I shared a few selections from my daughter's deck. Do a search for "Sparkle Homeschool."

I like Anki. It is a free computer program. The link is in my sig. I cut and paste whatever I want my kid to memorize and add it. No handwriting. No cards to shuffle around. It takes time to setup at first, but is super simple from day to day, and it is easy to add new stuff as you go.

Welcome to the club. DD and I have added "analyze the sentence" to our repetoire of car games. She'll come up with a sentence and then analyze it herself or ask me to analyze it. Recently she started challenging me to come up with sentences based on her description: e.g. come up with a sentence with four clauses and four prepositional phrases.

After a certain point in SWR there were too many words that were too easy for DD and the few that were difficult weren't useful at her age. Spelling Plus Dictation has only 1000 words, versus SWR's 2000, and I find the difficulty and pacing of the list a better fit for DD. SWR provides a sentence for each word, but these sentences are for demonstrating the word in a sentence, and they use words that have not been previously taught. Thus, these sentences are not useful for sentence dictation for young students. SWR does provide a few sentences in the "enrichment" section for some lists, but not nearly as many sentences as I wanted. In comparision, Spelling Plus Dictation provides 16 sentences and one paragraph for each list of 15 words.

I think that Island Level students should be ready to move beyond copywork and dictation. However, that doesn't mean they have to write stories. You don't have to do all the writing activities to get the full MCT experience. There are other, non-story writing activities in each section of Sentence Island that emphasize the concept that you can use instead. The next level writing book, Paragraph Town, even drops the "write a story" assignments. While I agree with picking an MCT level based on your child's writing level, I don't think that the "write a story" assignments are a good example of the type of writing for Island Level. In most of the other writing exercises the child writes a handful of well thought out, unrelated sentences. I don't think that skipping or adapting the "write a story" or "write a poem" assignments equals "rushing a child through the levels."

I think I posted to your other thread. Here's a bit more about my experience using SWR and Spelling Plus Dictation. My DD is a natural speller, but I didn't know it until after I did spelling with her for a while. And I like your phrase "becoming a natural speller." I started with SWR and then moved to Spelling Plus Dictation. I started SWR with DD when she was in kindergarten and already reading well. It took me a while to figure out SWR, but eventually it was open and go, except for coming up with dication sentences. SWR gave DD a great foundation with the phonograms and spelling rules. I also threw in syllable types from AAS. I still refer to the phonograms / spelling rules / syllable types when DD wants to know how to spell a word or when sounding out an unfamiliar word. I have absolutely no regrets starting DD off with SWR. However, eventually I got burned out creating with dictation sentences and as we advanced in the lists there were too many words that I didn't feel were worth teaching to DD. So, I switched to Spelling Plus Dictation.

I loved it for my first and I'm in the process of using it for my second.

You know your child best, but at least for my DD, she took comfort in knowing that her dictation sentences contained only words that I had already taught her. I think it would have been a bigger downer for her if she *thought* she knew how to spell everything and then it turned out she didn't. BTW, DD went through a phase when she got upset if she got any words wrong. During that time I made a big deal of how many words she spelled correctly, praising each correctly spelled word, and saying nothing about the misspelled ones. Once she finally correctly spelled a troublesome word, I'd make a big deal praising her for learning that word. Eventually she got over her anxiety about misspelling words. In Beth's thread I put a link to my blog post about how I used SWR. Here it is again. At the time of the post I was doing 5 words per day, but I started out with 2 words per day. http://lettersandcorrespondence.blogspot.com/2009/02/spell-to-write-and-read.html

Here's an old blog post of mine where I describe how I used SWR and came up with dictation sentences. http://lettersandcorrespondence.blogspot.com/2009/02/spell-to-write-and-read.html

I think that both studied dictation and blind dictation have their places. I suspect that blind dictation is easier with a natural speller, and that studied dictation is better for a struggling speller. Blind dictation is more than just a test. It also provides practice thinking through words in context, and it more closely mimics how we spell in real life. When DD was younger I chose blind dictation for her. I pre-taught words and did copywork. Then I gave her dictation using all the same words but in different sentences. I think that it would have been too hard for her to pick out which words she knew versus which ones she didn't at that age. She also wasn't mature enough to tell when she had studied a passage enough to take the dictation. Also, please note that although several different spelling programs claim to include dictation, the amount (words, sentences, or paragraphs), type (all pre-taught words vs. some unfamiliar words), and frequency (daily, weekly, etc.) of dictation is different in each program. I started with SWR. SWR has mostly word level dictation with the occassional sentence thrown in the enrichment section. It also provides sentences that you can dictate, but they aren't really designed for the student to write the entire sentence. If you want regular sentence level dictation, you'll have to make up sentences yourself. I now use Spelling Plus Dictation. It provides dictation of multiple sentences per day, plus a weekly paragraph dictation. All words in all sentences and paragrahs are pre-taught or level appropriate, even for beginning spellers. Words are reviewed from lesson to lesson. Spelling Plus Dictation lends itself best to blind dictation. I am considering using Spelling Wisdom in a few years. Spelling Wisdom lends itself best to studied dictation. Although it is divided into levels, it includes some words that are very difficult to sound out even in the beginning of the first level. It also tends to have more complex punctuation, which I feel are advanced for the spelling level. If dictation is important to you, be sure that you're getting the type of dictation you want from the spelling program you want. If you want blind dictation, watch out for programs that sneak advanced words in their passages. If you want to do studied dictation, check that you understand and can explain the punctuation.

:iagree: If you start dictating early with very simple words you can gradually build it up. Dictation has lots of benefits beyond learning or practicing spelling. It can serve as handwriting practice. It can provide capitalization and punctuation practice. It builds up those little hand muscles for more writing down the line. I started dictation with my DD when she was 5 years old and in kindergarten. She did dictation every school day. I started with two words per day. I pretaught all spelling words. Now, two years later, she can take a paragraph from dictation.

I started MCT back in December, so it's been 5 months for us. I used Island level with an accelerted first grader, so we went very slowly. Even though we had to go slowly, I still think that it was a perfect fit for us. We started with Grammar Island and mixed in bits of Music of the Hemisphere. We did a little bit each day, from whichever book I felt like. Then halfway through Grammar Island, we started Practice Island. We started Practice Island doing only the first line of analysis, then as we finished each section in Grammar Island added a new level of analysis. We have Sentence Island and Building Language, but have not started either yet. We just finished Grammar Island. I have seen some improvement in DD's writing but I don't know how much of that is due to MCT. The main benefit is that MCT has given her the vocabulary that I need her to have so that I can discuss her writing with her. I think that the main reason I haven't seen more improvement is because most of her grammar / writing problems are Town level problems. We didn't do any testing. Next year we will continue with Island level. Whenever we finish Island level, we will start Town level. In anticipate of that event, I plan on building up DD's writing by doing lots of quickwrites / freewrites. If she isn't quite ready for the writing in Town level, I might have her think through the writing process by doing sentencing combining exercises based on one of my old college textbooks, but adapted for her age. I find it amusing that everyone who replied to this thread has been satisfied with MCT, and most have been very satisfied. Although I suppose that if someone didn't like it, she wouldn't have kept at it for six months, and thus wouldn't reply.

If your son has trouble writing clear sentences, and you want an easy-to-use program with step-by-step instructions, I don't think that Writer's Jungle will work for you. Writer's Jungle doesn't have descrete lesson plans, and it is written completely to the mom. It also doesn't have an obvious progression of skills. I wouldn't use Writer's Jungle with a first grader, but you could certainly add lots of elements of the Bravewriter lifestyle with a first grader. May of the activities also can be done orally.

If you search the forums (the K-8 board and the accelerated board) you'll see that it is quite common for a younger sibling to tag along with an older sibling doing MCT, not to mention some younger kids doing MCT without an older sibling. MCT Island level is doable with a fluent reader and writer who happens to be 1st grade age. If you really want to use MCT with both kids, why not jump in and worry about what to do if you hit a wall when it happens? Even if you drop language arts completely for a while for your younger child, he or she won't be "behind" and will have plenty of years later to cover the material. I wouldn't use both MCT and IEW with a 1st grader. I think that their approaches conflict. On the other hand, MCT and WWE are very compatible. They work on different, complementary skills.

Did you start KISS with the first workbook? I looked over KISS and tried a few pages, before ultimately decided that it wasn't for us. (I so wanted KISS to work because it is free.) Although the goal and end result of KISS Grammar is very similar to MCT, KISS has a different way of teaching and a different scope and sequence. KISS has far more worksheets, and involves memorizing lists of words (verbs, pronouns, prepositions, etc.) more so than MCT. KISS also starts with parts of the sentence vs. the parts of speech. (For what it's worth, my DD struggled with parts of speech but, in comparision, flew through the parts of the sentence in MCT.) Could you keep MCT for your DD and switch back to KISS for your DS?

I'm assuming that you're using Grammar Island? I taught DD the parts of speech using Grammar Island. She could quote the definition of each part of speech, yet struggled to identify the parts of speech of specific words. She couldn't tell the difference between a noun, a verb, and an adjective when she started Grammar Island. I went though the book *really* slowly and made sure we discussed everything I could think of on each page until DD understood it. The parts of speech really didn't fall into place until after we started doing Practice Island daily. DD still makes weird mistakes when identifying the parts of speech. She has an especially hard time with prepositions and conjunctions. But I'm amazed at how far she's come. Here's some things I've done to help DD. When DD couldn't tell the difference between nouns, adjectives, and verbs, I made a little chart with three columns, one for each of those three parts of speech. I wrote different words on slips of paper and had her place the word in the proper column. I discussed how a "swimmer" does the action of swimming but is really a person, so it is a noun, not a verb. A "girl" is a person, but "girly" describes something, so it is an adjective. Whenever DD makes a mistake or doesn't know, I talk her through the different parts of speech and the definition for each one. I don't tell her the answer. When she comes up with a new answer (right or wrong), I have her explain how it fits the definition for that part of speech. We went through the book page by page and I helped DD make a "cheat sheet" listing all the parts of speech, their definitions, and anything else she thought would be useful in identifying them. DD can refer to the cheat sheet whenever she wants. For adjectives and adverbs, I have DD say what they modify. If a word doesn't modify anything, it can't be an adjective or adverb. For conjunctions, I have DD say what it joins. If it doesn't join things of the same type, it can't be a conjunction. Would it help if you analyzed the sentences on paper instead of on the board? You could print two copies of the sentence on two pieces of paper. That way both kids could analyze the sentence independantly. If his sister is analyzing half of the sentence, he's missing out on half of the practice, and is likely discouraged by her ability. Also, are you using the worksheets in the teacher resources in the back of the book? They also help. The "storymaker" exercises are fun, but I don't think that they do much to show comprehension. It is also possible to enjoy the stories without fully understanding them. BTW, there are 8 parts of speech. :001_smile: Sorry I could't make this reply more coherent. Hang in there.

If you do a search on the general board, you'll find lots about Miquon. You could use either Miquon or RightStart as a full curriculum, or as a supplement. I'm using both together and I'm not sure which is supplementing which. The two programs are very different in day-to-day life. RightStart is fully scripted. Miquon is very free-form. RightStart has a heavy emphasis on place value. Miquon has a heavy emphasis on performing operations on numbers. I think Miquon is so inexpensive because it is just 6 workbooks, 3 teacher books, and non-exclusive manipulatives. It was also written several decades ago. All of the books, except for the Lab Sheet Annotations are very slim. Miquon doesn't use many manipulatives, mostly just Cuisenaire rods, which are inexpensive. On the other hand, RightStart has thick books and lots of manipulatives, and was written much more recently.

Are you envisioning strictly local face-to-face meetings? What about online seminars or phone/email consultations? A single meeting or a series of meeting? Something different for every family? The one thing I really would like to see is how skills progress, and all the little transitions, without it being tied to age. That way, I could focus on where my child is in the continum without thinking about her being ahead or behind. E.g. the full progression from forming letters to writing full blown essays, including how to transition from one stage to the next. How can I tell when my child is ready to start copywork? How and when do I start weekly essays and what should I expect to start off? Or the progression from counting to calculus, including how to tell if your child is ready for algebra (again, regardless of age). My kids are young, but I like to see the big picture to make sure that what I'm doing with them fits the big picture. (I also have an asynchronous kid.) :iagree: :iagree: :iagree: I also like the book idea. It wouldn't have to be fancy. You could start by gathering up all the posts you've already written, arrange them in a way that makes sense, and maybe flesh it a few spots, then push it out with Lulu. If you want formatting, page layout, or editing help, let me know, I'd love to go over an advance copy. That sounds a lot like Cathy Duffy's book. Yeah, I remember Julie Bogart offering it one time but it was really expensive and I haven't seen her offer it again. If you had samples, they could be *used/written in* samples. You could probably pick up consumed books inexpensively to have as samples (vs. new books). :iagree:

I did warn DD, but she still got upset when for screen after screen, she didn't understand the question, let along being able to figure out the answer. She had never even heard of division, fractions, or place value beyond tens before, yet it still asked multiple questions on each of these topics. I think that the test didn't "adapt" to my daughter very well since it brought up these topics, even though she had clearly not mastered other, simpler skills (like the 25 > 19 example I gave in my previous post). Definately replace at least the reading/math lesson for the day. When we did the testing, we didn't do any other school for the day. I think the DORA test adapts itself to last about an hour no matter the skill level of the kid. DD has taken the DORA test twice (in different years). Both times it took about an hour, even though she was at different skill levels. Another thing to keep in mind is that you can take breaks in the middle of the test, or even spread the test across multiple days. Sorry, I wasn't clear. Yes, there are different skills tested: reading, spelling, reading comprehension, etc. However, for each skill, the question format is the same. For example, on several sections the computer says a word and has the child pick the written word. It started with easy words and then the words got harder. Even with the hard words, DD still understood what she was supposed to do: e.g. pick the matching word. For vocabulary, you pick the picture that goes with the word, and the words just get harder. For spelling, it says the word and has the child spell it. It didn't bother DD, and sometimes she didn't even notice, when she picked or typed the wrong answer. This was a big contrast to the DOMA test when DD was presented with math questions where she had no clue what she was even being asked to do (and IMHO she shouldn't have even been asked the question).

Thanks! I like this idea.

:iagree: :iagree:

We do teatimes a la Bravewriter. I spread out a tablecloth and put some flowers on the table. We use nice dishes / cups but they don't have to match. We have a special drink and snack. It's really the sweet snack that entices my four year old. My older DD and I each find a book of poetry to bring to the table. As we eat, we take turns reading / reciting poems. We don't analyze the poems, we just enjoy them. I also require my two girls to be on their best behavior at teatime (e.g. no reaching across the table and tickling your sister until she snorts up lemonade).

From your first description of what she did it was hard to tell if she was doing any handwriting or not. I was suggesting that if she didn't know how to form her letters yet, 4 is not too young to learn. I agree that 4 is too young to be writing expository things. That's why I suggested handwriting vs. writing. Writing numbers and spelling words or copywork is certainly plenty of handwriting for a 4 year old, and more than most kids are ready for at that age.

What are "Laura's quick writes"?

I had my DD take the DORA and DOMA at the beginning of the school year. Both tests are supposed to adapt to the student. I like the DORA and found it useful. I didn't like the DOMA. For the DORA test, all the questions were the same type -- the words/text just got harder. On the other hand, the DOMA test asked questions in all areas of elementary math, even when it was widely inappropriate. (Why ask a question about division with remainders of a child that doesn't know that 25 is more than 19?) That said, the evaluation was helpful, but it wasn't worth putting DD through an experience that felt like she was setup to fail.