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Nancy Ann

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Everything posted by Nancy Ann

  1. I am Eastern Orthodox and am wondering if there are others who are similar using TOG? There are several parts of the curriculum that I am not sure what to do with, certain books and topics. I would also appreciate tips on how to weave eastern history into TOG's western history.
  2. UPDATING: Things are not working with combining Sonlight and WTM! The books are just not even close to what WTM suggest. The more I read WTM the more I really want to include more history type books with our history spine. My son is also just not enjoying the Sonlight books either. I think I want to have Sonlight type books as his free reading time or as a family read aloud. Otherwise, I really want to have his school reading be more pertaining to what we are learning in history. I think I am going to spend this week taking the suggestion to listen to SWB's audios. Also, I am putting up all the Sonlight books we haven't read yet for this year and am going to the library and get books suggested in WTM for history and literature. For next year TOG is back on the table. I do really like the geography and I am thinking especially when my son is at the dialectic stage the thinking questions and projects will help get more out of our studies. I can see already that as my son get's older just the basic oral narration will not be enough for a discussion about the books. I think I will need some help with that and the questions in TOG seem much better than those in Sonlight. The TOG questions seem more analytical. I am also thinking I won't be able to get through highschool without something like TOG. I will listen to Susan's audios and maybe that will give me the confidence to do discussion and writing on my own.
  3. Just updating: We have been starting school at 8:00 and go until noon lunch. This has been working really well. It gives us a chance to have a snack break and it allows us to take our time. Also, I have noticed that as I stick to our schedule and the curriculum I chose for this year things have gone faster and easier. I think in the past I have done so much changing out of curriculum or I see someone else doing something that looks really cool and so I completely revamp what we are doing. This always caused so many bumps. I use to do chores or other thing in the morning but now we have breakfast, I have my morning prayer time and we start school. All the other stuff waits until later or I tidy up the kitchen and house in the evening before bed.
  4. I am debating about TOG. We are doing really well just using the WTM book, but I think starting in 6th grade when my son will probably be in the dialectic stage TOG will be helpful. The reasons I think TOG would be beneficial instead of just pulling it together on my own using WTM book as a guide is: The geography in TOG is really excellent. You learn geography terms and landforms, current geography and learn geography history during the time period you are studying. The Map Aids are really great. I am still debating whether or not having their book choices and schedule would be helpful. I think I will end up assigning my own books. It would save me time and be very handy if I just succumb to the book choices for TOG. Starting in the dialectic stage I was really impressed with the accountability questions and thinking questions. They were more than just fill in the blank type comprehension questions. This is probably one of the biggest things I will need help with as my son gets older. On my own my son will read some great books and we will have discussions but I don't think on my own I will be able to really delve into the depth of these titles and really bring out the essence of these books. I am not big into heavy literary analysis but I do think some is good. Right now I just do narration with my son and he tells me what he has learned from what we have read. However, I know as he gets older these discussions will have to change and the questions, discussions and activities that TOG has will really bring out our history and literature studies. I think the writing is really great with TOG. I will still do outlining for history and will still do some dictation and narration summaries. The fine arts is a plus too. Not all of it will be crafty kind of stuff. Some of it will be art history and I really think that's a plus. The teachers notes are another big thing for me. I really dislike not being prepared and even though I appreciate that as homeschoolers we can learn along with our children, however, as my son gets older I really feel like I need to be a bit ahead of the game so to speak. It is interesting about completing the rhetoric part of TOG by 10th grade so they can take AP classes. My only concern would be the maturity to learn and read some of the heavier materials. I guess, I was thinking my child would only take one or two classes and that there would still be time to do other school. I took AP classes in my senior year. I think that is what they were called. I went to the local university and took 2-3 classes and still took some classes at my high school. The university classes were just basic intro college courses. I took English, Astronomy and Psychology and a few others I don't remember! Anyway, I think what I could teach my son at home with the classical education, reading the classics and studying history and using TOG will be more important and really give a good boost to his college education. I guess what I mean to say is the college courses were not great. Just reading textbooks, listening to lectures and taking tests. There was very little thinking required..only consuming and memorizing. I think the classical education offers much more than that. The rhetoric level of TOG certainly looks way more involved than that. So, I would rather have the quality of what I can do in our homeschool and not put too much emphasis on the AP classes. To me the AP classes are just experience. I really don't expect him to learn a whole lot. Maybe other people have had better experiences with the AP classes and maybe my experience was very different. Regarding some specific questions you have: You can organize your own schedule so if you want Tues and Thursday to be history and Friday projects, there is no reason you can't. TOG basically gives you a weeks worth of projects, books to read, assignments, discussions and you decide when and what you are going to do. I am not sure what others meant by the questions not lining up with the books. From what I have seen of TOG the questions and discussion and analysis all pertain to that weeks books. I think the questions and discussions are very involved and like I said earlier I don't think that is something I could do on my own. The students do not read the teachers notes. They are for the teacher. Maybe some parents do, but the teachers notes are for you so you do not have to read all the same books they are. So when you come together for your discussion they read the books and you read the teacher notes and than you can discuss. I personally would not have my child write out answers for the questions before discussion. I plan on doing the WTM way of having him write a narration summary. But either way, You can do whatever you like with TOG some parents may have kids read the teachers notes and write out answers for the questions and others not. It really depends what works for your family and what you think your child needs.
  5. At this age it's really hard to such a formal and workbook type curriculum. Now that my son is a bit older I can really look back and see that I really didn't have to do it that way. So my ideas have changed and now for these younger years I am not afraid to take a more relaxed approach. I use Five In A Row as my core curriculum for the younger years. To go along with it, you need a math program and a phonics or english program. So, it doesn't completely get rid of the workbook type programs with the math and english but Five in a Row livens things up quite a bit. You can choose a better math program. For instance we do Right Start Math which very rarely has worksheets and mostly uses games and hands on type ways of learning. However, for english I just use Rod and Staff, I have a hard time implementing some of the more creative language arts curriculum. I can't do ALL my subjects creatively because it would just wear me out!! So I just stick to a very solid language arts program like Rod and Staff and use Five in a Row and than Right Start Math. I also add in lots of reading and I use the Sonlight titles for Read Alouds and Readers. It all works very nicely together. When your kids are older you can add in a more focused science and history. Like Apologia for science and Story of the World for history. But for right now I would suggest, language arts, math and Five in a Row. Five in a Row is a literature based unit study. Each week you read one book and your read it everyday, it's like your weekly school book. The book titles are really wonderful children's literature. Than on each day you pick one or 2 or even 3 lessons from the manual to do. All the lessons for each book title is categorized into language arts, social studies, art, math application and science. It's very simple to use and it really breaks up the day from having to do the math and english (which is important and needed) Much can be done orally, the art lessons are absolutely wonderful, there are lapbooks you can get to go with some of the titles. Five in a Row also has a wonderful forums with very helpful people to give you more ideas to do for each of the literature titles. http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/Five+in+a+Row+Vol.+1/019808/1291847888-909754 You can purchase Five in a Row at Rainbow Resource Here is where you can read the message boards http://www.fiarhq.com
  6. I think for this age getting some paper that has writing lines on the bottom and blank on top for drawing a picture would be better. I have the notebook for Seas and Oceans and I don't think I could have used it for my son. At 5 my son was only copying 1 sentence. The notebook feels more like 3rd and 4th grade. My son is a 3rd grader now and I am still helping him write stuff in. In general I think notebooking is for older kids who have been doing copywork and writing for a couple years. Lapbooking is usually preferable for younger kids. There are lapbooks for Apologia but they are pretty pricey in my opinion. Also, at this age I will usually have my son tell me what he wants to say and I write it out on a small size white board and than he copies it onto the paper. I have been doing this for several years and now I am gradually having him do his own writing.
  7. Not really educational but this was my daughter's favorite toy for her 1st birthday and she still plays with it. http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2333039 Board books I think are great for this age. The best board books that I have gone through 3 of them because they get used so much and so much enjoyed are the ones by Matthew Van Fleet. One is called Tails and the other is called Heads http://www.amazon.com/Heads-Matthew-Van-Fleet/dp/1442403799/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1290540443&sr=1-6 Large wooden nesting blocks are a fav with my kids as well. I like the wooden ones as opposed to the heavy cardboard. http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Wooden-Animal-Nesting/dp/B00146LV70/ref=sr_1_cc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1290540550&sr=1-2-catcorr
  8. Your daughter may just be on the cusp of being too old for these books but I love this art book series and think they are great for all ages. http://www.amazon.com/Come-Look-Me-Animals-Art/dp/1565660137/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1290539641&sr=8-3 I think an animal encyclopedia is great. I would steer away from the Usborne First Encyclopedia because it's really small and for 6 year olds. I would think a nice big one from National Geographic or DK would be great.
  9. Starting to teach your child to read in K is probably the best thing for you to do. Some kids will take to it and learn fast and others may struggle a few years but it's a good time to start. A free program for teaching a child to read is Progressive Phonics. http://www.progressivephonics.com/ Lots of reading, you can probably have your child memorize short nursery rhyme poems. You can get the book "What your Kindergartner Needs to Know" from the library and it has a wonderful selection of poems and nursery stories. I suggest the curriculum Five in a Row for K-2. It's not free but it is very inexpensive. There are 3 manuals and they sell for $35 each from Rainbow Resource. You can do one manual a year. You can usually get the literature books from the library. Five in a Row with phonics and math is an excellent curriculum for K-2 in my opinion.
  10. The reason I did not move onto Beyond is because when my son started 3rd grade I just really felt we needed something more structured. For k-2 it didn't bother me that we were doing a variety of social study topics, science topics or language arts. But by 3rd grade I just really felt it was time to have things more orderly. I love FIAR but it always felt very scattered and that was fine for k-2 but it didn't feel right for 3rd grade. So we are doing fairly strict WTM method. I am planning a Beyond unit for the end of the year, since we school for 11 months and take breaks when we need, there should be 6 weeks towards the end that we can do a Beyond unit. I think it would be fun, I just prefer to really concentrate on the 3r's right now and I prefer to have some order to our history and science right now as well. So we will use Beyond as a supplement.
  11. The only reading on my own my son does is 20 minutes of free reading and 20 minutes of him reading aloud to me. I read our history books which are Story of the World and library books. I also read our science which is Apologia Exploring Creation. I find it hard to find books he is able to read on his own that are about the history or science subject. But I probably could look harder. It's my understanding that for most kids this age they are not yet able to read to GET information. They are still learning to read. I guess if your kid is an exceptional reader and can comprehend well than maybe it would be time to assign more reading. I would have to go through my WTM book again and see, but I thought more independent reading does not start until the second stage of the classical method. I believe that's about 5th grade.
  12. Your forgetting about us Eastern Orthodox Christians:) What we now know as the Catholic church today was the part of the church that was from Rome. There were actually many patriarchs or bishops from differing areas that were all united. Rome was just one of these areas. I understand your difficulty with history. I have similar problems. I have been happy with Story of the World and I use Truthquest history to get "living books" from the library. It seems a good combo. But, I don't consider all of history to be fact, much of history is very subjective and so I really appreciate The Well Trained Mind approach and teaching our children to read with discernment and critical thinking skills.
  13. I love FIAR! For our family it works great for the younger years. We rowed volumes 1-3 and some of 4. I really love the gentle learning and flexibility. When my son started 3rd grade it did not work as well for us. I wanted to go more indepth about subjects and found it hard to do that on my own. I had to get a lot of extra books and make up my own assignments and it was too much work. I also did not like the scattered feel of topics when my son was older. When he was younger it didn't really matter that we were learning a variety of science and history topics, it was just exposing him to lots of great stuff and it worked well. However, in 3rd grade I really wanted to have more organization to what we learned regarding history and science. I like studying history chronologically and I like spending most of the year for science on one subject like biology or astronomy. It is not a complete program, you do need to add math and some language arts skills like phonics, spelling and grammar. A math program of your choice and Rod and Staff or FLL would work very well with FIAR. When we were doing FIAR we did a separate language arts curriculum and math curriculum and than did FIAR as an additional subject. With FIAR you choose from the lessons. The lessons are organized by subject: langauge arts, social studies, science, applied math and art. You can choose whatever lessons you want but the general idea is to choose a subject for each day. So maybe Monday is social studies, Tuesday can be art, Wednesday language arts, Thursday science and Friday applied math. You choose whatever lessons you want to do for the subject. So on Monday your day would be language arts, math and FIAR social studies.
  14. Yep, I am thinking this too. We may try to start at 8:30. Thanks for all the input ladies. It helps to get an idea of what you all do.
  15. So we are sort of wimpy over here!!:lol: I have been a very relaxed homeschooler since my son was a Pre K and gradually I feel we need to beef it up and I am incorporating more WTM in what we do. It doesn't seem like we are doing too much I just think we are not used to it. Maybe I just need to give this routine some time. We have only been doing it for a few weeks.
  16. We start at 9 and finish by lunch. I am just homeschooling one son who is a 3rd grader. I really like to be done by lunch and have the afternoon for rest and play time or for park days with our homeschool group on Tuesday. It get's really tiring doing 3 hours of school all in a row. I try to break it up with reading aloud to him and doing a math game. I really think this is the only schedule that is going to work. I have tried in the past to do a little bit here and there throughout the day but it just doesn't work! Will we gradually get used to doing this much all at once and it won't be so hard after awhile or am I expecting too much. I am just concerned that he won't be able to learn well. He didn't seem to be as quick with his math as he usually is.
  17. Thanks so much for all the suggestions. I will be looking into these!
  18. Is there any suggestions for phonics for an older child. It would be nice to have something that would have a placement test so we don't have to start from the very beginning. I looked at Reading Relflex and I think the pious attitude of the curriculum would drive me nuts. I also want phonics. I know they say phonics doesn't work but I just want to stick to phonics. Anything out there?
  19. Pros Reduce the very negative influences in our modern culture Spending time with my children and really having a personal impact on their upbringing. I don't want so called "professionals" bringing up my kids. I also don't want my children growing up being peer dependent. My kids can grow up with an intact self esteem and confidence. I believe in our school settings kids are taught to just SURVIVE and not to LIVE. Academically the options are numerous and a child can have a top notch education. I believe homeschooling offers healthy and proper socialization. I don't think being amongst 35 same aged peers and 1 or 2 teachers is socialization. Cons It's really hard ( but wouldn't any choice be like working full time AND having kids. I think living a good life is hard no matter what you choose) I am constantly picking up the house, it just feels like a disaster zone because we are living in it all day long. I worry if what I am doing is right or good for my kids (This is what prayers are for and I don't know of ANY parent that doesn't worry about their kids like this. Feeling isolated. When I was working I had lots of interaction with other adults on a regular basis. Sometimes this was good and sometimes not. But, I do feel very isolated much of the time and I must make efforts to go out with friends or to do things. I am an introvert and so it is especially challenging. But again, I think every choice has it's challenges. My friends works full time and has two kids and she has no time to herself and feel hurried all the time. She hardly enjoys things she is so frantic. Regardless if you homeschool or not a mom is sacrificial and doesn't have a lot of her own time. My husband doesn't have a lot of his own time either and sacrifices much for our family as well. I think this is just part of making the choice to be a parent. I just really feel homeschooling allows me to raise my children in ways that I feel is good for them( academically, spiritually, emotionally and physically)
  20. Yep, that makes sense now! I do think they are very respectful and from many of Marcia's comments on the TOG boards she just seems really sweet and very smart. I certainly don't hold anything against them. I like what Jillian said about very "bold" comments. That's a good way to describe it.
  21. I will do my best but it's been a few years since I have used it and I no longer have the curriculum. Mostly this pertains to Year 2. I remember my husband and I having conversations about some parts of the notes being over the top. I mostly remember lots of opinions about God making things happen in this such a way or just in general talking about God's motives or reasons for doing things. I have always refrained from that type of speculative talk. In my own personal life I may talk sort of like that because I do believe God is involved and the Spirit moves and does all sorts of things in our lives. I am just not one to make those sorts of conclusions regarding history or broad topics or even other people like that. I think there was more to it than all this but like I said I don't have the curriculum to go back and look. I just remember having many conversations with my husband about it. Sorry
  22. Thanks so much this is really helpful. I think I really plan to much. It's something my husband has been very gently telling me for years!:glare: But he's right!!:001_smile: I think the time thing may be better instead of how many books. I remember when I was reading about TQ many moms suggested don't worry about the time so much. Just read the intro and choose some books and enjoy the books and when you feel you are done move onto the next.
  23. I have not used Rod and Staff long enough to answer your question about teacher prep. Hopefully someone else will chime in. I just wanted to say you don't have to give up the Sonlight books. I plan to still use the Readers. This way I get good books for my son to read and I don't have to go hunting for some. I can always add more for him to read if he finishes but atleast a good amount of readers are there for him. ETA: Whoops, I guess you already said you were going to do that!:tongue_smilie:
  24. Can you have her do fun things at the table? Like pattern blocks, puzzles, drawing, coloring, Kumon craft books, maybe other table type educational toys.
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