s/o Curricula that didn't work for you this year?

[Spock]

As a s/o to the curriculum you've been happy with thread, I thought I'd start a 'curriculum that bombed with you this year' :) just to even things out.

 

:)

 

Saxon Calculus for my 12th grader. He doesn't learn well with little bits of information at a time. He needs to see the big picture and understand the underlying principle first, and then learn the detailed processes.

 

MEP for my 3rd and 5th grader. My 3rd grader got very frustrated with the symbolic nature of this, and I dropped it for him within 2 weeks of starting. My 5th grader liked it okay, but didn't want to spend 45+ minutes on her math lesson every day (not including time spent on math facts and on Challenging Word Problems). She stuck it out longer, but eventually they both went back to Singapore. I did like the content of the program, and pulled out the worksheets as supplements every now and then. (I am deciding between Singapore Intensive Practice and just the worksheets of MEP to supplement Singapore for them next year.)

 

MCT Island for my 3rd grader. He loved the books, and I think he did learn something, but he needs specific instruction in capitalization/punctuation and other topics that were not included. He also never really mastered being verbs, linking verbs, and prepositions. I'm not sorry we used this (and Town for his sister), but we will be returning to Rod and Staff and using it from now on for both of them.

 

Advanced Academic Writing 2 for my 12th grader (also MCT). He read this, as well as Essay Voyage. However, while he didn't learn much that he didn't already know, it didn't really address his primary writing problems. He has excellent grammar, spelling, etc. His problem is that he condenses all ideas into their most concise and direct form, with no consideration for artistry, persuasion,etc. He also assumes that his reader is as familiar with his topic as he is. Therefore, he has trouble writing longer papers.

 

Library book based geography (with a touch of history) for my 3rd and 5th grader. It turns out that our public library doesn't have a whole lot of interesting books on other countries and cultures. However, the first 6 weeks or so on Native Americans went well. There actually were a lot of good books on various tribes, including both history and current cultures/lifestyles on each tribe. For the rest of the year I experimented with several different books and topics. [i have always had trouble with history for the lower grades. For 6th grade and up I like AO, with only a few alterations.]

Edited May 6, 2011 by Spock

[skueppers]

Both Miquon and MEP were flops for my daughter this year, although they were fine last year, when we did parts of Miquon Orange and part of MEP year 1.

 

I discovered that manipulatives confuse rather than help her, because she gets distracted by the procedures she's using with the manipulatives and stops thinking about what the question is she's trying to answer. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself.

 

MEP was a flop for us because she found many of the puzzles too hard, but also couldn't handle getting help with them. She also didn't like the teacher-led instructional model.

 

I decided not to continue working with these programs because she fell in love with Math Mammoth; I had purchased the blue series intending to use it as a supplement.

[Lovedtodeath]

HOD Bigger Science. I like science reading being tied into history, but for us it was at least a year behind where we were and there were too many days where there was no experiment or a completely frivolous one that had very little to do with science.

[Heather in VA]

HOD Bigger Science. I like science reading being tied into history, but for us it was at least a year behind where we were and there were too many days where there was no experiment or a completely frivolous one that had very little to do with science.

 

So what are you doing next year for science?

 

Heather

[Moniksca]

Saxon 5/4 - I love you Saxon but it does not suite my ds' learning style. I thought it was working but I could see he had holes with certain concepts he wasn't getting so we're going with a mastery approach now.

[Lovedtodeath]

So what are you doing next year for science?

 

Heather

IDK We already have God's Design for Plants and Elemental Science Chemistry. We never finished those because I tried to supplement and made it crazy. DD is burnt out on those now.

 

I am considering Sonlight (yay worksheets, DVDs and kits!), RS4K (may be do-able because of the short length of the program) or Elemental Science level 2 Biology (which looks advanced to me, so we are probably not ready for it yet).

Edited May 6, 2011 by Lovedtodeath

[Heather in VA]

IDK We already have God's Design for Plants and Elemental Science Chemistry. We never finished those because I tried to supplement and made it crazy. DD is burnt out on those now.

 

I am considering Sonlight (yay worksheets, DVDs and kits!), RS4K (may be do-able because of the short length of the program) or Elemental Science level 2 Biology (which looks advanced to me, so we are probably not ready for it yet).

 

We did Elemental Science level 2 Biology in it's beta form. It is very good. But I used it with my 6th grader. She was able to do it independently. I wouldn't say she found it hard but she didn't find it boring and babyish which is typically her complaint about science. We started the year with Apologia General Science (I don't know why - I don't like Apologia and I knew that) but she thought it was dull and offered no interesting or new information. She much preferred Elemental level 2. Unfortunately they don't have any others in level 2 so she'll be doing Runkles Geography with ClassiQuest Earth/Space next year.

 

But for my rising 3rd grader who is going to do HOD next year, I haven't decided yet. I think I'm going to wait until I get my HOD guide (Preparing) and decide from there if I want more. She's huge into science but she also does alot on her own so I might not need anything else formal.

 

Heather

[Lovedtodeath]

We did Elemental Science level 2 Biology in it's beta form. It is very good. But I used it with my 6th grader. She was able to do it independently. I wouldn't say she found it hard but she didn't find it boring and babyish which is typically her complaint about science. We started the year with Apologia General Science (I don't know why - I don't like Apologia and I knew that) but she thought it was dull and offered no interesting or new information. She much preferred Elemental level 2. Unfortunately they don't have any others in level 2 so she'll be doing Runkles Geography with ClassiQuest Earth/Space next year.

 

But for my rising 3rd grader who is going to do HOD next year, I haven't decided yet. I think I'm going to wait until I get my HOD guide (Preparing) and decide from there if I want more. She's huge into science but she also does alot on her own so I might not need anything else formal.

 

Heather

Thanks for the comparison. I was wondering how Apologia General was. The Preparing science might be better than Bigger's. We still have half of Bigger to get through though.

[6packofun]

Apologia Gen. Science - This text reads like a political campaign- definitely has an "agenda" and sucked the love of science right out of my child! (BTW- we are Christians, I just don't want my science text to try to "prove" creation by God.)

 

We're Christians and are enjoying Apologia's Biology, but I will NEVER make any of my younger kids go through their General Science after the experience my 2 older kiddos had with it. I hate it. LOL

 

We're doing the 2-year Rainbow Science and will count one of those years as our general science during grade 8 or 9.

[Merry]

I hate to say it but the WWE workbook didn't work for my ds. The lessons themselves are good but my ds hated working with the excerpts from the books that he hasn't read yet. So what I think I will do is get the WWE textbook itself and use passages from the books that he has already read.

[johnandtinagilbert]

LoF Algebra I. Ds couldn't pass the Saxon Final Exam. I was so disappointed. He hates math, loves Fred, and yet, something is missing. I'm not sure what my course of action will be.

 

Elemental Science: not so much the program itself, but I've decided I hate the classical idea of one scientific subject per year. I.just.can't.do.it. We NEED variety, so we'll use ES, just plug it into our studies chosen for next year.

 

FL Virtual School's HOPE class. This is a health and PE class that uses projects, projects, projects for every section. It was really unnecessary to put so much emphasis on the projects for a class that some notebooking or essays could have handled. It was the WAAAY more work than my health or PE classes ever were. We will use FLVS again, but the rest of the gang will not do the HOPE class.

 

Overscheduling! HATE IT! We did too much "stuff" this year. We'll be cutting waaaay back on activities next year. I am Really Burnt Out!

[patchfire]

LoF Advanced Algebra. Once she finished it, she didn't recognize standard algorithms at all. Ugh. :(

 

Logic-stage history a la WTM. I don't know if we were implementing it wrong, if I missed something, or what, but it felt to both of us like a lot of busywork. :/

[Lovedtodeath]

 

Elemental Science: not so much the program itself, but I've decided I hate the classical idea of one scientific subject per year.

Me too. Not just for science either. I think I am leaning that way in regards to time periods as well.

[johnandtinagilbert]

Me too. Not just for science either. I think I am leaning that way in regards to time periods as well.

I'm still happy with resting in a historical time frame :)

[jenniferlee]

OK - you guys have made me nervous about life of fred. My daughter is almost done with pre-algebra and has loved the series so far. I have been planning to just stick with it all the way through. But is it not going to cut it for algebra somehow? Where do you think the disconnect is happening?

 

Thanks

Jen

[Tam101]

Spelling Workout-C

 

My son blazed through A and B last year, but C was an epic fail for us! Maybe he just got board with the format. We switched to Trick of the Trade. It's a notebook style spelling program and his spelling started to improve immediately.

[Tam101]

I hate to say it but the WWE workbook didn't work for my ds. The lessons themselves are good but my ds hated working with the excerpts from the books that he hasn't read yet. So what I think I will do is get the WWE textbook itself and use passages from the books that he has already read.

 

 

We experienced the same thing. The workbook felt really redundant since we are using SOTW and FLL, so I ditched it after about 8weeks. Now we are back to using it and will finish the year with it. I'm on the fence about buying WWE4 for next year. :confused:

[Heather in VA]

OK - you guys have made me nervous about life of fred. My daughter is almost done with pre-algebra and has loved the series so far. I have been planning to just stick with it all the way through. But is it not going to cut it for algebra somehow? Where do you think the disconnect is happening?

 

Thanks

Jen

 

Life of Fred has been great for us. I have my oldest (smart but not mathy) 1/2 way through Trig and the middle (very math-oriented) finishing Beginning Algebra. They both are doing very well. For a while I wanted to make sure they were getting it so I bought Foerester's Algebra which is supposedly one of the rigorous ones. My girls found it easy. My oldest took the PSAT's this year (as a 10th grader for practice) and did very well on the math section. She said there wasn't anything she hadn't seen before.

 

I think it's like any math program. Not everyone works for everyone. Oh - and don't forget to get the home companion for Algebra. It provides a schedule and extra problems.

 

Heather

[Jilly]

1. Winter Promise Hideaways in History - I have used several WP programs and always liked them, but this was a disaster. We dropped it after 2 weeks.

 

2. All math programs for my youngest - He is just such a different learner, and I can't find a math program that works for him. We have tried Math in Focus, MUS, Time4Learning math, and Japanese math. Everything has been a bust. :confused:

 

3. FLL - Although my twins loved this program, it was not a good fit for my youngest.

[Sophie]

CLE :banghead: I'm never ever going back to it. I found out lit-based is what we need and hands-on. There is not a single workbook left in our house :D

[Enough]

Math Mammoth, unfortunately. :(

 

I am not sure what it was, but DS just *fought* this curriculum. The density of numbers on the page was definitely an issue.

 

We switched to Singapore and I think he appreciates the touchy feely fun element (happy kid pictures :lol:), the bigger print/size of the pictures.

[Guest]

Pretty much everything we started with this year. All I can say is thank goodness for return policies and the For Sale Board!

 

Oak Meadow 1, 5, 6, and 8

CLE Math and LA

R&S 5

SWO

OPGTR

ETC

FIAR

Apologia General Science (though now I wish I had kept it!)

LoF

McRuffy K

TT 7 (waaay too easy)

[cschnee]

Dynamic Literacy (Elements I) was a complete bust! After doing CE I and II, we are completely spoiled for vocab programs.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Rod and Staff english :crying:

 

I loved it! Dd 3rd grade HATED it with every ounce of her being and it became such a fight to get it done. We switch to Primary Language Lessons and have Intermediate Language Lessons for next year and its going BEAUTIFULLY! She loves it so I am happy.

 

Lightning Lit 7, just didn't like it here. Dd 7th didn't like it, nor did I.

[prairiewindmomma]

Sequential Spelling: ds1 memorized patterns but didn't transfer his learning over into his writing skills

 

Latin:

[deeinfl]

For my fourth grader we started out the year using Moving With Math ( mastery and similar to MUS) It didn't work out, but not because of the program. It didn't work out because I found out my son really does learn best with sprial so we went back to our second year using CLE math, even though we are a year behind, and when I stopped stressing about the grade level, my son began to flourish. We are staying with CLE math for a time now. (still keeping MWM for reinforcement because I love the workbook pages)

 

We also started WWE 2 this year after trying it on our own without the workbook, only using the teacher book. I thought this was going to be a better decision for us to have already premade worksheets with already chosen stories/references. Big Mistake! By the middle of the book it became drudgery and even though we finished the workbook, we ended up hating it at the end. I repeat, we hated the workbook, not the method. If I had continued doing writing the way that was outlined in Strong Fundamentals I think we would have been further along, but I got stuck on finishing the lessons as they were in WWE 2 workbook and in turn caused my son to hate writing of any kind. We will continue in a more natural manner for next year and not get WWE 3. :)

 

Also, someone else mentioned the Bible Study Guide. As much as I loved this in previous years, for some reason it also became drudgery for us and we ditched it a few weeks ago. We have just been reading the Bible and I found two very cheap old and new testament guides at CBD and that's all we will be using from now on.

 

 

 

Another one I almost forgot. We are using Easy Grammar 3/4 and my son is clueless and lost. He started off really knowing how to find those prepositions and pick out the subject and the verb, but suddenly he is clueless and all over the place. We are trying GWG next year...but honestly, I have yet to find a program for grammar that I've been happy with. I've been tempted to write my own, but I know that is an endeavor that is a little over my head right now...something like Winston Grammar but by grade levels... building each year on previously learned topics and with continual practice of the last thing taught...hmm? It's a thought...I've heard Shurley grammar is like this, but my son hates jingles so it may not work...

 

 

Dee

[5LittleMonkeys]

There are some programs that we ended up stopping but it was just due to time restraints (and we may end up using them at some point) rather than the program being a bad fit so I won't include those. The ones I am including were not good fits for us at all and we will not be returning to them. Right off the top of my head:

 

LCI (dd12 and dd13)- too much rote memorization, not enough application, could not get past the dvd instructor.

 

Apologia Astronomy (dd8)- We aren't young earth...I got tired of editing out all the "proof".

 

Classical Writing Homer (dd12 and dd13)- It made me feel dumb. It seemed overly complicated and confusing. I spent most of our writing period trying to figure out what we were supposed to be doing. My dd just wanted to cut to the part where they rewrote the passage without all the steps leading up to it. My dd's aren't crazy about writing so any program that makes the process complicated or drawn out isn't going to work.

 

Those are the ones right off the top of my head...I'm thinking there was something else but I can't remember.:tongue_smilie:

[Whereneverever]

WWE- too slow for us, too much repetition

 

R&S English- I couldn't stand the religious content after a while. I didn't like the context, or lack thereof, and just meh

 

FLL- so sloooow

 

Singapore- I wanted to love this. I really did. But it leaves topics and the books go so fast. Ugh.

 

R&S Science- too focused on farm life

 

Answers in Genesis Preschool- difficult to implement and too many classroom activities

[Dinsfamily]

Down to Earth Geography:. Too much social studies, not enough geography.

 

Artistic Pursuits K-3 Book 1:. Will use it, just not this year. We're using ICDAT and loving it.

[jenniferlee]

Heather:

 

Life of Fred has been great for us. I have my oldest (smart but not mathy) 1/2 way through Trig and the middle (very math-oriented) finishing Beginning Algebra. They both are doing very well. For a while I wanted to make sure they were getting it so I bought Foerester's Algebra which is supposedly one of the rigorous ones. My girls found it easy. My oldest took the PSAT's this year (as a 10th grader for practice) and did very well on the math section. She said there wasn't anything she hadn't seen before.

 

I think it's like any math program. Not everyone works for everyone. Oh - and don't forget to get the home companion for Algebra. It provides a schedule and extra problems.

 

Heather

 

 

Thank you for this reassurance!

Jen

[lovelaughs_times_three]

Wordly Wise - tried it 2x now. It can bring tears!

Teaching Textbooks - My social daughter doesn't like to be away from the family, on the computer, doing her work. My son thought it was way too easy, took too long to get to new material for him. I didn't like how disconnected I became with how they were doing in Math, what they needed more time on, what they knew and could skip.

Sonlight Language's Activity Sheets - it skipped around too much for me. I prefer a program that focuses on one principal at a time and then practices that principal. It seemed like we'd be looking for too many things at the same time in a sentence without a real, solid lesson on it.

I am sticking with Sonlight Language for the literature and the writing assignments. I still like that about the program.

[rochesterboy]

After schooling First Grader son did not like/want to do the following:

 

 

 

• RSB - Most of the lessons were too simple for him. He loves Singapore Math and MEP. MEP was initially tough, but we did not give up on it. Now a days, we do selected problems in MEP.
  
• WWE - We could only finish about 9 weeks. It brings tears in his eyes most of the time.
  
• FLL 1 - Too much repetition for my son. We are slowly picking up the speed on this.
  
• Artistic Pursuit - Did not have time to work on it.
  
• SOTW - Hard to start. We are slowly picking up the speed on this.
  
• RSO Life - We only did few lessons. We will try to continue this during this summer.
  

 

We love:

 

 

• Singapore Math
  
• ETC
  
• Critical Thinking Books
  
• OPGTR