Does anyone NOT like PLL & ILL?

I also have and was planning to use EFTTC this year and am curious to know everyone’s thoughts.  I am having a hard time getting a good look at the McFadden books, I think due to slow internet, but I am very interested to look at those.  I am in the same boat with Christie, with not really wanting the picture study mixed in and not wanting to weed through and pick and choose.  I looked at PLL and Queen’s, and I know that is what I would be doing with those.

Rachel, for me it’s the duplicate stuff to weed out that I don’t like. It just bugs me. I am sure we’ll skip some of the McFadden, but it won’t be nearly as much as with PLL or ILL. Funny, no teacher guide doesn’t bother me at all. It’s easy enough for me to look over. Different strokes for different folks. 

4myboys – PLL, ILL or the other options I mentioned are each meant to take 2 years to complete. I will have dd11 do all of McFadden book 2 because she can and because we were light this year on a few things due to my health. I wouldn’t typically double up. 

EftTC is very similar to PLL in a workbook format from what I remember. 

Truthfully, any of these programs are good and similar. Pick the one you like best and go with it. 

Christie

Oh, yes, I forgot about the ‘lessons for conversation’; I skipped those, too for the same reasons as you mentioned Jean; that and since we did oral narrations on other things, then I thought it redundant. There was still a good amount of material left behind after I skipped those lessons, but McFadden seems more streamlined.

Yes, I agree Christie; that there is a lot to weed out in PLL/ILL when we already do these other things in a whole approach and we all have our tipping points in regards to simplification needs, don’t we? . I’m glad you’ve found something that may work better for you and keep your aggravations down, esp. after a year of health troubles-that I completely understand!!

I’m using MC 4+ and 4 this year, after several years of PLL/ILL, so I may not use the last year of ILL at all for my son. I needed something more structured and “quicker” on the turn-around for results, if that makes sense, due to their external religious classes which require two book reports and to develop written out, interpretive teachings on the Biblical texts they will be reading aloud in front of the Congregation.

I may extract the letter writing and other such things for a later time of instruction later; either from ILL or McFadden (after I look through it more thoroughly). We all just have to do what we have to do…there’s certainly no lack of options out there.

Hmm … I don’t think of PLL and ILL in workbook form at all. We do almost every single lesson (that we don’t skip) in oral form. For my 12YO son, who is still an ELL student, I do have him write out some lessons. Just depends. He is still using PLL and will move into ILL when he finishes PLL.

I will say I know I wouldn’t want it in PDF as I’d end up printing it out and spending way more $$ than the books, which I got on Amazon new for about $10 each. I did buy the TG but have since put them up for sale as I never use them.

We skip the picture study and often edit the dictation, but it is no big deal at all. I guess that just doesn’t bother me or my DC. The lessons are very short and to the point. I don’t use the SCM on-line trakker but make my own, and I too just omit those lessons we skip when typing out our DC’s weekly plans.

I have not seen EFtTC, so no way to compare.

We didn’t care for ILL or PLL either. I even bought the TM’s for them and that didn’t do much to make them better.  Nor did we care for English for the Thoughtful Child. 

Marcee-What have you found that you do like, if anything?