I love Climbing to Good English

[hollyhock]

I love it. I really do. This is my first year using it with Grades 7, 5 and 3. We are coming from 4 consecutive years of using R&S English. Now, granted, we've only used CTGE for a month but I am so happy with it, I'm sharing my joy. :)

 

The three biggest reasons I love it:

 

1. My kids can use it independently if they want to. We did R&S orally which, while it kept the lessons short and not stressful, required my time. Now I have four in school plus a toddler, my time is getting more scarce, and so if my boys don't feel like waiting around for me, they can do English on their own.

 

2. I love the grammar instruction. One of the reasons we left R&S is because the explanations in the higher levels (6) were getting really long and wordy and my oldest son was getting lost. CTGE is so straight-forward and to-the-point. It's perfect.

 

3. I actually LOVE the writing lessons! With R&S we skipped most of the writing lessons except the ones about paragraphs and good sentences, and did WTM writing instead. Now, with CTGE, we're doing ALL the writing lessons and I am finding them so useful! There isn't any creative fluff, it's all useful: things like revising and proof-reading, summarizing, outlining, narratives, re-writing, connecting paragraphs. There are even some lessons coming up in book 7 about plagiarism and citing sources. I am so pleased. We are still doing WTM writing but the English lessons are complementing it all so nicely.

 

Anyways.... there is no point to this post, other than to say I have been very pleasantly surprised with these books and to thank everyone who has posted about it in the past. When I was debating whether to make the switch, I searched these boards for any posts about it and got a lot of good info that helped me make the decision.

[kwickimom]

I tried CTGE for the first time this year with a 7th grader, 3rd grader, and 1st grader for the exact same reason! R&S was killing us. It just won't work for my 7th grader, but my 3rd and 1st love it and will stick with it for the long haul. 

I really was hoping my 7th grader would like it- but she hates the small font and the ton of questions per page. She bombed every page the whole 4 weeks we did it. 

[mombygrace]

We have used it for years with 2-7 and my older ones then did a couple of years of CLE literature and English for the upper grades. The grammar lessons are thorough and this has helped with latin, SAT, ACT and other subjects. The price is really reasonable too.

[Susie in MS]

I really like it for all the same reasons you do, and dislike R&S in the same way you do (wordy and my time). Who would think you could actually get such a quality grammar for such a small amount of money. I also like the way there are just over 100 lessons instead of 180 like some. We don't do grammar every day and don't plan to. And the test are actually in the wkbk so no extra purchase there.

[warneral]

We loved FLL3, R&S4 and then decided to do Hake6 at half pace because I wanted to spend less time on grammar. The kids hated it and we bailed mid year. This year, they asked for R&S6 but we are getting lost in the forest. I hate changing AGAIN but there is far too much to wade through, and the thought of doing that for several more years was too much to bear. I'm leaning toward Analytical Grammar but did look at ctge samples. Couldn't tell enough from the samples. Looks like an awful lot of writing. But seeing that there are fewer lessons than R&S at the higher grades, maybe that's ok. Ds is doing WWS1 and dd is doing TC plus WWE so we really don't need more writing.

[hollyhock]

warneral, my oldest son hates writing and he is doing ok with it. A lot of times when the lessons are long, it's more underlining or circling things and not actually writing. There has been one lesson where there was a ton of writing (had to revise and re-write a number of paragraphs or something) and so I just cut it down for that lesson, as long as he got it.  Just thought I'd mention that.

[abrightmom]

Erin,

 

Thanks a million for sharing your review of CtGE. While I find R&S super effective and thorough it's the TIME it takes to teach 3 kids .... and IF I'm pressed or preoccupied then someone's English gets dropped. You can bet I'm hopping over to peek at CtGE again. How I wish they'd reformat those books though.  :coolgleamA:

 

ETA: Erin, do you find that a person can use these at their grade level? Are the re-spellings a problem in Level 3? How much time per lesson and how many days per week? If there are 100 Lessons then am I right in thinking I could plan to use CtGE 3x per week for 30 weeks? That would be about perfect for what I'm trying to achieve here as I want room for other writing twice a week (old school Writing Strands and a bit of WTM style with content). Oh, thanks for sharing this! 

[GrammarGirl]

Thanks for sharing! I had not heard of this curriculum but think I'll order first and second grade since they are so cheap at Rainbow Resource. DD finds FLL so boring; perhaps she'd like this better.

[hollyhock]

Abrightmom, you know, the font doesn't bother me at all anymore. A lot of people complain about it, and when I first looked at samples, it turned me off, but now that we are using it, I don't mind it one bit. Maybe I just got used to it, I don't know.

 

Yes, I think they are very usable on grade level. My 3rd grade son and I have been skipping all the re-spellings in book 3 and it hasn't been a problem at all. They are always in their own little section or box so it's easy to do. Yes, I'm doing English 3x a week and as for how long for a lesson.... my 3rd grader takes about 10 minutes flat (but he's the biggest keener I've got and everything is easy for him). Even so, the 3rd grade lessons are short so far, usually a page long. The older guys take longer but it sort of depends on what the lesson is. Generally I'm finding that the writing lessons take more time but I would say 30 minutes at the most. It's not hours and hours.

 

Hope that helps. I only have one month of experience so I hope I'm answering correctly. :)

[abrightmom]

Abrightmom, you know, the font doesn't bother me at all anymore. A lot of people complain about it, and when I first looked at samples, it turned me off, but now that we are using it, I don't mind it one bit. Maybe I just got used to it, I don't know.

 

Yes, I think they are very usable on grade level. My 3rd grade son and I have been skipping all the re-spellings in book 3 and it hasn't been a problem at all. They are always in their own little section or box so it's easy to do. Yes, I'm doing English 3x a week and as for how long for a lesson.... my 3rd grader takes about 10 minutes flat (but he's the biggest keener I've got and everything is easy for him). Even so, the 3rd grade lessons are short so far, usually a page long. The older guys take longer but it sort of depends on what the lesson is. Generally I'm finding that the writing lessons take more time but I would say 30 minutes at the most. It's not hours and hours.

 

Hope that helps. I only have one month of experience so I hope I'm answering correctly. :)

Erin,

 

THANKS! My Rainbow Resource order was prepared just this week and I'd asked my hubby to give me the green light so I could process it this weekend. I can add CtGE to the order for a song! I'm really excited to give CtGE a go and I think I will be able to use WWE and WS alongside in a very natural, organic, low stress manner. I have strongly considered CtGE in the past but felt afraid to leave R&S. :)  The timing of your post is a God send. Thank-you. 

[Susie in MS]

The font is the only thing I don't like about CTGE, but I have been able to tolerate it due to the content being so good.

 

May I just add that I like Study Time Math (samples also at RodandStaffBooks) (sold cheaper at RR) over R&S for grades 4 and 5 as it is in wkbk format. The content is comparable to R&S, but easier for my dd due to not having to write it all out. I also like how the lessons vary some, but don't move too fast. 

[Ms.Ivy]

I have been using CTGE for 3rd grade and I am very happy with it, as well. My daughter was able to do it mostly on her own while I focused on other things and she really enjoyed it. It's thorough and rigorous but simple.

[freesia]

I am using the fourth grade and so far I like it, too. (I do love R&S though, but didn't want to invest in the fourth grade program--I own 5-9/10). It is a bit cluttered, but so far ds has been doing okay with it.

[Hunter]

I really like CGE and Study Time math. The only reason I stopped using them is that students kept wanting to start fresh workbooks, but not finish them, and it was the shipping more than the workbooks that got in my way. The issues I deal with don't apply to most homeschool families.

 

I give the Amish workbooks  :thumbup: .

[Donna A.]

I *love* CTGE!  My language-challenged child made more progress doing books 1 and 2 of CTGE than she did with any other singular program.  Surprisingly, the dictionary respellings didn't bother her at all... in fact, they were helpful for her to be able to *see* how to pronounce words and make sense of some odd spellings like "bought". 

 

The ONLY reason I didn't continue with CTGE was the font. :001_rolleyes:  But I also realize that that's one reason the curriculum is so inexpensive.... they've sacrificed aesthetics for affordability, without compromising the quality of content. 

 

I like Abeka for the colorful pages and its "steadiness".

 

I like R&S for its thoroughness.

 

I like both of those programs for their stellar reputation.

 

I'm not concerned about writing instruction because there are many different ways to make that happen, and my two older girls are living proof that I don't need an expensive stand-alone writing curriculum to turn them into good writers. 

 

I've always alternated between parts-to-whole and whole-to-parts learning with my girls, which I believe is a good balance.  We get copywork, narrations, and dictation through many different means, so to me, this isn't about "traditional" vs. CM or WTM, because we do both.

 

We've been having a hard time financially this year, as we had four major events back-to-back between March and July which really hurt (two of which were pre-planned, but suddenly became burdensome after dh had to take a $20k pay cut at the end of March, and the other which we knew would have to happen eventually and got to where it couldn't be put off anymore), so we're still catching up.  All of which means that spending more for Abeka isn't an option right now.  I have R&S borrowed from a friend, but am finding that it takes more time than we have this semester for me to teach it, and it's too wordy, and the lessons too long, for my language-challenged child to do it independently. 

 

Which leads me back to CTGE and that font issue... and I'm realizing that for ME, my avoidance of it isn't just because WE have to look at it, but because CTGE isn't as well known (nor as popular... possibly because of the aesthetics?) as R&S or Abeka.  IOW, maybe it's just a little bit of pride that's prevented me from continuing with CTGE all this time. :blush:  But if it's truly effective (and it is), my dd can do it independently, and it fits our budget, then why shouldn't we use it?

 

I wonder how many curriculum decisions we moms make because of pride? :001_unsure:

 

[MrsMe]

We used this in the past and dd did extremely well with it.  In fact, it caught her up.  The only thing I didn't like was that every other grade is the same.  So 6th is the same but more and 8th is the same but more.  She did so well that I think she could have gone from 4th to 6th and again to 8th.  Contemplating it again.