5 Tops of Our 2012 Homeschool ~ Best and Worst

This year has been good in so many ways. Even the things that did not work for my kids, taught me much.

I want to make clear that the "worst" list does not mean they are not good solid programs. It only means they did not work for us. I am a bit of a curriculum junkie {maybe a crazed, research a product to death junkie}, so I do not choose things lightly. What I have learned throughout 2012 is that a product may be great, but if it does not click with my kids, it needs to go.

I tried really hard to tweak the things that did not work to fit them, but this was a lot of work and still didn't fit the bill. It is hard work being a curriculum junkie and a tight wad frugal. I dreaded having to buy yet another phonics program. Luckily, I have the great blessing of being part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew and was provided many great resources to review in 2012. The Crew takes care of the junkie and frugal issues for me and hopefully helps out the homeschooling community also.

Top 5 Best 

1.  Institute for Excellence in Writing's: PAL Reading and Writing. You can read my review on this to see how it has impacted our days. I had purchased a couple of other phonics curriculum that were not a great fit for either of my kids. A definite NO GO for Luke. Read more about this below. This program is spot on for both of my kids. I could go on and on about PAL, but I won't. I will let you read my review if you want to read my rambling. One thing I really want to say is this ~ Do not let the rapid introduction to vowel digraphs deter you. It works. They are not meant to have these set to memory in one lesson. Over time, with repetition and more repetition, they get it and it sticks. This was the one thing that scared me about PAL so I just wanted to ease any fears of this you may have. 

2.  Handwriting Without Tears- This program is so simple and seems like a no brainer, but it works. I know many parents do not use a particular handwriting program and just teach them on primer paper and that is fine. Luke loved his HWOT workbook. He loves to draw and color and the lessons include a picture that can be colored in on the page. This is right up his "right brained" alley. Sophie, my little leftish brainer, likes them also. For her it is more about the short sweet repetition of the pages. I love when I find things that both of them like. Score! They have been on a break from this since starting PAL, but Luke will be starting with cursive in the next month or so. 

3.  Miquon Math- Lalala  Singing praises for the c-rods. This is the core math that we have used this year. We have reviewed and used many other math programs throughout the year that are awesome additions including Professor B and ZooWhiz. (click on them to read my reviews)

4.  All About Spelling 1- This is part of PAL writing, but Luke started this right before PAL and it deserves a slot of its own. AAS is another so simple, no brainer that works beautifully for Luke. Sophie  will be starting in the next couple of weeks. It teaches to all of the learning styles and again uses repetition to gain mastery.

5.  Galloping the Globe- We started this at the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year and did not complete it until summer. It was a lot of fun and gave the kids a great introduction to that big ole world out there. They learned so much. I did slim down the number of countries we covered within each continent due to their age and allotted time. I really enjoyed this right along with the kids. 

Top 5 Worst

1.  Phonics Pathways- I am not a word family girl and really liked the philosophy of teaching in this program, but it was just way too dry for the kids and it was tears. every. day! I will not give up the book though and use it occasionally for review. 

2.  The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teach Reading- I think this was just more of the same as PP. The reading passages were overwhelming at best for my beginners. Once again, I understand the philosophy, but the style just did not work. 

This next one was a review products that we used, but did not fit our style. Many of the reviewers really liked it so if you would like to get a good feel for it you can click on it to read my review and the reviews of the rest of the crew. 

3.  Zane Education online subscription. It is full of over 1500 videos with lesson plans and quizzes. It was not the living books approach that we enjoy and I felt like it was very public school based. 

4.  ??

5.  ??   

I could not come up with another curriculum that really did not work. Some things may not have fit well into our schedule, but we will revisit them when they do. At freshly 5 and 6 years old, the 3 R's are taking up a lot of time. Once the initial heavy phonics teaching slows we will have more time for the extras. Must-build-a solid-foundation. read. repeat!

Another thing that I learned throughout 2012 is that my kids do not like lapbooks (as much as I would like them too), but there are many many years of NOTEBOOKING in our future! Yeah!


          This is the 1st Blog Cruise of the new crew year. Click on the button below to read what some of the other crew members wrote on the topic "2012: A Look Back"