This particular homeschool math curriculum is not very colorful or “fun.” It tries to be hands on sometimes, but is nothing like a Math U See type program.
In fact, I’ll sometimes use my MUS blocks with my kids to help them understand concepts.
Because of the gentle approach and lots of hand holding this curriculum does, my kids haven’t needed much with manipulatives, but sometimes it’s nice to break up the monotony.
The books are all green and white and there is not a lot of color beyond that. It can be a good thing for children who are easily distracted, I will say. Even though, I’m not wishing it was colorful or more hands on. My children are learning math with this curriculum and that’s all that matters.
We aren’t spending hours on math, only about 15 minutes, but those minutes are jam packed!
My 6th grader understands the concepts fully and has almost no gaps in her math education. I will take that over colorful any day!
Another drawback, is I don’t recommend starting in highschool with CLP.
When we started this curriculum, I had a 10th grader. I put her in the geometry CLP curriculum and we failed epically!
It started out with proofs and spent most of the entire first book on proofs, but she had never seen proofs before and it had been years since I had!
Due to the rigorous nature of this curriculum, neither of us were able to keep up with the geometry books and we gave up. She was frustrated, as was I. We already don’t like math a whole lot and I didn’t want to further any rifts my daughter had with math.
Now that my youngest is in 6th grade and moving closer to highschool, I have wondered about putting her in the CLP highschool books.
I am thinking that the junior high math curriculum will gently lead her into the higher level concepts of highschool math, so will most likely stick with it unless it becomes impossible, as it was with my other daughter.
But I think coming into CLP in highschool with no other CLP experience or background was rough.
If you have a highschooler who needs some challenge with math or who is very math focused, I think this would be an excellent program. But for highschoolers who struggle or haven’t had a solid background, this might not be for them.
Thank you so much for this very thorough review! I’ve been looking for the perfect math curriculum for my soon to be homeschooled sixth grader. We’re moving out of public school and I was looking for something like this.
Thank you again!
You’re so welcome! I am so happy it was helpful for you! I appreciate your comment and encouragement. If there’s anything else I can help you with, please let me know!