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SeaStar
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| Posted: April 17 2008 at 7:41pm | IP Logged
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Now that the school year is in the home stretch, I thought it would be interesting to take take a poll of the "best" and "worst" school materials used this year.
I have only the preschool crowd in my home this year, but the best for us was a magnetic animal alphabet bingo game. We played alphabet bingo for HOURS this year. We all know our letters and sounds 
The worst was a National Geographic microscope from Target that simply did not work. At all. Frustration all around- kids were so excited to use it, and then came the disappointment of not being able to see a thing with it. Many wasted hours trying to get that thing up and going... luckily it was a clearance purchase (now we know why).
Anyone else?
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 17 2008 at 7:55pm | IP Logged
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Oooh! This is fun!!!
Best: my Montessori golden bead materials. Wonderful in every way!
Worst:MCP K phonics. Can you spell d.u.l.l?
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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KackyK
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| Posted: April 17 2008 at 8:21pm | IP Logged
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This is good!
Best: Following Elizabeth's Main Lesson Book idea about the Ruth Heller books for parts of speech with my 2nd grader, he's gotten it a lot better and I love having all his pix together and funny sentences too!
Worst: Thinking I'd really follow every lesson plan from Kolbe for my 7th grade dd. Next year, we will be doing a lot more substitutions. We're drudging through the end of this year with her, but she's being a good sport and still trying hard 
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KackyK
Mom to 8 - 3 dd, 5ds & 4 babes in heaven
Beginning With the Assumption
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marianne
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| Posted: April 17 2008 at 8:37pm | IP Logged
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Best: Moira Farrell's 3-6 album, or more academically, Right Start Math
Worst: Galloping the Globe (busy work; good for a reference book, but not as a curriculum material)
Here's a link to a blog post where I listed my top ten from the fall (around New Years). In the next post, I also listed the things that didn't work and that we ditched pretty quickly.
Top Ten
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dawn2006
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| Posted: April 17 2008 at 8:45pm | IP Logged
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Best: Ruth Beechick's Three R's
Worst: MCP K Math. Yes, I can spell d.u.l.l. 
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Dawn Farias | wife to Ariel | mom to Gabriel 9, Daniel 7, Elizabeth 5, and Michael 3 | blogger at Be Absorbed | native Texan but currently living near Seattle
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missionfamily
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| Posted: April 17 2008 at 8:49pm | IP Logged
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Best: Serendipity plans/Sleeping Bear Press Geography Books/American history living books studies
Worst: Saxon Math 4/5....can't wait to switch to Teaching Textbooks for 5th grade math
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Colleen
dh Greg
mom to Quinn,Gabriel, Brendan,Evan, Kolbe, and sweet St. Bryce
Footprints on the Fridge
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JuliaT
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| Posted: April 17 2008 at 9:08pm | IP Logged
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Best: scheduling our subjects in main lesson block, FLL 3, A Reason for Handwriting--Cursive
Worst: HWOT--cursive, KISS grammar.
Julia
mom of 3 (8,7,5)
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Anne
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| Posted: April 17 2008 at 9:51pm | IP Logged
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I'm in 
Best:Primary and Intermediate Language Lessons by Emma Serl Hillside Education
Worst: Tapestry of Grace I thought this cirriculum would be great for our family however, I found that SOW worked just as well and it was not so overwhelming 
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Anne in TN
WIFE to Brett (91)
MOM to Rebecca(97), Catherine (99), Grace (99), Stephen (00) & 2 Angels in Heaven.
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SallyT
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| Posted: April 17 2008 at 11:37pm | IP Logged
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Hmmmm . . . hard to decide . . .
Best:
High School: Henle Latin -- well, and having Fr. Victor (the parish priest who gives our co-op space in his church) teach it! The sleeper hit of the year. We have also gotten a lot of use out of CHC's High School of Your Dreams.
10yo: Draw and Write Through History. This kid has always struggled with handwriting and anything fine-motor-skill-oriented, and has never liked drawing, because he thought he couldn't do it. This program combines history study with drawing techniques with cursive copywork, and he LOVES it.
5yo: Bob Books and library story time.
Worst:
High School: hmmmm . . . well, okay, Jensen's Format Writing. I got it to use as a resource for the co-op class I'm teaching, but have hardly used it at all. I think I just don't believe in teaching "composition" as a freestanding course, because then you have to dredge up some artificial topic to write about . . . so I hardly used it, and what I did use I had to tweak mightily. We just wrote about the literature we were reading. I also think that Jensen's encourages kids to write too-short, sound-byte-y paragraphs (maybe because they're writing about root vegetables, and how much is there to say?). Most of my challenges with kids and writing this year has been to get them to push farther, think harder, and say more about it. Maybe later on they'll need to learn to edit and cut, but not now . . .
10yo: I can't think of a "worst" for him. Pretty much everything he's done this year has worked out all right.
5yo: CHC's Little Stories for Little Folks. He just could not be bothered. Maybe because the little readers are pink . . . And we've just done phonics in the course of real life (sounding out stop signs and things in the grocery store), so all the little cards were totally wasted on us.
Sally
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Castle in the Sea
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Isa in Michigan
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| Posted: April 18 2008 at 7:05am | IP Logged
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Best: Miquon Math, requiring daily violin practice, Spell to Write and Read
Worst: On my part not incorporating more hands-on activities and living books with history and science.
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Mother to Francisco(10), Rafael(9), Teresa(7), Rosa(6), Lucia(4), Tommy(3), Miguel(1) & 4 in heaven
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mama251ders
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| Posted: April 18 2008 at 7:23am | IP Logged
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Oh this is fun!
Best: Getting into the Waldorf thing, big time! We're using A Little Garden Flower curriculum next year for sure!
Worst: I second the nomination for Saxon 4/5 math, it took FOREVER!! We switched to Singapore halfway through year and are planning to use Teaching Textbooks next year.
Betsie
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Wife to Oliver
Mama to 5 Wonders
Benny, Braidon, Olivia, Anna and Saragh
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amyable
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| Posted: April 18 2008 at 7:29am | IP Logged
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Best: Right Start Math (although I do it my own way, LOL, not as labor intensive as it is designed to be). My oldest has finally stopped crying through math, and my 8yo even asked for it again this coming year even though her sister is going on to a different program (Teaching Textbooks). Other bests - Sonlight Read Alouds from Core 3.
Worst: I can't remember. Any time we had a "worst" we dropped it. With a colicky new baby I had no time or energy to waste on "worsts".
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of 
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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JenniferS
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Best: Using more of a living book approach and relaxing more about our schedule. I saw a lot more natural learning going o. My kids loved learning more this year than ever because they didn't realize they were doing it most of the time. LOL.
Worst: Saxon 6/5 and MCP Math. Switching to Teacing Textbooks for the olders and more hands-on for the littles next year.
Jen
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ann@home
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| Posted: April 18 2008 at 10:34am | IP Logged
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Best: HWT for my lefty learning to print and for my son learning cursive.
Growing w/ Grammar. My son tolerates it but I really like it.
Worst: While ETC was great for my son, my visual DD hated it. (so we switched to MCP Plaid Phonics which she likes)
I still think ETC is a good program, just not for my DD.
And I'm so bummed about the MCP K math-I was going to use it!
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Ann, Full-time Mama of a 10yr old Lego master, 7yr old DIVA, 4yr old King of the Mountain and one more in June '09!
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 18 2008 at 10:44am | IP Logged
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ann@home wrote:
And I'm so bummed about the MCP K math-I was going to use it! |
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Hey, that doesn't mean it won't work for you! After all, you liked their phonics, right?
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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CandaceC
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| Posted: April 18 2008 at 12:00pm | IP Logged
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Oooh, I love threads like these!! 
We did have a LOT of good things this year...it was a great year overall, I am very pleased, and we had FUN!
BEST:
*LOTS of nature study
*FIAR, HSS - reading lots of good books and doing our studies around that!
*adding in circle time in the mornings - we were already doing devotions and Bible reading, but we have added singing together, and lots of other fun things!
*doing Queens Language Lessons for Little Ones during our morning cirle time
*math manipulatives - funtastic frogs, pattern blocks
WORST:
I *still* do not have a math program I love. I know, my kids are still young. But we have tried several things...and I think I just don't like math. So, we've been playing with manipulatives, nothing, playing some more and every now and then we'll do some addition in the car on the way to somewhere. As my oldest enters 2nd grade I know that I need to have a program figured out, I can't keep going to new things and not having a program to stick with.
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Candace - wife to David since 2000...mommy to Hannah (Feb. 2002), Emily (April 2003) and Caleb (March 2005)
His Mercy Is New
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lamamaloca
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Best: Handwriting Without Tears and Math-U-See. Pauly has loved both subjects and begs to do math, and his handwriting, and willingness to draw and color, has improved tremendously.
Worst: Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. After a while, trying to get Pauly to do it was like pulling teeth. We've dropped it almost completely and just unschool reading.
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Becky
Mom to Pauly, Roger and Rosemarie
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folklaur
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| Posted: April 18 2008 at 1:17pm | IP Logged
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hhhhmmmm.....
Okay, the absolute best, according to my kids:
~Theresa's Harry Potter Unit, which we kept going with for science experiments, and they LOVED it. They still talk about it all the time.
runner's-up:
~Waldorf inspired art / alphabet letters with dd5
~Serendipity's Math Gnomes
~Ruth Heller Grammer Books
Worst - - CHC and MODG lesson plans, and CHC spelling. I wanted to love them. I really, really did. But we were all so bored....
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RyaneM
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| Posted: April 18 2008 at 1:25pm | IP Logged
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SeaStar wrote:
I have only the preschool crowd in my home this year, but the best for us was a magnetic animal alphabet bingo game. |
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Melinda,
Who makes this game? It sounds like something my 3yo would love!
Thanks,
Ryane 
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: April 18 2008 at 1:32pm | IP Logged
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cactus mouse wrote:
hhhhmmmm.....
Okay, the absolute best, according to my kids:
~Theresa's Harry Potter Unit, which we kept going with for science experiments, and they LOVED it. They still talk about it all the time.
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Ok, that just totally made my day!!! 
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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Topic: School year's best and worst
