I am looking into the Christian light education curriculum (math, language, and reading) for next school year. Are the teachers manuals more than just reproductions of the student pages?? Or should I just get the answer keys?
Also does anyone have any opinions about the science and the social studies? Good or bad:)
Also any opinions on the math, language, and reading would be appreciated too!!
Thank so much!!
We did CLE Math for 4 years so far, Language for 2 and Reading for 2. CLE is a solid program and it’s very inexpensive considering how much you get. The teachers guide for the early years teach you how to teach and also doubles as an answer key. For Math as they get older it becomes less of a teachers guide and more of an answer key. I can’t speak for the other subjects as I only used them for first and second grade.
My personal reasons for leaving CLE for Language? I didn’t like the lists of random words for spelling, and found the week by week practice tedious and for my children the lists don’t really teach them how to spell. Handwriting style wasn’t my preference, and it doesn’t necessarily give great guidance into the ‘how’ to write for creative writing which left us all frustrated. Reasons why I would consider going back? I LOVE the actual grammar teaching. I love the spiral approach and I love the independence as they get older. Even in Grade 2 I was able to have the children read what to do, do a basic oral drill, then have them complete the lesson. It would very easy to just do the grammar and find something else for the things I didn’t like.
My personal reasons for leaving CLE Reading? I just found it boring. I LOVE language and literature and did that in college for A levels but hated when it was time for CLE Reading. We would skip many days. I felt that it took the joy out of reading (personal opinion again).
I may leave CLE Math this year, but this is not due to the Math itself. I LOVE CLE Math and feel like it is a great solid curriculum. If I leave it is due to one of my students struggling through Math in general, I think the spiral approach is too much for her, so we will try a year of the mastery approach to see if that will work. Once again I love the independence we have with CLE, the program is advanced, but it is really solid. They learn some algebraic concepts from an early age which is a huge plus for me, so I think once it comes time for real algebra the concepts are already understood. I love the predictability of it, I know which days will be tests etc… Even as I consider leaving for perhaps a year I do it regretfully, because I think it’s awesome!
Thank you so so much!!!
What have you found to replace it? I am struggling to find a Language Arts program that I like. I need it to be fairly independent this coming year because I just have too many little ones! I have seriously considered CLE after doing BJU for 2 years. I am just not very please with BJU but I am not sure if it’s just because I don’t have time or the concentration to do it like it’s meant to be done. TIA!
I am currently thinking about Growing with Grammer. Several people seem to like it on here.
The problem with not using all of components of LA is that it can add up.
For a few years since I stopped using CLE LA I used Abeka, but it took up so much time and was costly. Growing with Grammar looks good. I ended up going with Soaring with Spelling, Rod and Staff English, copywork and Essentials in Writing. This year we have to switch it up again because we really don’t want to spend the whole day in Language. We will instead do Fix-it-Grammar. I’m hoping the one line a day will be enough, I will also do IEW only a couple days a week. We are doing Diana Waring’s History this year and I am hoping we will have plenty of writing opportunities which I will use to do my own Language studies- spelling, vocabulary, grammar, copywork etc… I’m excited at the prospect of overlapping as many subjects as possible to cut down on time and costs. Sorry I don’t have a definitive answer.
I definitely need to cut down on both time and costs!! I looked at growing with grammar and will use that if G.U.M Drops doesn’t seem to sufficient. I’m actually pretty tired of spending so much time on the tedious stuff and not enough time on the things we enjoy!! I am thinking of just doing grammar 2 days a week and then a writing program 2 days a week and then alternate spelling and science! Maybe we can get to the things that we enjoy. Thanks for taking the time to respond!
You are absolutely on the same track as me. I have always made the mistake of overcompensating with lots of programs and end up spending so much, wasting time and money. We are trying to simplify, I even need to make some adjustments to my 2016-2017 curriculum choices as I weeded out some things between my post and now, I am looking forward to more time in God’s Word and more time as a family. May even have to do more weeding than I have so far lol. I am going to do the same kind of thing as you and only do certain subjects certain days of the week, math 3 days a week, math games 2 days a week etc…
I am a curriculum junkie!!
Ha! You and me both! 
Curriculum Junkie here too! Anyone use CLE learn to read? I have 4 kids and want simple solid program. Best grammar program I have used is Shurley English. Growing with grammar good too! (affordable.)
I have used CLE Learn to Read. I liked it alot, I used it with my older children and people were surprised about how well they did with reading at such a young age. For my youngest it didn’t work for her learning style and personality which may just have been due to maturity too so we switched but I would have used it for all my children otherwise. Affordable and solid! 
Thanks so much! Did you go on to CLE LA after completing LTR?
Yes if I remember correctly you are supposed to start LA1 halfway through LTR, I didn’t know and had to order it later, so we ended up a little ‘behind’ on LA.
However, if you wanted to do LTR at an earlier age LA1 can be done later, it doesn’t make a difference to the program.