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Amber-v
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| Posted: May 22 2013 at 5:21pm | IP Logged
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Yes, it is that time of year again! I'm starting to see various hits and misses blog posts show up on some of my favorite blogs, and I thought it would fun to start a little collection. I love reading about what worked and didn't work in various families, and why... and I don't think I'm alone in this!
Here's three I've enjoyed so far. Anyone have any others to share? Please do!
Jessica at Shower of Roses
Sarah at Amongst Lovely Things
Charlotte at Waltzing Matilda
Oh, and I'll add mine too... 
And if you want to share your own, please add them below, or share your blog link! 
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Amber
Mom to dd (born 2002), ds (2005), ds (2008), ds (2011), dd (11/2013)
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pumpkinmom
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| Posted: May 22 2013 at 6:42pm | IP Logged
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I've been enjoying reading these too!
I'll post mine, but I don't want to! It feels lacking compared to the others (and I have no confidence in my writing and blog).
Anyway, here is mine!
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Cassie
Homeschooling my little patch of Ds-14 and Ds-10
Tending the Pumpkin Patch
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SeaStar
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| Posted: May 23 2013 at 11:52am | IP Logged
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I don't have a blog, but I love this type of post.
HITS for us:
Life of Fred
Homeart Studio with Ms. Volin
CHC's new geography text- what a nice reference. I am using it as a read aloud as we tackle each new state. I appreciate having all the Catholic info right at my fingertips.
Fizz, Bubble and Flash
My ds worked through this a a science text this year, along with The Elements book. The experiments were fairly easy to do, and most worked fairly well. We paired this with The Happy Scientist website and Steve Spangler, and we have had a ball with science this way.
Scripture and Poetry memorization.
We have done this every year, and my dc are enjoying all the poems they know
MISSES:
Behold and See 2 for dd's science.
She liked Behold and See 1 a lot last year, but the second was a flop here.
Math Mammoth
I use this program to supplement our Right Start Math as needed for extra practice. We tried this year to work through the whole first book on decimals, but all those worksheets just seemed to run together after awhile. We could not use it here as a stand alone program... we are not a work book/ work sheet crew.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: May 23 2013 at 12:11pm | IP Logged
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SeaStar wrote:
I don't have a blog, but I love this type of post.
HITS for us:
Life of Fred
Homeart Studio with Ms. Volin
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We still love Fred, and thanks so much for introducing us to Ms. Volin, Melinda. She was a hit here, too.
SeaStar wrote:
Math Mammoth
I use this program to supplement our Right Start Math as needed for extra practice. We tried this year to work through the whole first book on decimals, but all those worksheets just seemed to run together after awhile. We could not use it here as a stand alone program... we are not a work book/ work sheet crew.
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Were you using the Blue Series or Light Blue series? I've never used the Light Blue and never as a stand alone program (though, my kids love worksheets, lol, so that is a factor), but I'm wondering if it is organized a bit differently since it is intended to be a stand alone program.
I spread MM sheets out to use every other day. Or for instance, with Multiplication 1, I supplemented with some skip-counting pages and tables to practice each section for a few days (while we were still doing LOF, too). Anyway, we like it, but then, we may have just used it differently (and we haven't done decimals yet, either).
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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SeaStar
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| Posted: May 23 2013 at 2:00pm | IP Logged
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We are using the Blue Series, Lindsay.
Normally I use it like you do- just spread the worksheets out. The multiplication skip counting pages are great and fit so well with Right Start,
My ds finished RS D and before heading into E we decided to try the decimals book 1 from the blue series. It was just too many worksheets, especially since RS alternates games with verbal answers, mental math, manipulatives and practice sheets. Worksheet after worksheet seemed like drudgery for both of us.
We were happy to get back to Level E 
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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kristacecilia
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| Posted: May 23 2013 at 2:19pm | IP Logged
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Hits:
Life of Fred
Math Mammoth Light Blue Series
The whole study of American and Canadian history and geography using a long list of books. EXCEPT.... the Betsy Maestro America Story series. They are lovely books. The illustrations are beautiful and they do tell the whole story, but they were too textbooky in their language for my son to narrate. We decided to quit using them as our main text and switched to Mara Pratt's American History Stories series instead. Much more narrate-able.
Poetry for Young People book on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Actually, I could keep going and going. Almost everything we did was a hit.
MISSES:
The Maestro history series (see above)
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God bless,
Krista
Wife to a great guy, mom to two boys ('04, '06) and three girls ('08, '10, '12!)
I blog at http://kristacecilia.wordpress.com/
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roomintheheart
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| Posted: May 23 2013 at 8:24pm | IP Logged
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Hits:
Little Angel Readers
CHC's Language of God, Devotional Stories for Little Folks, and What Can You Do? journal
Teaching Textbooks (levels, 3, 4, and Pre-Alg this year)
Seton's Reading Thinking Skills & Comprehension books (also various levels)
IEW
Misses:
Seton's art books--we didn't stick with them
SpellingCity--this was fun for the kids, but they didn't learn from it. I'll go back to traditional spelling next year.
All About Spelling--tried to do this along with Little Angel Readers--it didn't work to use both approaches at the same time.
Seton's Our Catholic Legacy, Vol. II. I loved this book; my 7th grade dd didn't.
Apologia General Science--spent a fortune on this, with the book, answer key, interactive DVD, etc--and dd just couldn't plow through it. It was a lot--and science is the hardest subject for me to teach--we ended up switching.
We did some other things that fell somewhere between hit and miss, but these are the stand-outs.
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guitarnan
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| Posted: May 23 2013 at 10:39pm | IP Logged
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High School Hits:
Discovering that Dancing Daughter has an eye-focusing problem (a bizarre side effect of antihistamines she has to take for allergies). Finding out that this was the cause of her slow reading helped us to...
...carschool! Instead of having her read her history lessons, I read and outlined them, and, since I love history and (gasp) read history books for fun, I'm able to teach these lessons as we drive to dance class, to violin lessons, to the allergist, etc. This also allows us time to discuss the lessons of history in a more in-depth way, and to find parallels, memorize quotes ("Paris is worth a Mass," "I think, therefore I am," etc.) and look at causes and effects.
Bio lab. Thank goodness. I taught this class at our co-op. Dancing Daughter wants to study marine biology, and I told her that lab/dissection would be the make-or-break event of the year. She did very well, drawing her specimens, dissecting, labeling, etc. (And, I am happy to report, even my most reluctant students were enthusiastically sketching dissection specimens by mid-year...some even learned to enjoy dissecting!) (Practical info: after comparing prices/shipping, I bought all the dissection kits and specimens from Home Science Tools.)
Misses:
Apologia Biology. This one surprised me. It's just a TON of reading (see above), so we will need to spend most of the summer finishing the book. We've used Apologia science books so successfully before, and there's no lack of enthusiasm for the subject, but for a slow reader, there is a lot of material to slog through. At least we did a lot of labs!
Expository writing. Now, my daughter has been doing a ton of creative writing this year, and one of our co-op parents taught a poetry unit this semester (feet, iambs, etc.) that Dancing Daughter really enjoyed. (Yes, she's mine!  ) But our plans to work on five-paragraph essays didn't work out as well, which means that next fall will be all about the essay. Sigh.
Shakespeare. Yes, we will try again next year, but even with the wonderful No Fear Shakespeare series, Dancing Daughter is just not that intrigued by The Bard. She liked Hamlet better than Macbeth, probably because her literature study group had an amazing hands-on Hamlet workshop with a Shakespeare expert. Maybe we'll try some historical plays next year...?
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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monica4patience
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| Posted: May 24 2013 at 10:14am | IP Logged
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SeaStar wrote:
| CHC's new geography text- what a nice reference. I am using it as a read aloud as we tackle each new state. I appreciate having all the Catholic info right at my fingertips. |
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Could you tell me which CHC Geography book you are refering to?
Thanks,
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~Monica (58)
DH(62), married 34 yrs.
DD23, DS21, DS13 (all adoptees)
New to homeschooling 11/12.
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SeaStar
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| Posted: May 24 2013 at 10:50am | IP Logged
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monica4patience wrote:
SeaStar wrote:
| CHC's new geography text- what a nice reference. I am using it as a read aloud as we tackle each new state. I appreciate having all the Catholic info right at my fingertips. |
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Could you tell me which CHC Geography book you are refering to?
Thanks, |
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Monica-
Here is the link
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: May 24 2013 at 11:54am | IP Logged
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Nancy, my daughter also got the same diagnosis a few weeks ago. We already have the Irlen and dyslexia diagnosis but the ophthalmologist noticed one of her eyes doesn't line up- but it has been missed this far because sometimes it does line up!
But I just wanted to mention the mp3 disks for Apologia- my dd would have melted if she was reading all that dense text, but instead she listens to the mp3 and follows along (or even just listens to the mp3 in one big listen while on the bus etc. if it is something she is comfortable with already). Just in case it might come in handy!
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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!
A Walk in the Woods
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Maryan
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| Posted: May 24 2013 at 1:46pm | IP Logged
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I love reading everyone's end of the year wrap-ups! I like to see why things that don't work for us work for others, and the opposite! Great food for thought.
Here's ours. We're not quite done. But apparently I didn't leave enough kick in our race to go strong to the finish line.
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
A Lee in the Woudes
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monica4patience
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| Posted: May 24 2013 at 4:43pm | IP Logged
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Thanks Sea Star.
Reason I ask: I'm looking for a World Geography for 7th-8th grade to use as a weekly-only subject.
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~Monica (58)
DH(62), married 34 yrs.
DD23, DS21, DS13 (all adoptees)
New to homeschooling 11/12.
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jawgee
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Quickly...
Hits:
-Teaching Textbooks (this is our second year with TT, definitely continuing!)
-Classically Catholic Memory (we did this as a co-op with about 8 other families)
Misses:
-Learning Language Arts Through Literature (my 11YO son really didn't like it. Language Arts is a challenge with him. He hasn't liked anything we've tried.)
-Shakespeare. We liked reading the Lamb version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, but me reading the play aloud afterwards hasn't gone so well. I think next year we'll incorporate an audio version of the play instead.
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Monica
C (12/2001), N (11/2005), M (5/2008), J (8/2009) and three angels
The Catholic Cup on Facebook
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Erin
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| Posted: May 24 2013 at 7:30pm | IP Logged
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monica4patience wrote:
| Reason I ask: I'm looking for a World Geography for 7th-8th grade to use as a weekly-only subject. |
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Monica, we've used Brenda Runkle's World Geography for around this age. Actually my dc prefer to use it for Grade 9 but I have a friend who used it for Grade 7. Anyhow I 'interviewed' our daughter a few years back.
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Erin
Faith Filled Days
Seven Little Australians
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: 2012-2013 Hits and Misses
