I just signed by DS up for Head of the Class, and I really like their curriculum (and the fact that it's free is great too. lol ) Once he completes all of the activities in the PreK section and we've covered all of it, does that mean he can proceed to Kindergarten, and so on? Is that all he needs to pass Preschool? (I'm having a hard time phrasing my question and having it sound right. :? ) I guess what I'm asking is, is this free curriculum provided by HOTC sufficient enough to pass him from grade level to grade level right now in the early grdes/years??
We've used it some, from what I've seen, it's not to our state standards. I personally would not use JUST HOTC and expect to be on grade level, but that's just me....I've only looked at the 1st grade level for my older son but it starts out well below his level in math and language coming out of PS K.
They claim it to be a complete curriculum. The great thing about homeschooling is YOU decide what they need to learn before they move on.. SO, I would say that if YOU feel he has covered everything that YOU feel he needs to cover for preK, then he has satisified YOUR REQUIREMENTS and can move on to K. For preK, I don't believe they need to learn anything other than how to play... and through playing and life if they happen to learn their letters/sounds, numbers, colors, shapes, etc, then great, they are ahead of the game for K.. which they won't start until I feel they are ready.
This is actually pretty cool-I might sign my Prek and K up...if nothing else-it has so many activities that would be fun for their age-and both are getting thru (and over!) things like starfall really quick. I like that you can make it more difficult for certain things or emphasize certain things if they only need help in certain areas! Not sure how it would fly for my older 2-although things like the cursive and extra math help right at my fingertips is pretty cool. Now-it says you can up your chid's grade level if you feel they have masgtered the skills so I'm thhinking once your preK has that whatnot down...sure why not-I mean that's like Sommer says-YOU'RE the one really in control of it..... which is another nice thing-problems I've been having with online curriculums is (besides $$$) that I can't finnagle it too easily for each kid. I say try it-and if it isn't working so what-it was free. If nothing else-it's got some fun activities.
I agree, try it. 1, it's FREE. If it doesn't work you won't feel tied to it cause you spent hundreds of dollars on it. 2, it's easy enough to find free supplements if needed 3, if it does work, did I mention it's FREE LOL The only thing I'll say about the Prek is some of the worksheets are a waste of paper and ink or I'm not doing something right. We did a math prek lesson with my 3 year old, and it printed out a picture of a treasure chest and Max and Happy. There was nothing to count, no instructions, just a picture. Waste of ink. Unless I missed something somewhere. He liked the picture, but I didn't see anything educational about it at all. If anyone cares to enlighten me on what I missed or did wrong, please do LOL Now with the 1st grade stuff I've used, I haven't had that problem. The worksheets are actual worksheets. We'll be using it next year for sure, but it won't be all we use.
Hmmm-I did see something that said there were alot of "certificates" upon achieving things-and that they would have those little guys (is that the names-I haven't got that far...hehe) I'm gonna be doing the PreK so I'll see..... Hmm...maybe he's supposed to count how many colors he colors it with?!! HA!!! So worried about the cost of ink for some of this stuff.....
No it's a full color picture. Took LOTS of ink LOL I know what you mean, we're homeschooling for "free" but ink is what is going to be our biggest cost this year.
Oh, yeah! I had forgotten all about that site. Looks like a good system, especially for that price! I have it on a list of materials to consider for the Fall. I'm not worried about it being too easy or too hard for a young student, as its pretty simple to change their level, and it doesn't hurt to let them build confidence by excelling in something thats easy for them. Plus, feel free to skip as much as you want or need to.
I figured it out! It's a puzzle! But it doesn't tell you that when you print it out! Apparently I'm supposed to cut it in pieces so he can put it back together! Now it makes math/educational sense! LOL
Ok, so I have been playing with HOTC last night and this morning a bit more than I had. I made some fake students for both preK and K so I could go ahead of Rylee and Reagan and see if I really want to use this. I do like it, and I think my kids would too... but I'm very flustered that there are no directions for the worksheets. It just spits them out and we are supposed to go hunting to figure out what they are supposed to do with them. If anyone figures out an easier way to find the directions for the pages will you let me know
I just sent them an email asking if there was something I am missing as far as finding the instructions to the pages, that all I can find (with much work) is a basic topic for each page, no directions as to what we should be doing. I will let you know what I find out, hopefully they write back before we go on vacation on Saturday.
The instructions are in the e-book you're supposed to download (uh-which I'm not doing at this point.) In fact they recommend you print out the whole thing...and well, we're back to the whole ink thing...so uh, no.) Then there are some that just do it themselves on the computer. My son's first time-we didn't print out anything-just opened it-checked itout, and closed it. Except he had one to read-I made him read it out loud and we answered the questions at the bottom. It counted all of it on his uh, tally on my login screen. But-all the third grade ones have been really straightforward (flashcards and stuff or like an addition worksheet-that would be obvious-do the math!!ha!) I'll let you know if there's anything different or wierd with my younger kids.
As far as saving on ink goes, here's a trick in case you don't know about it (which I didn't!!). You can set your printer on 'draft', and it will print lighter, which is no problem for worksheets! Then when 'draft' starts printing lousy, move your setting up to 'normal'. When that starts going badly, set it up to the best setting. This will use up the last of the ink. Your ink will go much further this way! I'm glad I heard this tip before I printed out the free MEP worksheets for math next year!!!
WOW guys! Thanks for all of these tips and comments! We'll probably continue with it for aawhile and see what all we can do!
Maybe I need to read the printable ebook over, but I didn't see any directions for the pages for PreK or K.
I found out the picture was supposed to be a puzzle in the parents section, you know, where you can skip lessons, but it doesn't have 'directions' just "math puzzle" or something like that. It's not perfect, but it's pretty darn good for a free curriculum....
I guess it just gives you creative license to do with it what you will, you know. Math puzzle? I'm not sure how you can have a math puzzle unless you count the number of pieces, but something like a puzzle can be so multi-deminsional, you know? You could really make it just about anything.
