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kristinannie
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| Posted: Feb 17 2011 at 5:36pm | IP Logged
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I am planning on doing a classical/CM education with my kids. I am mostly going to be using Kolbe's religion and language arts (and literature program starting in 4th grade). I definitely want to do living books for history, do nature study, I am doing McRuffy Color Math since it is more hands on, etc.
I like that they are flexible. You get a transcript (which is all I need in this state and will save me from having to test or do a portfolio). You can pick and choose what you do from their curriculum.
Anyway, I didn't know if anyone here used any of their stuff and could let me know about their experiences. Thanks and God bless!
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KackyK
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| Posted: Feb 17 2011 at 10:56pm | IP Logged
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Lots and lots of people here have used and do use Kolbe. I use to, but no longer do.
Have you done a search here on the forum for "Kolbe" and what you might be looking for exactly? I tried a search with just the word Kolbe and came up with 18 pages of threads 
How old are your children? What grades are you looking at? I've used Kolbe for the middle school and high school years.
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Mom to 8 - 3 dd, 5ds & 4 babes in heaven
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Grace&Chaos
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| Posted: Feb 18 2011 at 12:09am | IP Logged
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I used Kolbe for my oldest during her 2nd - 4th grade. This was my first experience as a homeschooler. The program is Classical and we found ourselves wanting a more "living books" and complete CM education, thus, we did not continue with them this last year.
I will say that they are a wonderful group of people. The staff is always ready to answer your questions. A returned phone call is always prompt. And like you mentioned: they are very flexible and understand you are the instructor. I submitted the required "sample" work for each quarter and when we received our evaluation I could always tell that someone took the time to look through all our submissions.
I had a wonderful experience with them and if it wasn't because I am a more confident home schooling mom than I was four years ago (and my heart is truly inspired by the CM philosophy) I would still be registered. 
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kristinannie
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| Posted: Feb 18 2011 at 3:00pm | IP Logged
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Grace&Chaos wrote:
I used Kolbe for my oldest during her 2nd - 4th grade. This was my first experience as a homeschooler. The program is Classical and we found ourselves wanting a more "living books" and complete CM education, thus, we did not continue with them this last year.
I will say that they are a wonderful group of people. The staff is always ready to answer your questions. A returned phone call is always prompt. And like you mentioned: they are very flexible and understand you are the instructor. I submitted the required "sample" work for each quarter and when we received our evaluation I could always tell that someone took the time to look through all our submissions.
I had a wonderful experience with them and if it wasn't because I am a more confident home schooling mom than I was four years ago (and my heart is truly inspired by the CM philosophy) I would still be registered. |
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Their catalog was the first one I received when God called me to homeschool. I was in love from the first reading of the catalog. Then I started going onto forums, reading books on different homeschooling methods, etc and gained confidence that I could do it on my own. I realized though that I liked their choices for language arts and relgion. I don't like their science and math at all. I also want to use living books for history, do art appreciate, music appreciate, nature study, etc.
My son will be in kindergarten this coming year. I don't really care about registering him for kindergarten so I might wait until 1st grade.
KackyK, I am going to search for those Kolbe threads. Thanks for the advice!!!!!
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Willa
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| Posted: Feb 19 2011 at 12:31pm | IP Logged
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I've used Kolbe on and off for the last 15 years. This year we don't have anyone enrolled.
I generally tweaked it a lot to make it more CM. And I don't think I ever used their science resources.
I appreciated the flexibility and the philosophy behind the program. Using their curriculum was more do-able for me than the other Catholic curriculum packages out there.
I am trying to figure out what to do with my 9th grader next year so I keep revisiting Kolbe. When my oldest was in high school 10 years ago, the Kolbe high school syllabi were pretty bare-bones, but they have developed a lot since those days.
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Willa
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Karen T
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I looked at Kolbe off and on several times for my oldest and always decided against it b/c we were on a different sequence for history at the time (he was middle and hs age by then). I did use their chemistry this year for high school and love it, although I got a separate book and equipment and actually did real labs instead of the Virtual lab CD.
I will probably be looking at Kolbe more closely in the next few years for my youngest.
Karen
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: Feb 21 2011 at 5:58pm | IP Logged
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Oh, wow! I used Kolbe the first year we hsed our oldest son. I've lost count.
My experience was...what was I thinking?!?!
And I don't mean that in a bad way concerning Kolbe. I just don't know what I was thinking trying to use a Classical Curriculum w/ my outdoorsy son. 
I found kolbe very easy to work w/ and report to and they are very hs friendly. I found them much easier to work w/ than STAA.
Just my experience...
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Cay Gibson
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Elena
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| Posted: March 01 2011 at 7:00pm | IP Logged
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This is my first year with Kolbe and just with my 9th grader. i like their flexibility.
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Elena
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Ramie
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| Posted: March 17 2011 at 10:57pm | IP Logged
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I use Kolbe. But then I was interested in classical before I even knew what CM was. I still don't have a great handle on CM, and I'm still probably more classical than anything else, but I am moving more in the CM direction than in the past. I registered my older 2 kids from K on, and will probably (maybe?) register my younger ones from 4th on. I take advantage of their flexibility - and substitute A LOT. It is probably their greatest asset as far as I'm concerned. If all you need is the transcript, Kolbe is one good way of achieving that - you can make substitutions on 100% of the material if you wish.
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kristinannie
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| Posted: March 21 2011 at 12:49pm | IP Logged
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I had planned on using Kolbe's religion and language arts for K, but I have decided to go with something else for LA so I am not going to register right away. I love their lit programs and I definitely will reconsider then. The same religion is available for CHC so I will just order it from there. Thanks so much for your advice!
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Has anyone used Kolbe Academy?
