Moving Beyond the Page

[KrissiK]

Has anyone had any experience with Moving Beyond the Page?  I did a search of the boards and nothing came up.  I looked at their website and it looks good, but I was wondering if anyone has done it.

[Paige]

What age are you looking for? I got one unit and I liked it. It is solid, user friendly, and not too bland for a workbook type thing. 

I didn't get more because I found it way more thorough and time consuming then I needed for a supplement. I already had curriculum for most subjects and when I saw how much there was to the units I realized it would be an either/or decision. I couldn't justify not using what I'd already spent money on. 

If I wanted an open and go curriculum it would be my first choice. I'm really a control freak, though, so I don't think I'd enjoy using someone else's script and book choices for everything. There's little flexibility since each unit builds on the others in the levels. When looking at it, I'd find that I liked some book choices, but not all and if I wanted to do a grade level, I'd need to suck it up and do all of the books.  Or maybe I'd like the literature and history choices but not the science choices. You may think that you could just do science or English, but they are more integrated than that. I think overall that's a strength for the student doing the whole program but it makes it hard to pick and choose if you want to try one unit.

It's definitely workbooky but at least there were some assignments that were intended to take several weeks and activities to do outside of the workbook. They claim to be advanced and for gifted kids. I don't know. I think they are good and challenging but not something that any average kid couldn't do with a good teacher. It's definitely not the type of workbook you want to hand to your kid and say do it and I'll check it later. 

[Syllieann]

I've used multiple levels of LA with multiple kids.  We've done the 7-9 level up through 10-12.  I like the language arts because it's interesting and varied.  It includes lots of great book choices and a nice framework in which to practice writing.  There is some grammar, but it's not nearly as intense as something like R&S or FLL.  My oldest did it without any supplementing.  My daughter, who is bright, but not as gifted as my oldest, uses it with R&S spelling and 1/2 speed daily grams.  That has worked nicely.  There are comprehension questions to go along with the books.  The idea is that kids will be getting practice with grammar and spelling by writing out the answers to these.  If you're going to do them all out loud, you may need to provide more practice elsewhere to make up for it.  Kids write about the books, but they also get a lot of non-fiction practice by learning about related topics.  For exampe, if a character in the book is an owl, your child may look up into about owls online and write about their habits of perhaps it would be a description of a particular species.  This has allowed me to feel satisfied without adding a significant amount of writing into our history or science.  If you are doing writing-heavy programs in those areas, it might become too much.

Overall, my kids have liked it.  The child who finished all four levels only encountered one book he didn't like.  My daughter has finished the first two levels.  She has liked all the books so far.  She is a gentle, artistic type and really likes all the places she can incorporate drawing.

I haven't used the science of social studies.  I did look pretty extensively at the science, but it seemed kind of shallow to me compared to the intended age range.  I suppose it is on par with what is done in most institutional schools at those ages though.

[KrissiK]

Thank you for these very detailed responses. I appreciate it.

[Syllieann]

8 hours ago, Paradox5 said:

Hyjack (sorry, Krissi!)

Anyone done the younger levels? Age 4-5 on up?

Does the grammar need supplementing? We would not be sad to give up R&S English. 

What about the spelling? How effective is it as a teaching tool? What is the format?

I don't think the grammar needs supplementing IF you stay on top of the review page, go over any corrections in the daily work, and you reinforce oral usage in daily conversations.

They have a new spelling format, which is online.  I haven't used that, but the spelling that was included prior to that was just a list of words the kids were supposed to practice writing each day.  It's not integrated into the rest of the work. I considered it a throw-away and never used it.  I'm very doubtful that the new spelling is worth anything.