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what were your winners and losers in curriculum this year?


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mine were

4th grade dd

winners

SOTW 4("history is my favorite subject")

Horizons math 6

French tutor (moving--bummer)

Novels : A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Number the Stars

Growing with Grammar

 

Just OK (disappointingly)

Real Science for Kids, plus connects to language

 

Losers

Wordly Wise

Ecce Romani (this is my fault)

 

8th grade ds

History of US vol 8-10

Focus on world history: 20th century

History of Science

Teaching Company Geology DVDs

Hamlet

War of the Worlds

 

Losers

All Quiet on the Western Front, Black Duck, The Art of Keeping Cool

My son asked why all the novels I picked were depressing, so we ending the year with Bringing Down the House and had some good discussions and writing on ethics.

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Winners:

 

IEW (I think I've raved enough about this :001_smile: )

CLE Math

Ambleside Online

 

Losers

 

CLE Language (our second try with this, still not a good fit for us)

Prima Latina (just never really got done)

Apologia Elementary Zoology 2 lapbook (I have to accept this. My children don't like doing lapbooks.)

 

Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with our choices.

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Winners:

 

Easy Grammar 4

Singapore Math

Apologia Astronomy

Our literature selections

Barb's "Handbook of Nature Study" lessons - we're on week 3 and loving it

Natural Speller - works great for us

 

Okay:

My custom US history curriculum - I tried to schedule too much, nothing like tweaking your own material

Drawing Basics with Thomas Kinkade - I love his instruction, but the Lifepac format is too distracting for us

 

 

Losers:

 

Where is the US are you Geography - boring

Any notebooking - we tried for history and science

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Winners: Lively Latin, GWG, MEP (free Math program from UK), Brave Writer

 

SOTW: not a winner and not a loser -- I have to figure out a way for everyone to be more engaged.

 

Losers: SWR (*sigh* - after finally figuring it out, I decided there had to be an easier way . . . AAS in the fall.)

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Winners:

 

Teaching Textbooks PreAlgebra & Geometry

Story of the World Volume 3

Sonlight Core K & Core 3

How Great Thou Art I Can Do All Things

Natural Speller

Apologia Physical Science & Physics

Handwriting Without Tears Letters & Numbers for Me & Cursive Handwriting

 

Losers:

 

Easy Grammar 3

Developing Critical Thinking Through Science

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Winners:

 

Rightstart math, Sequential spelling, home science adventures, G.U.M (grammar)

 

Losers:

 

spelling connections

 

 

Overall we have had a great year with choices. We are hoping the same for next year.

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we have homeschooled off and on. This year we were back. I picked Ecce Romani, because they had used the text at their previous school. It was fine for ds who completed year 2, pretty much without me--he's talented with language. I have no background in Latin and am terrible with languages. I thought I could learn this along with dd. However, I had a lot of demands outsides of homeschool that prevented a strong focus on this, which I needed because I have no Latin background and poor language skill. If I can squeeze more time out of the day, I will take another stab next year.

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Winners:

Singapore Math

STOW1 with AG

My Pals Are Here Science

 

Losers:

Wordly Wise 3000 (thinking of trying original WW level 1 next year?)

ABeka Science (just didn't fit my dd9's style)

 

Take it or leave it:

Abeka Language 3

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Winners

 

Rod & Staff English 3

Rod & Staff Math 4

Latin For Children A

Apologia Astronomy

Sonlight Core 3

 

O.k.

 

BJU Science 3

 

Loser

Singapore Math3a...have tried to incorporate this curriculum the past 3 years and it just simply isn't a match for us

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Winners:

Teaching Textbooks Algebra I (6th grader)

Math-U-See (2nd and 4th graders)

Daily Paragraph Editing

Lessons From History

Discovering Great Artists

Meet the Great Composers

Happy Phonics (2nd grader, who has struggled with phonics and reading)

English from the Roots Up

 

 

Not a loser but we're using a different company next year:

Noeo Chemistry II

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Winners:

Learning Latin Through Mythology

Themes to Remember

Learnables for Spanish

CHOW on CD-ROM

English Prep

Some Assigned Reading: Never Saw Another Butterfly, Ghost in the Tokaido Inn series, So Far From the Bamboo Grove

 

Losers:

Minimus Secundus (Someday I'll learn.)

PH Science Explorer: Earth's Waters (Boring.)

In terms of assigned reading: Day That Changed America series

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Winners:

 

Jr. High:

 

Jensen's Grammar

CW Aesop/Homer: Older Beginner's

Lightning Lit 7 (Whole book studies)

BJU Literature 7 (Anthology w/ literary analysis)

Math Relief Alg. 1

R&S Math 7

BJU World Studies (gr. 7) + Sonlight Readers/Read-Alouds

Latin in the Christian Trivium

Hewitt High School Syllabi (history)--good ideas for projects

Apologia General and Physical Science

 

OK:

 

Wordly Wise Vocab--the kids like doing these booklets, but I often wonder if it is just brain candy for them. (I guess for junk food this is not too bad!)

 

CW Older Beginner's, BJU Lit, and LitCT were the only new programs--I've already graduated two students--most of our curricula is now made up of the tried and true for our family. :-)

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Disliked:

*Apologia Exploring Physical Science (really wished I had gone with the textbook rather than the CD-ROM)

 

Liked:

*R&S English

*Saxon Math

*Apologia Botany

 

looking forward to next year with:

*MFW K

*MFW ECC

*Prima Latina & Latina Christiana I

*CKEB

*Writing Tales 2

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Winners:

 

Spell to Write and Read (3rd year in a row)

Singapore Math (3 years on this list)

Minimus Latin

 

 

Get the job done:

 

Rod and Staff Reading

Rod and Staff Math

Story of the World

My Pals are Here Science

 

Losers:

 

Tapestry of Grace (I love this program but it was too much for me.)

 

I think I did really well this year in not buying curriculum that didn't work or we didn't use.:001_smile:

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5th Grade:

 

Winners:

Philosophy for Kids

Philosophy Rocks!

Apples and Pears Spelling Books B & C

K12 Literature

Oral Language Lessons (A Beka)

Easy Tech Technology lessons from Learning.com

 

Losers:

Calvert State History

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Winners repeatedly over the yrs:

SSRW

Horizons math

Foersters alg

 

New winners:

LL from LOTR

Apples and Pears (did improve the spelling awareness of my spelling disabled son)

French Prep (after much hard work on my part to learn French pronounciation....wish there was more audio to accompany it b/c it is a great program)

Prentice Hall Science Explorers

 

Losers:

CW

Science Prep

AAS

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Big Winners: CW Poetry for Beginners A and OPGTR

 

Runners-up: R&S English and CW Homer A

 

Honorable mention: R&S Math, Elem Apologia Zoology, and McCall-Crabbs Standard Test Lessons in Reading

 

Losers:

 

Fallacy Detective & The Thinking Toolbox (these just didn't work very well once a week; they are good books, so we will read through them daily this summer).

 

TWTM approach to history in the Logic stage.

 

100EL--just not a good fit for my 3rd son.

 

All in all, we've had a very successful year. I've been very happy with most of my curriculum choices, and I feel confident as we move into our next school year.

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4th grade

 

Winnners:

 

Lively Latin

SOTW

parts of NOEO Chemistry II

FLL (used FLL3 as a review)

 

Losers:

Abeka Math

Latin Primer I (we abandoned it and went with LL)

parts of NOEO Chemistry II (encyclopedia work)

 

7th grade:

 

Winners:

Apologia General Science

Omnibus I

Painless Poetry

 

Losers:

Traditional Logic I

A few Literature selections

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Winners:

 

Homeschool in the Woods Time Traveler's Colonial CD

Christian Liberty Press The Story of America

Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra

Times Tales Deluxe

 

OK but disappointing:

 

Trail Guide to U.S. Geography

 

Losers:

 

Truthquest History Guide for Ancient Egypt/Greece - not laid out enough for me and "talked down" too much.

Abeka Math 3 (probably just my son on that one.)

Saxon 5/4 - too much to do, too little time

Streams of Civilization - a tad boring

Lightning Literature - the one with Jane Austen - too much flipping - I need it all laid out one lesson at a time.

 

Can I make a request? As I am reading all of these trying to glean the collected wisdom here, I am having some trouble with the acronyms. I've been homeschooling since 1992 so I am guessing some of the newbies would appreciate it, too, if we could spell things out, at least for this thread. Thanks!

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Winners:

 

ETC (K-er) (Explode the Code)

FLL3 (3rd grader) (First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, 3)

AO (AmblesideOnline)

SWR - once I figured out how I wanted to use it (Spell to Write and Read)

MUS (Math U See)

 

Losers:

 

Classical Conversations (one ds loved it, one ds hated it. For me it was too much meaningless drill and took away a valuable day of school at home)

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New-Found Winners:

  • Lively Latin
  • My Pals are Here Science
  • Megawords
  • The Learnables Spanish

Losers:

  • Sequential Spelling (DD through the process should go faster)
  • NOEO Science (even with everything there we never got around to it)
  • Power Glide Elementary Spanish Online (this is hands down the worst online implementation of a program I have ever seen -- not to mention that the course itself is poorly planned and laid out; it was usable for us because it was a supplement only)
  • Rosetta Stone Spanish (DD didn't like it, and I didn't retain anything)
  • Minimus Secundus

Perennial Faves:

  • Michael Clay Thompson's LA series
  • Singapore Primary Maths
  • Primary Grade Challenge Math
  • History Odyssey

 

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WINNERS

 

Math: Jacobs Geometry

Math: MUS Pre-Algebra (spine)

Math: Singapore 5A/B & 6A/B; Keys To Decimals & Percents (supplements)

 

Spelling: Megawords

Spelling: ABCs and All Their Tricks

Writing: Jump In

Grammar: Winston Advanced

Vocab (roots study): English From The Roots Up 2

 

Literature: Literary Lessons from the Lord of the Rings

Literature: WTM Great Books study of ancients

Literature: Garlic Press publishers study guide for the Odyssey

(Gilgamesh (abridged, by Westwood), Iliad & Odyssey (Fagles), Oedipus & Antigone (Fitts & Fitzgerald), Greek myths (various authors), Aeneid (abridged, by Church)

 

History: Human Odyssey textbook (by Spielvogel)

 

 

 

WORKABLE

 

Writing: Put That In Writing 1 (after much modifying, it went from loser to workable)

 

Science: Apologia Biology

(content is fine; but the text is too chatty and dry; layout quibble: the line length is *too long* -- makes reading very tiring, and it's easy to lose your place)

 

 

 

LOSERS

 

Grammar: Analytical Grammar (just didn't get done here)

 

Literature: SMARR study guide for Gilgamesh (by Robert Watson)

($8 for 7 sheets of paper folded into a booklet of 28 pages -- and 10 of those 28 pages were covers, publishing info, or blank!! Content was only vocabulary words, comprehension questions, and less than a dozen "critical thinking" or discussion questions.)

 

Literature: SL6 historical fiction readers for the ancients

(*I* liked these, but apparently these were too young in reading level, or too much ancients for our boys, and many did not get read)

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Winners:

Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading

First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind 1

Spelling Workout

Handwriting Without Tears

Story of the World

 

Getting Job Done:

Saxon Math

 

Losers:

Drawing With Children-I feel like I need a class to properly teach it, too much set up time.

Hodgepodge science curriculum-Spine was on perpetual back order from Rainbow Resource, so threw stuff together as year went along. Planning out my own before hand this year.

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Winners:

Singapore Math

Singapore Challenging Word problems

Lively Latin

National Gallery of Art website-great online activities; educational section with art/history/math etc

Bill Nye DVD's

 

Just OK:

Wordly Wise

 

Losers:

Prima Latina

Writing Strands

Bonjour Les Amies

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Winners for us

 

Writing Tales 1

Prima Latina

Children's History of the World

Gods of Greece from Calvert 3

Calvert's spelling

Sonlight readers

Kumon ( my daughter started off not liking them , but warmed up to them and enjoys it now )

Lapbooking ( has been great fun and love the fact my girls learn from them . )

 

Losers

Calvert ( we're just totally burnt out from using it . )

The Calvert science ( I'd rather rake my eyes out with my own fingers then to teach it again for another year . Horribly dry and borning )

Calvert Math (just not a good fit for us at all . Actually its an awful fit . Pages are too busy , the teacher's manual is a waste of good paper , totally useless ) not enough practice even with the student workbook . Dry , the worst math program I've ever used . )

3rd grade Calvert History , boring and dry .

 

I haven't used a whole lot this year as we are with a cyberschool right now and don't have the time to use alot of our own stuff .

Hopefully next year will be alot different .

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I'm just curious--what happened with Ecce Romani? I'm planning to use this next year and am a bit nervous!

 

Thanks!

 

I'm not the original poster, but there's a discussion list for Ecce

Romani at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ecceromani/ and they have

some helpful sites listed including the site run by the author of the text as

well as lots of online practice links (including the Prentice Hall site, lots

and lots of Quia games, etc.) Looks very helpful!

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Big Winners: CW Poetry for Beginners A and OPGTR

 

Runners-up: R&S English and CW Homer A

 

Honorable mention: R&S Math, Elem Apologia Zoology, and McCall-Crabbs Standard Test Lessons in Reading

 

Losers:

 

Fallacy Detective & The Thinking Toolbox (these just didn't work very well once a week; they are good books, so we will read through them daily this summer).

 

TWTM approach to history in the Logic stage.

 

100EL--just not a good fit for my 3rd son.

 

All in all, we've had a very successful year. I've been very happy with most of my curriculum choices, and I feel confident as we move into our next school year.

 

Slight Hi-Jack :blushing: I was wondering what you will change for history for next year?

 

Thanks!

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Loving this thread!

 

Winners:

Saxon 1 & 2

MCP Spelling Workout

Discover 4 Yourself Bible Study series (these are excellent!)

Notebook/encyclopedia approach to learning animals

Honey for a Child's Heart (great book list)

TCR Elections (I did a co-op class based on it, we'll do part 2 in the fall)

Dover Human Anatomy coloring book

Phonics Pathways--love it! DS hates it, but his transition from letter sounds to blending to reading has been much more natural than his older sis

 

OK:

SOTW (I loved it, but we didn't have enough time to do it consistently...next year should be better with the little kids getting more independent)

Writing Strands

Usborne World History--using it alone got boring

 

Losers:

Drawing with Children (I'm so with you, Starlashine--the book wasn't enough for me)

TWTM approach to Classical music...just didn't work for my family to sit and listen quietly without doing something else

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Winners

 

*SOTW1 with Activity Guide ("I LOVE history!" is a frequent comment around here :D)

 

*Ancient Times Complete Set Notebooking Pages CDROM (from notebookingpages.com) - a fantastic tool!

 

*Rod and Staff (again) English, Math and Reading (though next year we're moving away from the Reading program for my oldest and incorporating more real books and Charlotte Mason narration etc).

 

*Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day, Zoology II by Fullbright.

 

*(Always a winner) Alpha Omega's old Horizons American Language Series K-1 (teaches phonics, reading, vocab, spelling, and comprehension and is just a stellar program all around).

 

*A few read alouds we really enjoyed - Understood Betsy and Trumpet and the Swan.

 

 

Losers

 

*Latin Primer 1 (my dd really loved it and learned a lot, but it's not teacher friendly at. all. We're switching to Latina Christiana next year).

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Winners

 

*(Always a winner) Alpha Omega's old Horizons American Language Series K-1 (teaches phonics, reading, vocab, spelling, and comprehension and is just a stellar program all around).

 

 

 

Is this the one with readers called: Fun in the Sun, Scamp and Tramp, Soft and White, At the Farm, Sounds of the Sea, (and I think there's one more!)?

 

We use these readers and LOVE them!!! They've been out of print for awhile (which is why I usually don't mention them), but I'm not sure if Children's Books ever got the rights to start printing them again or not.

 

I never had the whole program - just the readers.

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Winners:

FLL

SWR

Singapore Math

Nora Gaydos readers

Dick and Jane!! (repetition is GOOD:p)

 

OK:

MFW First Grade

 

Loser:

MFW 1st grade Bible Reader (it was just torture for my child, but otherwise I'm sure it's great for some)

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I like what we use. Either I do a good job picking, or I can teach with anything, or I'm flexible, or my standards are low! Anyway, we had a good year and it all worked well. These stand out:

 

Winners:

-Singapore math

-Biblioplan with SOTW (Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation)

-Noeo Chem I

 

Losers:

-Voyages 2nd grade for Bible (Concordia)--I heard good things about Voyages, and I know it is a different format for 3rd grade and up. 2nd grade was just little booklets with simple Bible stories followed by an activity designed for to keep a class busy I think. Would have been better off just reading a good Bible story book.

-Spelling Workout D--Hit a point where dd had more trouble with it--reading the cursive list, doing the spelling, some activities that were a bit difficult and value was unclear like unscrambling words to make a list word. Looks like we're moving to R&S next year.

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2nd grade winners:

-BiblioPlan MA/Ren/Ref (every book was good, easy to use, like TOG without the steroids)

-everything from Critical Thinking Co. (Think a Minutes, MindBenders, etc.)

 

K/1 winners:

-Mind Building Math (Crit. Thinking Co)

-SL Readalounds (PK and K)

-100EL

-Happy Phonics (LOVE this)

 

2nd grade- "worked amazingly well but we HATED it"-Shurley grammar

 

Winners for both grades:

-Bible Study Guide for All Ages

-Living Math website

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New Winners This Year:

 

IEW (SWI-B and -C as well as SWI-CC)

Precepts Bible Studies (found them very manageable for my 5th grader)

Sequential Spelling

Omnibus I (though we're crawling through this)

PA Homeschoolers

 

Old Favorites:

Greenleaf Guide to the OT

Debate & Speech

 

Lots of other stuff that works, but these are the standouts!

 

Many blessings,

Lisa

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