A Review of Last Year

I wanted to do a review of some of the books and curriculum we used last year but I'll just do a brief overview. If you have more in depth questions, just let me know.
My Father's World for kindergarten was great for us. It was light and the pace was slow so we added math and phonics to it. We didn't replace those items just did extra. I loved the weekly themes and books they chose. It was well planned and thought out. I will not be using MFW this year mostly because I didn't find a way to teach both boys together and I really want to teach them together. The price is great and MFW has a great community, meaning I find MFW schoolers everywhere I go.
Math was a challenge for us because it turns out that my kid is not fond of workbooks. Might just be a math thing because he likes Explode the Code, hard to say. We started with Math-U-See and I've heard great things about it but math soon became a daily battle so I backed off. Then tried again and as soon as he saw those pages he let me know he was not going to cooperate. I looked around and settled on Horizons math, I ordered it and the manipulatives kit from Sonlight. I thought because it was colorful and mixed up the activities that he might enjoy it but it also did not do the job. He was learning but was over the workbooks so I didn't press them. He rattles off math facts all the time! He just doesn't like the workbooks. One other thing we used was the first Mathtastic video from Sonlight and they both enjoy watching it. This year we are going with something completely different. Mathematical Reasoning from Critical Thinking Company.
Explode the Code was great! He flew through the books and is now reading! We used the online program just as an alternative and he enjoyed that. We will be continuing it this year.
We also used My ABC Bible Verses each week with the corresponding letter and others day we used Gotta Have God devotional. I liked these and they are great books.
I am excited to start the new year! Click the 2012-13 Curriculum button up on top to see what we'll be starting mid-August.