Fourth Grade Curriculum

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

This is our fifth year using Calvert and my second daughter using this curriculum.I believe the course is challenging and sound in it's academics.

The support staff is invaluable and the texts, although often a little too PC for my tastes, are as good as any. The history book with its unique style, in my opinion, is a breath of fresh air and my kids and I disagree with it being "condescending." In fact we all found it engaging.

There is more than one way to do and teach most things...I like Calvert's way and so do the girls. Thanks for offering such a fine curriculum. It was the perfect fit for us.

I found the Fourth Grade course (for both of my children) to be a wonderful continuation of Calvert's promise of an excellent educational experience.

While I have a very high opinion of the other Calvert grades I've taught, I was very disappointed with fourth grade. This was especially true with reading and history. In reading, I would have preferred classic works of children's literature to "Might Men" and "Famous Legends." While I do think that children should be familiar with important cultural heroes such as King Arthur or Johnny Appleseed, many of the characters and stories struck me as irrelevant and I was not sure whey they were included. The "A Child's History of the World" text, while positive in the attempt to strike a conversational tone, often did so at the expense of good history and my students found the book condescending. An appropriate general history text would have been more appropriate. I have no complaints about science, the math course is excellent, and the geography course is comprehensive, covering both skills and contents. Just remember to break out those flashcards!