Sorry - one more question. How long does it take your kids to review? Is it based on the number of cards? Or can you limit it to x minutes per day? Do you foresee a time when it becomes too time-consuming to continue? Like if you did Classical Conversations and had large volumes of material to learn - I hear people talking about it becoming too burdensome to keep up with the memory work over time. Would Anki solve this issue? How strong does their reading need to be to take advantage of Anki? I see that you were using it with a kindergartener - was she reading way above grade-level? Thank you so much - this is so helpful!

So can you explain exactly how it works during the review? I am assuming that it pops up the name of the poem, and then does your DD *think* of the poem, and then flip the answer and compare? Or does she *type* the poem and the program compares to see if it is right? Then after she gets it right, she tells the program whether she thought it was hard or easy to remember? What if she gets it wrong? Does the program assume it was hard?

For the VP cards? Or the CC cards? Trying to figure out what size you mean. Thanks!

You can't even begin to imagine what a blessing this post was to me tonight. I NEEDED to hear this!! I am being beaten up right and left from people who want me to put my kids in public school, and think that I am "overprotective", "condemning my kids to life of being social outcasts", etc. The latest - my husband's boss.

Check your library. Ours has kid books (like board books and such intended for preschoolers) in Spanish. For lots, they have them in a big Ziploc bag thing with the book in Spanish, the exact same book in English, as well as a list of suggested activities, and sometimes extra things that go along to enhance the story. You may have to ask the librarian - ours are in a back room not open to the public, so that the pieces don't separated. They are available for checkout, they just aren't advertised. I think they are usually used by teachers.

They use Veritas Press's cards for the timeline, and those are maybe 1/2 of a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. http://www.veritaspress.com/prodinfo.asp?number=000100 CC's inhouse memory flashcards (that are used for everything else like the history sentences, science, math, English grammar, Latin, geography, etc.) are much smaller.

Do you mean the big VP cards (timeline)? Or the CC cards (their other memory work, which is by subject)? That's a great idea to use little notebooks, if you can find the right size. I may have to go measure...

Sounds like that is the laminator to have - can't beat the price! Thanks SO MUCH for the advice about smaller pouches. I would never have thought about that!

--

I would like to laminate my VP cards before CC starts in the fall. That's a LOT of laminating! How do you do large quantities of heavy-duty laminating at the most reasonable cost?

I have 4 kids who are developmentally within a year of each other. I tried doing individual lessons with everybody for phonics & math, and it was a big disaster. It was SO time-consuming, and the one who was with me was happy but the others (who are normally very good kids!) always got into trouble or desperately needed me while I was busy. I was miserable and the lessons were not happening regularly. My advice is to teach them together, and just repeat lessons as necessary until everyone gets it. I understand that possibly you may be slightly holding somebody back, but they can move at their own pace later when they are a little more independent. For now, I have just decided that a little extra review and reinforcement isn't going to hurt anybody!

I think they just use ATI for the Wisdom Booklets? Maybe? She has commented somewhere that some are "slower learners" than others. I have also seen her say several times that age 8 is the age where they go from being a "younger" to an "older" and the expectations really change at that point as far as responsibility goes.

Quotes from other websites: Our day begins at 8:00 a.m. with personal hygiene, breakfast, family devotions, and a "quick clean" of the house. The younger children begin their individual lessons in phonics, math, violin, and piano with the assistance of their "buddy". In teaching their siblings, I find that the older children have learned so much more themselves. When they're done, the older children then start their individual studies in math, English, spelling, and typing. One of the older girls, Jill, begins preparing lunch at 11:30, and we break at 12:00. Everyone helps clean up and then individual studies are finished. The babies go down for naps at 1:30 p.m., and then the older children and I study science, history, law, or medicine around the table from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. As we study the same topic together, we use a "bus stop" approach. The younger children participate with age-appropriate activities, but are released to go play as we go more in depth into the subject matter with the older children. During this time, we also memorize Scripture, learn hymns, and study godly character qualities. From 4:00 to 5:00 p.m., we break from our group study and complete individual studies or enjoy "free time." Dinner is at 5:00 p.m. and prepared by Jana (18). Everyone again helps clean up afterwards and after another "quick clean" of the house, each child finishes music lessons or schoolwork. Snack time is 8:00 p.m., and then it's time to get ready for bed with baths and picking out clothes for the next day. Bible time with Daddy is at 9:00 p.m. and bedtime is at 10:00 p.m. Individual checklists which cover schoolwork, chores, music lessons, and personal hygiene let us see at a glance how each child is doing and keep our children accountable, so we can reward them accordingly. ------------------------------------------ We have used ACE Paces for math, English and spelling. Recently, within the last year and a half, we have started using ALPHA OMEGA SOS. Third grade and up are doing school on the computer and they really enjoy that. We have an in-house system, because we are like a school with the number of students we have. Jessa is the administrator. She keeps up with all that. They have to make a certain grade before they move forward. If they don't, she will reassign and do it again. We also do Typing Tutor. I do Sing Spell Read and Write for phonics and have done all along. Some of my girls have helped with their little buddies in teaching reading. ------------------------------ As the years have gone on, we definitely have older ones that are such a blessing that will jump in and help. I think every homeschool mom probably struggles with "I feel like I'm not cutting it. I feel inadequate. This one I want to make sure I work on this and this one that." That is always something in the back of our minds as homeschool parents. The incredible thing is, having watched the older ones, all the fretting, and yet they've excelled. Why'd I put myself through that? Par for the course. I finally realized having these older ones, the good thing for them is they could mentor the younger ones with stuff they've already mastered. It helps reinforce their skills too. I encouraged the older ones, "You're the fastest math drill one I know. You could really encourage Jason, who is just beginning. I'll give you flash cards and you guys sit over here 30 minutes after lunch and do flash cards and I'll give you both a treat when you're done." It's amazing how my children have enjoyed the time they've spent together doing that. When you teach is when you really learn. I have them doing fun little things, like practicing violin or flash cards. There is a precious mentoring relationship that takes place. I've been amazed, my little guys learn so much faster when they are mentoring with an older sibling. ----------------------

house -> horse another one we are struggling with

I am NOT an expert, as we are not getting very far very fast with reading in my house, but I'll share what is going on here. The preschool that my kids are in (4 year old classroom) has labeled everything. Door Wall Books etc. It is considered wonderful to be able to "read your way around the room". Which basically means memorizing the words. And somehow that has translated to guessing. As I try to teach my kids to sound things out (and eventually they will have to have this skill when they hit unfamiliar words, right?), they don't WANT to do the work of sounding it out. It's easier just to guess. For example, wall -> will / walk / well / welt etc. - they see any of these and assume it's wall, b/c that's the one they know I don't know if this is the reason sight words are considered a problem in general, but this is the issue sight words have caused here.

I always thought everyone recommended Prima Latin after SSL. Hmmm - change in the tide?

FYI - impossible to join right now if you want to use google or facebook - server issue

Definitely these two. I also would recommend The Core, by Leigh Bortins (the founder of Classical Conversations). I disagreed with a lot of what was presented in The Core, but it validated the way I felt about LCC! I'm not sure I would be as confident in my beliefs without having read The Core.

I have a REALLY sensitive nose, and the smell of formaldahyde in high school biology made me puke. Literally. It was like the smell was so strong that it permeated every cell in my nose, mouth, and brain. I tried to tell the teacher, but she thought I was being dramatic, and I ended up puking in front of the whole class. And of course then it became a mental block, and every time I even looked in the direction of the lab I felt a little nauseous. Which turned into me completely hating science. I am DREADING having to teach it to my kids.

"NO!!! You CANNOT play with your brother's winky!" "I don't care that you don't have one of your own - LIFE IS NOT FAIR!!!"

As a newbie, I have hopped b/c I didn't REALLY understand what *I* needed to be successful. For example, I had read on here that Phonics Pathways & Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading were both great resources for teaching a kid to read. OPGTR was dry & scripted & boring, but very effective. PP was the fun equivalent! Of course I chose PP. But I've never taught a kid to read before. I looked at it for ridiculous amounts of time, but I just could not figure out exactly what I was supposed to do with it! So we hopped to OPGTR. Yep, it's boring, but I am a lot more confident that I am not screwing up something so important!

Would you be willing to share your grid? That looks so helpful! megan.welfare@gmail.com

I will tell you that Audio Memory DVD (movie) is NOT worth ANY money. And it comes under two different covers. We hated the first one, so I bought what I thought was something different, and lo and behold, the same DVD! The Audio Memory CD (music) is better than the DVD, but not nearly as good as the world geography. One tune repeated for the southern border, northern border, and eastern border. They just changed the names in the song. We have United States map placemats, and have been going over the states in order (around the border) for a few weeks now. I always start in a different spot, and try to vary the direction. I also bought the Man In the Map book. It is WAAAY over the heads of my almost 6 year olds, but they are a little behind. Truly I can't imagine it would be useful for anyone below mid-elementary. Also, it is just so complicated. I think it might be easier just to review review review than to learn it the way they teach. (Do you think of a flashlight when you think of New York? That's the memory hook. A lot of them are really random like that!) So that's everything that I've bought that DOESN'T work! :)

Do you have the Foundations Guide? I have been looking through it for Cycle 3 (which is the assigned cycle for 2011-12) and started now slowly teaching some of the things that they will learn next year. For example, we are currently leisurely learning all the states' names & locations. That way, when we need to learn 5 states & capitals per week, at least the kiddos will have heard the state names before! I've also been looking at the Beautiful Feet Early American History program. At a minimum, I hope to at least read a short book about each history fact before it is introduced at CC (like a quickie book about Columbus before the Columbus fact). Some other things I hope to introduce gently before next fall: - human body - other US geographic features (we are using Audio Memory & placemat maps for "geography") - skip counting (using the one hundred sheep skip counting songs) - US Presidents - the timeline facts (haven't quite worked out how to teach that in a fun gentle way yet) I think we are going to skip working on the Latin & grammar outside of CC the first year.

Just don't use them like flashcards. Make her sound them out every time before reading the word. ccccccaaaaaatttttt - cat. When the sounding out and reading it become really fast (like they are only sounding it out to amuse you), consider it learned! :)