Can anyone tell me their experience with Caesar’s English?

[SamanthaCarter]

I’m wanting to start my 11 year old on this, but don’t know anyone irl that’s used it. Thanks.

 

 

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[Jackie]

My daughter adored it. It’s a rather unique mash of vocabulary words, word roots, grammar, writing, and history. Because we were already doing enough writing for her from other sources, we skipped the writing assignments. She loved that it included so much history and poetry along with the vocabulary, and that it made connections between English and Spanish words with the same roots.

[Clemsondana]

My 11 year old is using it this year and loves it.

[Jackie]

What kinds of writing assignments are there?

The first writing assignment looks to be in the third chapter. MCT talks a bit about how language arts are taught as separate pieces, but in reality all of the pieces (vocabulary, grammar, poetry, writing) come together. The assignment is then a well-organized paragraph containing at least five sentences, having something to do with Ancient Rome (atheme of the book), using words and stems that have been studied in the vocabulary book.

 

From a chapter near the end: He includes some basic information about Ptolemy, then asks students to read about him. Write two paragraphs, each organized in a different way.

Edited January 10, 2018 by Jackie

[Jackie]

A typical chapter in CE includes:

 

- either five stems and five vocabulary words using those stems OR five “classic words†from his list of the words most used in classic literature

- a couple of “advanced words†that use the roots but won’t be tested on in any way

- brief introductory biography of a classic writer

- small section on Roman numerals

- stems used in both English and Spanish to show similarities (if a chapter that introduced stems)

- an analogy using vocabulary introduced

- a word search, plus some questions about the words included

- sentences to analyze using his four-part analysis method

- paragraph writing assignment (in chapters that introduce classic words)

- photographs of Roman ruins

- a poem about an ancient Roman person or event written by MCT and using vocabulary introduced

- one page essay on Roman history

 

I would definitely not call it a straightforward vocabulary program, but that’s why my daughter loved it so much. It combined her love of words with her love of history and engaged her well. I’m much more analytical/mathy, and the style sometimes drove me a bit crazy. But she did learn the vocabulary really well. We had made flash cards, and I found them recently (a year after completing the program) and she still knew all but a handful of the definitions without hesitation.

[Raifta]

We used CE I almost two years ago when DD was 10 - at that time, we didn't do many of the assignment either, largely because I was working full time - I essentially used it by having DD read over a chapter and then we would discuss a few of the words and that was that.  She did retain things quite well even doing it this way and uses a lot of the words in her everyday writing.

 

This year we are doing CE II and we are completing it with more depth than previously.  It's taking us longer but it's fun work that she enjoys (she's an artsy/LA kid).  

[silver]

We're halfway through, so I don't know how helpful my input is.

 

We don't do the crosswords, writing assignments, or quizzes/tests (that are in the teacher's manual). Basically we skip any of the activities that could require a pencil. We just read and every time we get to a review page, I go down it calling out a stem or a word and my kids give me the definition. My kids are retaining the words. I see them perk up when a read aloud contains one of their CE words. They do sometimes even use them in conversation. 

 

The other day, I overheard one of my kids, while reading say, "Sub means under, terra means earth, so subterranean tunnels must be underground tunnels." The analysis of words by their parts and the root sub are things my kids learned in CE. (I don't think they learned terra in CE, I think I mentioned that to them in reference to the Mediterranean Sea.)

 

Previously one of my kids did Wordly Wise and the other didn't do a vocabulary program. Both of them are benefiting from CE, so I plan to continue.

[Clemsondana]

I'll add that we do all of it orally. We sit together to do the short quizzes, Roman numeral section, analogies, sentence analysis, etc. We do one chapter a week, but only work 2 days/week. One thing that I like about this series is that its easy to make it fit us. So if we're supposed to write 5 senetences, we can do it orally. We also use the writing book (essay voyage). We discuss the different styles of writing, but when it's time to actually do the writing assignment, I adapt it. I'm having my student write longer reports for history, so I have him use some of the techniques in his history essays. Since he feels like the writing serves a purpose (showing what he's learned about history), I get fewer complaints than I do for writing that is purely for English, and as long as he's learning, I don't really care what he writes about.

[SamanthaCarter]

I’m loving all of this feedback. Thank you! Do you find the teachers manual necessary or is it all pretty self explanatory?

 

 

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[Jackie]

I’m loving all of this feedback. Thank you! Do you find the teachers manual necessary or is it all pretty self explanatory?

 

 

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If you care about having quizzes, those are only in the TM. We stopped using the quizzes after the first few, and never touched the TM again. My daughter likes visuals, so we did spring for the color version of the student books, and I’m glad we did.

[Clemsondana]

The teachers versions of some of the books (I don't remember about CE specifically) give other hints and tidbits of information in little boxes. If you were going to get just one book, I'd get just the teachers manual. You can always cover up the answers. I have been known to let my kid just read the teacher's guide for some parts of the MCT series, but when we can we tend to sit across from each other, each with our own books, him calling out answers and me checking as he goes. But, that fits the style of this kid, and I might do it differently with my younger student.

[domestic_engineer]

Thanks, Jackie! I didn't know it had Writing assignments. Interesting.

I think the "Classical Edition" of CE has the writing assignments that Jackie is referring to.  We did the Classical Edition of CE1 and just the regular edition for CE2, so I haven't done a head to head comparison.  But CE2, regular edition didn't have similar writing assignments.  My student gets through CE2 much faster than CE1, Classical Edition.  

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

We are finishing the first book, and I really like it. My son has been using many of the words in real life and his writing. It gives an excellent foundation. We have done most of the writing assignments, esp. since we use all of MCT, but we also use CAP, so I am starting to back off on the writing assignments just because we have a lot elsewhere right now. Sometimes I let him change the topic from Ancient Rome to a topic from our current studies.

[Jackie]

I think the "Classical Edition" of CE has the writing assignments that Jackie is referring to. We did the Classical Edition of CE1 and just the regular edition for CE2, so I haven't done a head to head comparison. But CE2, regular edition didn't have similar writing assignments. My student gets through CE2 much faster than CE1, Classical Edition.

I had to go look. It is the Classical Education Edition, though that appears to be the only current edition being sold. https://www.rfwp.com/series/mct-english-language-arts-level-2-the-town-level