Anyone use CW without the Inst. Guide or Student Books?

[hose]

I am looking at Aesop for my upcoming 4th grader. This year he went through IEW and got a pretty good grasp of KYO's, etc. Is Aesop similar enough that I can do it without the extra materials? Will I be lost? I am not worried about finding outside sources; I would actually like to do some fables, but then branch off into stories which coincide with our History (SL Core 5).

 

How necessary are the additional books?

 

Thanks for your insight.

[hose]

Anyone???

[Kate in Arabia]

I use CW, but I use all the supplementals (student workbook, instructor guides) as well. I have read messages here before from people who use the core book only, so I know they're out there somewhere, lol!

[Jenny in Atl]

I think with Aesop's you could get away with just having the Core manual. The student and teacher's guides just make it smoother. Homer, I know I would have been lost w/o the extra guides.

 

hth's

[AllSmiles]

Honestly, I can't imagine doing Classical Writing without the instructor and student guides. It makes the program so much easier to use.

 

There are others are the board that have braved the program with just the core book. Hopefully, one of them will see your question and be able to answer it.

 

Here is a link to Kimber's blog that explains why and how she is using the core manual and adapting the program to work with her other studies.

[Beth in Central TX]

I really like CW, but I could not do this program without the IG and student workbooks. I think CajunClassical and a few others use CW without the supplements, but then again, she also teaches writing at the college level. Writing is not a strong subject for me, so I like the guidance provided by these additional helps. Actually, I didn't even consider CW as a option for our homeschool until they came out with the IG and workbooks.

[Kathie in VA]

Yes you can do it. The whole CW program was intended to be done with your own planning. The workbooks and instructor's guides eliminate the planning on your part to make it easier to use.

 

I started off doing Aesop w/o the wkbks. It did work pretty well for awhile. I picked a model to use... paying attention to their guidlines for this.

Then I went thru the core to detemine what to cover each day using my model. There's a simple pattern for each week for the analysis, so this gets to be routine. Day 1- read to them, go over vocab and background info (author, genre, history?), ?discuss other things like moral lessons, bible, etc. Then have dc read it aloud. done. Day 2- pick some words for spelling analysis, etc. It helps to make a photo copy of the model for each day so they can work right on it.

I think I just made a spread sheet (I do these often).

First column was the name of the model.

Then one column for each "DAY" of work.

Pay attention to the different levels within each day as discussed in the core. It will help you to move thru them. Remember that the Aesop core is used for both Aesop A and Aesop B workbooks which are done in TWO years. Now if you're starting with one older then 3rd grade then you might want to skip a few levels or go thru them quicker. That's the benefit of not using the wkbks!

Also note the suggestions for the writing projects. They also progress thru levels.

 

I ended up switching to the wkbks because I was doing the planning for 3 kids at different levels and couldn't keep up.

 

hth

[hose]

That blog was amazing. I ended up ordering Aesop separately and if I need some hand holding, I'll order the supp. materials later. Thanks ladies!

[Carmen_and_Company]

I used Aesop without the workbooks with my dd, as they did not exist at the time--lol. I used the fables text you could purchase way back then, and found my own models from books like Intermediate Language Lessons, and an old set of Colier Junior Classics.

 

Like Kimber, I read the core & took notes as to what to include within each lesson, and then used the blank forms found at the back of the core manual.

 

This past fall, I broke down & purchased the workbooks because I thought it would be easier with dd in Homer A and youngest ds in Aesop A, but I found that as the year progressed, we used the workbooks less & less, as we found other models we preferred. So, next fall, it's back to doing my own thing. We'll use the core manuals, but plan to pull models from IEW's History Based lesson books, Imitation in Writing, and from our readings in history, literature, and science.

[Karenciavo]

When CW first came out there were no workbooks or instructors guides, many people successfully used CW without them. I, however, was not one of those people. :D I was constantly dropping the ball and we would get behind schedule. The instructor's guides and student workbooks saved me.