"Words in Color" and "Visible Tangible Math" by Caleb Gattegno?

[Shell]

My family is planning on moving to New York, and we came across a homeschooling program that seems just too good to be true (except that we do have to pay for it!). There is a 3 day a week homeschool program, for 4.5 hours each day, that is based on a county-owned farm and educational facility. The program incorporates farming, gardening and all things sustainable/environmental. Very nature based. I have long dreamed of a situation that is the middle of the road between 100% schooling and 100% home learning.

Anyway, I noticed that they use two programs developed by Caleb Gattegno called "Words in Color" (for reading) and "Visible Tangible Math." There is not a lot of information about it on the web, other than the company that makes those materials, and I am just wondering if anyone knows about it. Caleb Gattegno does seem to be a well credentialed mathmetician, but I have a growing fear of my kids becoming guinnea pigs for some newfangled approach to learning, only to find out much later that not only was it not effective, but it may have been detrimental.

They also use an approach called the Golden Education Template based on a school in Israel; again, very little information on the web. I'd love any feedback about this as well!

Thanks in advance to anyone that can provide some information to me!

[Scarlett Francis]

Hello,
You could go to The Bronx School for Better Learning. This is a Gattegno school in New York which has an excellent reputation. Its web site is here:
http://www.bronxbetterlearning.org/index.php
If you go to "History" and then click on "Information on Test results" in the text, you'll how the school does on Nerw York tests and Terra Nove tests.
Cheers,
Scarlett

[Mama Shifra]

John Holt had for a while been very enthusiastic about Caleb Gettegno's Words in Color. You could probably find out about Words in Color from John Holt's earliest book How Children Fail.

[Miss Information]

Did you see the Youtube video clip of it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDILJ...layer_embedded

On the one hand, it seems interesting, color coding those different sounds/same spellings and same sounds/different spellings

but those charts seem very busy to me...

[Martha_2sons]

Although I can't specifically answer your questions, it sounds like you're talking about the Earth School in Yorktown. Is that right? If so, you might want to join the Yahoo group "Tri-County Homeschoolers." Several of the homeschoolers in the group send their kids to the Earth School and could give you feedback. It seems to be very well regarded.