Hi. My son has an opportunity to participate in NCFCA. What kind of daily/weekly time commitment should we expect? What are the general rules he would follow as a Debate team member? What are your pros and cons? Finally, please pray for this son. He has a chance to do this for FREE; a real life blessing for my household, as there is No Way we actually could do this otherwise. He's capable, but his "out of the box" personality sometimes reflects rebellion and laziness a bit too much. He'd really have to grow up a little, but I'm blown away at the opportunity. Thank you for your thoughts and honesty!

For a long time I avoided them b/c I thought it would be too much like school at home. Then I realized I was reinventing the wheel unnecessarily. That led me to TOG: tweakable, but still put together enough to save on planning and gathering. Another area I piece-mealed was Language Arts. Then a whole bunch of gaps appeared from about 4th grade on. This led me to The Phonics Road. ALL of my language arts need wrapped in one great place. I have enjoyed the ease of use and high quality of both so much that I signed up for affiliate programs once they were in effect (after I had used them both for some time). I still follow my own schedule (don't use one anymore, actually, we do the rotating list of subjects we know we have to get done...loop scheduling) and I pick and choose, the bonus is, I have a great resource to pick and choose from and it saves me a TON of time!

I have seen my friend's WS and it is great. I have used the middle/high school levels with much success. If you peek at my blog, there are a LOT of writing exercises listed under PR3. Plenty of suggestions on how and what to teach, even if you're not using a curricula. Maybe you'll find something helpful there. Blog's in siggy.

We like Plain Language much better. I still have K. book, but it is REALLY not nice about non-reformed info. and a HEAVY dose of Calvinism.

Here is some information on implementing these things in the progression of writing.

The PR assignment was to use their original sentences after the notetaking. Since we're accelerating this dd, I decided to remodel from the original text so I could combine the PR vocabulary from the chapter and the remodeling lesson -- a skill I picked up from PR.

I blog about the writing in PR b/c so many people find the samples unclear. Here is the latest application of my "I'm behind in blogging" series of PR3 writing. Let me know if you'd like some clarity. Notetaking, Vocabulary, Remodeling, Descriptive Writing and Dictation in PR3 Week 27 days 3&4

I'm trying to blog what we've complete in PR3 to continue my series on writing and PR. Here's the latest application: Note taking, Vocabulary, Remodeling, Descriptive Writing and Dictation in PR3 (Week 27 days 3&4) Enjoy! and let me know if you need clarity.

glad to hear it! Let me know if I can help at all.

When does she "get there"?

Resistance is futile.

bumping for the evening crowd :)

Thanks for all the congrats. :) Go to my blog. I put it in the header. Can you guess how hard it is to get all those kiddos lookin' good? The extras are our "step kids" which are really our neighbors that basically live at our house on weekends. Gotta have goals :lol::lol: I know just what you mean. I feel the same way!

5000 posts and counting :001_huh: I don't think dh would understand my joy and pleasure. I KNOW ya'll do! :D Just Visiting for the first 10 posts Hive Mind Larvae for 11- 40 Hive Mind Worker Bee for 41-100 Hive Mind Level 2 Worker: Nurse Bee 101 Hive Mind Level 3 Worker: Honey Maker Bee at 161 Hive Mind Level 4 Worker: Builder Bee at 210 Hive Mind Level 5 worker: Forager Bee at 310 Hive Mind Level 6 Worker: Scout Bee at 410 Hive Mind Royal Larvae at 550 Hive Mind Queen Bee at 750 Empress Bee at 2500 Amateur Bee Keeper at 3500 Apprentice Bee Keeper at 5000 Qualified Bee Keeper at 7500 Beekeeping Professor at 10,000

whispering in my best chant: PR PR PR PR PR I told you I was feeling fresh!

What? I guess my kids are learning incorrectly then cuz that's how I taught them! Darn changers...whoever they are!

It is always wonderful to hear how a little work using a different method moves the mountain of learning labels. WAY TO GO!

This has been a great read. I couldn't agree more :) I have always despised that schools or home schoolers just magically expect a middle or high schooler to suddenly write well, with no understanding of the English grammar -- it is Just Like building a house without having ever held a hammer. I have thought that so many times. Jen, you are wise to encourage consistency. That's what I see here with my gang and why I will not switch programs now. I have a solid plan for our house and even though it is the same line up for each child, the programs offer enough flexibility, and I have enough tools in my teacher's toolbox to modify as necessary. The one thing I do disagree with in the SWB line-up is length of writing assignements. Am I correct to understand SWB still doesn't have 5 paragraphs until high school? Or is it at the end of middle school? Write Shop offers that same sort of "use x number of adjectives" type assignments, including other portions and parts of good writing. It's something I like about the program. WS does build beautiful paragraphs! Anyhoo, this has been a very reassuring thread for me. It's nice to feel like I know what I'm doing (I'm sure some child will TOTALLY throw me a wrench now just b/c I said that!) :D

a program by the Quine family called Starting Points is a worldview/humanities for 7-9 that is followed by a 3 year course for high school. A dear friend is using it next year and has been waiting to use it for about 3 years. TOG also includes worldview, but I'd say as a secondary focus. I'm looking at something called RECON for my high schooler, fwiw.

Let me start by saying, if you use RS you will have kids who can understand grammar and eventually diagram sentences; however, my son changed the name of RS to Rottin' Staff b/c it was SOOOOOO boring. We only did 1/2 the problems and did the Daily practice orally, it was just dry, dry, dry. The problem I had with it, as a teacher, was lack of application. The drill is just that, but I found they could get high marks on their RS (spelling and grammar at the time), but then misspell or not properly analyze sentences when not using RS. That's our experience. We are finding the Phonics Road MUCH more enjoyable and finding the application superior.

we tried it many years ago and had poor retention. We've found that to be the case with all workbook type vocab programs.

Hi. I have all 3 volumes borrowed from a friend. I thought together they would make a nice Gen. Sci (instead of boring the next group w/ Apologia Gen Sci). How did you plan your week? What did you use to supplement, if anything? There are 40 songs total for all three volumes, so I'm thinking one song per week. I was thinking about: Monday: Read Text listen to song for first time. Tuesday: fill in lyrics from WB page, make vocab. cards Wed.: listen to song, next WB page, study vocab cards, (Encyclopedia or living book supplement?) Thursday: listen to song, next WB page, study cards, watch coordinating Netflix video Friday: Final WB page, test on vocab, write a summary (as part of test) Thoughts?

:iagree: We're on year 12 of home schooling and dh still thinks like a public schooler/school-at-home b/c he has no clue about home schooling, beyond being glad we (I) do it. The two mesh fine b/c of math books and CONTENT (over material choice). You'll be fine. Don't make a mountain out of this mole hill.

You can do it!

Write Shop is another great follow up (along w/ IEW). Since you do a word study, you are getting spelling still, as your dc continues to recognize french/greek/latin roots, they will understand the spelling behind many words.