[.ca] LEARN AT HOME SERIES-GRADE 4 (ISBN 1561895121)

What a find!:
This book may just save my sanity. 36 weeks of daily lessons, in 6 subjects, all planned out for you! All you have to do is "read and do"! Could it be any better? Well, yes. For one thing, the pages are all front and back, even the ones that aren't part of a particular week, even the ones that have cut and paste activities on the other side. That is my main gripe. Also, this book is laid out to follow the public school calendar (start in fall, end in early summer). We started school in January and are planning to end in September, so I've had to juggle a few of the activities and lessons around so that we're not studying Autumn in Winter, and so on. Those two snafus aside, this is a great, well-rounded book, and will help you to cover all the bases. You'll need to supplement with library books and whatever other materials you and your child desire.

OK curriculum outline, not complete, wacky organization:
First, let me describe the overall structure of the curriculum. There are six subjects: language skills, spelling, reading, math, science, and social studies. The "school year" is divided into 4 9-week periods. The last week of each period is pretty much for review. There are many problems. Let me list some of them by subject. Social Studies: Be scared! The second lesson/day of the first week in social studies tells the instructor, "Introduce the well-known ancient explorers (before the 1300s). Gather information from the library on Vikings, Zhang Qian, Marco Polo and Alexander the Great. Discuss their various achievements. Help your child create a chart showing the explorers, their countries of origin, where they explored, the years they explored and other relevant information. Post the chart for reference." Wow, I challenge anyone to do this lesson in just one day let alone a portion of the day (permitting the rest of the day to go to the other five subjects). The book doesn't give the instructor any help -- you have to research this all yourself. This is typical of both social studies and science. The first 9 weeks of social studies are spent in study of explorers, mostly post-1300s. The last 9 weeks are spent studying the Middle Ages. I don't think this is an appropriate order. To make a long story short, we've ditched the entire social studies curriculum and have replaced it with Susan Wise Bauer's _The Story of the World Vol 2_. It's very logically laid out, and if you get the activity book, it's rich. Language Skills & Reading: We think that each subject was written by a different person, and they never talked to each other. How else can you explain "prefixes and suffixes" being taught in the 4th week of Reading and "affixes" (meaning pre- & suffixes) being taught in the 8th week of Lang Skills? In week 11 of Lang Skills, the student is to write about a volcano using vocabulary introduced in Science. Problem is that volcanoes are not really studied until the 12th week! Math: Difficult concepts like multi-digit multiplication get less time than simple single-digit multiplication. This sort of unbalanced approach is throughout. Overall: If you are using this book, you will need to do a fair amount of prep work to come up with examples and explanations (ex: story problems to solve, research on Native American tribes, space station Mir). Most of the books suggested for Reading are too easy for our child, so we have to craft different lessons. I don't know how anyone can use this book without a color copier or scanner nearby, because the curriculum lesson layouts are on the backs of worksheets. Also, there are many mistakes in the answer key. Finally, I wish the publisher would list all the areas studied for each subject in the beginning of the book. Why do we still use this book? Because it is a good skeleton for us to follow. Do not buy this book thinking it be, as it says on the back of the book, "everything you need to teach your child at home." Use it as a tool, not as a toolbox. Good luck. Homeschooling is not for the faint of heart.

Learn At Home is Outstanding!:
After two years of research into Home Education curriculum, we purchased Learn At Home, Grade K to Home Educate our child. We compared this curriculum side by side to many other very expensive curriculums and it had everything they had to offer at a more reasonable price. In fact, it was more advanced than some very high priced curriculum. That was three years ago. We have used Learn At Home to Home Educate our child through K, 1st, and 2nd grades. We all LOVE it! It covers six subject areas, plus art and research projects, and reccomends field trips, to give your child a well rounded education. The lessons are right on target with what our local school system requires per grade level. Many times I find that Learn At Home is advanced when compared to what is being taught in our local school. I feel confident that my child is getting a great education. I really like having the lesson plans written out for each week. The teacher suggestions are excellent. These are both great time savers for me which allow me to spend more time with my child rather than doing all the planning work. The books listed in the curriculum are available at our local library. I simply sign online to the library's website, request the listed books, and pick them up when they call to say the books are ready. I plan this out and request the books a week in advance to give the library time to get them for me. It works out great. With all the planning and worksheets already done for me, it makes teaching my child fun, not work. The best part is that my child likes the book and looks forward to doing the worksheets. The only thing we add are Bible lessons by following the read through the Bible in one year plan. There is a Christian Learn At Home book on the market, but it does not have any lesson plans or teacher notes, nor is it as in depth and comprehensive. The pages of the book are preforated and tear out easily. I found that hole punching the pages and putting them into a three ring binder works wonderfully. I make copies of any pages that need to be cut, (this is mostly in the K and Grade 1 book), have my child cut the copy, and paste to the original page. This keeps the book nice. There are a few pages that you will need to make copies of, like book report forms for example. Even with the copies in black in white, they still look nice. Your child can color the pictures on those pages if they want to. We have already purchased Learn At Home, Grade 3 for the coming school year. We really think this is a great curriculum and highly reccomend it!

Great Purchase:
This book is everything the editorial reviews and the publisher say it is. I am very happy that I purchased this workbook. I was looking for a curriculum that would not break me yet still be very rich in content. This book is great.

Good Place To Start- If it is the first thing you do.:
Overall I am happy with this book. It lays out a full year, with interesting activities. I would not base my WHOLE curriculum on this book. Don't think this is ALL you need. You will need to visit the Library often (and probably inter library loan). If you dont have access to a color copier, you will be frustrated by the worksheets which are often printed double sides at cross purposes. This book uses the Letter A Week approach which is good if your child is weak in this area. My daughter is far beyond this, so I am having to Rethink and Replan much of it. Most activities in other subjects build on the letter of the week.. So *for me* this means much advance planning and shuffling. I am not sorry I bought it, but I wish I had seen it first hand. If you are JUST starting to homeschool, and your child can use the reinforcement of the Alphabet, this is a terrific book.