As I have whined about several times, I have LITTLE time to devote to individual subjects. In my desperation to find curriculum that requires little of me for my dds going ino 6th grade,11yo & going ionto 8th grade, 12yo. Anyone inside info on SOS for math, history, & science. All three or just one. I have been leaning toward MUS, which is still where my heart is for sure. What about history & science? Is SOS easy to follow? Is it entertaining? Is it a trustworthy curriculum? Never saw any SOS except for demo on website. Don't know anyone who uses it. Feeling overwhelmed & desperate to find stuff that requires little of my time because this year I am in too deep with lesson planning & assisting my dd11. I was told that SOS would provide her good, plain directions for her work. She needs things to be explained very plain, no frills, yet paint a picture. Tough one, huh? Blessings!
SOS science didn't work for Faythe. I REALLY didn't like it, but there are many here that do. From what you say about your daughter, it might be a good match for her. Rachael did SOS French, and didn't care for it, either. Also, you can't resell SOS.
We used SOS for 8th grade LA, science and history. The only one we liked at all was the science. It has built in lab videos. The overall set up is easy for the teacher, but there are enough issues with it not being user friendly that it may be more of a headache for you in the long run if you are not available while the kids are doing the lessons. The questions are not always worded correctly and the answers must be exact since it is a computer program grading them. I found that my ds was clicking "help" on so many of the questions that I ended up having to go through the entire lesson with him at my side. I have a friend who has used it from 3rd grade on for every subject with her kids and they love it. You might want to get on www.homeschoolreviews.com and see what users there say about it. What doesn't fit one person is the perfect fit for someone else.
We used SOS for all subjects this year. We basically like it. I decided to switch to Thinkwell for pre-algebra. SOS doesn't have a teacher explaining, so unless I remembered it from school, I was lost and couldn't help. As far as science and history, I'll probably stick with SOS. What others say about questions & answers are true, but the convenience outweighs the headache. Also, we find it a lot easier to stay on track. I ended up turning off the quizzes and test for these 2 subjects and assigning the lessons twice for the year. It just wasn't enough re yew for my kids. I'm also sticking with SOS for LA and Spanish. My kids love their Elementary Spanish.
Another thing ds14 doesn't care for with SOS is that you have to click a lot back and forth trying to review or find answers. He much prefers hands on material. It got so bad for him at one point I opened up my teacher program so he could have two screens open at once. He has Tourette's, so he is a special case to some degree with his eye tics and refocusing, but I thought I'd mention the limited material per page in case it was relevant for one of your kiddos.
We use SOS for History, LA, and Science. We really love it. I will say that I'd never ever ever use it for math. Between inadequate explanations and tedious entering of numbers/symbols, I knew it would only frustrate DS. We use LifePacs instead for math. It's a work text so I can still be relatively hands-off. If you really want to not have to explain the math (which is a problem with LP, albeit a smaller problem than with SOS), consider MUS. The child can watch the video of the teacher teaching the lesson then do the lesson. MUS didn't work for us, but many people adore it.
Teaching Textbooks is also very independent for math, which has greatly enhanced my relationship with Phillip!
About MUS DVDs....we are avid MUS users, but I have found that the upper levels are not easy for a child to understand a new concept from watching the DVD alone. He moves too quickly, is not systematic in the direction he is working the problem and he at times is not consistant with his terminolgy. Just yesterday I was telling my ds14 that the DVDs are better suited for a refresher for the parent so they can then teach the new concept.
My 15 yr old daughter had been using SOS for the last two years. She prefers it over text books. She uses it for Science, History, LA and electives. For math she uses Teaching textbooks. As someone else said, the conveniece definitely outweighs the headaches. I was going to start my younger daughter on it when she hits 3rd grade, but she LOVES workbooks and is doing very well with her curriculum, so she will probably only use the SOS for elementary Spanish.
It may have changed, but when we used MUS it was stated that the videos are for the parents and not the students - although literally everyone I know that uses MUS has the student watch the video themselves and the parents don't watch at all. Since you got several votes for not using SOS for math and you have an 8th grader, I'll throw this out there.... We are using Videotext Algebra right now and I like it so far. It has a video-based teaching that is meant for the student to watch so the explanations are thorough. He teaches for understanding and mastery. In addition to the video, there is a book of notes they can refer to while doing their problems. The student book also has some explanation along with the problems. My son watches the video, does the odd problems and then we correct them. If he's gotten them all correct, he does Quiz A. If he hasn't, he does the even problems and we correct them. He can then do Quiz B, although most of the time he does fine on Quiz A and just moves to the next lesson. Everything is non-consumable and can be re-used and re-sold.
Yes, that's what the MUS videos are for (teaching mom to teach the kiddos), but most parents I know who use MUS cut out the middle man, so to speak.
I say MUS for Math ad SOS for the other two. We have used all ofthe above at sometime ad the Math in the 6th grade is easy enough, though sometimes it gets tedious for them typing the answers so I printed some lessons out to make it easier on him ( when ds was in 4th we did math, the school at my church uses SOS from 6-12 along with CLE and AOP Life Paks and a little ACE.)
Thanks ladies! You are always so helpful. Is Teaching Textbooks something to consider over MUS? Read that TT ends up leaving gaps in the education. Anyone had this experience? Also my dd11 that is in the 5th grade. We are currently, reluctantly trudging through A Beka 5th grade math. (From my understanding, A Beka is somewhat advanced.)She is doing slowly ok with it, we don't move NEAR as fast as they recommend. My dd came out of ps doing descent in math, calculations are on spot, timing is horrible. Visual spatial learner! So, much of what A Beka is using as review from 4th grade, my dd is just now learning because it hadn't yet been taught in ps. Since I am thinking of using MUS next year, my ponders are this: do I continue with A Beka math thru the summer (we won't finish before I want to pick up with next school year,6th grade using MUS) or do I just break down & get MUS now & kick A Beka to the curb? Without placement testing (which we will do), I was thinking on going back to Gamma because of multiplication. Her multiplication needs much improvement. Despite all the help & games she still can't remember them. Two more questions. Would you drop A Beka now & order MUS & work thru the summer? Would you take an 11yr, 5th grader (going into 6th in the fall) back to Gamma for multiplication strengthening or do placement testing & let her start where ever the test recommends? Blessings!
My oldest has done TT geometry, algebra 2, and pre-cal. They don't (didn't?) have a cal program. This year, she's doing a new MUS cal, and isn't having any trouble with it, so obviously she was prepared enough with TT to go into it. Phillip, 5th grade, started the year off with Saxon. And he fought me every day over SOMETHING!!! Finally I broke down and bought TT5. It does frustrate me some in that if he misses a problem, it will let him go back and correct it right away, and then count it "right". (But you can't miss it a second time!). I'm OK with him correcting it, but I wish it would tell me which ones he had to re-do! However, I no longer have fights with him every day. He sits down and does it without any complaint. He finished the book a while ago, and wanted to go straight on into the next book. But we're buying it from a friend who hasn't finished quite yet, so I've been giving him pages with fractions (adding/subtracting, etc.) and he's fighting me again!
One of the beauties of homeschooling is the ability to chuck something whenever you need to! I'd do the placement test and see where they place her, but keep in mind that they heavily review the previous book througout the book you are working in. When ds came back from a couple years in public school I retested him. He needed a lot of work on fractions (Epsilon), but I put him in Zeta because I was confident in his ability to master the fractions with the reviews in Zeta. I was glad I did it that way for his sake. He basically had not moved on in math the entire time he was in public school.
We went with MUS because of availability trading off with a friend as well. DD used it with no problems whipped right through it doing sometimes more than one lesson a week. Ds is doing Alg1 this year, and we are taking it slower. One lesson per week almost... we took a week to do review, have not done a mid term yet. We forgot there was such a thing until ds looked in his test booklet and said.. Uh.. mom did you know we missed a midterm? So I am plugging away with him, he gets up to 3 wrong to be considered passed, if its anything more than that we redo the whole lesson. Either way I make him correct the ones wrong. Jackie I don't think I would like not knowing which ones were wrong either cause what if he is just guessing? Ds does that from time to time has a day where he will "just guess" at most of his problems and get them right. It is scary! dd is my tutor for Alg, he does not like how she does this though cause she makes him feel dumb. But she learned things her way.. you see it you know it, and had to learn that all my kids learn differently. What was good for one was horrible for the other. It will be interesting if I teach my 3rd grade nephew for that month of school work to see what his learning process is!
Loads of help, thanks so much. I will probably go with MUS, that's where my heart seems to be leading me. Although TT seems appealing because of how 'teacher friendly' it is. lol Good to know that if we go with MUS that I should just put her in whatever level she tests at. Thanks again! Blessins!
Faith, that's true with WHICHEVER program you go with. And I would take it one step further. So much of a book is just review in the beginning! When Rachael was younger, I switched her from Horizons to Saxon. And she fussed, "MOM! I KNOW all this!!! WHY do I have to do it?" So I gave her the first test, and she got 95%, which proved to me that she DID know it. So I gave her the next test. And did that every day until her grade dropped from the 90's to the 70's. And THAT was the chapter I started her at! And I did the same thing the next year, even though we were just starting a new book in the same series.
Jackie I like that method! I have used it too. that way you are teaching to the level not redoing and making the child feel like its a waste of time. We actually did a bit of easy stuff at first just to encourage them that they knew well the work and then went into the one that was new ground.
