I know there are a lot of really good materials out there, and not all of them are for everyone. After 10 years of homeschooling, I have had my share of buying things lots and lots of people raved about and they went over like a lead balloon in our house. Many of these left my friends shaking their heads wondering HOW we couldn't get these to work or get the girls to like them (We're just special, I guess). Here is our list: Apologia Elementary Science (When I said I might keep the Astronomy book in the house because it was so beautiful all 3 girls asked me not to do that. And they love astronomy. I don't know what I did wrong>) LLATL MUS Mystery of History Teaching Textbooks (My 2 oldest hated this but my youngest thought it was totally cool.) We've had our failures, but these just stand out. But we've had a lot of surprises. Many of these were what the heck they are cheap so we'll try them purchases. Anything CLE R&S Math and 4th grade social studies Saxon Math from 54 up History Odyssey A World of Adventure Prentice Hall Science Explorer Taking my youngest dd who hates to read to a used book sale and letting her lose in the science section. How about in your house?
Off the top of my head: Big Flops in our house Considering God's Creation SOS Science Abeka Lang A (4th grade) (learned a lot but hated it) Abeka LA 2 (used about 2 weeks and tossed it...ok, I really gave it away) Wouldn't trade for anything Horizons Math Rod & Staff English Sonlight Cores 3 & 4 for history/reading (so far Core 1+2 is good as well) Apologia Elementary Series & General Science Get A Clue (online vocab thru HS Buyer's Co-op) Explode the Code (sniff, sniff...DS finishes Book 8 this week...even he is sad:cry
Pip, I'm wondering if you are in the midwest....I thought my family were the only ones to use "went over like a lead balloon"! :lol: Here are my lists up through 8th grade level.... Wouldn't trade for anything: Math-U-See...cannot say enough about how it worked to get my ds off the ceiling and tolerating math--dare I say progressing nicely. Switched-On-Schoolhouse Science....no, we don't like the science guy character, but having all the experiments on video is priceless. Explode the Code McGuffey Readers Considering God's Creation (science)...for dd who isn't a science kid but loves crafty stuff Mystery of History Didn't waste any more time with: SOS History...when your kid is a history buff, this program is torture. Teach Your Child to Read In 100 Easy Lessons....borrowed from a friend and was so glad we didn't purchase. This is an interesting thread to see what works so well for one family/child didn't work at all for someone else.
Misses: Trail Guide to U.S. Geography lost its steam midway through. I really enjoyed it at first, but it was too much WORK for me to pull together. BJU 5 Math has been a real mixed bag. Some chapters have brought us to tears. I don't think we'll continue with it next year. We've always loved it, but the upper grades are not working for us!! Hits Easy Grammar is simple to use and our children enjoy it. They essentiallly can teach themselves with it. It's open, read, and learn. Love it!! Teaching Textbooks math has been a hit for both of our children. They don't ever ask me to help them learn because the CDs do the job so well. AVKO Spelling has freed up so much time we used to spend in workbook spelling programs doing things other than spelling. We love this open and go DVD program. History Pockets are a wonderful supplement to our history reading. You can go through one period of history at a time. Aside from making copies, it's open and go. Abeka science and history were big hits as always. Our kids can barely put their books down!! Suprise flop- Rod and Staff History 5 was just not thorough or engaging for us. We had to drop it. Carly
Thumbs Up: TimezAttack Time4Learning Math and English Math U See BrainPop Cosmeo.com Life of Fred Jiu-Jitsu Monthly Science and Social Studies Group that Meets at our local library Thinkwell Usborne Internet-Linked Books Khan Academy Rosetta Stone Teaching the kids the skills we use everyday to make money Thumbs Down: Time4Learning Science and Social Studies Comprehensive Curriculum Workbooks Spectrum Workbooks Florida Virtual School
Abeka Math during middle school years was laborious, and there's so much unnecessary replication from year to year. That was a big mistake, and we did shift to some other books. Still, it meant that our children disliked math for some time. Looking back, the biggest success was driving our older daughter each week for Spanish lessons with a former missionary. Each class had just two or three students, was held in the lady's home, and instilled a love of the language until Rebekah graduated with a degree in Spanish (as well as biology). If we can light a fire for a particular subject at that age, it can burn for a very long time. As you rightly say, however, some textbooks rather douse the flames.
Wouldn't trade: Teaching Textbooks Apologia Science Five in a Row Explode the Code Starfall!!! Easy Grammar unit studies Waste of time: A Beka-everything except phonics in the younger grades (1 year of all A Beka was TORTURE!) LLATL (I really wanted to love it!) Spelling Power (so recommended!!) Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy [a million BORING] Lessons SOTW after vol. 2-Loved the ancients, was OK with vol. 2 and really thought 3 was lacking-didn't even try vol. 4
would toss out... SOS MATH for JR/Sr high levels. Not enough instruction in a so callled self pace independant class. hmm... not sure if there was anything else we actually purchased ---- WAIT! Weaver Spelling. Ds hated it, dd didn't even take a look past the first lesson they thought it was boring and I didn't like it either. ds COLLEGE SAID the math in Life Paks stank. What really worked for us: Horizon Maths Considering God's Creation science- made science actually interesting to me! (That is saying a lot, I was so bored with science as a kid that I generally got low grades unless it was something like chem or experimenting and inventing things on my own. ) Apoligia -- the Biology was okay, not my favorite but dd said it was good. Astronomy book is awesome in our family. Ds can read it and understand whats what, he asks me questions and seeks for the answers himself. Story of the World Mystery of History Wish I knew about MUS, Apoligia and MOH before I started teaching. I could have saved a lot of struggles with my oldest.
HITS: Teaching Textbooks Easy Grammar Sequential Spelling (DD) Spelling City (DS) Starfall.com (all of them! ) Living Books for History Someone else teaching Science A Reason for Handwriting FLOPS (some of these surprised me because I LOVED them, kids hated them) Considering God's Creation - still try to make this work occasionally! MUS - HATED it...son wanted to burn the book and DVD Lifepacs - after 3rd Grade...up to then, it was a love column
Flops: Teaching Textbooks Easy Grammar Hits: How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons KISS Grammar Math Mammoth
Hits: -Life of Fred -A Beka Read & Think Skills (Ems flew through these worksheets every year.) -unit studies -A Beka Science -Simply Grammar Flops: -A Beka Math (The first couple of years were great but after Ems grew to strongly dislike their math.) -Bob Jones English (It actually wasn't a complete flop. Ems learned a lot but it just wasn't what we were looking for. So after two years with their english, we switched. -Saxon Math
Patty what did you change to after BJU English? We liked that too, but dont want the older stuff it has. Ds learned tons with it, but we also switched to Writing strands and daily grams, I should have put them on my hits list! Whoo !
I put together different books and took certain lessons from each. They were Rod & Staff, Simply Grammar, Spectrum Language, and something else. I mixed and matched the lessons to work with each other.
Well for me it has been very interesting, because a lot of the stuff I wanted SO badly and almost spent too much money on is what we have almost done away with. Flops: BJU- I loved the set up, with the teacher book and all the worksheets and tests so neatly ready to use. But, with my changing attitude towards education-so went the love of "textbooks" for a lot of subjects. We do use their literature (some really cool stories), but not the whole book (way too much for a reluctant reader). I almost bought the whole DVD program last year (thank goodness I couldn't really afford to spend all my money). Lifepacs--I wanted it too be a hit, you know everything so neatly set up and you can work in small workbooks and write in them and everything. I purchased a couple single science and history books from them last year. My son thought it was cool that he could write in them. That excitement wore off in about 1 day. The material was SO dry, it was like a dry piece of bread that sat out in the desert for a month. I know someone could take the workbook idea and make it interesting, but for now... A Beka--too much busy work and too hard to pull together and use it the way they want. I find the books interesting sometimes, so they can be used by us, but not the way they lay it out. Hits: Teaching Textbooks- overall a good item, although I find some concepts overemphasized and a lack of word problems. The best we have used so far, but I don't know if we will use it next year or not. Story of the World- We JUST started using it, but I love it so far. It is written for 4-8th and my son is in 9th, but I feel that if he is learning then we will go for it. Spelling Power-this is not a WOW hit, but I like the word lists. We don't do the program at all like your supposed to (I am not disciplined and he is do pretty good). We just do the list orally and if he misses words I sometimes make him copy the words alone or in sentences. Apologia-more a hit for me than him. I love the way it is laid out, but the questions are difficult at times and the information can be deep. So, if he wants to use something else next year we will see. I have two different Biology sets (BJU and A Beka, because of a curriculum buying spree) so we may just use one of these and modify how we do it. The biggest hit- realizing that my son learns differently than I do and realizing that the traditional way of learning is probably not the best. I have to admit that I still stuggle letting go of the old and clinging to the new.
