Have you heard of CLE?

[berryMO]

Hello All, I resect your opinions here so much that I have been pondering a curriculum and thought I'd ask you.

Have any of you heard of or used Christian Light Education? It is a complete home school curriculum.

I am thinking seriously about using it at least for the lower grades. I have heard it holds a student's interest better than Abecca and some of the others.

It also is VERY affordable.

Would like to hear pro's or con's from anyone that has been exposed to it.

[berryMO]

Wow I am surprised at no responces. It must not be very well heard of? Or maybe a best kept secret?

Here is a Link: Christian Light Education

It says Anabaptist on the website but they are actually Menenites that sell the curriculum. This Anabaptist guy helps them sell their product on the internet.

[eilonwy]

T
I've never heard of this curriclum and know very little about HS (my son is only 6 months old), but I live in a county with a huge Anabaptist population, and thought you might like to know: Mennonites *are* anabaptists. So are the Amish.

[khrisday]

I've never heard of this particular program either, but I tend to shy away from those "school in a box" type of programs. They are extremely expensive, and tend to be traditional classroom type materials. One of my reasons for homeschooling is to free my son of these types of materials. This one may be less expensive than other boxed curriculum sets, I don't know- it was hard to tell from the site, but I know that buying single subject curriculums is always way cheaper for me. I think the site said something about their curriculum being equal to about $20/month. Which would be $240 for the year. I don't pay anywhere near that for materials. Between the internet and the library, we buy very little. And what I do but I usually get used. I don't think you will find very many people here who used boxed curriculums, that may be why you didn't get more responses.

[anythingelse]

I have heard of this and know a family that loves it. If you go over to the ivilliage message board for homeschool & post your ? the dad used to post there quite a bit. I remember that his wife completed the CLE teacher training they offer and she got a lot out of it. I get the CLE catalog and the stuff does look really good. Good Luck!!
Mary

PS we use and love rod and staff readers

[berryMO]

Now I'm Scared

I think I had better do some more research. I had planned to just use CLE's school materials and the family that recommended it to me is one of the nicest and loving (and affectionate) I have ever seen.

Well I bought a book put out by CLE "Preparing Children for school and Life" In the preface one of the first sentenaces is:

"Nurture is defined as disciplinary correction: chastening" I was shocked!! Not by any defintion I have ever read! The book is also very public school bashing. Not for me!! I am a firm believer even though I want to homeschool Public schools have a big need in our world.

So still looking for my knitch:

[TreeLove]

I bought the preschool cirriculum for my 5 yo twins. I am planning to use it this summer. I really like what I see so far......and a bunch of dancing bananas for Emmet!

[berryMO]

TreeLove~ What did you get?

I finally talked to someone else that has used CLE. Their kids got board with it because it was only black and white.

The switched to Omega Publications "LifePacks" and their kids like it very well.

[grisandole]

Haven't tried that one; but we did use the Lifepacs from Alpha Omega and my ds does very well with them. He likes that he can "finish" them and gets a sense of accomplishement. They are very affordable if you just get them w/out the "academy" . With the academy support it's 600 a year.

Next year we are going to try some of the classes from Goddess Moon Circles (yes, going from an Xtian curriculm to a Pagan one, lol)

[Nell]

Last year I bought the reading programs for first and second grade. Here is my opinion on CLE. The readers are great. The stories are sweet and help instill and support values in your children. The reading program comes with LightUnits. Both of my kids found the Light Units to be laborious and understimulating. After Christmas we stopped using the Light Units and just kept using the readers. We switched to Explode the Code to get our grammar in. If you have a child that does not like plain workbooks this reading program is not for you.
CLE does make many wonderful products and they are affordable. The Light Units for reading were not some of our favorites though.
Nell

[anythingelse]

gardenrn - How old are your children, how much time do you want to spend with them on 'school' each day, are you looking for secular or non, and do you live somewhere that you need traditonal looking records? Do you have an idea of a 4 day week or ?? Do your kids need hands on materials, computer based things, or workbook stuff? Are you limited time wise need stuff that does not require teacher prep, want the kids to work more independently or would be willing to spend a lot of time reading aloud to them etc..
Maybe if you are comfortable sharing that, you could get better suggestions as to what may work for you. I have been puring over things myslef to choose for next year. lol it is hard to pick, we are going with sonlight core 1 (4 day regular readers) and using chc things for the younger kids.
mary

[berryMO]

Vanna's Mom~ Thanks for caring to ask. This may be long. I am sorting out for myself and my son.

In lots of ways I am very lucky. Here in MO all I have to do is register with the county or school so I don't get in trouble for truancy when my kids are 6yo. There are some other recommendations but the laws are pretty relaxed here, so that is good.

I have a 5yo and a 3yo. My 5yo ds is a hands on learner. He is mostly Left handed but some things he does right handed, along with that his fine motor skills are poor. Gets frustrated any time I try to get him to write anything more than his name. I almost think he will have some dyslexic tendencies. If he happens to pick up his pencil with the right hand instead of the left he will write his name in a perfect mirror image. Letters backwards and everything.

He loves to be read to so we do lots of that. He loves to count and seems to be catching on to simple math rather easily. Memorization type learning he hates. Since writing is frustrating I have tried flash cards for learning his letters and work on the sounds the letters make but he refuses and turns himself off. Even if I suttlely take away privileges, like: you can watch your PBS show when you can get 2 cards right. He would rather go off and play with a truck or whatever.

For example he write his name but has no interest in learning the names of the letters in his name.

Home schooling may not even work for us but I want to give it a good try. I have tried to do more of an unscooling approach because I know he is kind of young especially for a boy but I find it hard for myself to turn things into a learning activity at any time of the day. Sometimes I do better than others. If he thinks you are trying to teach him something he will turn off his interest.

Since he likes to be read to I used to try to teach him a word or sound with each book, he caught on and quit letting me read to him. I backed off and now we read more again.

Part of why I want a curriculum is to structure myself, a self discipline type thing. Ds is a very competitive child and think that maybe if he had goals, like finish this unit and we'll do a field trip or whatever, may be incentive and help make sure we meet some kind of goals of letter and sounds and what ever else he should be learning.

I feel like a failed somewhere, and have taught him a dislike for learning. I have backed off lots of times and ways.

He loves the computer but if he suspects a program is a "learning" program he won't play it twice.

When he was smaller he never wanted to read any book more than once. On that note it is hard to learn by seeing things by being familiar with them. He seems to be very smart and has learned lots of things and I have no idea when or how he learned them.

Wow! sounds like I am complaining but I just want a good experience for my child and myself. He likes things colorful, loves to sing/music and seems to be artistic so would like to use learning with these more too.

I think my 3yo will be much easier. She seems to eat up anything I try to teach her.

[ssally]

I too have a similar situation. We have a 10 yo dd in public, 4 yo dd and 2 yo dd. The 4 yo will be ready for kindergarten this fall according to our county in MD. She likes to work in preschool workbooks sporadically and independently while I watch. She does not permit much suggestion or instruction however (she cannot read and tries to guess what the instructions are for each page). She also becomes frustrated with explanations and books without pictures (she puts her hand over my mouth and shakes her head no if she finds the story boring). My 2 yo is a sponge who picks up everything I try to teach the 4 yo.

I have found that leaving her alone with the workbook thing was best. The day before yesterday she did allow me to show her what to do with different sections (circle the group with less/color the triangles, etc.), then worked by herself for 15 or 20 minutes. Also, I have found that memorizing some stories (three billy goats gruff) and retelling at bath time, or some other time than bed time is alot of fun. She thinks its fascinating and is not dissappointed that there are no pictures. After one telling, I am commanded to retell it with her changes. It then becomes a whole new story. Very fun.

My goal is to homeschool all 3 this year and I have been on a research binge. Curriculum, curriculum, curriculum. Mostly the structure for my soon to be fifth grader is sought. However, I am always looking for content for my 4yo.

3moms.com offers a curriculum fair in a box. I think it was about $30.00 and you identify what level you need. That may be a little pricey for samples, but, for a new homeschooler as myself, I thought it was helpful. It came with 6 or 7 samples, with alot of backround information fleshed out for easy reference. Most were Christian, with one or two secular. I have found it helpful in deciding what direction to go in (unit based sounds best for my family, interesting and inclusive).

Good luck!

[hsmamato2]

Hi gardenrn-I've got 2 boys,3 1/2 and 10 -the 1st taught me in no uncertain terms that he is a hands on learner,and after years at this-I am coming to accept how he thinks and understands things-In my experience you can forget about boxed curriculums with a kid like this-they have such a unique way of viewing things,and when I've tried to force other ways-it's like his brain shuts off!He's not trying to be bad,but a "solid" math book like they use in school is torture-whereas a box of cuisenare rods,and the accompanying math books ,and he can do the work without even thinking!I loved Miquon Math books for 1-3rd grade-now we're using the 406th grade workbooks,and he gets it!No pain!Also-he spends endless hours building with Legos,it's what he loves-and he's thinking,dreaming inventing and engineering great projects all the time!I am also careful not to overload the "paperwork" with him-he gets overwhelmed and miserable-besides,I kept him out of school so he could have a childhood.The only work I insist on is math stuff,because I know he's got to have foundation to build on,but there's a wealth of math games and manipulatives oout there-just keep looking-good luck

[Velveteen]

Hello Gardenrn;
When my son was 5 I found myself really searching for something that would give ME a little structure! I have one of those hands on guys too. I think it is nice when you are first beginning to have a bit of guidance, keeping in mind that you are sure to change your mind/style multiple times.

Can I suggest Sing, Spell, Read, and Write? It is written for those kinetic youngsters, and we really enjoyed it! Loved the songs, the coloring, and the games. They have their own website, so you could take a look.
My son loved coloring his own little paper books, and the whole thing we both looked forward to. Let us know how you do!

By the way, a big bucket of tanagrams, and some puzzles to fill in are great math. That and legos!

[berryMO]

Thankyou ssally, hsmamato2, Velveteen~ for your helpful and interesting replies. Hands on really is the key for ds, also lots of space with minimal coaching.

If he is math minded I should just give him the tools to develop that and the other stuff will come later I suppose.

I'm off to check out Sing, Spell, Read, and Write

[berryMO]

I guess I had better start another thread for this question. I'm way off my original post.

Do any of you know of any other learing with singing type stuff? The Sing, Spell, Read, and Write is WAY expensive.

[Velveteen]

Gardenrn;
You might see if their is a homeschool 'lending library' in a local co-op. Or, alternatively, see if you can buy it second hand by posting in a homeschool sight that has stuff for sale. Homeschool World comes to mind, you can post something that you want. Worth a try.
Also, I notice that you also have a 3 year old, which would cut your cost if half.
Sing 'N Learn is a sight you might want to check out. You never forget what you sing! We love the goegraphy songs. They specialize in learning things that involve music/singing.

[berryMO]

In my search yeasterday I stumbled accross a really cute site of animated children's story books : Animated stories