What curriculum is your favorite at the moment? Have you had any curriculum fails that you really wanted to love, and they just didn't work for your family?? Please share! Remember, just because something works perfectly for my family, that doesn't mean it will be the best fit for you and vice versa! That is the beauty of homeschooling... We can find the perfect fit!
Oh I'm glad that everyone I follow that's been using History Quest has it in their top 3 - we will be starting it in June - I expect us to run over a year to complete it too because I've bought so many things to add on to it.
Thank you!!! Finally someone who agrees with All About Spelling. It just didn't work. We ended up just staying old school and doing Evan Moor Daily Spelling. It's been wonderful.
Glad to hear History Quest is working out for you! I can identify with taking longer for some of the units. When I wrote the Cambodia chapter for History Quest: Middle Times, I took four times as long as planned because it was just too interesting to stop!
I don’t have a top three or anything, but I do have a workbook/curriculum I iPhone that works really well and it is the get ready for school series by Stella Heather. By 11 Saul and black dog. For me who is blind and autistic and learning print using an OrCam my eye, it is awesome. Amazing curriculum. A lot of the activities are simple to adapt to a separate paper which is what I do is write down my answers on a separate sheet so that I’m not wrecking the book by accidentally writing the answer in the wrong place. I was previously attempting to use flash kids and brain quest, but I haven’t use them that much because they’re very hard to use except flash. It’s pretty easy to implement the way I need it to be adapted, but it is huge has actually ripped and stuff just from me handling it. It’s not completely ripped but it’s just ripped in like one place or something like that. The other book has survived a little more because it’s got a little bit thicker, harder, cover, sturdier cover And that is. Brain quest is a really good workbook except for their summer bridge program. I don’t like their summer bridge program. Everything is mashed together on one or two pages for that day or that week. It is so mass together that my device cannot even read it. it can sort of read it but not very well. This new workbook my device reads very very well and I have no problem understanding what I’m supposed to be doing in it. And I love that. It teaches a concept instead of just answering questions and quizzing you and activities. I really like the teaching portions in this book. They are more a kin to an actual school textbook or the brain quest textbook when it comes to explaining the concept. I love that they have actual real story for a reading passage for comprehension, which is the torn in the hair. Much better. Same thing with flash kids. Except they don’t have stories that have already been written except for by their company, but they do have decent stories that are actual stories. Honestly, really happy with that. And I love the mass in this because it is very very good and so is the health and science portions. The other ones they have do not include health flash definitely does not because it does not have science or social studies which really sucks. Honestly, I have to say, awesome curriculum.
The more I hear about Dimensions Math the better it sounds! We have been using Math U See and it is fine, but we do not LOVE it. We'll continue on for now, but keeping this in mind for the future.
Also using Dimensions Math. We’re going into 4A in the fall. The teachers guide is very helpful and if you get stuck (the challenge problems can be tricky) there is an awesome Facebook group that will answer any questions almost instantaneously.
I finally had to throw in the towel on Moving Beyond the Page. We struggled with that curriculum for 2 years. I’ve finally decided to cut my losses and move on. The activities took way too long to complete and many of the books for us were not interesting. I would fall asleep in the middle of the lesson! I also felt like there were key grammar and spelling concepts that weren’t directly covered.
Our favorites are Logic of English, Singapore Dimensions Math, and Build Your Library. My least favorite is Scientific Connections Through Inquiry. I've opened the guide many times and kept postponing it. We've only done 1 lesson and the school year is almost over, so it's safe to say that one won't get done.
Oh gosh we never followed through with AAS either. It just goes to show that even the most popular programs don’t always work for everyone! Great video.
Exactly! And even if you love one thing from a publisher, you may not like their other offerings. It's nice to be able to tweak and customize - that is the beauty of homeschool!
AAS is something I didn't love at first but went back to as my son has struggled with spelling. He is an excellent reader, but the traditional spelling lists just don't work for him. So now we are in AAS 4 and plan to complete 5-7 next year since he is in 8th grade. I am surprised by how much he just didn't realize. Sometimes, our little learner just isn't ready for something at the moment. We have been loving Singapore Primary 2022 for my daughter. She was thriving with AAR but struggling with math. We were using Rightstart for 2 years, but she was not retaining. I think she just needed the mastery approach. Now she is really grasping concepts. Writeshop and Lightning Literature are other programs that I have tried to love, but struggle to do it consistently.
I’m using History Quest with my 3rd grader and we absolutely love it! He loves to listen to the stories and remembers the characters in the History Hop! The web links that are associated with the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History are PHENOMENAL! I have learned so much along with my son and everything is very engaging!
Love love History Quest and we are the same here... I never stick to the recommended schedule... Always spend extra weeks on each topic... So the progress through the curriculum is pretty slow but we are all absorbing so much!!!!
Oh my gosh, I seriously need to get woven melodies! I just bought a piano curriculum for my son and woven melodies would be a great addition because the piano curriculum I purchased doesn't cover any of the topics covered in woven melodies!
History Quest sounds great! All About Spelling - we just started!!! I hope it works better for us. Funny, I spoke about spelling for my least favorite too! I had a huge smile and a few chuckles when you described your daughter's reaction to a curricula you love!
Just wanted to say i’ve been using aas with my kindergartner and we absolutely love it. We bought the tiles app and we play games with the cards as well (with every 3 cards he gets right he gets a treat like raisin or grape or he gets to make a silly story about the word). It’s been wonderful
The one that I hate to say I don't love is All About Reading. It is a great curriculum, but my kiddos just do not like it. It was a struggle so we made a switch. I think it's such great advice that even though it works for others and is truly an excellent program, it's okay if it doesn't work for your homeschool!
@@OdetoAbode For my younger daughter we are trying out Pinwheels and so far we really like it. For my older, we are using Brave Writer. We like it a lot, but think I want something that is a little more structured for grammar. But for now we are focusing on finding a love for reading and writing.
We are loving Singapore Math 2022, CKLA and CKSci. I think I saw you share your new spelling program on Instagram. Would love to see a video on it, if possible!
You might use Logic of English for spelling. They have Foundations for ages 4 through 7. It is an award-winning program. They also have Essentials program for older kids ages 8+.
Oh that's ok! I think it is a fantastic program, but every kid is different hahaha. I'm gonna hold onto it in case my other kid(s) like it in the future.
That's awesome that you guys are loving Woven Melodies. I have heard from others that All about Spelling can be a little bit overkill and end up being confusing for kids. Some kids just thrive with more "traditional" spelling approaches.
I love hearing this. I wanted to ask what videos you use for history? We have also enjoyed our Singapore and simply don’t do worksheets when it doesn’t seem necessary. I will admit that I wonder if I’m doing enough sometimes, but I plan on going back if need rather than test or have her memorize facts for now.
I think math fact memorization is really overrated, and that was a point I got from Mathematical Mindsets. So I'm happy to not drill facts (it didn't work for me as a kid!). We love tying in RU-vid videos, Justin Time episodes, Xavier Riddle & the Secret Museum episodes... Whatever kids videos we can find that correlate with what we're learning in history.
I was also not in love with AAS 2. I was using it as a diy for our own reading curriculum. I can’t imagine it side by side with AAR 2. Felt advanced so we immediately stopped until future use. I may still try to dive in… not sure.
AAS felt like overkill and very tedious for my daughter. Too slow a pace as well. She's thriving with AAR and needs just a little spelling review to go along with it
Yes! At the top of the Core Knowledge website, they have two buttons. One is "download free curriculum," and the other is, "store." In the store section, you can buy individual books or packages for subjects/grade levels :)
Sorry ! My mistake. Only CKHG & CKSci are in the "store" section. CKLA is a little trickier to find... You have to purchase CKLA via a 3rd party company called Amplify. Here's the link: www.coreknowledge.org/product/core-knowledge-language-arts/
I've been considering MCT for my children of varying abilities. I have a child who is using All About Reading. He struggles with reading. I was considering the Island level in hopes it might offer instruction on writing good sentences, and I think he'd like the story approach. But all I see is sentence analysis---am I missing something? Does this curriculum assume you have separate writing instruction or a separate writing program?
Your daughter sounds just like my 11 year old. She likes things direct and to the point and is so annoyed by all the fluff. She loves doing Fix it Grammar from IEW and she love sentence diagramming from a workbook. It's like a puzzle to her🤷.
I also have not been enjoying all about spelling. It seems too easy for my daughter and just too many different parts. I think it is maybe more helpful if language arts is not a top subject for your child. I like the way it teaches, but it just is too slow and time consuming for us. Too many different parts, etc. I am also looking for a new spelling for next year.
Yes! So slow and tedious and overly detailed. My daughter already felt confident with a lot of the "rules" just from All About Reading, so it seems unnecessary for her to have it twice, basically
Oh MCT isn't working for you guys - I'm putting off purchasing it purely based on the price. I have no clue hoe spelling you see works, but if you're looking for something cheap, effective and fun we use Fitzroy word families, they also have a reading program which I haven't used - as we use Decodable readers Australia.
