Anyone used Calvert 4th grade?

[Greta]

I hear mixed reviews about Calvert, and I think that I've figured out that part of that is because some grades are better designed than others. What do you think of their 4th grade program?

 

I am not sure that I would ever go with a boxed curriculum. In a lot of ways, it appeals to me to have everything planned out, and to feel like we're completely on track because it isn't just me winging it but real professional educators who put this together. But I don't know, I'm pretty accustomed to doing things my own way and I might rebel against all that structure! :D Anyway, mostly curious, and thinking that if I'm going to consider buying that next year, I'd better start saving my money now!

[MIch elle]

I have a love/hate relationship with Calvert School products. We use some of the Calverts School materials every year.

 

In Calvert 4, I liked history, science, literature, Voc. Connections; Critical Thinking and geography was just OK. I disliked the composition instruction, spelling and grammar. The math we tried and found that it didn't have enough continuous review but they have updated the math I believe so it may be different now. The spelling is different so that is probably better. We didn't do the Phonics book. THe art instruction was poor.

 

I replaced Calvert math & grammar with Rod & Staff. But I think Calvert math is better now that I look at the samples esp. in the upper grades 6-8.

[Pat in MI]

We tried the fourth grade level for the very reasons you listed. All nicely planned out, but oh boy did we really not like it. :tongue_smilie: We made it partly through the year and I had to finally just do my own thing with ds. I really felt it was a lot of work books and busy work, very school at home with not much fun. This is my opinion though, others really like the program. I prefer to read more literature rather than textbooks. HTH

Blessings,

Pat

[Greta]

Thank you Pat and Michelle. My concern is that I would have a similar experience to yours, Pat -- invest all that money and then halfway through find out that it wasn't really working. But I can't seem to get over this feeling that there would be something so comforting about a boxed curriculum! Silly, I guess.

[Annie G]

We used Calvert 4th grade 3 different times and enjoyed it. What I liked was that it covered the basics and allowed me to supplement with what I wanted to add. Sometimes I had time and energy to supplement quite a bit and sometimes it was all we could do to just get Calvert done. I enjoyed the freedom of not having to plan everything. We never did Calvert math, as at the time we could order the program without math.

However, as you can see from the ages of my children, this was quite a while ago...back before Calvert became involved with charter schools and such. I think the program has undergone some hefty changes in recent years...I have no experience to know whether they are good or bad changes. All I know is that my kids who used Calvert are doing well in high school and college, so for us it worked.

[Tree House Academy]

We are currently using Calvert 4th grade with my ds who is 9. Overall, we like it a lot. There is work that I consider busy work...especially in math. However, I get around that by just not assigning it! Or, if I think he does need more practice, then I will assign multiples. Today he did multiples of 4 on a worksheet with 36 problems. That way, he did his multiplication as well as his daily work. He didn't need 36 whole problems to get what I needed him to get out of it.

 

Thing I don't love are the Science. Blah. But, oddly enough, he LOVES it. I am also not thrilled with their phonics which is optional. It is a lot of repetition and it is not helping where he is deficient in his reading (mostly with sounding out words and spelling). I love love love love love A Child's History of the World. That is by far mine and my son's favorite subject in Calvert. I think they do an excellent job introducing Grammar and mechanics. They have a lot of composition writing, but my son needed/needs the practice. We are still waiting to start geography which we are both very excited about.

 

Calvert math, I am still on the fence about. It goes really slow in comparison to something like Horizons which is what we were using before switching. I am feeling much more confident in my math skills now and think I can learn to teach about anything, so this may be something I change in the near future. I am, however, not so dissatisfied with it that I feel the need to change before the year is up. That, and the fact that I paid way too much for it to stop in the middle of the year!