We've done all three years of Latin Primer-- what now?

Donna Young has a suggestion to try timed writing for fluency. I gave my son a notebook and gave him a prompt once or twice a week. We set the timer, and he wrote what he could in ten minutes. Sometimes my prompts are, "Tell me about what happens in _________ movie." Sometimes I ask a narration question from out history or literature reading. But doing these orally first really helped his ability to form a coherent response.

We read most things in the original (if it written originally in English). A few things--- like Shakespeare-- I try to find an adaptation first that has a similar cadence (liek Bruce Coville for Shakespeare) and some of the vocab, and then we transition to the original. When they ask for vocab, I explain about 90% of the time, and then the other 10% I ask what they think it means based on context... little by little, they're realizing they can figure a lot of it out.

We do a daily phrase along in our daily memory box, read familiar easy readers in both Eng and Spanish (e.g., Are you my mother?, or Green Eggs and Ham-- though watch out on the Seuss ones: he has so many made-up words and the rhyme scheme is done so well they're not exact translations) and try to piece together the translation. We use Rosetta Stone, which they can do independently. We like the Putamayo Spanish songs CDs, and we play Living Books CD games in Spanish. I think with it all together, they're learning a lot.

I used the activity bags with two of mine so far. They both LOVED them. They loved that these were self-contained. They could get them from the drawer without my help and put them away independently. They loved that they were self-checking... it was all about their own independent work. Definitely worth the set-up time.

I have loved many of these books-- both as a child, and as a parent-educator. Ones I particularly love: Ramona Quimby - then and now Harriet the Spy - loved this as a child, but I haven't revisited it yet. The Phantom Tollbooth - loved this book. Listening for Lions - my husband loves this so much he gave it to about seven friends last Christmas Robinson Crusoe- I've only read the original, and I think the language will be quite a jump from the other books for 6th and 7th The Outsiders - I enjoyed it a million years ago __________________

Wow! Things are starting well. Thanks for the reviews.

We do our memory verses, a hymn, read scripture together, and then the kids do their notebook work. Then we come together again for our read alouds (history, poetry, literature.)

We used Phonics Pathways for my oldest-- it worked, but was boring. For my second son and daughter, we've used explode the code plus study dog. They've loved both and really have internalized the rules... plus, both programs need much less of my input. The kids do much of it independently.

What about The Hungry Planet and The Material World? They're not true literature, but photographic + essay based books on a family in each of the countries chosen, with a photo/essay about what they eat each week (hungry) or own (material). I think it gives an amazing glimpse of the world around us in terms of how an individual family in that country lives.

I used singapore primary 1A through 5B without teacher's guides. But for 6 A and B, I found I was spending so much time doing my own work to do the problems myself, I was grateful for the teacher's guides then.:001_smile: Now we're starting their 7th grade one, and I'm totally grateful for the teacher's guide for the answers!

I use copywork as handwriting as well as grammar training. My boys especially will lose patience if I give them both. I think a little goes a long way.