FriedClams Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Every year I seem to find a few gems that my kids and I just LOVE. For example, last year we used Sonlight Coke K and our gems were: Engermier's Story Bible and most of the read alouds (a few were not - but I'd say 85%). This year we used My Father's World Adventures and our gems were: American Pioneers and Patriots (from CLP), Rod and Staff Bible readers 2 (great for reading, comprehension and Bible all in one subject), United Streaming and HWT cursive (for my sloppy-writing left-handed 6 year old who can now write cursive). So I am wondering - what grade level were you working through and what were your gems from this past year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue G in PA Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 I can't say that we found very many. :glare: *I* loved MOH but the dc did not. MFW K might be the only real gem although we haven't really worked through it much yet b/c of the baby coming. Can't wait to actually work through it w/ ds5. Saxon Math is working well for 2 of my dc and I'm pleased w/ that. A Reason for Handwriting seems to be a favorite amongst all my dc....they choose that as their favorite "subject" and even my dd11 (who really doesn't need any more cursive "instruction") asked for the next book! Hmm... I did, however, find some "gems" (or at least what *I* think will be gems!" for the remainder of the year/next year. Apologia Elem. Science...can't wait to start Flying Creatures. LLATL for the summer (our trial run) and next year. AAS and Simply Spelling...keeping my fingers crossed that at least ONE of those programs will work for my struggling spellers. MFW ECC...I'm excited to give it a whirl even though geography didn't go over well this past year (we did a few wks of US Geog. and then quit!). Oh, and WT...looks like the "too good to be true" curriculum. Sure hope it is as good as it looks! Finally, FLL3. Hoping next year's choices work better for us than this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 We continue to love Adventures in Phonics C--well, dd doesn't love it, but she is remembering and applying the phonics rules to her spelling. Really liked Home Science Adventures Microscopy kit. Continue to thoroughly enjoy SOTW with the AG. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KristineIN Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 I recently found The Bible Study Guide for All Ages and we are LOVING it! Kristine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Closeacademy Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 I would say our gems (new in the last year but keepers) are: Minimus Latin My Pals are Here Science And for my youngest--Rod and Staff Reading and Math Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wendy in ME Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 For us this year it was Writing Tales 1 and 3 and Lively Latin for my 2nd ds. Actually, everything that we have eventually settled on is working great and I am making very few changes for next year but those are the real gems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DB in NJ Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Our gems this year: Sonlight Core 3 Miquon Math for my youngest (I've used parts of it before, but he REALLY loves it) IEW SWI-C Notgrass History (we've used American, World, and Government now. LOVE it.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny in Atl Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 GP (Latin, Science, History) and My World Science, so sad to see it go... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Phonetic Zoo spelling was our new hit this year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michele B Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 We discovered My World Science a few days before it was discontinued! We have three of the four books and are glad we found them while we did. This curriculum introduced us to the One Small Square seried, which we love! Michele B Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsmom Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Most of mine are what most of you already use, but we are still new and this has been a great year for finding great finds for us. *Rightstart math *The history of US *Home science Adventures *Sequential spelling *The exciting world of Creative writing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkinelly Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 My favorite is Lightning Literature. Oh, and Notgrass History. Mary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perry Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 This year's best finds: Chalkdust Prealgebra IEW SWI B Apples and Pears Spelling Megawords English Prep series Vocabulary for Achievement Hake Grammar Latin Prep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelli in TN Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Can I give you a high school one? The Bible and Its Influence was everything I had hoped it would be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linders Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 from Pandia Press (not the Real Science for Children). We have been doing the Earth science set and have really enjoyed it. Lots of activities. Our other "find" is something basic - a new, reasonably good telescope. My DS love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmoira Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Lively Latin and The Learnables. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brindee Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Well, last year our great find was Rod & Staff Eng/Grammar. My kids love it! That's great, cuuz we were struggling before! This year it was TT Math. Same story. Love it! We also found the Geo Matters site, and have procured some Geography stuff for next year. My kids already love geography, so I'm hoping this is a hit. It looks good to me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny in Florida Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Themes to Remember and Galore Park English Prep, both new to us this year. More generally, we did history this year through a home-made reading-heavy approach. I just found lots and lots of good books--historical novels, biographies, non-fiction--put them in chronological order and added readings from a couple of reference-type books and a few copies of Learning Through History had him start reading. It's worked out really, really well, and we plan to continue with more or less the same approach for next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faithr Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Latin for Children for elementary ages and Lightning Lit for high schoolers. We also loved The Great Bible Adventures for Teens, I don't think that's the official name though. I never can remember exactly what it's called. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda in NM Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Trisms (he loves) and Latin Prep (I love)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat in MI Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 MFW 1st grade curriculum. I am so pleased with this program. My daughters reading is progressing very well with this program. Blessings, Pat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lorna Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 The Elements by Ellen McHenry I have been posting a lot about this curriculum on my blog recently... So You Really Want To Learn French (Galore Park) So You Really Want To Learn History (Galore Park) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 SOTW 2 audio book with tests and ag and IEW History Based writing lessons... For my little guys, we loved phonics museum...especially the corny songs...go figure :-) ~~faithe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFSinIL Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Here, for a 5th grader: Singapore Science MFH (doing 6th grade level) and Teaching Textbooks (also 6th grade). I took her back out of public school mid-year, so rather then re-start 5th grade materials (since what the school was using was worthless for this kid) I jumped her in some subjects into 6th grade (ok, ok - we all know by now that TT is behind a year, so 6th grade tt is really 5th grade work. Just don't tell my dd - she is thrilled to be "ahead"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johanna Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narrow Gate Academy Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 TruthQuest AHYS 1 was our gem this year!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elise Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 We have loved our Galore Park selections this year: Latin Prep 1 and Junior English 2 & 3. They were like a breath of fresh air, a much-needed change! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcconnellboys Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 My gems are an unexpected art teacher that we picked up for 8 weeks and liked so much we've continued with her all year, and SOTW IV - can you believe it? I did NOT want to do modern history. I have resisted this for SO long (ignored it with my older son). It's been great! Along with that we've read a ton of living books that go along with the modern time period that have also been great and that were previously unknown to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zee Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 BJU Science 5 - 3rd edition, the whole shebang (tests, activity manual and TE's). :thumbup: This was our first step into textbook science and we love it. We won't finish it before the year is up, so we'll continue next year and Science 6 is on the shelf. :thumbup1: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vmsurbat Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 We can't use HomeSat (missionaries overseas), but splurged on some BJU HomeSat DVD classes. We were able to get a whole year's worth of subjects at the secondary level (Core: Math, Science, Wtg/Grammar & Lit, History, plus Bible and FL). Of those subjects, the best have been the 9th grade Physical World Science (which I expected) and the 7th grade Explorations in Literature (a great surprise). I didn't use the Wtg/Grammar portion of the English class (preferred what we were doing, but it comes packaged with the Lit). I plan to continue with BJU's Science and Lit classes all through high school. The literature classes are 1 semester long and will allow intermittent "whole book" studies--as a math/science person, I'm thrilled to have this subject of literature nailed down.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiegirl Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 This year, our gems were in subjects that we have been struggling to find the just right curriculum. Finally we have founnd them. They are: FLL3, Vocabu--Lit and A Reason for Handwriting--Cursive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nikita Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 but we (my 13yo and I) have actually stuck with Latin Prep 1 and I do think it's the best new thing we've used this year. Another find for him has been the Hakim Story of Science. We're both loving it. We're using it for narration/summary writing, and he's actually willing to do it which is a miracle since he's such a reluctant writer! He also likes Singapore's NSM math - I'm not so sure about it because he's struggled with how much more challenging it is, but as long as he's willing to do it I'm not complaining. He still says he likes math so that's good enough for me. My 9yo is doing well with L'Art de Lire for French. She's also excited with math again because I've just switched her back to CSMP - it's a free program with lots of games and it includes visual elements and a lot of logic, both of which appeal to her. She's been hating math and I'm surprised that it took me this long to figure out what I needed to switch her to. (I still plan to supplement with SM next year, but this looks like it will be her core curriculum). Oh, and we started the Dandylion logic books this year and they've been a big hit too. Nikita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sahamamama Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 What about MOH did the children not enjoy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 Singapore Challenging Word Problems are probably the best thing ever. When I started using them with my dd, it was as a supplement. Now, I think that it are probably the base of my math program. BJU math (the new edition) is great for us for math. IT has the right amount of problems. It teaches the concepts in small bits and builds on it. By the time she gets to a "hard" concept, she already understands it. She has been feeling very successful since we started this. Startwrite is great for us. My dd likes to switch handwriting styles. She also likes variety in her copywork. Some weeks we copy recipes, some weeks it is sentences from what we are studying, sometimes it is poetry or passages from favorite stories. It has made copywork do able for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
profmom Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 New gems this year were Elementary Greek and The Story of the Ancient World by Guerber/Miller. I don't see this last one mentioned here very often, but it's an older work that has been republished by Christine Miller of Classical Christian Homeschooling. We're using it as the spine for our 2nd time through the Ancients. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethben Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 All About Spelling! I have finally found a spelling curriculum that makes sense to me and ds is retaining what he has learned! It also plugs up some of those learning gaps in spelling I had as a child. Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristen in NC Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 The best "new" curriculum for us was Elementary Greek. I can't say that both my kids love it because my oldest doesn't like anything. But my daughter and I like it and my oldest tolerates it :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kendra Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 A Child's Geography Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdie Posted April 12, 2008 Share Posted April 12, 2008 Our gem was BJU homesat English, science and math 6. For the first time ever, I was able to educate all three children in math, grammar, writing and science and we are actually going to finish our classes in time for a summer break. Yeah! Our old favorites that we have been using for many years are the Pathway readers and Right Start math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
April in NC Posted April 13, 2008 Share Posted April 13, 2008 It has been great reading everyone's responses! We found a few things that worked out really well for us this year: Headsprout Beginning Reading was a great early reading program for my kids. It has 80 colorful online lessons that they enjoyed quite a bit. They liked the little storylines, adding stickers to their maps, and getting new reading booklets every few lessons, as well as printing out more readers whenever they wanted. We had been making no progress with any of our other phonics programs with one of my twins. (The other twin would have been fine with any program, I think.) Now they are finally both off to a good start! (And I'm trying to figure out where to go next, lol!) Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding is a new k-2 science curriculum that I am just loving, as I mentioned on the board the other day. (My full review is here.) We started it 2nd semester, and my kids are really blossoming with it! And, my old favorite that we've been using 2 years and I wouldn't dream of changing (which is saying a lot for a curriculum junkie like myself) is: RightStart Math. We are almost finished with Level B, and I can't believe how much math my kids have suddenly learned in the past couple of months. I am thrilled. (My husband, who is an accountant, is less thrilled. He doesn't particularly want to raise more little accountants, but I have assured him that a CPA is not the only career option for people who "get" math!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyAberlin Posted April 13, 2008 Share Posted April 13, 2008 For my K3 Bright Beginnings and Picturebook Preschool. Bible Stories to Read(R&S), Storytime with the Millers We start our school year in January so for K4 Preschool Plus ( Hewitt Homeschooling) Living Learning Books Science 1 How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons Hubbard's Cupboard for Bible and Character Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2boys Posted April 13, 2008 Share Posted April 13, 2008 Our gems this year are: IEW's Ancient History Based Writing Lessons, Daily Geography Practice by Evan-Moor, and Flashkids Spelling. New curricula I am excited about for next year are: The Art of Argument, Writing With Ease, and Teaching Textbooks Math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted April 13, 2008 Share Posted April 13, 2008 I plan to use AAS 2 for second grader next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leslie in TN Posted April 13, 2008 Share Posted April 13, 2008 Our gems for the year have been Harmony Fine Arts (Level 2) including Artistic Pursuits, and Learning to Spell Through Copywork for my little guy. Can I also add.. Heart of Dakota for next year! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyBC Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 While none of these are hot off the presses, I was pleasantly surprised by how much my oldest has liked Winston Grammar. The younger two insist that the Scaredy Cat Reading System is not school. (Expensive, but has been hugely helpful to me.) A couple others we've just started that are working very well: Right Start Math Games and Donna Ward's Africa: A Land of Hope study. The kids still love the Story of the World series and R.E.A.L. Science, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna T. Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 I'm very happy with Biblioplan. It has really filled a need that I had for a multi-age, flexible, history-only curriculum that schedules plenty of literature with a full integration of Biblical and World History. We just started it this spring but it's been a strong start. We jumped right in and we're enjoying it. I love the three-day schedule, the spines, and the other books. Another new thing that we are trying is Understanding Writing. It is enormous and I'm still trying to get a feel for it. I'm not sure if it's the approach that I want to take long term or not. I think if I knew someone who has used it for awhile who could assist me in getting the "big picture", I'd feel more confident with implementing it. We have started it and honestly, I haven't gotten even one groan out of my oldest son! I really like how it focuses on written communication... not as an academic pursuit but as a way to serve other people through beautiful writing. It's just a bit esoteric and I need more time to bond with it, I think! So, I'll list this a potential gem. I certainly like everything I'm seeing in it so far. Just wish I knew some other users! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runningirl71 Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 Our gems for this year are: Galore Park's Latin Prep (I FINALLY found a Latin program I want to do!) Lively Latin (Forest is doing Latin Prep, Daisy is doing Lively Latin) Singapore Math (Have used this in the past, switched programs, but keep going back to it!) Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers Colonial Life Unit Study (we made an AWESOME lapbook with this!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhonda in TX Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 I finally bit the bullet and started using this and now I'm slapping myself for not starting sooner. IEW makes it easy for this math-minded, language-arts-struggling mom to teach writing. It's also great for the kids. Love, love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted April 15, 2008 Share Posted April 15, 2008 IEW -- not new but new to us. I had avoided this curriculum for so long because of preconceived notions I had. I've been pleasantly surprised. IEW was well-implemented this year by two co-op teachers after we completed the SWI at home this summer. I actually think our writing success was a combination of IEW and writing every week, usually every day. It freed me from having to come up with my own assignments tailored to our science, history, literature. Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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