What were your Hits & Misses for the 2011-2012 school year?

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm

[FairProspects]

You all are freaking me out with your Writing Strands misses! I have that planned as a major part of next year's writing curriculum!

[Gailmegan]

You all are freaking me out with your Writing Strands misses! I have that planned as a major part of next year's writing curriculum!

 

I held off on trying WS for soooo long because most people here hate it. DS1 did fine with WWS the first half of the year, but as the work got harder, he became more and more frustrated. I finally decided to put it aside for a year and got WS instead. He loves it. I think it's going to help fill in the gaps and boost his confidence. Every child is different, so don't let other people's opinions determine what you use with your kids!

 

HITS:

 

MCT

SOTW

Wrting Strands

Spelling Workout

 

MISSES:

 

Matin Latin

Elemental Science Chemistry

 

TOLERATED:

 

WWE/WWS

[MissKNG]

Hits:

 

Singapore Math

Beast Academy

JumpStart CDRom

Sonlight Core D and P3/4

NOEO Chemistry

 

Misses:

 

Nothing really...so far!

[kandty]

Outside classes (maybe I've learned, this is a lesson I seem to have to learn repeatedly)

 

:iagree: We tried doing a co-op again and I can't understand why I didn't learn my lesson the first time! We are NOT co-op people. :lol:

[kandty]

Misses:

Math Mammoth

Math-U-See (I wish I had figured out the MUS wasn't for my Ds before we got to Delta-very hard to place coming out of the middle of this program!!)

Anything history related!! (MFW CtG, MOH, SOTW-yes, I spent a lot of history this year and nothing to show from it!)

 

Hits:

Spelling Power

swimming lessons at the YMCA

Rightstart math (this was on a previous miss in the past, but we went back to it a month ago and it was a hit, now we can't wait to start it again in July)

[Ohmomjacquie]

Second. Grade

Hits

bju math

Aas

bju science

 

Misses

Bju spelling

bju DVDs (great but not for a child who requires constant supervision to get things learned and accomplished)

 

Bright beginning preschool. Fun crafts but 2books made it cumbersome

 

Also rans (LOL)

 

Bju English, reading and Bible. Good programs but figured out? I like classical /cm style so getting away from workbooks for next year.

[iafrmgrl77]

Okay, back and ready to play! :)

 

Hits:

SL Core C-Kids loved; switching to TQ next year. I think it will satisfy both them AND Mommy!

 

CLE Math-:001_wub:

 

ETC-This has been such a huge hit AND help for DS

 

 

Misses:

Building Spelling Skills-I bought book 2 after dd completed book one. I think we only did about two weeks of the work! It was just busywork for us.

 

 

Also-rans (a new term for me!):

FLL3-Okay, but trying to decide whether to continue with 4 or switch to R&S. Any input?

 

WWE2-It works, but it is so boring! Trying to decide whether we might enjoy it more if I chose the lessons myself from our readings....

[tuesdayschild]

Okay, back and ready to play! :)

 

Misses:

Also-rans (a new term for me!):

FLL3-Okay, but trying to decide whether to continue with 4 or switch to R&S. Any input?

 

WWE2-It works, but it is so boring! Trying to decide whether we might enjoy it more if I chose the lessons myself from our readings....

 

We like FLL3 okay too but switched to RnS as opposed to carrying on with FLL4 - it's been a really good move for us.

We do most of the lessons orally and both dc are enjoying how 'quickly' we can get grammar done:001_smile:.

(The text is old fashioned in tone and so ds calls it grandma time ;) )

 

I was resistant to even trying RnS :tongue_smilie: ..... then ALL was packed away until a later date (?) and so I picked up RnS in the hopes that we would be able to use a grammar program right through.

 

WWE?

We use the text quite a bit, as opposed to the workbooks, and created pages of our own to go with the books we are/were reading at the time.

It's so easy to do, and the lessons then tie in beautifully with our current readers or read alouds.

(We have found some good extra titles to read out of WWE though.)

 

ETA: If you're interested, we placed some of those pages here

Edited May 30, 2012 by tuesdayschild

[4Hisglory]

Hits:

 

Spelling Power

Teaching Textbooks

Portraits of American Girlhood

American Girl Teachers Guides

SWI-A

 

Misses(only because we never got to them):

 

Winterpromise Knights of the Square Table

Music and Moments with the Masters

 

Over all it was a good curriculum pick year.

Now, on to next year (do you hear trumpet fanfare, I do.)

Edited May 29, 2012 by 4Hisglory

[kalanamak]

Hits:

Spelling Power

Key to Fractions

I Speak Latin (my son asks for it!)

Logic Liftoff (painless)

Atelier (nearly painless)

GWG

 

Good enough we'll keep using:

SM

WWE

Writing Tales

Z-B handwriting

MCT

Exploration Education

 

Misses:

AAS

SWO

SWS&V

Megawords -- I really wanted to like this but it would have taken more time than I had to institute.

[Mom0012]

Hits for my 6th grader were:

 

SL 5

Hake Grammar (switching my dd to this next year)

GSWS

IEW

CLE Math

 

Hits for my 4th grader were:

 

SL 5

Megawords

GSWS

CLE Math

Beast Academy

Writing Tales

 

If I had to list a miss, it would be La Clase Divertida. For the amount of time you are supposed to spend on this program, very little is learned. I also don't find the immersion method effective for either my kids or myself. On the positive side, it did spark a real interest in learning Spanish in my dd and I suspect if I had used it with them when they were younger, they would have more easily picked things up by immersion.

[lilbean05]

We use Ambleside Online and it is a huge hit for us!! We also love love Horizons Math and WWE.

 

FLL seems a bit boring for my current FLL kid and Literature Pockets by Evan Moor, while fun in concept, are also a bit too "busy work" for us.

[Jennifer L]

Hits:

Math Mammoth and WWE like every year!

BF Early American History Primary

Rightstart Geometry

Write with the Best

Winston Grammar

CHOW w/ lots of research projects for my 12yo niece, she's finally interested in history!

Not sure if this exactly counts but Moving Beyond the Page 9-11- One of my good friends (a homeschool mom and former teacher) started a class 3x a week this year and DD begged to do it. So I let her and she LOVED it! There were 5 other students and they had a great time. I'm really hoping they'll do 10-12 this fall!!

Life of Fred

Guest Hollow Human Anatomy/Body

Meet the Masters- loved it!!

Teaching Textbooks 3- DS started it in February and loves it

 

No complaints but didn't really stand out:

Roadtrip USA

FLL4 for DD10

Apologia Anatomy

R&S Spelling

Sequential Spelling

Jensen's Punctuation

Spanish workbooks

Song School Latin

 

The only real misses this year were FLL1 it was just boring for the kids (and me :tongue_smilie:) and my 12yo niece didn't like MUS Pre-Algebra :glare:.

[JessieC]

Hits:

 

Not sure if this exactly counts but Moving Beyond the Page 9-11- One of my good friends (a homeschool mom and former teacher) started a class 3x a week this year and DD begged to do it. So I let her and she LOVED it! There were 5 other students and they had a great time. I'm really hoping they'll do 10-12 this fall!!

 

 

Jen, can you tell me more about this class? We do MBTP, and I'd love to do something like this. Did the mom just do the science/social studies, or did she include LA? (Did your dd read the novels too, I mean?) Just trying to imagine how this would look.

[iafrmgrl77]

We like FLL3 okay too but switched to RnS as opposed to carrying on with FLL4 - it's been a really good move for us.

We do most of the lessons orally and both dc are enjoying how 'quickly' we can get grammar done:001_smile:.

(The text is old fashioned in tone and so ds calls it grandma time ;) )

 

I was resistant to even trying RnS :tongue_smilie: ..... then ALL was packed away until a later date (?) and so I picked up RnS in the hopes that we would be able to use a grammar program right through.

 

WWE?

We use the text quite a bit, as opposed to the workbooks, and created pages of our own to go with the books we are/were reading at the time.

It's so easy to do, and the lessons then tie in beautifully with our current readers or read alouds.

(We have found some good extra titles to read out of WWE though.)

 

ETA: If you're interested, we placed some of those pages here

 

Thank you for this! Did you go directly to R&S 4? I was looking at the materials some more today and trying to decide exactly where to place dd if we switch. I am going to look into using the WWE text. I think things would "flow" a bit better doing it that way!

 

ETA: Wow! I LOVE the pages you made up to go with WWE! I will certainly be referring to those! Thank you so much for sharing!!!

Edited May 30, 2012 by iafrmgrl77

[tuesdayschild]

Thank you for this! Did you go directly to R&S 4? I was looking at the materials some more today and trying to decide exactly where to place dd if we switch. I am going to look into using the WWE text. I think things would "flow" a bit better doing it that way!

 

ETA: Wow! I LOVE the pages you made up to go with WWE!

 

Thank you ... my dd liked them too (she's a visual lassie, so pretty pages make the lessons seem 'better' ;) )

 

I will certainly be referring to those! Thank you so much for sharing!!!

 

They are pretty easy to toss together in microsoft publisher. If you have that program and would like some templates to tweak around just pm me.

 

Some of the WTM moms helped me to sort out which books to place my 2 dc into (SOOO thankful for that advice!).

 

DS would have been able to do RnS 6, with effort! I didn't want grammar to be another full stretch subject, so we backed up and placed him into 5 (I'd already purchased 6 :001_unsure: ).

 

So we went from FLL3 to RnS 5. If he'd been younger, he's 12, I think I would have gone with RnS 4

 

Dd, since this is her first year in formal grammar, is using RnS 3.

 

Both are working through their books with ease and enjoyment, and

I'm feeling pretty contented with how things are going (yep, even the diagramming :).)

[Joyful_Journey]

Hits

Math Mammoth 6

Growing with Grammar (used for DD 6)

Meet the Masters - Big hit with all the kids!

Galore Park So You Really Want to Learn French (DD 12)

 

Misses

Math Mammoth 1 and 4 (MM worked great for my oldest, but not so well for my two younger kids - thinking they need something more hands on like MUS for next year)

MCT - I really wanted to like this! Some parts of the program were fine, but other parts went over the kids heads...

[Chelli]

Second Grade Hits:

 

• Ballet Unit Study: Dd8 begged me to do some more of these, but I informed her that there is a reason Mom went with Heart of Dakota this year, pulling everything together is a LOT of work! But we are having fun and taking our time with it.
  
• Heart of Dakota Bigger: Dd has really enjoyed this, especially the science and hands-on!
  
• Apologia Zoology 1: We added this on to Bigger two days a week just for fun. It has been the first science that we have both really enjoyed.
  
• MEP: Dd's favorite math we've ever done. Hands down.
  
• Nesbit's Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare: We are spreading this book out over two years by covering each play for two weeks. Dd has fallen in love with Shakespeare because of this book.
  
• The Sentence Family: Dd loved this so much that I am currently going through FLL 1/2 to match lessons with The Sentence Family chapters. The story aspect makes grammar click and FLL 1/2 provides practice of concepts.
  
• Salsa Spanish: These videos and the free lesson plans from Wyoming Dept. of Ed. have given dd8 and dd4 a really good grasp of conversational Spanish. They come running for Spanish class!
  
• American Artists and Folk Songs Study: I made this up and added it to Bigger for some art and music appreciation. We do this during our Circle Time and both of my dds love it.
  
• Co-op: Dd loved our group we found this year! After a bad CC experience last year, we've finally found a group to stick with for the long haul.
  

Second Grade Misses:

 

• BJU English Grade 2: Too much like school for me, and dd found the writing PAINFUL!
  
• HTTS: I never could figure out how to get this one off of the ground, and dd was become more flustered every time we added a new spelling rule. She is not a rule-based speller!
  
• Dictation from WWE2: She loved WWE 1, but the dictation in WWE 2 was not enjoyable. She could do it, but she did not enjoy it. So we are now using WWE 2 without dictation, and I'm going to try just to use only the hardback book next year.
  

Second Grade Also-Rans:

 

• WWW 2: She likes it, but I think it's too formulaic, which is probably why she likes it because it is very easy for her!
  
• MIF: I love it; she doesn't seem to be adamently for it or against it. I don't think anything will ever top MEP for her.
  
• Apples and Pears: We finally found our keeper spelling program for dd with this one. Her spelling improved drastically after the first 10 levels. While she doesn't jump for joy at spelling time, she is the first to admit that it does work for her.
  

My dd4 loves everything school related so everything is a hit for her with no misses. O how I wish this enthusiasm lasted!

[amyrjoy]

Paths of Exploration- big hit!

 

Teaching Textbooks-hit! Really helped DD enjoy math and progress

 

I added book one of these Aesop language arts books by Royal Fireworks Press for DS- hit! Going to add the other books in for second grade. Also Memorial Press had a hit- Storytime Treasures.

 

Very specifically, I loved the Secret Garden Progeny Press guide for DD. And the guide for Farmer Boy by Memorial Press.

 

Another hit - IEW themed writing book- Fairy Tales and Myths for DD

 

Misses: liked Elemental Science but we couldn't get to it consistently at all. Also, Spanish....too sporadic. I think the problem was me not the programs.

[Jennifer L]

Jen, can you tell me more about this class? We do MBTP, and I'd love to do something like this. Did the mom just do the science/social studies, or did she include LA? (Did your dd read the novels too, I mean?) Just trying to imagine how this would look.

 

She did both the LA and Science/Social Studies. Every week she picked the activities they would do as a group and the kids would do independently/at home, she had the kids keep a planner of what they needed to do, when it was due, etc. She gave parents the weekly assignment lists and an overview of them and breakdown of what was expected and what we needed to know to help them. It was really great to have someone else plan it all! We we're required to have all of the books, kits at our own house so they'd be able to use them and do any assignment at home she assigned. I really loved was all the discussion/interaction DD got, there's no way I could provide that for her myself, I honestly don't have the time. Schedule wise it was Monday & Wednesday it was 10am-2pm, Fridays it was longer 8am-3:30pm because that's the day they go over everything, get their grades and continue with work. Parents also were expected to be there the last hour to talk with the mom, get the completed assignments/grades and go over the weeks work and what to expect next week. DD also liked having a class and a teacher! They're going to have an end of the year party this weekend with friends/family also coming and she made all of them Certificates for passing it. DD is actually proud of finishing something school related- which is very rare for her! Oh and it wasn't to bad price wise ($750 including the books/supplies), I'd actually pay more!

 

Well I hope that helped some. If you have any specific questions I can ask the mom who put it together. DD and I have really loved it! :D

[Trish]

I forgot one big miss for us. The Little Professor Robotics Kit. My boys were both interested in the idea of it, but then they saw the actual kit with the teeny tiny parts to be assembled, and said to me pleadingly, "Can't we just PROGRAM it?" heh. So we identified each and every teeny tiny part (part of the inventory/materials handling job), separated all the pieces, and then *I* had to assemble the darned thing over the course of a week.

 

Why not them? Well I'll tell you what, they are 10 and 12, and it would've taken MONTHS for them to do it. It wasn't even easy for me. I kept having to call my husband over in the evenings as I worked on it. There's no way they could've done it. The pieces were just too itsy bitsy. At least for their patience level. And I wasn't too happy with it, either. Then, as I was making some pretty good progress, I was missing one little itsy bitsy CRUCIAL part. Yes, we had identified all the pieces in step one. But, the important stuff can look uncomfortably close to the plastic throwaway stuff. Maybe we threw it out? Or it fell on the floor and got swept up? Or the cat ate it?

 

So I thought about calling the company and attempting to explain this one itsy bitsy part we were missing. But no one wanted me to do it. They had lost all interest in robotics, other than to say, "well at least I know I don't want to BUILD these things for a living."

 

Ha. Nothing against the company, but wow, that did NOT work for us. Good-bye, robotics unit. Did you know the word ROBOT was popularized in 1920 by a Czech writer who included the term in a play he was writing. His brother coined the term. Didn't learn that from the kit, it was part of some extra research we were doing on the side.

[pineapplehorse]

5th, 2nd & 1st

 

Hits

MBTP 9-11 Colonization, The Cay & the Sea Life Units - DS 10 adored these

Getting Started with Latin

RightStart Math B

Zaner Bloser 1 & 2c

Zaner Bloser Spelling 2

Reading Eggs - LOVED

Explode the Code

Right Into Reading - until we unexplicably LOST the book :s

 

Mehs

Growing Up Heroic from Duke TIP - it's OK but I wish it gave more guidance for the Mentor, will be finishing next year and we'll see how he does with it

SOTW 3 - we LOVED SOTW 1 & 2 and enjoyed the first 1/3 or so of 3, just got kind of boring after Catherine the Great

 

Misses

LLATL Blue, Red & Tan - We tried SOOOO hard, but no one liked it and I am not a fan of constant cutting :(

MBTP 6-8 - tried several units but it just didn't resonate with my guys

MBTP 9-11 - Witch of Blackbird Pond Unit

 

A note about MBTP - we have used MBTP 9-11 for 2 years and many of the units DS LOVED!! But after 2 years he got bored and seemed to get slower and slower so we just dropped it after Christmas this year and did not start the last couple of units. We may pick it up again in the future....

[waa510]

Oldest:

 

Hits

 

AAS5 (so so open and go)

WWE2(really starting to appreciate how it's ramped up just a smidge from 1)

RS C ( dd loves the drawing..I love the little reviews built in)

MM 2

SOTW2

FLL3

 

Misses

 

Nancy Larson Science 1 ( so incredibly basic and dry)

Mr. Q Earth and Space (I'm not sure why, we just really weren't enjoying it)

Wordly Wise (boring, no retention)

 

Our in-betweens were LOF elementary series (dd liked the story, never wanted to do the problems and learned nothing from them), RSO Life (she learned a ton but I tweaked it beyond recognition to get there. But it got done), WWW and GWG (not bad, but not very good either. I felt like it was basically busywork, and very formulaic. She enjoyed them though)

 

Youngest:

 

Everything is a hit so far. I've added in RS A and she loves it too. So her sister has been a great guinea pig for us in finding what works! :lol:

 

I've been struggling with finding our science fit this year. Mr. Q has been abandoned so I'm debating going back to RSO (dreading the overhaul needed to make it fit) or trying out Nebel's (more legwork..:( )

[LearnLaughLove]

K'er

Hits:

Queens Language Lessons

Life of Fred Apples and Butterflies

 

Misses:

Delightful Reading. Didn't even last 2 weeks.

Explode the Code

CLP Liberty Math K

 

Preschool

Hits:

B4FIAR

 

Misses:

Rod and Staff Preschoo

[Spetzi]

Hits:

 

SL G (our first year w/SL and not our last!)

Art of Problem Solving (great program, great explanatory videos)

Character Quality Language Arts (now I have 2 kids using it....great stuff!)

Life of Fred

Challenge Math---fantastic for big thinkers

Math Logic and Word Problems by Power Practice---ya gotta think a little

Snap Circuits

History Pockets by Evan Moor

 

 

Meh (to steal Pineapple Horse's comment)

 

SL Science G

SOTW Activity Guides....we didn't get into them, but we'll keep trying

 

 

Hey, I don't have any misses. Does this mean I'm getting the hang of curriculum buying?:D

[Hedgehogs4]

Hits:

Tapestry of Grace

WWE

FLL 3

MUS

 

Misses:

I can't really think of any huge misses this year...for a change. I thought that PR 1 was going to be a miss, but we ended up coming back to it and liking it.

[JessieC]

She did both the LA and Science/Social Studies. Every week she picked the activities they would do as a group and the kids would do independently/at home, she had the kids keep a planner of what they needed to do, when it was due, etc. She gave parents the weekly assignment lists and an overview of them and breakdown of what was expected and what we needed to know to help them. It was really great to have someone else plan it all! We we're required to have all of the books, kits at our own house so they'd be able to use them and do any assignment at home she assigned. I really loved was all the discussion/interaction DD got, there's no way I could provide that for her myself, I honestly don't have the time. Schedule wise it was Monday & Wednesday it was 10am-2pm, Fridays it was longer 8am-3:30pm because that's the day they go over everything, get their grades and continue with work. Parents also were expected to be there the last hour to talk with the mom, get the completed assignments/grades and go over the weeks work and what to expect next week. DD also liked having a class and a teacher! They're going to have an end of the year party this weekend with friends/family also coming and she made all of them Certificates for passing it. DD is actually proud of finishing something school related- which is very rare for her! Oh and it wasn't to bad price wise ($750 including the books/supplies), I'd actually pay more!

 

Well I hope that helped some. If you have any specific questions I can ask the mom who put it together. DD and I have really loved it! :D

 

This did help a lot. Wow, this sounds like a very organized operation. I would actually love to do something like this on the 7-9 level but not sure I would drum up the interest. I would probably offer something smaller scale, like two mornings per week, and cheap or even free, but even then it could be hard to get people to commit. I guess I can try!

[thefragile7393]

Kindergarten

Hits:

Anything science related that had to do with watching movies or looking up about whatever his interest is.

History studies that he picked the topic (pirates, Titanic)

Language Lessons For Little Ones 1

Reading Eggs

LOF Apples

Living math books

Math Lessons For A Living Education 1-my son is finally getting the concepts of 10's and 1's and counting higher

 

Kind of meh:

Dreambox. I LOVE it, ds loved it except now as it is getting a little harder he whines about doing any of it. He still seems to like it and I will continue to get this and have him use it...it has really helped him.

Printing with Pictures-Probably too young to have started him on copywork

 

Misses:

Delightful Reading-I could NOT for the life of me figure out how to use DR....ds hated it.

CLP The World God Made-fluff, religion disguised as science.

BFSU-Good solid program but I got sooooooooo burnt out on the presentation and that constant having to find books and supplies

Tanglewood School's phonics lessons-Tears and tears

100 Easy Lessons-Almost got as many tears as TS

Queen's history readers-good stuff but not for a kindergartner...or at least my kindergartner.

Singapore Earlybird-ds did great with some concepts but did not understand grouping and stuff. Epic fail big time.

[Homeschooling6]

You can read mine HERE.

[redsnapper]

2nd year homeschooling of our kids after pulling them from ps. This year was much easier than our first year, whew!

 

Hits:

-loved SOTW3, it was simple enough to be enjoyable. Allowing us to go further if we wanted or keep it simple when needed. Will be doing SOTW4 in the Fall.

-Discovered Math-U-See for my visual dd10 who'd been struggling with math. She loves it and loves having a video to watch for the lesson. Plus it focuses on one area of math so she can "get" it.

 

Misses:

-CQLA Level A: really wanted to like this one. For $100 I should have liked it, but I just didn't. Things seemed monotonous, out of synch, editting errors, things were confusing, resources referred to that were never listed anywhere. The layout was dryer than anything I've ever seen. No changes in font style beyond bolded headings, everything in boxes or straight text, nothing to liven it up at all, though perfect for someone highly destractable I guess. I dropped the writing piece half what through the year.

[hsmamainva]

Hits:

 

Beautiful Feet Geography -- loved it so much we're going to use BF history for the next 3 years! It's a breath of fresh air after using Sonlight for the last 10 years. On to Early US & World History for 2012-2013.

 

Rainbow Science -- completed Year 1 -- can't wait to do Year 2!

 

Spelling Power -- again...it does the job. Son completes the program this year and he's thrilled to do so.

 

Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings -- sorry to see it completed! Really enjoyed the program

 

Christian Light Education 1st Grade -- WOW! This is the first program that has clicked for my youngest child, who has special needs. We bought the entire program -- all subjects. On to CLE 2nd Grade!

 

Misses:

 

Oak Meadow 2 -- it just didn't do the job for my youngest...she has a severe language delay and just couldn't articulate whether she understood everything

 

So/So:

 

Teaching Textbooks Prealgebra -- it got the job done, but we're switching to A Fresh Approach this year for Algebra I. I just don't think it covers what I need it to cover for my son, who's considering majoring in science for college.

[bcnlvr]

Ds10 and ds7 just finished 4th and 1st, respectively.

 

Hits

 

MCT Town Level - ds10 ASKED to do this every day. And he is a STEM kid who doesn't like Language Arts.

 

Check the Deck - What a find this has been. My STEM kids HATES to write and gleefully did this writing program. He made exponential gains with this. I am ordering it again for 2012-2013.

 

GWG/WWW/SVV - first grader loved these.

 

Getting Started with Latin, Getting Started with Spanish

 

Misses

 

Hakim US History - just getting the books out brought tears. ds10 just hated the narrative style. I bought the Concise version and ds10 says it's doable for 2012-2013.

 

Jacob's Ladder - meh.

 

Got the job done but kids indifferent

 

MM1, MM5

k12 Phonics

Intellego Unit Studies - don't think it was the program, per se, they just don't like history. At all. zzzzzzzzzzz

Edited June 15, 2012 by bcnlvr

[ChicoryChick]

HITS:

 

MOH 3

TT Algebra (so far)

CHOW & Grandpa's Box (used in HOD Preparing)

Apologia Swimming Creatures

 

 

MISSES:

 

Horizons Pre-Algebra

[mama2cntrykids]

Hits:

 

IEW

MFW CtG

Art (Artistic Pursuits)

Spelling Power-It helps that both boys are good at spelling and enjoy it very much.

 

Misses:

 

The way I had things set up. This year, I'm re-vamping how I juggle the kids in terms of school work. I think I will start with my youngest, get her 1st grade stuff out of the way and THEN hit the books with my older boys. Oh, I will have the boys play with the toddler while I teach my first grade dd too.

[Tidbits of Learning]

6th Grade

Hits-

LLATL Tan

TT7

SOTW1

Misses-

HOD CTC

Calvert 6th grade

 

5th Grade

Hits-

LLATL Tan

TT6

SOTW1

 

Misses-

R&S English 5

Write with the Best

 

3rd Grade

Hits-

TT3

MCP Phonics C

Abeka Writing with Phonics (Cursive to Manuscript-very old edition)

 

Misses-

LLATL Yellow

HOD Bigger

 

Kindergarten-

Hits-

Sadlier Oxford Math

Reading Eggs

Reading Lesson

Slant Handwriting (Benson)

 

Misses-

HOD LHFHG

Ball and Stick handwriting

[Violet Crown]

Hits:

Everything we're continuing with (in the sig below) has been successful. But the things that have really made hearts sing were:

 

Alcumus

TOPS Science

Scribner School Edition wind in the Willows

Galore Park Junior English

 

And the surprise hit:

 

Erector sets! Great Girl actually learned how to use a wrench and screwdriver (albeit tiny ones). Middle Girl went bananas with it and built one thing after another.

 

Misses:

Spanish For Children / Salsa! Spanish - these were fine in themselves, but I just couldn't help effectively with a language I don't know at all.

 

MCT

 

OSU German 3 - Great Girl was frustrated by its lack of challenge and annoyed by the craft projects, and disappointed that the weekly call-in sessions weren't a chance to practice conversational German.

[Annie Laurie]

Hits:

 

Sonlight core 4/E- As much as the company has disappointed me, I still love the curriculum. It's not perfect, but it gets done. It was exactly what we needed when I was so sleep deprived and had a high-needs baby, the reading was already planned out. We love the books and it even gets my extremely reluctant reader interested in reading.

 

WWE, as it has been every year since we started using it. Simple and effective, that's what I'm all about these days.

 

Misses:

 

AAS- I tried yet again to make this work but it's too convoluted for my teaching style. My kids do enjoy it so I wish I could get to it but it just doesn't get done. We'll be trying a simple spelling program next year.

[HappyGrace]

***ds 3rd grade:***

 

HITS:

-MM-but mainly the Puzzle Corners :)

-Singapore IP

-IEW All Things Fun and Fascinating-huge hit!

 

MISSES:

-he doesn't like but tolerates CLE math-I like the spiral review (we do other math "for fun" for him)

 

 

***dd 6th grade***

 

HITS:

-BJU Sci

-Fallacy Detective/Thinking Toolbox books

-Jump In for writing

-Just started but so far a hit-MUS

 

Kind of a hit: LOF-she likes the story ok and I feel it helps her apply the math she has learned in CLE

 

MISSES:

-not too bad this year! She will never love CLE but she's doing much better with it

 

 

 

Both:

 

HITS:

-Boy Have I Got Problems (Kay Arthur study of James)

-Lego Robotics

-Pilgrim's Progress on audio (by Orion's Gate)-LOVE

-co-op art class-both gained confidence and skill

-God's World News

-What's In the Bible dvds (HUGE hit)

[coffeefreak]

Miss:

 

MFW ECC - What. A. Disaster. Dropped it in November, should have dropped it sooner.

 

Hits:

 

VP History Transitions Online class - I can't say enough about this class. Well worth the money!

BJU Math for youngest

MUS for oldest

GTG for youngest

TLP for oldest

[Guest Hollyberry]

We just started home learning in February but here are our hits and misses so far:

 

Hits:

Teaching Textbooks 5 - HUGE hit!

SuperChargedScience - although we have a hard time fitting it in

Steve Spangler Science videos

Tell me More French

Outsourced Art class

Outsourced guitar lessons

Blogging - gets ds writing without any arm twisting

Snap circuits

Documentaries/Educational Programming

 

Meh:

Lego mindstorm - ds hates tearing down one creation to build another so it sits idle.

Bravewriter/The Arrow

 

Misses:

Khan Academy

MCT

All About Spelling

Life of Fred

[BugsMama]

Misses:

 

Connect the Thoughts

IEW Primary Arts of Language Reading

IEW Primary Arts of Language Writing

Math Mammoth Blue Series

Critical Thinking Co Building thinking skills

Moving Beyond the Page

 

Hits

 

Saxon k-3 math

All about spelling

 

I'm hoping for many more HITS this year!

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

Ds4th grade

HITS:

Saxon 5/4

CHOW

Calvert's Writing (although I think it pushed too far the last quarter.)

Calvert's Art Lessons

 

Misses:

Calvert everything else...basic, boring, time consuming

 

2nd Grade dd:

 

HITS:

RFH Transition

PLL

 

Misses:

Calvert Math- awful awful awful

[napualani]

DD 4th grade:

 

Hits:

MUS Delta/Epsilon

SOTW 1/2

Literature suggestions from SOTW activity books

Easy Grammar

Sequential Spelling

Caught Ya's Purple Umbrella story (helped to solidify what was learned in Easy Grammar)

LOF Edgewood

Mind Benders

WWE 3

Art and Robotics classes

Garfield Typing Pal

 

Misses:

LOF Jellybeans (she just lost interest in LOF)

I Speak Latin (she liked the movement lessons, but would work better with parts-to-whole)

Writing Strands (just hated it)

English from the Roots Up

 

This was a successful first year homeschooling! :001_smile:

[1GirlTwinBoys]

TT was a hit for my dd in 3rd. My twin boys will be in 3rd and will start this as well. We really enjoyed this math program. I've read all the good, bad, and ugly regarding it. Definitely worked for us.:)