I have used this fourth grade course with two of my students. A Child's History of the World used to be included in the fouth grade course and I would suggest getting this with the course. It was the best part of fourth grade. The history they replaced it with is awful in comparison.

Great 3rd grade experience looking forward to the same in 4th grade materials are exceptional many of our friends that teach are impressed with the curriculum and they tell me William would not be getting these courses in the public schools there's no time. What a shame our schools have gone so far away from the importance of a well rounded education our children are missing so much of what makes learning fun and new all the time.

I have been extremely pleased with Calvert homeschool curriculum. It is user friendly for the adult teaching and sets a standard for the student that keeps them challenged. My son was particularly fond of the history course this year, at times asking to read ahead instead of just one lesson at a time. Calvert has been a solid curriculum for us to use every year.

I am amazed each year that I use Calvert. They continue to provide the best choices available to any curriculum on the market. Here are my views:

Pros:

Lesson Manual - most curriculum's do not come with a lesson manual for an entire curriculum. It will only be for a specific subject. Because Calvert has taken the time to compile the entire curriculum, they have created a full day lesson manual. This is the perfect touch to the lessons. This is your "homeschooling for dummies" manual. Step 1 - do this, Step 2 - do that. I couldn't have asked for a better manual. This was the main reason I chose this curriculum!

Textbooks - the books are made by already well established companies that make books for public and private schools. Companies like McGraw-Hill, Scott Foresman, and the Calvert Math are excellent resources. I wanted books that would yell quality but at the same time, not be controversial. Some schools don't believe in teaching math principles like multiplication tables but Calvert believes in the old teaching methods while combining some of the newer math. Very impressive.

Reading - I personally loved all of the books. My daughter's favorite reader was Island of the Blue Dolphins. I also loved Famous Legends. Reading is just that - reading. You don't have to have a reader that teaches you something like a life lesson. The purpose of these readers is to make sure children are comprehending the stories. We all grew up with legends. They are fun and exciting to hear about. But the real test is whether or not the reader has comprehended what was read.

Comprehension - I chose the scholastic version this year because I felt my daughter needed to write more and understand the writing process better. While the scholastic version had too much writing, it was broken down in such a way that my daughter was better able to understand the entire concept from beginning to end on how to write a book report, short - and - long essay, and even writing a formal report. I think anyone that has a child who may be struggling just a bit in writing should do the scholastic version at least once. That should be enough for the child to pick up on what's needed for a successful paper.

Online resources - I loved the resources. However, I didn't realize the resources were available to me until half way through the course. I must have missed it in the manual somewhere but you have access to Brittanica, Dictionary (but you can get that free anyway), and the manual in the online version. This especially helped when I needed to print off more of the report maps to help my writer with the preparation of an essay.

Cons:

Calvert makes payments available to you if the price is too much to put out initially. The cost is comparative to other schools. You could get a cheaper homeschool version but you wouldn't get all of the benefits that Calvert offers. Yes, the cost is high - especially when you have multiple children. However, the cost is far better than any other place I've seen and worth every penny. I just wish they offered the online experience from 5th grade so my daughter could take advantage of that sooner!

This is our fourth year using Calvert. Honestly, every year I search for other home school programs to see if I can find something cheaper but I have not yet found anything comparable academically or structurally. I have reason to believe that my child is getting a much better education than she would in the public school system. However, this year I was perplexed as was another reviewer on the choice of the books "Mighty Men" and "Famous Legends." To add to his comments, I even found a few of the stories to be quite gruesome. If they were movies - they would not be ones that I would let my 10 year old watch. I pre-read the stories and decided to not even let my child read them. Besides, they were completely unnecessary and trivial academically. Her reading time could have been much better spent. No problems with any of the other courses. I really appreciated the on-line tutorials and games for math. I only wish there were more of them and for all subjects. A wish that will hopefully be fulfilled with the addition of "Brain Pop" in next years curriculum