Critigue my 8th grade LA plan please.

[5LittleMonkeys]

This is my tentative plan for Language Arts for dd13 next year (8th). Too much\not enough\missing anything?

 

Grammar - Rod and Staff 6 and part of 7. We will be working through breaks.

Writing\Vocab\Spelling - CW Homer B and Poetry for Beginners

Literature - Excellence in Literature - Introduction to Literature

( We will also be getting grammar and vocab from Latin )

 

My one concern is that the EiL requires a lot of writing and I'm not sure if it will be too much along with the CW, but without having used either I'm going in blind. I can leave out some of the units in EiL if it gets to be too much.

 

Okay, so tell me what you think and be honest! This will be her 3rd year out of ps and her last year before high school and in the last few months I can tell she is getting bored so I'm wanting to step things up for her. So far all of her homeschool academics have been very easy for her and she breezes through 8 subjects in about 4 hours. I feel it is time to challenge her and to get her to start flexing that brain of hers.

 

TIA!

[PeterPan]

Ok, I'll just go way out of the box here, but you said she is blowing through things and needs more of a challenge. Why are you doing Homer B with her? Cover those skills pronto (combine skills for each set of two weeks to finish A and B before next fall) and put her in Diogenes. It would be much more age-appropriate, and it would eliminate the need for that extra lit class. Nuts, depending on where your dd is at, you might even like to finish her out with Homer SOONER and get her into Diogenes. There's just no reason to hold back a kid who is blowing through the material.

 

Again, your rising 8th grader is bored, so you're going to put her in 6th gr R&S? Why not do AG or something where you can get her up to grade level more efficiently?

 

I'll take my nose out of your business now. :)

[5LittleMonkeys]

Ok, I'll just go way out of the box here, but you said she is blowing through things and needs more of a challenge. Why are you doing Homer B with her? Cover those skills pronto (combine skills for each set of two weeks to finish A and B before next fall) and put her in Diogenes. Well, the only writing she has done so far has been what is in R&S English and writing across the curriculum WTM style. I just ordered Homer A and we will start it in Jan. after our winter break. I would be thrilled if she could complete A and B by the end of this year (middle of May for us). CW is completely new to us though, in fact I just got my books in the mail today and haven't even looked through them yet, so I didn't want to assume that she could complete 40 weeks of material in half the time. I suppose I should have gotten Older Beginners but when I ordered it my thinking was that my younger dd11(6th) could also do Homer and I would save myself doing two different programs. Once I get my head wrapped around implementing CW and get her going on it we may very well be able to pick up the pace. It would be much more age-appropriate,I'm trying to meet her at her skill level and am not overly concerned with her being in a level appropriate to her age.and it would eliminate the need for that extra lit class. EiL isn't something I feel we need so much as we just want to do it. It has an amazing selection of classical books and my dd, who has always balked at classical literature actually said she wants to give it a try. On the other hand...when you say "that extra lit class" do you mean that CW is considered to be Lit. also? As I mentioned, CW is new to us so I could have missed something. Nuts, depending on where your dd is at, you might even like to finish her out with Homer SOONER and get her into Diogenes. There's just no reason to hold back a kid who is blowing through the material.

 

 

Again, your rising 8th grader is bored, so you're going to put her in 6th gr R&S? Why not do AG or something where you can get her up to grade level more efficiently?From what I have read I was under the impression that going through R&S grade 10 was the equivalent of completing high school level grammar. Many users from the high school board said that they stopped at level 8 and felt no need to do any further grammar because it was so thorough. I asked many times for recommendations for placement for dd and the overwhelming consensus was that a child with little grammar knowledge should start below "grade level" with R&S and definitely to not skip the 6th grade book; speed it up, yes, but do not skip it. We will probably only go to level 8 then start a high school literature and composition course.

 

I'll take my nose out of your business now. :)

Idon't mind your nose at all. I asked for honest opinions and you gave yours. In fact your post made me stop and think about what my goal for dd is. I had myself been struggling with the grade level material issue but after trying to formulate a response to your post I realized that age appropriate and grade level just aren't important to me right now. My goal right now is to find her perfect balance; demanding and challenging enough to keep her interest but not so overwhelming as to frustrate her. I'm not sure how else to do that other than to pick some programs that are touted as being challenging and interesting to her and dive in at what I think might be a good level for her. Anyway, your nose is welcome in my business anytime I ask for it.:tongue_smilie: Edited December 7, 2010 by 5LittleMonkeys