smilesonly Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 I've read some reviews and would like to hear from others. Is it a stand alone curriculum? Are you missing out if you don't have the newer edition with the CD? Pros and cons would be great also.:) TIA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cindyz Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 I don't really see it as a curriculum (I was disappointed about that). It's more of a laundry list of resources that you can seek out and find for various countries. The cd does include activities and maps that you can print out to use which are nice. Although I ended up downloading better map activities from enchantedlearning.com. We just started using it so I can't really give a thorough review yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momtoccm Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 I used it with my oldest for 1st and 2nd grade. I sometimes added more books and projects, but I thought it was good for that age for history, geography, and science. I only added writing, math, spelling, and grammar to it. We really enjoyed it, but two years with it was a long time and I was glad to finish. I'm happy with the foundation in geography ds got using it and wish my girls had the same, but I haven't been able to convince myself to take the time to do it again. It's been a few years ago so the newer edition wasn't out yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kipling Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 I used it with my oldest for 1st and 2nd grade. I sometimes added more books and projects, but I thought it was good for that age for history, geography, and science. I only added writing, math, spelling, and grammar to it. We really enjoyed it, but two years with it was a long time and I was glad to finish. I'm happy with the foundation in geography ds got using it and wish my girls had the same, but I haven't been able to convince myself to take the time to do it again. It's been a few years ago so the newer edition wasn't out yet. :iagree:We used the older version (so I can't comment on the CD) with our kids when they were 3 and 5. We felt that it was a nice, simple introduction to geography that provided a good foundation as we have started studying history (they have a fairly good idea where things are). It is definitely not a stand-alone curriculum. We only used it as a social studies resource and added math, language arts, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smilesonly Posted January 9, 2011 Author Share Posted January 9, 2011 Bummer. Not sure why, but I thought this was a broad K-5th curriculum that included areas except math and LA. Thank you for your replies. Anyone else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KsJET Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 (edited) I would definitely say it can be stand-alone if you just want to add math and LA. There are a lot of activity and resource suggestions. If you do all of the suggestions and read all of the books you will have a very full schedule that includes geography, history, science, literature, etc. I am teaching it at our homeschool co-op and barely scratching the surface. I like it so much that we are going to use it as the backbone of our studies at home next year with my children (young K, 2nd, & 4th). I have the pre-CD edition, but I did download the activity ebook which has the same content as the CD. Edited January 21, 2011 by KsJET Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalphs Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I've read some reviews and would like to hear from others. Is it a stand alone curriculum? Are you missing out if you don't have the newer edition with the CD? Pros and cons would be great also.:) TIA. I have written a review of the product at www.amazon.com Look for the name "KA Alphs." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommee & Baba Posted January 21, 2011 Share Posted January 21, 2011 I too use the older version without the cd...and I too printed better maps and such from enchantedlearning.com. And got WONDERFUL resources about each place from National Geographic kids! I personally wouldn't use it as a stand alone because that just means more prep work for me and it alone was ALOT to prep. But I did prepare the entire school year. I am not excited to do it with my other children because of the time it took to put it all together but I will! Because the results are WONDERFUL!! My dd7 has made homemade pretzels, chinese almond cookies, homemade french bread and MORE just from this curriculum! I did have to hunt for some recipes but many of them have one listed. I had to research alot of the extra's on my own as the book itself didn't talk much about each area..so that was a disappointment. But I did get the "Children Just Like Me" book and so glad that I did. I also got a couple other books for it but find that we RARELY even use them. My dd7 loves the food part, learning about children from the area and see'ing the money from each place..in which I went and googled images for the different money and laminated it all. This was ALOT of work...but I will have it for my other 2 children to use! :) GTG alone to prepare for the entire school year for one child took me 2 weeks just for it. We don't read a book from the place as we've been so swamped with our other things..but we do try and google kids from the area to hear them sing or talk. If I could I'd pick a curriculum that was more "together" or "prepared" but since we already own it I will use it for my other 2. I would suggest it but caution that it can be alot of prep work to get the most out of the book. I'm so thankful that I did print all the extras and all the coloring sheets of the animals from the area and I also went to makingfriends.com and printed the paper doll templates and clothing, hair and such from different areas so when we do a new country we do it lapbook style and she gets to dress the paper doll as if it's her traveling there. We also have printed off the passport book from the yahoo group and thats neat too. Overall I'd give it a 9/10 for being such a great book IF you prep some good things to go along with it..which the books has the suggestions...THANK goodness!! The downside was that I was already strapped for time with 3 kids so finding out all the prep work was a bit intimidating..:001_huh: But I survived and will do it twice more...with this program..just because my dd7's reaction to the program has been very positive!:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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