Hello Ladies- You are all such an inspiration to me and SUCH a resource for guidance and encouragement-you are my go-to for questions such as these... As I have explained before, both dds, 1st & 2nd grades have being doing Abeka since PK4. (they were in a private Christian school up until this year). We just went with what their school would have taught them this year, which is a mix of BJU and Abeka. I am not sure that I want to use the same for next year-they are all worksheets. That works well for me in some ways since we have a 2yo to contend with during the day. In other ways it just seems boring, and is very $$ which eats up most of my budget to introduce a language, more arts, ect. MY 6 yo dd gets very "tired" of worksheets-she can't sit still long and will get sick of writing after a while. The only thing she gets excited about is art and math. My 7 yo loves english and reading-but would happily work on whatever I give her (total people pleaser!). My question is-how do I know what "level" is appropriate for my girls now...I just looked at Rod & Staff-but the 3rd grade looks like what dd is already doing-I have read rave reviews from all of you about CLE...do I just have to buy and see what works? that seems wasteful to me if it doesn't work...sorry if this is long winded! I definately like the CM style, though I have not used it since we have being traditional curriculum this year. HELP! Stepping out of the box and not doing a complete set is intimidating, but I think it could be great since my girls (and most kids) excel in some things and are "average" in others. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance! Tanis
I am HUGE advocate of CM! I love, love, love this method and can't say enough good things about it. I have also used CLE. We used CLE this year for science and Gracie loved it. With CLE you can actually just buy one lightunit which cost a few bucks so you can try it out and if you dont' like it you're only out about $5. Here are some links I like to share about CM. http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/ http://amblesideonline.org/ http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/
While I do use and like Rod and Staff, it is very repetitive. Each year repeats and builds on the previous years material, so I wouldn't be surprised if it looks like what you already did. Do you have a local homeschool support group? We have a "Curriculum Tea" every year, where we get together with our favorite curriculums and can check out each other's stuff. You could also put out a message to the other local homeschoolers and see if anyone has the level CLE or Rod and Staff and look at the actual books. I know that in the past I have been absolutely convinced that a certain curriculum was going to be a dream for our family, and then when I actually had it in had realized that i could have saved my money if only I had the opportunity to look at it in advance.
Just to throw this out there...............................I have the teacher's guide and reader of Helping Hands from CLE grade 2, the teacher's guide for science grade 2, and the entire 2nd grade language arts set including teacher's guide and all light units for grade 2. I loved science, reading was ok and I hated language arts and I really don't know why I bought it to begin with. Anyway I've got them if you decide to use CLE at that level.
You can go on the CLE website and get a glimpse of the Light Units. You can buy one, two or the entire set. This is our first year using CLE and I really can't say enough good things about it. Monkey Mama, I wish I knew you had those, I would have bought them off of you! I just received my order today from CLE with the rest of my daughters books for 2nd grade.
My children also hated worksheets. I would usually use one subject in BJU or ABEKA - usually LA, especially for middle school when they are learning grammar. Then I would use Unit Studies for history and Science, usually developing my own from books from the library or from the thrift shop. As I mentioned in another thread, I relied a lot on books like the "Boyhood of Famous American" series, and another set I used a lot was the "Eyewitness" books, leaving out any evolution or explaining it lightly. For math, we did Saxon all the way through unless I already had something else. We took a lot of field trips - there is history and science everywhere! My kids could probably live off the land if they HAD to! I also loved BJU's Bible course, but I took it slowly and didn't do everything they said to do with the kids. For world history I always worked from a timeline beginning with Adam and Eve and the spread of civilization. Honestly, the farthest we ever got was WWII, but my kids remember a LOT! I'd use material from secular, BJU, whatever history books I could get my hands on, and have the kids pick one book from the time period we were studying (say the middle ages) to read and report on. We also included a "day" from each period. Like a Middle Ages Day where we all dressed like different classes of people and talked about who we were and what role we played, ate food from the era, etc. Hope this helps you a little bit. Your children are still young, and they just need an overview at this point, IMO. Just an introduction to learning - I always TRIED to keep in mind (didn't always succeed. ) that I was attempting, especially in the K-4 years, to instill a love of learning, not actual information. Whatever they picked up along the way was frosting! When school got to be "drudgery" - all the way through, for that matter - it was time for a day off or a field trip! Hope this is a little help to you. God Bless!
