lindsrae
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Posts posted by lindsrae
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To do it the "bare bones" route, join the CC Connected community after the first week of CC--you can download the songs and get lots of memory work aids and tips from users across the country. Each student should have a tin whistle. I would wait before before buying anything else.
I agree with PP about history--what you study does not need to match up with what you are covering in CC. In fact, you would be quite breathless if you tried to keep up your history studies with the CC memory work, especially for ancients :)
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I have the Spalding book--reading it really helped me with PR, but PR is a little more "open and go." However, I think that because so much of PR level one is learning the spelling rules and words (which are all in the Spalding book), you could start with Spalding and if the program resonates with you, move forward with PR 2.
The cons for many people are watching the DVDs with PR. It is not hard to do, but it does get a little tedious. I watch while folding laundry, etc.
I really like the integration of LA in PR, but I also supplemented this year with WWE1.
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I have felt very similar. DD has not been enjoying PR as much as I had hoped, but I think it's more of an attitude issue and not wanting to do the work. We are working on character training. Our issue is not just PR, it's most subjects. I am also getting the "It's March and look at all the pretty new curriculum bug" and I feel the need to supplement everything even an "all-in-one" like PR.
In PR 1, I have recently found a better groove. In order to save time from possible distraction (the manipulatives easily distract dd), I first review only the previous days words by her writing and marking them on her clipboard. Sometimes I give her little hints like starting to sing the rule tune. I make a note to myself if she spells any wrong. I then teach the new words on a white board with dd telling me how to spell the words and what markings to add and why. I then write and mark the words on a whiteboard while she writes them on her clipboard. (This allows for the phonogram and handwriting practice). I do make sure that she is continuously forming her letters correctly. On the day she learns the last of the words for the week, I reteach any words she may have had trouble with earlier in the week.
Here is the life saver: Recently I began plugging her list into spellingcity.com. She takes her test for the end of the "week" (whatever day that falls on) on the computer. She enjoys it more because she doesn't have to write all the words out and now it doesn't take up so much time. If she were to miss any then I would reteach those words with the words for the next week. While working on the next week in PR, she can review the words from the previous week on spelling city through free games that she enjoys. HTH
Thank you so much for this idea! I know one of the love/hate things people have with PR are the DVDs...i don't mind watching them, but it is so easy to tune out. I know I have missed stuff, and I wish there was a "guide" with reminders/suggestions in it. I need a lot of hand holding, I guess! Must be why I like the scripted lessons of RS math--it gives me confidence. :)
I looked at the Logic of English website; that looks really good too. Oh how I wish I had unlimited funds!! I am having such a hard time deciding what is best, and I hate to miss out on anything!!
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I'm wondering if PR is just too much same-old, same-old for my eldest DD. When I first looked at it I thought--"Fantastic! Now I don't have to make another LA decision for years and years!" But DD gets bored/tired/frustrated with spelling the words, reviewing the sounds, even illustrating the readers. I started using WWE1 because I already had it on the shelf, and I felt that she needed work on listening comprehension and on writing complete sentences instead of just the single spelling words. I also feel like there isn't enough reading to reinforce her skills in level 1, so we have been reading early readers from the library. So my first frustration is that I felt as if I had found a truly "all-in-one" program, and now I am scrambling to supplement
And I know Mrs. Beers to very explicit in her directions on the video, but I am not an auditory learner, so I really missed the boat about reinforcing the phonogram sounds while spelling. DD has been saying the letters while she spells instead of the phonogram sounds; now that I realize my mistake and try to make her say the sounds, she balks at it. It is just becoming a battle to get her to get her work done. (It isn't just with PR--she isn't in love with doing school, but it seems that PR is the biggest battle.) I don't know if it's because she is a Wiggly Willy and this isn't just a good program for her; maybe it's me and I'm getting the new curriculum March itch; or...I don't know :)
We spent last week doing a review of words she had missed in the past and was having trouble with, and that went over like a lead balloon. I need to do better about incorporating a little review every day (something else that I missed when I watched the videos through the first time). So I chatted with her a little about PR and told her the doing spelling was not negotiable, but if PR wasn't working we could try something else. (What, I'm not sure...AAS maybe.) She was, of course, ready to go with something new.
Here's the central issue, I guess. I don't want to make the investment of PR 2 if we are going to struggle through it next year. I looked at the materials for PR2, and it looks so wonderful, and I love how everything is integrated--the grammar, spelling, lit study, etc. I am excited about it, but I'm afraid because of my lack of implementation and understanding in watching the videos of level 1, I could royally mess up level 2. So I want to do it, but I am afraid of spending the money and it being a flop.
But then if I don't go with PR, ACK! The decisions I will have to make! I have to choose spelling, grammar, lit study, composition all on my own. I guess I would probably go the WWE/FLL/AAS route--I really like the scope and sequence of WWE, but FLL rubs me the wrong way, and AAS seems so expensive for just spelling.
Ok, now that I've completely hijacked this thread and poured out my whines to the Hive, I'm going to go do laundry. Thanks!
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I am using PR 1 with a pretty wiggly dd age 6. It starts out pretty gently...learning phonograms and then spelling five words a day. At week 13 and 14, you add more phonograms, start reading and illustrating a page a day, and begin writing a few sentences a week. I break up each of those activities throughout our school time. I have been looking at AAS for my younger DD...wanna trade PR 1 for AAS level one for a year? ;)
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We use a mix of PR, IEW, and WWE/WWS without a problem, YMMV. :)
If you don't mind, can you explain how this works? One of the things that drew me to PR was the all-in-one LA claim...I'll never have to think about LA again! But I'm feeling a little disillusioned with PR...I can't quite put my finger on why, but maybe its just not a good fit for us. Hope this isn't too much of a hijack!
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You could check out Easy Classical to see how they incorporate Amer. History with world. They use SOTW for timeperiods, not just the whole book in one year.
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I look at Tapestry of Grace and want it to work, but then I shake myself and say, "The cost! The planning! I only have littles!" Is there anything Mammy5 and I can do before TOG?!
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I followed the link to CBD, and it says this kit does not include the DVDs that are referenced in the teachers guide. I have never used HOP, but a friend of mine recently told me she swears by it. Would it work to buy this kit and he cheap, or are the DVDs integral to the program?
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The best deals on RS that I've ever seen are on black Friday :) I know that doesn't help much for the fall... Are you looking at level A or B? It is overwhelming when you look at all of the manipulative, but you can certainly save money there. You must have the abacus, but a lot of the other manipulatives can be substituted for other things you might already have or perhaps made by you...depending on how flexible you can be :)
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I'm with you, girl! Trying to remind myself constantly to enjoy the journey and not focus so much on "getting it done." Reevaluating my goals and how my actions reflect where I want my girls to go. (Do I want them to love to learn, or do I want them to finish the book?) I tell my husband all the time that I know I am learning more than our girls are! :)
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But couldn't you use velcro dots and not use the other side of vecro, but instead use felt? I'm desperately wanting to use the tiles but I can't afford the whole package. I saw a blog with the phonograms you could print on cardstock. You might need to trace them in the color that conforms with the IG from AAS. Then couldn't you use felt (5 for $1 at Hobby Lobby) glued to a file folder? We use this velcro this way for story board in Sunday School and they don't fall off easily but don't rip loudly when pulling them off.
Thoughts?
Have not used AAS but considering level one for my gung-ho middle DD. Would love input on this idea!!
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We are in B right now, but at a certain point, we drop doing a lesson a day and do half of one a day. Or I skip some of the warmups. Or we do half the worksheet one day and next day finish the worksheet and play a game. Right now we are taking a 3 week MEP vacation...waiting on RS for awhile and doing MEP every day instead. I think RS is FANTASTIC, but there is no way Dr Cotter could say with every lesson, "Play Go to the Dump 12 times before moving on" because only you know what he/she needs. But definitely slow down/stop/play games as needed! Make the program work for you.
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SLOW DOWN. Do not do a lesson every day. Yes, I agree, sometimes I wish it would spell out in the lesson...take a week off and play some games...but it kind of depends on your child. I used A last year and had some of the same struggles. Sometimes RS seems very incremental, and sometimes it seems to take a big jump. Go back and play some games. Take a week off and just do MM. I supplement with Singapore, and I just give the addition stuff since we haven't covered subtraction yet. It is easy for her, but you can't do the double digit addition without having single digit down cold!
I was able to buy level C of RS used, and I am AMAZED by the math they do in second grade...so don't stress too much. Your child is getting a great foundation, but he doesn't have to get it all in one day.
Take two days with a lesson...indo that for almost every lesson now that we are in the last third of the book (we did lesson 78 today, but my DD did only half of the worksheet.) Tomorrow I plan for her to finish the worksheet, play the game we just did in lesson 77--can't remember the name--and some of the warm-up activities from the three previous lessons (with different numbers, of course.)
If a program is causing both of you frustration, take a break, slow down, try something new. Life is too short to be crying about math curriculum--and I say this without any harshness intended because I was there just a few months ago! Hang in there, and keep asking for help!! If we had all of this figured out, how would we learn?
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I always like the idea of spending less, but I wasn't sure how to until I read this thread!
Now I'm looking at the Baldwin Project, KISS Grammar, MEP math (as a supplement), doing WWE2 on my own (gasp!) with the help of the instructors' manual from the library. Maybe I will use The Story of Mankind with the SOTW AG?
So many possibilities...
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Ok, not to hijack the thread or anything, but I have a hard time knowing which words to review here in the middle of PR 1. We were going like lightening through the program, but I think I missed somewhere along the way that I should be reviewing words the student didn't "get." Oops...
So now I'm a bit confused. What is the best way to review the words, or actually to even know if DD got them in the first place? When I have to tell her that the long E sound is "e the double e" and not "ea," does that mean I should review the words the next day? Should I review all the previous day's words just to be sure? (And also review any that she still didn't get??)
I guess I'm not paying good enough attention to the videos or something, because I still feel (at week 15) very uncertain about how exactly to implement the program. I'm such a print-based visual learner that watching the videos seems like auditory processing to me, and I am really struggling with it! (Love the idea of the program, but somehow it is not "clicking" for me...)
Can anyone help (or relate?)
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Thank you for posting about this! I've been printing 2+ books a day for my four-year-old! I am so pleased by how much she is enjoying these and how the gentle review helps her move beyond painfully sounding out each word!!
I don't know if anyone knows this, but if the first 53 books are in the public domain, what aren't the rest of them? Shouldn't we be able to download all of them for free?
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Thank you so much!! I totally missed that one!!
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I thought I was taking extensive notes while watching the videos, but I am now to week 13, and Mrs. Beers is talking about BC 16 as if we had already completed it. We have not completed it, and I looked through all my notes...can you save me from rewatching all of the videos again?? Am I losing my mind?
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:bigear: I would like to know as well! Are kids reading Little House by themselves in PR 2?
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These are my thoughts for next year. I am still deciding and can easily change my mind (and reserve the right to do so). I am also putting down the reasons for my curriculum choices because it gives me a visual way of thinking these things through. Any comments are appreciated (even if you disagree with me!)
Bible: Table Talk: Book of Beginnings http://www.thegoodbook.com/children/devotionals/table-talk-1-the-book-of-beginnings. (Will also do XTB Book 1 to help train DD to do daily personal Bible study.)
REASONS: want to have an already planned curriculum to use in addition to reading Scripture. We've been reading a children's story Bible this year, and I want to do more. I posted a thread about what to use for Bible; the Bible Study Guide for All Ages looks amazing, but I think I will wait to use it when my littles are older :)
History: SOTW 1--still deciding between CHOLL and the AG. Love the literature aspect, but trying to be realistic in balancing cost and time and ability to pull things off with two little sisters. :) We are doing American history this year with Guesthollow. I like it, but I think I need to buy the books I want to read. Very hard to keep up with things from the library.
Science: Apologia--astronomy? Not sure which is the best to start with, but I thought astronomy would be good with ancients. We started REAL Science Odyssey (Life) this year, but I think I need more accountability with a textbook. And I need to not feel completely guilty if we don't do the experiment. Again, I love the idea of living books, but I'd like more AIO for science.
Math: This one is easy for me--we've used RightStart A and B and plan to continue with C. Thought I would supplement this year with Singapore, but we ended up not using it too much. I think SM has a more traditional scope and sequence; RS doesn't introduce subtraction at all until the end of B.
LA: Using Phonics Road 1 this year. I'm pretty sure we are going to go with PR 2 for next year. I can't imagine deciding all the components otherwise! I've looked at AAS, Memoria Press lit guides, FLL, and a few other things. I"m not adoring PR at the moment (I still think I need more help than the videos are giving me!!), but I like it better than anything else I've looked at. But I know there are a millions things out there, so this is one area I could easily be talked into another route. We are also using WWE1 this year, and I love how the scope and sequence of WWE is laid out, so I will have a hard time dropping that. I am also supplementing PR with lots of extra early readers from the library, because I feel there is a big jump from learning the letter sounds to spelling to reading. Maybe because we had started (and eventually abandoned) OPGTR and my DD was already kind of reading, but I think PR needs more practice than one page a day to make a fluent reader. (Or maybe I haven't watched far enough in the DVDs yet!)
Latin: We have listened to the School Song Latin, but haven't done much beyond that. Plan to add in the activity book next year. Not sure what to do past that.
Fine Arts: The girls take art classes but would like more formal artist study. I have ARTistic Pursuits which I have been saving until we start ancients. I think I just read something about the first book not being great--I haven't look at the others for K-3. We play classical music, but I don't do anything formally with that but would like to.
In the last year and a half of homeschooling, I have learned that I like to have things laid out for me and I appreciate having everything in a "kit" ready to go. I enjoy scripted programs or teaching from a teacher's guide that tells me not only what to do but why to do it (which is why I LOVE RS math!). DD enjoys crafts and projects--I think she is on grade level for reading, but only through much encouragement. She does not pick up books independently and still needs a lot of help with new words or sounds.
If anyone is still reading my ramblings, thank you! If you have the strength to comment, it is much appreciated!!!
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:bigear:
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Wow! I have a lot of things to research. I haven't even heard of most of these options, so thank you! I just discovered the Kay Arthur series for kids today...I'm excited to check out the other ideas.
Supplementing RightStart B with Horizon, Singapore, or other
in K-8 Curriculum Board
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We started supplementing RS B with Singapore 1A in the beginning of the year, but now I am using MEP. I like that MEP is free :) I also had trouble using all the Singapore books after getting used to having the RS scripted lessons. This was just a personal preference :)