I'm looking at this for my (upcoming) 6th and 4th graders. Possibly for my non-reading (upcoming) 2nd grader, too. The older two read, don't mind reading, but aren't avarous readers like I am. Think they'll hate it?
There is really not that much reading, IMO. We did the orange book and I was trying to read all four (five?) of the books, and it turns out that you really only need the passages that are in the workbook. I really wanted it to be the magic thing that made my kids love literature, but it just didn't happen. My ds did discover that old didn't mean 'lame' (Boxcar Children) We liked it ok, but we didn't use it consistently, and I kind of skipped around in it. I don't think they'll hate it, unless they aren't work-booky.
All my kids currently use them and so far they like them. I don't use them exactly as you are supposed to either which may be why they like them. I think there is not enough spelling so we do spelling power instead. I also have them skip some of the activities that I feel are too repetitive. Some of my kids are readers and some I have to force to read and so far they all like the books and have enjoyed reading. It is not heavy with reading either which for my kids I like. I do have them do a tiny bit of grammar in addition as well since they enjoy the grammar books and it never hurts to do extra. Overall I would recommend them and we plan on using them every year from now on unless my kids start to hate them. Jsyk we are currently using the blue, yellow, orange, and tan books.
We have done the Red level (2nd grade) and the Yellow level (3rd grade), both were great. There is not any reading that HAS to be done by the child. You caould do all the reading for them. I love all the books that they recomend to go with the curriculum. We just got done reading "The Tale of Jeremy Vole". It was adorable. I like how the curriculum includes : penmanship, cursive, vocabulary, spelling, grammar, reading, etc....
One other thing I forgot to mention is that one of the reasons I really like these is because I don't have to do almost anything with my kids that can read. They can just open the book and follow the directions. For my dd that is "reading" but still learning there is a bit more for me but not much.
We used Orange for our 4th grader the first semester this year...although we had him read the books that were covered, it would easy to read the books with your kiddos or just stick with the passages in the book as opposed to reading the entire book. That said, we did not stick with it, despite my initial love for it because it simply was not enough of anything for my 4th grader (grammar and spelling especially). I began supplementing grammar, then spelling, then writing, then more reading...until I finally realized LLATL was just not a good fit for our expectations and my kiddo's learning styles. I wish it had been - it is a convenient, all-in-one program!
