I think).

 

I know I have enough time to use it with DS, so I might have to just settle for that.

 

Heather

[rowan25]

It is, but most of the historical stuff is based around missionary stories, so you would have to find something else to replace it.

Thanks for that. You just saved me some money!!!