It's so hard to believe that our school year is coming to a close! Silas is finishing up 7th grade, Titus is finishing 5th, and Zeke had a great preschool year. I always like to put down my thoughts on the curriculum that we used and how it worked for us. I'll start with Silas.
Silas - 7th grade
MATH: Saxon 7/6 with Nicole the Math Lady subscription
I am so thankful we found Nicole the Math Lady! She "teaches" math for me and does such an excellent job! Silas has learned so much this year, and he says that the Nicole the Math Lady videos have really helped him to understand the math concepts this year. It has taken a load off of my shoulders, especially with a new baby in the house.
I also really like Saxon Math. There are plenty of review problems each lesson so he doesn't get rusty on math concepts. I don't always make him do all 30 problems since it takes him a few hours to do math each day. I will assign him odds or evens, and he loves when I do that! He also inputs all of his answers online and it immediately tells him if it's right or wrong. He gets six attempts for most problems, and the 'grading' gives me the percentage he got right on first attempt and the percentage he got right using all six attempts.
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Verdict: 10/10
We are absolutely using Saxon Math with Nicole the Math Lady videos for all three of my older kids next year!
LITERATURE: Progeny Press Literature Guides
This is something we have used year after year because they're really great literature guides! This year Silas used Number the Stars and Where the Red Fern Grows. He enjoys using them and I love how thorough they are! They're also very easy for the boys to use on their own. This is a product that I recommend to others!
Verdict: 10/10
I will assign the boys each two more literature guides next year! It's always fun getting to choose which books to use.
HISTORY: The World's Story by Master Books
There are things I liked about this and things I didn't like. I think what we didn't like the most was the worksheets. The questions were pretty silly sometimes and hard to answer - not because the answer was hard but because they made you imagine you were in certain places or time periods and write a letter or diary entry or story about it. Silas wasn't into all of those question for history. He wanted more questions with concrete answers. He didn't retain as much as I would have liked. We actually dropped history a few weeks ago without finishing the last few chapters.
Verdict: 4/10
The book was not bad. I should have written my own worksheets and activities and we would have enjoyed it more.
SCIENCE: God's Design for the Physical World by Master Books
Again, there are things we liked and things we didn't like. For the most part, we enjoyed reading the lessons. Sometimes there was a lot of information presented at a time. At first Silas loved doing the experiments daily, but that got to be too much. We just picked a few a week to do after that. The worksheets were boring and again, I just wish that I would have made my own worksheets for Silas to use. If we use this science again (and we may!) I will create my own worksheets and activities, picking and choosing which experiments to do based on how beneficial and fun they will be.
Verdict: 8/10
The main problem for us was the worksheets and the abundance of experiments. I would also not let his be done independently as I feel like he would retain much more if we read it together.
GRAMMAR: Even-Moor Language Fundamentals
I really liked this book for Silas! He did one or two pages a day just to keep himself familiar with grammar, punctuation, and usage rules. It took him less than ten minutes to complete. He still has some pages left, so he will probably finish it up over the summer. It was $30, but well worth it.
Verdict: 10/10
I will order one for Titus to use next year! That's how much I liked it. The short lessons were very thorough and covered so many different topics. It was just the right amount each day!
It's so hard to believe that I will be researching and ordering curriculum again soon. We already know which math and literature we will be using, so science and history are the only things I'm really trying to figure out. I'm also considering if I want to combine them for a subject, since we haven't done Family Style Learning in a few years. I miss doing it that way!
Have you used any of these before?