Curriculum review

[Cookies4me]

Curriculum review


Since the year is almost over I though it would be a great time to pass on information on what has worked for us and what has not.

I am all for reviews of products. However I think it is important when writing a review both negative and positive you must also inform how your child learns.
What may be great for your child may not be great for another. :ohno (even in your own family) :hehee

So I would say start off with the things that worked great for you and why. Also why it was great for your child's learning ways.

Then type the things that did not work so well for you and why. Also remembering to add the learning ways of your child.

[lyngraphics]

:bump

[lisaann]

I have a ds aged 9 and a dd aged 7 who both like hands on learning. If we are doing alot of reading I let them color or play with Silly Puddy while they listen. Busy hands = open mind. :thumb

Story of the World (vol 2 Middle Ages) once again went over very well. I love the "story" format that makes it come alive to them. We have a time line painted on our wall that we then post little pictures on related to what we are studying. They really have a good feel already of "time".

Learning Language Arts Through Literature is a real disappointment. It is very weak on grammar and has alot of unnecessary filler. I also think their spelling is poor. I am only using it right now for reading and other things like poetry and letter/report writing ect. Basically it is an "idea" book for me at this point.

Sequential Spelling is the best book that I bought this year! My ds struggled horribly with spelling so I bought this program because it was geared to dyslexic kids. It is based on learning word patterns and then adding prefixes and suffixes to those patterns. My ds went from not being able to spell 6 words a week to doing 25 different words a day. He is even able to know when he misspelled a word on his own and fix it himself usually without my prompting him. :thumb He found spelling rules a mystery so I was glad that this book didn't bog him down with that.

Easy Grammar is an outstanding program in my opinion. :thumb It is incremental and covers things in depth. I personally am really learning alot with it. :lol2

Living Learning Books science has been very enjoyable for us. We use library books that are age appropriate for the kids to springboard our learning on a particular topic. It has optional activities, art, cooking and websites for each topic. The kids enjoyed it so much that we are going to use the next level again next year.

Real Science 4 Kids Biology - I used this for ds to challenge him since he loves science and is ready for harder work than offered in Living Learning Books. We only did 2 days a week and he finished about 2 months ago. It gives a very basic, gentle introduction to biology concepts without the difficult math. This way when they get it in the upper grades they are already familiar with the concept and can more easily tackle the harder work.

Saxon Math 5/4 - we started out the year with ds with this and found it extremely frustrating for him. We have used Saxon successfully up until now so this was a bit of a shocker. I moved him to Modern Curriculum Press and he did much better. I think that it was Saxon's spiral approach that really threw him. He really has trouble shifting gears between math concepts and the review pages are full of many different types of problems. He found it extremely frustrating.

Modern Curriculum Press 4th year math. This works extremely well for my son. He likes to tackle one concept at a time. I did find the lack of good review pages frustrating so what I did was take the end of chapter tests and had him do one problem from each test every day as review and that worked out very well.

Saxon 1st grade math. My dd did very well with this and finished the book several weeks ago. I love Saxon for 1-3 grade. It remains to be seen if she finds the 5/4 as difficult as her brother did.

Leading Little Ones to God we use for daily devotions. I cannot say enough good about this book. It teaches Biblical doctrine in a way children can understand. It also teaches about living a Christian life. Wonderful, wonderful book! :thumb

[JustGiveMeJesus]

For anyone that has a child that is dyslexic I highly recommend the Barton Reading and Spelling system. It is based on the Orton-Gillingham approach for teaching any age of those with dyslexia. It isn't a 'quick' fix, but the results I have seen through each level is amazing! There are hours of free web cast on her sight, tons and tons of 'helps'. If I have had questions she emails me or calls me with answers or suggestions. This has worked great for us!!