MASTERBOOKS | Curriculum Review
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- čas přidán 12. 07. 2024
- It's time for a curriculum review! Let's talk Masterbooks! I'm sharing my Masterbooks review after using it for my family's first year of homeschooling. My hope is that any homeschool curriculum review I share would be helpful in helping you navigate your curriculum choices. Homeschool curriculum choices are abundant, but I love Charlotte Mason and chose Masterbooks because the style leans more toward Charlotte Mason curriculum. While I don't run a 100% Charlotte Mason homeschool (hello, eclectic homeschool!), many of her ideologies resonate with my homeschooling preferences. However, I've discovered we're not a Masterbooks homeschool. Watch to find out my opinion on the Masterbooks pros and cons...and why we'll ultimately be switching our homeschooling curriculum. Tell me about your homeschool curriculum 2021 choices in the comments!
Timestamps:
Why we chose Master Books (pros): 1:12
Getting into our experience (general cons): 4:40
Foundations Phonics: 7:49
Language Lessons for a Living Education: 9:55
My Story (social studies): 14:29
Math Lessons for a Living Education: 17:41
Learn more about Master Books on their website: www.masterbooks.com/
*Shop Master Books (Christian Book often has good sales): bit.ly/3h5x8FG
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I'm Jess, a homeschool mom of two awesome girls. I'm a reluctant homeschooler turned full-blown homeschool convert! Being a homeschool newbie was a huge change, but we love being a homeschooling family! I've embraced my love for Charlotte Mason and running an eclectic homeschool. I'm so excited to join the homeschool community here on CZcams and get to know more homeschoolers out there! Whether you're a fellow homeschooling mom or are just interested in learning more about home education, I'm so glad you're here! I can't wait to share our homeschooling journey as I share my family's experience living, loving, and learning at home. Introduce yourself in the comments so I can say hello!
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#masterbooks #curriculumreview #masterbooksreview
My biggest tip to new homeschool parents is don’t be married to a curriculum. I learned that 3 years in lol don’t be afraid to pull from several companies.
Yesss!!
We are half way through our 2nd year and I was so disappointed that the curriculum we are currently using is just not quite what my son needs. This video and your comment are very encouraging that it's okay for me to let go of the curriculum that I thought was going to be perfect, but it just isn't.
@@jandahomeschools every year I think I’ve found the perfect curriculum and every year, it isn’t. Mainly because it doesn’t exist 🤣 yet I always set myself up! Some work during certain seasons, some don’t. Some I loved for one child, I don’t love for the next. Lots of learning and growing in homeschool ❤️ I’m glad I could encourage you and I hope you find something that works better for your family!!
We started with Masterbooks but my daughter didn't thrive. I thought it wasn't enough, wasn't her style ect. So We tried tgtb and then Abeka but ultimately I realized she just wasn't ready so we stopped school for awhile. When we picked back up a few months later we went back to Masterbooks and she did amazing!!! So now my thought is to not make my instant reaction to quit, but to pause. Also, on the app I found a lot of seasoned Homeschooled Mama's say that they don't expect mastery of the first grade material, they use it as an introduction, or as exposure to the concepts. Since it is mastery AND spiral, they will continue to see the concepts through out the levels. I also actually like how short the lessons are, because it gives us a foundation but allows us so much time for life schooling and doing extras like art, music, health and PE without taking the whole day. Just a different perspective! I appreciated your video though, and love your laugh!!!
Thank you for your perspective! I love that each of us can have our own unique homeschool journeys.
yeah, great perpective.
this!! If you use master books, use all the tools. Their teaching tips on CZcams and their app. Their heart behind their curriculum is amazing. My kids are doing great with it!
Please don’t stop creating videos. I’m learning so much from you! I literally just binge watch all your videos. Thank you for this
Oh my gosh, you are so sweet!! Thank you!! I am so glad you are finding value in what I’m sharing. ❤️
Just subscribed to your channel, love the way you are doing videos! We did Master books our first year too, with pretty much the same results. I've completely switched to different things, but it took a few years before we found a groove. And then I'm still shopping curriculums because it's addicting. 🤣 Small youtubers unite!
Hahahaha!! I’ve been looking at sooooo much curriculum lately! 😆 I’m glad you’ve found your groove though, and I’m glad to have you here! Thanks for the sweet compliment!
Appreciate the honesty! I'm in curriculumn mode for next school year and it's helpful to see the good and the bad.
Hope this was helpful! You’ll get nothing but honesty from me. 😁
I feel so much better hearing this. Every point you made we have found in our homeschool is well.
Thank you for your honest review. I just found your channel recently and I must say that your homeschool journey very closely resembles ours. We just finished our first year with Masterbooks and are moving on to other curriculum. It was very funny to watch this video because everything you said was exactly how I felt when using Masterbooks. Blessings on your journey!
Thank you! Same to you! What did you decide to switch to?
I agree. Thank you so much for your honesty. It can be intimidating to stand out.
Great review! You summed up a lot of my feelings about Master Books.
Your a breath of fresh air in the homeschool community-clear, to the point and an honest review. I was so tired of hearing about the twins either lol! Your pros and cons are exactly why I had to ultimately switch curriculums. Love your channel!
Oh my gosh, you are too sweet! Thank you so much! I really do want to provide people with the type of information I myself would be looking for, so I’m glad you’re enjoying my content! I’m so glad to have you here! ♥️
I love what you said about what works for your family might not work for mine ! This is my first year and I really love your videos !
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you’re enjoying them!
Thank you for your honesty!! You should definitely look into Saxon Math. And please keep making more videos!
I can relate to this video. I am new as well and wanted something that was open and go. Like you, I realize that my kids need much more. I’m glad to find that aim not the only mom that went through this learning experience.
Thank you so much for this candid review! I've really considered this curriculum and just haven't had peace about purchasing it. Now I know even more why I can't bring myself to try it. Your review was helpful in so many ways. It's my first year homeschooling too. Enjoying your content!
Just to clarify - I don't think it is a bad curriculum. From everything I hear it just wouldn't be a good fit for my little learners.
Thank you! I'm so glad this was helpful! I really wanted to love it, but, ultimately, we have to do what works best for our families.
Thank you for doing this review. This is one of the curriculum I've been looking for an honest review of.
I hope it was helpful!
We use Masterbooks Math, my kids are up to level 5. I personally feel when you get to 3rd/4th grade it starts to balance out and be more grade level. With that said my first grader is moving through level 2. And it’s not hard, yet! The placement test is a must for Masterbooks. Any who, thanks for the review. I love hearing first time moms give a not filtered/ non bias review. ❤️
Thanks for watching! I’m glad you are able to make it work for your family!
Rebecca Spooner did a side by side of MB math to others and it does eventually even out and gradually get harder. The gentle approach in the beginning is intentional so I think at the end of the day no matter what we use, we need to trust the process (if it’s working) and we will see the fruit eventually :)
This may sound stupid, but I love the way you put the workbooks in the top of your cart! I'm totally changing the way I do mine tomorrow!
This is our first year homeschooling our 8 year old daughter as well. I took the pandemic as an opportunity to fulfill what has been on my heart, homeschooling. Masterbooks was really appealing for the reasons you mentioned. What I loved about it, and will always be grateful for, is that it truly helped her thrive. Reading and math were not clicking until we started homeschooling, now those are her favorite subjects.
Totally agree with you on the place value village, we skip over that and practice a simplified way.
And, girl, you're not the only one tired of hearing about the twins 😂 Even my Addi requested to skip over it.
Thank you for your honesty opinion! Even though I've already purchased 3rd grade curriculum through Masterbooks, I still love hearing others stories. ❤
I’m so glad it worked well for Addi!! I hope it continues to work well for her. It sounds like y’all had a great first year of homeschooling! It’s so good to connect with other homeschool newbies here. ♥️
You answered what I've been trying to figure out myself. This was our first homeschooling year and we used masterbooks for my first grader. Im so glad I came across your video. I'm considering more challenging curriculum with a Charlotte mason emphasis. My son has asd and I wanted something to get our feet wet. I'm glad we tried it and I'm looking forward to trying new things. Thank you!
So glad this was helpful!
We are considering homeschooling our 8yo son with asd, he is not thriving in traditional school setting and the teachers at the private school have no idea how to reach him. When I tell people that I don’t trust public school’s foundation of truth people look at me like I’m a moron. What have you found to work in your homeschooling adventure??
I'm a long term homeschooling mom who has faced lots of setbacks. I just love your channel and videos. You have such vibrant enthusiasm and your presentations are so professional but natural. Thanks for sharing the things you do 🌻
Thank you so much for such a sweet comment!
I didn’t think we would lean toward Charlotte Mason inspired curriculum, but after doing a few practice lessons my son chose this over other curriculum programs for math and language arts BUT I have my supplementing books ready! Haha after watching lots of reviews on these...you ALL mentioned it needs a little help haha
Thanks for the review!
I would love to see what you’ll be using for next year!
Good luck to you all! Everyone has to find what fits their unique family needs. I’m looking forward to sharing our picks for next year! 😃
You are hilarious by the way. I just found your channel tonight. Subscribed. And now I will binge watch all your videos 😂
Aww, haha!! Thank you! 🥰
Love your channel!
I also used MB for my first grader this year too. This mirrors how I felt about it too. Too slow for my girl in math. Not life-giving enough in the other subjects.
But we supplemented with a Spectrum math workbook which helped.
But I agree the Phonics was the best part of the program.
And their full grade sets are a good starting point for a first time homeschooler.
Can't wait to hear your picks for next school year! We're starting in July. Excited to try something new!
Thank you so much!! We’ll be using a Spectrum math book the last few weeks of this school year and will also be starting our next school year in July!
Very valuable video indeed! I had been convinced that this LA urriculum specifically be perfect for my "behind" about to be 1st grader. But thankfully videos like yours that go into the whys of what didn't work have really caused me to pause and rethink.
Thank you. Knowing what did and didn't work for others really helps us figure what might be a better fit in our own homeschools. Otherwise I too would get caught Upland tempted to buy it all. 😮
I am so glad this was helpful! Hope you can find just what your family needs!
I resonated enormously with your remarks regarding maths.
Yes yes. I’m so glad you learned that your not stuck to the curriculum the first year. I’m in year 7 of homeschooling and it took me awhile to learn that.
Yes, we have felt the same. I’m now 5 years in and I’m understanding that the “old and boring” looking curriculum are still around for a reason. 🤣 We have switched over to the curriculum that gives us a spine and the rest we add in based on our interests. I also regret going for cheaper curriculum in the beginning because I was afraid to get the more expensive programs (Math U See, All About Reading, IEW, etc) because those are EXACTLY what my kids thrive with lol.
Haha!! Sometimes you do get what you pay for! I do think some things work better for some families than others, but you get the best value when you get what actually works for your family.
I agree about the math levels. I used book 1 for my kindergartener and she still breezes through it. We switched to a different curriculum but I’m saving that book for practice and review over the summer. As far as coloring pages in the LA books I let my daughter color them while I’m reading to her. It seems to keep her attention better when she can keep her hands busy while listening. Loving your channel!
Thank you so much! 💕 Yes, busy hands can be helpful!
Great video, we are switching from masterbooks too. Fellow homeschool CZcamsr here but from the U.K. 💛
Hi! Hope what you’re switching to is a great fit for your family!
Master books does recommend a placement test I didn't do it but I started my kindergartener with math 1 and he liked it.
Thank you for your reviews
Yes, in hindsight, I definitely wish I would have paid more attention to placement tests! As a brand new homeschooler, they weren’t even on my radar. I’m paying more attention to those types of tests as we prepare for the next school year!
You are so right- If it’s not adding value, let it go!
🙌🏻🙌🏻
We did Masterbooks last school year. My son was in the hospital for leukemia and I needed something simple to do with my daughter.
We are now using Sonlight and love it.
I'm glad you found something simple that worked for y'all during a challenging season. 💗
We have been using a lot of TGTB and now moving my boys to MB and my daughter to Lightning Literature. We started and stopped MB math last year and recently went back. I discovered the curriculum is perfect for my boys. My daughter hated math so we still use TGTB math for her and she enjoys math now. It's so important to find what works for each child and family. It was definitely a struggle and I bought so many different curriculum books to try. 😆 I love your honest review though! While I like the math, I am not a fan of the twins either and now my son reads half to me instead of me reading all of it.
Yes, we each have to find what works for our individual families! Glad you've found what works for y'all!
We converted this year too! Haha. I also discovered that I wanted more living books in our homeschool. We will be using MFW next year for my 3 grader and my kinder. So excited to dig in already!
I hope you have a great second year! I was just chatting with a friend a couple weeks ago about how much she loves MFW!
Thanks for your honest review, Master Books seems like one of those curriculums that you either love or hate so it's hard to find reviews that go into why it didn't work without slamming it. I am also in the same boat, pandemic homeschooling Mom that fell in love with it even though we also had a rough year of finding curriculum that worked. Honestly that is why Master books appealed to me at first, this year was overwhelming, I knew I wanted to figure out a way to simplify and minimalize next year while also teaching everything they need to know without 10 different books for one subject. Master Books is a minimalist homeschooling Mom's dream, everything is neatly packaged and open and go. Even better it's very affordable! But I couldn't shake the nagging negative feeling whenever I would see reviews that all said the same thing, its behind and too light. In the end I stopped considering it for LA but did jump the wagon and ordered the math for all my kids next year. It was a mistake... just flipping through level 2 when I got it and it was over the half way point in the book before I got to something my daughter hadn't already learned in Kindergarten or this year with Math Mammoth grade 1. Pretty similar for level 3 and my rising third grader. Level 5 was probably the most on level but then we tried Teaching Textbooks to finish out the fourth grade year and he really liked that so we will be using that one for him and probably my third grader as well and then I ended up buying Horizons math for my second grader and it was much more leveled. The only one I will be using is the level K for my youngest schooler, who will be turning 5 in August, we are doing another year of pre-K and the level K Master Books math is on level for that, though definitely behind for Kinder.
I agree - it’s a relatively polarizing curriculum, haha. I know some families absolutely love it, and I think that’s awesome. Different things work for different people - that’s the beauty of homeschooling! I’m so appreciative of all the options we have available to choose from. We use part of the K math program with my pre-I daughter, and it was definitely on level for that.
We tend to use Masterbooks as a supplement for days that we just need to do quick lessons. I am looking into using Masterbooks more intensely in some of the higher grade levels. We really enjoy using Masterbooks and their Christian world view. Our main curriculum for language arts is The Good & the Beautiful. We will use The Good & the Beautiful through Highschool. We do plan to use Writing Strands throughout Middle School & High School. Welcome to the Beautiful world of Homeschool.
Homeschool convert as well. Great channel and wish you the best on this CZcams journey and homeschooling journey. Would love to hear what curriculum you will be using in the fall instead. We are dabbling with The Good and The Beautiful and enjoy them greatly so far.
Thank you so much! I’ll be making curriculum videos within the next few weeks, hopefully!
I recommend Explode the Code for phonics. Early literature for kids includes the adult reading higher level picture and chapter books to the child to build their vocabulary and understanding of syntax. For the child to learn to read/decode words, I recommend using a variety of leveled readers. My first grader has used Bob Books, Abeka readers, Sing Spell Read Write readers, All About Reading readers and others this year. These readers are always practicing the basic phonics rules/skills so they learn through repetition and lots of exposure. Good job and never be afraid to try new things.
Great review! I am excited about trying master books for the biblical worldview. I’ve already done mb phonics with my kindergartner and it was great for us. I will be doing it for my upcoming kindergartener as well. In looking through the history portion I feel similar to you and that it’s going to be more busywork things as opposed to getting things from living books. I would be very interested in knowing what curriculum choices you choose in the future as well as living book recommendations per subject. My children absolutely love for me to read to them!! It is a precious time for us.
I will definitely be sharing our curriculum choices! 😁 I agree - our reading time is so precious, as well!
We had the same experience with Masterbooks with the math and ela at least! Still love the other subjects they offer and plan on using their elementary apologetics and guitar lessons next fall :)
I know a lot of people really live their Bible curricula!
Your review was on point. I am also a public school mom turned homeschool mom. I am about to start my channel too. I am using science this year giving them a 2nd chance.
I’ve heard good things about their science! It was originally done by a different company before coming under their wing.
I agree with everything you said! 😂 A little too gentle. My 3rd grade son has some learning challenges/special needs, so I thought it would be perfect, but he needs LOTS of repetition and this does not have that! Lol I got the “kinder” pack for my pre-k son and he thought it was boring lol We still bring in the math sometimes, but he could for sure do the week of lessons in 2 days. My 3rd grader is still doing LLFALE level 3 and he actually does great with it, but we won’t be using it next year unless Essentials in Writing is a flop. But he did MLFALE level 2 in 12 weeks 😂 Thanks for sharing! New sub ❤️
I think I’m probably going to speed is up through the rest of the language arts book and use the last few weeks of our school year to focus on reviewing the things my daughter needs more help with!
We also used masterbooks and I found the MB English was too gentle for my 5th and 3rd grader as well. Love the MB Phonics for our Pre-K son. We switched to Shirley English and found it too challenging though... trying to find a balance now. Thank you for your honest detailed review. I'd love to hear more about your art cards please.
Good luck finding that balance! We’re doing Sonlight’s language arts program for my rising second grader.
We used TGAB math for K and it was sold out level 1 last year so I ordered MB and had to send it back cause it was everything (maybe 1 new concept) my kids had learned in k. So I just waited for TGAB to be restocked. I even feel like their math is a little behind so I was surprised to see MB even more so. Love seeing your review. I’ve heard other ppl not like the way they teach place value but like you said lots of ppl also like it.
Curriculum is definitely super unique to each individual family! Will you be using TGATB again for math? We’re using Math Mammoth for my rising second grader.
@@TheHomeschoolConvert yes we are. My kids love TGAB math so we are sticking with that. They redid their program to cut down on lesson time but we love it as is so when the old curricula was majorly clearances I bought level 2 for my twins for this fall as well as k and level 1 for my next daughter. I can see where later on when I have more kiddos in school I will appreciate shorter more simple lessons. Only thing I have strongly disliked is the way the teach adding 2 digit numbers. Such as 56+8. They do it in a very strange, difficult (imo) way but I plan to just ignore how they teach it and go with the way I learned to do it.
From my experience schooling up to 2nd grade, MB feels about a grade level behind. Maybe this is a part of their gentle learning approach?
It’s crazy how quick we can get with the program as homeschooling mamas huh?! We basically bought all masterbooks and since have switched to the good and the beautiful and it’s clicking for us so much better however I do think we are going back to MB science because it’s simple and still solid. So I am learning not to close off any possibility with curriculum and don’t fix what ain’t broken haha
I am with you on the math portion! We homestead so we do a lot of life skills and unschooling anyway that I needed more rigorous concepts and have switched to math u see. My sons love it!!!! I will say though the only thing I feel like my 2nd grader really did learn well with is the place value village. It helped me realize that my son does click better with visual things. So now with math u see he’s being mind blown all the time haha. I loved your transparency and can’t wait to see what you decide for next year.
Haha! There was definitely a lot of experimentation on our homeschool this year! I’m excited about our choices for next year.
I had some of the exact same feelings about Masterbooks this year, and also looking at going the literature based approach for the majority of our subjects this fall. Super curious to see what you’ve picked out!
I’m excited to share our picks for next year! Just waiting on a few more things to come in. 😁
I feel exactly the same as you about MB. They were fantastic for the first year jumping into my first year with a first grader. And helped with keeping me in line. Also, helped with my husband wanting to buy it because it was affordable. This year we are going with The Good and The Beautiful. And added games with it. The My Story was dry and too repetitive, and the science was too simple and slow for my kids. My six year old loves experiments.
I’m glad we tried it, but I’m also ready to move on. My daughters love science experiments too! We do those pretty I formally right now, but they always enjoy them.
We quit Masterbooks too this year. LLFLE was great for where we were at last year, and it might be great for many people, at least for an easy introduction to homeschooling, but it wasn't enough for us this year... We just started Singapore math (after using Teaching Textbooks for the last 4 years) and are loving it - highly recommend for learning great mental math skills in the early ages! Curious to see what you picked for next year.
What drew you to Singapore Math over Teaching Textbooks? Just curious since I know both are well loved!
@@TheHomeschoolConvert I've always been a big fan of TT, but have noticed the last couple years that when we do our end of year assessment tests, there are always problems covering concepts that TT hasn't even touched on yet (and we've always done 1 level above grade level). Heard lots of great reviews about Singapore and we're learning a lot already only a couple week into the switch. So many more things too. I'll prob do a video about my switch sometime this summer. ;)
I think, we as parents compare to public school curriculums which I believe we should not, that is why I homeschool 🤷
HOME is the key ☺️
God bless you and your family 🙏
I just ordered masterbooks level 1 math and language arts for my kindergartener. We are currently working through the good and the beautiful kindergarten and we just aren’t loving it. Masterbooks was recommended by a friend but now I’m nervous. I am glad I looked at the placement test, I still think some of the level 1 will be review but maybe not too bad. I’m thinking he will enjoy the story aspect, at least I hope. This is our first year and I’m still trying to figure out what style I like, as well as how he learns best.
I was so grateful to find your review video! This is my first year homeschooling 3 kiddos. I am 3 weeks into teaching with Master Books and it's not clicking. The science and history I do like but the math and LA book are not a good fit for us. I will be back to the drawing board for math and LA.
I used this for math for preschool too. My second grader used science and level 2 English. I agree. It felt behind to me. We have some plans to catch him up. One thing I will say is that multiple home schooling friends have told me they learn the spelling, pass the test, and then lose it. It continues to build from reading. Thanks for the information! I was debating on using it for science and history next school year.
Thanks for watching! I’ll have to keep that in mind with my daughter and adjust my expectations. This year has included a lot of learning for me, as well!
I didn't care for their Language book either. We're going to use Sonlight and Abeka (used this for years) this fall! 😄 Both have amazing teacher guides for daily instruction. 😍
Hope those both give you what you’re looking for! Sonlight is most definitely on my radar.
We used “Christian Preschool Printables” for preschooling our son. It covered #1-20, ABCs, names&attributes of God, and more. We started to use Masterbooks for kindergarten but quickly realized he already knew everything they covered in Kindergarten (ABCs, #1-10, shapes, colors, scissor use, etc). Therefore, we put him in the first grade of Masterbooks with Phonics and it has been excellent!!!! So Happy! My three year old is using their kindergarten curriculum and she’s doing great. My big dislike of their kindergarten is that there isn’t much letter practice, which was vital in my sons success in numbers and letter writing/recognition. But that “dislike” was easily overcome with chalk and a mini chalkboard for each child. They could write their letter (or word) as many times as I think they needed to. My Masterbooks curriculum for next fall just arrived today actually. Very happy with it. Kids are more able than many give them credit for being; however, each child is unique and grasps concepts at different times. My 3yr old is a natural in math; my 5yr old is a natural in letters and reading now. Each is unique, which is why I’m all for good homeschooling. We have the freedom to speed up our slow down in any given subject until the child understands it. It’s not always the easy way to school, but I think it’s so beneficial to the child (and parents honestly. You might learn more than them. Lol). I really like their lesson planner, but one week’s worth of material has been a day’s worth for us and that’s been perfect for each of my kids. Just perfect!
I grew up experiencing public school, private school and homeschool. Used Abeka for most of homeschooling. I’m going to try and avoid it for my own kids, but it’s not awful. I just have millions of addition problems baggage. Lol If you use Abeka, just be gentle with your kid. Understand that they might make careless errors when on their 100th addition problem. Lol
"interested in Charlotte Mason, but overwhelmed by Charlotte Mason". You hit the nail on the head with that comment for me! Ive never thought of it that way before but thats exactly how i feel.
Thank you for this review. I honestly was going to buy the bulk for 1 st and 4th grade but not anymore. My kids are leaving ABEKA private schools and feel like you that this would be too easy.
I’m so glad this was helpful!
All the things you’d said about math, yep. Same! Lol I was super excited for Masterbooks. We’ve used math, history, Bible, and science in the past, at different times, and I do not use any of it anymore besides the Bible curriculum. I may consider the science or maybe even history again, in high school, and we did somewhat enjoy the science but it was soooooo light (also had word searches ALL the time which was not the best for new vocab at all IMO). So yeah, we’ve also moved on! I’ll be using Bible next year, but that’s it, from Masterbooks.
I have heard good things about their Bible curriculum!
@@TheHomeschoolConvert We did the Answers for Kids Elementary Apologetics last year, even with my 2 7th graders who were older than the grade levels suggested, and we all really liked it! I didn’t care for the TG, it was just fill in the blank every single day. So I just used it to read the questions out loud and we discussed. And the when they wrote their Bible verse out, they wrote each day on a notecard and put it on a ring, and so now they have a “book” of verses to keep! ❤️ I’m trying the More Than Words 2 next year, and then I think we’ll go onto Apologia Who is God? Series.
If you’re interested in learning more about Charlotte Mason method, I highly recommend A Delectable Education podcast. It’s phenomenal! Also the bloggers My Little Robins and Afterthoughts are great.
Thank you for the recommendations!
@@TheHomeschoolConvert though, masterbooks is somewhat inspired by Charlotte Mason’s methods, it doesn’t really compare to her actual methods (I still think MB is a great option for many families and know many who love it 💙). 2 books that have been so instrumental for me are A Charlotte Mason Companion and For the Children’s Sake. And loved Read Aloud Revival. Learning CM philosophy of education has transformed my thinking of education overall. It’s so beautiful and well rounded.
@@Micasa22 I agree! I’m not sure I’ll ever be a CM purist because there are other things I pull from here and there, but so much of her ideology really resonates with me. I read For the Children’s Sake last summer and plan to read it again soon. Also loved Read Aloud Revival! Reading good, living books together has been one of my favorite parts of our homeschool.
@@TheHomeschoolConvert ha yeah I don’t think I’ll ever be a purist at almost anything 🤣 I love piecing it all together.
I came to the comments section to basically share a similar comment as mi_casa!
Hello, welcome to the world of homeschooling! ❤️ I tried to be a Charlotte Mason purist for several years and realized that it was not my “religion” (though I was trying to implement it almost as intently 😣) and I needed to implement what worked about the method (real actual living books) and let go of guilt about what didn’t. So much of the feast is very beautiful and a lovely way to educate. I did want to touch on some thing you mentioned about a Charlotte Mason a Education being a little “too gentle”. If someone was able to actually implement her methods completely, it would be a quite rigorous education with the exception of the lessons being short versus really long with rote memorization; but the books were not dry facts or twaddle. Her programs lined out many pages in very quality books for each and every subject. So living books in a Charlotte Mason education are full of living ideas that the student is able to extract from the stories and memorize because they have formed a relation with that idea. She really was innovative in her day! I am fan of many of Master books’ resources, the biblical worldview, and the heart behind the resources, but I share some of your feelings about the slow/gentle nature of their materials. However, I feel that parents who are coming into the world of homeschooling are being misinformed about a true Charlotte Mason education, and disregard it as too flowery or easy because curriculums companies try to produce a resource and put her name on it as inspiration. I don’t see anywhere where she would have been a fan of books with distilled information already mentally digested. CM has gained popularity and become a buzz word (and a great marketing tool for curriculum companies) to modern parents who have heard about her ideas. I also think that different resources serve us in different seasons of life. So that said Masterbooks is great, for what it is, but comparing it to a CM education (purist or not) is like apples to oranges. 🥰
Curious to know what you switched to! Your style seems very similar to mine, I chose My Father's Word for basic curriculum and added Saxon's math (one level up on both because it slowly introduces lessons and my daughter retains quite a lot, even before she formally started school). My Father's World has the living book aspects you're looking for and Saxon's math is pretty straight forward with lessons, in my opinion.
It is also my first year of homeschooling, considering switching to Sonlight for next year and adding supplements from other curriculums just because for next year the curriculum offered does seem too gentle compared to Sonlight's. I have noticed Sonlight is challenging (in a great way) as well as incorporates a TON of living books. Another consideration is classical education from either Memoria Press or Veritas Press... decisions decisions. I have heard of many homeschool families that have to get used to switching around and supplementing, seems to be part of the package of homeschooling haha
Blessings to your family and this AWESOME homeschool journey for ya'll!
Fellow pandemic homeschool mom!🙋🏼♀️ We also did Masterbooks for math this year and i couldn’t agree more. It was sooo behind for my Kindergartener. We completed level K within a month or 2 and then finished level 1 about a month early. We will not be doing Masterbooks for 1st grade. I do like the idea of using level K for my PreK daughter though.
We plan to do TGTB Literacy (again) and also their math curriculum for 1st grade.
I used some of Masterbooks Math K with my pre-k daughter, and it was definitely on par for that. Sounds like you have a great plan for next year!
First year homeschooler here too! I bought MB phonics, LLFALE, and Math for my kindergartener and LLFALE for my 3rd grader and I didn’t like it either! I ended up shelving them all like the first week or two and using Gather ‘round for all of our LA! I didn’t like the twins either, I just wanted to do math!
Edit: I did buy LLFALE level 4 for my son because I feel he needs more LA, but in a gentle approach. I tried TGATB and it was tears everyday! So far no tears with MB 👍🏻
Glad you found what works for your family! I stopped reading the parts about the twins and have not looked back! 🙌🏻😂 How have you liked Gather Round?
@@TheHomeschoolConvert we LOVE LOVE LOVE GR, you should try the free samples!
I am happy to know it is a Christian based curriculum
You may really love notgrass history as your girls get older. The chapters are interest-holding stories and each section has fun activities that relate to the lesson. They also have recommended read aloud books that coincide with the time period you’re covering.
That sounds great! I’ll definitely have to keep that in mind as they get older!
Our 7 (nearing 8) year old loves Notgrass’ Our Star Spangled Story! I don’t know that he loves the literature that comes with it. I particularly did not like Katy. I respect that Charlene Notgrass wrote from a perspective of her own fond childhood memories, but it felt to me like “I guess you had to be there.” I’m sure some love it and my son liked it more than I did. He doesn’t know I skipped huge chunks of it describing children playing. My son loves the activity book that comes with the set. If you don’t like frills, you may want to skip it- lots of coloring and drawing. lol We never use the Timeline book.
I won’t use their 50 States curriculum. We are using Stack the States app, games, and puzzles to learn about capitals and notable aspects of each state.
My son loved it too! “It’s so easy, Mom, other math is hard” 😂
Hahaha!!
Try exploring memoria press if you love using classic books and if you feel your daughter needs drills. :) we also use MB but only as a supplement.
Thank you for the recommendation!
I appreciated this video! I’m homeschooling my will-be first grader this fall for the first time and am using Heart of Dakota for the core and the Good and the Beautiful for LA and Math. Everything you said about living books is exactly why I went with Heart of Dakota, so this just made me more excited for what I picked!! I’m excited to see more of what you decided for next year!
I just recently heard of Heart of Dakota! I hope it works great for your family! Thanks for watching, and I hope it was helpful! 😁
Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
Hello 👋🏼 can you share what curriculum you used after this?
We switched to Math Mammoth and have really enjoyed it.
Thank you so much for your reply ❤
It builds on itself throughout the levels
But I completely agree
We love masterbooks.
I think it’s definitely a preference for learning style and teaching style.
It sounds like you don’t really care for the coloring, and manipulatives that come along with Charlotte mason style.
And that’s okay! ❤️
We really jive with the coloring and bean manipulatives. It works well for my family.
We are not really into the Abeka type schooling.
(Even though I was homeschooled my self with only using Abeka back in the early 2000’s.)
It’s whatever works for your family that is the right curriculum for you.
And yes, you’re correct about the grade levels.
They’re one grade level behind.
And so we’ve always gone up one grade level when purchasing.
It’s so hard when you purchase a whole set of curriculum and it’s not the right grade level.
I’m so sorry.
I'm so glad it works well for your family! I'm a big believer that there's no one size fits all approach or curriculum and we all have to find what works for our individual families. I actually do appreciate manipulatives and we use them regularly, especially an abacus, but found a math curriculum with an approach I prefer. I love Charlotte Mason ideology and am thankful to really be leaning into that, especially in regards to language arts, with our current choices. There's always a trial and error phase, but having something open-and-go like Masterbooks for our first full year homeschooling definitely had its place to help us transition into homeschooling even if we didn't stick with it long term.
I have struggled with Masterbooks. We just finished our first year, and like you, I’ve learned a lot about what hasn’t worked and some of what has worked. We love the Let’s Talk Science series! Our son is such a huge fan and it really ignited his love for science. I love the idea behind the language arts, but after viewing a sample of the accompanying Bible reader ‘101 Favorite Stories’ I noticed it’s very much Biblically inaccurate and the author took a lot of liberties with it. I decided that’s a hard no. I don’t want my son to be confused about what’s in the Bible and what isn’t, and the book doesn’t distinguish the two. I also considered their math, but my son is good at math and it is soooo slow going, from sample pages and also flip-throughs. If we tried it, I’d end up skipping stories to get to the actual math. I chose Abeka for 3rd grade, which when ignoring the teaching manual, is zero frills. I actually wish there was a bit more than just answering questions, but it’s a better fit than math that’s bogged down by stories. I love the idea of the Masterbooks curriculum and wish there was another curriculum that heavily integrates scripture and is also engaging, but moves at a faster pace and uses actual Bibles at higher grade levels. Or if they themselves would offer these changes. If you find something like that, please let me know or do a video on it!! lol We are big into literature and game-based learning, but I do still like structure.
May I ask about the biblically inaccurate stories in the Bible story book? We are currently using it with Level 4 but we are only a few lessons in. 🤦🏼♀️
@@homegrownarrows You can check out the sample on their website. The author made insinuations that were not in the Bible. It has been a while since I looked at it. Masterbooks claimed they are working on switching kids to using an actual Bible when I asked about it maybe a year ago. Even at the 6th grade level, they use a Bible alternative.
We are in the same exact boat...homeschooled this year for the first time. Really enjoying it and considering continuing. We used masterbooks as well and you just validated my feelings. I feel like it was a little too gentle and not challenging enough for my son. But I loved the simplicity of the workbooks. I just ordered TGTB math and language to finish up this school year. Looking forward to hearing what else you are going to try!
I hope TGTB works well for y’all! I know some families love MB, but it just goes to show how unique we all are in our preferences and styles!
I've actually been doing literature based curriculums for the past couple years but I'm tired of buying so many books and liking only half of them lol. I am not organized enough to use the library. Also the process of looking for good living books that will engage my kids is more work than I am wanting to do right now. I just bought the MasterBooks My Story 1 for social studies and God's Design for Life for Beginners because I am interested in that "everything all in one book" concept. We will be starting them next week. Crossing my fingers that they work out for us.
Best wishes! We definitely all have to find what works for our own families.
We love Masterbooks for our family...but each family is unique ☺️ (ages 6,9, 10)
Glad it works well for your family!
Public school really push alot on kids. My oldest is in 1st. Last year she learned number bonds, counting to 100, reading. They have putting kids need to know this by a certain grade. It's crazy how much core they overload on kids. How much school change when I was a kid. Abeka has a great reading materials. I like abeka alot but it's a little pricey. I'm going to start setting yearly goals instead of following what they need to know for the following year.
So this curriculum lessons are taught out of the books? On a daily basis? One lesson each day for each unit? Once you finish one lesson in a book, you move on to the next? Ive been trying to find out how to navigate and use this curriculum.
There are 36 weeks of lessons broken down by days of the week.
All. Of. This. This was my first year homeschooling and I grew up homeschooled, My 1st grader did not thrive on this curriculum. The math was great until the place value village. And the number copy work drove her crazy. The language arts covers so much and nothing to help my child read. I stopped and switched to writing without tears and she loves that
I’m so glad you were able to switch to something better suited for y’all!
I have a 4yo in prek. We used Foundation Phonics for a few months and it just was not working. The Bible stories, although pleasant, made the lessons too long. (Especially when we already have our own Bible stuff that we utilize). Also, personally not a huge fan of all the phonetic symbols.
I also used MLFALE Level K for the first part of our Prek year and it was helpful. But we flew through and have since moved on. We did try the Level 1 and it was going to literally drive me crazy with how slow it was! We do not need so much copywork on numbers....
She also loved the story of the twins, so before we recycled the book, I pulled out all the stories for her as a read aloud if she wanted😅
I don't speak from experience, but you talked a lot about LA through Literature, and I wanted to offer that I've heard a lot about "Learning Language Arts Through Literature" from Common Sense Press! I plan to use that in the future!
Thank you for sharing your experience! I agree that level 1 had a lot more copy work than necessary, especially since my daughter had learned to count and write to 100 in kinder. We went through that book very quickly. Learning Language Arts Through Literature is definitely on my radar! I think something like that would be a much better fit for us.
I am considering Math K and stepping stones for my eager 3 year old. He shows up to school everyday! He retains so much, but isn't quite ready to write yet. I guess he feels like he needs to "do school" since he is the youngest of 4. 😂 I don't push it, but he enjoys it. ❤
That’s awesome! I’m sure he wants to be just like his big siblings!
One misconception about Charlotte Mason's philosophy is that she used living books for even math. Actually, she completely shied away from "stories" in math. Really good, truly CM, math would be Simply Charlotte Mason's Elementary Arithmetic or Beauty and Truth Math guides. They are both excellent, to-the-point programs. 👍
We felt very similarly about MB. MyStory was particularly a fail. I find their curriculum to be behind grade level, badly edited, disorganized, and full of busy work. My kids retained very little. Every single product we tried felt like a waste of time.
I started homeschooling my middle school soon last year and have no Littles this young, but as a speech language pathologist, something jumped out at me when you were giving an example from the Phonics book. The sentence for "d" that includes "...grand design..." would never be an example I would give to a child as an example of the /d/ sound. There are many reasons, but, put simply, 1. I would have chosen a much simpler word so that the /d/ stands out and there isn't confusion about the more complicated silent "g" in the word. 2. Putting a word that ends with the letter "d," right before the /d/ sound in the target word means the child does not get a true, distinct sense of the /d/ sound alone in her mouth because her tongue is already in the "d" position before she says "design". Also, say "grand design" and pay attentuin...in normal speaking we say something closer to "gran design" because the /d/ sound is shared. It's too much to type here why that is important. My son went to public school until I pulled him in middle school, but i taught him to read at home and I highly recommend the Logic if English and All About Reading. They are not Christian based, but you can always add that in yourself and I feel like the authors here may have been trying too hard to force them words used to match an idea rather than choosing words based in their value for teaching a child phonics.
Thanks for your insight! We are going to use a different phonics curriculum with my younger daughter who is going into kindergarten.
Look into Build Your Library. It is an amazing program that is all about age appropriate books, covers a lot of subjects, and goes all the way to 12th grade. It's wonderful. Also I fought against it, but eventually landed on All About Reading and Spelling You See. Both are great programs that together cover reading, grammer, dictation, narration, and handwriting.
Thank you for the recommendations! We started using All About Spelling and love it, and I’ve heard great things about All About Reading.
Build Your Library is secular. I avoid it because it’s guaranteed to not have anything about God in it.
I felt the exact same way about the Language Lessons. We put it on the shelf also and I'm not sure I can go back to it.
We're doing it very lightly now that we're at the end of the year and leaning more heavily on some other things. I've become super judicious about only completing a lesson if I feel like it's adding some type of value.
Master books is not my cup of tea either. I would dive deep into Charlotte Mason, but I am an eclectic homeschooler at heart! Plus, I really didn’t feel master books has that much of a Charlotte Mason feel.
I’m definitely eclectic and pull from Charlotte Mason what I love, but so much of her ideology really does resonate with me. I agree that for a curriculum that advertises its CM leaning, there are some things that make Masterbooks not the best option for people really looking for some authentic CM qualities.
This was such a great review! We did MathUSee and it got too hard too fast plus it did have some living gaps. So we did grade 4 and 5 in one year and it filled in those gaps. We went back to mathUsee multiplication and division. I really believe They picked it up well because master books. I’m so glad we took a break from mathusee and did this for a year because it connected a lot of things. That said we are back to mathusee starting fractions more in depth 2021/22 school year! I just bought “the world stories Middle Ages master books” because I know how basic they were I was comfortable to do pre-high school books when my kids are barely reaching middle school age. This year we read the Declaration of Independence and constitution! The whole thing!!! One year we did ancient history on audible. So Middle Ages here we come! Thank you for sharing!!! I am so glad you did. I was nervous about going higher grade but after this review I’m glad I did.
I’m so glad this was helpful! Sounds like you found away to make the curriculum work for your family. That’s great! Best success to y’all as we go into the next school year soon!
Have you had a hard time finding community? That’s my husband’s biggest hang up with homeschooling and the co ops I’ve checked out are not mandating masks, which I don’t feel comfortable with, so I’m just really struggling to convince him to homeschool when I’m not finding a lot of community support we feel comfortable with.
We tried Classical Conversations for community, but it ended up not be a great fit, and it wasn’t really a mask wearing community, which made me uncomfortable. I’m hoping to do some extracurricular as next year, like gymnastics, but we have met with friends once or twice a week who have been homeschooling this year. I’d like something consistent but not tied to a curriculum, but we took it relatively easy this year a) because of COVID, and b) as to not overwhelm ourselves. We are active in our church though so at least get great community there at least once a week. Our area does have a Facebook group for homeschoolers that I just recently joined and is very active, so I’m hoping to connect with more local homeschoolers that way.
Sweetie those masks don't work in the first place; secondly, the mandates are over as far as I know. God did not give us a spirit of fear, and besides covid has at least a 98% survival rate. Carry on and God bless.
My son in 3K is using MB Math K right now. I bought it at their scratch and dent sale for half off and was going to save it for 4K or K but it’s definitely appropriate from him in 3k right now 😳
I’m definitely glad I didn’t plan to use it for kindergarten! It’s working fine for pre-k for now, especially since my daughter is a young pre-k-er, but we definitely skip some of the lesson sheets. I’m having my daughter use one of those laminated pocket things with a dry erase marker to complete lessons so that we can sell it when we’re done with it. I figured that out after the first few lessons, haha.
Where can my daughter take a placement-level test? I'm sorry, I'm new to this. She's a gifted kid.
Have you ever tried ACE Paces?
My high schooler did a science once, I believe.
Math K is a GREAT pre k. I haven't found a prek math I like better. With that said. We only use math K. Then switch.
It is definitely working well for us for pre-k! I tend to do math 2-3 times a week and combine lessons, and that works well for us.
It sounds like your daughter might do better with a spiral curriculum, not mastery, we started with TGATB and my daughter has a great memory and got really bored with the repitition from spiral style, she is loving Masterbooks!! I also love Masterbooks more as well, TGATB is beautiful, but so tetius and repetitive, the manipulatives really weren't as fun as they looked. My Kindergartener is doing ok with TGATB but ill be switching him to Masterbooks as well, thwy do all learn differently and one might be better for the other, but I also think its important that the teacher enjoys it too, and I love Masterbooks so far. Thanks for your review.
I do agree it's a level behind, I have to jump each of my kids up a level for Masterbooks, TGATB has started making their levels easier as well to be closer to public school, I don't like that, but I'm ok with skipping a level, even using a higher level for Math or LA then another subject based on their skill level, my son is better with Math then reading, my daughter excells with reading and and LA and not as advanced in math, I'll definitely use the placement tests for each subject, on any curriculum we use.
Every kid is definitely unique! We’ve had a lot of success with Math Mammoth for the past couple of years.
I agree! Too gentle.
We love All About Reading with Explode the Code for extra phonics. Read Aloud Revival has been the best resource for weekly library visits for our family.
I agree! We also love All About Spelling, Handwriting Without Tears, Beautiful Feet Books, Math Mammoth, The Good and the Beautiful Science units, Beowolf's Grammar and Critical Thinking Company!
Explode the Code has been so awesome since we started implementing it! We started All About Spelling this semester as well and are also really enjoying it. I’ve heard great things about All About Reading.
The levels are not made to go with the grade such as level one doesn’t technically mean grade one. That’s why assessments are so important to take. They are quite general and Charlotte mason approach because traditional is quite heavy and traditional is more for a classroom.
We’ve enjoyed a more living books approach since tying out MB.
Try the Rod and Staff Math. It's mastery base.
We’ve used Math Mammoth this past year, and it’s been much better fit for us.
@@TheHomeschoolConvert Great! Looks likes you have a plan. Perfect! Happy Homeschooling!
@@TheHomeschoolConvert Also you may try Happy Cheetah for Language Arts.
My 4 yr old did Math level K. 😬
And my 1st grader did not get the place value at all. He was like I have no idea what you are talking about.
It really did present place value in such a weird way! I'm sure it works great for some kids, but I thought it just overcomplicated it for my daughter.
We only used MB Math K, but we found it to be much too slow too. My older preK daughter would do a whole "week" of the worksheets in one day, and her excitement waned as we went through it. We switched over to a different curriculum and she has done so much better.
And YES!!! THOSE TWINS! I thought those sections were really poorly written. I would edit it as I read because it just demonstrated poor sentence writing 😬 There were a few weeks of those stories that didn't even match up well with the lessons.
My oldest did Saxon at the beginning and that killed her love of math. (She's always been strong in math.) We switched to The Good and The Beautiful math when it was on clearance and it has been the perfect blend of stories, color, variety, but also "meatier" math. I have my first grader in the first half of TGTB Math 2, and it's the one thing she asks to do everyday.
I'm so grateful for the variety of curricula to choose from because, like you, I know lots of people who love MB!
Yes, I’m so grateful for all the options available as well! We typically get through a whole week of a lesson in one sitting as well with the level K book. We do it about 2-3 times a week, and even then I may skip something if I find it too redundant. I don’t mind the gentle introduction to “formal” math, but I definitely have a different kindergarten math curriculum picked out. We’re in the final six weeks of level 2 with my first grader, which is all review, and I just stopped reading the part about the twins. 😂
I felt like I supplemented a lot in ELA with Masterbooks also but I have enjoyed using their science and Math with for my son. I did not like My Story. It just seems disorganized.
They actually just made a My Story for kindergarten earlier this month and I purchased one (I'm new to the curriculum). I'm going to sell it, though, as I found it to be disorganized just like you mentioned. I didn't even try to do anything from the book. My son does love the earth science and phonics lessons so far!
The story in the Math book completely annoyed me. They were so dry. I ended up just skipping them after a few lessons. I just couldn’t handle it. Switched to Horizons Math this year and like it much better!
I stopped reading too, and thankfully my daughters haven’t noticed or at least haven’t said anything about it. 🤞🏻 I’m looking forward to trying something new next year!