krismoose Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 LBC has their digital products 40% off through Mon. 2/17, including teacher guides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 Oh, awesome! The Harriette Treadwell & Margaret Free "I Love to Read" set is included for $13.20. Includes the first three readers, teaching guide and flash cards. DD has been reading through the primer I downloaded from Google, but it is missing pages. Just wish these were in color. http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com/lbc-i-love-to-read-set Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 I always thought this curriculum looked so well done and simple. If I were the kind of person who really could use a "box" curriculum, this would be a high contender. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krismoose Posted February 16, 2014 Author Share Posted February 16, 2014 Funny thing is I used half of the K level and I needed more specific activities etc so I switched to HOD and MFW, and now I'm more interested in the less specific suggestions. And at 40% off I'm willing to just use part of the guide. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 Funny thing is I used half of the K level and I needed more specific activities etc so I switched to HOD and MFW, and now I'm more interested in the less specific suggestions. And at 40% off I'm willing to just use part of the guide. :) Can I derail this thread momentarily, because I read your signature. And I have questions :o) 1. We are going to use VP self-paced NT next year (we are doing Egypt this year). I was looking through the historical fiction that is listed for self-paced and I'm not sure I want to commit to all of them. I like reading aloud, but I found this year some of the books that went with self-paced were great and some were meh. Were there any that you really liked or any that you thought were just mediocre that stand out in your mind for NT Greece & Rome? 2. I saw you are doing selfpaced CAP Latin. Is that similar to VPs self-paced? My children love the VP, so I've had my eye on that for Latin but didn't know anyone who had used it this year. Thanks, and sorry for the de-railing. . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krismoose Posted February 16, 2014 Author Share Posted February 16, 2014 Can I derail this thread momentarily, because I read your signature. And I have questions :o) 1. We are going to use VP self-paced NT next year (we are doing Egypt this year). I was looking through the historical fiction that is listed for self-paced and I'm not sure I want to commit to all of them. I like reading aloud, but I found this year some of the books that went with self-paced were great and some were meh. Were there any that you really liked or any that you thought were just mediocre that stand out in your mind for NT Greece & Rome? 2. I saw you are doing selfpaced CAP Latin. Is that similar to VPs self-paced? My children love the VP, so I've had my eye on that for Latin but didn't know anyone who had used it this year. Thanks, and sorry for the de-railing. . . 1. My son does the reading himself. Detectives in Togas has been the only must-read so far. Haven't read Little Miriam, Hostage Lands or Against the World yet. I didn't buy Quintus because someone told me the content might be disturbing, though I don't remember why. The shorter ones like Lysis goes to the play and Triumph for Flavius were fine, not absolutely necessary imo. Ds refused to read the Jesus and John the Baptist ones because they were "baby books, and he could just read the stories in the Bible." Ironically, we substituted the more cartoonish Usborne Greek Myths for Young Children that Sonlight sells because my ds did not like the more realistic stories or pictures from the D'Aulaire version we checked out of the library. We abandoned Black Ships Before Troy midway as it was not holding our attention, even read aloud with an illustrated version. I'm being less ambitious about the reading plans for MARR and am content with that. I want to devote more reading and read-aloud time to American history and other literature, so something has to give... 2. CAP Latin online is not at all like VP self-paced. :) It is basically the student text online, where you choose from multiple choice answers for most of the exercises. You print out the end-of-chapter and unit tests to do by hand. There are also 3 printable activities from the activity book for every chapter. Starting at ch. 16, I think, the history reader is introduced to start translation. Every chapter has an option for whether you watch a short video of the author teaching the material, or whether you read the student text on the screen, with an option to hear the audio at the same time. Surprisingly, my son prefers the audio and text version over the video. The history in the reader coordinates with that in VP NTGR, and the grammar topics and terminology coordinate with Shurley English. The worksheets, quizzes and derivatives activities are graded by the computer with options to retake them to replace the grades. Pros: My son does not write much independently yet, so he has been able to do some of his Latin independently, more so recently as he's matured. He likes having the variety of computer activities as part of his school work. Cons: He is often distracted by the computer itself so I usually have to be right there to do the Memory chants with him. Will I use it again online? Possibly. I would definitely use it if he were ready for LfC primer B in the fall. However, I'm wondering what do do about Latin next year because ds appears to be hitting a wall, related to maturity, I think, and panics when he needs to translate a verb and decide if it's in present or imperfect tense. I think it would have happened whether we used the computer or print-based version, and I think we've gone as far as we have because he's more motivated by the computer. That being said, we're struggling with lesson 18 of 32 and may need to slow down and finish next year. Hmm. I might start my own thread about that... HTH :) Back on track... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 Thank you so much! I think I want to cut back on the VP historical literature so we can focus on great books instead of just okay books if you know what I mean. I appreciate your opinions. I really like the look of the LBC third grade and I think I want to integrate some of that in. As for Latin, hmmm. I think I'm going to hold off another year. We had a failed Latin start with Prima Latina this year and I hesitate to jump back in. I thought CAP might be the way to go if it was super interesting like VP self-paced. But as is, I think we just should wait until 4th grade. I don't want to have another bad experience with doing Latin too early for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meadowlark Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 I would love to hear any reviews about LBC. It's one of those things that I keep coming back to but the price scares me. I'm also not sure it's enough direction for me, plus I cannot find ANYbody that happily uses it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 I have only seen the samples and read reviews. I don't think it is going to provide the amount of hand-holding that say Heart of Dakota would. I really don't want the scripting anymore since I know I won't use anything as is and will be adding and subtracting from it. At this lower price, I think I'm going to take a chance on it and buy the third grade guide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krismoose Posted February 17, 2014 Author Share Posted February 17, 2014 I have only seen the samples and read reviews. I don't think it is going to provide the amount of hand-holding that say Heart of Dakota would. I really don't want the scripting anymore since I know I won't use anything as is and will be adding and subtracting from it. At this lower price, I think I'm going to take a chance on it and buy the third grade guide. And I've read on the LBC site and in the author's comments on WTM that in addition to the flexibility to adjust for individual students, they deliberately leave time unscheduled for outdoor time, hobbies, etc. a la CM. I just downloaded the 3rd grade guide this weekend. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domestic_engineer Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 I used the first half of the 1st grade level of LBC. Personally, I liked the lack of hand holding and the flexibility of weekly, rather than daily, lesson plans. However, I chose to part ways with LBC because I was tweaking it too much to justify the price ... I disregarded the LA part of the plan because DC was already reading and the lessons were focused on learning to read. While we were faithful to reading the World History book, I found that the spine (Miller/Grueber's Story of the Ancient World) was not enjoyable for our family; the vocabulary was too advanced for DC. This also happened with one of the American history read alouds. So I was getting frustrated when it seemed like every single history book required me to interrupt with definitions ... and I think I was also hitting a section in the LA section where I didn't like the read alouds they had scheduled. *shrug* Math - you were left on your own anyways. Science was a bit light for my tastes, but I could live with it since it was only 1st grade. And art, well, just wasn't getting done at that stage of life. (On the flip side, though, I did like their suggested resources for Bible, Composer, & Art Study.) I love the concept ... and I admit I was tempted with this digital sale ... but I was just modifying too much or was disgruntled with too much of the program to justify continuing with it. Just my 2 cents ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 That's my biggest problem with LBC (and I've looked at it many times!). The book choices for the lower grades especially seem very advanced. The Grueber book that the pp referenced is used in HOD for the 5th grade program, but it's used as the spine for the LBC first grade package. :confused1: If I was going to seriously think about using LBC it wouldn't be until around 3rd or 4th grade when the book selections begin to be better matched to grades, but by then you've missed quite a bit of their history cycles. I still use it as a book list though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Yeah, I looked over the grade one pretty thoroughly today since the sale price is good, but I really don't want literature that stretches my daughter quite that far. I really think we can rob the littles of enjoying fun age-appropriate books by drowning them in really difficult books that they will remember better and get more from at an older age. I'm actually going to do the books with Wee Folk Art for our first grade and preschool fun lit and add in some Language Lessons Through Literature 0 for more challenge. I think the LBC third grade selections will work well for us. I'm printing out the plans to look through them and see what else I want to use. I might use their science also because I have no intention of spending an entire school year on just astronomy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nansk Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Wow! $4.80 is a great price for Penny Gardner's Italics handwriting book! To anyone who's reading this thread and not really interested in LBC overall, I'd still recommend taking a look at the Italics book. Also, Emma Serl's PLL and ILL - converted to workbook format by LBC - are also going at good prices. ETA: OP, thanks for sharing the info about this sale! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorrelZG Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 This sale disrupted my peace. I had planned next year, tossed it and re-planned, tossed that and went back to the original plan with a couple modifications and was finally (re)settled and then I see this sale and suddenly think that I need to toss everything and go for this with stuff planned out for me instead (LBC tempts me this way every year). It has taken a lot of reasoning with myself to avoid making a purchase but I am back to being excited about my own plan (plus some LBC inspired additions to my book list). That was a close call! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teeniebeenie6 Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 I think I am going to get Primary Language Lessons. I like that it has printable worksheets unlike the free scanned version that is on google. http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com/catalog/product/b9549034aa34494daa4604fb263411e0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 I'm reading through all the third grade stuff today. There are great articles and extra resources that come with the program. I'm felling better that even if I only use a fraction of the plans, I won't regret the purchase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teeniebeenie6 Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Well had a bit of a frustrating ordering experience, but I am sure they'll make it right. I bought the Primary Language Lessons and the Astronomy Curriculum but only got a download link for the first. Perhaps ordering things separately is best? ETA: They responded to my email very quickly and sent me the missing download link. I'm very impressed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 I don't know if I want to order the PLL or not! I'm all set to do LLtL next year; I don't think I want to look at another choice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meadowlark Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 I don't know if I want to order the PLL or not! I'm all set to do LLtL next year; I don't think I want to look at another choice! FYI, MFW just released an updated version of PLL. I'm so excited about it and plan on using it for 2nd for sure. There are samples on their website, and you don't have to use MFW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teeniebeenie6 Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 FYI, MFW just released an updated version of PLL. I'm so excited about it and plan on using it for 2nd for sure. There are samples on their website, and you don't have to use MFW. Living Books Curriculum also updated PLL some and has both parts for $8.20. It is a lot cheaper then MFW. I ended up going this direction because of the huge price difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meadowlark Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Living Books Curriculum also updated PLL some and has both parts for $8.20. It is a lot cheaper then MFW. I ended up going this direction because of the huge price difference. Ooo, I'd love to know how they compare. Ive never actually held a copy of PLL so I don't know what the old version looked like anyway. Which do you think is better and why? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teeniebeenie6 Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Ooo, I'd love to know how they compare. Ive never actually held a copy of PLL so I don't know what the old version looked like anyway. Which do you think is better and why? Well here is a dowload of the original PLL: http://books.google.com/books/about/Primary_Language_Lessons.html?id=JfAsAQAAMAAJ. I have it on my iPad. I love that Living books has lines for answering the questions and price. You can see a sample on their website here: http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com/catalog/product/b9549034aa34494daa4604fb263411e0 . The MFW one was really intriguing to me too but the $8.40 price for the full version of this compared to the almost $40 for the two parts of the MFW version is what made me make choose Living Books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teeniebeenie6 Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Blogger Cynthia Albright also redid and updated PLL. I wasn't fond of some of the literary additions so decided against it but it looks nice too. http://www.primarylanguagelessons.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meadowlark Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Thanks for those links. Forgive me for being a bit clueless, but other than the lines, do they seem pretty alike? I also noticed that MFW's version had the pictures in color,which would save me the step of looking it up on the internet. In the LVB version, I also wondered if the lines given were enough room for the child to write what was asked. I don't think my son (now anyway) would be able to write all of that in the given lines, and I could see my son getting frustrated. So, the MFW version requires writing paper? Notebook? Without a lesson to lesson comparison, I'm having a hard time seeing a huge difference. I will pay more for better quality, so just trying to figure that out. Also, will you print out the ebook and use it that way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teeniebeenie6 Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Thanks for those links. Forgive me for being a bit clueless, but other than the lines, do they seem pretty alike? I also noticed that MFW's version had the pictures in color,which would save me the step of looking it up on the internet. In the LVB version, I also wondered if the lines given were enough room for the child to write what was asked. I don't think my son (now anyway) would be able to write all of that in the given lines, and I could see my son getting frustrated. So, the MFW version requires writing paper? Notebook? Without a lesson to lesson comparison, I'm having a hard time seeing a huge difference. I will pay more for better quality, so just trying to figure that out. Also, will you print out the ebook and use it that way? You would have to look at the original version and then MFW samples and decide which you like better. The description on MFW says some pictures are in color. I looked through the original and could not find the Snowy Owl picture. It seems the lessons are different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 In the LVB version, I also wondered if the lines given were enough room for the child to write what was asked. I don't think my son (now anyway) would be able to write all of that in the given lines, and I could see my son getting frustrated. I bought the PLL workbook from Living Books and quickly abandoned it; I did not feel the line sizes worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorisuewho Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I bought the PLL workbook from Living Books and quickly abandoned it; I did not feel the line sizes worked. Do you use PLL? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Do you use PLL? I did at one point, but I just used the reprint from Lost Classic (the yellow one). I found it used for very cheap online. I thought the workbook would help but it did not. I am not currently using it (younger child not the right age, older child outgrew it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krismoose Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 Sale extended through Tuesday due to banking holiday today in U.S. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riverloke Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 A belated thanks for this. We used LBC 1st grade this year and are moving on to a faster-paced history cycle, but I do hope to get some good use out of the LBC astronomy guide I got with this awesome discount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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