OK..so we are pulling together our curriculum.

For phonics (1st grade) we have recommended:
explode the code
five in a row
how to teach your child to read...100 lessons
saxon phonics

thoughts on those???

for math (2nd and 3rd grade) I am looking for something that is NOT heavily manipulative based as my kids don't need it. I was looking at Saxon since it is so complete, but I see it is lots of manipulatives...someone else suggested Modern Curriculum press?? and Miquon math?

for 1st grade math I am still considering saxon as I am not sure what kind of learner Noah is (he went to public school and I have never worked with him)

what do you like for spanish if you have taught it???

thanks!

What I've heard/think
Explode the Code - great for supplementation

Five in a Row - I really don't like it. The books are too simple for Annabelle and the ideas are stuff I can come up with on my own. I like "Story Stretchers" a lot more because it's more activities and more books!

100EZ - Looked too complex. It was really wordy and confused me. "Phonics Pathway" is a lot more straight forward IMO. I am waiting on "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" to be published at the end of August.

Saxon Phonics - I haven't seen it.

Math - I'd go with Saxon all the way around. As the grades go up there aren't so many manipulatives used.

Spanish - I like the look of Rosetta Stone but it's very expensive. There are some suggestions for Spanish in the revised WTM but I don't have it handy! Right now our Spanish consists of "Dora the Explorer" and telling Annabelle the word for something when she asks.

>OK..so we are pulling together our curriculum.

>For phonics (1st grade) we have recommended:
>explode the code
>five in a row
>how to teach your child to read...100 lessons
>saxon phonics

Explode the Code is a good supplemental type program. Wouldn't use it by itself. I detested "How to teach your child.. 100 easy"... was the most boring approach to reading. Didn't work for us. I have no experience with "Five in a Row" nor "Saxon."

We invested in Hooked on Phonics. They had a payment plan available, and we've LOVED this program. I supplemented with various workbooks and such on phonics along the way.


>for math (2nd and 3rd grade) I am looking for something that is >NOT heavily manipulative based as my kids don't need it. I was >looking at Saxon since it is so complete, but I see it is lots of >manipulatives...someone else suggested Modern Curriculum >press?? and Miquon math?

I don't care for Saxon math. Too repetitive. Gets old quickly in my opinion. I think Modern Curriculum Press, Miquon Math, Developmental Math, or Singapore Math would all be good things to look at for all of your age/grade levels.


>what do you like for spanish if you have taught it???

I've used Power-Glide, and haven't been all that pleased with it. I have friends that have taught "La Clase Divertida" and REALLY enjoyed it. I'm thinking of selling my Power-Glide, and buying this other program myself.

Good luck!

~ Becca

Explode the Code -- 4yo dd loves this (she's in the Get Ready Get Set Go stage), but it does seem to need other activites to be a complete program (we also have Reading Reflex, Montessori Read & Write, Writing Road to Reading, WISE guide, Teaching Reading at Home, Bob books, so I have plenty to choose from).

100 Easy Lessons -- other dd loathed. Fortunately I had checked it out from the library. A friend who is a public school teacher loves it and used it to teach her own children to read, supplementing with other stuff. Seems like people either love it or hate it.

FIAR -- not sure why you have this listed under phonics. Anyway, we didn't like it.

Saxon phonics -- no experience.

Miquon -- only goes through grade 3, at which point you'll need to switch to something else. Uses Cuisenaire rods as a manipulative. Many people use it as a supplement to another program, it seems.

Saxon -- no experience. Sounded like it would bore ME to tears, so we never tried it.

Singapore -- great program for kids who don't enjoy or need the manipulatives. Teaches great math *thinking* skills, rather than rote learning of concepts. Didn't work out for us, but it's a fantastic program.

Tried Power Glide Spanish -- not much bang for the buck. We have a demo of Rosetta Stone Spanish, and it would be a great program if you wanted to spend the money. We haven't tried anything else since we're learning Latin and Chinese, but dh might be working with a plant in Mexico soon so I suppose we'll need to add Spanish back into our repetoire. I think my kids would like Clase Divertida since 1) it's a video, and 2) it has lots of crafty-type stuff, but I'm not sure it really teaches that much Spanish.

Originally posted by librarymama
FIAR -- not sure why you have this listed under phonics. Anyway, we didn't like it.


nak

sorry--i put all phonics and reading stuff under same headings!

Explode the code- great great great! Not a complete phonics program, though.

There's book called "First language lessons" that I think is really great for teaching grammer. It's for 1 and 2nd graders, but K-3 is more like it (in my opinion). It's mostly oral, and takes a short time to do each day (like 15 min). It might be a good jumping off point with your 3 kids....

100 Easy Lessons- We love it. I taught my now 8 year old how to read with it, and in the process of using it with my 5 year old. I'm not sure why everyone here things it's confusing. It's one of the most straightforward reading programs IMO. It's inexpensive, and quick. We are on lesson 12 and ds can already read: see, me and one other word. The lessons take like 15 min a day and it's scripted, it tells you exactly what to say, even when they sound out something wrong. If you want, I can scan a lesson and send it to you if you want to see before you buy.

**edited to add**
We just did 100 ez this afternoon, and I was wrong. He can read: at, sat, rat, eat, am, ram and see. Pretty impressive for only 12 days......


Saxon is excellent and program, but it would take you like 2 hours to do 3 levels of Saxon. One of my gf uses it and it takes her 2 hours or more to do 3 levels. I've used Saxon for the last 2 year and am changing this year. It's a very heavy program. I always end up crossing out like half the problems. It's visually boring, black and white no colors pictures etc, not even in the teachers manual. At first it didn't seem to bother Bryce, but after 2 years of it, I think he's had enough. Scott Foresman math is considered to be comparable to Saxon, just way more colorful.

Sonlight.com has a really great math forum area. Not only do they talk about the math programs Sonlight sells, but many others. Not suprisingly, most people there do not reccomend Saxon. There's been quite a few posts in the last few weeks about people switching from Saxon.


For Spanish, I say Rosetta Stone all the way. We went to their website and tried out the sample game and my boys loved it. It's expensive (188 at Rainbow Resource), but all your kids could use it. It's more of a self taught program, which is great with lots of kids.

ok, jumping in...

Saxon Math... K-3 leave a lot to be desired in my not so humble opinion. Lots of busy work. We're starting 5/4 this year with Austin and its not quite as busy work as the lower grades were. We used K and 1 Saxon math and had 2... I sold them all. :)

Phonics Pathways... we really like this. Like Elizabeth - we're going to be getting the new book coming out.

Kelly said something about First Language Lessons. We're using it this year for Nathan - 1st grade age. Austin will be using Emma Serl's "Intermediate Language Lessons" for grammar. Both are oral and you spend a few minutes reading a short lesson with your child. Austin may actually be able to do his on his own.

Have you looked at hte World Book scope and sequence for each grade? Maybe the 1st grader won't need much other than occasional introduction to new concepts... rather than a full blown math curriculum.

HTH!

I'm just getting started so i don't have too much experience but here goes. I'm using fiar this year. I bought it, didn't think i liked it, but after joining this great group and getting help from them i'm going to try it. We did 2 books and i enjoyed it. If you decide to go with it lmk and i can tell you about the group i'm with that is so great. I'm using saxon math for K this year but i don't really have an opinion yet b/c we haven't started (LOL) I have 100 ez lessons, but when i looked at it recently to start i thought it seemed "weird". I don't really know how to describe it though. I think i might go w/ learning language arts through literature b/c it has phonics and writing together. i've gotten phonics pathways from the library and like it, we'll do that if i don't do llatl. I've just had many prople tell me that it helped them to have handwriting/phonics combined instead of seperate. good luck

For math, we love Horizons!

I do have MCP phonics and it is nice. Not complete, but almost.

:thumbsup: Jenn

ok--so after pouring over the catalogs last night

horizons looks good for my 1st grader....but I heard after that it is not all that great (from my many posts on various boards !LOL) but I did get recommends for Alpha Omega math too....more of a self instructed course as well for the kids to sit down and just work if they want to with only little quidance from me.

I looked at Singapore, but there are some things missing from the curriculum, but it looks really good!

Anyone used Alpha Omega? Or developmental math?

Originally posted by jessica_momof6
horizons looks good for my 1st grader....but I heard after that it is not all that great (from my many posts on various boards


Horizons is actually a really great program. My mom has used it and Alpha Omega for 10 years with her kids that are still at home. The two are pretty similar in my opinion. She's a big math whiz, and loves the Horizons math program. My sisters have done really well with it.

I think the math is especailly nice because they can do most of it on her own, mom can give them a quick intro and they can mostly work independent.


The language arts is a nice basic program, incorperation, spelling, vocab, and writing along with grammer and phonics. My mom supplements it with Italic writing and explode the code.