For those of you who use Calvert...

[mittmaman]

Which grades have you used/are you using and how is your impression?

Which subjects do you like and which not? And if there are parts of Calvert you don't do, what other resources you are using to go with it?:confused:

...I am looking forward to your feed-back!

[Momof2kids]

We used it for K, 1, 2 (one child) and 3 (another child). K-2 was very easy and light. We could get through it very fast.

 

Grade 3 was where it picked up. And it picked up alot. There was alot of work and my dd was a bit overwhelmed with it. Lots of worksheets. It's very "schooly". Lots of journaling. We dropped some of it becasue it was just too much writing.

 

We didn't like the science texts at all expecially for 3rd grade. It's like textbook publishers are bent on taking a simple concept and making it confusing. They used too many words and sentences to explain the simplest things. And it didn't clarify, it only added to the confusion.

 

I thought there was alot of "busy work". Vocabulary worksheets, reading worksheets, spelling worksheets. Also we got tired of reading the Reading Textbooks. We want to pick and choose out own books and not plod through a bunch of stories in a textbook.

 

Also, having the package at one grade level (my dd could not spell and the spelling workbook was way above her ability at that time) was a bit of a pain. So basically the spelling workbook was useless to us. If your child has trouble reading, the reader and vocab worksheets could also be a problem.

 

Basically we didn't much care for it.

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

before it was labelled as a "full day" program, and before it had all those literature read alouds and activities included.

 

I liked it. I think it was very very well rounded, and very interesting. My son enjoyed all of it and loved the projects, and gentle, colorful books.

 

What I didn't like about it was that it was school-at-home, *and* time intensive.

 

Right now for instance, we will be doing quite a bit of school-at-home in the 3R's this year, but that is to *save* time and money. I can cover a very in depth English, Reading, Reading Comprehension, Math, Greek and more in 2 hours.

 

Then I include my younger dd for all kinds of fun read alouds from the library, and notebooking, as well as Bible time.

 

For me, it was MUCH easier to keep the 3R's separate and combine my dc for everything else. Calvert *sounds* easy because there is "no planning" and "all the gaps are covered" but in reality it's a juggling act, especially if all your kids are 4th grade and under.

 

Instead of juggling reading, writing, and math as with eclectic method, you're juggling your entire school day, and the kids are not combined at all.

 

But I was pleased with the product and I feel there was no false advertising or inflated prices. I felt like I received a product that did what it stated it would do, and that the price was commensurate with the product. The customer service was totally fantastic and the counsellors truly wonderful.

 

Again this was under the old headmaster, and also before the new K program, though.

[2cents]

I only use Calvert piecemeal. I've used CHOW (with the cd too) and it was great! I have the famous paintings program and that is pretty good. I liked the spelling cd's ok but they weren't a great match for us. I just purchased the Civics course but haven't received it yet. I've also peeked at their curruculum choices and used those choices but didn't purchase from Calvert. I used their logic choice last year and it was great.

[skissugar]

2nd year of calvert here.. we have done 3rd and 4th grade with ds and K with dd..

 

Love calvert. it is a great school in a box. everything is greatly planned out for you, down to what to say to the child.

 

That being said.. this past year using calvert just did not work out for my kids. the science was too text booky.. the history went way to fast.. the compositions about drove ds insane so we had to drop those.. the K program was fabulous but moved too slowly for dd. And even though we looked at next year using it.. when we saw how much the price went up (it goes up every year, all across the grades,even if they dont "upgrade" that grade that year) we said no way..

 

I would suggest calvert as a Whole curriculum to others, as it is a really great program and the staff there is soo nice.. but for my family it just doesnt work for them.

[Handmaiden]

I have the famous paintings program and that is pretty good.

 

Is this the DVD series?

 

If so, did it come with lesson plans?

[AmyTompkins]

... Melody Lane. I believe it may have a different name now... Discoveries in Music? It is a nice introduction to music for younger children (I'd say 3rd grade and under; not because of the content but the DVD is pretty cheesy for older students) and the musical instruments are of good quality. I do think it is a bit pricey in hindsight and even though it is an extra-curricular subject, it doesn't shake its "school-ish" feel.

 

We also purchased their extra-curricular science program but promptly returned it. The items were of good quality but I felt the whole program was overpriced for what was included. There are so many excellent resources for science products and kits that I don't find the Calvert one relevant.

 

Good luck in your decision!:)

[Night Elf]

Since 2002, we've purchased Calvert 1st through 5th grades, though not back to back. We used other materials during and between grade levels.

 

1st and 2nd grade were easy, light and lots of fun. I thought all the subjects were well done though I wish they had started history in 1st grade. Instead, they focus heavily on learning to read.

 

I didn't care for 3rd grade and we didn't complete the grade level. The science book was new that year and I preferred the old Merrill series over the McGraw Hill. The History was disjointed, being only about famous people and not having any background on time periods. My children were really ready to read chapter books and didn't want to use the reading textbooks with the schoolish worksheets. The composition was a good pace though.

 

4th grade is my favorite year. My dd10 is working in this grade level right now, with 5th grade math. I loved it when my son went through it, even though he had some issues. But he was later diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome so the issues weren't the program's fault. The reading in 4th grade is a little disappointing so I supplement with book choices from Sonlight and Veritas Press. For my children, the literature arts portion is weak because they pick up LA concepts easily. I still think Calvert's program is good though. We skip some assignments that I don't think are beneficial. My dd is using ATS, the Advisory Teaching Service so she's forced to do some of the things we'd prefer to skip. She's also using IEW writing. If she has a writing assignment from Calvert that doesn't have to be turned into ATS and it's something she isn't interested in writing, we use IEW for that day's writing instead. It's not too often because my dd really likes to write and is mostly enjoying the composition assignments.

 

5th grade is where I had to give up. My son was not enjoying any subject in 5th grade. After about 4 or 5 weeks, I put the Calvert away. Later, he began using K12's 5th grade program. I do think K12's 5th grade is much better than Calvert's 5th grade so I hope to switch my dd from Calvert to K12 when she is finished her program. We didn't like Calvert's history text, Build Our Nation. The grammar and spelling seemed weak and the literature work wasn't developed enough, IMHO. We were supposed to read and discuss the books and I expected more. It was like the assigned readings were tacked onto the program as an afterthought. But as I said, we dropped the program early on so I don't know if the reading got better.

 

Hope that helps some.

[rafiki]

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[TracyR]

Well you'll get tons of opinions . I've used Calvert for K , 1, 2, 3rd and 4th with 5th grade math . I've only used it with a cyberschool and thank God that I don't have to pay for it because to me Calvert is expensive twadle . It is full of busy work .

Kinder : I didn't care for K , but we used the old K and it didn't contain a handwriting program , and the reading wasn't very good for K either . The math was just terribly slow .

 

1st was okay . The only thing I didn't care for was the science and history . Calvert's science is DRY and terribly boring . Its actually the worst book I've ever used . Please don't ask me to say a kind word about Calvert's math because I can't . I've used Singapore , Saxon , Miquon and BJU and any one of those are MUCH . MUCH better put together then Calvert's math . Their teacher's manual is useless and is a waste of good paper . The math program will bring up things at times and never repeat it ever again , sometimes it works way too fast learning important concepts and sometimes drags out things that are simple . I did like the Calvert script and my girls enjoyed learning this style of writing . The do use copywork for writing at this level for both 1st and 2nd . That I did like . We did like the 1st grade readers . The stories were cute and we enjoyed them and most of all my girls LOVED " Red Robin Fly UP " that is the dearest story ever .

 

Calvert 2nd grade : I did like 2nd . It used copywork for writing , I'm not sure if they changed it but the spelling was a list of words , which we didn't care for but it was doable . Math , gain AWFUL with a capital A . History and science I never used . Both were terribly boring .

 

Calvert 3rd . This is where my love for Calvert ended . They expected 3rd graders to write on their own from the very beginning . And how they teach it is AWFUL if you don't have a natural writer . This is the level where I've had to supplement just about every subject . This grade level was where the tears began . The math AWFUL . The readers were okay . They lose that innocence in a way that 1st and 2nd had. But we have enjoyed the stories if that makes anysense . Science AWFUL, dry and boring . History BORING !!!

 

Calvert 4th . The only thing we've enjoyed is CHOW and the readers that go along with it . Everything else . Awful . The writing instruction is terrible , again if you don't have a natural writer . Math is AWFUL , Science BORING ! Geography I started off liking but half way through we began to hate it . They have you read a short page about what latitude and longitutde is and it doesn't explain how to find the addresses to whatever it is they want you to find . Grammar is terrible . It starts off alright but the farther you get into it the explanations are so techincal that I don't even understand them ( and Grammar and Writing have always been my best subjects ) . My 10 yr old would look at me and say , " Huh ? " and I would shake my head . Anything is better then Calvert's grammar course , Abeka , Growing with Grammar, CLE , have better explanations that don't go over a child's head .

 

All I can say is thankfully we don't pay for it because I would never pay for something that I have to supplement this much . And we won't be continuing with it after this year . I think we've suffered enough .

Again this is only my opinion and this curriculum maybe better suited for your family . But to us its an overpriced curriculum full of busy work .

[BizyPenguin]

Many love the TM, but it drove me crazy!! We skipped a lot of the reading b/c my ds found it too easy. I became frustrated half way into the school year and dropped it. YMMV. I've got a Calvert article on my blog if you're interested. Click on "Curriculum Reviews" to find it. Best wishes!

[4wildberrys]

When we first used Calvert WAY back in 2001, I LOVED it!!! We used 3rd and 5th. I decided against 6th for dd because of the history textbook, but I got 4th for ds. MISTAKE----I hated it because it seemed like it went SO slowly and was actually easier than 3rd! Besides, I had gotten SL for dd, and she was enjoying it SO much, I ditched the 4th and got SL 3 for ds. After doing SL 3 and 4, I decided to try Calvert 6th for ds. Wow----what a difference.! He is hating the rigid structure and is BEGGING to go back to SL. I have skipped ALL the writing/composition because the textbook is horrible---I supplement in history and science. What a waste of money! The computer lessons are weak, at best. We also used the Math 7---and really disliked that too. The amount of problems the student was expected to do each day was ridiculous---and then there was NO teaching in the textbook---so I HAD to teach it to him every day. I sent the Math 8 back. I am SO disappointed that Calvert has now pretty much replaced all of their own special programs for mainstream textbook stuff----science, spelling etc. And the price gets higher and higher every year too-----It was charming and interesting at first, but this year has become drudgery.

[Merry]

I agree with 4Wildberry. I've used Calvert since 1987 which had been charming and interesting and academically sound all the way through the 7th grade for my oldest kids. Then it started to drop its special flavor at around the time my oldest was finished with it and by 1997, I'd stopped buying it for my younger ones. It got so expensive too. Now, I'm reusing the older editions for my youngest child and supplementing or substituting the parts I don't like such as their phonics. Too bad Calvert has changed esp. in the 1st - 2nd grades and 5th - 7th grades. The 3rd and 4th still seem to be fine.

[ummix3]

Which grades have you used/are you using and how is your impression?

Which subjects do you like and which not? And if there are parts of Calvert you don't do, what other resources you are using to go with it?:confused:

...I am looking forward to your feed-back!

 

I'm using first grade with my 6 year old and will start 4th with my just turned 9 year old once she's out of school in two weeks. I'm in the process of getting 2nd for my 7 year old.

 

How do I like it so far? I really love it...I do...lol After putting together my own curriculum for sometime using Calvert has let me breathe and add things here and there that I would like my kids to know, if it is not included in the curriculum already. I actually started using it with my 6 year old because she really wanted to get serious about doing 'school' and a friend of mine had given me the first grade curriculum years ago (she used half of it). So I took it out of storage and just started using it with my dd not really committing to it, just using it to see what would happen. It's been about two months now and she's reading nicely. My two older dd's, who will be HS'ed once there out from private school this month, have both told me they would like to try Calvert. So we will give it a try.

 

 

Many have said that History and Science is really weak in the lower grades. I find this to be true compared to other curriculums. But, I find you could use the science textbook as a spine and just expand the lessons with experiments and hands on activities. I do this with my 1 grader right now. Calvert is not the first thing I've ever had to tweak a bit and supplement. And I think I am fine with this because I know that no program is perfect. For history you could use SOTW and just skip their little history stories book all together in first grade and second grade maybe. These are the two subjects I find are weak right now...I can only speak for first grade. Fourth grade looks nice from looking at the books that came in. I see there are lots of things in the history section, geography and lit. we could expand pon if we wanted. As for science it's just a plain textbook through out the grades. For math I use Shillermath. I opt for this one because I have been using it for years and it's what works for us. I have seen the 4th grade math and think that if I were to get the math for my 9 year old that I would have to get 5th grade math. 4th seamed too easy for her.

 

 

One of the biggest reasons I decided to give it a try also is because I'm in NY and here you are required to test starting in the 3 grade (test every other year). I wanted to make sure that they were learning all these things that may pop up on these standardized test's. I'm sure I could put something together myself, but for now...I'm one relaxed mommy and loving it. I think it is possible to teach with their books and not adhere so close to their schedule, so far though I have not had a problem with it. We will see how this year goes.

[Lynn in Caribbean]

A few highlights for me:

 

3rd: The writing instruction in this grade is excellent. Each week, the child builds a paragraph. By the end of the year, my dd could put together a good, solid paragraph, with topic sentence, details, and closing. She could add colorful adjectives and adverbs to her writing. Those were the main goals, and she achieved them. Out of the years we used, 3rd was my favorite - it was a fun year for dd and me to do together.

 

4th grade: CHOW, of course!

 

5th, 6th, 7th: we all enjoyed the art history

 

All grades: the reading discussion questions were very helpful to me

 

All grades: the tests! I didn’t expect to “like” testing, but it turned out to be a good experience for them. The tests in each subject require lots of writing. I thought it was good for them, every 4 weeks, to pull everything together and write about what they learned.

 

What I didn't like:

 

The science textbooks for grades 3 – 6 (McGraw Hill) were just not well-written and sometimes downright confusing. Typical science textbooks I suppose, as I remember them being that way when I was a kid.

 

The history textbooks past grade 4 are typical public school garbage. (We substituted our own reading for history past grade 4).

 

There is very little actual writing instruction in grades 4 and 5. After lots of guidance in building paragraphs in grade 3 (as mentioned above), they don’t tell the kids HOW to write in grades 4 and 5. They tell the kids WHAT to write (“write a 3 paragraph essay about…”) and that’s it – they don’t give any instruction in HOW to write.

 

The composition for grades 6-8 is directly from the “Elements of Language” series of textbooks. The textbooks for these grades do give detailed instructions for each writing assignment – how to build a persuasive essay, a research paper, etc. It is just, as my ds would say, very “schooly.”

 

The only thing I can compare grammar to is Abeka, since I have also used that. Abeka grammar is much more organized and thorough.

 

Overall, how Calvert helped me:

 

Calvert taught me how to plan and organize! After 3 years of attemping to “do my own thing” (before Calvert) I realized I wasn’t really doing all that well. I started lots of grand projects, but never finished them. I don’t think, that in those 3 years, we finished a single textbook, program, reading list, what-have-you. I was always looking for the “best” thing to do, and never using what I had to the fullest.

 

I decided to get Calvert and “just do it.” It turned out to be a very good decision for me, because it made me realize a few things:

 

1) I learned there are HUGE benefits to consistency. For example, although the science textbooks were not stellar, my kids did learn a LOT of science in those 2 years. Why? Because we did science consistently, and we finished the book!

 

2) I learned that I need a plan. I need something laid out for the year. Even if I am using “do the next page” curricula, I still need a plan laid out, so I know that I need to do page xx today. For some reason, whenever I just “did the next page” I would end up in March, wondering why we were only half way through.

 

So, using Calvert was something that really helped me pull my act together. I will not use it again, and overall, I don’t think of it as a “great” curriculum. The “great” part is that it is simply all planned out, what to do each day. If (unlike me!) you can do that yourself, and actually carry out your plans, then you don’t need to spend the money on Calvert to teach you how.

[kailuamom]

We used Calvert 4, 5 & 6 (finishing it now) with my older dd and K and 3rd (now) with my younger dd.

 

K: I think it was a waste of time. At least for us -- my dd was 4 at the time, but was very verbal and flew through the program in a few months.

 

3rd: my younger dd is doing this now (after doing other programs once the K didn't work, she wanted to do Calvert again to be like her big sister) I like this grade -- she particularly likes mythology and history. They could probably do with more grammar, imo. The Math is not great -- again, imo. I liked Singapore better -- but you can buy Calvert without math.

 

4th: this was one of my least favorite years. I did not like the history program included, so we did SOTW. The grammar program is a bit boring, so we supplemented with Ridgewood Grammar workbooks.

 

5th: I was pregnant and then moved cross-country, so I don't remember a whole lot about this one. lol My daughter likes the structure/daily schedule of Calvert, though, and she enjoyed the history (US).

 

6th: dd really likes this grade because the whole thing (lesson manual, etc.) is written to the student. She does the majority of the work on her own, self-directed, as she would in college, which is cool for her. She really likes the history text -- she likes the way it is set up. And she has enjoyed King Arthur stories in reading. One thing she struggles with is the grammar -- they use a textbook and she does not like it. It may be that Calvert does not do a good job preparing the students for the big jump from what is expected in 5 to 6 as far as grammar. We are having to relearn some stuff.

 

Overall, Calvert is a good program. And if you are looking for a school in a box it is a good choice. For me, it was nice to have everything planned out. It saved me hours (and hours) of planning. That said, we are not going to do Calvert next year. Calvert is structured and you can fall behind. We just moved to an area that provides the opportunity for lots of field trips and day trips to historical places, etc., that we could not do where we used to live and we are probably going to be working well into August to finish. No big deal -- part of the reason we homeschool is the flexible schedule, but we want to do things a bit differently next year. We started with a mix of programs and we are going back to that for a while. We will likely look to Calvert again, though, maybe when my younger ones get to the middle grades.

 

Hope that helps.

[kailuamom]

1) I learned there are HUGE benefits to consistency. For example, although the science textbooks were not stellar, my kids did learn a LOT of science in those 2 years. Why? Because we did science consistently, and we finished the book!

 

 

 

 

:iagree: