Calvert School?

[faeriemom]

Has anyone used the Calvert School curriculum? What do you think about it? I'm interested in "classical education" and have heard that Calvert is the closest there is.

DS is 4.5 but has already "mastered" most of the kindergarten basics. Still, I want to give Calvert's kindergarten program a try since ds and I both like the idea of using a curriculum (we've been unschooling until now), and I think it would be a good review.

Any thoughts and/or sharing of experience would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

faeriemom

P.S. From what I see, Calvert does not appear to be christian-based (which is good for us, because we aren't a christian family), but can anyone confirm this?

[me&3]

If your ds has already mastered the kindergarten skills, I wouldn't purchase the K curriculum from Calvert - at least the first half of the math is pre-K stuff. Yawn, boring. I had to skip most of it. I'm not impressed with the reading, either - the stories are fine, as are the activities that go along with them, but your ds is not going to learn how to read with it, IMHO. I just started my ds (5.5 yo) with Reading Reflex, and love it. I'm not "sorry" I bought Calvert, b/c I needed the support of a spoon fed curriculum at the beginning of the year, but it really isn't worth the money I spent on it - I'm basically ignoring most of it! The science is so simplistic and boring, too, btw. ugh.

No, Calvert isn't Christian, but it does include "national" holidays - Christmas included.

I wouldn't call Calvert a 'classical education'.

[Linda in Arizona]

Have you looked into "The Well Trained Mind"? It is a book that guides you through creating your own classical curriculum, tells you in what order to do things, which resources are the best etc. It isn't my cup of tea, but some people just love it.

http://welltrainedmind.com/