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Hi,

Have any of you tried the Stanford EPGY Language Arts courses for young children? There are two available for children reading at the third grade level and above (CTY doesn't offer language arts for young children). If so, what did you think?

Thank you!

Questions

Q-

I have heard mixed reviews on the lower level English courses from EPGY. The high school level classes are consistently rated very highly by parents and kids. My own kids have only used EPGY English starting at high school, so I have no personal experience with the lower level stuff.

hth-

What do you think about the lower level math at EPGY? Would you recommend Singapore math over EPGY for a 7/8 year old? EPGY wanted her to start in second grade, they didn't seem open to skipping up so we didn't follow through.

Thanks,
Incog

When DS was six he did EPGY grade 3/4 math. It is a very thorough program, but the interface is old and not very snazzy. It also has a lot of bugs. I'm glad that we tried it, but I decided not to spend the big bucks for it again at the elementary level. You might instead consider Aleks Math or Larson Math if you want an online program (not sure if Larson is still around) these two programs are considerably less expensive.

DS did eventually go back to EPGY for algebra. He also did Singapore math and a year of Larson. I really like Singapore and feel it has a lot to offer for a fantastic price. One other plug for a new favorite: We discovered Life Of Fred math just a few months ago. (They don't have an affiliate program, BTW, so I don 't get any compensation for recommending them!) My dd and ds both found it fun and amusing, though dd only read the story in the Trig book and did not attempt any of the problems. I reviewed them here: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art25135.asp

hth-

We adore Singapore Math! The focus on "mental" math and heuristics instead of learning some "one right way" to get the answer is great for GT kids, I think. I agree that it's a wonderful value for the (very little) money. Get the "Intensive Practice" workbooks instead of the regular ones, though. They're much better than the regular ones at "deeper, not just faster," even for basic arithmetic, I think.

Singapore is the only math we've tried, though, so I wouldn't say I'm an expert by any means...

Kriston-

If you found something that works, why bother changing? I think I just tend to get curious about different options and want to see how they work for my kids.

Yes, I totally understand about the curiosity. We're relative newbies to all this, so we haven't really had a lot of time to experiment.

But from what we've done so far (1A-2B), I doubt we will go with anything but Singapore for the exact reason you name: it's working too well for us to switch. It's meeting DS6's needs and is easy for me to use. It's cheap, it's good, and it's laid out in a sensible fashion. I can't imagine going with anything else, barring some unforeseen problem with the curriculum somewhere down the road.

And I think you're the one who suggested it to me, Lorel. So I have you to thank!

Thanks Kriston, Lorel.
I like the tip about the intensive workbooks. Originally, EPGY looked good, I'm not the math expert in the family, and I was kind of hoping I could just set her in front of the computer and let her go at it.
Probably wishful thinking.
It is kind of expensive, though, so if you all like the other programs, I'll probably give one of them a whirl first.

Our guy definitely needs the computer and the snazzy interface. No way is he slogging through workbooks, which limits our options. Looking for fun computerized reading/phonics reinforcement, if any of you have suggestions (that's why I was asking about EPGY). Thank you!

We're not doing any packaged reading/phonics curriculum, so I don't have any advice for you there, Questions. Sorry! Have you checked out the recommendations on Lorel's site and on Hoagies?