MiddleCourt
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Posts posted by MiddleCourt
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20 hours ago, Ellie said:
Neither of my dc needed much formal grammar instruction. We did not do diagramming. Both write well, and did well in college.
Daily Grams is intended to be review, not the primary instruction, which is why it repeats, or reviews, each year. That's what Easy Grammar is: the primary instruction. My younger dd did Easy Grammar when it was first published; DG had not been written yet, so that one year of EG, when she was 11ish, was pretty much her whole formal grammar instruction. Personally, I would say, at the most, to do Easy Grammar Plus next year and call it good. Of course, EG doesn't cover all the things that CLE does, so you'll have to find other things to do that.
We did use Easy Grammar one year when he took an outside language arts class. It was overkill for me. He likes Daily Grams and asked to do it in the past, so I obliged because he knew the basics of the 8 parts of speech, capitalization, etc. I added in CLE this year to get some practice with diagramming. I feel all over the place with his grammar instruction. When I reflect, I think I just added in diagramming so I can have assurance that *I* taught them properly, just like I taught the cursive even though others may not anymore. But I need to determine what the end game is there. (As an aside, I already only use CLE for their grammar and we skip the spelling and writing).
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In trying to determine my rising 7th grader’s curricula for next year, some questions about grammar have occurred to me. I’d love anyone’s input, especially moms of older kids and/or graduated kids.
Do you do grammar every year? A more intensive year of grammar? Do you find grammar needs a lot of repetition or do they typically need to be reminded yearly what to capitalize and what a possessive noun is? Do you find sentence diagramming necessary? Was diagramming ultimately a net positive in their education or did it really matter if they knew how to diagram a complex sentence when it came to high school writing?
My 12 yr old likes Daily Grams. I switched him this year (6th) to CLE language arts. I find it to be more thorough but my son drags his feet so much that he is only on Light Unit 2 in April. He’s asked to return to DG next year but I don’t know- I looked at samples and it appears to be the same things he’s learning over and over. DG also doesn’t diagram sentences so it got me to wondering about the weight of diagramming. I’m not necessarily looking for advice on what to do with him, just curious about what others do and how the nitty gritty of grammar plays out in the end.
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I have used G+C primer and owned the MP enrichment guide but didn’t use it. They are both very sweet. I wish I had been able to use the MP guide as well but I got both curricula for my 3rd child, and when she was in Kindergarten, I had two other kids in elementary school. I just couldn’t fit it all in.
With the G+C, I absolutely loved the manner cards and the nursery rhyme cards. They are premium quality and they were fun to learn. In fact, I still use them with my now 2nd grader for Copywork. I like how classic stories and tales are scheduled out and the cute little story cards are included for each story (I used them for most but not all stories). The letter and number tracing cards were excellent quality. I didn’t use the music or art portion. If I had had a ton of time to dedicate to kindergarten I would’ve used them.
The MP guide, if I can recall correctly, isn’t as robust in terms of what it comes with. I think a book or 2 are scheduled weekly and then you take a deeper dive into vocabulary and themes related to the book. The vocabulary and author info and such was a bit more than my kindergartener could handle. This would have been perfect to use for my oldest when I was only homeschooling one child, or with a child much younger than siblings.
MP also has a 1st grade enrichment guide, so if you decide on G+C, you can still do an enrichment guide in 1st.
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51 minutes ago, countrymum said:
It's a fair amount of reading but my dyslexic did fine with it. It is a good ramp up into Wiles Atomic Age. It has a lot less vocabulary than atomic age and the readings are easier. The mineral book he found dull. I thought it was a good overview of all elementary science and bridge to middle school science.
"Too much reading" would depend on what your expectations for upper elementary science are. I think it's appropriate. Also most books are well illustrated and interesting. Science isn't always about stuff you love. Do you have any specific questions?
It’s been on my radar for awhile. We’ve been pretty casual with science, mostly doing nature study. I’d like to move my older two into something a little more formal and this seemed good. I was all In until a review said it was too much reading. My daughter hates reading on her own but loves being read to, so now I’m unsure. Thank you for your input, it was helpful.
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On 2/13/2024 at 1:48 PM, countrymum said:
Science Exploring What God has Made from Simply Charlotte Mason (I love this science course from them. Oldest did it a few years ago)
Some of the reviews say it’s way too much reading. I’m really interested in it though. Can you give me any insight into this curriculum?
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5 hours ago, AnneGG said:
And then they ask for a tip!
I had a free trial for the Panera Sip Club. I usually just run in and order my cup at the kiosk because it’s faster than the drive thru. Yesterday the self serve kiosk asked if I wanted to leave a tip! It’s a self serve coffee station!
I ordered a Christmas present online (tote bag) and when I paid it asked me if I wanted to leave a tip. Ummm for who?! That was a first and hopefully a last.
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I leave my 12 yr old at home often when I go run errands. This week I had an appointment and left him with a stack of work. He doesn’t get through the whole thing but will work through the things he can easily do himself and then waits for me to come home and help him with other things.
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Can you start a nature group? Even if you could just find two or three other families to do it with, it’s worthwhile. We were in one when my kids were younger and we’d go two or three Fridays a month on a hike or even just to a park. It requires very little planning and you don’t have the headache of finding a place to rent, teaching the class, etc. that you do in a co-op. And it’s fun!
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The people I know who homeschooled pre-covid typically seem more interested in piecing together curriculum that best works for each child- they’re much more traditional in their homeschooling approach. They *chose* homeschooling, for whatever reason, but the reasons tend to be based on interest in homeschooling and the belief they can give their child a superior education.
Post covid homeschoolers I know tend to be very different. I’m painting with a broad brush here, but most don’t seem interested in the actual homeschooling part. They just don’t want their kids in public schools. A PP said it perfectly- they’re public school refugees. But they haven’t adopted a homeschooling mindset. They drop their kids off at every program they can find and are out of the house most days of the week. These tend to be, but not limited to, parents of young kids who weren’t in school yet when COVID hit.
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This isn’t for my own kids, but for a friend’s situation. I’m curious if you have ever seen phonics done well in a co-op or hybrid/university model setting school. What curriculum have you seen that can be successfully used in a classroom 2 days a week and at home the rest of the week? Most curricula that is written for the classroom feels clunky at home, and vice versa for homeschool curricula. I’m wondering if Explode the Code may be an option? Anyone tried it in a group setting?
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My oldest was an early and intuitive reader. I was given the good advice to fill in phonics gaps with spelling. I think that’s perfectly acceptable! Like PP said, read good books and do spelling and I think that will be perfectly fine for a 7 yr old.
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From your previous posts, you seem to be searching for different curricula and methodologies to be a sort of panacea to your homeschool struggles. From a different perspective, have you considered that you may have a *systems* issue?
My kids are very similar ages to your kids, and we went through a very stressful few years early on in our homeschooling (mainly due to outside issues, but it really impacted our homeschool and it often felt chaotic). I also switched curricula many times to find some relief. I finally realized that life felt unmanageable and stressful because I didn’t have effective systems in place that would help us succeed. And while there are of course struggles that come with the nature of homeschooling multiple children, our days have more peace and also, importantly, I have much more peace about the effectiveness of our schooling.
When I say systems, I mean routines and expectations. My kids know what they can do when they first wake up (no devices of any kind AT ALL, our day will be ruined if I allow them prior to school). Do you have an early riser or an eager learner? Work 1:1 with them while the other kids are still waking up or getting ready. We also have a morning time system, where we all gather together to start our morning off. Do you do this already? You can set the tone for your day and get group learning in. If your kids are all close in age, you can do Bible, history, nature, science, etc. together during this time. You can always have the older kids do some more reading in their individual work. Then we have a system in place where my kids then complete their checklist for their individual work (I do still work with them on most subjects, but they can look at their checklist and know what they can do alone and what they need me for). The kids cannot do XYZ until they’ve finished their checklists. This is school and they have a responsibility to finish it before running off or getting on a device. (It doesn’t have to be every subject every single day, I make it manageable for them to complete). It has made our days much smoother.
There is also a place for tweaking curriculum. If you are trying to be a CM purist, that can be difficult if you have many kids or your kids can’t do a lot alone. And it’s ok to not do it like the purists say to. You like read alouds and living books? Great- do that part. You’d rather do more structured writing than you’re currently doing with CM methods? Then switch that part to something that serves your child better. If Memoria press was too dry but you like their geography, just do that part from MP.
Also- I think it would be helpful for you to figure out what you want for your son’s education in the few years he has left until high school and go from there. Do you want him to be a strong writer? Focus on writing in 7th and 8th grade. Or whatever your goal is for him to know before high school, work on that. Make it manageable.
And finally, leave margin for you and your kids. It’s ok to say no to extracurriculars. You have posted about them and they are obviously a high priority for you, so you will have to decide what is worth giving up so that you have time for them because you cannot do it all. It’s simply not possible. My family’s “system” when it comes to sports is that we won’t do club sports or anything with a huge time and money commitment when they’re young and in elementary school. It’s worth the peace it brings to our life. Best of luck, I hope you find peace in your decisions.
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6 hours ago, countrymum said:
I have SCM middle ages already and used it a while ago. The spine if wonderful! I just can't do family history now (we have 6 kids) and I never got the notebooking/ written narration and hands on added in. There are narration cards for the spine and novels by age just not really and hands on stuff. I like the drawing and Diana warring CDs scheduled in HOD. The guide is pricy though.....
I like SCM book choice really well though
That’s good to know about SCM! It sounds like a perfect option for making it as simple as you want, or adding other things to make it more involved. I originally thought it looked kind of boring but it may be what I want for next year.
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3 hours ago, countrymum said:
I am planning on Heart of Dakota Resurrection to Reformation for my 8th and 6th graders next year. We will not use the whole guide. I have grammar, math, and science that I already like. I am using the notebook pages for my one who is excited to have pretty pàges. I will just modify the assignment if necessary for the other one. He already keeps a history notebook and book of centuries.
I can add in as many read alouds and assign as many extra books as I want. Doing it this way gives them consistent history on their own that is not just reading, and I don't have to plan everything. I do tweak though;)
Your style sounds very similar to mine. I love HoD! We used Creation to Christ last year but we did skip a lot that I didn’t think it was worth it to buy RtR. I’d like something with more novels in it. (I know I can add but I'm feeling tired and just want it scheduled) But I will keep it on my list.
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4 hours ago, Nichola said:
I haven’t used any of these but just wanted to throw out the suggestion that you could take the elements you like of each curriculum and create your own.
2 hours ago, El... said:I combine that book with the people list and primary sources list from TWTM, sync them up chronologically, and go nuts on the library catalog.
This is what I have always done; I have a hard time sticking to a guide because I feel like we’re missing out on other good stuff. The downside is sometimes we then get bogged down. Maybe I just need to realize that there’s no way we can get to all the good books. We love history here so we dedicate probably an unbalanced amount of time to it.
I think the February blahs are having me feel tired and burnt out and so a guide where everything is done appeals to me. I’m also thinking a guide will help keep me on track to make more room for other things I want to incorporate, like logic for my oldest and more nature studies.
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We’ll be studying the Middle Ages next school year and I’m trying to narrow down my choices. The problem is there are so many different curricula out there for this time period and I’m having FOMO 😜. Kids will be in 3rd, 5th and 7th. I’m directing the search for the older 2.
Here are my options so far, if you have used any or have any that you loved please chime in!
-Beautiful Feet Medieval History for the Intermediate Grades: I already own the updated version released last summer. Tons of beautiful literature. But it doesn’t necessarily have a clear progression (imho) and I always kind of lose vision on whether it’s a history or lit course. My middle loves stories but absolutely hates reading to herself and won’t do it, so I’ll have to read all the books to them. (Which I love doing and we spend hours reading daily but it leaves little time for other things I’d like to do)
MFW Rome to Reformation: looks so thorough and has both literature and hands on activities. I love the inclusion of biblical history and the early church. In our homeschool, we typically will take our time to study a time period or topic and read a lot of books. It’s been pretty relaxed and RtR seems to kind of race through the Middle Ages because there’s so much to cover. We most likely wouldn’t do their science or Bible though.
Simply Charlotte Mason Middle Ages: inexpensive and well laid out. I am a book junkie and feel like we may be missing out on lots of the good historical lit bc it seems to go slowly through the lit recommendations. But it might be nice to have the room to explore other subjects more in depth.
So, please let me know if you have used any of these and what you think! Thanks!
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It is not weird to notice beauty in the world, including people. It’s weirder not to notice. I also wouldn’t find it creepy, strange, or leacherous if a man had noticed a woman’s beauty. You are normal.
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Would they listen while you read aloud to them? You could read while they’re researching on their laptops. There are so many different dog novels, but you could easily read any fun middle grade novel. My kids are similar ages and I still read aloud to them daily.
Maybe you and your oldest can listen to the Blurry Creatures podcast together. The early episodes are mostly about cryptids- they later get into theology of cryptids, nephilim, etc, which is also super interesting. It’s a really popular podcast and is geared toward adults so it wouldn’t be a chore for you to listen to with him. 😉
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1 hour ago, kbutton said:
I don’t think that splitting kids up for play dates is always inappropriate or bad. The homeschooling community is one of the few places where I’ve seen it frowned upon, and I don’t know if the other family homeschools.
I think that’s just because if playdates happen during school hours, all the kids have to come. Who’s going to watch the uninvited kids? I don’t think it’s specifically a homeschool thing. If someone invites one of my kids over to play, I’m happy for them to go by themselves. But if mom wants to hang out with me too, all my kids are coming.
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Oh, and to address the issue of having to stay on track and that’s why you pulled him to begin with….this is an inevitable negative to the hybrid model. You can’t get around it if you decide to pursue this school. However, I think the teachers at these places are more understanding (in general) and have more freedom to be flexible with expectations because they’re not a public school beholden to state standards and testing. So while the pacing and expectations are there, it could not be as impactful as at a typical al school.
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I used to work at a hybrid school. Ultimately I left and my children didn’t return because it’s not the way I wanted to homeschool. I value choosing my own curriculum and topics based on my children’s needs, so this was not the educational setting for me. However, that being said, I do think these schools meet a need and appeal to a certain niche of people- mainly, those who work but don’t want their child in a traditional 5 day a week classroom setting. The biggest hurdle is shifting your paradigm about what homeschooling is and accepting that this can be a valid form of it. Homeschooling purists (of which I was one) would call it not really homeschooling but I have come to realize- THAT’S OK! Sometimes it works out that mom isn’t a SAHM who can dedicate all her time to homeschooling but the child still needs to be out of a traditional school. If it meets the needs of your family today and works for you now, do it and reevaluate at the end of the year for the fall.
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38 minutes ago, ***** said:
I only recently learned about 'chillin' from the hive (I think). I had no idea of the connotation, so I googled the saying and realized what it meant. I have young 20 year olds that went to college, and I wonder how many times I've told them to just chill (as in don't get hyped over nothing, but I never heard them snicker about my comment). Or maybe when I asked what they were doing for the evening and they would say they were chilling with friends and now I wonder if that's what was going on
It’s specifically “Netflix and chill.” Telling someone to chill out or saying you’re chilling with friends isn’t the same.
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4 minutes ago, Murphy101 said:
Wait. The words or the acronym?
It just said “it’s considered to be vulgar.” The words clearly are, but I never considered the acronym to be and I wouldn’t bat an eye if someone used it in conversation. And I consider myself to be fairly genteel 😉.
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5 minutes ago, MiddleCourt said:
I’m from California and BFE is common to say. Although now that I think of it, I don’t hear many people outside my family say it. 🤷🏻♀️My mom used a lot of colloquialisms growing up that none of my peers seemed to know. I use it to mean something way out of the way or in the middle of nowhere.
Oh, and I always understood it to stand for bum f*ck Egypt. ETA I just read it’s considered vulgar and I had no idea. 🙊 I’m now wondering how many times I’ve dropped this word in polite conversation.
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Gentle + Classical vs Memoria Press Enrichment
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
We did read Everyday Graces. It was sweet but often a very short read. I think you could probably get away with not having it if you didn’t want to spend the money but it was nice to have. I did the manners and nursery rhymes during our morning time, so it was easier to implement and my older kids benefitted. I didn’t feel they were too old to be refreshed on their manners 😊.