Memoria Press-Have you use it?

[OregonNative]

I'd love to hear thoughts from current MP users or those who have used it. Pros, Cons, anything.

Thanks:)

Edited June 25, 2012 by OregonNative

[TheAutumnOak]

:bigear: Just bumping because we are using Memoria Press for the first time in the Fall...

[AnneMD03]

I'm also very interested in what others have to say. I am considering using it for DD's 3rd grade year. She is starting 2nd grade in August, so I pulled some of MP's curriculum in for 2nd grade, too. She'll be doing Prima Latina and using the 2nd grade literature guides.

[livingmydream]

I have done the Classical Phonics and First Start Reading they were FABULOUS!!! haven't used any of the upper grades.

[AimeeM]

I wonder too - if I tweak (not use their recommended math), how well it would prepare a child who wants to enter brick and mortar catholic school in a year or two.

[OregonNative]

I have used Kinder, are currently halfway through 1st, most of 5th, and 6th with plans to use 7th in the fall. I LOVE it!!! I love the setup, I love that I can switch out subjects, I love the idea behind it, I love the enrichment books, I love the focus on skills over content/gravy subjects in the younger years, and my kids love it. MP is a fantastic company to work with, as well. I haven't found anything not to love for us.

 

That said, I do use a different math because I prefer CLE.

I cannot stand R&S English (having tried it with the older two before) so I use GWG, WWE, and IEW.

I leave out the Bible and Latin (dh doesn't want me to teach it).

I subbed WWE 1 for the cursive and copywork, but that is only because Third and Fourth had taught themselves a different style and are older than most kids using the same grades.

 

However, even if I didn't tweak it, it would still be the best I have found in my 8+ yrs experience for a packaged classical curriculum for my family. I think any child using MP would be more than prepared to enter a brick and mortar school down the road.

 

Thank you SO much for responding!! :grouphug:

[sleeplessnights]

We are using 3rd grade this year. Although we use Singapore Math and switch out a couple of other subjects, I love their LCC-type scheduling. The daily schedule includes math, latin, LA, and literature. Then there are weekly subjects: Classical Studies (Greek Myths), Modern Studies (States & Capitals), Science (Astronomy), and Christian Studies (Bible). Following this method I know I need five "school" blocks a day. I typically do three in the morning and two in the afternoon.

 

The other feature of this curriculum is that it digs deeper into the literature books each year. There are three scheduled for each grade, reading about 2-3 chapters a week. The lit guides include vocab, comp questions, discussion, map work, and other application-type activities. Other books are read outside of school hours, but these are thoroughly examined. This is a huge difference to the tons assigned by Veritas Press.

 

There is also a scheduled recitation time each day, which is delineated in the curriculum guide by week number. This daily review keeps things fresh and helps cement it in long-term memory.

 

The one downside that I find is that there are a lot of workbooks. We skip the Christian Studies and Greek Myths workbook and do this orally. From what I understand, at the school they go over answers in class and then the students write the answer down.

 

We have been very pleased with MP and plan to use most of their 4th grade program next year.

[TheAutumnOak]

We are using 3rd grade this year. Although we use Singapore Math and switch out a couple of other subjects, I love their LCC-type scheduling. The daily schedule includes math, latin, LA, and literature. Then there are weekly subjects: Classical Studies (Greek Myths), Modern Studies (States & Capitals), Science (Astronomy), and Christian Studies (Bible). Following this method I know I need five "school" blocks a day. I typically do three in the morning and two in the afternoon.

 

The other feature of this curriculum is that it digs deeper into the literature books each year. There are three scheduled for each grade, reading about 2-3 chapters a week. The lit guides include vocab, comp questions, discussion, map work, and other application-type activities. Other books are read outside of school hours, but these are thoroughly examined. This is a huge difference to the tons assigned by Veritas Press.

 

There is also a scheduled recitation time each day, which is delineated in the curriculum guide by week number. This daily review keeps things fresh and helps cement it in long-term memory.

 

The one downside that I find is that there are a lot of workbooks. We skip the Christian Studies and Greek Myths workbook and do this orally. From what I understand, at the school they go over answers in class and then the students write the answer down.

 

We have been very pleased with MP and plan to use most of their 4th grade program next year.

 

I am also planning to do the Classical Studies portion and the Christian Studies orally...My boys love to write in workbooks, so they may choose to write out some things before our discussions...But with other workbooks to write in, they may get their "fill" of filling out workbooks and just skip the workbook part altogether :001_smile:

[mama25angels]

We are using 3rd grade this year. Although we use Singapore Math and switch out a couple of other subjects, I love their LCC-type scheduling. The daily schedule includes math, latin, LA, and literature. Then there are weekly subjects: Classical Studies (Greek Myths), Modern Studies (States & Capitals), Science (Astronomy), and Christian Studies (Bible). Following this method I know I need five "school" blocks a day. I typically do three in the morning and two in the afternoon.

 

The other feature of this curriculum is that it digs deeper into the literature books each year. There are three scheduled for each grade, reading about 2-3 chapters a week. The lit guides include vocab, comp questions, discussion, map work, and other application-type activities. Other books are read outside of school hours, but these are thoroughly examined. This is a huge difference to the tons assigned by Veritas Press.

 

There is also a scheduled recitation time each day, which is delineated in the curriculum guide by week number. This daily review keeps things fresh and helps cement it in long-term memory.

 

The one downside that I find is that there are a lot of workbooks. We skip the Christian Studies and Greek Myths workbook and do this orally. From what I understand, at the school they go over answers in class and then the students write the answer down.

 

We have been very pleased with MP and plan to use most of their 4th grade program next year.

 

 

Thank you for this review. We'll be using the 3rd grade package when we start our new year in a few weeks and my plan is to also do the Greek Myths and Christian Studies orally.

[FairProspects]

I have done the Classical Phonics and First Start Reading they were FABULOUS!!! haven't used any of the upper grades.

 

:iagree:I'm on my 2nd child using these and I haven't found anything better for teaching reading.

[VeritasMama]

I used MP Kindergarten with my son. It was too much writing for him, he has reading and writing diffculties. I do think that their phonics program is great, you can access the public domain books of the program MP uses at Don Potter's site.

 

It is a solid program, I like that poetry and memorization are all planned out. My son just does not do well with workbooks. My oldest son would have thrived with this program, however, if it had been around when he was young. Everything is thorough and well planned out, it is very complete and rigorous. This is very much an LCC type of approach, which appeals to me very much. If this curriculum had been around when I started homeschooling, I probably would have used it with my older children, and I plan on using it with my youngest children. However, I will be using HWOT instead of their handwriting program, and we are Singapore users for Math.

 

We had a very gentle year for first grade this year, we focused on basic skills. Now that my son's reading and writing skills have improved, I am revisiting Memoria Press for him for 2nd grade.

 

HTH!

[VeritasMama]

I wonder too - if I tweak (not use their recommended math), how well it would prepare a child who wants to enter brick and mortar catholic school in a year or two.

 

My oldest son is now back in Catholic middle school, and I'm a former teacher. I did not use the Memoria Press core curriculum with him, they didn't have it when he was at home. But I did use several of their other resources and courses, such as their Latin materials, Classical studies, geography. My son scored well above average in all of his testing at the beginning of the year, when he started back in school. I would say that his reading and writing are well above average. The only thing he felt behind in was science, but this was a question of missing some of the content that had been previously covered, not ability on his part. I think that MP does a great job of translating a classical education into a modern approach, so your student would have no problem transitioning.

 

HTH!

[laughing lioness]

Have you seen this thread?

 

Here's what I've used (copied from previous thread)

LOVE MP and have used a big chunck of their catalog :001_smile:

 

Famous Men of... Review of Modern Times here - these are all great. The review I do shows you how they format all of this series, along with Xian Studies. I also had the old Greenleaf, Famous Men, but LOVE the MP's new ones because the pictures are gorgeous!!

 

PL, LC I and II, First Form, CD's, DVD's, Wall charts- First Form is rocking for my boys- finally. My 17yo loved LC II and was excited to be doing translating, but then we had a house fire and he got waaay off track. We had some other big misses in between but First Form (even though it seems like we've gone "backwards") has really given him JOY back as he studies Latin- invalueable imo.

 

Christian Studies I, II, III - good overviews. I and II were better put together than III (III seemed scattered for some reason), but I think they've worked on it. Have CS IV in hand for fall.

 

Copybooks- loved these. Places to draw after the kids do the copywork.

I would have kept these forever (if not for the house fire). LOVE the verses, poems and my kids pics). Plan to get cursive or Latin for fall.

 

Cursive- basic. Simple, good.

 

Greek Myths - perfect. D'Aulaire is great. See above re: study guide.

 

Intro to Classical Studies- again, great overview. Did this with a group of K and 1rst graders one year.

 

Horatius at the Brdige- My ds will be memorizing this :001_smile:

 

We used the beta test of the history guides for Trojan War, Illiad and Odyssey - thorough and well done.

 

Traditional Logic- DVD's with SM. Not having a logic background, I found the dvd's invalueable. Lots of people think Cothran is boring. My kids were o.k. with him. More importantly, they got Traditional Logic (word based, vs.Symbolic) under their belt. Sometimes the learning curve is just boring.

 

Lingua Angelica- beautiful, must have.

 

Highlands Latin School is definilty a leader in the field of Classical Ed. It's kinda my dream school.

 

Stay tuned: I have Core 6 (with some modifications- I changed up science and got First Form II) in house and will be writing and posting a review of it this week.

[Classically Minded]

We use the Christian Studies, New American Cursive and Prima Latina and love them all! My dd8's favorite is NAC, she loves it and I love how she self-taught herself cursive! ;) The Christian Studies are very good, however, since my dd already read through the whole Golden Children's Bible, we instead, use the KJV Bible to read the stories and and then answer the questions orally. We do use the unit tests and I love how my dd is remembering so much. With Prima Latina, we haven't started yet but I have looked over the curriculum and the DVD and it looks great.