greenmamato3
-
Posts
696 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Blogs
Classifieds
Store
Posts posted by greenmamato3
-
-
-
and maybe i should mention that he's read almost all the books on his own time and volition that are listed for the 1st grade VP literature curriculum as well as many other lists from other curricula that continually consult to gather ideas from .....
.... but is there a real advantage to him having comprehension questions and such to accompany them after finishing them? it seems that to some extent it would steal a LITTLE bit of the joy of just reading it and not having it be "school." one that he hasn't read but plans to is nate the great. it will be a fly by breeze for him .... should i "make him" do a scripted lesson plan approach to something that could potentially just be easy???? what real purpose does this serve?
here's a quote from VP site regarding First Favorites ....
For those finishing up the Phonics Museum, this is the next step. For those using other reading programs, do not miss this level of development. This year is a magical time in the student's reading journey, and these collections of books will nurture a deep appreciation for quality literature.
why does it say "do not miss this level of development"? did i make a mistake in just letting him zoom ahead as his interest and ability developed practically over night from simple readers to chapter books?
-
after K {SL's LA for K and 1st}, DS basically skipped doing a formal reading/lit program with me containing the kinds of stuff like MP "story time treasures" and VP's "first favorites" b/c either we had previously read the stories when he was 2-5 yo OR b/c he wasn't ready to read them on his own but was "beyond" them in having them read aloud to him {i'm thinking of the billy and blaze book type level where he wasn't ready to read THAT alone until a few months after 1st grade but wasn't interested in hearing them as read alouds when he was at the end of K. clear as mud?}
now, i'm realizing that my approach to literature and actual literature study guides that go along with it has sort of skipped a beat, if you will, and i'm wondering if i should have him stop with his chapter books {like Jenny and the Cat Club or Stone Fox type levels} to circle back and actually complete a more structured approach to reading like the MP or the VP, or even SL, though i'm not a huge fan...., complete with the study guides. i have in my mind ( and have purchased) bears on hemlock and sarah plain tall for 2nd grade, and am going to utilize the Progeny Press reader guides for them .....
is there really an advantage to this scripted lit.guide approach for the budding reader that i'm going to regret having not done? i'm more than willing to circle back and have him do it for his assigned reading, or is it more for just an uncertain parent to make sure ground is covered.
i don't know if i'm asking the "right question" but i hope you'll know what i'm getting at ..... hmmmmm.:bigear:
-
I just googled a sample of Abecedarian. It looks very good, but nothing like Spectrum. Spectrum is more of a smattering of lots of topics. It is aligned to state standards and I use it to make sure they exposure to things that will be on the standardized test.
when you say "it looks very good, but nothing like spectrum" do you mean it pales in comparison, or it just looks very different in approach?
i've never been concerned about following state standards, and plan to only do standardized testing in 4th or 5th for the first time, but do you mean that the way the questions are asked are more "standardized testing-esque"? i was thinking of doing Cr.Thinking Press to help us along with that part of our prep .... but not starting til next yr. while you take time to answer, i'm going to go back to the website and look at the spectrum 3. if it seems like a lot of review, do you think i should start there anyway just to revisit a sure foundation?
-
Well I can tell you what I did with my dd and what I plan (as much as one can plan, that far in advance, lol) with my ds. My dd did FLL1/2 in K5 and a little bit of 1st. Then we did Mad Libs, fable rewrites using the Milo version of Aesop's fables, and started Shurley2. I got overwhelmed with the tm and never really finished SG2 nicely. The next year (2nd) we did CW Aesop A and WT1 (neither in entirety) and R&S3 (again, not in entirety). At that point it was pretty clear R&S was not fitting us, so I decided to go back to Shurley, which had been my preference conceptually, just hadn't known how to implement. In 3rd we did WT2 (in entirety) and started Shurley4. I got pregnant midway through the year and had enough disruptions that we didn't finish SG4 until 4th. WT2 has a lot of grammar, and we were doing latin, so it was fine. This year, 5th, she did Shurley 6 and is going through Homer A (which I'm not impressed with btw, bleh). I'm with your friend that I LOVE the foundation Shurley creates. With minimal time from me daily she nails what she needs to and is ready to go into writing programs, latin, etc. that pull from the grammar. Next year (6th) we'll do Shurley 7, which I have already bought and look forward to. It's a HUGE step up. Not sure what will follow it.
Since you're on the accelerated board, I'll point out that even the author suggests you can skip levels, doing 3,5,7 or 2,4,6, 7. I'm iffy on level 2. It's fine and makes them solid on finding the predicate and adverbs, but you don't really HAVE to do it. After that though, I would definitely do 4,6,7 and skip some levels. That gives you room to do your other LA and not spend so much time but still get the strong foundation Shurley creates.
wow! so helpful!!! it brings up a few questions ....
1. what is WT?
2. if i do shurley 2, 4, 6 ... and continue doing FLL 2-4 with WWE 2-4, where would go from there? like around 4th grade?
3. would we need either abecedarian/ETC/SPectrum phonics in the meantime to reinforce phonics, or could i eliminate those from our LA lineup since DS is in level 6 of ETC and it's basically seeming like busywork? could i just go straight into bridge to latin road OR english from roots up in combo with IEW at the 3rd/4th grade level? { i like the idea of CW, but i don't want to start it late, and i don't know how to start it right now and incorporate it into what we're doing .... so i'm left feeling like i should just wait and do IEW around 3rd or 4th. KWIM?}
-
-
I feel like PLL and ILL offer a lot more at a significantly cheaper price. I've also recently discovered that Living Books Curriclum has come out with ILL in workbook format. They are also coming out with workbooks for PLL.
sorry: what is ILL?
thank you, lovebaby, for this helpful info!!!! i have been eyeing the LBC anyway .... just not sure how to break into it.
-
i'm just now starting to look at these AO lists of attainments & the end of year exams. DS is only 1st grade .... i will not be starting anything formal with him in the exam arena until 2nd grade ....
but i'm curious about how ya'll have used these, how you've tweaked them, and whether you've found the list of attainments to be relative to our world today. i struggle with the list of attainments a lot ..... like describing a view, etc. what does that mean, or rather what's really the goal of that?
thx!
-
a fellow {and very experienced} homeschooling friend has told me that she really values what Shurley has to offer in the way of jingles and just the nuts & bolts of sentence diagramming. she feels her older DC has been able to fly through middle school and HS level english as a result of the Shurley, but also recognizes the advantages of FLL. however, she's never used WWE, and i'd like to maintain it b/c DS really struggles with his narrations.
we're currently using FLL2/WWE1 {with plans to continue straight into WWE2 when we get there}.
i was wondering if any have experience dovetailing these two together.
we currently alternate FLL with WWE {typically} throughout the week on a MWF/TTH schedule. i was thinking i could instead do Shurley 2 on MWF and FLL on TTH with WWE "pepper" on top :) . would that work? we would start this in either June or September, since we school yr round, whenever i feel he's ready.
DS has been able to do sometimes more than one lesson in the FLL 1 in a sitting .... so we've gone at his pace and ended up completing the first 100 lessons 4 months with 4 "school breaks" mixed in. i was thinking i could intentionally slow his pace down in FLL2 by supplementing with the Shurley .....
[and just fyi: we are going to hold off on spelling instruction until 3rd grade at least. he can already spell at an early third grade level ..... the only other component of our Language Arts we have is cursive & ETC. i'm thinking of switching away from ETC to go to abecedarian as a bridge until we're ready for either Bridge to Latin Road or Latin Road/English from the Roots Up]
-
we just started FLL2. i'm not dissatisfied necessarily, but am purely curious .... always willing to revamp my curriculum choices as we move along to tweak for both my style and DC styles.....
i'm interested in how this compares {in style and scope} to PLL & to Queen LL, for the long term. any with experience on this?
:bigear:
other important similarities or differences?
TIA
-
okay, so am I hearing that once phonics is done, spelling, grammar, copywork, and literature (through history, etc) are what we continue with? We are about 3 weeks away from finishing OPG and I am not sure what to do either. I guess they just pick up new words and how to read them from reading more and more challenging books (aloud to me)?
[sigh] it all depends ..... but i have to say i have spent *more* time in a quandary over these kinds of questions than any other schooling subject matters .....
i can only tell you what we chose to do:
Phonics Pathways {which is similar to OPG} and Phonics Museum in tandem with ETC books and HWT b/c we didn't do the letter formation as it is suggested in PM.
-------> FLL1/WWE1 with ETC still and finishing HWT ------ > morphing the HWT to just simple copywork of our memory verse and hymn ------> adding in a slight bit of cursive b/c DS was chopming at the bit to start. it seems like we MORPH more than we make sudden changes ....
that may or may not be helpful :tongue_smilie: i will enjoy hearing others' past processes with LA instruction for that weird K --> 1st/2nd window of time
-
I meant to tell you to start your son in the 3rd grade book, if you choose Spectrum. I run them 1 year ahead of grade level. Besides the typical phonics (ou, oi, digraphs and blends) the 3rd grade book has: base words, plurals, possessives, contractions, syllables, synonyms, antonyms, homophones, figures of speech, and dictionary work. I have never seen the upper levels of ETC, so I don't know if it compares at all. Spectrum doesn't have a lot of practice compared to the early ETC books. I use it for a review or introduction for concepts. It compliments AAS and R&S LA quite well as a gap filler, review and different way of learning. For an idea of how the series progresses, the 6th grade book briefly covers all of that and then: idioms, analogies, figures of speech, acronyms, word histories, greek and latin roots, and accent marks. All major bookstores I have seen carry them, so you might be able to check them out w/o buying.
it seems like abecedarian also has some of this greek and latin roots ...... i'm thinking of eventually doing Bridge to Latin Road and then on to Latin Road .... OR english from the roots up. could i use the abecedarian or the spectrum to simply reinforce phonics he apparently already knows until it's time to officially start with spelling wisdom {3rd grade/age 10} and the Bridge? it seems, if i recall correctly, that ETC in upper level {like 7?} moves into more reading comprehension and away from the ROOTS, etc. i'd rather let our WWE and FLL deal with reading comprehension. am i right in thinking that?
and WHERE THE HECK do vocabulary programs fit into all this?!?! argh!!! why are there SO many different ways to approach LA instruction?
do you have to somewhere along the way also pick up a vocabulary curriculum as well?! please tell me no! :confused:
-
I am no expert in phonics, but I am an expert in having visual/spatial kids!
I will also confess that my 1st grader, who is identical to yours, goes to ps. So, I have only a limited amount of experience in afterschooling.
What worked for her the most was variety. She loves hands-on, relational games and activities. She enjoyed learning the basic code from Reading Reflex. Then, she went on to Turbo Reader (aka First Reader) because it is so colorful and ABeCeDarian (which she doesn't love, but it gets the job done). She also uses AAS tiles to spell and read words. She loves Starfall and Read, Write and Type (although it is quite primitive in its graphics). She HATED Headsprout, because it moved too slowly for her. She wants to be in charge! :lol:
I supplement with other things, like daily phonogram card review and games. I love Elizabeth B's concentration game. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20P...rationgam.html
This site has a free downloadable Phonogram Bingo that we use. http://saracapps.com/217999.ihtml
Stairway To Reading has great, decodable sentences and word bingo. http://www.societyforqualityeducatio...irwaytoreading
We use McRuffy readers and ETC, which she calls the funny book and loves.
So, that's what works for us. There are so many options out there. It's overwhelming. Your dd will probably love any program that allows her to move and talk and play.
Best wishes! :001_smile:
wow, thanks!!!!!
i feel that i need to stick with Phonics Museum for now .... but am considering, i think, Abecedarian .... and maybe AAS{but i might just wait on the AAS to see how she develops since she's already reading CVC when *she* wants to! LOL} with older DS, he's a naturally gifted speller so DH and i think we'll wait until 3rd grade {age 10} to begin spelling isntruction, a la CM.
DD has played around on starfall. i haven't done anything too systematic with that. she's SOOO flighty that it makes finding a groove difficult. :confused: she LOVES th art of the PM. i don't know how she's going to feel about the readers, though DS loved them. we have the fun tales, bob books, and really reading {?} readers as well. she loves the puzzle pieces in the PM .... she's NOT the "sit-by-me-and-read-to-me-all-day-long" type of kid that DS is .... so phonics pathways isn't a good match for her, but she loves the games in it. she's doing VERY VERY VERY well with the rightstart math A games, too. i think all in all the RS math is a good match for our family, but it's esp a good match for her little brain :) {but i digress}
in many ways she is as eclectic and idealist as i am. the only difference is that it took me 29 years to become *this* eclectic. she's eclectic and idealist b/c she's just random :) hahahaha.
hmmm. i'm still working my way through the above list of links. i'll keep ya posted. you do the same, ok?! :) :bigear:
-
Can you share what kind of learner she is? What is it about ETC that makes it a poor fit? Are you looking for a workbook?
What about Reading Reflex - no workbook, but hands-on. Seems to work for a lot of kids. I'm not familar with Phonics Museum, so I apologize if these won't mix well.
Many seem to like AbeCeDarian's Level A - that's a workbook.
There are a lot of other more structured workbook type programs
Phonics For Reading by Curriculum Associates http://www.curriculumassociates.com/products/detail.asp?title=PhonicsReading&topic=CR0, or
Primary Phonics, PAF or Recipe for Reading by EPS. http://intervention.schoolspecialty.com/resources/pov.cfm
Oh - many like the I See Sam books - here's a link that has the first 16 for free (on the right under Sam Books).
http://www.nuview.k12.ca.us/nes/
HTH!
wowsers ... i've not heard of any of those except abecedarian, so i'm THRILLED that you brought it to my attention .... i have my researching work cut out for me tonight!! :) :lol:
i don't really know for SURE what kind of learner she is yet, since she's still soooo little. {just turned 5 in nov.} she definitely isn't a visual learner and she's NOT a linear thinker, i don't think. she is very relational, very social, highly unstructured, but yet persistent and has lots of fortitude. she's actually quite a set of paradoxes . LOL LOL LOL. i *do* have a suspicion that she will end up being VERY tactile/kinesthetic & is definitely auditory. {DS and I are both HIGHLY visual.}
does that help?
i will definitely look into everything you listed! THX!!!:grouphug:
-
I think some of it depends on your strengths and likes. I am definitely a science/math person, and writing is not my thing. I buoght CW (and really like the idea of the program), but it really didn't work for us. I did it with my 2 oldest boys a few years ago, so they were probably 4th and 2nd, and I found they mainly summarized the story as quickly as possible. And I was not motivated enough to be able to get them to add more interest or whatever. With IEW, however, there are certain things that must be included in each paragraph, as they learn these new techniques. I agree that is not necessarily the best thing for polished writing, and it can seem forced, but the key for us was that they forced my boys to do those things (start sentences in a variety of ways, add colorful adverbs, etc.), and I was not good at getting them to do those things in CW. So now, having had both older boys do IEW, their writing really has improved, and they are able to write more naturally (i.e., they don't have to add in all these forced things all the time, but they know to do them when it fits). So I really wanted CW to work for us because I liked the idea of it, but practically IEW was better for us. I think probably all my kids will end up engineers or scientists, anyway, LOL.
i like how you draw a parallel between a person's bent and the style of the writing program .... this is really helpful for me to hear ahead of time :)
-
hmmmm. how would you say the Spectrum Phonics differs from ETC? i looked at the spectrum phonic books briefly online and he would be already in at least the 3rd grade level {if it were to actually be something other than a mindnumbing busywork} .... and for that reason, it makes me wonder whether it would be any better than the ETC. hmmmm. i'd love thoughts on that, if you have any. {or am i SUPPOSED to keep him back at the 1st or 2nd grade level in these workbooks just because}.
today, when we opened our natural speller book {for the first time in over a month}, i realized that we have worked through the grade 1 AND grade 2 lists..... he's into the grade 3 list. i read to him about 25 words starting at the top and asked him to orally spell them, to see what 5-10 words we could use for this week .... and after 25 of them {rattling them off rapid fire}, i had only found 5. does a kid who NATURALLY gets spelling really need to do AAS??? i'm totally not opposed to doing it if it's going to really benefit him, but it seems kind of needless if he can spell 2 grade levels ahead of his age without even trying.
i'm so back and forth on this issue, as you can tell!
i LOVE all the comment,s though, b/c i love when people help me look at things from a different angle, and i really am willing to entertain all the options ya'll present.
:) keep 'em coming :bigear:
-
i've searched around on the VP site. not sure which evan-moor books you're referring to. help, please? :) thx
-
with my first, we have used the ETC books in conjunction with VP phonics museum and phonics pathways. that was a winning combo for him.
DD is a different kind of learner. b/c we had already made the investment in VP just 1.5 yrs ago, we decided to just buy the additional student book for PM for DD who is SLOWLY starting kindergarten level instruction. she's doing well with the VP phonics museum ... and for now it's plenty when used in conjunction with the Phonics Pathways at our leisure & as she follows along with big brother. she "plays school" in the get set for the code books but i don't require anything in them.
in the future, though, i know i will want something more structured for her but am not really thinking that the ETC will be a good fit for her.
anybody have any suggestions?
-
CW is more deep and broad. It is less limited in technique and approach than IEW is. It's hard to describe how good it is.
Having said that, I used Writing Strands and Writers' Jungle, along with some lessons from RS.
so how much experience od you have with CW and which levels? what ages/abilities do you think are most critical for "good writing" to develop within the CW scope and sequence?
-
:iagree:i agree that ETC is starting to seem like busy work. he doe 2 pages/ day ...
i've heard that AAS is pretty involved .... and i'm trying to get my K'er off the ground with some extra individual attention. was that your experience?
is it mommy-driven, or kid-driven?
btw, i corrected the info about the FLL/shurley overlap in my first post :)
and, i don't usually have him do the copywork in the WWE, honestly. at most, we do one of the two copywork assignments. i'm mainly working with him on narrations through WWE b/c he is NOT an auditory learner and needs time developing his listening skills to catch details, etc. he's extremely visual ....
-
:lurk5:
-
i have emailed directly the gal at ALabacaus before on several occasions asking questions about our son who comes and goes with his attitude about math, esp in the area of math facts/math drill. in my most recent discussion with her, she reminded me that 15 min of a game is equivalent to one math worksheet or math drill. i try to remember as a guideline ....
we DO love the math games and i would highly recommend using them if you're a RS user, but somehow i think that b/c of the way RS introduces concepts, it could potentially be overkill to buy ALL of the math games, etc, just to drill math facts. it would be much easier to do something where you take number an egg carton tray 1-12, put two rocks in it and practice adding the numbers together where the rocks land when you "roll" them. {or you could multiply them, etc} .... to increase our DS's challenge, i've done a competition with him using 2 dice. he has to add the number on the dice to the cup it lands in, then add the other dice to the cup it landed in. that's his sum for that round. i do the same. whichever is the greater answer is the person who is awarded a point for that round {and we mark them in roman numerals on our white board]. he LOVES this game, and it's WAY more challenging than a simple math drill sheet.
you would have almost no cost of investment in that .... and you wouldn't have to sift through all the math games.
now, having said all that, we remain fully-devoted diehard RS fans ... and will probably have played every game in the book before it's all said and done :) if your budget allows, buy them & do the egg carton idea :) :tongue_smilie: there are also games like Sum Swamp and Flip 4 that can be used for math time .... {which our family has just recently discovered, though that is probably not news to you ladies! :) } :lol:
-
My 1stgrader/6yo {who will be 7 in march} has completed VP phonics museum K and 1, ETC books 1-5 {and is currently working through 6}, Phonics Pathways, HWOT all three books.
Currently, he works on ETC 6, Classically Cursive {1/2 page/day}, WWE 1{he doesn't do the copywork usually}, FLL 1 {next week that will be FLL 2}, hymn and scripture copywork of my choosing/week, Song School Latin, Natural Speller {grade 2 list}, and is reading at 2nd-3rd grade level. we parse his copywork out throughout the day.
this is what confuses me, though: when i look at curriculums like LBC & AO it talks about phonics instruction is to continue through grade 2. in our case, does that mean just finishing the ETC books? i don't love them, but they are a nice thing to direct him to if he's needing to wait around for me until i finish attending to a sibling. what could i use in place of that? my current plan for spelling is to continue to do Natural SPeller at a casual and individual pace until he's officially in third, at which time i would do either SCM Spelling Wisdom or AAS. i'd like to be as CM/Classical as possible in my approach. would i be better served to switch away from the ETC books to something else? is there a series of workbooks that are phonics-driven and would reinforce good phonics until we officially start spelling that i *should* be using??
i plan to start shurley english 2 sometime in the fall, along with continuing FLL 2-3/WWE2-3 and moving to Prima Latina {we'll of course continue hymn/scripture copywork on our own, although i also have QUEEN copywork book already purchased for him}. We school year round with 5 weeks on, 1 week off..... FLL 2-3/WWE2-3 would be alternated with the shurley on a rotation like m-w-f/T-th or something.
oh, he'd probably be finished with the ETC 7 by then. i've also considered switching entirely over to CW and abandoning FLL2/WWE2 combo but keeping the SHurley component. any have experience with that?!
OR {to flip the proverbial coin over}am i doing too much for language arts instruction?
i don't want it to be complicated and have only chosen to do all of these things b/c it was my understanding that those were all the prongs of a full language arts curriculum.
really looking forward to your feedback :) thx! :bigear:
-
Having used God's Design and Apologia, I'd encourage Apologia for life sciences using their yahoo group to get book lists. In addition, I'd rec. you check out Noeo. They are a great combo of Charlotte Mason and Classical with a nice book list.
i'm curious about three things, if you could elaborate:
1. why Apologia isntead of God's Design for Life Science?
2. would you say the same for Earth Science?
3. is NOEO decidedly Creationist? would you recommend it for Earth as well as Life or just Life?
TIA. i think we'll all benefit .... thanks for taking time to comment.
anyone use Shurley with FLL/WWE combo?
in Accelerated Learner Board
Posted
sure ... definitely want to avoid "do everything itis"
but to clarify, DS isn't still learning to read -- :) i'm going to start FLL1 with DD during K {which we are gradually easing into right now}
b/c she's an auditory learner nad has sit in on many of my lessons with older brother, .... able to understand much of it, even though she's not reading anything other than CVC at the moment.
sorry not trying to get off an a tangent.
grammar and writing instruction is *really* important to DH and me for our kids. sometimes it just seems too simple and 1-D to only do FLL1-4 and WWE 1-4 .... it's really difficult for me to keep things simple :) DH would attest to that. LOL but also it's out of the best intentions .... i'm not *aiming* to make things complicated. just want to cover all the bases. :) we don't have any experience with this, which is why so often i turn to the WTM board.
i will go back and look through WTM .... thanks for the gentle prod in that direction :)