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YodaGirl

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Everything posted by YodaGirl

  1. I'd recommend SWI-B. It's totally possible to do a theme book with the TWSS, but your daughter might benefit from the video instruction in SWI. I've been teaching using IEW for 4 years. The first year, I used a theme book without TWSS. Instead, I binged their online podcasts/webinars. It's totally possible if writing is your thing, but it is recommended to use the TWSS.
  2. Reading - This is my reader. He reads for hours on end, so I hate to force any type of reading at this point. I'll probably continue to let him choose chapter books while testing reading comp via ReadTheory. Spelling - All About Spelling Writing - IEW's All Things Fun & Fascinating Math - Either Khan Academy or Math in Focus 3A/3B Social Studies - Some chapters of Harcourt Horizons Grade 3 Geography - Memoria Press States & Capitals Science - Unschool/tagging along with his older sister in biology I'm not sure what he'll do at co-op next year.
  3. Bible/Literature/History/Geography - Notgrass Writing & Grammar - WriteSource 7 Spelling - Megawords Math - Saxon 8/7 Science - Focus On: Biology PE - TaeKwonDo Art - Drawing Class @ Co-Op Speech - Co-Op Music - Handbells and maybe violin Additional literature through a literature & writing class @ co-op
  4. *sigh* Oh, how I wish that CC had worked for us, but then again, I'm kind of glad it didn't. The memory work was great...in theory. My youngest did really well, but my oldest did not. I did a better job reviewing memory work at home when I was a Foundations tutor. I think science is lacking. Next year will be cycle 1, and the history sentences will be organized by region as opposed to chronologically. After 2 years in Essentials, my oldest scored mid-grade level on the language portion of her end-of-year testing (for reference, she scored upper middle-upper high school on her other subjects). It's obviously not working for us, even though she has had wonderful tutors. I'm not a huge IEW fan, either. My youngest loved the community aspect. My oldest made a couple of friends, but there was a clique that was allowed (and encouraged) to exclude kids. It ultimately wasn't a good environment. I *love* being able to pick my own materials and adjust when necessary. CC, especially at Challenge level, does not lend itself to that easily. I'm SO excited about going back to doing our own thing. I realized that I was paying a bunch of money for little turn-out. We can get interaction through any number of co-ops that cost way less. Long story short, I don't think you're doing anything wrong with CC. It sounds like CC just doesn't work for you. It's okay to like the idea of something and not like it in practice for your family. ?
  5. My rising 6th grader will be doing: Reading (reading comp/novels), English (grammar & writing), Math, Science, History, Civics, PE, Intro to Communication (home grown course that's really just a hodge podge of logic/debate, speech @ co-op, listening skills, & interpersonal communication), Spanish, & Music (either continue with band class or switch to guitar, although she'd really like to try violin). I'm trying a sort of block schedule this year. For example, I'll do Reading & Civics/PE on M/W and English & Spanish/Communication on T/R. Friday will be a morning fine arts co-op and shortened core-content class days. It's a bit confusing to describe. We'll see how it works out. I found a wonderful co-op in the next town over that offers, among other subjects, choir, band, orchestra, & guitar. Maybe you can check into one around your area? I'm also looking into a field trip only co-op in a different neighboring town. My oldest is in TKD & a local art class (although the latter meets infrequently), and my youngest is in 4H & Cub Scouts. They both attend church weekly and play summer softball. Between those and our co-ops (we also did a classical-type group last year in addition to our fine arts co-op), my kiddos have all the social interaction that I can stand. ; p
  6. I think most would probably say that we're more "school at home"...and I'd probably agree. We use some textbooks & workbooks that are used in public schools, and I do log time & subjects due to state requirements. At the same time, we might be working from the couch, the trampoline, the kitchen table, or the school room table. I slow down or speed up depending on what my kids need, and I alter things if necessary. I'm not a slave to the curriculum. Some days, The Magic School Bus might be science, and a documentary might be social studies. Then again, that happens in a PS setting, too...️ I've created my own subjects (state studies, communication, etc), and I've been known to pull things from several PSish curricula to form one thing. I do keep in mind the things that are covered in PS, and I will probably do something similar in middle school & high school. It's what works for us. If it doesn't work for someone else, well, that's fine, too.
  7. The SRP replaces the SRN. The names are pretty deceiving in that the SRP is actually larger and more detailed than the SRN. The SRN was redesigned when the books ( and the TWSS) were to align better. It's beneficial to have the SRP. I just use the PDF file for my use, but DD uses one I printed out.
  8. We're in a similar boat in our state. I log time for how long a subject's TE says it should take. Math, for example, takes 60 minutes. That's what I log. I also log time for what I call "Independent Studies" which might include free reading, legos, educational TV or apps, etc, depending on ages. Cooking dinner? Culinary arts. Sometimes I have to get creative, but I feel zero guilt. Learning is learning. I think hour requirements are ridiculous. I have some public educator friends who really dislike the idea of homeschooling, and even they say the hour requirement is silly. Public schoolers don't even have that many hours of straight book-work instruction. ETA: I use my planner as legal documentation. I have the lesson plans laid out for each day, and I have the daily schedule for each subject equaling the necessary hours. In the back, I keep attendance. If I mark DD present for April 24, then it means she did the 6 hours scheduled for that day, if that makes sense.
  9. I read somewhere on Apologia's site that 2 can be done in one year if science is done daily. I'd imagine that it would be do-able with a science-y kid at an accelerated pace. We own all but 2 of the k-6 books, but we've never actually completed one. We're on track to complete Zoo 1 w/ my first grader before summer starts, and we didn't start until the 4th 9 weeks. He's also a sponge when it comes to science and tends to be able to answer questions from my 5th grader's work. The only issue is that we can't get as in-depth as I want, but we're able to go at the accelerated, hit-the-book-high-points that he's wanting.
  10. We've got K-3 Bk 1 & 2 and the first middle school book. 1. K-3 is definitely teacher led. Middle school can be either. 2. Yes. 3. It depends. Check the TOC of the books on Rainbow Resource or Christian Book. 4. Both of my kids struggled with it, but they're perfectionists. If it didn't look *just so*, they became frustrated. For artsy kids who aren't wanting their finished product to be identical to the example, it'd be great. I really like some of the projects. We ultimately outsourced art because it was too much of a headache for us.
  11. According to the product description here, Singapore US discusses order of operations in 5A. According to the pdf posted earlier, standards introduced order of operations in 4a and will go over it again in 5a. If you check it again, you should be able to see the differences between the two easier.
  12. I'm honestly not sure how Math in Focus compared to US or Standards or how the latter two compare to each other. MiF is the Singapore approach, and if I had to guess, I'd say it probably fits in more closely to the US. From what I've read, I don't think there's a big difference between any of them.
  13. I know we did order of operations in Math in Focus 5A/5B this year, and I'm almost positive we discussed it last year in 4A/4B.
  14. We've used Math in Focus since my oldest (rising 6th grader) was in 1st. She'd used it in public school K, so we just continued. When we first started, I bought the TE, textbooks, workbooks, extra practice books, reteach workbooks, enrichment books, and the assessment book. Reteach, extra practice, and enrichment were totally not necessary. There are so many free resources out there for additional practice, that I just couldn't justify the money when the books largely went unused. I tried buying the home school kit with just the answer key one year, and I found myself missing the TE. I do like the assessment books, although I wouldn't say they're necedsary, either. The TE has a pretty good script, and I've found the lessons to be pretty easy to adapt to my kids' needs. I haven't used primary, so I can't give you a comparison. We've been pretty happy with MiF, though.
  15. I preordered my planner back in February or March, and it doesn't ship until April 27th. I'm dying over here! Lol
  16. I just bought some Frixion (are they pronounced "friction" or "fix with an r + ion"??) pens yesterday. I've also heard some good things about papermate's erasermates, but Walmart was out of them at the moment. Frixions will serve a purpose, although I won't be using them for schoolwork or planners. I do a lot of pre-planning in various notebooks, and they'll work great for that. They write smoothly and erase well. I was pretty impressed. Unfortunately, heat really does make the ink disappear. While I can toss it into the freezer, everything reappears, including all the things I'd erased and rewrote. Not cool. :( Does anyone have any experience with erasermates?
  17. Gah! I'm having the worst time trying to reply to a quote (and the correct one). Is virtual sampling completely free?
  18. We've used MiF for the better part of 5 years, but I've never used HMH's website. From what others have said, I think the only thing available is the TE (or maybe just samples of it) once you fill out an online form with your information. Hopefully someone will come along with personal experience.
  19. Yay! I didn't know if I was going to make it back on or not, considering I was having issues with passwords and email addresses. WTM's support is awesome!
  20. I just pulled up a YouTube video about Frixion pens because they sound really cool. People in the comments were talking about the message reappearing in the cold and disappearing on its own in the heat due to the way the ink is made. Does anyone have any experience with that?
  21. Count me as one who thinks that's too young to work independently. However, if you absolutely must, have you considered Lifepacs? I'm not really a huge fan of them, but it might be more in lines of what you're looking for.
  22. From the other thread: My plan for next year: Reading Comp - MGHT w/ novel lists Spelling - MGHT Spelling Grammar - Our Mother Tongue & MGHLA Write Source Grade 6 Writing - abbreviated version of Creative Writer Bk 1 for the 1st semester & assignments based off of MGHLA (personal narratives, compare/contrast, etc) for the 2nd semester. Research papers will be assigned from science, history, & civics and Write Source Grade 6 Math - AoPS Prealgebra Science - Apologia General Science History - History Revealed (Ancient Civilizations) Foreign Language - Spanish. We're starting a formal Spanish curriculum next year. We'll be using McGraw Hill Spanish Beginning Grammar. Art - Local art class or co-op Music - either continue with concert band or switch to guitar PE - Hiking/Backpacking/Wilderness Survival, swimming, tennis, softball, basketball, soccer, & regular calisthenics Independent Studies - Cake Decorating (I'm not really sure what this is going to look like, but she really wants to do it.) It's looking as though making this an actual thing is squashing her desire to do it, so I'm going to let this be on her own. Intro to Communications - After looking at some course syllabi for communications classes, I think I'm going to create my own which will involve public speaking (speech class at co-op), logic & debate (The Fallacy Detective, It Couldn't Just Happen, The Case for Christmas, Case for Creation), some listening comprehension skill work, and computer literacy (typing, computer presentations, email, etc). Civics - iCivics
  23. We're starting Beginning Spanish Grammar from McGraw-hill next year for 6th grade. I've got the book broken down into three sections, so it should last us through 8th grade. The plan is to add in some additional vocabulary and supplement with Duolingo. I will say that the book definitely takes some teacher planning, preferably from a teacher who is familiar with Spanish, to make it effective. It's not open and go IMO.
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