ereks mom Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 Most of our curriculum choices were hits, but the biggest successes were: Writing Skills, Book 2 (2e) -- This was GREAT! My writing-hating 8th grader enjoyed it most of the time, and lessons were mostly short and sweet, so she didn't feel overwhelmed. I liked it so much that I'm having my 10th/11th grader use it over the summer because she had woefully little writing and grammar in her previous school before she came to me this year. In the fall, all of my students will be using Writing Skills, Book 3. I just wish I'd found this series years ago for my own children! TT Pre-Algebra 2e for 8th & TT Algebra 1 1e for 10th -- My 10th grader started off the year with TT Algebra 2, but halfway through the year, we hit a wall & had to drop back to Algebra 1 because she just didn't have the foundation (although she had attended the most prestigious/riogorous school in our area :glare:). The first edition moves very slowly, and it was just what she needed. At last, she began to understand math! Home Economics (sewing) -- We started off with Stitches & Pins and branched out on our own. EK & my other students made a quilt to donate to our local Project Linus chapter. Our local newspaper even published a brief article about the girls and their quilt. :D Castles of Character, Teen Edition -- DVD character curriculum from InCorVa.com. My students responded well to this, and it really got them thinking. They enjoyed watching the DVD and had very good discussions about the topics. Summer Promise and other books in the Christy Miller series by Robin Jones Gunn -- The girls LOVED these books. Even my reading-haters could hardly wait to find out what happened next. As always, some curriculum choices worked much better than others, and the only true misses were: Vocabulary Workshop -- I wanted to love this, but no available answer key meant that it was back on the shelf by the 3rd week of school. :( The Phantom Tollbooth - None of us (4 girls + me) liked this. I know it gets rave reviews, but we just thought it was silly. Civics in America - This book was highly recommended on the boards awhile back, but I didn't like it at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ereks mom Posted May 21, 2013 Author Share Posted May 21, 2013 Wow! Nobody? Maybe I should post on another board? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 The most expensive "miss" was Latin for Children A. I am debating whether to try a different Latin program like Galore Park Latin Prep next year or give in to my DD's requests to just learn the Latin roots and study Spanish instead. Mr. Q Earth Science and Beast Academy were hits for DS. DD is at the stage where she doesn't seem to like anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilaclady Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 Stow vol 1 was a hit because of the activity books AOPS prealgebra was also a hit Latin was a miss, we never really have time to get to it Same for art and music Well be doing some artists study over the summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewingmama Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 SOTW 1 was a miss here. I think it was just too much for my kids right now. We will try it again next year, Singapore Math has been a hit...we swapped math currics a few times before we "discovered" it. IEW PAL writing has been good too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 How do you report spam? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houseofkids&pets Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 Reported Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingMOm Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 HITS: Tapestry of Grace- love it & we are about to start our 5th year w/it this July. The kids loved the books. They spent a solid month digging out a WWI trench, building parapets & periscopes & reenacting scenes from WWI. They spent several days using lincoln logs and army guys to recreate D-Day on Omaha Beach on our dining room table. The interviewed a local Civil Rights hero- the first black nurse ever hired at our hospital. And sometime in the next week they'll interview our former mailman, another real hero- he was in Vietnam with The Walking Dead- his unit had a 93% Killed in Action rate. It's amazing he made it out alive. He's going to talk to them about Vietnam (but keep it age appropriate). CLE Language Arts- even my grumpy kids loves their Language Arts! PenTime & Pictures in Cursive- My dd loves PenTime & my son, who found it just "tooo looong" is loving PIC because the lesson are shorter. He likes the pictures too. The Wind in the Willows- My kids loved, loved, loved this book. I consider it a tragedy that I missed out on it for so long- it was a great book! We got the Robert Ingpen illustrated edition that someone here mentioned- it was beautiful. Ds is begging for Ingpen's The Jungle Book next. MISSES: Science- I dropped the ball on Science....AGAIN. Next year will be better.... Math- Mary is so so far behind in Right Start Math. I switched Nathan to Math U See and while he doesn't hate it as much as he hated Horizons there is no love there either. I'm going to finish up RS C for Mary and also start her on CLE's Math- she's about 5 lessons into it & is doing well so far. I'm switching Nathan to Beast Academy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warneral Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 Hits Math Mammoth 3 and 4 Mystery of History Homeschool in the Woods bible lapbook rod and Staff spelling Rod and Staff English Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 History Pockets (Revolutionary War, grades 4-6) has been a big hit here. It's give us relaxing time to discuss the topics while they color, cut, and paste. I wish I had jumped on this particular bandwagon years ago! The Elements and Carbon Chemistry went very well. Sentence Composing for Elementary School gets mixed reviews. The girls don't exactly LIKE doing it, but they're learning a lot from it. My kindergartner loved Building THinking Skills and Mathematical Reasoning. No stand-out misses that I can think of this year, but we stuck with a lot of programs we used last year, so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abacus2 Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 Hits: Sonlight Core A - the girls really got into the groove with it and enjoyed it more than when we started last year NOEO biology I Wordlywise 3000 - well liked and very effective Math Mammoth Handwriting Without Tears Miss: Complete book of Presidents So-so: Horizons Phonics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momto2Cs Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 Writing Skills, Book 2 (2e) -- This was GREAT! My writing-hating 8th grader enjoyed it most of the time, and lessons were mostly short and sweet, so she didn't feel overwhelmed. I liked it so much that I'm having my 10th/11th grader use it over the summer because she had woefully little writing and grammar in her previous school before she came to me this year. In the fall, all of my students will be using Writing Skills, Book 3. I just wish I'd found this series years ago for my own children! Nice to see this was so enjoyed, as Writing Skills is on my short list of possible writing programs for fall for my ds12. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 Biggest new hits: Mapping the World with Art (not to be confused with the “by Heart†program) R&S Spelling—wish I would have used this before now. IEW Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization—esp. for my son, “the poem hater†Audio CD books for the car (this greatly increased the number of books the kids have listened to this year) Old hits: Horizons math plus CWP R&S English IEW SWI-A Memory work Meet the Masters art program Classics for Kids (free online NPR program for music appreciation) The Complete Book of Maps and Geography workbook Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FloridaLisa Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Hits: Veritas Press Self-Paced History -- Ancients. We LOVED this and history got done in our home. Ds is already signed up for New Testament Greece and Rome for next year. He needed elbow to elbow help at the beginning of the year, but has 3 weeks left and can do it independently if needed. I still like to sit with or by him so that I'm in the loop. educationunboxed.com -- loved supplementing our math with this fun site! my government class! :D We used the Wilson, Dilulio text but I chose not to make it an AP class this year. I wanted the freedom to bring in other materials, not cover items on the AP exam and slow down the freight train of information to discuss and analyze, especially give this year's election. Tried and True Favorites: Rod and Staff English -- this is such a thorough, fairly painless, low/no teacher-prep curriculum. I can do it on level with each of my kids in 10 minutes or less per day (we don't use the writing). Explode the Code CLP Nature Readers CLP readers (these have been the perfect, simple, straightforward tool I've needed to teach all 7 of my kids to read)(along with some homemade flashcards) Building Thinking Skills, Verbal book We had several other BIG HITS via classes at co-op. Our only misses were MY failure to get the book off the shelf and use it. :glare: Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedgehogs4 Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Hits: TOG, again. :-) WWE, again MUS again Apologia Anatomy and Physiology Phonetic Zoo Caesar's English I can't believe it, but we did not really have any misses this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phathui5 Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Hit: Saxon Math 3 for dd. She switched to it from CLE Math and has done great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourcatmom Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Most of our curriculum choices were hits, but the biggest successes were: Writing Skills, Book 2 (2e) -- This was GREAT! My writing-hating 8th grader enjoyed it most of the time, and lessons were mostly short and sweet, so she didn't feel overwhelmed. I liked it so much that I'm having my 10th/11th grader use it over the summer because she had woefully little writing and grammar in her previous school before she came to me this year. In the fall, all of my students will be using Writing Skills, Book 3. I just wish I'd found this series years ago for my own children! TT Pre-Algebra 2e for 8th & TT Algebra 1 1e for 10th -- My 10th grader started off the year with TT Algebra 2, but halfway through the year, we hit a wall & had to drop back to Algebra 1 because she just didn't have the foundation (although she had attended the most prestigious/riogorous school in our area :glare:). The first edition moves very slowly, and it was just what she needed. At last, she began to understand math! Home Economics (sewing) -- We started off with Stitches & Pins and branched out on our own. EK & my other students made a quilt to donate to our local Project Linus chapter. Our local newspaper even published a brief article about the girls and their quilt. :D Castles of Character, Teen Edition -- DVD character curriculum from InCorVa.com. My students responded well to this, and it really got them thinking. They enjoyed watching the DVD and had very good discussions about the topics. Summer Promise and other books in the Christy Miller series by Robin Jones Gunn -- The girls LOVED these books. Even my reading-haters could hardly wait to find out what happened next. As always, some curriculum choices worked much better than others, and the only true misses were: Vocabulary Workshop -- I wanted to love this, but no available answer key meant that it was back on the shelf by the 3rd week of school. :( The Phantom Tollbooth - None of us (4 girls + me) liked this. I know it gets rave reviews, but we just thought it was silly. Civics in America - This book was highly recommended on the boards awhile back, but I didn't like it at all. I don't see an age range for the teen program of Castles, what age did you use it with? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ereks mom Posted May 22, 2013 Author Share Posted May 22, 2013 I don't see an age range for the teen program of Castles, what age did you use it with? My girls range from 14-18 years old (8th-12th). It's great for ages 12 through adult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Hits: MCT Mud novels Beast Academy Hands on Equations Memorize in Minutes Multiplication Cursive First Rewards Intermediate GEMs guides Intellego Astronomy The Sentence Family (genius, this!) AAS (repeat hit) SOTW (repeat hit) Misses: Beast Academy (we have a love/hate relationship with this - who really skip counts by 7s in double digits?) Engineering is Elementary (expensive and too much of a repeat for my science kid, but I have one more unit to try) Intellego Rocks and Soil (bored the kids to tears) AAR 1 & 2 (moves too fast for my younger but not a curriculum issue) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyrobynne Posted May 24, 2013 Share Posted May 24, 2013 Misses: Queen's Homeschool Pictures in Cursive (vowels were fine, but he flipped out trying to make b's. We switched to HWOT and it did end the tears). Saxon math (the endless repetitive black and white didn't work for us. Singapore has been much better) Nature study (who knew my kids would fight so hard against going outside and looking at trees and birds?) Life of Fred (the kids just didn't like it, I'm not sure why) Hits: Shower of Roses' Papal Unit Study lapbook was a great way to pause our usual stuff, learn lots about our faith and history while getting writing and reading practice as our Church transitioned to a new Pope. BFSU Phonetic Zoo (sending him off to spell using the CD player really cuts down on whining) Singapore and HWOT, as mentioned above Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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