2019-2020 Hits and Misses K-8 Edition

[Soror]

I've seen a thread for highschool but not here yet, I know some have just started but we're heading into week 12 here and in a good groove. 

It's been nearly all hits here, which makes for a smooth year, which has been very nice after a wonky year last year with so much transitions.

Hits: 

Jump In- Perfect, perfect, perfect for dd1, she tried IEW last year and it bombed, she ended up HATING it and we had to drop it. She's making great progress AND enjoying it.

Well-Ordered Language- Both girls together, they are retaining, reasonable amount of time from me, and it focuses on memorizing but also thinking and applying

Faith and Life Online- they enjoy it, it gets done, and they're learning

Mom made World Cultures with read alouds 

G& B Handwriting

So far so good......

Oak Meadow Science 7

Interest Led Science for dd2

Old Favorites- 

Megawords; CLE Math; WWE; 

Miss:

Horizons Spelling 1 for dd3- we made it about 3 or 4 weeks- we ended up moving to Good and Beautiful 1 LA

[HomeAgain]

4th grade here. 

Hits:
Nallenart French.  It's quick and effective.
English Lessons Through Literature - Discerning.  A perfect fit for time, rigor, and level of writing.
Gattegno math
Getting Nerdy With Mel & Gerdy interactive notebooks. This is a supplement to our science, but I love being able to pick projects from 2-3 covering the same info but at different levels, for each topic that they offer.  I think our anatomy one covers 20 separate projects with 2-3 for each.

Misses:
The History Of Us - the series isn't bad, but it wasn't a good fit for my oldest and with the youngest, we're just not getting through it in good time.  I'm switching to Our Land next week at a slower pace.

Eh:
Latin For Children A.  It's.......okay.  There is no love here for it and its weird organization of topics, though. 
Life Of Fred.  He loved the alphabet series, but the difference when it came to Fractions and its format is just enough to throw him off and not like it as much.

Edited September 21, 2019 by HomeAgain
I can't spell

[Elizabeth86]

Hits

Abeka grade 1 phonics, language, spelling and reading! It really works for us.

Spelling workout - it gets the job done

FLL 3 we are both loving this

Memoria Press literature guides - I like them orally.  They are a lot to write.  We are doing it a bit modified.  We do once a week as written and twice weekly orally.  

Vp self paced history - I will never get a chance to try another curriculum, this is a hit at our house.  My first grader has volunteered to work with his brother on this.

Memoria Press preschool - It has been amazing at making me have intentional moment s with dd.  

Mp first grade enrichment - Love it when we get too it.

Apologia elementary - astronomy (it's hard to find time, but we love it)

Song school latin ( they beg to do it daily, but we have a hard time making the time for it.

Bju math - we love bju for math 1 & 3, but my son isn't loving DL for 3rd. We may move to parent led after Christmas.

ZB handwriting is great.  My 3rd grader is loving cursive.

Misses no misses really.  We feel meh about mp introduction to composition.  D's is doing fine, but it's not great.  I wouldn't choose to use it again. 

Edited November 25, 2019 by Elizabeth86
I'm editing to update our opinions.

[hollyhock2]

For grades 1, 6 and 8:

Hits:

• LLATL Gray - kid requested it after liking LLATL the last few years and he is enjoying it.
• R&S English - other kid requested this one. He's been using it a few years now, too.
• The Children's Atlas of God's World - as part of a simple world geography course
• Climbing to Good English 1 - I'm a little surprised because my boys hated CTGE, but this girl loves writing and colouring
• Pathway reading - always a hit at our house and my 5th new reader loves them just like everyone did
• Keeping a journal for the girl who loves writing and drawing and colouring
• Let's Read and Find Out for 1st grade science

Misses:

• My First History of Canada - I have always loved this book and used it many times, but this year, for the ages of my younger boys, it was definitely too juvenile and didn't have enough detail, so we switched to The Story of Canada, which I've never really been a fan of, but this time it is the right thing.
• MUS Epsilon - perhaps I didn't give it much of a chance, but after one worksheet, we went back to TT
• WWE 1 - we're still doing copywork and narration but my girl wants to do more than WWE requires at this level, so we're loosely following the concept and modifying to fit her
• Science in the Beginning - I love this book but my 11yo did not like so many experiments and having to notebook after every lesson

Edited September 26, 2019 by hollyhock2

[Momto6inIN]

Thankfully with a new baby this year most things are hits. We are making good progress and I'm only slightly overwhelmed most of the time so we're going to call that good 🙂

6th - DD surprisingly loves Analytical Grammar! She was worried it was "too hard" and she hates tests and it has weekly tests so she was sure she was going to hate it. But she is enjoying the challenge and it is really building her confidence for doing "harder" middle school work. Yay! Her history paragraphs are getting better too, and she likes reading Human Odyssey. She still makes silly errors in math, but MM6 is not as hard as she thought it would be. AAS is not her favorite but it gets the job done. She likes God's Design for Science and I don't hate it 😉 so that's a win too.

2nd - She is starting AAR 4 and is happy to be almost done with phonics. She says she doesn't like AAS but she does it happily every day so whatever. SotW is fun and so is Magic School Bus science and her narrations are hilarious! She is narrating to me and I'm scribing, then she copies them. Haven't started Easy Grammar yet but we will in a few weeks, so we'll see if she likes that. Starting a "new" subject tjat her older siblings do usually goes over well with her. MM2 is easy and painless at this point, we're almost ready to start carrying in addition so we'll see how that goes.

All in all, I'm teally happy with our year so far! 🙂 Hope I didn't just jinx it ...

 

[LauraClark]

So far for my 3rd grader:

Hits:

SOTW,

Berean Builders In the Beginning (love love love this one!),

Hey Andrew Teach Me Some Greek 3 (sometimes not his favorite because it makes him think hard, but overall I think he's liking it),

Latin's Not so Tough 2,

Spelling Dictation Day by Day (sometimes he adds extra sentences to make it a story-that's a huge win!),

Writing Strands 3 (we super enjoyed assignments 1 and 3 but hated assignment 2-I think that was my fault)

R&S Art (I'm surprised by this one, but they really look forward to it each week)

Misses

Latina Prima (too many words to memorize each week and it felt very random as far as grammar-I know they teach that later, but I like Latin's Not so Tough's approach of teaching grammar without actually teaching grammar.  I also like that it takes some time to go through the alphabet and diphthongs without jamming it in one lesson like Latina Prima)

Getting the job done: 

FLL, OPG(for my 1st grader), R&S Math

 

[alisoncooks]

I'm pretty sure Bookshark Science 6 is going to be a miss. I had such high hopes...

Hits:

• Cover Story for 8th grade DD -- new to us this year
• CLE Rdg (we always use this for 4th-8th)
• EiW for youngest - her first year with it (older sis has used it)

[Mommyof1]

We are only one week into 1st grade and she is enjoying it.

Hit

We changed math this year to Beast Academy 2A. She loves it. After Bible class on Wednesday night she even  asked to do more math. I asked what she thought BA and she said she loves it. I'm glad she is enjoying it.

No misses as of yet.

[Holly]

Hits:

• IEW materials: SWI, Fix-It Grammar, and Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization.  I bought a couple other items from there, but these are the ones we’ve used so far.
• MP Greek Alphabet— This has been a fun addition to our morning basket.  We are all enjoying learning to write Greek letters.  I will follow it with Elementary Greek.
• Our morning basket—this has been such a fun start to our morning!  Our basket contents are in my signature.  We haven’t used Grammar of Poetry yet, but everything else has been so fun! 

Misses: 

• I really hate to say this, but MP’s cores are not working for us.  I have too many kids to teach and far too much anxiety over school.  I’m a single mom and need something “easier”.  So we are going back to SCM’s history and literature tomorrow, along with some of their other resources.  I need my kids combined as much as possible!   I had wanted them more separated since I have high schoolers in the mix, but at the risk of my sanity, it’s just not worth it.  😢 We are keeping MP science and Latin.  I’m so sad about dropping their history and Christian Studies, but it’s just too many moving parts for now.  
• Math—I will be moving most of my kids back to MUS.  Teaching math is also causing a lot of stress, and MUS seems to work well overall.  One is staying with Rod and Staff since she really likes it and doesn’t need me to teach her very often. 
• MP Kindergarten: I think I could make this work, but I’m really worried my son will dread school if we continue.  Every minute is a struggle to get him to form letters correctly or focus.  I keep thinking that if we were still doing CM methods, he wouldn’t be doing any formal school at this point.  I may shelve this until 1st grade,  because I do like the program overall.  

Edited September 23, 2019 by Holly

[keirin]

Hits:

Typetastic 

Catholic Heritage Curricula Handwriting Year 3 (cursive)

Evan Moor Building Spelling Skills

Home-made Fairy Tales unit study using If the Wolf Were an Octopus (RFP) and Tales of Wonder (Circe Press) and lots of picture books

Daily Mental Math

Tin Man Press Start Thinking Grade 3

Singapore Math

Story of Civilization Part 2 The Medieval world

Scratch (on my own curriculum based partially on the Scratch coding cards) - this is by far their favorite thing we are doing.

Misses:

Writing and Rhetoric Fable - I had really hoped that this would jumpstart our writing in third grade but it has not worked for us. We are about 3 lessons in and I'm seriously considering jumping ship. The problem is I have no idea what to jump ship to. 

The Jury is Out:

Beast Academy - I really loved 2A-2D, but the kids continue to complain about it. And they absolutely hated the online component - they prefer the practice pages.

Memoria Press Latina Christiana - My husband likes it and is teaching it, but the kids vacillate between being excited to do something with Dad and hating the amount of work required to learn a language, especially Latin.

 

 

[stibalfamily]

Hits:

IEW Fix it Grammar, I bought the whole series I love it so much. 

SWI A, My son is actually writing with this! Praise God!

Singapore Math

Evan Moor's Building Math Fluency Series https://www.evan-moor.com/p/562/building-math-fluency-grade-3

Mystery Science

 

Misses:

All About Spelling for DS8, he is just not getting it. He is still spelling words wrong by the end of the week. Lord help me! I need to find a spelling program for this boy that works. 

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

Hits

CAP W&R Fable: DS loooooves it! My little story-teller 🥰

All About Spelling: He’s zoomed through Level 1, is nearly done with Level 2, & I can already see vast improvement in his spelling when writing independently!

Self-Directed Learning: Not a curriculum, obviously. This one is a struggle for my Type-A self but he is doing well with it this far so we’ll see. 

Too Soon to Tell

Blossom & Root Botany: He likes the subject matter. We aren’t following the scheduling at all, but I’m trying to at least follow the sequence...

Math: He completed Bedtime Math right before “school started,” followed by a short unit on measurement from Singapore 3B. He hasn’t touched Beast Academy yet this year, despite loving 3A-3C last year. Right now he’s fallen down a graphing rabbit hole: bar graphs, pie charts, & line plots - oh my!

History: We haven’t done anything with this yet. If he decides he wants to we have SotW Vol II & the Usborne history encyclopedia. I don’t think I’ll bother with History Odyssey or History Pockets unless he really wants to. 

Misses

Killgallon Sentence Composing: Apparently “This simple, fun activity can help you learn to write better sentences.” translated to “Your writing is awful & nobody likes you.” 🤦🏻‍♀️ I’ve shelved it, but am keeping it, because once he is mature enough to want to improve stylistically I think it will be a fabulous resource. 

Edited September 26, 2019 by Expat_Mama_Shelli

[ScoutTN]

Hits:

CLE math
Apples and Pears spelling
Online class with Center for Lit

No real misses. 

Edited October 16, 2019 by ScoutTN

[Syllieann]

New hits:  WWS1, Fix-it, and Kolbe Literature for my 5th grader.   Cursive handwriting jokes and riddles for my 3rd grader.

continued hits:  mbtp LA, story of civilization and story of the bible, 

Painlessly getting the job done:  rod and staff spelling, trade books for science, sound beginnings spelling

Meh:  not sure on bible heroes for my 1st grader, but he does love the game and activities.  Dd did well with CLE math for the past 2 years, but I was unhappy with how they taught the multi-digit multiplication algorithm so I pulled that chapter from math mammoth.  Now she wants to stay with math mammoth despite the fact that she becomes frustrated with the problem solving expectations.

 

[Heathermomster]

About three days into the school year, I swapped out the HO2 Ancients paper timeline with sticker pack for the Timeline Creator iPad app.   The iPad app is much easier to use.

Apples & Pears Spelling is awesome.  Actually, everything we are using is good and gets completed.

[Heathermomster]

On 9/24/2019 at 7:08 AM, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

Well, we had a dyslexia dx enter the mix so I pretty much did a complete revamp for one kid which trickled outward to my other elementary kid for the sake of streamlining and sanity. I feel like we ended up changing or shelving so many things in the last 2-3 months. 

Hits/What seems to be going well for the moment:

VeritasBible- I can wax poetic about this program for days. Love it. We have completed Genesis-Joshua and have moved to The Gospels. 

Saxon math 2&3 

Hands on Equations for ds8 (and oh my word, can someone please remake the video to replace the one that comes with it!! Ack!)

Barton reading and spelling for dd

Pared down Abeka phonics to the easiest open and go possible for ds, and dropped all worksheets.

Switched all handwriting for both to Simply Charlotte Mason various copywork books. 

Mystery Science- they love it and it’s easy to do once or twice a week. 

MEL Science kits- pretty fantastic experiments we do a couple of times a month. I like that you can do the experiments multiple times. Huge hit for both. (And the rest of the family enjoys too tbh. Even grandparents have been impressed.)

SCM Picture Study Portfolios- they’re just so good.

Private Art lessons

Shelved for now due to time: 

Song School Latin- they loved it, but it’s just not priority at the moment. The 3R’s at this point have me maxed out, and take up a lot of time since I can’t combine kids on those and I’m using some time intensive programs. Playtime comes before Latin at this point, but it’s a cute program. 

Notgrass- OSSS- nothing against it and I try to read it weekly. It just hasn’t been happening the last month or so though. 

Misses:

Veritas Self Paced History- I could not stand the bickering brother and sister (which tb fair I was warned about here.) The song grates my nerves in the worst way, and the production quality was just so much cheesier than the Bible version. I was really disappointed. We dropped it early on. 

BJU Math- as much as dd liked the cuteness and it got done, it was WAY to much visual clutter for her situation. 

Too Soon to Say:

AAS for ds8 

DS was making fun of those videos 9 years ago.  The hat Borenson wears kills me.

[knitgrl]

Most of the time, all the things are getting done. Even science. Which says more for me at the moment, than the curriculum, because it is what we have always used.

Hits:

Treasured Conversations. Dd loves this. She has turned a corner and is motivated to write this year.

MEP seems to be working for everybody. Woo-hoo!

GSWL - so far, so good.

BFSU - I think I got the swing of it? I have had a day or two where we watched BBC documentaries and have tried really hard to bring fungi up (the lessons we have been working on atm) whenever possible. Dd is impressed and is liking science more this year.

AAS - We just keep chugging along.

Phonics Pathways - We keep chugging. Since writing is such work for ds, I have him do the dictation with magnetic letters.

Progressive Printing - Since writing is such work for ds, we are working at half speed. Sometimes, he just air-writes his letters.

Go for the Code - Such a relief that I don't have to pull together worksheets. Dd loves having her own book and is eager to work on her letters.

Pretty OK:

History Odessey, switching out Human Odessey for Story of Mankind - It's history, so dd, is completely uncritical. I think the lessons are somewhat uneven in what is expected for output. Otherwise, it's fine. I am mostly using it to introduce study skills.

BYL Around the World - Right now we are reading "Little House in the Woods." The K'r for whom it is intended gets bored. The 1st grader tolerates it well enough. It does what I wanted it to do, which is to offer additional read alouds, since I am pretty sure I read almost every picture book on a K'r list to ds last year. I did the math, it was well over 700.

Miss:

typingclub.com - So this is partly my fault. I did not read the manual which says you should put in an hour a week. And her practice was pretty random. She has plateaued for the past 7 months, and it is just frustrating for her. I told her we can drop it until January, and we'll find another program for her.

 

[RootAnn]

On 9/28/2019 at 6:12 PM, Ordinary Shoes said:

I don't know if this is normal for the first year homeschooling but I think we've had way more "misses" than "hits."

Totally normal. And every time you add a kid or after a kid goes through a growth spurt...

I was all set to be glowing about Exploration Education (or whatever the hands on science is called) but found out that my older boy thinks it is mostly boring because he knows a lot (so far) and it is "not as fun as mom science." My DH said, "Face it. You are just too good a teacher." (Which is so very wrong!!)

I'll update in another week or four...

[alisha]

34 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

I was all set to be glowing about Exploration Education (or whatever the hands on science is called) but found out that my older boy thinks it is mostly boring because he knows a lot (so far) and it is "not as fun as mom science." My DH said, "Face it. You are just too good a teacher." (Which is so very wrong!!)

I'm finding this also. So far, I got the EE for my 7th grader and it's way too easy for him so far. But my 4th grader loves it because of all the hands on stuff. We're giving it another week before I make a decision, but I think I may need to find another science program for my 7th grader.

[MeaganS]

I'm feeling really good about the resources we have. It seems that finally after 7 years, I am getting the hang of this. Most of what we have are "hits" or at least "tolerates."

Hits:

Math: TT continues to be the best option for this dd11. It isn't too much to be overwhelming and having it on the computer. Given that we did MANY different maths so far, I'm glad this has worked for a few levels now. Here's hoping it keeps working for a few more years at least. Beast Academy is going great for dd7 and dd9. We do both online and paper, and while they prefer the online part, they do great with both. Xtramath is done by all but dd9 (I let her graduate from math facts practice). It's easy to do and they tolerate it.

Spelling: AAS works for all my girls. I couldn't do it without the app (those tiles would drive me crazy otherwise). But its pretty painless and seems to be fairly effective.

Writing: W&R is working for dd9 and dd11 and we are a few levels in for each of them. I don't see us switching any time soon. DD7 uses WWE2 and is doing a great job. I'll probably have her go until week 20 or so and then let her start W&R fable. It's about where I jumped ship with my older two as well.

Grammar: All are doing Beowulf grammar. They are all enjoying it. I don't know how effective it is, but we've always done very dry grammar (FLL) and they are happy for the change and the chance to be able to do some little crafty things as part of school. That's not normal in the materials I choose, so it is novel for them. I will probably let them all do it for the year and then go back to more intense grammar next year.

Latin: dd9 is doing GSWL. She likes it well enough and it works well. I did it all the way through with dd11, so it is easy and fairly streamlined for me to do.

Spanish: All 3 are doing Duolingo. It's easy and they don't mind. My goals are just exposure to it at this point and maybe a little vocab for when we go to visit Mexico City in 2 years. I think it is going to meet that goal.

Geography: Drawing the World and Drawing the USA. They are really liking doing this and after daily practice for 2 or 3 months, all three can make a fairly accurate outline of the world from memory. We are about to add in the Drawing the USA book, so no experience there yet.

Piano: Hoffman Academy continues to be awesome. We've been with them since before it was called Hoffman Academy and it is one of my favorite resources.

Reading: dd3 started OPGTR. It is my 4th time through, so I'd say it is a hit.

History and Science: We are informal with both of these. Right now we do listen to 2 chapters of SOTW in the car every week and discuss it. The girls also do Mystery Science on their own time. And they've been doing a lot with Scratch on their own too. I require 15 minutes of non-fiction library books daily, so they get a fair amount of history and science there as well. They learn a lot on their own time and as parts of family discussions and activities/trips. I feel really good about this approach for their ages and our family and they are learning so much.

Still haven't decided:

Latin: dd11 is doing Latin for Children. The videos and online chants have been a major part of the success for her. I think it is probably too early to tell how it will go, but she's learning the vocab and chants. I'm interested to see how it works with actual translation as we get farther in. 
 

 

[2_girls_mommy]

For kindy:

Hits: Rod and Staff 1st grade maththe ducky version. DD loves this and is doing so well!!

Hits- R&S ABC series- still finishing these up from pre K. Love them so much.

Hits- Character First Curriculum units. Very nice.

Miss- Handwriting Without Tears. I was excited to be gifted the whole set, but have not really found a way to incorporate it. I want her using lowercase, not just uppercase at this point. But we've enjoyed pieces of it- the board with chalk, the wood pieces to start the year, the music CDs. But for actual writing, I think I'll be sticking with traditionally lined paper and copywork, just incorporating lesson ideas here and there. 

 

 

[ByGrace3]

4th Grade Hits: VP Self paced history and Bible, Fix It, MM, W&R, AAS, NAC

4th Grade Misses: Science. dd is on a LEGO Robotics team so its not a complete wash, but I intended to do more at home and it hasn't gotten off the ground.

6th Grade HITS: Mr D Pre-Algebra (ds was very reluctant to do an online class but he LOVES it), Omnibus I primary and secondary, MW, Fallacy Detective

6th Grade Misses: With me working part-time, Analytical Grammar is not getting done because he is not as independent with it as older dd was . . .I am trying to decide whether to cut my losses and switch back to Fix It or just keep dragging out Season 2 of AG . . .  Also science for him isn't really a hit or miss completely. He is on a First LEGO League team so has 5 hours of that per week, and then spends another 2 hours at least each week working on the online EV3 robotics lessons . . . but I had planned more . . . hopefully I will get it together here.  Writing has been a bit of a miss so far. I had planned to hit writing heavy after the Season 2 of AG was over, but since AG isn't getting done I need to rethink that as well. 

[RootAnn]

5 hours ago, Paradox5 said:

The Girl picked this as a filler until the revised SOTW 3 and 4 are released. 

I know I ask this every time, but I feel like you are waiting for something that isn't going to happen. Where/when did you see that SOTW3 & 4 are being revised & re-released? I have not seen this anywhere except from you. 

--------

On a personal note,we are just not moving through material "on pace" to finish on time this school year. I'm a couple weeks behind what my loose plan says we should be across many subjects. Some is because it is taking the kids longer to get the material than I planned, some because they aren't working in their own after I work with them, and some is because I have several days here & there where I am skipping a subject and all those days add up over time. I thought we were doing okay in history until I realized my plan calls for SOTW 4 times per week (times 24 weeks) & I have it scheduled for 3 (30 weeks). Oops! I think it'll be one of those years....

[Miss Tick]

15 minutes ago, RootAnn said:

I thought we were doing okay in history until I realized my plan calls for SOTW 4 times per week (times 24 weeks) & I have it scheduled for 3 (30 weeks). Oops

I feel your pain. I did that with Latin one year.

[Janeway]

On 9/30/2019 at 8:41 PM, Heartwood said:

I don't know about any big hits as I use the same curricula each year (okay, I will say my kids love Sonlight History and Read-Alouds, but we've been using it for years).

 I do have one big miss. Horizons Pre Algebra isn't cutting it. It's so disappointing because I have been using Horizons Math since pre-k, but it's lack of explanations at this level are really frustrating. I have to use something else. The loss of time and money is bothersome and I wish I had done more research before investing in it. A new curriculum has been ordered and I look forward to ditching this and starting afresh.

My now 18 yr old did Horizon's preAlgebra when he was younger and it was a big huge miss. He had done the lower levels too, but it clearly switched authors at that point. We gave up maybe a quarter of the way in and went straight to Foerster's Algebra. It was no problem. There was enough preA review at the beginning so it all worked out. He is in calculus now so all is fine.

[knitgrl]

15 hours ago, Paradox5 said:

Do you mind sharing how you lined these up? I think someone sent me a file once and I lost it!

You are working on the assumption that I have the whole year mapped out and can shoot off a word document, which I would be very happy to do, but alas, I am not that person. You have a most excellent idea, and if I can manage to put something together in a reasonable time frame, I will certainly share.

[rebcoola]

Hits:  Cover Story is a huge hit with both girls the videos are entertaining and short they like the assignments so far.

ALEKS math you have to do the tests on this at our ALE no matter what you use if you want HS credit.  So we tried and  they both really like it.  They like the autonomy and I like the built in review.  

Story of the world 4: no surprise I just beef it up myself for my older daughter.  They choose the projects they like themselves one usually chooses the baking and one the engineering.
 

Undecided: Mosdos press it gets done she likes the stories.

[pitterpatter]

Goodies:

• CLE Math 7 (with about half the review problems cut out)
• Megawords 1 (three pages per day, skipping the testing...will be moving onto book two in a week or so)
• CLE English 7
• Tiner's The World of Chemistry + Chemistry 101 DVDs + MEL Science kits
• America the Beautiful (review questions, additional lit, and mapwork only)

Hits:

• Memoria Press First Form Latin with streaming lessons (My daughter, who is 12, and I are both working through this. We love it! The daily chunks are perfect.)
• The Fallacy Detective (completing orally)

Misses:

• A History of US with teacher/student guides (bought the first ones, couldn't manage to even get started with them, as the guides were unusable for us...switched to Notgrass)
• Essentials in Writing (not impressed; it's very public school and lacks a thorough teaching of the actual writing process; typos, poor editing, grammar mistakes abound...switching to WWS 1 soon)
• Essentials in Literature (I really wish I had my money back on this one, as it's a pretty expensive mistake. Again, it's very public school. Many exercises are too long and repetitive for no good reason, if completed in full. You have to find and print your own short stories. The majority of the curriculum is a rip-off from a public school textbook but not as well done. And, it feels a bit lazy in some spots. The kicker is that the DVDs are unwarranted. They add very little to what's printed in the student workbook. I thought they would be a good way to move my DD toward online classes for high school, but they are pretty pointless. There are some aspects I like about the curriculum, but the negatives overshadow the positives for me. I am combining/cutting material so each story takes only 2-3 days. After Christmas, we are doing something else.)
• Memoria Press The World of Chemistry supplemental questions (Some days are okay. Others completely suck the life out of my DD.)

Edited October 22, 2019 by pitterpatter

[RootAnn]

Welp, looks like we are 0 for 2 on outsourced online classes for dd#3. I was giving one the benefit of the doubt because sometimes they take awhile to really gel, but I think it is clear neither one is a fit for this girl. Luckily, they are both with providers who allow you to sign up for one semester at a time. So, her schedule will open up a lot in December and I can talk to her about what she wants to do instead.

[Sk8ermaiden]

Write Shop Junior E for my 5th grader. We are LOVING it. We've dabbled in Bravewriter here and there and I've had her write stories of different kinds, and journals, but I just kind of expected her to become a good writer organically and it wasn't really happening. I spent several years feeling not really worried about writing at all, since it's my specialty. But I have come to realize that because it is so natural to me, I know what good writing instruction should *feel like* but I don't know how to organize and teach it from beginning to end AT ALL. WS is a little teacher intensive (but that's OK because most of her subjects aren't) and a lot of fun and my kid likes it too. 

The only miss is that our favorite Outschool teacher who does novel studies, doesn't have ANY up for this semester. It's really unfortunate. I feel like her courses have a lot of value.

[BusyMom5]

I clicked to read for inspiration,  my year (it's my 5th) is going crazy due to too many outside commitments.   

3rd Grader Hits-

Saxon math 3- we started out about 60 lessons in from last year, so had to do some review, but shes chugging along at a good pace, it's getting done most days.  

Growing with Grammar- she loves this

Soaring with Spelling- she loves this, too.

Cursive- for a messy left-handed kid, she doing so well!  I got a few different books- Zaner Bloser and a left-handed book, and McRuffy 3rd grade cursive.   We use a mix, and I make her up pages to copy.  

Science and History are just whatever she reads- right now shes writing a report on red pandas in China and Nepal.  She has older sibling who have harder science and history,  so she listens in, watches movies, ect.  I decided I just dont have the time to devote to her own level on these topics this year, so shes just reading a science or history related book she chooses.  So far, this is a hit!  Shes learning as much as the other kids.  I am buying her a subscription ti Mystery Science soon, I think she will love it!

3rd Grade Misses

Mosdos Press- cannot get her to do the workbook, stories are usually too easy to read, few she finds interesting.   

Word Roots- she wanted this bc older sibs use it, but it's too hard IMO.  it does say grades 3-4, but I think shes too young to understand the concepts. 

 

6th Grade Hits

Word Roots 1- this is going well

Miller Levine (this is a high school text) and RSO BIO2- using a combo of resources for Bio, and it's going very well!  

MyWorld History- this was a new one, I couldn't find any reviews but I knew I needed to switch to a textbook due to our craziness right now.  This has been a really good transition into textbooks- I love the optional workbook pages when needed.  Overall the book is easy to read and understand for 6th graders.

6th Grade Misses

Growing with Grammar- my girls love this, but fir whatever reason, my boys find it confusing and they hate it.  It causes frustration and tears.  I'm about to give up.  

Soaring  with Spelling- it's not really a miss, more like they've outgrown it.  Feels like busy work most days (but it keeps them busy).

6th grade?????

Still deciding on how math is going.  We've jumped around and I'm still not sure what direction we are going in.  

[lulalu]

Hits:

CLE reading used this last year too still working great

Veritas Press History and Bible- I am doing all the teaching just using cards and reading each week

Miquon and Gattegno

Pentime

Dictation Day by Day

 

Misses:

MEP I have tried before, I can't put my finger on what it is, but it just doesn't work for me. I am picking and choosing some activities to do. 

FLL this is just too scripted for me, and I guess I don't see a reason in memorizing the lists now in 2nd grade. 

 

Still Unsure:

Rod and Staff science. It is boring and simple. It gets done when we just read, but it isn't a favorite or teaching much ds didn't already know. 

Rod and Staff Spelling- it gets done and ds is doing well each week. But I feel I need to add teaching the rules and why behind each word. There just is simple work so far not really teaching vowel combinations. Maybe further in the series gets better? 

[SillyOldMom]

This is a tough season for us. It will get a lot better once my #3 has her driver's license. Until then, I schlep her to her community college classes 2x a week. The three littles stay home with #2 on those days, and their productivity varies considerably from day to day. We haven't signed up for spring semester yet, so we don't know what our schedule will look like after Christmas break.

Our hits so far:

-- BJU Math, with a break for my 6th grader to use the Key To workbooks for a while. I switched from Singapore Math when #3 was in about third grade, and we've stuck with it for K-6 for the littles.

-- George Washington's World. I bought Notgrass American History over the summer, but didn't have time to plan it out. So as a stopgap, I handed the 5th and 6th graders George Washington's World and they LOVE it. My olders never wanted to read it as a supplement. We'll pick up with Notgrass when they finish GWW.

-- Spelling You See.

-- FLL. Our old standby. My youngest is almost done with our spiral bound 1+2 and it's bittersweet to watch her finish all these curricula my kids have grown up using.

-- Orbiting with Logic for my 5th grader. He loved it.

-- Explode the Code. Another one that's going away. ::sniff-sniff::

-- Wordly Wise 3000 and Vocabulary from Classical Roots. The 6th grader seems to enjoy VfCR more than WW3000, so I'm going to have the 5th grader give it a try as well, and then switch him if he likes it. I paused the 2nd grader on WW3000 because I thought some of the exercises were over her head. So rather than skip them, I'm going to make her wait or I'll find an alternative.

-- Analytical Grammar for the 6th grader. She's really starting to get the hang of identifying the parts of speech consistently.

-- WWE. Another forever favorite. We're adding in the beta test of Write By Number and that's going well (Shameless plug -- I'm doing the page layout for the author, a longtime friend.).

 

Meh:

-- Science. It's always the first spinning plate to fall. I had big plans for continuing a small co-op group from last year to do earth and space this year, using R.E.A.L. Science, Ellen McHenry's Rocks and Dirt, and Master Books. But with a big book design project (see above), we're having to be content with just reading the Master Books for now. I'm not all that impressed with them. My 5th grader blows through them, though, so I'm glad he's enjoying them for now. I hope to get to all of our cool experiments in the spring.

 

Misses:

-- A teen without a driver's license.

-- All the stuff I have that we're not doing. (WTM math facts books, anyone?)

-- A Child's Story of America. I've had it lying around forever. The 2nd grader is working slowly through it, but neither of us enjoys it. I think the reading level is over her head.

 

I feel like I've forgotten something... oh well. I always love these winners-and-losers threads. They're so much fun to read.

 

 

[alisha]

Hits:
-Typing Instructor For Kids-both my 7th and 4th graders are using this and loving moving through the levels and gaining "coins" and making decisions of which path to take next. 
-Thinking Toolbox-sometimes I have to re-word things so they make sense to the kids, or explain a little further, but they both as for "more"
-Balance Algebra-more like solving a puzzle than doing math, my 7th grader loves doing a page or two a week along with his regular math curriculum

Misses:
-Grammar Galaxy-I wanted to love it, and we liked it to begin with, but since starting at the beginning, we haven't gotten to any grammar yet, and my 4th grader, while he likes the stories, something just isn't intriguing him with this.
-Notgrass From Adam to Us-Another I wanted to love. A few things don't work for us-it doesn't go chronologically-meaning, they have stories about places and landmarks and whatever, that tie somewhat to the time period, but, are really superfluous in the scheme of history. Also, the first half of the first book is heavily riddled with Bible information. We are Christians, and we have studied the bible, both in school and at church since they were small, so I don't feel that we need to go over the timeline of things again in the History book. Yes, it's history, but we already know it. 
-Write On!-I thought I had found the perfect gentle writing curriculum for my writing phobic boys. But, alas, it was like pulling teeth. So, we changed to more creative writing-which we have never done, so I'm thinking we'll work on the actual act of writing, gradually writing more and more, THEN move on to technique and planning and stuff. Write On was lovely, but it ramps up quickly, and so was difficult to do with 4th and 7th graders together.
-Exploration Education (Science)- The first bunch of weeks was way too easy for my 7th grader because he already knew it all, though my 4th grader continued on. However, it took more mom help than I had anticipated and I found they don't enjoy reading texts on computer screens. We continued on with my 4th grader, and by the time we got to things that would have been new to the 7th grader, he had already given up on the program. The projects are wonderful! Though do take quite a bit of mom help with the details. 

Edited December 7, 2019 by alisha

[annegables]

Hits:

Math: AoPS geometry and online BA. BA has been a long and painful road, but it has done wonders for my DS's critical thinking skills. MM for my 2nd grader. Singapore's challenging word problems.

GSWL

ELA: WWS 1 has been one where we are seeing the fruits of his labors and it is so rewarding. For my 4th grader, I did a home-brewed writing curriculum and he writing is improving so much. Daily Paragraph Editing by Evan Moor. All things Killgallon. WWE 2 interspersed with my own assignments. ETC 5. My 2nd grader reading aloud to me from A-Z mysteries. His reading has improved a lot. Vocabulary Cartoons. 

Science: Great Courses Plus. Homebrewed everything else.

SS: Combining history with our read-alouds and focusing on Arthurian legends and Arabian Nights. We have already listened to all the SOTW at least 4 times through, so we are good there. Dan Carlin podcasts.

Meh:

Argument Builder. We have done Art of Argument and Fallacy Detective. Argument Builder is good, but it is a decent amount of writing for what he wanted to do, so we are going slowly. But He is learning a ton, and just like with WWS1, we just need to stick with it to see the fruits.

Misses:

Exclusively doing WWE2. We needed to combine days and then do our own writing assignments on the other days. I like the curriculum; I just had to tweak it to fit.

Singapore Math (except Challenging Word Problems). We needed a curriculum that was challenging but that it was easy to skip over the stuff he already knew well. Singapore had too many different parts for me to do that effectively. 

WWE3. Not a fault of the program at all. My one kid was just a much stronger writer than I thought he was. And he needs to completely own his writing. He will write a lot, as long as he comes up with what he wants to write about. He will not write anything that he does not want to.

HWOT cursive. Gah, I dislike how it looks. We switched to Pentime and their cursive still looks like HWOT. I am not making that mistake in my youngest.

Vocab from Classic Roots. I love this. My eldest did not. And retained nothing. He switched to vocab cartoons and is much happier and uses the words in daily life.

[Quercus]

Hits:

• Dropping Latin once and for all.
• Singapore Math as always

 

Misses:

• Rod and Staff English. This appeals to me a lot, so I try it out on at least one kid every year. But I am going to give them away. It is not going to happen.
• Memoria Press Classical Studies and Christian Studies.  
• Bravewriter. We tried all of it and it was all a miss.

 

Edited December 10, 2019 by Quercus

[RootAnn]

On 12/7/2019 at 1:07 AM, alisha said:

Exploration Education (Science)- The first bunch of weeks was way too easy for my 7th grader because he already knew it all, though my 4th grader continued on. However, it took more mom help than I had anticipated and I found they don't enjoy reading texts on computer screens. We continued on with my 4th grader, and by the time we got to things that would have been new to the 7th grader, he had already given up on the program. The projects are wonderful! Though do take quite a bit of mom help with the details. 

So much of this is true for my ds#1 & ds#2 except none of us has completely given up. The boys mostly don't do it unless DH or I am there, so they aren't nearly as far along as one would expect at mid-year. There are some activities they do completely on their own, but I would say many (not half, but plenty) are more adult-involved than I thought they would be. I do science with them twice per week but they should be doing it two other times on their own per their schedule. I haven't decided what that means for next year.

[....]

Our school year ended at Thanksgiving (we're year-round homeschoolers).  This was probably one of our most productive school years (last year was actually really productive, too).  We took 10 field trips, which was awesome.

Hits

• Intro to Chemistry kit (27 labs from Home Science Tools) - these were great, I'm using them again in January with a different kid
• Dimensions Math
• Real Science 4 Kids Astronomy & Biology (11 year-old loved this)
• The Great Chocolate Caper (logic)
• Using Grimm's fairy tales to teach German - also my new method for teaching German (which was a weird epiphany while I sat in a waiting room)
• Cartoon Guide to Genetics
• How They Croaked (even my husband wouldn't leave this book alone)
• Guinea Pig Scientists
• Max Axiom comics
• Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War II
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
• The Night Wanderer
• National Geographic's The Indian Wars
• Life of Fred Statistics
• Radioactive (the book about Marie Curie and her family)
• Fasttranscripts.com - yes, it was fast and easy - lol - and for 5 bucks, it made transcripts that the college accepted
• Homeschooldiploma.com - gorgeous diploma
• Being done by lunch or early afternoon - we started doing PE and taking field trips again because of this - and it was a lot of fun

Misses

• Memoria Press Latin - First Form and Latina Christiana (OK, we will never buy anything from MP again - apparently, this is the worst curriculum you could possibly use for right-brained, artistic learners - it was Mutiny on the Bounty in our schoolroom trying to use this)
• A Single Shard - yeah, we could not finish this book - it moved way too slowly - even the cats left the room when I started reading it out loud
• Medical Investigations 101 - the kids said this was awful - and it was awful expensive
• Bravewriter - I swear, this is the LAST time I try to use you, Bravewriter!!  
• Crash Course Chemistry - I have a science degree and my first job offer was as a chemist....and even *I* couldn't understand what he was trying to say

Things I Want to Change in January

• I want to move away from independent work - like the kids doing their schoolwork and checking the boxes.  I'm going to try to run our homeschool more like I used to - like a one-room schoolhouse model.  I want the kids to work more in a group than on their own.  More discussions...more group projects...more active teaching instead of "here, read this".  
• We are going to try....key word "try"...a loop schedule.
• Scheduling PE - we were doing PE once a week in the spring, but then it got hot....football started...ds16 broke his foot....  I want to get back to doing PE together once a week.  We were meeting another family at the park and it was a lot of fun.

 

[RootAnn]

On 10/22/2019 at 7:04 PM, RootAnn said:

Welp, looks like we are 0 for 2 on outsourced online classes for dd#3. I was giving one the benefit of the doubt because sometimes they take awhile to really gel, but I think it is clear neither one is a fit for this girl. Luckily, they are both with providers who allow you to sign up for one semester at a time. So, her schedule will open up a lot in December and I can talk to her about what she wants to do instead.

Dd#3 begged to quit one of her online classes because the Teacher went all Bilbo-face on her after misinterpreting dd's questions asking for help & clarification (confusion over vague teacher comments) and a helpful suggestion for next year on how to maybe make an assignment clearer as "disrespect." I made her finish out the semester mostly to show my DD not to back down in the face of someone who disregards all evidence that doesn't fit with the narrative playing in their head at the moment.

Grades are in for both classes & she rocked them despite neither being a good fit (and despite being in tears for a couple of weeks whenever she had to deal with the teacher who accused her of disrespect). I did not sign her up for second semester of either, so now she & I get to figure out what to do next semester.

[73349]

Here are ours at this point.

Hits

Math Mammoth 6

Moving Beyond the Page's online spelling (I don't think they're offering it any more; I've bought a subscription to Touch Type Read and Spell for next year.) Taking handwriting out of the equation made such a difference for this kid.

switching from piano to drums

 

Misses:

Oak Meadow English 6. There are only three problems: the handbook is full of errors that make me want to set it on fire; it wants us to suddenly be reading books that are not in my possession; it's not a good fit for my kid. We're also using their history, which is just okay. I'll use Human Odyssey the next couple of years.

Big Book of Lively Latin. We just don't get to it--we need to either commit to doing it pretty much every day (unlikely right now) or give it up. Duolingo now has Latin, though, and we do that some.

[MeaganS]

On 10/1/2019 at 10:46 AM, MeaganS said:

I'm feeling really good about the resources we have. It seems that finally after 7 years, I am getting the hang of this. Most of what we have are "hits" or at least "tolerates."

Hits:

Math: TT continues to be the best option for this dd11. It isn't too much to be overwhelming and having it on the computer. Given that we did MANY different maths so far, I'm glad this has worked for a few levels now. Here's hoping it keeps working for a few more years at least. Beast Academy is going great for dd7 and dd9. We do both online and paper, and while they prefer the online part, they do great with both. Xtramath is done by all but dd9 (I let her graduate from math facts practice). It's easy to do and they tolerate it.

Spelling: AAS works for all my girls. I couldn't do it without the app (those tiles would drive me crazy otherwise). But its pretty painless and seems to be fairly effective.

Writing: W&R is working for dd9 and dd11 and we are a few levels in for each of them. I don't see us switching any time soon. DD7 uses WWE2 and is doing a great job. I'll probably have her go until week 20 or so and then let her start W&R fable. It's about where I jumped ship with my older two as well.

Grammar: All are doing Beowulf grammar. They are all enjoying it. I don't know how effective it is, but we've always done very dry grammar (FLL) and they are happy for the change and the chance to be able to do some little crafty things as part of school. That's not normal in the materials I choose, so it is novel for them. I will probably let them all do it for the year and then go back to more intense grammar next year.

Latin: dd9 is doing GSWL. She likes it well enough and it works well. I did it all the way through with dd11, so it is easy and fairly streamlined for me to do.

Spanish: All 3 are doing Duolingo. It's easy and they don't mind. My goals are just exposure to it at this point and maybe a little vocab for when we go to visit Mexico City in 2 years. I think it is going to meet that goal.

Geography: Drawing the World and Drawing the USA. They are really liking doing this and after daily practice for 2 or 3 months, all three can make a fairly accurate outline of the world from memory. We are about to add in the Drawing the USA book, so no experience there yet.

Piano: Hoffman Academy continues to be awesome. We've been with them since before it was called Hoffman Academy and it is one of my favorite resources.

Reading: dd3 started OPGTR. It is my 4th time through, so I'd say it is a hit.

History and Science: We are informal with both of these. Right now we do listen to 2 chapters of SOTW in the car every week and discuss it. The girls also do Mystery Science on their own time. And they've been doing a lot with Scratch on their own too. I require 15 minutes of non-fiction library books daily, so they get a fair amount of history and science there as well. They learn a lot on their own time and as parts of family discussions and activities/trips. I feel really good about this approach for their ages and our family and they are learning so much.

Still haven't decided:

Latin: dd11 is doing Latin for Children. The videos and online chants have been a major part of the success for her. I think it is probably too early to tell how it will go, but she's learning the vocab and chants. I'm interested to see how it works with actual translation as we get farther in. 
 

 

 

It's been a few months. LFC A just didn't do it for us. It was just too much. I switched to Keep Going with Latin, the second book after GSWL which dd11 finished already, and it's going a lot better.

Everything else is about the same as previously reported. We have been using Drawing the USA, and it's not as good as the drawing the world book. The Drawing the World book had everything in quadrants, which made it a lot easier. The USA book is harder to get the proportions correct. They're getting the gist, but their USA maps still look fairly wonky.

[Bokons]

A bit hit this year for ds13 is Integritas Academy's Intro to Persuasive Writing Through Literature. His writing has improved so much, and Cindy Lange teaches writing in incremental steps that work very well for ds. He could barely write a proper paragraph last school year, and I'm just not good at teaching writing. I only wish I had registered ds for her course the year before. 

Even though it's expensive, it's worth every penny. We just put money aside each month to be able to pay for it. 

[keirin]

On 9/25/2019 at 6:48 PM, keirin said:

Hits:

Typetastic 

Catholic Heritage Curricula Handwriting Year 3 (cursive)

Evan Moor Building Spelling Skills

Home-made Fairy Tales unit study using If the Wolf Were an Octopus (RFP) and Tales of Wonder (Circe Press) and lots of picture books

Daily Mental Math

Tin Man Press Start Thinking Grade 3

Singapore Math

Story of Civilization Part 2 The Medieval world

Scratch (on my own curriculum based partially on the Scratch coding cards) - this is by far their favorite thing we are doing.

Misses:

Writing and Rhetoric Fable - I had really hoped that this would jumpstart our writing in third grade but it has not worked for us. We are about 3 lessons in and I'm seriously considering jumping ship. The problem is I have no idea what to jump ship to. 

The Jury is Out:

Beast Academy - I really loved 2A-2D, but the kids continue to complain about it. And they absolutely hated the online component - they prefer the practice pages.

Memoria Press Latina Christiana - My husband likes it and is teaching it, but the kids vacillate between being excited to do something with Dad and hating the amount of work required to learn a language, especially Latin.

 

 

 

Doing a slightly over mid year update -

Hits above are all correct 🙂 Yay, we had a pretty good list of hits this year. I think I would add:

Mom Made Literature Units to this - we used MP's Lit guides for Little House in the Big Woods and Mr. Popper's Penguins and picked up TpT resources to add to Because of Winn Dixie. All of these have been great and the kids have enjoyed them AND their reading is growing by leaps and bounds this year.

Beast Academy - we finished 2A-2D and started 3A. We'll be skipping around a bit from the geometry in 3A to fractions in 3D and then review multiplication again in 3B before going back to work through areas we skipped. The kids still complain when they are asked to think about anything 😛 But I think that Beast Academy is a really great way to reinforce and review the concepts they have already learned in Singapore Math as well as really challenge them. So I'm going to count it as a hit even if the kids might only kind of sort of agree with me (they do like reading the textbook).

MP Latina Christiana - I wasn't sure about this when I wrote the last post but I'm moving it to a hit. The kids are actually learning some latin. They are telling me what words mean that they haven't seen before based on their knowledge of latin 😉 And this gets their Dad hands on teaching time with them which is a nice bonus.

Misses  Writing/Grammar- we DID drop Writing and Rhetoric Fable. My kids just were not feeling it at all. We've incorporated some grammar and writing in with our Literature units, but I'm still kind of floundering on this one. I think after we finish Because of Winn Dixie I'll pull out Write a Super Sentence from Evan Moor and go through that with them. I'd also like to add that choosing to do "latin as grammar" has not really worked this year. I should have picked a grammar curriculum and kept them working in it. I'm planning to use Treasured Conversations this next year.

 

Edited February 25, 2020 by keirin

[keirin]

On 12/10/2019 at 9:52 PM, Paradox5 said:

Evanthe, would you mind reviewing Dimensions Math for me? Which level were you using? Is this the new Singapore one? You can pm me.

I totally hear you about MP stuff. My kids mutinied, too, with anything MP.

I'd also like to hear a review on Dimensions Evanthe 🙂