Spoke with a rep from AOP today. Struggling to find curriculum that my DD will enjoy & learn from, that doesn't require much time from me. My work doesn't allow much time for individual HSing. After working on math one on one with my 2 DD's it doesn't leave me any time for other subjects. (We will be starting Math-U-See soon. Can't wait.) The 11yo is a visual spatial learner & the 12yo could learn from a brick wall. No troubles with the oldest. Anywho, she suggested SOS grammar for 5th & 7th grade. I have viewed lesson demos & while it seems appealing to a degree, I am very uncertain. Any opinions abut SOS curriculum for any subject at alL? God bless!
Hate it! Not because it isnt thorough, its just picky and redundant. You have to enter the EXACT word and spacing or the answer is wrong. It became frustrating for us all. Sometimes i would yell out "what the heck are they wanting?!". If your kid tends to answer questions in a more complex way, or even a vague way, then this program can be frustrating. Oh, and i'm only speaking about sos math. We haven't tried any other sos's.
We tried L Arts earlier this year for about 3 months. My son seemed to dofine on the daily work but flopped on every quiz. I eventually realized it was because there wasn't enough review, so while he could remembered what he was just taught that day, he couldn't 2-3 days later. And I did have to go back to re-word answers and such too. We switched to CLE and have been very happy. CLE is a workbook so I don't know how well your younger child would do on his own with it. But they are cheap so it might be worth a shot.
I LOVE SOS!!!!!!! I can't say enough good things about it!!!! I'll address the concerns above, though: 1. Yes, it's picky. But it takes me about 5 minutes a day to review his work and change the grades on any questions that I thought he should have credit for. 5 minutes... and we use it for 3 subjects. 2. DS also struggled with the tests when we first started using it. Once I realized I had to enable the games, then instruct him to do the "Review" section and "Reference" section (which do not show up in the daily schedule, but do show up in the master list of unit activities) his grades shot through the roof. DS is only in 3rd, but he's already completely self-contained on SOS. He rarely, rarely needs help. The only problem I could foresee with you using it is if they are doing school work when you're not home. It's not like a paper worksheet where you can leave an answer blank until you can get clarification later. The solution, though, would be to simply adjust the grade once you go over the question in question (ha!) after you get home from work. But really, this rarely happens with DS.
Now, I don't use Math. I can't speak for it, but I've heard that it gets really tedious entering the numbers/symbols via keyboard.
I have never used it, but I would suggest seeing if a friend nearby has it so you and your children could "try" it out. I think that is the best way to get a feel for it. Keep in mind that Alpha Omega does not permit the curriculum to be sold after you are done using it.
I tried it this year with French and science. Science with Faythe totally BOMBED. Rachael and French weren't so bad, but she said she didn't particularly care for it. I found SOS to be very difficult and not at all teacher-friendly. Absolutely HATED it! Oh, and you can't legally resell it!
My older daughter uses it for all subjects except math and bible. She prefers it over the workbooks/textbooks any day. She is in 10th grade and this is her second year using SOS.
We are switching from ABeka streaming to SOS for next year but not for every subject. DD (gr 12) will be doing Language, Computers, and perhaps French. DS (gr 10) will be doing Language, Science, World History. Bible will be ABeka (they are both doing Bible Doctrines streaming) Math is Teaching Textbooks Algebra II and Pre-calculus. We had problems with ABeka streaming through out the year and both kids are burnt out on the dvds. They are looking forward to a change.
sos is a love hate thing. You either totally love it or hate it, there is not a lot of us middle of the road likers here., I think that my kids like it okay, it does have a few flaws--mistakes in the programs are common and if your kid says "But I put the right answer in and it came up wrong" go back and check it, you can change the grade to correct even! MY ds did all subjects as SOS one year and we are certain he was getting a bit of tendinitis, so I would not recommend all of the subjects. And Math is not one you want to try on it, its too teddious.
Thanks to all for the detailed info. Knowledge is power! I now have a better idea of whether I will use SOS language arts. I may not. I am just so 'iffy' about it. Thinking maybe Easy Grammar or Growing with Grammar. Any advice on either of those or nay other suggestions? God bless!
I like the Daily Grams my ds uses that and Steck Vaughn Vocabulary. I think he is getting a well rounded pile of information with that. He does it on his own and I check it every week or two. So far he is doing great, occasionally I have to teach him a concept or remind him of a rule. I should mention I am going back to SOS, or Life Paks, for 9th grade H/G because it teaches a lot of very important US History 'stuff' that I did not get down as a kid and my second oldest who took LIfe Pak 9th grade courses knows her constitution and such quite well!
I've never used any SOS although I did get a demo disk once quite a long time ago. But I've never liked Lifepac LA or Math all that well, so I just can't imagine liking SOS versions that well either. I have used Easy Grammar, but the Plus level only. It was okay, definitely basic grammar, but I like the approach - learn all the prepositions first, then cross out prepositional phrases to help you find the subject and verb. I even use this idea to help my students who are using other programs to locate the subject and verb. I have used most of the levels of Daily Grams, as a "morning warm up" (and reinforcement tool) in addition to whatever other programs my students were using as a main LA. My favorites, btw, are CLE and R&S for English.
Isn't Lifepac 9th grade still Civics and World Geography? I think the 8th and 11th grade are American History... did they change it? They also have a 5-unit Civics course that I thought was pretty good.
We started using SOS this year. It took a little getting used to how they want questions answered. But, I find it easy to change the grade if I disagree with the preset answer. You can also access the answer with your teacher password from the lesson if necessary. I've done this a few times when I couldn't figure out what they r looking for. The student can also skip problems and leave a note for the teacher if they get stuck. You can also change the lesson order, delete lessons, add lessons from other grades (if u have them), etc. Example: spelling quiz is right after the spelling lesson. I moved the lesson up before other lessons in that section. We're also looking at using Thinkwell math next year for pre-algebra. Looking at using a lot of videos to supplement history and science. I find it very easy to use and convenient. However, like all curriculum, it will all depends on you and your kids. People either love or hate it. Although you can't sell SOS, you can use the 7th grade for your younger daughter when she's ready. Btw, they have there 20% off sale in April.
There are also authorized sellers on Ebay. Gods411 is one that I have purchased from before and they are very prompt on shipping.
I know the SOS is not allowed to be re-sold (arrgh, I have a ton of those!), but what about Lifepacs, am I able to resell them? I have several subjects that we are not using and I was hoping to be able to sell them.
