Hits & Misses

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

I figure the majority of WTM Boardies are currently either at the midpoint, or the tail end, of their current school year.

Which resources have been a great addition this year? What have you continued to use year after year? Did anything disappoint?

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

Recent Hits 

DS took his first couple of classes with Athena’s online this fall to supplement learning to type. He’s thoroughly enjoyed them & learned a lot. We’ll continue with one course at a time as electives.  

Tried-and-True

We are still loving Michael Clay Thompson LA, annual participation in NaNoWriMo, & Beast Academy. He’ll be done with BA sometime next year, which makes me sad simply because it’s been so beloved.

We’re continuing with Real Science Odyssey. Its always just enough of a framework for me to feel that I can add in what I’d like without it becoming overwhelming, but not so sparse that I feel I must supplement.

I’ll be ordering All About Spelling 5 soon so we can continue there. It’s not one we adore, but it’s solid & fairly painless.  

Misses

Given our enjoyment of History Odyssey, I really looked forward to the “revamp” History Quest. The author is thoughtful & responsive… the material is excellent… but it will have taken us two years to get through Middle Times & even with me cutting readings significantly It’s just too much for DS. He isn’t enjoying it. I’ll keep the texts for the next cycle, but we’re returning to HO. 

[Eilonwy]

Recent hits: ULAT for French, at least for one kid, other one I’m not sure about at the moment.  AOPS Prealgebra is going better than expected for my oldest, and she’s steadily going through it.  Middle School Chemistry from ACS is also going well, as is the DSD exam prep at the German Saturday School. 
 

Tried and true: Virtual trip around the world, reading books and watching videos from every continent, and Beast Academy for the younger two is still going fine.  Reading practice with them reading Harry Potter out loud. Still working about once a week on math operations with place value counters for my youngest. History with SWB’s books.  
 

Misses: CAP’s French for Children B starts moving way too fast about halfway through the book (too much verb conjugation without enough practice) so we’re doing extra review and videos from Francais avec Pierre (all speaking in French with subtitles).  But we’ll add the book back in once the new verbs are solid, so it’s not too dire. 

[silver]

Hits:
I've been really happy with Novare's 9th grade physics and chemistry text. It's been a good amount of depth and workload to step up from middle school to high school level work.

My youngest has enjoyed watching the El Mono videos from Senor Jordan to get some Spanish listening practice. I'm a little sad that it seems like he's not making those anymore and I don't know what we'll watch when we finish those.

My creative writing loving child continues to like W&R. 

Misses:
One child finished W&R book 3, but I don't think they're ready for the jump to book 4. I'm struggling to figure out what I can use to get them solid on paragraphs so that they're ready to move forward.

[Clarita]

Hits: Singapore math and Generation Genius

Misses: Studies Weekly (Kindergarten social studies) everyone including me was tired of the disconnected random information. We just started reading Notgrass Our Star Spangled Story, I have to make up activities that are more age appropriate for my kids but at least it's somewhat interesting. 

[goldenecho]

Not homeschooling this year, but I'm tutoring and afterschooling my own child some.   For reference, my son has dyslexia.

All About Spelling has consistently been wonderful.  I love the way it teaches using spelling rules, and I love how easy it is to implement.   I have stopped using letter tiles much though I see their purpose.

I didn't use All About Reading most of the time, not for lack of wanting to, but initially for lack of funds.   I have used it a little now and really do love it.

But I also appreciate the free resource I used:   ProgressivePhonics.com.   It really does offer a good phonics base and is the easiest curriculum I've ever use (in any subject).   So simple.   Love the team reading aspect of it, and my kids and the kids I tutor laugh over the silly poems and pictures with them.  However, I can see now what it was lacking that AAR had (initial phonetic awareness exercises for the pre-reading stage, explanation of syllable division rules, and it's lacking some of the advanced phonics that I've heard AAR has in later levels (including some of the rules around ai/ay,  ou/ow, greek/latin root study,  and some multi-sensory aspects but I don't feel like those have been essential anyways).  Both AAR and PP lack practice with nonsense words, which I added in, based on advice here, and it made a huge difference.

The math facts that stick series, at least through ADDITION/SUBTRACTION  worked after trying several other things with my son, and I've been using it with tutoring too and seeing the kids continue to love and learn from it.  

I still love Story of the World, in spite of errors discovered in Volume 1....it's just written in such an engaging way.

I'm really loving Science in the Ancient World, by Jay Wile....and The Story of Science by Joy Hakim...for different reasons.   Jay Wile's, a Christian resource, is packed with great hands on experiments and I really do think he explains the science behind them well.   It has some good, though brief, historical bios, but I think The Story of Science (while lacking the great hands on activities) does better at digging into the lives of scientists and how their science changed the world affected history.    Hers is meant for older kids though, so is a bit long for younger kids.   My son was in 6th when we used both of these, and it was the perfect age to use both.    I also am sad that Wile's book only includes European scientists, even when it gets into the middle ages...its missing all of the great scientists from the Golden Age of Islam, and scientists and inventors from China and elsewhere, that I've found both in Story of Science and some other books. 


  I also really loved the Science of Ancient Egypt unit studies by Dr. Dave's Science on Teachers Pay Teacher (only a couple hands on experiments that had to be bought separately, but the text itself is great), and the free unit Experimenting by the Vikings.


I only really have one major curriculum that was a flop, and that was Math U See.   It was great for teaching place value, but once we got into addition and subtraction, it lost my son.   Also, if you're not just watching the videos, trying to do lessons using the teachers guide is a pain.  It's not a simple script like AAR/AAS or the Math Facts that Stick books. 





 

Edited December 12, 2021 by goldenecho

[MeaganS]

Hits:

DD11 started AOPS PreAlgebra and is doing wonderfully. I was a little nervous about whether it would be a good fit because of reviews I've read here, but so far so good.

We have a subscription to The Week and it is a resource that all 4 of my girls look forward to, which is saying a lot since they are all so different. We'll keep that going for a while.

DD6 is loving BA 1A, which is brand new. I wasn't sure how it would be, but it is a tad behind her level, so she really enjoyed it. She finished the book today and is already asking when book 2 will be out.

Growing With Grammar. Easy to implement, thorough, and hands off for me. It's a good place-holder grammar for where we are right now.

Still loving the SOTW audiobooks. We listen to them in the car.

 

Misses:

None really. Wait, Winning With Writing level one for my 6 year old. It was too easy in weird ways. Other than that, mostly we have a pretty good groove and I know what will work for us at this point.

 

[hollyhock2]

Great additions for this year:

• MUS pre-algebra for DS13 - perfect fit for his learning style
• Daily Grams

Tried and true:

• Story of the World 3
• Teaching Textbooks math for elementary (DD is thriving with it)
• Canadian History for Dummies - hate the title but it's a great book for high school
• R&S English and spelling for DD
• MUS Geometry (third kid using it this year)

Misses:

• Easy Grammar 3. We might go back to it, but DD was really hating it, so we're doing R&S for a while now.
• Conceptual Physics by Hewitt. It's a great book but we needed a teacher and I wasn't it.
• Canada Map Books - I love them but DD did not!

 

[kiwik]

Missed

First Form Latin

Hits

Cambridge Latin

Lantern English

Walker Maths

[Not_a_Number]

Hah, my main hits and misses are: 

 

Hits:

Making DD9 work completely on her own. 

Making DD5 work in her own room instead of sitting next to me and glaring at me, and only coming into her room "in character" as the strict Miss Swamp.

 

Misses:

Trying to teach DD9 through her obstinacy.

Trying to be easygoing with DD5 😛 .

 

But maybe being more serious... here's what we have so far: 

 

Hits with DD9:

Problems from old AMC 8s and from the introductory AoPS books given as choices for DD9's self-study. 

Copying Russian kids' books, then translating what she's copied as a way to do independent Russian study. 

Getting a cute little new Russian textbook for her to work on: 

https://www.amazon.com/Sarafan-Students-Book-Marianna-Avery/dp/B088Y1DNWJ (she says it's too easy, but we're making do.) 

Fun online classes with our hybrid co-op: she's doing writing and art with outside teachers, and while she's DEFINITELY working less hard in those than she would for me, they are a nice way for her to vary things. 

Sneaking in a bit of new material via the Zoom math classes I teach.

The Time Traveler history series -- we're taking a break right now, since our year is quite pared down, but she was enjoying reading those aloud. 

 

Misses with DD9:

Making her do any history writing 😂. All the essays she has ever written for history would be TERRIBLE, and no gentle redirections would do it until I'd lost my temper. They'd all either be plagiarized or sound like numbered lists, ugh. So I'm simply not going to force her to this anymore. 

BFSU -- I really want to go through this book at some point, but given our level of contentiousness, I just never pick it up. It HAS given us new ways of talking about stuff, so I really want to persevere, but as of now it's simply not getting done. 

 

Hits with DD5:

The HWOT workbooks -- they are very low fuss and didn't require much oversight. 

Poker chips as math manipulatives!! They are so great 😄 . DD5 has a whole bin and she has DEFINITELY progressed through place value-based stuff faster than DD9 had. They are so satisfying to clink together, lol. 

Me making DD5's math lessons, just like I did with DD9.

Doing spoken Russian lessons. 

Homemade nonsense words -- we have actually graduated from them for the time being, but they seem to have gotten her over the "sounding out" hump and her spelling is actually quite good. So I've been pleased! 

 

Misses with DD5:

Hmmm, nothing so far, although I was a bit disappointed how insufficient 100 Easy Lessons were for her. They did get her started, but they weren't as good as for DD9. 

[Lawyer&Mom]

The ULAT for French has been perfection.  Everything I wanted in a kid language curriculum and never thought I would actually find.  I only recently read about in on here, I’m not sure how I missed it!  Dd8 is barreling through, Dd6 is picking up a lot just watching her sister.  We also do TV and read alouds and I’m so happy we are getting places with French. 

[bookbard]

Educationally, the best thing has been listening to audiobooks together. We've listened to a lot and the kids learned so much. They're 9 & 11 and we listened to Animal Farm, Charlotte's Web, The Wolf Wilder, We are Wolves, Hatchet, the Moomintrolls, Percy Jackson and more. Not only has listening together led to fantastic discussions in history, geography, politics and ethics, but I believe it's helped them comfortably tackle more complex and thicker books themselves.

 

[seemesew]

Hits:

The Good and the Beautiful History, its our 3rd year using it and I really like how it starts as a family and I add more assignments for my older kids.

The Good and the Beautiful Language arts, again our 3rd year using it and I am happy with it! Its definitely NOT perfect and I've had to work out many issues but I haven't been as happy with anything else I've used.

The Good and Beautiful Science for K-8th, its not my favorite because it feels too textbooky but its one that gets done and is better than others we've tried.

Saxon Math, I don't think I'll ever switch to anything else! Its solid and my kids are thriving. Its our 4th or 5th year year using it.

Science 101 series for highschool, We have used Biology and Chemistry and I like it! Its not enough for some kids but its been good for us.

Hooked on Phonics, I only tried it until something I was waiting for came out but it has been a huge hit! My daughter LOVES it.

Misses:

AAR we tried level 1 and I couldn't do it. Too many pieces and the cards made me see red, I hate them. 

AAS I thought maybe we'd try it and again couldn't handle the cards.

Draw Write Now, it was something I really wanted to use but the pictures were too hard and the sentences too easy. I wasn't impressed.

Explode the Code, boring and the same things all the time so my son and daughter were crying and refused to do it.

Math Mammoth, SO boring and too many things on a page. I also felt it was severely lacking in teacher guidance.

[LauraClark]

Most of the stuff I'm using this year has been used year after year (because we like it): Berean Builders, SOTW, R&S Math, Dictation Day by Day, Writing Strands, Hey Andrew (Greek), Latin's Not so Tough.  Our new additions for the year:

Hits:

Telling Tales in Latin: the book was recommended on the boards. DS10 LOVES it.

Typing Instructor Platinum: ds10 wasn't a huge fan of typing in general early on, but now he's enjoying it and the games.

(ETA): Junior Analytical Grammar Mechanics: it hits all the punctuation/random stuff I felt like we were missing.

I don't think we've had any misses this year-it's been a good year homeschool-wise thus far!

Edited December 15, 2021 by LauraClark

[bookbard]

5 hours ago, LauraClark said:

Telling Tales in Latin: the book was recommended on the boards. DS10 LOVES it.

 

So glad to hear that! We also used it and I think it's great. 

[2_girls_mommy]

Tried and true year here: Rod and Staff math, English, spelling, and phonics, and Story of the World do not disappoint for my 2nd grader. 

New: I've had a subscription to Schoolhouseteachers for years. I'm using their 1st and 2nd grades music theory as put together in their "school in a box" sections and am happy for the short easy lessons. I pair it with readings from What Your Second Grader Needs to Know and music appreciation from their lists and learning the suggested songs. I like it better than what I used for elem music with my olders. 

[Elizabeth86]

Really everything has been a hit because this year has been a lot of do the next thing of curriculum we have been using.  The only new thing is Kate Snow's Math With Confidence Kindergarten.  There was a moment where I felt I didn't like it, but I LOVE it.  I highly recommend it.  My daughter LOVES it and asks to do it even on a non school day. I hope I love the levels that come after it too.  

[Kezia]

Misses:

All American History. My 5th grader was not complaining but it just felt so dry and very text book. I like a more narrative story feel (and so does he) for history so we switched to Joy Hakim History of US to finish out American History.

Using history pockets as a supplement. Turns out all the cutting and pasting was loathsome for my kid.

 

Hits: 

Guess Hollow’s chemistry/physics. I love the way out is planned out with so many literature options and it helps him be independent with science. I just wish we could get more experiments to work out with amazing results. 
 

Rod and Staff English 6. He is half way through and he even enjoys it. He especially likes the diagramming. We enjoy doing it mostly orally on the whiteboard. Easy to teach and very clear and thorough. I actually use the tests for this curriculum. 
 

Adding Alcumus to BA 5D + Challenge Math. He loves Challenge math. 

Treasured Conversations and a class with Lantern English has been a hit for writing. 
 

MCT paragraph town was a hit but we moved through sentence practicing too slowly. He was longing for some practice with the more complicated concepts earlier. Essay Voyage is about 1/4 done. He enjoyed an doing an imitation of the Apple Is Ridiculous essay. 
 

so-so choices:

Latina Christiana and Spanish for Children. I was trying to manage these for 3 times a week. Going forward in January, we will move into First Form and hopefully add some HSA to the Spanish and move into 5 days a week. 
 

I am not managing art or music well either. 
 

MP Geography and Literature gets it done. 
 

 

 

 

 

[AnneGG]

Ds6 hits: Secret Stories, rooted in language pinwheels, creative form drawing, waldorf type arts & crafts, and Miquon math. 

Misses: MBTP (for me) I just don’t have the bandwidth to pull it off right now even though I like it as a spine it is a tad dry. Morning Baskets, nature study, and math fact mastery. 

[mathmarm]

Hits:
SRA Reasoning and Writing -- teaches solid writing skills, practices great habits from the beginning and the skills have transferred across the curriculum. The kids can productively proofread their work. The kids really enjoy the writing-activities in the student materials, the teacher support is amazing and ensures that even as newbie, Hubby and I are delivering GREAT Teaching the first time around. Also, the sequence builds very incrementally and allows the kids to master what's being taught so that it actually makes it into their skill set.

History -- Actively Reading from The DK Atlas of World History. Very beautiful illustrations and side bars. Having Jr. actively read 1 (sometimes 2, but usually 1) spread a day is wonderfully sustainable. There is only 1 to 2 paragraphs of text in the main-entry and Jr. reads it aloud a few times and we question him sentence by sentence to make sure he understands what he's reading. We use the passages to build his vocabulary and reading comprehension. It feels too simple, but when we look at how much history he's learned using this method, as well as stack in the vocabulary and reading comprehension piece, we decided to let it a lone. Besides, it naturally includes a consistent review of Geography so when he looks at world or regional map, he recalls bit of World History

Literature -- we use the Prindle Institute and Philosophy for Children reading lists and get the books from the library or order them online. So far it's going great.

Drawing-- systematically teaching the fundamental drawing skills with a combo of The Drawing Textbook and Augsburg while prioritizing the daily time needed to practice has resulted in our kids being able to truly draw. They draw across the curriculum and it is a delight for them to have the skill at their disposal.

Spelling by Sound and Structure -- We teach 2-6 directly from the Teachers Guide. We do the exercises on the whiteboard or a sheet of paper and they write in a notebook or whiteboard as needed. The SbSS exercises of working with the words and the spelling drills seems to really click and allow the spelling of the words to sink in. The kids are definitely able to spell outside of the Spelling Lesson, and they are able to generalize and spell words that they aren't directly taught also.

[jboo]

Hits:

Draw Write Now. I picked up a copy of Book 6 from a thrift store, because I cannot pass up cheap curricula. No plans to actually make use of it. But DS6 found it and spontaneously did several of the lessons, including the copywork. I'm going to have to order the rest - a curricula that gets a student to do the work on his own is a treasure.

Tales from Spenser; Chosen from the Faerie Queene. I'm not sure why I chose this as bedtime reading, but goodness gracious, everyone in the four to eight year old set were fascinated by it. Sure, this is a kid's version, but it's a kid's version from the nineteenth century, and the vocab was a real workout.

Misses:

Beast Academy.  DS10 finished Singapore Math 5 at home, and is in Dimensions 6 at a private classical school. We thought we'd try BA5 as an additional supplement, but it's too hard for him. Not sure if we should backtrack to BA4 or switch to something else entirely. Or just not bother doing anything until summer, because the point of sending him to that school was so we could be lazier at home.

[keirin]

For my twins (5th grade):

Hits -

Outschool for science. Science is the subject I struggle to fit into our schedule, so signing them up for a class has made us make time for it and be accountable to do SOMETHING for science. 

Basically everything else that I planned has gone over well this year. I feel like I'm doing a good enough job with the twins, though I'm looking at 6th grade next year with a sense of needing to do more for middle school.

 

For my 1st grader:

Hits -

Evan Moor Daily Science 1  as a spine for science, enriched with mystery science videos and let's read and find out books.

Doing Story of Civilization 4 with his big brother and sister has worked reasonably well. He sits in on the audible reading of the chapters.

Singapore Math 1A/1B and Math with Confidence level 1. I just wish the Beast Academy books has been published faster now that they are doing level 1! We just started Beast Academy 2A in January.

Misses -

READING. I'm at my wits end with this kiddo. What I used for the twins is not working as well for this kid. We've used a hodge podge of Progressive Phonics. BOB books, and Memoria Press First Start Reading. I'm switching him in January to All About Reading because I feel like I need more hand holding. He just hasn't taken to reading as well as my older kids.