Deena, I'm finding All-American History more difficult this year, too! I'm using it more as a spine, and kicking myself for actually paying for THREE workbooks! Life of Fred...yes and no. We finished the fractions book, but got a bit bogged down with decimals/percents. There just isn't enough "practice". So we've gone back to Saxon, but with the promise of going back to Fred at a later date. Faythe has been very cooperative about this (!!!)
Worst: Starting the school year using the traditional method. (ABeka for the 4th year in a row) My boys were completely bored! Best: Switching to the classical method 2 weeks after school started! We LOVE it!!!
Best so far: Horizons Math, R & S English, A Child's Geography, and Apologia Zoo 2, and SL Core 3 (DD10 only). She starts Core 4 after Christmas. Worst: Not finding these things last year....we went thru 3 different science programs to finally settle on Apologia!! We also have Real Science 4 Kids Physics and Chemistry Level 1 that we had hoped to do more with but so far, we've only done half of the physics (these were for DD10). She likes the book but the experiments are pretty dependent on mom (which is generally fine but with DD8 and a zillion OT visits, testing, etc.....it's been put on the backburner for a bit).
Best: Art of Problem Solving for math, Lightning Lit, Michael Clay Thompson grammar, vocab, and poetry from www.rfwp.com The poetry inspired her to write some of her own which we entered into the Book Arts Bash and she won her poetry division, hurray! Tons of free choice creative writing, she now writing 2-5000 word stories every few days or pages in her journal. Worst: hit and miss with science, hoping to get more consistency by adding back in cyberEd science with labs I prepare (note to self- get off the computer and get these organized!), need to add back in Foreign language and some organized art (she does tons of drawing and clay sculpture on her own). We need to start more formal academic writing soon, but hate to break up her flow with creative writing on her own. We need more hours in the day for outside activities and learning!
Best: My son (11) HATES writing but I finally figured out how to get him to type, spell and practice writing/grammar all at the same time. Dictation! I read Ruth Beechick's book "You can teach your child successfully" and got the idea. He actually enjoys it :!: We also did "Daily Grams" for awhile and the were a hit too. Also, Teaching Textbooks (ds is doing pre Algebra) It's excellent - we switched from "Life of Fred", which I am still a fan of, but my son requested the switch because LOF pre-Algebra didn't have enough actual practice for him. Worst: Nothing really- I'm getting better (thank goodness) at not always making rash, impulsive decisions about books, etc. In our 3rd year of homeschooling I've finally figured out how to make decisions based on my son. For awhile I was paralyzed by the disease of always second guessing myself -ugghh hate when I do that:roll: Jane
Best: Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard J. Maybury and the accompanying activity book, A Bluestocking Guide: Economics, by Jane A Williams. We're using this along with ABeka's Gov/Econ book, and dd (senior) said it was the most worthwhile course she's taking this year. Worst: "Hail to the Chief" game. We played it once during the elections, and it did give us a very concrete visual, hands-on experience of how electoral votes are won. It was a good visual for the concept of the electoral college. This might be great for younger students, but high schoolers and adults only have to play it once. (I gave it to our friends who were houseguests over Christmas.)
No, I actually got the TM used and bought a meeting book - which I am really not using and supplementing with a real calendar and the same concepts.
Exactly. I expected wonderful things from MUS and I'm VERY glad I bought the blocks but organizing it all (TM, video, SM, extra stuff, arghhh!) was a bit of a nightmare for me. It really is an excellent curriculum and probably would have worked with the kids if I weren't befuddled by it but we're happy now with Sing/Key for the dd and Sing/Miquon for the ds so I'll stick with those for now.
What I have figured about Mus-- dont try to do the wholething! They give you so much EXTRA work, thats why dd loves it of course but I told her if she gets the first page right she does not have to continue with the pther practice pages, but go on to the lessons! She does them all and is still ahead?
Best: Just deciding to finally homeschool. Now I just have regrets that I didn't do it sooner. Saxon Math has been a winner. I think I will do pre-alg. and then switch to TT for Algebra. (We actually skip a lot of the practice...so maybe I will look at life of fred.) I have had a lot of fun with science, which I am mostly pulling together from stuff online (useing a text as a jumping off point) We found a book we really like...The Lightning Thief...which pulls in a lot of stuff from Greek Mythology which we are just starting Greece in History...so I think that will be very good. Finding books he really likes. That is fun. Worst: Writing...which we are not doing much of...and Grammar, we started with a used workbook and Grammar101.com and got very bored. History starting with Time4Learning and then switching to MOH and now, mostly playing it by ear. Trying to figure out what is a reasonable amount to do in a day/week/semester.
Goodnsimple, take a look at Easy Grammar! It took me about 10 minutes a day, and the girls another 10-20 minutes to do the work.
Our best was switching to Time4Learning Our worst was not doing the above sooner and instead wasting time struggling to find a curriculum that would work with our daughter. We learned that she gets bored with the book, workbook sit and have a class thing... so we are more ecletic sneaking in "class Time" so she does not notice and being a bit of unschooling too. She is more relaxed and learning at a faster pace now that we made this experience more peaceful for her. Learning in now natural, fun and a potivie thing.
worse for us was Singapore Math. I ended up going back to Lifepacs. The curriculum that I have uses Singapore so that is why I switched. Never change what it working because it took us longer to relearn how Singapore taught the math than the regular way. We are going to stick with Lifepacs but may switch it to SOS for math. She likes computer stuff. Best-finally using my apologa books. I bought them all in 2006 and we are now seriouly using them. I am glad I waited because now she is really ready for them. I wouldn't say worse because my was okay with them but the rod and staff social studies and science was a bit easy for her. She knew the stuff already or had a good idea from just reading and life. A reason to stop using it, IMO I am a bit distracted so my typing isn't the best. I am trying to type while listening to my kids. they are having 'quiet' time.
oh yeah also for my son (pre-K to K) worse was 100 EZ lessons. So not for him/us and really thought he wasn't ready to read. Best for him is Ordinary Parents Guide To Reading. This is working much better for him and he is excited, on most days, to do school.
BEST: Revamping our style completely and going for a Charlotte Mason approach. Our school year has been awesome and I have seen major improvements in past trouble areas. SOTW is much better than Mystery of History, IMO. WORST: I tried Myrna Martin's Earth Science book and DVD. I got it free so I gave it a shot. I did not like Christain Kids Explore Chemistry either...not this year but just mentioning that since Jackie mentioned the Biology. However, as she said, it came highly recommended.
