If you're using Kolbe Academy...

[....]

I know there are only a couple of people on these boards using Kolbe, so my thread will probably get buried. :001_unsure:

 

How is your school year going? Do you still like the program? Do you plan to continue with it next year?

 

Also, I can't figure out how the history works. I'm looking at using it for 6th grade and up.

 

Thank-you for any info!

 

Edited to say: Does anyone like the Greek text that they use for 7th-8th grade?

Edited March 12, 2012 by starrbuck12

[oraetstudia]

:bigear:

 

Not using Kolbe yet, but definitely considering it for the future.

[Avila]

We have been taking a hard look at Kolbe, and I have several friends using it, so I have read through several grades' worth of lesson plans and talked it to death. :D. But we have not used an entire grade yet, so take my opinion for what it worth and maybe it will give the post a bump for someone who is using it full time. You may also want to ask on the high school board, because I think we have a few people there who are using Kolbe and can probably answer more. Lots of people using it do not start until 9th grade.

 

The history is pretty much a textbook with tests and some writing assignments thrown in up through 8th grade. Most of Kolbe has been pretty traditional textbook, with secular science options added in a few years ago, a literature program, and (very recently) a classical writing option.

 

Their high school lesson plans are really good, and the K-8 is slowly catching up to be more classical. A lot of people use some Kolbe and then switch out the history to a more WTM approach to make the transition to their 9th grade easier.

 

I have yet to meet a family who uses Kolbe as Kolbe writes it though. Almost everybody subs things out, and some sub out so much that not much Kolbe is left. I would love to talk with a Summa high school plan user, if we have any lurking about here. :)

Edited March 12, 2012 by Asenik

[....]

Their high school lesson plans are really good, and the K-8 is slowly catching up to be more classical. A lot of people use some Kolbe and then switch out the history to a more WTM approach to make the transition to their 9th grade easier.

 

I have yet to meet a family who uses Kolbe as Kolbe writes it though. Almost everybody subs things out, and some sub out so much that not much Kolbe is left. I would love to talk with a Summa high school plan user, if we have any lurking about here. :)

 

We're about 3 years away from making this decision, but I'm looking into this and another program for high school. My husband is from another country/culture where homeschooling is (probably illegal-LOL) unheard of and I think the Kolbe's transcript service would probably make him feel much better about homeschooling high school.

 

For high school, we would probably use our own math and religion. But, the rest of it looks very similar to what I would like to use for high school.

 

The junior high (7th and 8th grade) looked fairly independent, too.

[....]

I would love to talk with a Summa high school plan user, if we have any lurking about here. :)

 

Have you seen the webpage that shows their average ACT scores? :svengo: The Summa graduates scored an average of 30 on the ACT. Our school district has an ACT average of 18.5. The Summa also scored about 4 points higher than the Magna diploma. Not that I have to worry about ACT scores at this point in time. :D Just something I'm considering as we move into middle school.

[2_girls_mommy]

Just bumping. I am another considering it for high school only (with substitutions the religion too, although that makes me sad, because then you can't earn the highest diploma if you don't use their entire theology course..)

 

Love to hear more. I have already heard more on here than I knew already.

[....]

Love to hear more. I have already heard more on here than I knew already.

 

They have lesson plan samples on their website. http://www.kolbe.org/Sample-Course-Plans/

 

I think following WTM for history and writing for middle school beats their middle school history/writing. I think I'm attracted to Kolbe's literature, science, Greek :D, and their high school history looks great.

[Avila]

Have you seen the webpage that shows their average ACT scores? :svengo: The Summa graduates scored an average of 30 on the ACT. Our school district has an ACT average of 18.5. The Summa also scored about 4 points higher than the Magna diploma. Not that I have to worry about ACT scores at this point in time. :D Just something I'm considering as we move into middle school.

 

Yes! And I would love to know the basis for it, especially since the other Catholic classical program does not score as well. Are the kids who would score well anyhow drawn to Kolbe for some reason, or is there something that Kolbe is doing to account for it?

 

My decision is closer, because I have an 8th grader next year. And I think we will try Kolbe for her for high school.

 

I like what I see with the lesson plans and materials, but I am am concerned because I have yet to meet a Kolbe user that ends up doing primarily Kolbe. I don't know if that is because they chose Kolbe to take advantage of the flexibility or after they start, Kolbe is just not realistic for a lot of kids to do as written. It is a lot to think about.

[Melissa B]

I love the high school history, literature, science program. But I have never used anything from K-8 other than their literature program. I do like the literature program though.:)

[2_girls_mommy]

I like what I see with the lesson plans and materials, but I am am concerned because I have yet to meet a Kolbe user that ends up doing primarily Kolbe. I don't know if that is because they chose Kolbe to take advantage of the flexibility or after they start, Kolbe is just not realistic for a lot of kids to do as written. It is a lot to think about.

 

So how are lab sciences taught using their resources? Or higher math? Is it just out of a book?

 

I would think those are places that I might use a substitution, so that my kiddos would get labs and a better high school math teacher than I ;)

[oraetstudia]

 

I like what I see with the lesson plans and materials, but I am am concerned because I have yet to meet a Kolbe user that ends up doing primarily Kolbe. I don't know if that is because they chose Kolbe to take advantage of the flexibility or after they start, Kolbe is just not realistic for a lot of kids to do as written. It is a lot to think about.

 

It would be useful to talk to some actual users. I only know one person who uses it here. She uses it pretty faithfully for her younger kids, but then around middle school has sent all her kids (that are that old yet) off to private school. So she can't answer my middle school/high school questions.

 

I have one other friend who tried to use them for a year of high school, but she's a very casual/trending towards unschooler type, it just about killed her daughter, but since that's not how we school I can't compare how it would work for us to that either.

 

But I do like what I see for high school. I don't know whether I would want to have my son do the Summa or Magna diploma yet though.

[Avila]

So how are lab sciences taught using their resources? Or higher math? Is it just out of a book?

 

I would think those are places that I might use a substitution, so that my kiddos would get labs and a better high school math teacher than I ;)

 

Their lab sciences are taught through virtual labs, but they also give you the option of helping you do live experiments, if you wish. Some of what the virtual labs do would be hard to replicate at home, though, so most people who choose live labwork still get the virtual labs too.

 

Math is either Saxon (with available Saxon Teacher, Dive CDs or Art Reed) or Jacobs Algebra and Geometry and Foerster past that. Jacobs has teaching DVDs available.

 

Kolbe is very flexible and lets you take co-op classes or do community college classes, with no problems. Substitutions only require a sample of written work each quarter.

[Avila]

It would be useful to talk to some actual users. I only know one person who uses it here. She uses it pretty faithfully for her younger kids, but then around middle school has sent all her kids (that are that old yet) off to private school. So she can't answer my middle school/high school questions.

 

I have one other friend who tried to use them for a year of high school, but she's a very casual/trending towards unschooler type, it just about killed her daughter, but since that's not how we school I can't compare how it would work for us to that either.

 

But I do like what I see for high school. I don't know whether I would want to have my son do the Summa or Magna diploma yet though.

 

Yes, it would. I do have several friends who use it, and even some with graduates, but none of them chose to use Kolbe as Kolbe. So I would love to hear from someone with a Summa student who used it all the way through high school. :001_smile:

[AimeeM]

We WERE using it "as written"; but, really, by the end of it, we ended up subbing out for so many things that we came to dislike that we weren't really doing "Kolbe", so we left. Lol.

It's great for a child who loves history and loves to read. I mean, really loves to read. Mine hates reading and dislikes history.

[SkateLeft]

I'm using Kolbe with my 11th, 8th and 5th graders. This is our second year with Kolbe. We don't use all of their lesson plans. I have complete sets of lessons plans from last year and this year, because I get them anyway as an enrolled family, whether we decided to use them or not. :)

 

I like the plans for math, science, history, Italian and Latin. I'm not as crazy about the 5th grade plans.

 

Someone asked about the lab sciences. My oldest used Kolbe's biology plans last year with the Miller-Levine text. I bought the biology Labpaq lab kit. As an engineering track kid, she needed to have way more hands-on lab work than Kolbe required. This year, she's taken most of her coursework through dual-enrollment.

 

She's on track as a Magna student. Our problem with doing the Summa as written is that we choose to take advantage of our state's free dual enrollment program in 11th and 12th grade, so would not complete the Kolbe core or honors courses that are required. She came into Kolbe as a 10th grader, so it wasn't a choice for her anyway. My younger dd wanted to do the Summa until she realized that it would restrict her dual enrollment opportunities, so she'll also pursue the Magna, if she chooses to stay with Kolbe.

Edited March 12, 2012 by sailmom
added Labpaq link

[SkateLeft]

Math is either Saxon (with available Saxon Teacher, Dive CDs or Art Reed) or Jacobs Algebra and Geometry and Foerster past that. Jacobs has teaching DVDs available.

 

There are also teaching DVDs for Foerster's. They're from Math Without Borders.

I really like the math lesson plans! I haven't seen the Saxon plans, but we do use Jacobs and Foerster's.

[Avila]

There are also teaching DVDs for Foerster's. They're from Math Without Borders.

I really like the math lesson plans! I haven't seen the Saxon plans, but we do use Jacobs and Foerster's.

 

Thank you! That is good to know. We were debating about doing the Jacobs/Foerster sequence because I want to know there is a back up plan if I get stuck trying to teach it. :001_smile:

[Avila]

I'm using Kolbe with my 11th, 8th and 5th graders. This is our second year with Kolbe. We don't use all of their lesson plans. I have complete sets of lessons plans from last year and this year, because I get them anyway as an enrolled family, whether we decided to use them or not. :)

 

I like the plans for math, science, history, Italian and Latin. I'm not as crazy about the 5th grade plans.

 

Someone asked about the lab sciences. My oldest used Kolbe's biology plans last year with the Miller-Levine text. I bought the biology Labpaq lab kit. As an engineering track kid, she needed to have way more hands-on lab work than Kolbe required. This year, she's taken most of her coursework through dual-enrollment.

 

She's on track as a Magna student. Our problem with doing the Summa as written is that we choose to take advantage of our state's free dual enrollment program in 11th and 12th grade, so would not complete the Kolbe core or honors courses that are required. She came into Kolbe as a 10th grader, so it wasn't a choice for her anyway. My younger dd wanted to do the Summa until she realized that it would restrict her dual enrollment opportunities, so she'll also pursue the Magna, if she chooses to stay with Kolbe.

 

I think most kids do the Magna. I think we probably will as well, mostly because my dd wants Spanish instead of Latin and we may want or need to take advantage of CC courses later on for math and science.

 

Have you done the English and lit courses? I have not been able to find anyone who is doing the English. I would love to hear if you are doing the history, English and lit, how heavy that makes the writing workload. One of my concerns with doing Kolbe is the sheer amount of writing, compared with some of the other programs I have seen, especially if you are doing all Kolbe and trying to pursue honors on any of it.

 

I guess I am asking how doable you think it really is. Do you think people drop parts of it because it is too much or because they really wanted the more flexible options?

 

Sorry OP! Hope my questions are not too much of a derail for you.

[....]

Also, how is their customer service?

 

Thank-you for replying!

[SkateLeft]

I guess I am asking how doable you think it really is. Do you think people drop parts of it because it is too much or because they really wanted the more flexible options?

 

I think most families who choose Kolbe over other Catholic programs (Seton, MODG) want both rigor and flexibility. People choose Kolbe with the idea that they can change things. If I wanted to stick to a stricter program, I might have gone with Seton instead.

 

Another factor is that we had to change things around to meet the requirements of some specific colleges that my daughter is interested in attending. For example, she needed US history and American literature last year. Kolbe lets you pick and choose which syllabi you want. We adapted the 12th grade history and literature syllabi to fit that requirement. We had started the year using Tindall's "America: A Narrative History" so she read that in addition to the materials in the Kolbe syllabus, which requires about 50 pages a week in history.

 

We used English 10 last year, and my daughter thought it was *very* easy. It's primarily workbook based, using the Sadlier-Oxford writing and the "Write Better Essays" workbooks. She's an excellent writer so the essay writing instruction wasn't new for her. We dropped the vocabulary workbook in favor of an SAT vocab prep book. This year, she's taken English composition and British Writers II through dual enrollment, so we're not using Kolbe English or literature at all.

 

History and literature require 1-2 page papers each week, and the paper topics can be very challenging. I think it's a very doable workload for a good reader though. We had some great discussions!

 

Since we didn't use Kolbe in 9th grade, and didn't start with the history/literature sequence from 9th grade, I can't really attest to whether the coursework in the Ancient Greece course is the same level as in the 12th grade US history course.

 

Hopefully, this helps (and isn't too rambling!) :)

[SkateLeft]

Also, how is their customer service?

 

Thank-you for replying!

 

Their customer service is GREAT in my experience.

 

The advisors respond to emails within a day, and if they can't answer something, they'll forward it to someone who can, and CC me on the forwarded email. We were missing an answer key for one of the Italian I exams, and the advisor immediately attached a PDF copy of the answer key.

 

I once had some course plans go missing in the mail. Kolbe sent out new copies via priority mail at no extra charge to me.

 

Ordering from the bookstore is super fast. A couple of months ago, I ordered the next level of composition for my son, and within an hour or so, I got a phone call asking if I wanted the course plans for the new level of composition at no charge. I received those course plans and composition books two days later. I always get my bookstore orders VERY quickly.

 

Whenever my daughter's transcript gets updated, they email me a PDF copy so I can look over it and have a copy I can print out for my records.

 

So we've had a really good experience with them.

[readinmom]

Question about Kolbe:

 

I was trying to total up the costs of all the books for 10th grade. Do you buy all of the materials? Without math,science, or foreign language the total was already quite high. Just curious...

[SkateLeft]

I was trying to total up the costs of all the books for 10th grade. Do you buy all of the materials? Without math,science, or foreign language the total was already quite high. Just curious...

 

I buy a lot of the materials directly from Kolbe, but usually see if I can find the texts used first. I've had good luck with science and foreign language texts.

[simka2]

:bigear:

 

Considering Kolbe for future years, so listening in.

 

:iagree:

[Tanyali]

I am definitely enrolling my DS for 7 th and my DD for 3 rd grade this coming school year. I just spoke to them last week and they were very kind answering all my questions. The main reason for going to Kolbe is a combination of flexibility and rigor. I plan on just using their Lit, Composition, and religion for my DD. As for my DS I plan on substituting History,English, and possibly Science. Also FYI for anyone thinking about enrollment try to do it before May 1 st. I was told they are raising their prices. Not sure how much though.:confused:

[Kathy in Richmond]

History and literature require 1-2 page papers each week, and the paper topics can be very challenging. I think it's a very doable workload for a good reader though. We had some great discussions!

 

Since we didn't use Kolbe in 9th grade, and didn't start with the history/literature sequence from 9th grade, I can't really attest to whether the coursework in the Ancient Greece course is the same level as in the 12th grade US history course.

 

My daughter used Kolbe's history and literature programs for two of her high school years. She's also an excellent reader and writer & found the work load heavy-ish but doable (she did the full program with all the readings and essays and tests). I read along with her, and we also had some fantastic discussions. We did the 9th and 11th grade programs, skipping the Roman year since she had her fill of the Romans in her Latin studies. Btw, both years seemed to be at the same level academically. Nothing watered down about that Greek year at all.

 

I would have liked to continue with Kolbe history and lit for the second half of high school, but my daughter wanted to do a more standard US history and lit in 11th grade and economics & government in 12th. Never enough time to do it all!

[Kfamily]

We use Kolbe for math and science, which are both areas with which I needed some help. I intend to follow their plans for both math and science throughout high school. I am very close to ordering their plans for history and literature. My outlines for history and literature for high school matches their outline so well that I'm sure I will be using more of it in the coming years.

[Guest sherryo]

I'm new to this forum and stumbled onto this thread looking for something else! My twin daughters are entering 11th grade and are working on the summa diploma. To try to answer some questions: Yes, it's very time consuming and there is lots of reading and writing. There is not much room for flexibility, but they are very responsive to questions and supportive of the students. The books do get expensive, but you can find some used. The labs are offered virtually, but we have supplemented with hands on and they are supportive of that. You can still do dual enrollment if the classes are comparable (ie foreign language or science). The bookstore is great. They are fast and have refunded me money if they have used books (sometimes available if you ask). I don't know about the ACT scores, but the students are definitely challenged to think and the English course includes lots of timed essays to prep for the SAT. I would say English is the easiest course, but it is still very thorough. It includes an oral component that I like. We started Kolbe in 9th grade and it was a huge adjustment. My son will be in 8th grade this year and we are prepping him for starting Kolbe next year. We're adding a little extra work including more writing and self pacing and stricter deadlines.

 

Hope this helps!

[redsquirrel]

This does help, thank you.

 

We are going to use Kolbe's 7th & 8th grade lit program, starting next year. It matches up well with the reading lists in TWTM for those years. Not perfectly, but I can make it work. ;)

[....]

I'm new to this forum and stumbled onto this thread looking for something else! My twin daughters are entering 11th grade and are working on the summa diploma.

 

Thanks for adding to this! I'm pretty sold on using Kolbe for high school. I'm also thinking about switching in 8th grade, so they are more experienced with Kolbe's program by 9th grade.

 

Could you tell us why your daughters chose the Summa diploma?

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

Any links to Writing Better Essays mentioned earlier in the thread?

[Murphy101]

I don't know how much help I can be. But I'm willing to answer questions about what I have used.

 

2 of my boys liked the harcourt and Holt science texts used in middle school

 

4 of my kids so far have used the elementary and middle school lit guides. Most of the books were enjoyed, the guides were only so-so. Some are great and some are just about useless.

 

voyages in English, saxon math, and the old elementary history texts just weren't our style.

 

I would LOVE for them to develop a more intertwined history and literature like they have for high school, which we have really enjoyed. (We did the Greek history/lit as written and are doing the modern era as written for one and as a base for another.)

 

The Greek was a complete waste. But it's becoming apparent in my home that language must be taught in a quality group setting to work for us. Ymmv.

 

The faith and life is fine. Nothing awesome, but nothing wrong with it.

 

I love the high school religion plans.

[Aubrey]

Resurrecting a dead thread--any updates? I've been looking at Kolbe for a couple of weeks now. I think I want something accredited & organized for high school. I've got a couple of years to decide, but so far everything I've disliked about it on the surface has turned out to be really interesting when I read their reasons for the topics/organization/etc.

 

It looks like not a perfect fit, but pretty good, &...I guess I think I'm willing to sacrifice in the form of conformity for high school in exchange for some accreditation/reassurance/record-keeping.

 

We used SOTW/WTM for elem, & now we're floundering (w/ SL) in mid sch--not in a bad way, just not "WOW this is the best curric!" -- So I thought I'd look at high school plans & try to work backward. If that makes sense.