Does anyone get the WWS download and have their student work off of a kindle or other electronic device (computer, ipad, etc.)? I'm printing off the first 6 weeks and realizing that this is a big job (lots of paper!) LOL. Just wondering how that works for you.

Some projects my kids have made: a newspaper (in publisher, I think, but would probably work in word) a book to teach preschoolers (a book about animals, colors, numbers, etc. Just plug in a photo and type a word or two. Done.) an experience story about their vacation, complete with photos and captions a short report about an animal, a planned vacation destination, national monument or landmark, etc. in excel: a chart to organize their day, their interests, their To Do lists. in excel: plan my dinner for the week:) in excel: plan their own chores games. they've made weird little games in publisher and word, lol write a report about something they want, the research they did about it, and how having that thing would improve their life (or mine). (IOW, convince me). nanowrimo (national novel writing month in november). my kids attempt a story every year, but end up spending more time messing with fonts, colors, formatting, backgrounds rather than write a story. My oldest's first project was entitled Mama's Bad Day. She made pictures in Paint of bad things happening to me. And then she plugged those pics into word and wrote short sentences about it. (She was probably 8-9 at the time).

Maintain a garden. We all hate it but do it anyway. We all "ew!" and moan over all the nasty little buggers that we dig up as we uproot the weeds. Sometimes we accidentally dig up a good plant and destroy its root system in the process, which leads to discussion about how much you can destroy a plant and still have it grow (hint: destroying its entire leaves or roots and it is a goner). We grab big clumps of grass and weeds and discuss how plants help hold the soil together so that erosion doesn't happen. We also see the same process every year: plant the seed, a plant sprouts up, and then flowers - flowers lead to the fruit/veggie. Talk about the difference between a fruit and a veggie. Talk about the differences between veggies that grow underground, those that grow on a stalk, those that grow in a bush, those that grow on a vine, those that grow on a tree... OK, I hadn't realized how educational our garden is! Thanks, Hunter!

I hear ya! I had hoped to plan everything ahead because the 3yo is so demanding during our school weeks. But this idea did not account for the fact that the 3yo is around during the planning stage, too.

Time schedules do not work for us, but it doesn't stop me from trying them :lol: Last year, I put together a schedule that devoted 40 mins to ea. subject. The goal was to get the kids to spend MORE time on their lessons, and hopefully get extra (more focused) work done on a single subject. This bombed big time, and the kids actually got LESS done in our scheduled 6 hour day, then on their typical unscheduled 3 hour day. So, this year we'll stick to what works: an excel spreadsheet with all of their assignments listed for the week. They complete the subjects in any order they want. They check off an assignment as it is completed. I'm expanding our spreadsheet to 2 pages instead of 1 page so that I can fit more on their assignments list. They like the spreadsheet because they can work ahead in some subjects for the week, and they know that they are finished when all the assignments are crossed off for the day. Also, dd 11 likes to start immediately with Math and get it over with (she hates math). But dd 9 is grumpy and slow to wake in the morning, and will spend about an hour in the morning composing music on the piano, lol. I've learned that this is the preferred thing to do, because if I try to get her up and going on math at 8:30 am, we're in for a really rough day!

:lurk5: my ss2 dvd will be arriving soon!

I'm invited to a vow renewal for a family member. They've been happily married for 10 years. What is the expectation for guests? They are hosting it in their backyard and providing cake / drinks. Guests are to bring a dish to pass. I'm fine with this and will be traveling a long distance to attend. But am I expected to bring a gift? If so, what kind of gift - typical wedding household type stuff, or keepsake memento type stuff? Or is a simple card and hug sufficient? Any other things I am expected to do at a vow renewal?

Similar boat for me:) I'm borrowing MFW from a friend this year and just bought the student pages and a few missing pieces (under $100 for me to try it). This way, if I tweak it heavily, end up skipping most of it, or doing my own thing, I won't feel guilty. And...I'll know for future reference whether it was da-bomb for us, or if it bombed for us. I'm not a huge Apologia fan and tend to choose secular materials. I'm actually not a huge Charlotte Mason fan, either (LOL!) but for some reason MFW ECC has a huge draw for me:) Partly because I think it is a perfect fit for my 9yo's personality. I'm doing my own thing for math and LA (not following the MFW recommendations for either subject, which is fine). I'm also not going to do the 7th/8th gr supplement for my 7th grader, because I have many other things I can fill in for her workload.

just wanted to say this thread has been helpful to me! We plan to use GSWL on Kindle, and I've thrown in the Minimus pupil book just for fun. After that, we might use Lively Latin.

I would love to see more reviews so keep them coming! My non mathy 11yo picked out Horizons in 5th gr. She was behind in math. Now she is half way thru 6th and wants to stick with Horizons (all my attempts at persuading her with TT or MUS have failed). Saw Horizons prealg at convention and it does like tough.

This was very helpful, Walking Iris, thank you! Sounds like I would find the copywork,dictation ideas helpful, but not the writing philosophy part (very similar to our current methods here at home but I'm finding we need more structure).

and so...would you recommend others spend the big bucks to buy this? lol! people tend to struggle with this question, but those of us that don't own it already want to know:D

:lurk5: I'm really tempted to use WWS for (will be) 12yo 7th gr short-on-words dd next fall. The other one on the table is Essentials in Writing.

s/o of my 3 hours or less to homeschool thread:) How do you beef up writing for your student of little words? How do you get more / better / longer out of them? How do you take them to the next stage of writing (beyond summarizing)? The 3 hour thread was an eye opener to me that this is where we need to be heading next, but not sure how to do this.

I do count AWANA, but once that is finished for the year, I try to add in some other things to do. We are not using a formal writing program, but if we were, it seems like it would only take about 15mins, since writing currics tend to have short assignments (or, it would get drawn over several days in short chunks). They write summaries for their encyclopedia readings, they write 1 page reports on their science or history (we alternate sci/history) - but these are double spaced handwritten, and the 11yo can get these done in 10 mins. If I give her more to write, though, it's painful for everyone. So, I know I need to take her into the next stage (beyond just summary writing), but not sure how to do that for this particular (resistant, beastly-to-teach, short on words) child :lol:

I'm not sure how to beef things up for her. I'm not sure how to get her to write more/better/longer. She's a girl of very few words and of short lessons. If I add 4 more subjects, then I might get an hour more into our day. But I think you are right, Boscopup, it would probably go further if I beef up the writing assignments thru Science and History. Not sure how to lengthen her focus and get MORE from her.

I'm surprised that so many spend over 3 hours on most days. Do packaged curric kids get done sooner, unless their using a dvd type of program? It seems like the kids that use Alpha Omega lifepacs get done in 1.5-3 hours max. I've heard of Abeka kids getting done in 4-5 hours max in high school (sooner for younger ages). But the video kids tend to last much longer (6+ hours) because they are doing text + video (or dvd, or whatnot) for their subjects. Since I piecemeal things together myself, I tend to wonder if I'm doing it right. I feel like my kids are assigned A LOT of stuff, but they seem to finish it in 2-3 hours most days. However, most of their assignments only seem to last 15mins or so. If our day goes longer than 3 hours, it's because we weren't on task that day, or somebody was fighting their lessons. Seems like we all lose focus and stamina if I assign more than 3 hours worth of stuff, and I'm not sure all of that extra info is being retained. We do - Math (45mins for 11yo, 30 mins for 9yo), Writing (15 mins), Grammar (10 mins), Spelling (10 mins) = 1 hour 20 mins Familiar Quotations read/copywork, Encyclopedia read/summarize = 15-30mins Science or History = 15-30 mins (read, answer questions, vocab, sketch) AWANA practice - 20-60 mins (depending on project) That's under 3 hours, there. We don't do Logic, Latin, or Foreign Language. If we added more projects, it would probably add more time. We do many things outside of the house, but I don't count those. I also don't count what they read at bedtime.

and still feel the kiddos are getting a decent education? (Not including pleasure reading at bedtime, outside the home activities, or chores, lol).

Horizons does this in grades 4-6 (no idea about pre-algebra). That's why I like Horizons so much better for 4th-6th; it just seems organized and I can see where we've been and where we're going. There is a logical sequence, but with review mixed in. I wish they did this for the younger grades K-3rd, but they do not.

Grades 4-6 organizes topics much better, imho. It's grouped by topic (ex: all fractions get grouped together, etc) and each lesson has a subtitle. Pre4th gr, there are no subtitles and lessons appear to be random:). I've never been thrilled with TM presentation of new material, so I do learn the topic on my own first and then teach it my way. btw, this is my 3rd attempt at using HoriZons. I hated it the 1st 2 attempts, but now I've found my groove with it and like it a lot. The kids picked Horizons after bombing BJU, and I really hated their decision at first. Now I believe it is what they need. I think your plan of using Jump to teach the lesson and then using Horizons as a supplement, extra practice is a good one, esp if you feel it is working. You may be happier with Horizons alone in later grades, esp if you learn the skill beforehand (khan academy videos for you, etc).

Anyone ever put a cone on their dog to stop licking? My dog has "lick granuloma", which basically means she started off with a spot on her body, and chewed/licked it into something horrible. I'm treating her 3 times per day with meds and it's costing me $200. I have to also rub cream into the spot 3 xs per day. If this doesn't do the trick, it's another $200 for surgery to have it removed. The darn dog has this gigantic cone on her head to stop the licking. She works really hard at it, but she can reach the spot! She can't walk thru my house without running into everything. But she can magically reach her spot to lick it. Argh! I've tried 2 cone sizes so far... Any suggestions?

How long is a MFW day? I realize there will be longer days and shorter days, so I am looking at the span of a week and the amt of time I should plan for. This does not need to include math, la, or any other add in subjects. I'm looking at doing ECC with a 10 & 12 yo. The 12 yo might do the 7th gr add on (reading, geography extras). We wont be using Apologia for science: Elemental Sci is a better fit for her:) 10yo will also do that sci.

eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED392036.pdf Teach a child to read with childrens book by thogmartin link. I think there is a www. in front. Trying to copy/paste from my phone is a bear!

I'll throw out a few ideas... With her eyes being tired and watering, I wonder if it is more of an eye tracking issue? There are all kinds of things out there dealing with eyes, eye strain, eye tracking, etc. covd.org will list eye drs that can test for eye tracking, focusing problems. Some people swear by color overlays (and every child responds differently to different colors) - there are people out there that test for this, too. Some of your symptoms resonated with me. My dd was slow to read. She knew all of her phonics sounds, but was slow to sound out words. She would become confused by sight words. Finally, I dropped phonics and sight words altogether, and used some of the methods from reading recovery. There is a free book online, or you can order it from your library - this is what got my dd reading: Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books by Thogmartin I used the booklist in the back and had dd read the words by pointing to each word with her finger, and trying to use phonics, context clues, and picture clues to figure it out. The repetition of the words in the stories is what finally clicked for her. She needed to do real reading with real books. She needed to learn how to read fluidly, without stumbling to sound out every word. If you do a search for the book, you should find a link to the free version online. I was deeply opposed to the method (I was a phonics only girl) until I was desperate to get dd reading. I will add; dd *still* gets lowercase b and d mixed up, and she's almost 12! I don't think she's dyslexic, I just think there are a few things she's struggled to straighten out yet. She's developed her own crutch by writing b and d as uppercase letters, eek! I'm hoping to give cursive one more solid try this year before moving into typing, lol!

I've noticed my one dd (a random personality to begin with) will do this when she has books that are a bit above her reading level. I think it challenges her and tires her, but she still wants to read it. She'll read a bit of one book, start another, start another, return to the first book, etc. and then never finish any of them:) Or, she does this out of boredom. I tend to think it is a combo of boredom and having books at a challenging reading level. If she has an easier book that interests her, she tends to read it straight through. Also seems like she does this when she is at an inbetween place in reading ability, or about to make a big jump in her reading ability (it's like she's in an inbetween place, ready for a growth spurt).