Serenity Academy

Hits and Misses

11:13 PM, Mar. 11, 2008 .. Posted in Text Books .. 0 comments .. Link

Okay so I'm one who goes around checking out various homeschooling message boards. Mostly I'm just a lurker. It's actually really rare that I post anything on them. There are two that I will post on, but even those are sparingly. But one of the posts I come across often are ones about hit or missing texts and work books. Some times I agree with what's being said and other times I don't. And that isn't a problem, it's a matter of opinion and what a child needs. I myself have come across things I just don't like.

Let me tell you... I live by The Well Trained Mind. Okay well, maybe I don't follow it to a tee. But so far the suggestions they've given have been wonderful for my household. (Trust me the times they suggest in the book are just that... suggestions. Even the authors know that the time suggestions are a bit outlandish and were put in there only to appease editors.) But the general books suggestions have been wonderful. I've already posted my book and spine selections before and for the most part, and they're hits. So I won't go through those again. Keep in mind that with things for history and science.... the books I choose are spines. We do a lot of extra reading.

But here are my misses.

Sing, Spell, Read and Write- We used the preschool program. I won't use it again and I wouldn't order the next stage. Nothing bad with the actual program... I know many people who swear by it. And it does work. I just didn't think it was worth the price. Especially when I know for a fact that there are many other phonics programs that are not even a third of the price and work just as well.

Alpha-Omega's LifePacs- We used their Kindergarten Program. Which consisted of a Math and Language Arts package. This program I did not like one bit. First off... their phonics program moved much too slowly for my liking. My goal was to teach my child to read as soon as possible in the easiest way possible. I had to enhance their reading program with The Websters Phonics Handbook. Using this Language Arts program was probably my biggest mistake in homeschooling so far. The math was fine at least for the Kindergarten year. It gave Xander a big enough start so that he could easily transition to Abeka's Arithmetic 1. But as I studied the scope and sequence I realized again went at a lot slower pace then I liked. I didn't even get through the first year of these texts.

There you have the two programs I didn't care for. Hopefully this will be a help to someone out there.

JOYFUL THOUGHTS

-I love seeing on the news that we might actually have a little bit of a warm up in the weather on the way. I'm so ready for spring and the mild weather and that springy smell.
-I love when we have a nice family night just watching a movie and enjoying each other. It doesn't seem to happen, that's why it's really special when it does happen.
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