Has anyone ever used Spectrum Series? Did you use it as a stand alone curriculum or as a supplement?. My DD who will be in fifth grade is working on the fourth grade level of math and LA for the summer and she seems to really like them. I was wondering if anyone had good results using them. Thanks Tricia
I have used them.. love them, though I feel the math is a bit slow. We used them as a stand alone. We won't be using them this year, but not because we don't like them. We aren't using a math curriculum this year at all, and reading and grammar is coming from a different book this year. Also from the same company is "The Complete Book of..." books. I like these better because they aren't so dry. You can find them at Sam's club cheap.
We have used the LA2 as a whole curric last year. I had bought her Abeka Lang 2 and we dumped it with a few weeks because it was too boring and repetitive. Spectrum was a great fit for her. She also completed the Phonics 3 workbook last year. My son will be doing the LA1 (Mercer Mayer edition) this year. We've used some of the Reading ones as supplemental comprehension practice. We haven't used Math or Spelling. We also own some of the Vocab (5th grade) but we haven't used it yet. I like them and use them as supplemental or as full curric depending on the child and their needs. We've also had some FlashKids workbooks for Reading Comp. My girls seemed to like them fine too. We used the Test prep books too Rhonda
we have used them as supplemental stuff in the past, I had my sis use them with her son for the testing practice etc.
I love the spectrum series, they stood alone for us. I really like the reading workbooks. This coming year though we're using most of our textbooks from Steck-Vaughn.
I was going to do Spectrum and then someone else told me about Flashkids at B&N (they make it, it's by Hartcourt) and so I like it better and am going to use it for my younger boys. Kristine
I wanted to try Spectrum Science, because the description I read in a catalog made them sound very thorough. When I actually looked through one, it was simply a workbook- no more, no less.
Yea, I agree with Becky's experience. They are workbooks... extra practice... But not something we could "Learn" from.
thats the spectrum I know too, an adititive to the regular stuff. I looked at a few of them thinking how fun it would be to use such a small book.. but are there bigger ones that we are missing?
We have used Math, Reading, Test prep, and Writing, and Geography (I really love the Geography series).. and all of them are fine as a stand alone. The math to us was way behind grade level.. but then maybe it was just us, DS works 2 grade levels ahead usually on math. I have not looked at Science.. mostly because we just go where ever the wind might take us for Science (and history too).
Well, I sort of disgree. My middle DD used the 2nd grade LA and she learned quite a bit for it (although some was obviously review) and it helped me see quickly what she had not previously learned in her old school. I think some of it depends on the child (as with anything...lol). And of course, some would depend on the subject too. For her, it was MUCH better than the 2nd grade Abeka that was boring us both to tears. Just another reason why I'm glad we have so many options (although they can also be overwhelming too). Rhonda
I think it all has to do with he teacher teaching, I mean we could take a stick and learn from it, or teach from it if we have a mind to do so. I liked Spectruim peices of stuff, I always wanted to just get the book as a subject but couldnt get myself to spend so much on so few pages of work. So I got them second hand and used things I needed then passed them on to others.
check the links on the ACSI thread it has teacher books, work books for kids etc, full kit is pricey but it may be what you need!
If you like the spectrum series.. have you looked at "The Complete Book of..." books? Like you can get "The Complete Book of Math" in different grades.. also the "Total" series These are all by the same company and you can usually find them on ebay, half and amazon "used" but not writen in very cheap. These books aren't as dry as the Spectrum books.. they have colro pictures and are a bit more pleasant ot look at.
