Shannon in TN Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 My dd is struggling with CE2 and admittedly, I am at fault some here, too. Up to this point, she has been fairly independent in her work and does well, so I haven't been as involved as I should be. The grammar side of MCT she does well. CE2 has her stumped. She's admitted to not really reading the text and my feeling is that she's just trying to skate along without working. She's been able to get away with that in the past with different LA curriculum but CE2 is challenging for her. So, my question is this: moving forward, how can I help her help herself with CE2? She mentioned starting over (but it was in a state of frustration, (insert snarky tone here), "I guess I'll start over if you want me to.") but I'm not sure that'll help her. I've also thought having her make flash cards, and since I'm planning on bringing my son up through MCT, I've already found a Town level set used, so I could go back and have her start in CE1 since we haven't done that. What are some ways I can make learning the vocab and such more fun and less booky? Any ideas? I was a workbook learner and studier so I'm not so creative in how to make school fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I think starting back in CE1 is an excellent idea. These books - CE 1 & 2 - aren't grade levelled, they are based on word frequency found in classic literature. So the first book is actually the most useful, in that it contains the words she is going to encounter most frequently in her literature reading. And those words are reviewed in the 2nd book, which can make it feel overwhelming if you are seeing them for the first time. But really, this is a program that is designed so that you can't just skate through it. It's not really meant to be done independently, it is meant to be discussed, pondered, and connected. Could you do the initial read-through together, then have her make flashcards and learn the words over a couple of days and then do the lesson test? She might engage with it more if you are reading it out loud together. Go slow. Start to notice the words in other contexts. This isn't about memorizing lists of words, it's about seeing the connections between grammar, writing, and literature and about internalizing the meaning and usage of the words. It's a rich program, but if she's just skimming over the top, she is missing a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space station Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 CE2 includes a lot of review of CE1 as well as building on it. I don't see anyway to do CE without making flash cards which my kids do on a free app called Quizlet. Then besides reviewing like traditional flash cards, they can also do activities that are game-like. My younger daughter is on list 19 and just adds to her flash card list each week. Now she is reviewing about 180 stems and words every day. It doesn't take her very long. We also do all of the activities from the book together. My older daughter is doing WWW2 and makes a new file for each lesson, and then she rotates which lists she studies to keep them all fresh. If your dd is not reading and delving into the book, she can't be infected by MCT's obvious love and passion for words. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daijobu Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 We use flashcards for MCT vocabulary. We remove words that have been mastered and add new words for each new lesson. If she misses a word on a test, then that word goes back into the flash card pile. It probably doesn't seem fun, but I LOVE flash cards. It's like a little stack of knowledge, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted November 21, 2014 Share Posted November 21, 2014 I would go back and do CE 1. It is not really a step back either. It will be sufficiently challenging. I always did it with my son. I quizzed him daily on the words. You could do flashcards if you don't want to do that, but really it took only a few minutes each day. He had 100% retention by the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reefgazer Posted November 22, 2014 Share Posted November 22, 2014 With CE, I think the benefit of the program is sitting down with the instructor-parent and discussing the words. That is what makes that program fun and meaningful, so devote time each day to CE with her. We have never used flashcards for this program; we just talk about the words endlessly and it sticks. We do verbal reviews instead of flashcards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2scouts Posted November 29, 2014 Share Posted November 29, 2014 We do CE2 orally. We read it together, discuss the words and other places/ways we've seen them used, and then I give the vocabulary quizzes. After doing the quiz, DS is allowed to go back and look up any that he can't remember and correct it on the quiz with a mark showing that he had to look it up. His retention has been very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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