We're up! Good week.

I was wondering this too. How do we know that it's dative and not genitive singular. "The girls are telling the stories of the poet."

I just happen to have it right here on my desk. Drum roll, please...2005.

Keep in mind that the times they quote are official In-Class hours, many of which are used to read out loud. If you are considering Omnibu, I highly recommend Bruce Etter's MP3 Teaching Omnibus at Home. He talks about saving discussions for around the dinner table and that sort of thing. Also check out the VP yahoo group. We've got some Veritas online teachers there who also think Omni can be completed at home in a shorter amount of time. The Omnibus lecture is on Wordmp3.com. For some reason I can't find it right now. There search engine is fussy sometimes :) HTH.

At last! Finally got my Weekly/Monthly report up for January.

My avatar is actually a photo of Flannery O'Connor, but people have thought it was me, which totally cracks me up :D

I combine Truthquest with the Veritas Press history cards. The cards schedule out the topics for us, list readings from spines like the Famous Men Series, and integrate Biblical history with Ancient History. Truthquest provides commentary and great book lists. Several people on the board use this combination. It has worked well for us.

There is one song per group of cards, so one song takes you through all 32 cards.

Thanks!:D

:iagree: THis is definitely NOT cheating. In my experience as a writing teacher, I've learned that WHAT to say and HOW to say it are two very different skills. I think it's quite beneficial to treat them as two separate skills/assignments. Even allowing for mastery (or at least getting a good grip on the skill) of the form of the essay BEFORE tackling content. Otherwise it is horribly overwhelming.

Aha! So that's you! lol. Beth is still on the group. Maybe she is just busy. You can try leaving a comment on her blog.

I had a similar experience studying Amer History these last couple of years. It truly is one of the blessings of homeschooling that it's my job to study all this :D

Aesop is very gentle. Have fun!

Great review, thanks. I can't wait to start Diogenes: Maxim in the Fall. I've been going through the core and pumping myself up :D Your description of Chreia sounds great too. I really think in a few years when we can see students having completed more of the upper levels of CW, we won't have so many questions about how well CW will prepare a student. If Chreia can produce an 8th grader who can write an effective essay on the effects of the Protestant Reformation, then that student will be far above most high school seniors. And almost none of my college freshman could write a thesis statement. I'm getting so excited.

I sure wish we could get some kind of commission!;)

Writing Tales; it's another progymnasmata program. So far, levels 1 and 2 are available.

Beth, We are following the standard sequence for the progymnasmata books (Aesop, Homer, Diogenes, etc.), but I decided to change up the pace of the supplementary books so that I can combine my 2 olders. That meant that ds12 completed Homer B *before* we did Poetry. And dd almost 10 completed Aesop B. Of course, that puts my ds slightly out of sequence, but I think we can still fit it all in by completing the Advanced Poetry course as a literature elective his senior year. As I look through the Poetry Core, I've become convinced that it could be used as a literature unit as well as a writing unit. That gives me more flexibility in High School planning. (see my comments below about how CW Poetry measures up to AP English and College Intro to Lit courses.)

Well, I've only completed Week One thus far, but I'll tell you what I can. The week is broken down as Beth describes. So on a typical day you are learning some new aspect of poetry (some new term like meter or rhyme) discussing it, copying the definition in the Poetry Notebook, looking at examples in poetry (analysis) and then doing some imitation. The book starts out sooo gentle. The first week we identified lines, rhyme scheme and iambic meter. For the imitation, we made lists of rhyming words, and then substituted new rhyming words into nursery rhymes, and then substituted missing words in a nursery rhyme while maintaining the poetic meter. The kids thought this was so much fun. Even the 4-year-old perked up when she heard us reciting Mary had a Little Lamb! :) From what I can tell from the core, the program, as Beth says, builds slowly on the skills until the student is doing some quite sophisticated work. And I will add, as someone who has taught Intro to Lit courses in a university and AP English, the Beginning Poetry book covers as much--if not more--terms and concepts as either of those courses. And that's just the *beginning* book! I am so excited for myself to go through the Intermediate and Advanced books. Looking at the website, they have some awesome books planned, including analysis of full works, like The Fairie Queene. As an aside, one of the reasons that I don't stress out over the whole Literary Analysis thing in our literature studies (we just read and discuss books) is because they are getting so much in the CW program. As I have said elsewhere, you are getting way more than a writing program with CW.

and it was wonderful! The kids loved it and had so much fun imitating nursery rhymes and playing the rhyming game. What a delightful and thorough poetry study--and a great break from the heavier material in Homer. And much to my delight, my ds 12 told me that he has been looking forward to this poetry course all year. I fully expected moans when I told them we would be analyzing poetry; instead they cheered! I love Classical Writing! :D

Oh, that is interesting. I think I have that around here...;)

LOL, Beth. That's a relief! Seriously, I am so glad that your are "getting into" Homer. I continue to be blown away by the CW program, and I'm always excited when we get a new convert! lol.

Thanks. Great post.

It's both! It's a possessive pronoun functioning as an adjective.

First, 12 seems like an aggressive number. Veritas Academy studies 6 books with guides per year. That's something to think about. They also chose more difficult works that are read aloud in class. If you want literature to be an independent study, then you might want to chose works that are at or slightly below her level. Save the more challenging works for your read-alouds. So, Homer Price, Little House on the Prairie, Mr. Popper's Penguins, and Pinocchio would work. Gulliver's Travels and Heidi might be a bit on the difficult side. Veritas Press has a nice Narnia guide for the whole series. You could add in several of those titles to round out the year. I would also recommend Tom Sawyer over Huckleberry Finn. We did Tom Sawyer this year with a 4th and 6th grader, and it was the highlight of the year so far. They loved it. Huck Finn is a little more mature. ETA: Veritas Academy studies 6 books a year with guides. Additionally, the students read another 6 books on their own--at or below their reading level, for a total of 12. If you are set on doing 12 books, you could split them up: 6 with guides, 6 with book reports (simple narrations).