PeacefulChaos Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Saxon Math (elementary) LoF FLL 3 and 4 Rod and Staff English Apologia elementary science 100EZ lessons Latin in general (at least with Link) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto4inSoCal Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 AAS - way to many pieces for me, felt scattered MiF - I loved it but after dd crying over it every day for 2 months I decided it wasn't worth it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoutingmom Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 Drawing with Children - just can't get it going. Peterson Directed Handwriting (cursive first option) - my one daughter couldn't make a recognizable first letter after working for weeks.... MEP math - just didn't know what to do when son was stuck on some foundational skills... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juliegmom Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 MFW. *shrug* We used the Explorers year. It spreads itself too thin by trying to reach such a broad range. My olders felt it was far beneath their level, and my kids who were young enough to need the younger learner books did just fine with the main set. The notebooking pages were so plain compared to the ones we've used for other curricula. It's moderately popular here, and very popular in our local homeschool community. Whatever floats your boat? I think we are in the same "boat" and I don't think we will be returning to MFW for the reasons you mentioned above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 DD and I love the straightforwardness of Saxon. When someone says it is soul-killing and boring, DD and I think clean and neat and no-nonsense! LOF -- I thought DD might appreciate the story aspect and humor. Nope. Too silly. She asked for her straightforward Saxon back. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted March 8, 2015 Share Posted March 8, 2015 We're MCT lovers here, but I agree with you on the writing; we didn't use that component. We're still using some MCT stuff because I haven't found anything better, but his writing makes my skin crawl right off my body. We just use it for grammar, vocabulary, and poetry, since I'll saw off my own right arm before I use his writing to teach my kids writing. We were going to use MUS Algebra as pre-algebra as some have done here, but when I compared it to AoPS Pre-A, there was no contest. I sold the MUS. I loved RS B and started out loving C, but it was too slow very quickly. I don't think we've had any other flops, though. Things tend to flop for us during the planning stages (recreational researcher here). 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 AAS - too many pieces, no retention MM - virtually no retention OPGTR - by the time we dropped it, it was like pulling teeth from a tiger to get DD to do a lesson BFSU - just could not get it going. We needed something more laid out. Some things we liked certain levels of but hated others. DD loved SOTW1, but HATED SOTW4. We did not like FLL1, but FLL4 was excellent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penelope Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 MFW, only tried lower levels McHenry. Just okay. Seemed like science that was trying hard to appeal to some particular sort of learner that didn't include my kids. MCT after the first two levels. Love Island and Town, though. BFSU Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My3girls Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 BFSU... loved the idea, but just too much work to get it together. Need something more scripted. Sequential Spelling... boring and ineffective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSinNS Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 opgtr-the chants just made me weep.....why did we need a whole poem to learn short a, e, i, o, and u? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs. Tharp Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Oooh, I love these threads! Phonics Pathways--youngest hated it, even though it was no problem for him. I think it was too repetitive for him at the time. For first and part of second grade he loved Calvert Language Arts. Math U See--Oldest has ASD & attention issues, but manipulatives were too distracting and unnecessary. He did not learn from the videos. Rod & Staff was a much better fit. Math in Focus--We hit a wall here when it became clear that younger son needed tons of practice with math facts and was starting to loathe number bonds. For the amount of money this program costs, you would think math fact practice would be incorporated into the curriculum. Oh well, lesson learned. Rod & Staff with lots of enrichment worked much better. BFSU--loved the concept, too much work to implement. FIAR--the books were great, but the boys had no interest in the activities. Memoria Press. full core--the style was too repetitive, and just too much for my youngest. I still like it enough to use portions of it, just not a full core. FLL--too repetitive for youngest. It bored him. Math Mammoth--too many problems on the page, couldn't get youngest interested. ETA: Just to add more info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Butter Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 MM AoPS Beast Academy Sonlight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 DD and I love the straightforwardness of Saxon. When someone says it is soul-killing and boring, DD and I think clean and neat and no-nonsense! Yup, that's it exactly it! She appreciates that it doesn't try to be cutesy or funny, just keeps it simple. She also appreciates that the humor is subtle, like they'll use two opposite big words to describe the ratios in a problem, or they'll throw in literary references (her favorite problem said something like, "Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy went out one day. . . "); she gets a kick out of when she recognizes the reference. But overt silliness? No, thanks. And DS1 loves the little pictures and diagrams in Singapore, but DD wouldn't like those at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeartatHome Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 CLE Math Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristi26 Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 As I'm reading through some of these, I'm realizing that I have several of my own "flops" to add to this list: - SOTW: Oddly, my children didn't enjoy this one. :ohmy: - FLL: Oh. My. Word. SO slow... - TOG: It was just way too much. I love the concept. The idea is amazing and I wanted to love this, but even with a hard copy, I was way overwhelmed by it all. :( - LOF: I actually love LOF and so does DD (he makes her laugh), but there isn't enough practice and she just doesn't retain a lot of the lessons. - Singapore math: This one turned my "math okay" ODS into a math confused child quickly. - IEW PAL: I really wanted to like this one too, but YDS and I struggled with it for awhile before giving up on it. - 100 EZ Lessons: So boring - LLATL: This one actually reduced my school loving MDS to tears more than once. - KISS Grammar: It starts out great but quickly gets too complicated for the younger kids (though I may try it again with MDS now that he is middle school age...maybe) I think that's it for now...can't think of any others ATM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamaraby Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Miquon Math Bravewriter Most especially Bravewriter. Did I mention Bravewriter? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skimomma Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 I think we are pretty easy to please. I do some research and most of what I pick out has been fine. Except science. Ack! BFSU was a total flop. We tried it TWICE because it seemed like such a great idea. But I just could never get it together and so it got skipped again and again until we weren't doing it at all. So then we tried Elemental Science Biology for the Logic Stage. We did muddle through it and dd thought it was OK, but it was almost as bad for me as BFSU. I even bought the lab kit that was supposed to have everything we needed. Uh no. It did not. We needed slugs in the middle of the winter We needed ferns and flowers in the middle of the winter. We were supposed to decompose fruit outside in the middle of the winter. See a theme here? I know people read ahead and rearrange the schedule to accommodate weather. First, I am just not that organized....and I am pretty organized. Second, it is WINTER here for most of the school year so even if I had rearranged, it would have been very hard to do those labs. So we are now using a curriculum I really do not like and is too expensive but at least we can do ALL of the labs with an ALL-INCLUSIVE lab kit. High school is going to be a wild ride, I can tell already. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 TOPS Science Rod and Staff English (just way too much repetition for us/moved too slowly) Teach Your Child to Read in 100 EZ... Horizons Math (my son cried and cried with this math program) anything from Abeka (again more crying) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BatmansWife Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Oh my...don't get me started. Too late... MCT Grammar Island (the winner for the one and only program that made my kid cry real tears) Logic of English (takes something that shouldn't be so hard and makes it rocket science...while charging a fortune too) Learning Language Arts Through Literature Queens (anything...when will I ever learn??) First Language Lessons Writing with Ease Simply Grammar Primary Language Lessons / Intermediate Language Lessons Christian Light (people assured me you could make this secular...umm..no. How stupid of me to believe it) Phonetic Zoo How to Teach Spelling (I'm still stupid because I still can't figure it out despite multiple tries) Apples & Pears Life of Fred (but we'll still read them...cuz I have them :001_rolleyes: ) Math Mammoth Miquon Making Math Meaningful Right Start History Odyssey Nancy Larson Science Elemental Science Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. There was crying in this house over that book, and it wasn't just mine. Everyone raves about it, but I despised it. I didn't think everyone raves about it. I rarely see anything good said about it. But, it actually worked well for one of my kids. Go figure. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clear Creek Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Math Mammoth - bought the entire series as a download, so a very expensive mistake! Concepts were either overtaught or undertaught, like someone unsure of math slapped a bunch of problems with occasional instruction together. I have mentioned it before, but Classical Writing. The *worst* method of teaching writing that I have ever come across. It took something relatively simple and made it convoluted, difficult, and boring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Math Mammoth - bought the entire series as a download, so a very expensive mistake! :iagree: I was just thinking about this purchase the other day. And since it's a download, I can't even resell it to recoup some of the cost! :glare: Actually, I'll just go ahead and add ALL DOWNLOADS to this list, LOL. I know people are moving towards digital, but dang!...I can't deal with downloads. Half the time I forget I purchased them, the other half of the time I hate them but can't resell. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Returning to add Song School Spanish. Too basic, uses more English than Spanish, barely a verb in sight. DD learned more from free preschool programs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hollyhock Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 R&S English. I actually really liked the lower levels but once we got to 6, it was just too much for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikslo Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 FIAR Time4Learning (math. phonics was okay, except for the annoying characters...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Five More Minutes Posted March 9, 2015 Share Posted March 9, 2015 Brave Writer. I am convinced it *should* be amazing and have spent waaaay too much time and money trying to make it so. Total bust. But I'll bet I'll try it again next year anyway ... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piper Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Wow, there are some long lists here! Off the top of my head: AAS - it's a good program, and I wish it had worked for us, but it turned out to just have too many bits and pieces to it - not a good fit for me, and once dd started moaning about it, I stopped getting it out at all. GWG - complete waste of time. Zero retention. WWE3 for 3rd (or even 4th) grade - not here! Way too big of a jump between WWE2 and WWE3 for us. Since I found some other stuff to help bridge the gap, I've come to like the others a lot and I'm not sure I'll even be going back to WWE3 and 4 (although I own both...gotta stop buying ahead!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FawnsFunnyFarm Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 For us, it's anything literature based. My kids are visual and hands on learners. I'm ok with this, because I can't handle spending all day reading out loud to them, nothing puts me into a fit of yawns more than reading out loud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverMoon Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 The Complete Book of __________ series. Fill in the blank. Topic does not matter. We've had countless given to us over the years and my workbook lovers won't even lug them around for more than a day or two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Sonlight. In the lower cores, I basically threw out the IG and used it as a booklist, which made it a pretty expensive box of books. IN the upper cores, DD had gotten too far ahead of herself content wise, so all the books that were historical fiction with romantic elements just bored her to tears. Latin For CHildren and Spanish for Children. DD loved it, loved the chants, did the workbook pages, but retained nothing. EPGY. I know a lot of people like it, but it just was too tedious and boring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaderbee Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Math Mammoth - bought the entire series as a download, so a very expensive mistake! Concepts were either overtaught or undertaught, like someone unsure of math slapped a bunch of problems with occasional instruction together. I have mentioned it before, but Classical Writing. The *worst* method of teaching writing that I have ever come across. It took something relatively simple and made it convoluted, difficult, and boring. I thought you liked CW and we're reading through Homer to wrap your mind around how to teach it. What happened? Or am I getting you confused with someone else? I need to go look up last year's posts about CW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clear Creek Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 I thought you liked CW and we're reading through Homer to wrap your mind around how to teach it. What happened? Or am I getting you confused with someone else? I need to go look up last year's posts about CW. Definitely not me! I tried it with my oldest in 3rd (or 4th?) grade, and would not touch it with a ten-foot pole. CAP's Writing & Rhetoric is immeasurably better at teaching the progym. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaderbee Posted March 10, 2015 Share Posted March 10, 2015 Definitely not me! I tried it with my oldest in 3rd (or 4th?) grade, and would not touch it with a ten-foot pole. CAP's Writing & Rhetoric is immeasurably better at teaching the progym. I looked it up and it was critterfixer. Sorry about that. :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Crazy 4 Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Drawing with Children Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hornblower Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 MiquonSaxonMapping the World by HeartDrawing with ChildrenAoPSPatty Paper GeometryNebel's Elementary Education Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rimk3 Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Real Science Odyssey Logic of English. I do still have the teachers manual as a reference, but we do better with a simpler approach like RLTL. However, we use the LOE app every week and occasionally play some LOE games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrammarGirl Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 In general, anything that teaches LA from a philosophy different from the one I spent years developing as an English teacher. Never again am I buying for my own kids what I'd never use to teach someone else's, no matter how many other moms rave about it. Specifically, AAS and FLL were too slow. MP lit guides, too tedious? Just not my style. WWE. Level 1 was holding my DD back. I've started letting her physically write her own narrations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaChicken Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 These threads make me feel so much better. Let's see FLL-ds1 and I hate and it ds2 loves it Wwe2 100 EZ lessons Math mammoth Singapore hig Bfsu - actually I love it,but can't seem to get it done Lof- we just didn't get into it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom28kds Posted March 11, 2015 Share Posted March 11, 2015 Off the top of my head: 100 easy Lessons to teach your child to read FLL 1 & 2 Rod & Staff English - to be fair, I bought it and looked at it and ended up selling immediately because I knew it wouldn't work. Rod & Staff Spelling - I used the 3rd grade book but didn't see any better result with it than anything else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HootyTooty Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 Story of the World WWS LoF- we only did Fractions when it first came out and my child begged me to drop it. This child has never made the request. Just did not like the story. Real Science for Kids All the different Trail Guides We attempted to use MM, just could not make it happen Latin for Children Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixpence1978 Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 AAS (add me to the list) Any writing based on imitation and copywork Fix-It Grammar LOF (DD loved the story, but didn't pick up any math from it. It is too expensive to use as just a book to read.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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