LoE Foundations, what do I really need to buy?

[amiesmom]

I'm seriously considering buying LoE Foundations for my upcoming Ker next year, but I'm looking at all of the additional materials available to purchase and wondering which ones I'll really use. On the website they have listed:

 

Teacher's Manual/Student Workbook (obviously I'll buy those)

 

Basic Phonogram Flashcards

Rhythm of handwriting cards

Doodling Dragons ABC Book

Phonogram Game Cards

LOE Student whiteboards

Rhythm of handwriting quick reference

 

 

That seems like a lot of stuff, and I don't mind buying it IF it gets used, but I don't want to buy them just to spend extra $$ on things that look nice on my shelf.  So what parts of the program do you use? Are there parts I can skip, parts that I don't want to leave out?

 

Thanks!

[Above The Rowan]

With my 5 yr old, I get a LOT of use out of everything that comes in the full curriculum set. I pull all of it out at each lesson. 

I think you could get by with the teachers manual, student workbook, and the gamecards. We use the bookface and cursive gamecards with every lesson. 

 

[kirstenhill]

My responses below in red.  :-)  I currently have 2 in essentials and one in foundations, but my older DS did foundations beta test last year.  :-)

 

I'm seriously considering buying LoE Foundations for my upcoming Ker next year, but I'm looking at all of the additional materials available to purchase and wondering which ones I'll really use. On the website they have listed:

 

Teacher's Manual/Student Workbook (obviously I'll buy those)

 

Basic Phonogram Flashcards --- I use mine quite a bit, but not everyone does.  You could make your own.

Rhythm of handwriting cards -- I don't have these and have not really gravitated toward wanting them.

Doodling Dragons ABC Book -- Fun "extra" but not necessary.  You could get the app instead.

Phonogram Game Cards -- We have some and have used them a lot less often than I thought we would.  We gravitate toward active games rather than card games, but if your student likes card games, then you will get a lot of use out of them

LOE Student whiteboards -- We just use the blank side of a $1 white board, and I write on lines with a permanent marker.

Rhythm of handwriting quick reference -- If you are planning to teach the strokes the way LoE teaches them, this could be a valuable reference.  Now that I am going to teach DS6.5 cursive with LoE and I may teach my rising K'er cursive with it as well, so I will probably get one.   When I first started with LoE my older DD already knew both manuscript and cursive and my DS6.5 already knew most of his manuscript letters, so I have never needed it up to this point .

 

 

That seems like a lot of stuff, and I don't mind buying it IF it gets used, but I don't want to buy them just to spend extra $$ on things that look nice on my shelf.  So what parts of the program do you use? Are there parts I can skip, parts that I don't want to leave out?

 

Thanks!

 

[silver]

I did Foundations with my son with nothing more than the manual and the workbook. There were times I would have liked the game cards, but there was plenty of practice that didn't use them. The whiteboard is really nice quality, but my lefty son prefers paper and pencil over whiteboards, as dry erase markers smudge too much for him. I already had AAS phonogram cards, so I started by using those. But then I switched to a spaced repetition flashcard app for phonogram practice. I won't be using the cards with my daughter and just go straight to the app.

[Lb20inblue]

I just use the teacher's manual and workbook. We bought the two apps and the kids love practicing the phonogram on the app and listening to the storybook.