I have two kids we did the first grade and now are using the second grade. We are on lesson 28, I do booster card's every day. So when we hit the master target we are usually a head by a few cards. I do review of each card every time till there is no hesitation, we also do the read along together chapter at least three times a week. I feel if you do the full 10/15 min of booster cards per day with the lesson and the full 20 min independent reading/joined reading with the lesson. The lesson can take a while like today was a full 40 minutes so when you add the reading and booster cards its over an hour. I have a slow learner who is 8 in second and a fast learner who just turned 6 in second grade. I do feel like there is small gaps where they both could be stronger. So I just got weekend books for the areas they struggle. So for my daughter wo struggles in spelling, a fun spelling work book. I got a m son a reading work book for dyslexic learners to help him. I don't like having to add to curriculums..... Just seams like there is no one curriculum that doesn't have gaps so here we are. There is something that I think should be known the good and beautiful adds the geography and art so you don't have to have separate curriculum for those subjects.
At some point you have to stop blaming the curriculums.. just stick with one curriculum. As someone who has been doing this for a while, there’s HUGE benefits to sticking with one curriculum to avoid a lot of gaps.
I did the same thing and I ended up to my ears in curriculum and now we went back to the good and beautiful because that’s what my daughter liked a lot and you can learn through anything our kids don’t need to know everything at once.
@@amberslilrose3954 I agree to an extent if a curriculum isn’t working for the child I would recommend switching things up for a better learning experience. Every family and every child is different, and that’s the beauty of homeschooling.
I mean for people who just want to squeak by with the absolute BARE minimum for their children’s education with no enrichment… MB’s does the job just fine.
You say you printed extra worksheets to aid the MB curriculum, but you couldn’t do that for TGTB?? 🤔 I get suspicious of Masterbooks vs TGTB videos… MB has been attacking TGTB from day one.
It sounds like your daughter is dyslexic. My daughter is dyslexic too and had all of the same struggles as your children. However… I’m a FIRM believer that sticking with a curriculum long-term has major benefits. The first two years were not super smooth sailing. But this year, something has finally clicked and she is doing amazing! The lessons have never taken us an hour… even with her being a “slower learner.” As far as the “jumping around,” within the curriculum.. I felt like that too.. and was worried that it wasn’t “mastering” concepts, until I stuck with it for several years and my daughter is now FLOURISHING with this type of spiral approach! They really do revisit concepts SOOOO many times throughout the years that there’s no way she could forget them at this point. Yes, it takes a touch of effort to do everything (reading, boosters, the lesson) but it gives the child a well-rounded education! Totally worth it, to me.
I agree I think we all have the question is the grass greener on the other side and so we keep trying to change to make life easier.... Unfortunately it just makes it much harder and our kids more prone to quitting when things get hard in our home. My rule is if I buy it we finish it witch I understand why many don't. Trying to teach a dyslexic boy with Abeka kindergarten to just repeat kindergarten was challenging. I changed curriculum after that year. I often look back wondering what if I would have redid it and kept going where would we be now...
@@sherrisuhr8438 I think you were right to leave Abeka so early! It’s very tough on dyslexic children. That’s a great approach to have, regarding finishing the curriculum you buy! You’re doing great, mom!
@@amberslilrose3954 you can have your opinion about the curriculum that is totally fine. It works for you and your kids, awesome. We’re are so glad you found something that works for you. But where we draw the line is diagnosing our children that you know nothing of. We share our experience with homeschooling and curriculum to help others who may be feeling the same way (which there are a lot). There is no need to put your input about OUR children. It’s not needed nor welcomed.
ok, serious questions...:) I've been a good and the beautiful language arts mom forever. It's just what has worked. However, my almost 7 year old has not been clicking with the TGATB kinder program, so I switched him to CLE's LTR and it's been amazing! Totally clicked and now I'm debating wether I need to switch my 3rd and 4th grader to CLE language arts as well....and maybe include the reading program too? Or would that be too much?
Thank you for the videos! I felt the same with MB and so we stopped using them....I've heard alot about CLE and looks really good!! Is the language arts spiral or mastery? I've heard that CLE math is spiral so we're planning to use Rod and Staff arithmetic actually, similar to CLE company but mastery method 😊
Have not finished watching yet! But I love your video. Love the honesty and how you’re describing everything. I totally think it’s crazy they assume you have your completely master before u go on because I did that when I started homeschooling with reading and language arts with one of my kids but I layered realized what they don’t get at first they get later on. If you keep going. Cause it clicks or continues to reinforce what you learn as you go. And the list memorizing totally get that my kids totally seemed to memorize lists but I noticed they could see the word later not recognize it because it looked different. Like say caps or font or something so I started trying to show word in different types to see if they recognized it.
@@JohannaCoursey yes it definitely doesn’t work for us. That’s the beauty of homeschooling we get to find what works for our kids. Thanks for watching ♥️
Thank you so much for this! Do you have a review comparing these math curricula as well? I am debating about whether or not to switch from TGATB math to MasterBooks math for one of my children who is strong in LA but struggles with math.
@@rebeccagaston2023 we don’t have a video of that but we both switched to Apologia math for both of our children and we have a review/ flip through of level 1
Could you possibly tell me the name of the other symbol used in the phonics book that you pointed out that indicates the different pronunciation of the "A" as "au"?
I love your honest reviews and just how genuine you both are. I haven’t begun homeschooling yet but have been in research mode and the typical reviews and day in the life’s on RU-vid are overwhelming… until i came to your channel. You are like a breath of fresh air when I’ve been drowning in the sea of information. I feel like i am looking for similar things in a curriculum as what suits you as far as needing guidance and structure. My children seem similar to yours in there needs as well. I would really like to see an “in hindsight” video where you, knowing what you know now, list which specific curriculum you wish you had used or if you had to do it again, what you would choose for each subject for each grade from pre-k to present. That way i can just choose those tried and true hits rather than wasting my money on misses. Thank you for being such a huge help in figuring out what direction I would like to go. You’ve given me back confidence on this roller coaster ride I’ve been on with my decision weather or not to homeschool.
@@shalimarcook5037 thank you so much! We are so happy to hear this. This video sounds like a great idea because if we could do those grades again we would probably have chosen some different curriculum. Thank you so much for watching. ❤️
Loved this video! Your channel was suggested for me and I’m so glad I found it! We’re about to start our 4th year of homeschooling with my 3rd grader and kinder twins, and we’re excited to use the notgrass history family style and open ended like you mentioned! 😊
@@StephanieStewart3 we’re so glad you found our channel. We pray that our videos reach whoever God wants them to reach. Family subjects are our favorite! Thanks for watching ♥️
You can use flash cards or worksheets as part of the daily skills practice which is scheduled out for you in the teacher guide. Apologia is a mastery program with a lot of review. Hope this helps. ♥️
This is so interesting! My kiddo is an avid reader. He just turned 6 but he's definitely ahead in L.A. Still, I wanted to start with first grade L.A. to make sure we don't skip concepts. I can totally see how it would be challenging if he wasn't a fast reader. I would concentrate on reading and read-alouds before doing this curriculum. Then this curriculum is great. It has worked really well for us. We finish each lesson in about 10 minutes. We're still finishing kindergarten math and we do 2 lessons a day sometimes. I absolutely love the open and go concept. But I can definitely see how it's not terribly exciting all the time. My kiddo also hates the coloring, painting and most crafts. I simplify them and just let him use colored pencils instead of paint, or do checked instead of coloring ... But he loves memorizing poetry, the narrations and TGTB story books. Still, this makes me want to look into Mastebooks. TGTB doesn't have much in terms of Bible stories or biblical concepts. Thank you so much for doing such a thorough review.
@@jrodriguez6888 We have both switched from masterbooks to Christian light education. If something’s not working you have to find something that works. There are a lot of curricula that are more heavy on the biblical aspects, TGTB barely scratched the service for me but of course that’s preference. Thank you so much for watching. ♥️
I highly suggest finding a grade of CLE Bible that works for multiple kids. I love Grade 3 for grades 2-5. We do it together and each student has their own LightUnits. I highly suggest this with the Teachers Guide.
We started winning with writing last year with my middle (she is going into 4th). I didn’t love that (but we do like their spelling). This next year we will be doing Share Your Story and I just purchased Writeshop jr D. I used Writeshop jr book E for my oldest and planned to use that with my 4th in the future but just decided to make the switch this next year. I think it will be fun to go through it. Writeshop junior is in depth and fun but sometimes teacher intensive
Thank you for your videos they have helped a lot in choosing curriculum! I’m curious to know how you guys plan your schedule on all these subjects I know CLE has creative writing,handwriting and grammar included so do have him doing the other workbooks all together?
Thanks for watching! He has daily independent work that doesn’t take him much time at all. He has his “we remember” section from CLE, a page of fix it grammar, a page of explode the code, and independent reading. If anything is too much for him I will break it up. We will be having a video explaining our schedules soon.
I love this video. That sounds great. I really thought about Apologia math, but in the end went with TGTB 4. I love how you're using the Mcguffys, and language 3 from CLE. I am also using the creative writing book from TGTB. I made a video recently talking about when it works and when it doesn't work.. just depending on the mood of the house. And how the school days going. Can't force creativity!
Thanks for this video, I’m in my 1st year of homeschooling getting done soon so I’m looking forward to incorporating family subjects bc my smallest is showing interest in school now !
My rabbit hole with Shelly at Mom Delights literally changed my homeschool a few years ago!! She needs more attention and credit for how much wisdom she is providing on her channel lol
The math is set up for a 4 day school week but I totally think it could be done in 3 days. At the end of the year my daughter wanted to do two lessons a day. Thanks for watching ❤️
We also use McGuffey’s and really love them! Also, for free math resources, Ray’s Arithmetic and Hamilton Arithmetic can both be found online and printed out for free! Our Sweetie Birds Home RU-vid channel talks about those 😊👍🏼
Loving this homeschooling content! For math, the Singapore Math approach is fantastic for building a strong foundation and problem-solving skills. If you're looking to explore it further, I run a channel called The Singapore Math Specialist with lessons and tips specifically geared towards homeschooling. Check it out if you're interested!
We use McGuffey as readers we love them! My son loves the stories and pictures. I also have found some older readers at our thrift store and they really are so cute!
I'm using that with my grandson and it is awesome. I've also watched Mom Delights, but this is by far way better. I'm also using the same math as you guy's as well from Mom Delights. I've went completely old school with all of his curriculm.
I love that you guys are trying out the master books sciences. I’m a bit confused on how to use, I seen they have a dinosaur one that comes with living books if I were to go with that topic would I need to add extra science like something that covers everything or other topics?
Nope that’s what is so beautiful about homeschooling. You get to decide what you learn about. The elementary paleontology is a year long curriculum so it looks perfect.
So since I started the year with Masterbooks I already had it on hand I just lined up the lessons. So for example if our CLE lesson was about quotation marks I found the same activity in Masterbooks for extra practice. I personally don't think both are necessary because CLE has so much review in every lesson. Hope this helps.
