I was totally joking in my head when I looked at the book this morning and said, "I totally read this book. I should put it on Goodreads." And look here it is!
This is a helpful resource in our endeavor to teach our children in a classical model. I think some reviews come from the fact that it doesn't fit their style. It fits my style and my child's currently. I don't necessarily know how to teach a child in kindergarten and this helps me keep it simple. Repetition is key during this age range so I get why they do what they do. It's how little people learn right now... memorizing... they are not in a logic phase or an abstract phase. Knowing this helps me understand why it is set up the way that it is and keeps me going when things are a bit mundane. On the flip side, if we leave a step out from time to time it's not going to kill us. Or things that my daughter already has a firm grasp on I toss in from time to time for review otherwise I leave the element out. Easy-peasy people.
Thorough, but not a good fit for us. If we used the Meeting Book, it could take us an hour, though it would be much faster if you had a child already writing and reading. We skipped the Meeting Book (calendars, days of the week, number sequencing, shapes review). Also, if you are on a tight budget and want the workbook, you could really use the workbook without the teacher's guide at Grade 1. There may be a few activities not immediately obvious - like the store and writing receipts - but if you were willing to improvise, doable. The worksheets have a lot of review content, which is good or bad just based on the child.
I found this teacher's guide was entirely unnecessary. Just get the workbooks and teach from them and save the money. This guide reads like a line-by-line script dictated to a presumed idiot teaching another presumed idiot, and it seems that following it would consume an immense amount of time to cover a small amount of material. Jump right in to the workbooks instead and just help the kid when s/he needs help.
Here is the issue. How many of us really have the time and financial opportunity to try every math curriculum? Surely not myself. With that said, I have really liked Saxon math. Yes, it is repetitive, but I've found that may students need that to really grasp the concepts. And once a child has fully comprehended any particular concept, I as the teacher adapt the curriculum as needed.
Saxon math is easy to understand and easy to teach and easy to alter to meet the needs of each child.
I thought this was not very fun for a K or 1st grader. Come back to it later in life. Don't start with it.
Well, I'm trying it out on kid number 2, and it's going much better. We just do one lesson a day, about 4 days a week. The rest of his math time is with fun toys. Funny how different kids do differently with different curriculum.