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mmpmelmack

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Everything posted by mmpmelmack

  1. I have been waiting for a thread like this, it where I find all the good books! I never would have found the OUP history books without threads like this! I am finishing up a roman history unit for the end of this year, and a unit on plate tectonics/earthquakes/volcanos. For next year I am planning middle ages history with OUP, famous men and a few others, and in science he wants in depth on the human body ( based on how life works book), more geology ( starting point is the great courses the worlds greatest geological wonders) he also said more stuff about space, ( i think tjis will branch from the great courses our night sky, understanding gravity, and hubble lectures) and his first year on an FLL team. He is loving the great courses stuff, right now he is watching understanding Greek and roman technology: Greek and roman technology taught by a civil engineer. He is in love!
  2. Simply Charlotte mason would be a good option, almost all the books are at my library, and it can be used for multiple levels.
  3. Ds has been pretty consistent in math up to this year. He is 8 and started SM 4a in late October, we just did the last lesson today and it has been very hard on him. its like all his math facts have fallen out of his head, he cant seem to do remember how to add or subtract at all, even simple stuff like 3 plus 3. problem two he has started to add when he should multiply, and has started saying things backwards, like instead of 285 divided by 5 he will say 5 divided by 285. he does the same with subtraction, he will also say divided by when he is multiplying. I gave him the final test for MM 3 today and he did fine on everything except his multiplication facts. we have done MM multiplication 1 three times. I am not sure what to do now. should I do MM multiplication again? Should I do SM 4a again? should I back up and do SM 3a again? something else? should I keep going forward to SM4b and MM mulitplication1 at the same time? I have the tests for 4a on the way, should I do those and redo sections as necessary while we do MM multiplication again? I do not want to move forward just for the sake of moving forward. any advice?
  4. I read somewhere on the forums that when thinking about latin you should look at which high school level courses you want to use, and then work backwards using the same companies materials. since i knew we wanted to use Memoria Press for HS latin we choose first form for next year. ( DS will also be 4th grade, and is finishing up GSWL)
  5. Our library is small, and the selection is terrible, we go at least once a week. Here is a few funny? Things: there are no international geography books in the entire county system. Last week my son pointed out a book the librarian couldn't find on the shelf, in order to check out BOOKS you have to give your children permission, but they can use the unsecured computers all they want. My 8 year old has to have my permission every time to check out books from the yA section but not from the adult section. You can only renew once even if the book isn't reserved, or hasn't been checked out in years. The crazy librarian would prefer that my toddler run around the entire library rather then sit calmly on the desk while we check out. She told me to use. Stroller so next time I did, I made a point of showing her is was buckled tightly, she said see no problem, three seconds later dd was running through the library again. I was also informed once that children shouldn't come to the library, because they ruined the books! I used to love libraries, I miss a good library. We will soon be driving 90 minutes each way to use the big city library, as DS has finished the nonfiction in the children's section, and most of the YA too.
  6. Every time I print anything it replaces some of the letters with squares? Has anyone had this problem? Any ideas on how to fix it? TIA
  7. Sorry double posted this.
  8. [quote name="TheAttachedMama" post="5937898" timestamp=" Do you recommend that we set a timer? And then give them the option to finish the book/story if we are in the middle or just put a book mark in and pick it up the next day? And do you also think it would be possible for them to do the second reading session silently to themselves? Or do I need to have them read out loud to me for both sessions? Teaching two kids to read simultaneously can be tough sometimes. I have to listen to one read a story and then the other read the exact same story. I am almost tempted to buy TWO sets of every book and have them take turns reading pages. Yes, I would set a timer, and give the option to finish if they want. , and yes again, I would have them read whatever they want at the second session on their own. The second session is to love reading, not have to work at it. I would not have them reading much in content until it is below their reading level, it's no fun to have to figure out the words and be expected to learn the subject too. A little everyday will go a long way!
  9. How long can they read aloud now? I would start where they are and increase it 2-3 minutes a month until they are at 20 minutes. Then I would add a second session the first for at or above grade level and the second for fun reading at or below grade level. Then slowly increase both sessions until the first is 30 minutes, and the second is an hour.
  10. Glad to read this, I wanted DS to take some sort of test this year and and settled on the NME because of his love of Percy Jackson, he's read the books 3 times, he has also started picking up myth books at the library. I wanted this test to be light and fun, glad I picked the right one! Thanks!
  11. I am looking for an astronomy book that is similar in reading level and amount of content to Oxford university press's ancient times series. He has exhausted the library's kids section, but the adults are a bit much, we do not like the dk books, or anything that is little snippets of info. Any ideas would be very helpful. Thanks!
  12. DS does 30 mins of assigned reading, we alternate between something modern and a classic, all just above reading level. DS loves to read, and reads on his own often, upto 3 hours a day. we started last year at 10 minutes and built up from there. In december we will add 15 mins of non fiction too. Our goal is to go to 30 mins of non fiction by the end of the year and then in fourth up both to an hour.
  13. 36 weeks is a standard school year in the US. I think I remember you being from somewhere else?
  14. After a long unrelated discussion with a friend, I realized that iew would be the best fit for my son. The discussion was about our sons needing step by step instruction over and over in a structured manner to really learn a skill. So as much as I dislike the structure of iew I know my son willm appreciate it. We have used parts of PAL and bible heroes in the past, I always stopped because it felt so restricting to ME. It's what HE needs though, so we are going back to it.
  15. Changing my reply a bit due to some of your responses. Since cursive is something they have asked for I would would add it to your enrichment schedule. Also since you don't want to read during meals, I would add a circle time and do all reading aloud then, alternate history and science and bible and lit two each day. Or do all if the kids will sit for it, narrations can be done at this time as well. P.S. I should tell you that we used to know each other in real life. I am/ was a member of the apvillage, I moved to Texas five years ago. If you can't place who I am let me know!
  16. I would cut grammar and spelling. They both go quickly when reading fluently is accomplished. Then add WWE skills to your content time. Narrate after hist/sci/geo and have copywork or dictation to match that subject. If they know how to make all the cursive letters then use the copy work for practice. I would do something like this: 8 math 830 to 930 reading 930 to 10 content 10 to 1030 snack and read aloud 11 to 1130 enrichment 1130 to 1230 lunch clean up and bible. Done Maybe switch content and snack? Good luck!
  17. The best one I have found is lifeprint.com. I like the site and my son has learned a lot from it!
  18. We started early too because we plan on taking the latter half of September through after Christmas off. I am having a baby in oct, my inlays will be here for weeks, then we are going home for several weeks around thanksgiving, then it's Christmas. DS will still do math, Latin and Spanish reviews and his reading on his own, but I am not teching anything new duringnthat time. Our goal for the summer is to get through SM 4a, and half of our writing lessons. It's good too as it's super hot at the moment, and we have no desire to go outside!
  19. DS turns 8 in July, this was one of our goals for this year to increase writing stamina. I was more specific in that I wanted him to be able to write a paragraph per day. At the beginning of the year he did: One lesson in SM workbook Copywork twice a week Words from AAS and maybe a dictation sentence Half page from handwriting book GDI c twice a week Weekly he did a letter or paragraph Now he does the following: Lesson from SM workbook Copy work everyday,20 to 25 words GDI c page everyday AAS words, all phrases, or all sentences each day Fll 3 grammar lesson And he writes a paragraph a day on some topic. Our goal for next year is to make the paragraphs sound better with less prompting from me. I made monthly goals for increasing the writing, for instance on the handwriting book. One week I changed it to everyday half pages, then the next week I added one whole page and three half pages, the next it was two whole pages and two half, and so on. Then then next month I added more to AAS slowly bringing him to my goal. We got to the actual paragraphs about 6 weeks ago, and we started again with one a week, then two, then three, and finally we hit my goal for the year one every day. This was one of only two goals I had for the year, and the other was to increase our spelling abilities. They worked nicely together. I would gradually increase his writing one subject at a time.
  20. I have been doing this on my own. We are reading the secret garden, a chapter a dayish, each week I pick a sentence for copy work on day one, then on day two we find all verbs, nouns, and pronouns. Then day three we use it for dictation I plan to add diagramming on day four but we arnt there yet. We also have read about India, England, imperialism, and ghandi. I use these readings for narrations, and will move him into paragraphs this coming year. We also have a plant unit planned for later in the book. The basic plan is following with fll3 as a guide for me to teach grammar with our own sentences. So each month will bring new grammar work no matter what the book is. We also discuss things as they come up, like why was Mary so disagreeable? What caused her to be unhappy? Would that make you unhappy? And others like that. I should add that I don't plan anything at all, except which lit book we will read, and I don't pick that out in advance either, on Monday I flip through the latest chapter and write out a sentence. After we read and talk about the book I make a note in my iPad of any book topics we might want to explore at the library. For our plant unit I just pulled a lap book off of currclick. We will palnt a few things, and do a few experiments like several plants one with no water, one with no sun, and one with Botha nd see how they do. You might go search for 8fillthehearts threads on her unit studies, she does stuff like this all the time, and is where my inspiration came from! He also does math, spelling, and we do a fairly large morning basket together that includes Latin, Spanish, chess, artist, poet, and compsoer studies, history and science readings, and of course our literature book. Not all of those are on the same day!
  21. The midwife thinks I am having twins, I am completely in denial. However my new plan is to start 3rd grade now, and try to get in a good semester of actual lessons in grammar, math and writing. That way starting in September I can take off as needed. DS already has reading, science, and history that he docent need any direction for other than discussion which I can do anytime. I am actually more worried about my two year old then a baby (or two!). She is hard to school with now! The plan is to use review sheets in math nd keep writing on course, but no new lessons till I feel up to it. But we will start back up in Jan at the latest.
  22. I pull heavily from Circe, and yet i am an atheist. We see the beauty in nature without attributing it to a deity, I can know and believe it is wrong to murder, I can know and teach my children to help others, I don't see a need for a diety to tell me this, I know this as a person. My parents were atheist, they didn't teach me these things in context of religion, yet they knew as well. I find that Circe is easily applied to any system of belief or non belief. It is easy to take the principals of reading great books, looking at art and music, and stopping to teach from a state of rest into any context. I think that many Christians will have a hard time with that as they are unable to separate truth and beauty from their beliefs. That's ok, it's what works for them. I love listening to everyone talk about these principals even when some of it doesnt apply to me, it's so wonderful to be surrounded by women of such passion for teaching their children what truth and beauty is for them.
  23. We do sotw a bit different then most. We listen to the audio once or twice a year. Then each weekish at the library I pull up the AG on my iPad and I pull books from the next chapter, then during the week we read the extra books. I don't require narrations or map work, we don't do crafts. It works for us. We like the audio much better then reading the book a section at a time. We just listen in the car.
  24. I have been reading this thread and the other one with great interest. I didn't realize that this is what I was trying to do until I really read about it. Our goal is that our kids read well, write well, and think well. When I broke these goals down, we found that focusing on one part every year has lead to the results we are looking for. I think of it like spinning plates, in kindergarten we pent the majority of our hours work of school on reading instruction, with a small amount of handwriting and math and lots of good books, in first we kept the reading plate spinning and moving forward, ( he was already reading well), but concentrated on handwriting, with some math thrown in. This year we have concentrated on spelling while keeping the handwriting and reading plates spinning along. Next year we plan to focus on writing instruction. We haven't used any of the same resources listed, but I think we have the same goals. Anyways thanks for the great discussions, it has helped me to refocus on my goals. I do have a habit of straying towards history and science curriculums,I can just keep reading. I need to remember that!
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