Does anyone use these? I hadn't ever seen them until today. Just when I think I have my curriculum figured out, I see something new and it looks great! I especially like the math because of the manipulatives. I love the manipulative aspect of Math-U-See, but don't want to have to watch the videos or just do addition for a whole year, subtraction for a whole year, etc. I had planned to you MM because it was cost effective and looked complete (I also liked the games that were offered in the samples). Now that I have seen McRuffy, this might be exactly what I am looking for. For phonics, I was going to use MCP, but now really like ETC or McRuffy. I want to use AAS so which program would compliment that better? Anyway, there are way too many good curricula out there. And to think that I might have just sent my kids to PS without having any idea which one they were using....
I use both.. and LOVE both! My kids also LOVE it all! It's FUN and COLORFUL and easy on mom!! It's pretty much open and go, lots of games and fun things to reinforce what is learned, lots of practice and I love the spiral approach to the math.
ps.. never used AAS, never even looked at it, but there is spelling right in McRuffy and if I need/want more there is a free spelling curric. from Zaner Bloser that we use.
I use them both also and throw in the science on top of it. I love everything about McRuffy. It is very open and go for me. There is not searching for a certain item or anything. There is never any doubt of what you are going to do or what is being taught. The TE is lightly scripted. So on those days that you are in a funk it works great. Even the days you are not. It is scripted just the right about to keep you on track of what you should be doing, but not so much you feel you have to do everything. The math program is very hands on. The lessons are short and sweet. Now they are intended to be done with the TE, which has way more added to it then the workbook shows. The games that go with the math are also fun. My son likes to play them often. As for the phonics. It kind of depends on what one you plan on using. I have only used K and 1 so far. So, here is what I can tell you about them. K is fun. Hands down you will be hooked using this program. The readers are cute and funny. The lessons are short, sweet and straight to the point. There is just enough information presented for the child to grasp the concept without over or under doing it. First grade was a bit of a step up. While it still have cute and funny readers and a few of the activities and games like K. It also starts teaching them more grammar (verbs, nouns, etc), they start learning more suffixes and such. Now the focus is not so much on phonics as the K program, don't get me wrong it is still there. Yet at the right amount. The K program did an awesome job of introducing what needed to be taught before going to first. There is more work expected of the child now. They do more on spelling and such. Over all I am very please with my sons progress using McRuffy. I recommend it to so many people.
THis is our first year hs'ing and we have been using Mcruffy. I think it's a great program personally. My son on the other hand isn't so crazy about it. I'm not really sure why. He actually loves the math and never complains about it but he hates the reading spelling/phonics and LA part of it. I don't think it is the program itself, just what my son prefers doing. He likes the lessons that use games and such but the lessons where it is just a workbook he complains like crazy. Like I said, I still think the program is great but I have found lately that I'm just going to have to mix things up a bit so he is not doing the exact same type of work daily.
