Hits and misses this year?

[ereks mom]

Here are our hits:

- SOS Elementary Spanish

- Streams of Civilization, Vol. 1 (I was surprised, but the girls really liked this!)

Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1 (but we had to move slowly--very non-mathy student)

 

And our miss--fortunately there was only one, even if it was 2-in-1:

- Illuminations, Year 1 and Mystery of History, Vol. 1 (I really wanted to love this, but it just did not work for us at all! :( We used Streams of Civilization instead, and that was much better.)

[Wildiris]

Hits:

• A History of US vol.1-6
• Independent Reading and more advanced guided reading
• Returning to Singapore Math
• Shurley English

Misses:

• Math Mammoth
• The Logic of English
• Science

 

[abrightmom]

Hits:

Math Mammoth

Classical Conversations

HOD Little Hands to Heaven (okay, this isn't logic stage but it WAS a hit here ….)

Brimwood Press

Attuneup Writing Classes

Reading Aloud for our pleasure

 

Misses:

IEW SWI-A (writing stunk this year; epic fail except for the few weeks we used Attuneup.)

Rod & Staff English 5

[hollyhock]

Hits: 

MEP secondary math

Getting Started with Latin

God's Design for the Physical World

 

Misses:

R&S English 6

How Great Thou Art

 

Those are the ones that stand out. Everything else was good/okay/got the job done.

[SilverMoon]

.

Edited July 9, 2022 by SilverMoon

[EndOfOrdinary]

Hits:

• AoPS PreAlgebra (Once it started to work, he was golden!  I was worried this would become a miss, but not anymore)
• Classical Mythology, The Odyessy, and The Iliad Great Courses by the Teaching Company
• Georgia Public Broadcasting Chemistry

 

Misses:

• The Vikings Great Course by the Teaching Company
• Getting Started with Latin
• Apologia Exploring Chemistry with Creation (needs to be tweeked some in order for it to work next year)

 

[JadeOrchidSong]

<p>Hits:

• AoPS PreAlgebra (Once it started to work, he was golden! I was worried this would become a miss, but not anymore)
• Classical Mythology, The Odyessy, and The Iliad Great Courses by the Teaching Company
• Georgia Public Broadcasting Chemistry

Misses:

• The Vikings Great Course by the Teaching Company
• Getting Started with Latin
• Apologia Exploring Chemistry with Creation (needs to be tweeked some in order for it to work next year)

Is the Apologia young explorer version or the middle school one?

[EndOfOrdinary]

Is the Apologia young explorer version or the middle school one?

 

It is the high school text.  I really disliked the integrated middle school text.  We chose to go with the high school text and just move very slowly.  It fits in very well with Georgia Public Boardcasting's free videos on Chemistry.  You have to either re-order the videos or re-order the Apologia text (hits the tweeking) but it paired well and made the subject much more approachable.

[fluffybunny]

Hits: (for ds 13)
Veritas Press self paced history Middle Ages

Omnibus

Apologia General and Physical Science

 

As for misses, we don't really have any. Ds has huge issues with workbooks, but that's a personal thing; nothing to do with the books themselves (ie the science workbook).

 

 

[Momling]

Hits:

Galore park Syrwl math

McHenry Elements and carbon chem

Rules of the Game

History done with portfolios and videos and books of my own choosing

 

Okay:

MP Geography (nothing special, but it got done)

Duolingo (great, but not really enough)

 

Misses:

Art of argument (dd hated cheesy dialogue between Socrates and the kids)

[Ali in OR]

Hits:

Singapore Discovering Math--love the skills and knowledge my dd has developed and I love teaching it (I'm a former math teacher and really appreciate the mathematical thinking). Dd did not love this; she is not really mathy. But she has some excellent skills now for a non-mathy kid!

 

Lone Pine Classical School's Latin 200--Dd's online Latin class. She passed me up a couple of years ago and was basically teaching herself from Latin Alive 2 before this. When they didn't have the next course ready yet, we decided to try an online class. They used Linga Latina and dd learned so much. It was good to have real teaching and support which she didn't have from me any more!

 

History--While loosely based on Biblioplan, I chose the read-alouds myself this year and chose a lot of the girls' readers myself too. We had our best read-aloud year ever. Probably helps that they're old enough for real classics and year 4 has such great literature available. We read The Red Badge of Courage, My Antonia, Huckleberry Finn, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Murder on the Orient Express, Hitler Youth, The Hiding Place, Animal Farm, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

 

Unjournaling--I asked here last year about books to get the girls writing more and this was recommended. It's just fun writing prompts, but not writing about personal things from your own life. Every Wednesday we turned the page and each of us chose one of the 8 or so prompts from the two-page spread and wrote about it in our journals. Lots of funny, creative stuff.

 

Misses--I'm going to have to give Advanced Academic Writing 2 a miss. I was not able to successfully teach the second semester from this book. The four essay assignments we did last year from AAW 1 were great. The first two from this book were fine. The second two are either too abstract or my skills just aren't there for this subject. I really needed a list of possible writing topics--I couldn't come up with satisfactory ideas. I don't think I'll use this book with my younger dd.

 

Everything else I'll put in the "worked fine" category.

[Saddlemomma]

Hits:

• Doing school on OneNote (DD will never go back to the old way now!)
• TOG Y2 - We used their history, geography, church history, literature and arts/crafts. DD thoroughly enjoyed this program and has asked me to promise to continue using TOG.
• Latina Christiana
• Incorporating spelling stories into How To Teach With Spelling each week
• Reading aloud from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm each night

Misses:

• Classical Comp (MP) - DD HATED this.  She hates to write non-fiction anyway. Next fall we're trying Jump In
• God's Design for Life: Chemistry - dry and the experiments were boring. DD wants to blow something up unfortunately. We'll be doing interest-led science for 6-8th.

Other than that, we had our best year yet!  We finished school on 5/16, but just today DD told me she actually missed school some.  That was such a revelation!  However, she still won't agree to doing a year-round schedule....darn.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Hits:

Jousting Armadillos

Zaccaro:  Real World Algebra, Becoming a Problem-Solving Genius, 10 Things

Alcumus

Home-made, topic-based history

Intelligo Astronomy (independently)

CAP Writing & Rhetoric

Shakespeare

 

Misses:

WWS 2

Warriner's Composition

Traits of Writing

Quest Guides for Story of Science

LOF PreA/Physics books

[Aurelia]

Hits:

Lial's Basic College Math

SOTW 4

A Child's History of the World

CAP Writing & Rhetoric

 

Misses:

CLE math

Easy Grammar 

Moving Beyond the Page (lit units)

Wordsmith Apprentice

 

[EndOfOrdinary]

Hits: (for ds 13)

Veritas Press self paced history Middle Ages

Omnibus

Apologia General and Physical Science

 

As for misses, we don't really have any. Ds has huge issues with workbooks, but that's a personal thing; nothing to do with the books themselves (ie the science workbook).

 

Which Omnibus did you do?  Did you use it as is, or did you alter it in anyway to work better for y'all.  I keep coming back to Omni, but the price tag makes me cringe a bit.  I don't have many more years to put it off, so I need to actually come to a decision!

[Tiramisu]

Hits:

• Doing school on OneNote (DD will never go back to the old way now!)
• TOG Y2 - We used their history, geography, church history, literature and arts/crafts. DD thoroughly enjoyed this program and has asked me to promise to continue using TOG.
• Latina Christiana
• Incorporating spelling stories into How To Teach With Spelling each week
• Reading aloud from Household Tales by Brothers Grimm each night

Misses:

• Classical Comp (MP) - DD HATED this.  She hates to write non-fiction anyway. Next fall we're trying Jump In
• God's Design for Life: Chemistry - dry and the experiments were boring. DD wants to blow something up unfortunately. We'll be doing interest-led science for 6-8th.

Other than that, we had our best year yet!  We finished school on 5/16, but just today DD told me she actually missed school some.  That was such a revelation!  However, she still won't agree to doing a year-round schedule....darn.

 

Going back a few years, my dd also hated Classical Composition after having loved Writing Tales. We also did Jump In at some point afterward and it felt so refreshing.

[Walking-Iris]

Hits

Joy Hakim History of US

RSO Biology

Bravewriter

 

Miss

All things math related!!!!!!! Key To, Saxon, MIF. I'm so worried we've hit a wall. My oldest has Asperger's and math is something he has ups and downs with...we were cruising along last year, doing well....but this year he just shut down. We're having a hard time moving forward.

 

Logic...finding a good program that keeps our interest or is usable for us.

 

WWE4.....just no.

 

And trying to do more lit studies and projects with our read alouds. 

[Mrs Twain]

We had no misses.

 

Best hits:

IEW SICC-B

IEW Fix It

School Composition (Maxwell)

R&S Spelling

[crazyforlatin]

Hit for the last month :D

 

Shakespeare: I had no idea that DD would love his plays, especially Hamlet. So far we are using Leon Garfield, Lamb, and Nesbit, picture books, library books focusing on his life, the use of various flowers in his plays, and Globe theater, audiobooks, Shakespeare DVD Animated Tales, based on the script by Garfield, online class with CLRCHomeschool (love the discussions with a knowledgeable teacher), Usborne's Illustrated Stories from Shakespeare, capping it all with Shakespeare in the Park by the end of summer.

 

Coming up will be two summer Shakespeare online classes with G3, and following that, a fall class focused on a few comedies and sonnets. Whew, we're going to have a Shakespeare year rather than just a summer.

 

Now, the only thing I need is to find a place where children can perform Shakespeare plays.

[Half-Elven]

-

 

 

[foxbridgeacademy]

Hits

IEW-Middle Ages, DS is dyslexic and his writing ability is/was far below grade level.  The IEW method has done an amazing job of teaching him, a simple structure, to use to actually write something that not only makes sense but is good and interesting.

Power Basics Algebra- this is the only math program we've actually finished.  It is not a "full" Algebra curriculum (has "breadth" lacks depth) but explains in such a simple way that I now feel confidant that he can tackle something meatier and be done with Alg. 1 in a semester.

K12HO combined with CTT- has done really well for history but I'm so tired of reading out loud.

 

Misses

RSO Bio 2- through no fault of the actual program, I just could't afford to print it anymore.

 

[JadeOrchidSong]

Hits: (for ds 13)

Veritas Press self paced history Middle Ages

Omnibus

Apologia General and Physical Science

 

As for misses, we don't really have any. Ds has huge issues with workbooks, but that's a personal thing; nothing to do with the books themselves (ie the science workbook).

What is VP self paced Middle Ages like? TOG isn't working and we will consider another history. We are done with Ancient and will do Middle Ages. Will VP work for ds (turning 12 end of October)?

He will also do Apologia General Science. How involved are you for these two subjects? Thanks!

[JadeOrchidSong]

Hits:

 

Veritas Press History Cards : Middle Ages, Renaissance, Reformation

Singapore Math 4

Latin for Children

Shurley English

Veritas Press Omnibus I for my 12 year old (it was hard at first, but we got used to it, and she and I learned a lot!!)

Intro to Logic

Fallacy Detective

Singapore Math 7a

Lingua Latina

 

Didn't really have misses this year. The one subject we didn't finish was Diogenes Maxim. We only got through 2/3 of it. Will continue when we start back up in the fall and then do Chreia.

How did you use the VP cards? Along with Omnibus 1?

[JadeOrchidSong]

We had no misses.

 

Best hits:

IEW SICC-B

IEW Fix It

School Composition (Maxwell)

R&S Spelling

What age student did you use School Composition?

[MotherGoose]

Hits: Singapore Math, Biblioplan Middle Ages, WWE

Misses: IEW Bible Heroes

[Berta]

Hits:

CLE math (perennial favorite)

Apologia Swimming Creatures

 

Miss:

Trail Guide to Learning, Paths of Exploration. The curriculum itself is fine, it just didn't fit with my daughters learning style.

[Mrs Twain]

What age student did you use School Composition?

I use School Composition for 5th-6th grades.

[fluffybunny]

Which Omnibus did you do? Did you use it as is, or did you alter it in anyway to work better for y'all. I keep coming back to Omni, but the price tag makes me cringe a bit. I don't have many more years to put it off, so I need to actually come to a decision!

We have been doing Omnibus II this year. I read aloud the books to Ds, who absolutely thrives on being read to. Then I read aloud the corresponding omnibus chapter. It's an awesome curriculum and like another poster here I've learnt so much from it, let alone my Ds. Last year we did omnibus I but I substituted many of the books with abridged versions due to R rated content I wasn't comfortable with. This year we're reading the originals though. There's a post somewhere on WTM where I listed my omI substitute books if you want to put in a search for it.

 

As for how much we will get thru of Om2, probably about 3/4 or more. There are only about two books I don't want to do. We spend one hour per day on it, and should finish in 12 months (we're already over half way in 6 months)

[fluffybunny]

What is VP self paced Middle Ages like? TOG isn't working and we will consider another history. We are done with Ancient and will do Middle Ages. Will VP work for ds (turning 12 end of October)?

He will also do Apologia General Science. How involved are you for these two subjects? Thanks!

if you go to Veritas press you will find samples of their SPH. Ds is almost 14and it's perfect for him.

 

As for Ap science, I never leave Ds with the book. I read it to him and discuss, check for understanding and ak questions.

 

VPSPH is definitely something you can leave your child alone with.

[Half-Elven]

How did you use the VP cards? Along with Omnibus 1?

 

I used the 4th Grade Veritas Press History Cards for my 4th Grader for history.  We read literature books/historical fiction that goes with it.

 

I used Omnibus 1 for my 7th Grader.  Next year, when we use Omnibus 2, we will use it with Western Civilization by Spielvogel.  This history book will connect the books that we read with Omni.  This past year, while we had a good year, I felt that something was missing...and it was the history cards we used in the Elementary years.  The Spielvogel book will act like the history cards for all the years we do Omnibus.

[Aloha2U]

Old Faithfuls/Favorites:

- SWR

- WWE 4

- Latin for Children

- VP Bible & History

- Guerber/Miller History books

- Geo songs/puzzles/games

- Kistler drawing lessons

 

New Hits:

- RightStart Geometry—though the RS Math program is an old faithful

- VIdeoText Algebra (Module A)

- Singapore CWPs

- R&S English 6

- CAP Writing & Rhetoric (Books 1 & 2)

- MP Geography I

- J.H. Tiner series, and Grammar of Science by Logos

 

So-so, but better than not:

- Poetry Primer

 

Thankfully, no misses this past year.

[EndOfOrdinary]

I used the 4th Grade Veritas Press History Cards for my 4th Grader for history. We read literature books/historical fiction that goes with it.

 

I used Omnibus 1 for my 7th Grader. Next year, when we use Omnibus 2, we will use it with Western Civilization by Spielvogel. This history book will connect the books that we read with Omni. This past year, while we had a good year, I felt that something was missing...and it was the history cards we used in the Elementary years. The Spielvogel book will act like the history cards for all the years we do Omnibus.

Thanks! This is great information. We were planning on pulling out my college art book to add some more visual cultural information, but I have been curious about the Spielvogel book. Do you know if the edition of his text matters? It seems odd to consider that Western Civilization has really changed that much in the last ten years, but you never know!

[Heathermomster]

DS loved the Derek Owens Physical Science class.  He also took a Voc from Classical Roots class with our co-op and finished with a 98% average.  Medieval History with Spievogel's History Odyssey text as spine was great, and he enjoyed Hamlet.

[Half-Elven]

Thanks! This is great information. We were planning on pulling out my college art book to add some more visual cultural information, but I have been curious about the Spielvogel book. Do you know if the edition of his text matters? It seems odd to consider that Western Civilization has really changed that much in the last ten years, but you never know!

 

Wow, wish I kept some of my art history books, great idea.

 

Love your question :laugh: 

 

The 9th edition, the latest one, just came out.  In the VP website, they have a document that shows the Omnibus books (1-6) with the corresponding pages of the different editions of Spielvogel...their references include 5th through 8th editions!!  So if you at least get the 5th edition, you will have pages referencing them from the Omnibus (further reading section).  The document also includes how Omnibus is broken down in a high school transcript (by subject and credits)

 

I got the 7th Edition from Amazon.

 

(some people try to get the non-combined book, meaning, they are broken down into Volume I and Volume II, this is kind of nice since you don't have to carry such a big book if you needed to take school somewhere.  I tried looking for a set like this, such as 6th Ed Vols I and II, but ended up with one big volume, which is fine)

 

[EndOfOrdinary]

I honestly only kept it because they were only going to give me twenty dollars at the bookstore buy-back. I paid over a hundred for it because the thing is giant (Gardner's Art Through the Ages). I was very offended and resolved to just keep it! I am now very glad I did.

 

The info about the breakdown is wonderful. A thousand thank you's! I've decided we are going to do Omni. I really like it. Ds really enjoys a literature approach to history. It is silly not to! Now I just have to start socking away the cash and reading up on all the great Omni stuff so the year will go smoothly.

[yvonne]

I have been curious about the Spielvogel book. Do you know if the edition of his text matters? It seems odd to consider that Western Civilization has really changed that much in the last ten years, but you never know!

 

I posted this in response to the same question on the Omni yahoo list...

 

If it helps, there is minimal difference between the older editions and the newer ones, at least between the 6th and the 8th.  VP has a document cross-referencing the 5th through 8th editions on their resources page.  We got an 8th edition, but ended up using the two-volume, 6th edition softcover.  I compared the chapters we read for Omni II this year in the 6th and 8th eds. to be sure we wouldn't miss anything, and there was very little difference in content or organization. For VPSA Omni II, chapters that corresponded to the primary works were assigned, but they didn't really go over them in detail in the class, so it didn't matter at all if some of the content was slightly different.  For the price difference, there is no way I'd buy an 8th edition over a 6th now that I've seen them side by side.

 

My boys liked the 6th edition, split between two volumes, because it was much easier to handle than the single volume, hardback 8th edition.

 

The 6th edition was also economical enough to buy three used copies, one for each of my twins and one for me. Besides using it as the history spine, I used it to go through how to read a textbook with them.

 

 

HTH!

[elinnea]

Hits:

 

-Thinkwell Government

-Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra and Algebra

 

Misses:

-Bravewriter Online Expository Essay class

-Moving Beyond the Page

[Lots of boys]

This has been a year of transition for us with me heading back to work most afternoons. It has taken a lot of patience for all of us. So, we simplified and here is our list:

 

Hits:

-SWI

- Math Mammoth and Math Reflex

-Daily Science

- Liberty Kids :)

 

Misses:

-AAS was good but too hard to implement under tight time frames

-WWE

-SYRWTL French

[Mommyfaithe]

Hits: chucking the workbooks, the schedule, the scope & sequences, credits, requirements and actually stepping back and recreating my relationship with my kids... And teaching HOW I love to teach!

 

Science kits instead of science books

 

Reading and discussing like big people... Not over analyzing everything.

 

Focusing on writing... And teaching grammar and all language skills off of their writing.

 

Misses: CLE full program with their oversight. Shoot me square in the eye! I love CLE for math, la and reading, but really more for how it lifted dd's self esteem. Took us down a MAJOR bad time!!! Now, I can not even look at a light unit! Ugh!! Their history and science are awful!

[Berta]

Hits: chucking the workbooks, the schedule, the scope & sequences, credits, requirements and actually stepping back and recreating my relationship with my kids... And teaching HOW I love to teach!

 

Science kits instead of science books

 

Reading and discussing like big people... Not over analyzing everything.

 

Focusing on writing... And teaching grammar and all language skills off of their writing.

 

Misses: CLE full program with their oversight. Shoot me square in the eye! I love CLE for math, la and reading, but really more for how it lifted dd's self esteem. Took us down a MAJOR bad time!!! Now, I can not even look at a light unit! Ugh!! Their history and science are awful!

 

We started out back in 1st grade with all CLE and I agree, the history and science are awful. The math is awesome.

 

[happycc]

Hits:

Attuneup (anyone know if she is doing anything for the summer) 

Mapping the World by Art

 

Misses: 

McHenry's The Elements and I don't know why

We barely FLL4 (it got really boring for them after doing FLL 2 and 3)

 

[5Wizards]

Hits:

- Derek Owens pre-algebra

- math mammoth

- outsourced science class

 

Misses:

- FLL 3

- LL 7 (it was ok, but won't do it with my younger kids)

[mommyto4]

Hits:  Discovering Mathematics

SOTW 4

R&S English and Spelling

WWS1 (tough, but so good for my son)

 

Misses:  Elemental Science Earth Sciences -- just didn't get done

Apologia's Who is God? -- so wordy

 

[Reefgazer]

Hits:  Latina Christiana, MCT Language Arts, Writing With Skill, Saxon Math, Classical Historian. McHenry's Botany

 

Misses:  Critical Thinking Book I 

 

Meh:  Write Shop I (Got the job done well and efficiently, but very dry)

 

We had a good year!

 

 

[Reefgazer]

Wow, to the bolded!  WE are seriously contemplating this for next year because we loved Botany.

Hits:

Attuneup (anyone know if she is doing anything for the summer) 

Mapping the World by Art

 

Misses: 

McHenry's The Elements and I don't know why

We barely FLL4 (it got really boring for them after doing FLL 2 and 3)

 

[Reefgazer]

Is Derek Owens physical science chemistry or physics or both?

DS loved the Derek Owens Physical Science class.  He also took a Voc from Classical Roots class with our co-op and finished with a 98% average.  Medieval History with Spievogel's History Odyssey text as spine was great, and he enjoyed Hamlet.

 

[Penny_P]

Hits:

IEW

Human Odyssey, vol 3

Apples and Pears Spelling (boring, but is getting the job done unlike AAS)

Seton Religion

 

Misses:

History Odyssey, level 2, Modern (burned out of this in about 8 weeks of unsuccessful tweaking)

Any Latin (not sure what to do about that next year- not so much the programs, but ds)

 

Meh:

K12 Biology Advanced

Seton English