hsbaby Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 AOP lifepacs for math and Little Hands to Heaven. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristavws Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 I was very disappointed in Winter Promise, too. I had forgotten about that one! Everytime I get their catalog, I am tempted to try it again, though! I forgot about that one too. We used WP Animal Worlds. Even my animal-loving, "I want to be a vet," 7-year old begged to do ANYTHING else. Sonlight Core 1 was also a bust here. We dropped it after 3-months. Krista Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonia Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 Horizons Health 1. Way, way below what I think should be first grade level. My DD is pretty advanced when it comes to human body type stuff, but still - this seems easy enough for a 3yo. On top of that, it's just silly. I understand that AOP is a Christian company, but this curriculum seems to be way more focused on religion than anything to do with health or safety. I had hoped there'd be something in there maybe I'd forget to cover, which is why I bought it, but it's all stuff we've talked about since she was a baby. Total waste of money. I don't think it could be less useful. Plus, it has one activity where you're supposed to cut and paste these pictures of 3 families that have changed over time, but there's one family that doesn't even have the same skin/hair color as any of the rest of them (as in, it doesn't match any of the other pictures, even though it's supposed to be one of the other families in one of its stages of development). :001_huh: :iagree: I thought the same - I'd use this to cover any health topics I might have forgotten. Total waste of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan in KY Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 Us too! I finally stopped around lesson 30-something when dd started crying as I pulled the book off the shelf. :lol::lol: Same here. 100 EZ lessons wasn't. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 Slow and Steady Get Me Ready. Terrible. Oh, and Singapore Math. Hated it. Tara Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy loves Bud Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 Slow and Steady Get Me Ready. No kidding. I'm a TWTM groupie, pretty much, but I don't see how this one got in there. Blech. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktwensel Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 I so wanted to LOVE Winter Promise All American Set 1, but it was sooooo disjointed. It is all over the place and the kids and I were all confused. Saxon - just the name gives us the shivers around here! WWE - wanted to love this one too, I just can't seem to get it. CLE - Social Studies and Science :thumbdown: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraKay28 Posted October 15, 2010 Share Posted October 15, 2010 Horizons Math...we quit halfway through, because I was getting confused, too! Although I didn't HATE it, Sonlight K was a disappointment, probably because I just wanted to love it so much, and it wasn't a good fit for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsMe Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 I loved MFWK! That's funny! Rightstart Math. OMG! I know people love it. I loathe it. I even went back last year and was looking at math programs, printed the sample out again and remembered just how awful it was. It gave me the heebie jeebies all over again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TechWife Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 Slow and Steady Get Me Ready. :iagree: Also, Sonlight Science 3 - I've never seen such a disorganized, disjointed science program in my life! Truly horrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdaghfal Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 Jr. Analytical Grammar. It started out confusing and just got worse from there. My textbook-adverse child was begging to go back to Rod & Staff. I'm just saying that reading the title to this one was painful...can't imagine trying to do it...hope you didn't torture yourselves too long!!:iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindyg Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 BJU Math 4 Distance Learning Soooo expensive and horrible, horrible, horrible (the class, not the curriculum)! Oh, Shari, you're right. That was a horrible class. I hope they have redone it or will redo it soon. I hurt for the kids who must go through it. I'm astonished BJUP is still selling it. I'm sorry you had a bad experience with it, and I hope you told BJUP how you feel about it. (I certainly did.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindyg Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 Without a doubt Power Glide Elementary Spanish online. (Power Speak now, IIRC). I tell everyone who will listen to me how much I hated Power Glide Elementary Spanish. If I owned the company, I would be EMBARRASSED to sell that to one single family! Never mind hawking it at every convention! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSMom2One Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 I have to say, hands down, Saxon Math 3 was our biggest bust. When I think of the total misery for my dd it makes me want to cry. I can still recall her sitting at the table with her daddy frowning all the while they did the lessons. For a non mathy kid, the spiral method was just torture! Another bust for us was Easy Grammar. Dd liked it because it was, well -- EASY!! Problem was, she did not retain what she had learned previously and so we had to move over to R&S English 5 for remedial lessons. (I should have gone there in the first place and stayed put!) Latina Christiana was pretty bad too. We moved over to LFC and never looked back. Blessings, Lucinda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen M Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 Primary Language Lesson and the 2nd one. They are probably fine for someone else, but not us. There are lots of things that I have not worked for our family, but others love. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Jessica* Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 These are keepers at my house and have been loved and used by all my kids, lol! :lol: I think I could give Explode the Code another try, but 100EZ Lessons is definitely going as soon as I get a chance to sell it! One man's trash is another man's treasure, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annabel Lee Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 I so wanted to LOVE Winter Promise All American Set 1, but it was sooooo disjointed. It is all over the place and the kids and I were all confused. How could I have left out my $400+ WP fail? We tried American Story 1 with the intent of doing AS2 this year... AS1 was not looked forward to by anyone in our house. Overall we like most of the books and the idea. My boys just don't like having to do a paper craft every time for each map, and then another paper craft for the activity. They love doing art, too, so that isn't the issue. What did it in for me was that it was not chronological and even some topics that *seemed* to go together within the history study (nevermind the American Native study lining up w/ history, b/c it never does) don't acutally. Take LaSalle, the French explorer for example. Totally different time frame than Cortes and Pizarro. But I am picky like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audrey Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 Power-Glide Latin. It was just. so. very. very. bad. Since then, I've had the opportunity to get my hands on Power-Glide French. It was only very bad. With the price they charge, it makes the lack of content that much more egregious, IMO. Other things that have been disappointing (but not horrid): Math-U-See - I guess that, for the price, I expected a lot better production quality from it. The DVDs were very low-end and the books were printed on very cheap paper. I will say that the lectures were decent, but it wasn't enough to make up for the seeming "cheapness" of it. SOTW, vol. 1 - I was more than disappointed that anyone would use bible stories and call them history, but I was glad I gave vol. 2-4 a chance because those were pretty good. Phonics Pathways - That had to be the single most boring piece of curriculum I've ever seen. I was so glad when FLL came out. Writing Strands - Ds summed it up well, "I feel like it's making me write like I'm stupid." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teacalm Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 Teach your child to read in 100EZ lessons 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UpNorth Posted October 16, 2010 Share Posted October 16, 2010 (edited) Saxon math - someone told me that R&S was way behind Saxon and that her family had to go to 7th grade Saxon after finishing up with R&S. (....:glare:) So I switched. I got ds the 6/5 book. So far below R&S it wasn't funny. So I tried 7/6. I had to go back to the R&S teachers manuals from earlier grades just to "un-confuse" him. Not impressed. Sticking with R&S math from now on. Then we'll go to an algebra program, consumer math, etc. But NOT Saxon!!! Edited October 18, 2010 by UpNorth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
txhomemom Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 FLL - hated the script and it just seemed boring, not to mention that I just decided not to teach grammar in 1st grade Several phonics programs including OPGTTR...same thing, just could not get into the scripted nature of it. Latin Road to English Grammar - could never make heads or tails of it and didn't want to Sonlight - schedules just do not work for me Any curriculum that has long explanations, is difficult to follow (turn to this page, then do this, then turn to this page, etc), is overly scheduled or scripted just does not work for me. I want something I can open and go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tylianna Posted October 17, 2010 Share Posted October 17, 2010 Calvert K and Calvert 2. On their own they were just OK. For grade 2 it was a lot of material to cover in a day, and a lot of it was boring and TOO much information to retain. They had some text books that I did not care for, and much of their materials were printed and spiral bound. I felt that it could have been much cheaper for what we got. The K curriculum was very boring to my daughter. She wanted to learn how to read the books instead of me reading them. There were times where she did just read it to me. We never made it to the books that she was supposed to read herself. In both there was a lot of jumping around and shuffling of books and materials. When I was teaching 2 at a time it was bad! This is a curriculum where you can't just leave the child to do it themselves, until they are in 4th, I think. The math was way too easy IMO. At the end of K they were just beginning to teach single digit math... In 2nd math, it was teaching doubles plus 1 and at the end of second, it would start to get into multiplication of small numbers. I couldn't imagine trying to teach 3 with Calvert!! I am currently using Sonlight, and it is a good fit for them when it comes to the cores (so far). The LA kinda jumps around. I use Horizons math and so far they all love it. My 4th grader is starting to not like the amount of work she has to do, but she still does it. haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oops, duplicate account :/ Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Enjoyed this old thread and bumping. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 I'm going to add SL LA to my list. :tongue_smilie: I was actually pretty underwhelmed with SL in general. I can use it as a free booklist and get more out of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotSoObvious Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 CLE Reading, 3rd grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandty Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 I enjoyed reading this old post too. And yes, one man's trash is another man's treasure! So true! Only thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was RightStart Math. We tried it for 2-3 months last fall and I thought I was going die! It was so painful for me and my kids weren't a fan either. I really loved looking at the program and gave it rave reviews when we sold it, but it was not for us. I know other that it fits perfectly. Now I don't regret buying it as I would have never known and would still be wondering if it was the math program for us. :lol: Now I know! It was a huge waste of $400 for both my boys. Yes, I bought the kits with all the hands on stuff. Still have it thinking we may use it. Hasn't happened in the past year. It was a costly experiment! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 TRISMS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
---- Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaMa2005 Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Trail Guides to Geography MCT Island Series Like so many have stated, both get great reviews, but were real bombs in our house. Thank goodness I was able to recoup my money from MCT as that was expensive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaCookiesBears Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 (edited) Teach your child to read in 100 EZ Lessons did not get past the first day with me nor dd5(she cried). It was soooooooo boring I am glad I did not spend money on it as I borrowed it from the library. Saxon Math made dd12 "feel like it was a nuclear time bomb on paper".Her words. Every time I mention or she sees Saxon at the library her eye twitches and the same goes for Abeka. Abeka- dd12 did not like it ( but not as much as Saxon Math) and avoided like it was the plague. Both these program made dd12 not want to do school work for months. Analytical Grammar put dd12 in tears the first day, however she did say she learned from it but still HATES it !!! She likes Rod/Staff. Thank goodness I received these books used/borrowed (besides AG) or I would have cried at the loss and waste of money on these products. I thought these books were going to be a big hit since my friends all rave about it but it was a major bust. The funny thing is that when I told my friend that dd12 hates Abeka that her son yelled ME TOO!! I think she was shocked to hear him say that :lol:. Edited September 11, 2011 by dyana17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Sing, Spell, Read, Write for K. Expensive, and not a good fit for us, at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momma2three Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Another vote for Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It was so boring DD refused to go past the second lesson. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BatmansWife Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Phonetic Zoo Pictures in Cursive Language Lessons for Little Ones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BatmansWife Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Nancy Larson Science How come?? :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyrjoy Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 History for Little Pilgrims. And the other Light for His Glory book. I'm a Christian, but really didn't care for those two books whatsoever. Kinda rubbed me the wrong way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FO4UR Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 SWR - Contrary to the author's opinion, there ARE kids who will not learn to read no matter how strictly you hold to her instructions.:glare: It wasn't a complete loss, as I did learn a lot for myself...I just wish I didn't push my ds through the program b/c it was a source of needless frustration. HST+ - How on earth does this program WORK??? I've watched the videos. I've played around with it. I don't get it. Give me a pencil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edelweiss Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Horizon Math-- Jumped around so much and honestly didn't feel like it was much better than a workbook I could've picked up from Target Writing Strands Spelling Workout However, we loved 100EZ Lessons here. It worked extremely well for both of my kids, and I've recommended it to others who loved it as well. It definitely shows you that curriculum works differently from family to family. I'm glad we have so many choices out there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tantechell Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 writing strands.. Handbook of Nature Study...Fairviews Guide.. 5 sets of Saxon Homeschool kits..4 different "grades" almost $500 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeaCookiesBears Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 HST+ - How on earth does this program WORK??? I've watched the videos. I've played around with it. I don't get it. Give me a pencil. Same here. I bought this back in 2009 and I am just now starting to use it just for logging dd's finished assignments. Maybe that will work for you if you just use it that way just for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veggiegal Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Love this thread! So far, our worst fits were: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 EZ Lessons Sequential Spelling (my son and I liked it at first, seeing the patterns, but he retained zilch) and so far, Life of Fred Elementary (which kills me cuz I love math!) My kids enjoy it ok, but in all honesty we've enjoyed many of the living readers we've gotten at the library much more. (We work from Julie's fabulous list off the Living Math Forum email group). And I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate CTC Critical Thinking Through Science. I'm having a look at a friend's copy of Nebel soon, and may jump ship on this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 A Living History of Our World. I tried it because of the glowing reviews and could barely stomach the first chapter. Thankfully, we were able to return it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsutsie Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Explode the code Online. I'm not a great speller, that is a fact, but I can spell "hot". The program had to many errors in it to be useful at all. It kept marking right answers wrong! Luckily I got it at Homeschool Buyers Co-Op for not to much $. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Way2blessed Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 My Pals Are Here Science - Bleh! We followed that with NOEO - only slightly better- Finally, we settled on watching Eureka! episodes on Youtube for science! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaHappy Posted September 10, 2011 Author Share Posted September 10, 2011 A Living History of Our World. I tried it because of the glowing reviews and could barely stomach the first chapter. Thankfully, we were able to return it. Oh my goodness, please share more! I've been looking at this and it looks really great, I'm dying to know what you didn't like about it exactly! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 (edited) Teach your child to read in 100 Easy lessons. What a waste of money! A&O lifepacs. Our first year HSing I purchased lifepacs complete curriculum for each kid. I flipped through a few the day the box arrived and sent them right back LOL. Edited September 10, 2011 by Quiver0f10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pfamilygal Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 Writing Strands Rocket Phonics Sonlight K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julikins Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 For us, A Child's History of America--didn't like the archaic and discriminatory comments throughout. Also found some things that were clearly not accurate. As much as I liked LLATL Red, my love for it diminished with the next year and then by last year (yellow) we were substituting most of the content with other things. My daughter got so messed up with Sonlight K's LA (the old edition)--I was very inexperienced and didn't know to stop until it had done some major damage and confused her thoroughly. It delayed her reading until the end of 1st and beginning of 2nd. We used Phonics Pathways to remediate her reading and then AAS to teach her to spell. She still struggles with reading and writing to this day. ABeka. Not so much the product (even though it is so unhomeschooler friendly) but the company. I'm not going to say anything more about it but I could go on... Horizon's Math K--I'm clearly not a good math person, but was embarrassed at my own lack of ability to teach a Kindergarten math program. Was not a good fit for me. And we have loved MUS ever since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celia Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Sing Spell Read and Write K-1 combo kit. That was a very expensive mistake!!! My son could read much better than he could write, and it really held him back by requiring so much printing. Poor squirt could have used a much more experienced hs'ing mom to know when to trash a program! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 A Living History of Our World. I tried it because of the glowing reviews and could barely stomach the first chapter. Thankfully, we were able to return it. Oh my goodness, please share more! I've been looking at this and it looks really great, I'm dying to know what you didn't like about it exactly! :) I felt it was poorly written, and had an extremely patronizing tone. My daughter complained she felt "the story was talking to me like a baby". It might be fine for kindergarten or first grade, but I have a second grader who has no younger siblings to do history with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In2why Posted September 11, 2011 Share Posted September 11, 2011 Muzzy Spanish. Thank goodness I bought them used. I didn't even try to resell them or donate them. I threw them away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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