Well, it's been a while since I posted any curriculum updates!
I feel like we are more behind in school work than usual for this time of the year.
The biggest reason I wanted to post was to update my opinion of the Lifepac curriculums. This was my first year trying Lifepac. I purchased Lifepac History and Geography 6 and Lifepac Science 6. I have to say that after doing about 4 of the Lifepacs in each subject that I regret purchasing them! I really wish that I had tried something else.
First of all, I really don't like that there are not clear lesson demarcations in the program. It's just nice to know that you are completing at least one lesson in a given day - not doing more, not doing less. They say to divide the number of pages in the Lifepac by how many days you want to complete it in, but that just doesn't work for me. Some of the pages have short essay assignments, some just have vocabulary words, etc.
While there are the self-tests in the Lifepac, there is really not a spiral review of any kind. In curriculum from Christian Light Education, students become very prepared for the unit test just by the daily assignments and two quizzes. There is also very good review in Rod and Stuff curriculum if you follow the teaching material in the teacher's guide. There are also review questions at the end of each lesson and a review before the test, which actually covers the test material. This is NOT the case with Lifepac. In the last unit we did, the test had questions about the capitals of some South American countries when this had barely been taught during the whole light unit! That was when I decided to stop the program entirely and purchase something else.
So, I just purchased CLE Social Studies 6 which has a focus on Latin American geography and history. We will start it mid-year and then finish it in 7th grade because we won't be able to finish this year.
We are sticking with Lifepac science for the year, but I'm not really liking it either. Due to the CLE Bible curriculum adding in another subject this year, we have been rotating science and history units. Once I get the CLE Social Studies 6, we won't be able to rotate anymore so that will be something I'll have to adjust for in our schedule. I am also thinking of just putting science aside for the year until summer and then starting with the Science Shepherd video course. My son really needs to learn science from someone other than me!
Other than that, we are still using CLE Language Arts 6, CLE Bible 6, CLE Reading 7, Saxon 7/8 with Pre-Algebra, CLE Creating Writing (sometimes), Artpac 5 (sometimes). I kind of wasted money and purchased Memoria Press Fable and Narrative and we got tired of that fast! Writing programs are just difficult here. Part of the problem is, well, if you can't tell, I enjoy writing. I find it more efficient to just have my son write and give him feedback, and pass on to him what I know, than to do tedious lessons over and over. I have decided to just stick with the writing in CLE Language Arts for now. (We are supplementing that with CLE Creating Writing though which has very short, fun assignments.) In the middle of the next year, when we start the Guerber series again, he will do written narrations for those chapters also.
My 1st graders curriculum is going okay, but we may be moving away from CLE for him. Christian Light Education (CLE) has been great for my oldest son, but I think it jumps around too much for my younger son. I am probably going to switch him to Rod and Staff Math and BJU English, which seem to be thorough, traditional programs, with less concepts covered each day. Also, seeing what my oldest son is doing in CLE Language Arts 6 (which is high school level for many other programs), I know this approach will not be the best for my younger son, who needs more traditional pacing.