Moving Beyond the Page 11-13

[Guest Multi-tasker]

I'm thinking about using this next year but haven't been able to find any reviews. I know it's fairly new but I would love to hear some feedback on it! I've drooled over the younger years (some of them) for awhile but didn't like how jumbled up it seemed. The middle school programs look different though. I'm still trying to decide between this and TRISMS History Masterminds and we have less than a month before school starts!

 

Anyone?  :bigear:

 

[peepsmama]

I've toyed with this curriculum for YEARS and as much as love the idea, I always chicken out of spending that much for a full curriculum that I'm not 100% sure about.  Just this past year I realy decided to go ahead and try it, but my oldest could only use it one year now, so it seemed not worth it just to have to look for something new next year.  If they went all the way through HS I would have bit the bullet and tried it out.  

 

Good luck!  If you decide to try it, give us a review!

 

[Mandy in TN]

Moving Beyond the Page

 

I love the concept. I love the intensity of the output- that the child really must interact with and think about what he is reading rather than just going through the paces. This is no fill-in-the-blank-and-move-on program.

 

It makes me crazy that the coverage of history is not linear. It makes me crazy that the science feels so haphazard. I know they are content subjects and that for me content subjects are not the push or even much of a concern in elementary school, but I just can't wrap head around it. It makes the program feel light even though I know that it requires higher order thinking skills not required in many linear history programs. I know the science is fine and the kits used look like they would help develop a love of science but it covers fewer topics each year than what I want to cover. However, the last two years are more linear, so I may use more pieces over the next couple of years. :)

 

We have used several units as supplemental fun or summer units, but I just can't commit to using it as a full curriculum. Summer 2012 ds used the 8-10 Similarities and Differences Unit on Asia and Africa both the LA and the social studies, this spring he used the 10-12 poetry unit over The Tree That Time Built, and this summer he used the literature unit in A Wrinkle in Time.

 

Mandy

[Jilly]

We have used the 7-9 year and the 8-10 year. This year we are doing 10-12. My youngest son loves MBTP and it matches his learning style in a way that no other all-in-one curriculum does. Having said that I also used the 11-13 with my twins a while back. We Ioved the book choices that year, but it was a hard year. It took them a long time to get through everything each day, and they were often overwhelmed. We only finished half the work that year. I don't know, it may just have been a bad match for them.

 

If I was you I would look at the samples and see if you like the style. If you do maybe you should buy one concept to start out with before investing in a complete year. 

[Cottonwood]

We are using the MBTP 11-13 right now.  It is intense quantity-wise.  It is deeper thinking for sure.  It is really teaching my DD and I'm tickled with it, especially considering the cost.  It is FULL of projects (ok, some days, this is down side!) and full of internet links of really REALLY cool things I know I would have not found myself.  We do have to trim some of the activities because, although I don't feel they are busy work or repetitive, it would take us....for.....EVER... to get the day finished and frankly, extra time in a day is one of the perks to our homeschooling objective.  Working till 4 is not. 

 

So I have only 2 complaints...there is way way way too much work to finish in the time they say (1 hour of work per subject..no way).  In this case, I tweak her work and cut some out by examining what I think is the more important thing for for her to learn.  If four activities are expected with a Science lesson (this, after lots of reading and deep thinking questions, and maybe an internet link for review)..then I trim it to one or two that I think are most critical. 

 

My second complaint is that their 'history' is not chronological. 

 

I can fix both.  #1 by tweaking.  And #2..next year we are not buying the Social Studies units and are doing History the TWTM way with a binder with dividers, Kingfisher Ency., etc.  We are starting with the Ancients and going from there.

 

Their Science has been very educational and project-filled (my dd loves this).  When we got our 2 boxes of Science materials, I squealed, SEVERAL times.  They provide anything and everything DD needs for her science lessons and other cool stuff for the other subjects.  part of my struggle in times past of HS'ing has been making it fun and finding projects to seal the lesson.  MBTP has this MORE than covered.The Language Arts has really impressed me too.  The customer service is the best I've had in my life.  NO exaggeration.  And the live books that our studies come from make me happy too.

 

We will use MBTP until we grow out of the ages they offer. This is my first year HS'ing in a few years and biting the bullet was a real leap of faith, but I say everyday what a great choice we made. (for us..you know)

[DragonflyAcademy]

This is our first year using this program as our core.. I am using 5-7, 8-10 and 10-12

 

Yes, the history is not chronological... but I don't find that awful.. We've been doing chronological history for years and it gets rather dull and monotonous.. I like how the themes relate to one another..and show a bigger picture across time...

 

The work load is a lot.. (for the older two) and I do cut out somethings.. or take an extra day to do things.. My kid enjoy the program.. although the two older ones heave a big sigh when the writing projects hit.. but I think it's good for them...

 

My pet peeves are the typos..lol.. there can be quite a few...:)  and sometimes there are no answers in teacher pages.. For example today it asked what was happening Maine in a specific year.. well not even the internet gave much info and there were no suggestions for answers...so we had to skip that question..

 

MBtP is not our only curriculum.. I do add in Write Shop, Science reading..which I try to relate to what they are covering in MBtP and we are also doing some history using POE..but i may drop this as it add a huge load to the day..even though they enjoy the books

[JamieInChocolate]

I used the TRISMS History's Masterminds program last year for my then 7th grader.  It was OK.  I was intending to take 2 years to do it, but we decided to abandon it after we got throught  1600s.  Not because it's a bad program, it just didn't work for us.

 

 

What we did like: 

• Lots of independent research, (which unfortunately my son was not 100% ready for at the time)
• Integrated across LA & Sciences
• Quizzes and tests already done for you.
• It is very well organized and gives a great grid setup of all the elements of each lesson.

 

 

What we did not like:

 

• You have to put a lot of effort into pulling things together. ( My husband & I both work fulltime outside the home & as mush as I would like to, I just don't have the time to put everything for every content area together for all 3 kids)
• Not all the materials included in the student edition are in the teacher edition, I guess this saves paper, but was confusing for me.

• It was not a great fit for us because you need to bring in alot of outside sources.  We do not have a great library with books in English where we live, so I have to buy most of our books, which I have to pay more for here than I would in the US or have them shipped, which takes time & is EXPENSIVE.  I have to pick and choose very carefully which "specialty" books I buy.  So unfortunately most of our research revolves around our history encyclopedias and the internet, which does not give enough depth to make it meaningul.

• A little too much focus on personalities and not enough on the general time periods.  The time periods they give for each lesson seemed a little random to me.

• It was not as "open & go" as I would have liked.

 

If I think about it, I still think the TRISMS program is good, it just wasn't a good fit for our family circumstances.  It is also a bit pricey considering you have to bring in so many outside resources to make it worthwhile.

 

 

I think I am going to look into MBTP now, I had never heard of it before.  We'll see if it will be a good fit for us.