Guest Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 (edited) What did you try that did not work out? I am looking mainly at K-4th here. For us, Ordinary Parent's Guide To reading--too dry and boring. Not clicking with kids. I used it on a whiteboard with lots of colored pens and bought and laminated all the cards. I REALLY wanted this to work as it is a great feed into the rest of PHP LA sequence. UK Dancing Bears Phonics series--not organized by rules. Irritating. Love the free handwriting pages, though. The jury is still out on McRuffy Math and LA. Edited July 9, 2011 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 We didn't have any misses this year. We did have a surprising hit - Miquon as a math lab. My 9 yro is a Miquon addict. We've done Singapore from the beginning, but she asks to do Miquon instead. :glare: Some awful experiences in the past for us: Abeka and 100 EZ (my kid cried everytime I brought it out). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mazakaal Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Writing Strands... again. It seemed to go better with dd than it had with my boys, but in the end I abandoned it. She didn't hate it like the boys did, but she didn't get much out of it either. I switched her to WWE, and that's gone a lot better. I was pretty happy with everything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keyjoh62080 Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Saxon Math K, 1 & 2 along with Math U See Alpha. Phonics Pathways didn't work out either. These work well for some but it just didn't work for us. BJU Heritage Studies 1 & 2, BJU Science 1 & 2, Pathway Readers and Learning Through Sounds (phonics), along with all of the volumes of FIAR. I forgot to add EVERYTHING that I purchased that they used in my daughters public school last year. I tried to set up my home just as things were in public school (to be at peace, so I thought!) I saw right away that it wasn't working so had to resell it all and de-school myself before moving forward. :confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Spelling: Rod & Staff Spelling 2 - too low a level for my first grader. I think the upper grades look much better. This level seemed somewhat random. Sequential Spelling - DS wanted to know "why" the words were spelled the way they were, and I couldn't answer. I needed a program that gave me more teacher training. Math: Rightstart A - I just am NOT a manipulatives teacher, and my kids have so far done fine with pictorial explanations, so I only pull them out if we need them. I also had philosophical issues with teaching kids math facts without counting to figure them out first (ie, learning that 5 and 2 is 7, without showing the progression of 5, 6, 7 on a number line or something). I'm just not a Rightstart person, though I LOVE their card games, and I kept the abacus. ;) Grammar: Rod & Staff English 2 - DS needed something that moved faster (in first grade), but he wasn't ready to write that much. The grammar moved very slowly, spending something like 6 weeks on sentences/phrases, then finally it moved into nouns. I'm very happy with R&S English 3 for 2nd grade though - it's just right. Reading: CLE Reading 100 - The LUs were busy work with a lot of schwa stuff that was getting to the point of ridiculous. I wasn't really interested in some of the stories either. I dropped it and just gave DS real books, which progressed his reading much faster. I think everything else, I've been able to make work or change my teaching style to make it work. For example, I use OPGTR and Webster's Speller for my 4 year old, but I make them interesting by doing it at a white board and not sitting there reading out of the book. He might as well have no clue we're even using a book when he has his "reading lesson". ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorrainejmc Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 100EZ lessons, started OK but confusion set in with all the black boxes between words and arrows showing the reading direction. Ds didn't need that as he had been looking at books all his life and he could understand why this book looked different from all the other books. We switched to Jolly Phonics and it has been great. We also dropped FIAR. It simply became too much for me. I had to buy all the books, plan everything and often the free lapbooks on homeschoolshare were not to my taste.:tongue_smilie:Open and go for me.:D Also, Artistic Pursuits was a flop here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3peasinapod Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 The last school year, WP AS1 didn't fit us, and I skipped much of it to get it done. Abeka math was horrible for us, and we switched from that. We were okay with K and part of 1, but I couldn't stand the teacher's guide for some reason. Otherwise, we liked what we chose last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsingscrapper Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 (edited) Ordinary Parent's Guide To reading--too dry and boring. Not clicking with kids. My son caught on quick and found it a little too easy after watching the leapfrog dvd's over and over and over again. He actually looked at me and said "Mommy, I already know this stuff. Can we do a harder lesson?" He was only 4 at the time. I would let him pick the marker/pen color for the day as I couldn't afford the prefab cards at the time. That made it more bearable for him, I think. That and moving a little faster through the lessons but making sure he was mastering the material. Edited July 8, 2011 by hsingscrapper forgot to mention ds' age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koerarmoca Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 100EZ & FIAR 100EZ was boring, and FIAR was just not my style and my dd got bored with looking at the same book to do a billion lessons with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsingscrapper Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 I forgot to answer the actual question at hand: It seems like nothing has worked this year. I'm personally to the point of crying. They do the work and it's right when they do it but when you revisit the concept, say in math, it's like crickets chirping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 I forgot to answer the actual question at hand: It seems like nothing has worked this year. I'm personally to the point of crying. They do the work and it's right when they do it but when you revisit the concept, say in math, it's like crickets chirping. You should start your own thread. There are lots of people on the forums who have been there. :D And, once you get the hand of it, they start middle school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moniksca Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Megawords - just seemed like busy work for what he was getting out of it Saxon 5/4 - oh how I love you but ds needs a break, we're going to try Singapore next year and see how it goes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Oak Meadow. I bought the second grade syllabus and tried to work through it, but the history stopped 1/3 of the way through the year and the LA did not match Ariel's skills well at all. I ended up adding WRTR and WWW this month because she has learned absolutely nothing from it in the way of writing and her spelling is also now behind. I feel like a second grade English failure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorrelZG Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 (edited) * OPGTR didn't work out here either despite my best wishes. * I dabbled in SWR before deciding phonics and spelling just shouldn't have to be so difficult. * PP no bueno either for DS A white board, dry-erase pen, the phonograms and a bunch of books and he is finally reading and liking it. [and my head doesn't hurt] * Saxon K - I tried the routine. I failed. Trying again with the next one. * MEP Reception - Was only interested in hands-on at the time. Willing to try this again with next one. * Miquon - Not for us. * Horizon K - Was only interested in hands-on at the time. Willing to try this again with next one. I can see us going freestyle with math prior to 1st if these flop a second time. I refuse to buy more. Edited July 8, 2011 by SCGS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twilight Woods Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 100 EZ, The Reading Lesson, R & S and HOD. They are very HAPPY with: OPGTTR & magnetic letters/white board and my older LOVES all the PHP stuff: WWE, FLL and SOTW [minus activty guide] and now I am happy and will work with the above and figure everything else out later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taffnus Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 The only drop for this year was WWE. It was our 2nd year of trying, trying, trying to get it to work and I finally dropped it mid-year. We'll be replacing it with PAL Writing then move into IEW if that goes well. Well, we did begin the year with a Sonlight/History Odyssey mix but ended up dropping that after 2 months and jumping into the TOG wagon. Loved it so that's what we're continuing this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pata Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 KISS grammar-definitely not our style, switched back to FLL and we are much happier :). Spelling Workout-it became apparent that dd needed some work with phonograms, so we switched to WRTR. Other than that, it was all good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhaddon Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 This year I learned a lot about my DS. OPGTR did not work, dropped it fast. FLL, he loved the poetry but could not follow just listening and answering questions. Singapore Earlybird. He would cry when we brought it out SL- loved books, but IG and program as whole didn't fit us. Abeka art- sitting on shelf Abeka K5 phonics- way over him (similar fail as OPGTR) I want to add for pp, we were like that at one point as well. Nothing was working and we were just having to take breaks and recoup. I felt no school at that point was better than him crying every time we tried something. FTR we ended up going with a lot of mama made phonics games/cards, ETC, RS A, Just reading the SL books on our own whenever, library books for science, and just my own crafts for art type activities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soror Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Dropped SSL, figured out that he really, really wasn't ready for it and I didn't like the program. I found it silly to be honest. Bought GTG but never used it. Figured out that was really more intense than I wanted for geography. BFSU- LOve it but implementation did not go well. I now have units made for this coming year based on free CK lessons, same info but with more in depth teacher info. History- following Mater Ambalis, didn't like the books I picked out. He just wasn't ready for this either. Just decided to drop History. But had great success in RS, I See Sam, HWoT. Being our first more formal year I was happy that the basics worked well. Part of that was just figuring out my own style. I do like a script. I like planned out lessons. Also, part of the problem was figuring out his level and what he was ready to do. His age puts him at k/1st and I tried to do him on the 1st, which worked for some and not for others. I just decided to officially call it K last year and move us to 1st this year and I *think* I have better figured out his level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Robyn Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 All About Spelling did not work for my middle ds. Noeo Chemistry 1 worked for my oldest ds but not for the middle guy. MCT's Island level vocabulary book didn't work for us either. I can't remember what it's called. I think that's it. That doesn't seem so bad for misses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joyful_Journey Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Latin - we were burning ourselves out trying to do both Latin and French, so I decided to drop Latina Christiana and focus on French. We are going to do English from the Roots Up and Caesar's English from MCT to get the vocabulary benefits of Latin/Greek roots and give our focus to French this year (my dh minored in French and REALLY wants the kids to learn it). Noeo Physics I - we liked Noeo Chemistry I, but we weren't thrilled with some of the physics books and preferred more experiments. We are going to try Noeo Biology II this year supplementing with RS4K Biology and other materials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LazyDazy Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 Horizons math- a "melt down maker" for us! I think the pages were too crowded for my son. Sequential Spelling- poor retention Learning Language Arts Through Literature- ugh, so much flipping back and forth. I feel that it was too gentle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted July 8, 2011 Share Posted July 8, 2011 RightStart B - I LOVED it, ds did not and after pushing all the way through A with minimal results, decided to shelve it. Elemental Science Intro to Science - way too basic for a science-fiend who spends his free time doing experiments. Probably my fault for picking the wrong level. I'm also about to chuck the Reading Lesson, which would have been perfect for ds 1 had I found it when he was 4.5, but ds 2 is a polar opposite and needs hands-on crafts and games to learn reading. But, at least I get to go back to RightStart A with ds 2, since he is my hands-on manipulative guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
black_midori Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Elemental Science - Biology (grammar) - boring for both of us, and not very informative. Total flop - bought all the pieces and did it for maybe 2 months (or less). Math Mammoth - it's actually not a total flop - I really like it as a supplement to RightStart, and I'm going to keep using it, but he definitely doesn't like it that much. However, it is the only worksheet like math that we are using and I feel that he needs the practice (the actual learning we do in RS, which we both enjoy). Any sort of lap book - turns out we just don't do well with those (starts of great, then peters out). :=) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy to monkeys Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Abeka language. . .and then Cle language:glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnMomof7 Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 We had one miss - Apologia Astronomy - for the second time! Missed last year, mssed this year too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wy_kid_wrangler04 Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 We didn't have any misses this year. :001_tt2: ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Megawords: It lasted all of two days. We went back to Spelling Power. Mosdos Coral: We loved Ruby but Coral was extremely boring. We moved to K12 Lit 6. Story of the World 3: The story got muddled. We jumped ship to K12 History 4. Singapore math: In the middle of 6A we dropped it and went to Lial's BCM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PentecostalMom Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Dd likes everything we are using. Oh, I did try 100EZ for about a week, but it was too weird for me, so we went to OPGTR and haven't looked back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorCalMom Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Well, after getting great results with the early years of Abeka math & phonics for dd, I thought it was a no-brainer to start ds out with the same. WRONG. He is a completely different type of learner and we had to navigate a different path for him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 (edited) MFW K. AGAIN. I love it so much but it didn't work for The Sponge (she was too far ahead when I tried it) and now it didn't work for The Drama (she declared she did NOT like coloring, she did NOT like reading scripture, etc. All she wanted to do was cut & paste, and do the worksheets. She's a worksheet fiend. But everything else, NO.). I have to sell it again, since she refused to do more than the first day and a half. BFIAR. Dd wanted to read the books, not micro-analyze them, lol. Box curricula & I just do NOT get along. They are so tempting though! I forgot to answer the actual question at hand: It seems like nothing has worked this year. I'm personally to the point of crying. They do the work and it's right when they do it but when you revisit the concept, say in math, it's like crickets chirping. :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Edited July 9, 2011 by LittleIzumi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jujudalu Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Do I hear you about boxed curriculum being tempting. It's just a shame my children just aren't out of the box kind of kids. And then I always feel the need to tinker :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagira Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Spectrum Spelling 3 (busywork, no retention. Decided to do Wheeler's Elementary Speller - free! We enjoy it. The Easy Spanish Jr. (too much work for me to make it meaty enough - partly my fault for not printing out all activity pages ahead of time. Will try again with dds.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
8filltheheart Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 MCT AAW LOF Fraction/Decimals--I do not like the way Fred attempts to explain anything. Dd liked it. The boot was given by me. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holly Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 Our only flop was HOD's spelling/dictation lessons. My DC complained that the spelling lessons were to easy...my DC have never before complained that anything was too easy. :lol: The spelling lessons were also the first thing to get left off our lesson if we ran out of time. Since we are using ETC, I decided it was enough spelling for their ages (and they can work on it when I'm busy with laundry or smaller DC). :D I was happy with the dictation lessons, but we didn't get to them as often as I would have liked. Other than that, we had a great year...and the rest of the HOD program was wonderful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheApprentice Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 McRuffy Math. It went well for K and 1st, but it was just not challenging enough in the 2nd and we jumped ship to MM. Pathway readers. B.O.R.I.N.G. for ds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyLittleBears Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 (edited) MFW - ECC Not finishing everything for the schedule for the day drove me batty and the kids only enjoyed Kingdom Tales! Edited July 9, 2011 by MyLittleBears Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SophiaH Posted July 9, 2011 Share Posted July 9, 2011 (edited) Math Mammoth = blank looks. I think the pages were too visually cluttered and my dd is not good with getting instruction from reading directions. We moved to Singapore Standards. WWE & FLL--again! too tedious. AAS--again! Three tries now and had gotten well into level 3. Finally sold it. Rules do not always a good speller make! Switched to more of a morpheme approach with Apples & Pears. Finally--progress! MCT--no structure...too scattered...too many components Edited July 9, 2011 by mommahawk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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