I do have the TG for Jade. I just took a peek, and it doesn't address there being a lack of poetry pages at all. It just skips over that section in the workbook answer section. Interesting.

I've used Book Buddy plus (for Apple) for the past year or so. I LOVE it! You can easily scan in books using their ISBN code on the back and the fields are pre-populated. If it's a book that doesn't have a scan code, you can just put it in manually. You can easily tag by genre and sort quickly. For example, we use Tapestry of Grace, so I tag my history books by TOG Year 1, Year 2, etc. And science books I tag with 'science' as well as 'nature study' or 'astronomy' etc. It backs up via Dropbox. Lauren :)

I'm new to Mosdos Press this year, and I'm using Coral and Jade. Jade has an entire poetry section in the student text, but no correlating student workbook pages. Maybe Mosdos just doesn't include poetry workbook pages at all? I'm just guessing, as I haven't seen Pearl in person.

We've done up to 2 levels in a year, but that was for my child who was a natural speller. My others need a slower pace with more repetition of the rules. For my kiddo that did the 2 levels in a year, we often did spelling 4-5 days/week. Like Grover, I didn't repeat the lesson the next day if he spelled the words correctly with tiles and then his dictated sentences were correct. (Plus he's not a kid that likes spiral review. He thrives on mastery.) Again, I could only move that fast because spelling came easily to him and we worked on it 4-5 times/week.

I only have the Coral in my hands...waiting on the Jade to arrive this week. So I'm not overwhelmed by it yet. :lol: Yes, I see that you were the OP for that Jade thread. I appreciate you coming back to share how you used it! Very helpful! -Lauren

That's a great idea to do a short story semester and I LOVE the Plan you linked to on TPT. Thanks for that resource idea! -Lauren

My 5th grader is using Mosdos Press Coral and my 7th grader will be using Jade. I've searched the forums (using Google, which seems to always work better), and I've only found a couple of threads with scheduling ideas. Have you used either of these? What did a typical week look like? I'd love a few more ideas in how to schedule and use these amazing lit resources with my kiddos! For anyone else that is trying to plan this curriculum, here's a few more threads that I found to help with scheduling: -- Mosdos Press Jade Schedule -- Mosdos Discussion for Fans and Current Users - there's a few ideas here

Oh my! What an assortment of options! Thank you all so much for responding. I can't wait to dig into researching these this weekend. Lauren

My 12 year old son (just started 7th grade) is a super creative kid. He's very interested in poetry right now - writing it and reading it. He is working through WWS 1 this year for his writing curriculum, however, I'd like to feed this love of poetry. While I will research different poets for him to read and ponder, I'd like to find him a writing curriculum to help him understand the basics. In fact, he asked if I had "any books that could help him understand and write poetry better." In my googling, I've found a few curricula that help with poetry memorization, but we already do that. And that's really not what he's looking for. Any suggestions?

:We are going into our 6th year of using Tapestry, and I tend to have a love-dislike relationship with it. :) I try to switch from it every year because it is so teacher-intensive for me, but there is absolutely nothing I've found that will keep us all on the same period of history while providing so many resources for me as the teacher. Part of the reason it's so intensive for me is because I had a pretty horrible public school education. My history and writing classes were non-existent. So I'm very behind in every aspect of homeschooling history and writing and literature. This might not be the case for you and you might not have to read every sentence of the Teacher's Notes. (Oh the TNs! I LOVE them for helping me have a conversation with my D student.) What I love about it: how well it's organized, the Teacher's Notes, that all of the books are laid out by stage, there's extras if I want them, we're all on the same time period of history. What I find hard: the PLANNING, figuring out what to use and not use (that buffet of learning is a blessing and a curse!!). There's the free 3 week sample, but I'd personally buy a 9-week unit so I could wrap my brain around it. Lauren

Thank you, Jess, for replying! I just ordered Coral yesterday, so I'm glad to read your response. I was planning on using it with the 7, 5, 3, and 1st (who is just tagging along but loves a read loud), and then having my 5th work on the student workbook. She's the one who needs to work on verbalizing her thoughts and narration in general. But the interactive notebook...that's a thought. My older two could definitely work on that simultaneously and start with the basics of literary elements. You've got my wheels spinning in how I can make this work. Thank you!!

Jess, what level did you use when you combined your kiddos? I'd love to combine mine, but I'm not sure I can based on their abilities. My 7th grader is a voracious reader and pretty advanced. A bright kid that catches on easily and can verbalize his thoughts well. He's done zero work with literary elements. My 5th grader is an average student and works very hard. She's a voracious reader as well, however, she has an extremely hard time verbalizing her thoughts on most any topic. (We're looking into having her tested. She's also dyslexic in spelling, but a great reader.) She's not been exposed to literary elements either. I'm considering using 6th grade (Pearl, I think) for both of them and combining for a lit discussion at the end of the week. Would it work to use Pearl with both of them, even though they have such vastly different abilities? And then there's my super smart 3rd grader.... Sigh. Lots of decisions to make!! ETA: Forgive me, OP! I wasn't intentionally trying to derail your thread. Apologies!

Jess, thank you for taking the time to leave your thoughts and experiences on the two programs. Super helpful!! I got BJU 5th grade for $15 (yes, $15!!) at our local homeschool store. But when I browse through it, it's not what I had hoped. There's not a whole lot of instruction with literary elements, which is what I so desperately need. I've looked at Mosdos over and over, and I feel like it's the right choice, coupled with the amount of instruction that *I* need as their teacher. But the price is so stinkin' high! I'm trying to find some wiggle room in the budget. :) Thanks again for your help!

Thank you, 2_girls! It sounds like R&S along with the WTM way was very successful for your kiddos. That's encouraging!

Even though I've researched the Killgallon books, I didn't realize that was the only difference. Thank you! Very helpful.

I really appreciate you taking the time to type out these details. It's incredibly helpful to me! I'll move on with the Killgallon yellow then. I really like your idea of retyping the sentences with working space beneath them. Smart.

I'm trying to decide between Mosdos and BJU Literature/reading for my 7th grader, 5th grader, and 3rd grader. Do you think one is superior over the other? Does one do a better job of encouraging deeper critical thinking? For either curriculum, do you use the reading book, Teacher's Guide, and workbook? Are the workbooks necessary? I'd love to hear your thoughts, comparisons, and experiences with either of these curricula. FWIW, while we've always read and discussed ample amounts of great literature in our homeschool, we've never used a formal program. I'm not able to teach the elements of literature without a lot of hand-holding help and need a laid-out-for-me curriculum. I'm currently listening to the Teaching the Classics DVDs, but am also looking for something structured for these grades. One more question - Is this too much for me to take on with these separate grade levels? Am I biting off more than I can chew time-wise? What are your estimates for time commitment from mom for this type of lit analysis and discussion with each kiddo? Thank you for any and all insight! :)

We eat this once every week or two. Literally 5-8 mins of prep time for the chicken. Oven Baked Chicken Thighs: - Wash chicken thighs and place flat in 11x17 pyrex dish sprayed with Pam. - Heavily salt & pepper and then season with ample amounts of garlic powder. Don't be shy with the seasonings. This is what makes it melt-in-your-mouth yummy. - Cook uncovered at 400 for 20-30 mins. You'll know they're done when you can easily stab it with a sharp knife. The knife should slide right in to several of the pieces. I usually serve this with Jasmine rice cooked in chicken broth (sooooo good) and green beans or steamed broccoli. Or a small salad if we have fixins in the fridge.

I wish I could use this type of approach, however, I need massive amounts of hand-holding with teaching writing. ;)

Lily, you are just an enormous encouragement! Thank you! I've just purchased SWB's writing talks for grammar and for logic. (I have a 5th grader to determine writing placement and also a 3rd and 1st.) I can't wait to listen to them! About R&S - yes, I feel like my children have had some degree of formal writing training since that is sprinkled throughout R&S. So all is not hopeless! :) I just looked back through his English from R&S 6, and it has a decent amount of outlining, which gave me some relief. I just wrote out the yearly plans for R&S 7 and there's actually quite a bit of outlining, paragraph writing, etc. While this is great, I want a more intentional, concentrated learning time. "You should know, since you mentioned your son is a natural creative writer, that she says creative writers sometimes behave like reluctant writers when they try to work through WWS. " Interesting! I will definitely keep that in mind. Thank you again for your gentle, helpful reply! --------------------------------------- ChiefCook - I'm sorry you were in the same boat with your 7th grader! My son can organize his thoughts fairly well, considering. It's my 5th grader that's the "throw words at the page" child. ;) I am planning to do WWS Level 1 and Killgallon's Sentence Composing. Did you use the Middle school level for Killgallon? I only have the Elementary (yellow) book, but can buy the Middle School if you think that would be better. I thought I read somewhere that Killgallon was quite advanced and one should use the Middle school level in high school. Did I dream that?? Possibly. How did you do WWS 1 with Killgallon on a weekly basis? Did you do a loop schedule for them? Or complete one WWS assignment, then a Killgallon assignment? Thank you both so much for your help!! -Lauren

Hi there! My oldest son is 12yo and in 7th grade. While he has completed most of the writing assignments in Rod and Staff through the years, he has only completed 1 writing program (IEW's SWI-A) and that was a year and a half ago. We have 5 children (the baby is 4 months), and I work part-time so writing is that one thing that always got pushed to the back burner. But THIS is the year of writing for my 7th and 5th graders!! I feel like I've squandered a lot of time with him in terms of his writing capabilities and my goal is to fix that in a big way this year. I have read through the entire TWTM 4th edition, see my many mistakes and failures as my children's teacher, and want to start fresh. So - if your 7th grader had never completed a formal writing program, where would you start? Just as background, my rising 7th grader is a bright boy who catches on quickly. This kid has an amazingly creative brain and his creative writing is nothing short of fabulous. He has an excellent grasp of English, grammar, and spelling, and enjoys working with words. He also isn't much of a self-starter and lacks motivation. I have to prod...a lot. ;) After many long hours of research here on the WTM forum, I'm leaning towards WWS Level 1. Would this be a good starting point? I also am intrigued with the idea of CAP's W&R and especially Lost Tools of Writing. Yes, I realize these programs are all different birds, so to speak. I'm open to any and all suggestions!