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Anyone using Tapestry of Grace Primer; RightStart math, LOE


purestone
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Hi, I'm sort of homeschooling my 5.5 aged daughter and almost 4 year old son (and have an 18 mo girl along for the ride). With my DD we are about halfway through 100 EZ Lessons and we have done a lot of hands on math-y type play with both. I just did lesson 1 in 100 EZ with my son yesterday. We read lots of books. I have recently started speaking Spanish to them some every day (my son HATES it though) and we do lots of nature walks.

We plan to start more in-depth school moving forward and I"m looking at curriculum for K/1.

 

I just found Tapestry of Grace primer and am wondering if anyone else has used it and likes it?

 

Here's what I like just from reading about it:

It is classical

Foundational for both student and teacher (I'm new to teaching and they're new to being schooled)
Uses living books
Allows me to choose my own phonics and math programs
Can be used for both K and 1st grade if you choose

 

I am thinking of using RightStart Math A or B with it and either staying with 100 EZ and just trying to supplement more games and phonogram work OR of moving to something like the Logic of English.

 

Any thoughts about Tapestry of Grace Primer, or RightStart math or LOE? For TOG Primer have you done in one or two years?

 

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I really, really wanted to love Primer....but I don't. I loved the idea of giving DS an overview of history to better understand where things fit and to place things that he hears about before spending 1st grade in Ancients for a year with SOTW. However, I really don't get the product. It's far too unorganized and all over the place for us. DS loves reading the Bible and was excited to hear about Bible events tied into history but it's just not done well.

 

There are recommended readings which are mostly from an illustrated bible which are just not as good as other children's Bibles we have read together. His interests really starts to go at the dry facts it includes and when it recommends really dry stuff from the atlas. DS really likes being read to and history and Bible stories but this has been a big fail on how it's out together. I expected a lot more recommended reading and information but there's none. I'm adding it on my own to supplement, so for Egypt I got fun extra books but I don't always have the time for that kind of searching so it's frustrating that it wasn't done. There's recommended reading for parents provided which I expected to provided background for the time period but it includes a lot of detail that is not provided in any other way for the child to hear about which I don't get. The pictures to color and activities are too young for DS who just turned 6 and is their recommended age. I liked the idea of TOG so at least it cured me of ever buying their products in the future but that's about all I can say for it.

 

Never used LOE but I love All About Reading which is an amazing program.

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I've used Primer and I really wanted to love it but just didn't. It was hard to get my daughter interested and I didnt feel like it provided muc direction. So I'd agree to skip it.

 

I have recently figured out TOG though and while we don't do it often, I really like it. Even for 1st grade. We can do some short reading,a craft, draw a picture about what we've learned and caption jtwit a complete sentence and she seems to like it!

 

I also use LOE and very much like it. It's fun and very effective. I have found that my daughter needs more reading practice outside the lessons but that's the only 'negative' I can say about it.

 

One thing to note is that LOE takes up quite a chunk of time if you're doing an entire lesson a day (at least it did for us!!). So for us, we often only get through math and LOE before we're both needing a break. And we have a hard time coming back to the table after quiet time/naps. That's why we don't get to TOG as often as I'd like.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've used TOG ever since K for my dd, as a wonderful booklist for her and me since my grasp of history was lacking. Fast forward to now, and we are in the Middle Ages the second time around and my son has joined us. My daughter has started doing map work and some other activities for TOG while I only do read-alouds with my son.

 

We also use Rightstart. Level A is great for K while I think of level B for 1st. However, I have only used the first edition, and briefly looked through the second edition of A before deciding that it wasn't for me.

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I've used TOG ever since K for my dd, as a wonderful booklist for her and me since my grasp of history was lacking. Fast forward to now, and we are in the Middle Ages the second time around and my son has joined us. My daughter has started doing map work and some other activities for TOG while I only do read-alouds with my son.

 

We also use Rightstart. Level A is great for K while I think of level B for 1st. However, I have only used the first edition, and briefly looked through the second edition of A before deciding that it wasn't for me.

 

How did you know, between the first and second editions, that the second wasn't right for you?  I'm considering doing B with my son next year (Officially K but he's been exposed to quite a bit of math already, so I think A might be too slow for him) and I just assumed the second edition was the way to go. :)

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I skipped TOG Primer and went straight to TOG year 1 with my 5yo K daughter. We only did the history readings and some of the literature ones, and I did substitute a few history titles because the recommended ones were a bit advanced for her. Overall I've enjoyed TOG year 1. I'm very excited about year 2--I looked at all the history books in the list for it, and they look to be on her level and interesting. We'll probably hold off on the read aloud books until our next cycle again.

 

We're also using LOE Foundations and I love it. It's a wonderfully logical and incremental approach to reading and handwriting that really works well. We're almost done with B and plan to continue to C in the summer, though I think we're at the point of dropping the pace to 1/2 lesson/day just because it takes a while.

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Never used the others stuff you asked about, but we LOVE RightStart math.  My oldest did the whole elementary series (A-E) in 1st edition.  We switched to 2nd edition for DS#2, who did A through half of C, and then we switched back to 1st edition C.  Long story, but I personally prefer 1st edition, at least for levels A-C, after which is a good place to jump ship to Beast Academy for mathy kids.

 

I also like 100 EZ lessons.  I say if it's working for you, keep at it, and it it's not, find something else.  I've always supplemented with Bob books, Primary Phonics readers, and/or Sing Spell Read and Write readers (because I can borrow them all for free) to break up the 100 EZ lessons, especially starting around lesson 75-85.

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  • 3 weeks later...

we LOVE RightStart math.  My oldest did the whole elementary series (A-E) in 1st edition.  We switched to 2nd edition for DS#2, who did A through half of C, and then we switched back to 1st edition C.  Long story, but I personally prefer 1st edition, at least for levels A-C, after which is a good place to jump ship to Beast Academy for mathy kids.

 

Lace,

I am so very very curious why you prefer Rightstart's 1st editon for A-C over the 2nd. Seriously, if you have the time, please share!

 

 

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Lace,

I am so very very curious why you prefer Rightstart's 1st editon for A-C over the 2nd. Seriously, if you have the time, please share!

 

I'll message you about it later.  Maybe tomorrow.  It's a really really long story, or maybe I'm just incapable of being concise, lol.

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I loved Righstart for K... I did just want to say what we're doing with in in case it. I got help...

 

Turns out the spiral approach doesn't work for my son, and A didn't move fast enough... But I personally don't think you can beat how RS introductes and teaches... So this is what we're doing...

 

My son(who is asynchronous and complicated so take this for what it's worth) did B working at about half pace, for K... Then we switched to Math Mammoth, skipping parts he'd covered...

 

For my daughter who (gasp) is sorta starting PreK stuff now I am going to start doing lessons from A with her now, just for fun, and will decide to either do half pace with A for PreK and K, or switch to B and do just the first half for K...

 

:)

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