What is the worst educational/HS item you've ever bought?

[lovetobehome]

Wow, I used 100 EZ Lessons to teach both my older ones to read. I recommend it all the time! LOL!

I can't say there is anything I have ever purchased that was really terrible, just a lot that was not a good fit for us. :-) Weaver comes to mind....

[Aoife]

100EZL

OPGTR

Writing strands - my DSD hated this!

FLL - my DSDs were bored to tears with this

WWE - my DSDs were bored to tears with this

Sonlight - great book selection but I could never get myself to follow the IG :lol:

 

SSRW - another phonics flop for us. Way too busy and hard for me to get around to. We love the games though but we have the same basic ones here already for a LOT cheaper.

[kristavws]

Private school K tuition! All we learned in DD's year in private school was that we needed to homeschool.

:iagree:

 

The one benefit though, is that even if I spend $1,000 per year on each of my sons for curriculum and classes, I still feel like I saved money. :tongue_smilie: Of course, now I know they are receiving a quality, fun education.

 

Krista

[FaithManor]

Writing Strands nearly made my children become Catatonic!

 

Saxon Math

 

Spelling Workout

 

Faith

[MamaHappy]

We've tried a lot of klunkers through the years. Here's just a sampling:

 

Fast Track Action Reading ~ oh my goodness......worst thing in the history of learning to read!! They teach almost all of the letters with the "uh" sound at the end (tuh, zuh, etc). I'll still never forget when the lady on the cassette tape read off some letter sounds and then said, "these letters don't really have the uh sound at the end, but you can't hear me if I don't say them that way, right?" So to sound out "cat" she would say, ""Cuh........ah........tuh. Cuh....ah.....tuh. Cuh..ah..tuh. Cat!!! That's right!" :ack2:

 

Phonetic Zoo ~ hated it.

 

Writing Strands ~ day one: write "the pencil in on the table". Day two: write "the yellow pencil is on the table". Day three: write "the yellow pencil is on the big table." :tongue_smilie:

 

Professor B Math ~ too strict about not moving on until the child could instantly say the answer....my kid never could.

 

Right Brain Phonics ~ I still don't understand this at all. :confused:

 

Queens Language Lessons for Little Ones ~ some lessons literally took 10 seconds (plus I *hate* it when a publisher says the book is X amount of pages long but the backside of every page is blank yet still numbered. Pet peeve!). :glare:

 

Times Tables the Fun Way ~ changes what the numbers represent from story to story which leads to confusion.

 

Times Tales ~ stories are too confusing.

 

ETC Online ~ too many frustrating glitches......by the time we could get it working right the subscription ran out.

 

 

Oh man, I had the same experience with Queens' LL, I forgot that we tried that. Yeah, those lessons were crazy short. I mean, I'm all about short lessons, but that was ridiculous, lol. :tongue_smilie:

[Brindee]

Our biggest bust was Saxon Maths. We TRIED, I wanted to like it! All 3 of my kids hated it! My dd did Saxon 1 when she was barely 5 and it was the first time in her life I heard her say the word "boring"! Parts of it went okay though. Later we came back to it and tried 76 with her. HUGE MISTAKE! She's still recovering from that one! (For anyone who might think these things, let me just say: It was the right level, she could do the work, we went slow enough, etc.) :D

 

Some others didn't work well with us, but they weren't dismal failures like Saxon.

[nmoira]

Without a doubt Power Glide Elementary Spanish online. (Power Speak now, IIRC).

[birchbark]

Loved 100 EZ Lessons.

 

Hated Phonics Pathways. :001_smile:

[delaney]

Heresy, I know, but I wish I had never spent any $ on the SOTW AGs. Too much busy work that we couldn't get done.

It does suck you in and make you feel guilty for skipping over all the great activities!:tongue_smilie:

[Amy loves Bud]

Intermediate Language Lessons. Please shoot me now.

 

Biblioplan when my oldest was in 1st grade.

 

Apologia Botany. :sleep:

[Omma]

BJU Math 4 Distance Learning

 

Soooo expensive and horrible, horrible, horrible (the class, not the curriculum)!

 

Apologia elementary science

 

I cannot get my head around why this curriculum is so popular. :confused: I taught Astronomy in a co-op and tried Botany at home. My 12yo still complains about it.

 

My ds and I agree with you about the BJU Math 4 dvd's. HOWEVER, I hear that dearly loved Mrs. Vick is working on an updated version for math 4 and I bet it will be fantastic! :)

 

Brenda

[shinyhappypeople]

Rod & Staff science was sooooooo boring!

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

[wanderer109]

Oh, yeah. I forgot about Times Tales. The stories are so confusing! I wish I wouldn't have wasted my money on that.

[shinyhappypeople]

Oh, and Language Lessons for the Very Young. I wanted to love it, but it just didn't work for us. The lessons were way too short and it moved so slow. I could go on, but I won't. OK - one more thing: with all the great children's poetry out there, why choose Robert Frost (Stopping by Woods...) as the first copywork passage? It's way too long (takes over a week to do) and it just didn't appeal to my DD.

[kewb]

Voyages in English. Way too dry. My kids hated it.

[Mom-ninja.]

Rosetta Stone

 

Ouch. That's an expensive one.

 

 

Mine have already been listed.

 

1. 100 EZL.....I cannot repeat enough how much I hate this book.

 

2. ETC

 

3. HOP

[beezus]

Writing Strands really, really didn't resonate with my dd.

 

Also, we tried Book 1 of the Critical Thinking series, but didn't get far. I guess I just couldn't figure out how to make it interesting for the two of us. Maybe others are more imaginative than I am, or maybe it's just better in a classroom situation.

[jewellsmommy]

Teach your child to read in 100EZ lessons

 

 

Us too! I finally stopped around lesson 30-something when dd started crying as I pulled the book off the shelf.

[LoveBaby]

 

 

Queens Language Lessons for Little Ones ~ some lessons literally took 10 seconds (plus I *hate* it when a publisher says the book is X amount of pages long but the backside of every page is blank yet still numbered. Pet peeve!). :glare:

 

:iagree:

 

The older grades aren't much better, IMO. Saying there are 180 lessons, but over *half* of them are copywork, isn't cool, IMO. If I wanted 90 lessons of copywork that are 1 sentence long, I'd do it myself. The books are beautiful and the picture study is nice, but I was sorely disappointed in the amount of material received for the amount of $$ spent!

 

There have been a *lot* of things that have made their way into and out of our house over the last few years of homeschooling, but I can't think of any that I was just really bummed about. I chalk it up to a learning experience and figuring out what does and doesn't work for my children and our family!

[Mommyfaithe]

Our biggest bust was Saxon Maths. We TRIED, I wanted to like it! All 3 of my kids hated it! My dd did Saxon 1 when she was barely 5 and it was the first time in her life I heard her say the word "boring"! Parts of it went okay though. Later we came back to it and tried 76 with her. HUGE MISTAKE! She's still recovering from that one! (For anyone who might think these things, let me just say: It was the right level, she could do the work, we went slow enough, etc.) :D

 

Some others didn't work well with us, but they weren't dismal failures like Saxon.

 

:iagree: BLAH!! Saxon was a nightmare...and I used it with 3 kids all they way through Advanced Math and my 4th up to 87. He nearly had a nervous breakdown over it....not worth it...especially when my olders did so crummy on the math portion of their SAT's after so many years of torture. Live and Learn!

 

Faithe

[...................]

Saxon K

 

Covenant Home K (truly awful and big mistake)

 

Writing Strands- too much breaking it down.

 

I considered all of these above to be awful...other things haven't worked for us, but I could look at it and say, well this was a quality product anyway. Calvert 2 comes to mind.

[love2read]

Writing strands

Teach your child to read in 100 Easy lessons

LLATL

Life of Fred (big surprise, I thought my two gifted children would love it)

[lisamarie]

MP-K--Maybe it would have worked had my DD been a different sort of kid. But it was a HUGE bust that made her HATE school for months.

 

100EZLessons--gave it away. I couldn't stand the way the lessons were set up with the kid's work mixed in with the teacher's work.

 

R&S 1st grade math--My DD is trudging through it, but I will never use R&S math again. Every day I pull it out and I want to stab my eyes out from the repetitiveness--and DD feels very similarly. Once DD gets through this book, we are moving onto SM1a

 

 

I think that's it, but we're only in our second year. I'm sure my list will grow with time.:tongue_smilie:

[MadsandLilysMom]

For all the 100EZ haters (myself included) Amazon has a trade in program and this book is on the list. I sent mine in (postage was paid) and received a $6.31 gift card in return.

 

Laura

[Mom0012]

It definitely looks like 100 EZ lessons wins the prize!

 

The funny thing is that there is another program out there called Funnix that is based on 100EZ lessons and written by the same author that is fun and engaging and highly effective.

 

Lisa

[Michelle My Bell]

A beka Kindergarten on video - Too long of a day, My daughter was doing headstands watching it. Really a waste of her time.

 

Analytical Grammar - A lot of money and I had NO IDEA what I was teaching.

bf3c7e1e-a5c4-49ab-8330-13b9d1ac6235

1.03.01

[PinkInTheBlue]

100EZ Lessons was a bust for us as well. Phonics Pathways was what worked. I still have it and I've bought Ordinary Parents to use as well. I like the looks of it in the same way PP worked.

 

Unfortunately Saxon math was an enormous bust for us as well. We had a great start with Horizon math but when we switched it began a very difficult trip down the math road. A bigger disaster was Chalkdust math. I think it's a wonderful program but it was a crash for us. When my oldest saw some of those lessons with 100 and 200 problems PER lesson after often very, very long DVD lessons, he was overwhelmed and totally shut down. I cut the problems to be the amount I wanted him to cover but just seeing it was completely over the top.

 

R&S English was a bust for me. We used it for about 3 years and I hated every single day. It worked and the boys didn't hate it (probably because I tweaked it so much). We moved to Analytical Grammar last year and it's been much, much better. It's straight forward and logical. I sure wish I had found it first to follow FLL, which was wonderful for us.

 

Added: How could I forget?! Every single science I've ever bought. If I could have back what I feel I've wasted on math and science...if only!

[Homeschooling6]

I purchased these twice even, to give them a second chance but I still can't make them work here at Homeschooling6; Singapore and Miquon:ack2::leaving:.

[mammaofbean]

i think it might end up being everything by joy hakim. i want to love her stuff, the writing is so engaging and the concept is great. but really the christian bias drives me nuts. i feel the whole time reading it that she is writing a text that is supposed to be secular, but for a christian audience. i am surprised that people like her so much, because to my mind she misses the mark on every audience except for very liberal christians or spiritual agnostics.

[Snowfall]

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:

[ALB]

100 EZ Lessons brought on tears here!

[Osmosis Mom]

Teach Your Child to Read in 100EZ Lessons and Explode the Code.

 

These are keepers at my house and have been loved and used by all my kids, lol!

[Annabel Lee]

Calvert K complete kit

 

I'm beginning to lean towards the feeling that anything from Abeka falls into this "klunker" category. It might work, be time-tested & solid, but has a way of making you bored out of your gourd.

[amyrjoy]

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:

 

 

That was not a good purchase for us either.

[Mommy22alyns]

Saxon 1. Made me want to poke my eyes out.

 

Miquon. Sorry... I wish I'd never wasted my money on the FULL set, C-rods and all. I even bought some C-rod activity books to try & salvage it... nope.

 

Prima Latina. Booooooorrrrring. I turned right around and sold it.

[2cents]

Apologia Elementary Science-Boring & not challenging.

Biblioplan-Too disjointed.

Classical Writing Homer-Got about halfway through but it was torture. Switched to IEW and much happier.

[mom2scouts]

It's interesting how different every family and child can be. My 8 year old son wants to be a zoologist and he LOVES, LOVES, LOVES the Apologia Zoology books. He's learning so much from them and asks to read more from them everyday.

 

Also, Math-U-See works great for him and my daughter cries when I tell her I can't do Explode the Code with her. The only thing that is really hated here is A Reason for Handwriting and that's only because my son hates anything that involves writing.

[elegantlion]

Abeka math 4 - IMO there is too big of a jump in number of problems from 3 to 4. My math loving son thought it was torture. We switched to Singapore and never looked back.

[meet me in paris]

Miquon Math. :confused: I just don't get it. Neither did my daughter.

 

Writing Strands. I can't believe that is recommended in WTM. yuck!

[Mommyfaithe]

Saxon 1. Made me want to poke my eyes out.

 

Miquon. Sorry... I wish I'd never wasted my money on the FULL set, C-rods and all. I even bought some C-rod activity books to try & salvage it... nope.

 

Prima Latina. Booooooorrrrring. I turned right around and sold it.

 

I use my rods with a regular textbook program to illustrate concepts. Don't throw out your rods yet! I use them now for everything....We use CLE Math and this year we are using grades 1,2 & 6 and I use them daily for all 3 students...now if I could figure out how to teach upper levels with them....sigh....

Faithe

[Snowfall]

I use my rods with a regular textbook program to illustrate concepts. Don't throw out your rods yet! I use them now for everything....We use CLE Math and this year we are using grades 1,2 & 6 and I use them daily for all 3 students...now if I could figure out how to teach upper levels with them....sigh....

Faithe

 

DD loves the rods! She uses them instead of the math balance that came with RS, which she hates. Whenever practical, she uses them instead of the abacus, too, which she hates even more than the balance. :glare: We love the rods. I was very unsure if we'd like them at all when I got them, but DD really enjoys them, so I'm in love. Anything that makes my little Negative Nellie happier...lol.

[Guest ME-Mommy]

100EZ Lessons

Writing Strands

Saxon anything

Lifepacs

SOS

Spelling Workout

[SweetMissMagnolia]

health "workbook" off ebay.....condition wasn't what was advertised....and the content was just awful IMO....

[Heather in VA]

We've had things that haven't worked for us but it was often just not a good fit - not that they just weren't good. I'd say things that I've really disliked as a product rather than just not right for the situation would be:

 

Anything from Winter Promise (tried twice - both times it was just awful)

IEW - definitely not what I want in a writing program.

 

Heather

[*Inna*]

 

100 EZ lessons. hated it.

:iagree:

[Negin]

The absolute worst, without a doubt, JAG. Dd hated it so much that she made up a song about it. :lol:

[LoveBaby]

We've had things that haven't worked for us but it was often just not a good fit - not that they just weren't good. I'd say things that I've really disliked as a product rather than just not right for the situation would be:

 

Anything from Winter Promise (tried twice - both times it was just awful)

 

Heather

 

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!

[BatmansWife]

100 EZ Lessons must have won the prize. Funny because this is what I used to teach my first child to read about 14 years ago....she's now 18 and has always been such a super reader. It really did work. But....I didn't use it with my other 2....didn't seem to work for them.

[mom2jjka]

Switched on Schoolhouse - entire 3rd grade set

[Dina in Oklahoma]

Our wrong fit curriculum . . .

 

Saxon Math (tried 3 different times)

 

SWR

 

WRTR

 

Writing Strands