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Can We Talk Memoria Press?


nixpix5
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This is probably a topic well discussed but since I haven't been around here long I was hoping to ask some questions. I just discovered their full curriculum package and it looks really neat and thorough. I noticed that their second grade kit is using many of the books we plan to use next year in history. Is anyone using their full curriculum or parts of it? If so, what is it like? Parent friendly? Doable by the kids and well liked? Pros/cons? I have one student in particular I am considering it for and maybe not this coming year but definitely for her 3rd grade year. Is the schedule flexible or hard to make adaptions to?

 

Lastly, what are the literature guides like? I looked at the sample but it is hard to get a sense. I like to hear from users about their experiences.

 

Thank you!

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We use it and love it, but I know there are people that hate the workbook-y aspect to it.

 

K-2 are sweet grammar stage, skill based (reading, cursive, etc). I have loved 1st and 2nd with MP.

 

In the older grades they are using the skills learned to read for discussion and composition. Keep in mind that the guides were developed for classroom used so what looks like a ton of written work is done in the classroom with a lot of kids taking turns reading aloud and then helping the teacher compose complete sentence answers that they copy from the board together and doing some of the questions orally. If you have your homeschool student do every last thing in the guides you will both quickly get overwhelmed. The guides do provide a lot of work, though, so if you have an advanced student there's plenty to explore.

 

My oldest loves having the lesson plans all written out in checkbox form so he can work through his day and come to me when he's ready for discussion or recitation.

 

I could write a lot, but that's some basics. MP has its own forum if that might be a help to you.

Edited by EmseB
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I have always loved MP, and always look to their curric packs to see what they cover each year. WTM and MP are my go to's in planning. We don't do it fully though. We use pieces of MP in our WTM curric. But I love everything I have used, and we have used at least one or two MP things every year. I like the lit guides. I love their elementary sciences that I have used.  I love love love the latin. I really liked the Christian Studies. I like Rod and Staff and have always used it for English, Math, and Spelling as they do (or did. They have more of their own products now than they used to, so some grades don't have as much R&S as they used to.) I am sure I would like their history, but I have always just followed WTM for it, so haven't tried any. We are using an MP lit guide right now to finish off our year. I like to do one a year. The rest of the time I use WTM style lit. But it is nice to go super deep with one a year for me. 

 

I drool over their complete packs. I think they look nice. But I haven't ever really needed them. So I just look at them and drool. 

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Wow, this is all great information. Thank you so much for responding. I haven't been able to get my hands on their items to peruse so I feel blind but they appear to looks so nice. I love the idea of literature guides. I mean...I seriously geek out over this idea.

 

Anyone use the guide? What is it like with scheduling and the ability to alter?

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Have you looked at their samples? That might give you a better idea what to expect. I've done the Enrichment K and 1st with DS which I think is great and I will do it for 2nd next year as well. That's a great way to add MP with a book selection with reading comprehension questions, artist and music study, plus a poem and some science every week. It's been a great way to round out DS' studies every week. I've also added in MP Storytime Treasuries which would get a mixed review here. The stories are easy for DS to read but the questions can be confusing. I do like that it's teaching him to go back through a book to find an answer and to think carefully. Plus he's enjoyed some of the classic stories that we would never have read, like he went and read all of the Blaze books and really liked them. I think I like the way Veritas does their version better though in their guide that we have. You could always buy one of the lit guides to see if you like it. Rainbow Resources also sells a lot of their guides and products too. I've started MP Jr. K with DD which has been great. She loves it. They really do a great job with their reading comprehension questions. All of their curriculum can be modified so you wouldn't have to use everything, for instance if you are using a different math program. They have great customer service too if you wanted to talk to them about what you're interested in and get a better idea.

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Have you looked at their samples? That might give you a better idea what to expect. I've done the Enrichment K and 1st with DS which I think is great and I will do it for 2nd next year as well. That's a great way to add MP with a book selection with reading comprehension questions, artist and music study, plus a poem and some science every week. It's been a great way to round out DS' studies every week. I've also added in MP Storytime Treasuries which would get a mixed review here. The stories are easy for DS to read but the questions can be confusing. I do like that it's teaching him to go back through a book to find an answer and to think carefully. Plus he's enjoyed some of the classic stories that we would never have read, like he went and read all of the Blaze books and really liked them. I think I like the way Veritas does their version better though in their guide that we have. You could always buy one of the lit guides to see if you like it. Rainbow Resources also sells a lot of their guides and products too. I've started MP Jr. K with DD which has been great. She loves it. They really do a great job with their reading comprehension questions. All of their curriculum can be modified so you wouldn't have to use everything, for instance if you are using a different math program. They have great customer service too if you wanted to talk to them about what you're interested in and get a better idea.

This is great information! Thank you!

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I've used some MP resources and this year I plan to do a full core, I will be using an older core guide though. I would encourage you to buy directly from MP because when they update their products, you receive the updated versions free!

That is so generous of them! Wow!

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We did a nearly full core for 5th and 1st this year and a modified 3rd. I really love their curriculum, but I'm changing a few things up for this coming year because it just doesn't fit my dyslexic all that well.

 

The literature guides are a lot of writing in 1st and 2nd but they are well done, and as a previous poster said, not intended to be 100% completed by the student. I did not care for their cursive books at all. We loved the Latin and Famous Men of Rome, their Phonics Guide in 1st was outstanding.

 

It's definitely parent friendly but it took some time to adjust and figure out what worked and what didn't.

 

The one thing I will say is I wish there was more time for pleasure reading and just reading for the sake of reading, without questions, but with 3 kids it just got bogged down a little. That's one thing I'm hoping to change!

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We did a nearly full core for 5th and 1st this year and a modified 3rd. I really love their curriculum, but I'm changing a few things up for this coming year because it just doesn't fit my dyslexic all that well.

 

The literature guides are a lot of writing in 1st and 2nd but they are well done, and as a previous poster said, not intended to be 100% completed by the student. I did not care for their cursive books at all. We loved the Latin and Famous Men of Rome, their Phonics Guide in 1st was outstanding.

 

It's definitely parent friendly but it took some time to adjust and figure out what worked and what didn't.

 

The one thing I will say is I wish there was more time for pleasure reading and just reading for the sake of reading, without questions, but with 3 kids it just got bogged down a little. That's one thing I'm hoping to change!

My dd12 never did like their cursive books much either. I will say now in 7th, she is using hers again, from way back then. She never did master cursive, and finally this year, has decided it is worth working on, so we pulled out the old MP book, finally. :) 

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What we have used, we have liked, with the exception of Storytime Treasures (too boreing, too easy. Obviously YMMV). My kids are too all over the place to do a full core, but they are temptingly pretty to me and when they were younger I really wanted to make that work. Alas. Oh wait that is not true. I ordered, then sold the very first composition book. the one that uses The Moffats. Writing Tales was a far better fit here at that juncture.

 

Famous Men series (I did not like this initially, but my kids do so there ya go. The original books are available from other publishers cheaper, including on Kindle) and study guides used orally.

D'Aurlaire's...I read this too them once when they were little and while they loved it (trend, LOL), it was tediou and boring to read for me, so I got the **excellent** audio CDs the next time we circled through.

Birds. I have a budding ornithologist on my hands here, and while Birds is not nearly enough for someone with a pre-existing interest, I DID have him do this as extra writing practice because I am a sneak! He's not actually done yet. But I liked it enough that I will probably get mammals and Insects at some point for at least one of my kids.

Astrology is good. I like that it's to-the-point and it's fun that it ties in to Greek Myths. We didn't do them together, but the kid recalled.

Grammar recitation is handy.

I've LOVED their recitation PDFs which are a bit of a hidden gem, when I've wanted to do that sort of thing. It's just flat-out memory work.

 

I'd planned to go into the Forms series for Latin but I am waffling now, unsure. And the line-up of 200 Questions plus Story of The 13 Colonies plus Poetry and Short Stories is extremely appealing to me, looking toward fifth or sixth grade.

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I ordered 6th, 4th, and Jr. K a couple of months ago and can't wait to begin.  We used 2nd and 4th a couple of years ago, then veered away for a few subjects this year.  I'm excited to get back on track.  I love the ease of use of the lesson plans.  I also love the quality of the books studied.  For me, it's the best of both "living books" and classical.  The science books, for example, have a lovely narrative style, and the history (classical studies) books are wonderful.  My kids LOVE the geography because they absolutely rock at rattling off the names of countries and capitals.

It is thorough, and it is challenging.  The study guides require a good amount of writing and thinking.  The tests and quizzes require studying beforehand, which has helped me teach good study skills to our kids.  There are certainly times when we all feel the rigor of the curriculum, but then we are so proud of ourselves for chugging along and learning all that we've learned.  It is truly a mastery-type curriculum, vs. exposure only.  That means that you aren't just reading good books, you are diving into them, pondering them, and are expected to remember the material later.  The workbooks are not busy work, they are well designed to help kids pull out the gold from what they are reading and then reviewing it often so that they retain the information.  

 

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What we have used, we have liked, with the exception of Storytime Treasures (too boreing, too easy. Obviously YMMV). My kids are too all over the place to do a full core, but they are temptingly pretty to me and when they were younger I really wanted to make that work. Alas. Oh wait that is not true. I ordered, then sold the very first composition book. the one that uses The Moffats. Writing Tales was a far better fit here at that juncture.

 

Famous Men series (I did not like this initially, but my kids do so there ya go. The original books are available from other publishers cheaper, including on Kindle) and study guides used orally.

D'Aurlaire's...I read this too them once when they were little and while they loved it (trend, LOL), it was tediou and boring to read for me, so I got the **excellent** audio CDs the next time we circled through.

Birds. I have a budding ornithologist on my hands here, and while Birds is not nearly enough for someone with a pre-existing interest, I DID have him do this as extra writing practice because I am a sneak! He's not actually done yet. But I liked it enough that I will probably get mammals and Insects at some point for at least one of my kids.

Astrology is good. I like that it's to-the-point and it's fun that it ties in to Greek Myths. We didn't do them together, but the kid recalled.

Grammar recitation is handy.

I've LOVED their recitation PDFs which are a bit of a hidden gem, when I've wanted to do that sort of thing. It's just flat-out memory work.

 

I'd planned to go into the Forms series for Latin but I am waffling now, unsure. And the line-up of 200 Questions plus Story of The 13 Colonies plus Poetry and Short Stories is extremely appealing to me, looking toward fifth or sixth grade.

This is great! Thank you! I think I have decided to grab a couple of the MP lit guides to go with some history books we are reading next year, and a VP guide or two to go with the books we are reading for ELTL just to try them out. Even if we end up doing them orally. I have song school Latin 1 but I am thinking of jumping ship and starting with Prima Latina. I will have to check out the recitation pdf! Is that on their site?

 

 

 

We are currently reading D'Aurliere's Greek Mythology and I completely get what you are saying. I will check out the CDs.

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I ordered 6th, 4th, and Jr. K a couple of months ago and can't wait to begin. We used 2nd and 4th a couple of years ago, then veered away for a few subjects this year. I'm excited to get back on track. I love the ease of use of the lesson plans. I also love the quality of the books studied. For me, it's the best of both "living books" and classical. The science books, for example, have a lovely narrative style, and the history (classical studies) books are wonderful. My kids LOVE the geography because they absolutely rock at rattling off the names of countries and capitals.

It is thorough, and it is challenging. The study guides require a good amount of writing and thinking. The tests and quizzes require studying beforehand, which has helped me teach good study skills to our kids. There are certainly times when we all feel the rigor of the curriculum, but then we are so proud of ourselves for chugging along and learning all that we've learned. It is truly a mastery-type curriculum, vs. exposure only. That means that you aren't just reading good books, you are diving into them, pondering them, and are expected to remember the material later. The workbooks are not busy work, they are well designed to help kids pull out the gold from what they are reading and then reviewing it often so that they retain the information.

 

This is wonderful information! My kids are also geography gifted so I may need to look at geography too!

 

Everyone has given such great views. I am going to sample a few things this year and if all goes well jump in full core next year :)

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I am doing a year of BiblioPlan.  After much thought and review, I think I am going to buy the instructor guides only from Memoria Press to pair with the readers. I will use the instructor guides to make SHORT assignment pages for the kids.  I will also use the vocab words to make a mini vocab program with review.  Basically, my kids will freak out if they see all those questions.  Even if I just circle a few to write and tell them not to do the others, they will be overwhelmed. We will discuss the rest.

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Years ago I purchased a complete grade package.  It was a bust for us, unfortunately.  DD is just not a workbook person and I am a perpetual, chronic tweaker... :blushing:  It really is a sickness.  Fortunately for us, DD likes my tweaking and, therefore, supports my habit. However, this does mean that pre-packaged curricula don't work for us unless I want to waste a ton of money.

 

So I say, if you know your DD really likes workbooks, go for it.  If not, you may want to rethink using MP or only using parts of it.

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Years ago I purchased a complete grade package.  It was a bust for us, unfortunately.  DD is just not a workbook person and I am a perpetual, chronic tweaker... :blushing:  It really is a sickness.  Fortunately for us, DD likes my tweaking and, therefore, supports my habit. However, this does mean that pre-packaged curricula don't work for us unless I want to waste a ton of money.

 

So I say, if you know your DD really likes workbooks, go for it.  If not, you may want to rethink using MP or only using parts of it.

 

(I'm just mentioning this because my kids aren't huge workbook fans either, but I've found MP works for us).

 

Just to say that when they were developed, they were not meant to be simply workbooks that you hand to a kid to fill out on their own, although I know they can be used that way if you have a student that learns well independently. They are guides, and certainly do help with answering written comprehension questions, but there is also a certain amount of discussion and activity or project type stuff listed (at least in the lit guides and classical studies guides).  So, I would definitely caution someone new to MP that the expectation in the primary and late elementary grades is not that you would hand your kid a workbook and expect them to read solo and work solo to answer questions all day long. I know that would work for a small minority of kids, but for my kids it would be absolute drudgery and that's not how we use MP.

 

In that way, MP is much more discussion and parent intense than it would appear at first glance, and kids work towards independence in their studies in very late elementary and middle school. And I think a lot of tweaking is expected because, again, these guides were developed for the classroom first, where there is an instructor and other students reading aloud together, helping form answers, talking about them, writing them on the board for copywork, etc. They don't expect that kids are sitting in class reading silently and filling out workbooks all day, if that makes sense.

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(I'm just mentioning this because my kids aren't huge workbook fans either, but I've found MP works for us).

 

Just to say that when they were developed, they were not meant to be simply workbooks that you hand to a kid to fill out on their own, although I know they can be used that way if you have a student that learns well independently. They are guides, and certainly do help with answering written comprehension questions, but there is also a certain amount of discussion and activity or project type stuff listed (at least in the lit guides and classical studies guides).  So, I would definitely caution someone new to MP that the expectation in the primary and late elementary grades is not that you would hand your kid a workbook and expect them to read solo and work solo to answer questions all day long. I know that would work for a small minority of kids, but for my kids it would be absolute drudgery and that's not how we use MP.

 

In that way, MP is much more discussion and parent intense than it would appear at first glance, and kids work towards independence in their studies in very late elementary and middle school. And I think a lot of tweaking is expected because, again, these guides were developed for the classroom first, where there is an instructor and other students reading aloud together, helping form answers, talking about them, writing them on the board for copywork, etc. They don't expect that kids are sitting in class reading silently and filling out workbooks all day, if that makes sense.

 

I initially avoided MP because it appeared to be heavy on the workbooks. We started using Prima in 3rd grade and loved it. We added a couple subjects in 4th grade and by 5th grade we were using nearly complete cores. I have three kids using MP and I do not feel the least bit bogged down in workbooks. We use them as study guides. Some work is written, some is discussed orally. While the guides may not work for everyone, don't discount them based simply on the appearance of a lot of workbooks. 

 

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At the recommendation of CrimsonWife we have the MP US geography book and I've already been impressed by it. Simple to teach and thorough in content!

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Has anybody used their curriculum all the way up to their 9th/10th grade level? Is it considered a complete curriculum? Will it prepare a student to take college level classes specially in math and science? What about writing/grammar? I understand they tie their grammar to Latin, and their writing program is based on the progy?

 

Thanks!

 

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They are absolutely college prep materials. I haven't used a full  package, but their materials in them are all good quality products. They don't have a full pack beyond 10th if you are wanting to stick completely to MP packages. But I think at that point most students' classes will be pretty individualized. If you have homeschooled all the way by then you should have a plan for the rest of high school based on your students abilities, needs, and goals. 

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They plan to release cores through 12th grade. It gets a bit more difficult to release them as the higher classics really do need a master teacher via DVD to teach the lessons.

 

Our experience has been a mix.

Monkey and Caboose were some of the first guiena pigs for K and 1st. I left at that point because I did not feel MP Phonics had taught them to read well plus we all really detest R&S Math. The program has had a great deal of improvement since then so no one should read this and base their decision on what it was then.

Fast forward to now--Monkey and Caboose started out doing full 3A. This did not work out because of the guides. They require too much writing and too detailed (read long) responses that my guys cannot handle even orally. I have retained Christian Studies as read only, States and Capitals, along with Astronomy but no quizzes or tests. FYI, the reviews and tests are HARD! Caboose had a meltdown trying the first Astronomy one. I don't know if I'll continue MP for them. I do have the guys reading through the MP book lists.

For Miss Priss, MP 2 bits (lit guides, Great Americans, and Mammals) is great! It forces her to read. For her, I will likely continue with MP.

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It is a difficult curriculum and definitely all inclusive. It's based on their brick and mortar classical private school "Highlands Latin" and that's a bit what makes it difficult to implement as a whole. But the materials are well done and their customer service is impeccable! I used it for 5th and 1st and attempted it for my 3rd grade but it's just not really a great fit for a dyslexic.

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