Anyone using/used Trail Guide to Learning

[mykidsrmyjoy]

I'm needing pretty much all-in-one or almost all-in-one for next year. I'll have a 9, 7, and 6 year old in school as well as a 4 and 2 year old and an infant. I'm looking for a streamlined, well-planned out curriculum that I can do with minimal prep on my part. I have been drawn to MFW for a while but then saw Trail Guide to Learning the other day and am interested. Does anyone have any reviews they could share? We would most likely start with Paths of Exploration.

[desertflower]

I am.  the Christopher Columbus unit.  I think it's great so far.  I like the copy work, spelling, in depth study, and other little things.  Like most programs, I don't use it to the fullest, so I'm not sure I can give a great review.  There is a yahoo group/facebook group that can probably answer your question. 

 

I am using it for my oldest who is almost 9.  Because of a move, it's been sporadic, but I'm hoping to go back to it after the holidays.

 

Once I get back into it with my oldest, I want to use it for my 7 yo. 

 

Sorry, it's not much of a review.  Do you have a particular question in mind?

[mykidsrmyjoy]

I am. the Christopher Columbus unit. I think it's great so far. I like the copy work, spelling, in depth study, and other little things. Like most programs, I don't use it to the fullest, so I'm not sure I can give a great review. There is a yahoo group/facebook group that can probably answer your question.

 

I am using it for my oldest who is almost 9. Because of a move, it's been sporadic, but I'm hoping to go back to it after the holidays.

 

Once I get back into it with my oldest, I want to use it for my 7 yo.

 

Sorry, it's not much of a review. Do you have a particular question in mind?

Not really. There just don't seem to be many reviews or info about it online and I'm hoping to hear from a few people that have used it before i spend the money on it.

[desertflower]

In looking back at your question, I believe MFW or Heart of Dakota is probably what you want.  TGL in my opinion is not an all in one.  At least I wouldn't use it as my only program.  It does have spelling, georgraphy, reading, copywork, dictation, and art.  But I wouldn't approach spelling this way if one is starting spelling.  (keep in mind I am not using the K-2 version). 

 

But that is just my opinion.  I like more subjects in my schooling.  But I guess in reality all you need for those ages is reading, writing, and math.  So, it depends on what you are wanting. 

 

I knew someone who was successful in HOD.  She had 3 kids at the time when she used it.  She loved it.  It's open and go.  I think she got to pick her math program though.  I don't know if she is still using it after her 4th child because we lost touch. 

 

hth and I would love to hear what other people think of it myself. 

[mykidsrmyjoy]

In looking back at your question, I believe MFW or Heart of Dakota is probably what you want. TGL in my opinion is not an all in one. At least I wouldn't use it as my only program. It does have spelling, georgraphy, reading, copywork, dictation, and art. But I wouldn't approach spelling this way if one is starting spelling. (keep in mind I am not using the K-2 version).

 

But that is just my opinion. I like more subjects in my schooling. But I guess in reality all you need for those ages is reading, writing, and math. So, it depends on what you are wanting.

 

I knew someone who was successful in HOD. She had 3 kids at the time when she used it. She loved it. It's open and go. I think she got to pick her math program though. I don't know if she is still using it after her 4th child because we lost touch.

 

hth and I would love to hear what other people think of it myself.

I would, of course, add math for all 3 girls and would also plan to continue doing CLE language arts with the 9 year old.

 

I would add the K-2nd supplement for the 6 and 7 year olds. I would also be doing a separate phonics program with the 6 year old.

 

I am mainly interested in it for the history, geography, science, and art. Do you think it's worth it for those portions?

[desertflower]

I'm sorry, but I can't give you an accurate assessment.  I don't use the science or art part often and i'm only in the middle of the Christopher Columbus unit.

 

With regard to history, I guess it depends on how much history you want to teach.  Programs like Sotw is more thorough.  It's not a complete history program. 

 

I do like the geography and science parts.  However, I prefer something like real science odyssey for science. 

 

Hth and I hope others can chime in. 

[OneStepAtATime]

Honestly, I loved Trail Guides to Learning.  I wish we had started it at a different time in our lives.  I think it would have worked much better later on.  When we started it, though, I had pulled my kids out of school because they were both dyslexic and floundering.  We were using an extremely intense reading/spelling remediation program and having trouble finding our footing in math and ended up having to drop Trail Guides as a formal curriculum.  I still keep it around and pull it out from time to time for various things.

 

Here is part of a review I posted a while back regarding Trail Guides...

 

Positives:

 

1.  It covers pretty much every subject except math with the one curriculum but it doesn't work like a "box" curriculum.

 

2. There are a lot of hands-on activities, including in art, music, science, etc.

 

3.  You can use it at the same time with multiple ages/developmental levels.

 

4.  All the worksheets are clearly labeled by age/ability so printing out sheets appropriate for multiple ages is easy to do.

 

5.  It covers a lot of history in a lot more depth than I ever had in school and ties it all in far better than lessons the kids had at school.  I learned so much and so did the kids during the time we used it.  However, it does it in a way that builds layers and starts out gently building those layers so it can seem deceptively simple and shallow.  

 

6.  The books were mostly interesting to read and the Middle School supplemental readings were ones that both kids enjoyed.

 

7.  Everything is scripted if you need a lot of guidance, but you can easily adapt and change the curriculum.  You don't need to follow the script.

 

8.  I priced it all out and actually buying everything through them was cheaper than piecemealing it so it was easy to order it, everything came in one box and I wasn't shopping all over for various books, components, etc.  I only had to get a few supplies for the science lessons.

 

9.  There was a nice, predictable flow to our day, but each day was a little different so it didn't get boring.  

 

10.  Knowledge is built gently over time, but in much greater depth by the end of it than most brick and mortar curriculums, especially since TG ties the various subjects together in a kind of tapestry.  There is also a great system of review.

 

11. Sometimes the reference books and reading were not as useful for my kids as videos I found on you tube or DVD's we already had, but it was easy to read ahead, find areas where a video or DVD would work better or work well alongside the reading material and add that or insert it during a lesson.

 

12.  Lessons are structured so that Fridays are review from a bit different perspective and are lighter.  Nice to have that built in lighter review day so you can schedule co-op classes or doctors appointments on Fridays or switch days around and know that you can still get everything done.  Also, having built in review really helped solidify concepts for the kids.

 

13.  Each level is sub-sectioned into 6 weeks units, so you can easily schedule breaks every 6 weeks if you plot it out ahead of time.  Knowing that we were going to take a guaranteed one week break in 6 weeks was great for all of us psychologically.  It was especially nice since there was a great sense of closure for the one unit while anticipating what might happen with the next one.  And there was a great flow moving into the next unit, with everything building on previous knowledge.  It also gave me a time when I knew I could catch up on other things, we could easily schedule vacations or holiday time off, etc.  I actually looked at my calendar for when I planned for us to take an extended summer break (we school year round but take a bit of time off in the summer) then worked backwards, seeing where a break would work best, and plotted the whole thing out ahead of time.  

 

13.  Paths of Settlement has a wonderful 6 weeks unit at the end of the year that incorporates State history into the grand scheme of United States History at the Paths of Settlement level.  

 

14.  For most people the system is really pretty open and go.  Just check ahead for any additional materials needed for science, take a few minutes to print out any work sheets and support material the kids will need, and off you go.

 

15.  There is a great support group on Yahoo that is usually very active and has lots of wonderful suggestions.

 

16.  The people at Trail Guides were very kind and supportive.  It is a small business and mostly family run, so they are very personable (but sadly one of the wonderful creators died of a heart attack and she is sorely missed).

 

17.  For the subjects specifically, I liked the art and I think it would be fine for elementary level.  I would add something for Middle School.  Same with the music, it was great as an introduction and the kids had fun with it.  History was rich as I mentioned before, and even though it is U.S. History it is presented within the context of the history going on globally at the time.  It really helped the kids to see that history does not occur in a vacuum. Science in particular was wonderful.  There were some terrific hands on lessons, lots of good concept building, etc. and it was easy to build on or simplify where needed.  Again, though, it was building the knowledge in gentle layers so it could seem deceptively basic at times.  With a Middle Schooler I might supplement a bit but it did cover a lot.  Just gently so it didn't always seem like enough but it actually covered a lot.  The language arts part we mainly used as vocabulary building since we were using a different program for reading/spelling/writing to remediate their dyslexia based issues so I cannot really speak to that aspect.

 

 

Cons

 

1.  Our biggest issue was that we would be reading 3-4 books at a time, every day but Friday.  When we started the program neither child was reading independently enough to read these books on their own, so I had to read everything to them.  It was challenging for me to read passages from 3-4 reading books every M, T, W, Th, plus the other readings required for science/art/etc. as well as our heavy remediation lessons for reading/writing/spelling because of the dyslexia issues as well as a lot of remediation in math.  It also frustrated the kids that I had to keep switching between books instead of reading as far as they wanted.  You normally take turns doing read alouds and do some reading silently.  All of the books are stretched out over weeks so you don't finish any reading quickly, and the break points are not always easy to spot.  I had to mark the stopping points in the books or I would overshoot.  If I were doing TG now I would probably restructure how the readings are done, TBH. Maybe go by chapter and change the flow/pacing.

 

2.  I found myself modifying a LOT of language arts material so that it wouldn't interfere with the remediation we were doing with Barton Reading and Spelling.  That caused some issues with planning because I was a rookie and didn't know what I was doing.  Now?  I could have adapted it.  Then?  I just didn't have enough experience.

 

3.  The curriculum relied so heavily on reading that they had to have a LOT of help so the kids began to feel they couldn't be independent on ANYTHING.  It undermined their confidence. (If your children are not dyslexic you probably would not have this issue).

 

4.  There is a bit of a learning curve with this material if you have never used anything like it before.  If I had had more time to study it or been more conversant with it to begin with, or had more experience homeschooling at that time I probably would have been more effective at modifying it right away and wouldn't have had to spend so much time in between lessons frantically trying to adapt everything for our specific circumstances.  Honestly, though, if I had known it relied so heavily on reading material I think I would have waited about 6 months to see if reading remediation would give the kids a chance to do more on their own.  In your situation you wouldn't be facing some of the challenges I had.  I definitely recommend taking a couple of weeks to read through it and get used to how the material works, though.  It is brilliantly done, IMHO, but is not like anything I had ever seen so it may take a bit of time to really grasp it in all its intricacy and depth.

 

5.  I did feel that at times the kids needed more direct instruction in what was happening historically, instead of just gleaning it from the readings and videos and writing assignments.  The program is more discovery based and a lot of things are expected to be understood through inference. In other words, sometimes I had to step in with more "facts and figures" info, more specific big picture tied explicitly to little picture help, not to memorize for a test or anything but to clarify.  They weren't always making the connections on their own.  If I had known that ahead of time I could have had those resources readily available.

 

 

We finally dropped it, but I still love the program.

 

By the way, we never did Paths of Exploration since both kids had covered that time period in school fairly well, but I hear that there are some awesome lessons in that level.  We started with the second level, Paths of Settlement, but it really wasn't an issue to start in the middle...

 

 

One thing I have heard is there can be an issue if there is a very wide range of functionality and you are teaching more than two children.   There can be a huge delay between when the older or more advanced child finishes and the younger ones since the expectations/workload is much higher for kids using the higher level materials.  That can cause some difficulties with scheduling.  If your youngers are done with their assignment in a subject and are ready to move on to the next thing but your older child is still writing out all their answers it can be frustrating for all parties involved. 

 

In other words, even though it is really designed to be used with multiple age levels simultaneously and I think the material really is set up to be workable with different ages/levels of functionality, trying to teach multiple children at all different levels at the same time is not going to be smooth sailing.  It can be done but you would need to read through the material and really get everything planned out, be flexible on where to maybe schedule in something else for the littles or have the older child/children do certain things at another time, maybe finishing up written assignments while the littles are occupied elsewhere or napping or something, etc.  In other words, with more that two children I don't think it will be as open and go as you might hope for since their ages/functionality will probably be pretty wide spread.

 

Hope that helps some...

Edited December 28, 2017 by OneStepAtATime

[desertflower]

That was a great review OneStep!

 

I had forgotten why I bought it. For me #5 and #10 were the reasons why I bought it. And other reasons, like the subjects are interwoven.

 

You hit it on the nail when you said it is deceivingly simple. It didn't occur to me that it was gentle layers of learning. I'm glad you mentioned that. It'll help me to get back with it.

[mykidsrmyjoy]

 

Honestly, I loved Trail Guides to Learning. I wish we had started it at a different time in our lives. I think it would have worked much better later on. When we started it, though, I had pulled my kids out of school because they were both dyslexic and floundering. We were using an extremely intense reading/spelling remediation program and having trouble finding our footing in math and ended up having to drop Trail Guides as a formal curriculum. I still keep it around and pull it out from time to time for various things.

 

Here is part of a review I posted a while back regarding Trail Guides...

 

Positives:

 

1. It covers pretty much every subject except math with the one curriculum but it doesn't work like a "box" curriculum.

 

2. There are a lot of hands-on activities, including in art, music, science, etc.

 

3. You can use it at the same time with multiple ages/developmental levels.

 

4. All the worksheets are clearly labeled by age/ability so printing out sheets appropriate for multiple ages is easy to do.

 

5. It covers a lot of history in a lot more depth than I ever had in school and ties it all in far better than lessons the kids had at school. I learned so much and so did the kids during the time we used it. However, it does it in a way that builds layers and starts out gently building those layers so it can seem deceptively simple and shallow.

 

6. The books were mostly interesting to read and the Middle School supplemental readings were ones that both kids enjoyed.

 

7. Everything is scripted if you need a lot of guidance, but you can easily adapt and change the curriculum. You don't need to follow the script.

 

8. I priced it all out and actually buying everything through them was cheaper than piecemealing it so it was easy to order it, everything came in one box and I wasn't shopping all over for various books, components, etc. I only had to get a few supplies for the science lessons.

 

9. There was a nice, predictable flow to our day, but each day was a little different so it didn't get boring.

 

10. Knowledge is built gently over time, but in much greater depth by the end of it than most brick and mortar curriculums, especially since TG ties the various subjects together in a kind of tapestry. There is also a great system of review.

 

11. Sometimes the reference books and reading were not as useful for my kids as videos I found on you tube or DVD's we already had, but it was easy to read ahead, find areas where a video or DVD would work better or work well alongside the reading material and add that or insert it during a lesson.

 

12. Lessons are structured so that Fridays are review from a bit different perspective and are lighter. Nice to have that built in lighter review day so you can schedule co-op classes or doctors appointments on Fridays or switch days around and know that you can still get everything done. Also, having built in review really helped solidify concepts for the kids.

 

13. Each level is sub-sectioned into 6 weeks units, so you can easily schedule breaks every 6 weeks if you plot it out ahead of time. Knowing that we were going to take a guaranteed one week break in 6 weeks was great for all of us psychologically. It was especially nice since there was a great sense of closure for the one unit while anticipating what might happen with the next one. And there was a great flow moving into the next unit, with everything building on previous knowledge. It also gave me a time when I knew I could catch up on other things, we could easily schedule vacations or holiday time off, etc. I actually looked at my calendar for when I planned for us to take an extended summer break (we school year round but take a bit of time off in the summer) then worked backwards, seeing where a break would work best, and plotted the whole thing out ahead of time.

 

13. Paths of Settlement has a wonderful 6 weeks unit at the end of the year that incorporates State history into the grand scheme of United States History at the Paths of Settlement level.

 

14. For most people the system is really pretty open and go. Just check ahead for any additional materials needed for science, take a few minutes to print out any work sheets and support material the kids will need, and off you go.

 

15. There is a great support group on Yahoo that is usually very active and has lots of wonderful suggestions.

 

16. The people at Trail Guides were very kind and supportive. It is a small business and mostly family run, so they are very personable (but sadly one of the wonderful creators died of a heart attack and she is sorely missed).

 

17. For the subjects specifically, I liked the art and I think it would be fine for elementary level. I would add something for Middle School. Same with the music, it was great as an introduction and the kids had fun with it. History was rich as I mentioned before, and even though it is U.S. History it is presented within the context of the history going on globally at the time. It really helped the kids to see that history does not occur in a vacuum. Science in particular was wonderful. There were some terrific hands on lessons, lots of good concept building, etc. and it was easy to build on or simplify where needed. Again, though, it was building the knowledge in gentle layers so it could seem deceptively basic at times. With a Middle Schooler I might supplement a bit but it did cover a lot. Just gently so it didn't always seem like enough but it actually covered a lot. The language arts part we mainly used as vocabulary building since we were using a different program for reading/spelling/writing to remediate their dyslexia based issues so I cannot really speak to that aspect.

 

Cons

 

1. Our biggest issue was that we would be reading 3-4 books at a time, every day but Friday. When we started the program neither child was reading independently enough to read these books on their own, so I had to read everything to them. It was challenging for me to read passages from 3-4 reading books every M, T, W, Th, plus the other readings required for science/art/etc. as well as our heavy remediation lessons for reading/writing/spelling because of the dyslexia issues as well as a lot of remediation in math. It also frustrated the kids that I had to keep switching between books instead of reading as far as they wanted. You normally take turns doing read alouds and do some reading silently. All of the books are stretched out over weeks so you don't finish any reading quickly, and the break points are not always easy to spot. I had to mark the stopping points in the books or I would overshoot. If I were doing TG now I would probably restructure how the readings are done, TBH. Maybe go by chapter and change the flow/pacing.

 

2. I found myself modifying a LOT of language arts material so that it wouldn't interfere with the remediation we were doing with Barton Reading and Spelling. That caused some issues with planning because I was a rookie and didn't know what I was doing. Now? I could have adapted it. Then? I just didn't have enough experience.

 

3. The curriculum relied so heavily on reading that they had to have a LOT of help so the kids began to feel they couldn't be independent on ANYTHING. It undermined their confidence. (If your children are not dyslexic you probably would not have this issue).

 

4. There is a bit of a learning curve with this material if you have never used anything like it before. If I had had more time to study it or been more conversant with it to begin with, or had more experience homeschooling at that time I probably would have been more effective at modifying it right away and wouldn't have had to spend so much time in between lessons frantically trying to adapt everything for our specific circumstances. Honestly, though, if I had known it relied so heavily on reading material I think I would have waited about 6 months to see if reading remediation would give the kids a chance to do more on their own. In your situation you wouldn't be facing some of the challenges I had. I definitely recommend taking a couple of weeks to read through it and get used to how the material works, though. It is brilliantly done, IMHO, but is not like anything I had ever seen so it may take a bit of time to really grasp it in all its intricacy and depth.

 

5. I did feel that at times the kids needed more direct instruction in what was happening historically, instead of just gleaning it from the readings and videos and writing assignments. The program is more discovery based and a lot of things are expected to be understood through inference. In other words, sometimes I had to step in with more "facts and figures" info, more specific big picture tied explicitly to little picture help, not to memorize for a test or anything but to clarify. They weren't always making the connections on their own. If I had known that ahead of time I could have had those resources readily available.

 

 

We finally dropped it, but I still love the program.

 

By the way, we never did Paths of Exploration since both kids had covered that time period in school fairly well, but I hear that there are some awesome lessons in that level. We started with the second level, Paths of Settlement, but it really wasn't an issue to start in the middle...

 

 

One thing I have heard is there can be an issue if there is a very wide range of functionality and you are teaching more than two children. There can be a huge delay between when the older or more advanced child finishes and the younger ones since the expectations/workload is much higher for kids using the higher level materials. That can cause some difficulties with scheduling. If your youngers are done with their assignment in a subject and are ready to move on to the next thing but your older child is still writing out all their answers it can be frustrating for all parties involved.

 

In other words, even though it is really designed to be used with multiple age levels simultaneously and I think the material really is set up to be workable with different ages/levels of functionality, trying to teach multiple children at all different levels at the same time is not going to be smooth sailing. It can be done but you would need to read through the material and really get everything planned out, be flexible on where to maybe schedule in something else for the littles or have the older child/children do certain things at another time, maybe finishing up written assignments while the littles are occupied elsewhere or napping or something, etc. In other words, with more that two children I don't think it will be as open and go as you might hope for since their ages/functionality will probably be pretty wide spread.

 

Hope that helps some...

This helps tremendously! Thank you very much for this thorough review.

[OneStepAtATime]

That was a great review OneStep!

 

I had forgotten why I bought it. For me #5 and #10 were the reasons why I bought it. And other reasons, like the subjects are interwoven.

 

You hit it on the nail when you said it is deceivingly simple. It didn't occur to me that it was gentle layers of learning. I'm glad you mentioned that. It'll help me to get back with it.

thanks 

[OneStepAtATime]

I'm glad it helped.

 

Oh, I did think of a couple of other things I wanted to mention.

 

First, the system comes with a really great weekly checklist for both the students and the teacher and is specific to each week since sometimes things change.  It can be used without modification.  Just print out that week's checklist.  Easy Peasy.

 

However, I found that for daily work the kids seemed to do better with a daily checklist instead of a weekly one and my eyesight is wonky so making the print bigger lessened eye strain (the print is necessarily small on the original so as to squeeze everything in).  I changed it from a landscaped weekly checklist to a vertical daily checklist.  Each child had their own for just them.  Mine was a two column checklist with each column for a different child so I could see both at the same time.  I believe I could have modified it to be 3 columns for 3 children.  I don't know that I could have fit more than that, though.  I started out using something from Donna Young's site but eventually created my own in Excel.  I had a different one for each day of the week set up as a template based on the checklist in TG.  Since each day/week has a predictable flow and similar framework this was easy to do.  I would fill in any specific changes on Saturday for the next week while also looking things over to see if there were supplies we needed.  It gave me time to get everything before Monday, got me in the mindset for the next week's lessons, and the checklist was quick to update and use.

 

Second, I found we did better (no piles of papers scattered all over or supplies, etc.) when I combined the following:

• A rolling book cart.  Everything for the week went on the cart (still does).  I would go through it each Saturday as I was skimming the next week's lessons and make sure whatever was needed was on that cart.  Each child has their own section as did I.  I kept the TG TM on that cart, too.  I could put the books/supplies/sheets on that cart and know exactly where everything for the week was located.  I could roll it around if we needed to change locations or roll it out of the way for dinner, etc.  It looked similar to below.  I found the size/color/brand I wanted, put it in my Amazon cart and when the price dropped to something I could afford I bought it.  Best thing ever, LOL.  I bought a Sandusky since it was super rugged.  I couldn't find the one I bought but this will give you a general idea.

              https://www.amazon.com/3-Shelf-Narrow-Utility-School-Supply/dp/B01I88Q3YW/ref=sr_1_fkmr3_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514470692&sr=8-1-fkmr3&keywords=sandusky+rolling+book+carts

• A workbox for each child.  I bought them at Costco and they were not very tall but tall enough.  They stacked beautifully and were colored but see through.  Each child had their own color.   When they were done with whatever they were doing they tossed everything back into their box for me to check later.  Writing utensils started out in that box in pouches.  We eventually needed more than just a few office supplies so we now have individual latchable utensil boxes but for our needs back then it worked fine.  I got them in the habit of putting away papers as soon as they were done and it was easy because they had their individual box to put it in.  The workboxes then went on the rolling cart until I could go back and check their written work.  The one linked below is similar but the brand I used came in a set of 5 and had 5 different colors.

            https://www.amazon.com/Darice-2025-401-Polypropylene-Stackable-Transparent/dp/B00BYL3P2O/ref=pd_sbs_201_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00BYL3P2O&pd_rd_r=7P8JN46GAGKAB19V4QQW&pd_rd_w=SwaE1&pd_rd_wg=Eq7Jo&psc=1&refRID=7P8JN46GAGKAB19V4QQW

 

 

Third, I had to shift my thinking a bit on the hands on stuff.  Sometimes it seemed at first glance to be time consuming and kind of pointless or just busy work or just for fun or maybe I was just feeling tired and didn't feel like dealing with hands on stuff.  For instance, each week we were building another meteorological device.  They were crude and my techy husband thought it was silly when we already had a digital weather device that did 90% of what the devices we were building would do and do it more accurately.  However, building their own really helped the kids to finally internalize what all those numbers meant on the digital display.  They gained a tremendous depth of understanding for all the various components that go into weather and climate and atmosphere.  They were also eager every morning to check whatever devices we had built and record the data for the day.  As we added more devices it did get to be more time consuming but it was honestly the highlight and got us off to a good start each morning.  It also really helped solidify our lessons.

 

The activities honestly didn't take that long either but provided great opportunities for learning.  I'm not saying every single hands on activity must be done.  Not at all.  This system is designed to be adaptable and the creators say over and over this is your tool to use as you see fit with your children.  It is not a straightjacket, it is a resource.  Do what seems to fit and ditch the rest or modify it.  I'm just saying that I had to shift from seeing these activities as busy work the kids would do for fun and instead see them as ways for the children to really connect to the concepts on a deeper level, and again those concepts built up in layers over time.  (We still have some of those instruments, by the way, and crude as they are, the kids still like using them periodically).

 

Anyway, these things floated through my mind last night and I thought I would share in case any of it helped with decision making or even functionality later on...

 

Best wishes.

Edited December 28, 2017 by OneStepAtATime

[scbusf]

Thank you for all the information.

 

This curriculum has always appealed to me, but we've never tried it. I now have kids that are 11, 10, and 7 and all 3 are reading independently. We also have solid math programs for everyone.

 

Long-term users - how do you feel the grammar and writing is? Did you supplement?

[OneStepAtATime]

Thank you for all the information.

 

This curriculum has always appealed to me, but we've never tried it. I now have kids that are 11, 10, and 7 and all 3 are reading independently. We also have solid math programs for everyone.

 

Long-term users - how do you feel the grammar and writing is? Did you supplement?

Hopefully someone who used that part as intended can answer better but I will try to share a bit.

 

The language arts part is probably fine for many, especially if your children naturally pick up grammar and spelling through exposure.  It does cover vocabulary, spelling, grammar, writing, etc.  It covers a lot.  For some children they are going to need a more directed, phonics based program for reading/spelling and maybe more targeted, explicit grammar but until you try it I don't know that you would be able to know for sure.  Again, like with the rest of the program, it builds these skills up over time so it might seem very basic at first but it has the students work to add layers to their knowledge.

 

There IS a lot of writing required.  For some it is not an issue and it may not seem like much at all.  For a child with issues regarding writing, they may need someone to scribe for them and provide more scaffolding and possibly cut out some of the writing until their writing output catches up to their ability to absorb the information.  

 

The Middle School supplement adds a lot of great material but the writing at that level may be too much if the student has not had much experience writing.  They may need some support/scaffolding while they work through it.

[vaquitita]

In other words, even though it is really designed to be used with multiple age levels simultaneously and I think the material really is set up to be workable with different ages/levels of functionality, trying to teach multiple children at all different levels at the same time is not going to be smooth sailing.

This was my conclusion, glad to have that confirmed. Trail Guide to Learning looks awesome, but yeah it's just going to be too much work for me with four kids with an eight year spread...