angela&4boys
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Posts posted by angela&4boys
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My dm and d m-i-l can hardly believe that's what I really wanted, but they obliged me. :)
I asked for:
The SOTW 2 AG &
All Through the Ages - Christine Miller (I've wanted this one for sooo long.)
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Yay! That is wonderful!
May I ask where you saw this? Just curious. :bigear: Nevermind, I found it at the MUS site. Silly me!
Thanks for sharing the information,
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That is wonderful! I love it when they "come into their own" and mega-kudos to you for allowing her to do it her way. :thumbup1:
I struggle with correcting (or not correcting) my 8yo ds's written work and sometimes discourage him by doing so. I will take a lesson from this.
Thanks for sharing,
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I am using the ancients right now and I did not order the TM and haven't needed it.
A sketchy schedule looks something like this (but varies):
day 1- read lesson, read sample paragraph, do key-word outline, rewrite from memory with KWO
day 2- work on strong verbs, adverbs (IEW calls them LY words), quality adjectives, alliteration, vocab words, etc.
day 3- work on dress-ups and sentence openers
day 4- final draft with checklist
Now some assignments have 3 paragraphs which means that it may take us 3 weeks to do a lesson but ds is a reluctant writer and we have had fabulous results with this method so I am sticking with it. I figure he'll get faster at it as he becomes more familiar with the program.
HTH.
Heather,
This is very helpful. My ds's are reluctant writers as well. My 11yo, in particular, is not the least bit interested in creative writing. I never thought I'd even consider IEW, but this looks like it'll fit him... especially considering he loves history. I'm hopeful anyway. :)
Thank you!
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Thanks Peela! I always appreciate your comments as well.
I am hoping to start the Medieval book with my 11yo ds (who'll then be nearly 12) sometime in spring. We'll be starting SOTW 2 then. I'm sure I'll be bombarbing the boards with questions then. :tongue_smilie:
BTW, I did order an Imitation in Writing book to get our feet wet.
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Yes MIch elle! It's very helpful. I was hoping you'd chime in. :)
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I printed and looked over the sample. I am very excited about it and it definitely seems doable!
I'm wondering how you implement it on a daily basis? What your week looks like?
Also, I noticed that the Medieval book does not have a TM and this is the one I'm considering. For those of you who use this series, do you use the TM for the other books? What would I be missing?
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Thank you ladies. I'm fairly confident that I can swing it with just the Themed Based Writing. I'm still trying to decide between it and Classical Writing though....:confused:
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I'm considering the Ancient History Based Writing Lessons for my 11yo.I'm somewhat familiar with IEW's approach, but curious to hear whether or not users feel the TWSS or SWI are essential?
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I think we'll stick with GWG for now. If we go with CW (still considering IEW and Imitations), I plan on easing my reluctant writer into it by using Aesop.
I'll consider Harvey's if we continue the series. The samples of the workbook they've created look excellent.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.:)
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I think we'll stick with GWG for now. If we go with CW (still considering IEW and Imitations), I plan on easing my reluctant writer into it by using Aesop.
I'll consider Harvey's if we continue the series. The samples of the workbook they've created look excellent.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.:)
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We are presently using GWG and my ds is very happy with it.
But, I'm curious if others are using the suggested Harvey English materials and if GWG would be up to par?
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Jamie definitely gave me a good chuckle too.
At least I'm not alone in that there are other curriculum junkies... errrr... curriculum researchers among us. :)
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We love notebooking pages here! They give the boys a defined space on which to write their history narrations and have a nice illustration. I also appreciate that they have varying amounts of lines and in some cases, spacing.
We are presently using the following for our Ancients study:
And plan to use the following for Middle Ages:
http://www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=21197&it=1
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We are fresh off of our second try with Writing Strands (Level 3) with my 11yo. I love that it's written for homeschoolers, is very budget-friendly, is recommended by The WTM, and is complete. The author's sense of humor was a nice touch for both my son and myself.
However, my ds is just too practical and was questioning the need to write the suggested assignments. They were silly and non-sensical to him. (i.e. writing a description of your friend...) He asked me why he needed to write about the color of his friend's hair and eyes. He likes to write about factual topics (history, science) and opinions, and I am re-vamping his composition studies to meet those preferences.
I understand and appreciate the author's intent, but I couldn't justify the approach when my ds dreaded it. Hence, we're looking for other ways to "skin this cat".
In summary, I would say that if your ds enjoys writing creatively and you and he don't mind his sense of humor, then it may work nicely. It's worth looking at the samples to determine if the assignments might appeal to him.
my 2 cents,
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We are presently using WWE 1 for our 8yo ds. It is a perfect fit. He is writing-resistant and it neither overwhelms him nor comes across as a first-graders work in any fashion. (I'm so thankful SWB has seen and met the need for "levels" as opposed to "grades".)
I agree with Heather in that I didn't want him to miss any important instruction. Additionally, I'd rather him feel confident than dread writing each day.
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My 11yo ds read From Boy... to Man! last year and it was a wonderful, gentle "starter" book. This is from the Queen series that a previous poster mentioned.
This year he read Lintball Leo's Not-So-Stupid Questions About Your Body which had a lot more information, but it was still done in a tactful way and he was ready for it.
They are both written by Christian authors (which was very important to us) and I highly recommend them. We want our boys to see the purpose in the changes taking place and both titles met that expectation.
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We used Shurley only one year with my 11yo and found it to be too much. I liked the jingles somewhat, but dreaded thinking of doing it year after year. We actually did "light" grammar for a few years because of it and I have come to regret that decision. (That's a whole other post though. :001_rolleyes:)
Ultimately, we have ended up with FLL for the 8yo and GWG for the 11yo. So far, we are loving both. Neither have too much nor too little in terms of time and (physical) writing. They are "Just the facts ma'am." kind of guys and these suit them both very well in that regard.
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My ds who is newly 8 years old is very resistant to new things and a gentle introduction is best, so I kept him at level 1 with his sister.
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He is a highly visual learner and not at all auditory.
I could have written this post myself! (Minus the younger sister. :))
I am using WWE 1 with my 8yo ds who is also resistant to change, highly visual, and weak in the auditory area. I find that we have the very same issues and I too have toyed with the idea of letting him read it himself. The conditions have to be just right (the stars aligned etc...) for him to hear the whole story.
I do think it's vital that they listen to you read in some subjects. If he is listening to you read science and/or history, for example, then I'd say "Yes, let him read it to himself.". We've been doing SOTW and Apologia for the better part of two years now and he does fairly well with those. His narrations have improved immensely and it helps if I gently remind him that he needs to be listening beforehand. I'm finding that he is just not interested in some of the passages that are in WWE.
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We used LBC Grade 3 at the beginning of this year for only about 7 weeks.
Here is a previous post of mine reviewing our experience:
We purchased and used LBC Grade 3 for 7 weeks. I tried to combine my 8yo and 11yo.What I liked:
- the book selections
- the true to CM Method
- ease of use
- completeness (just add math)
What I didn't like:
- I felt the books varied in difficulty and I wasn't sure what my child(ren) should read or what I should read.
- the true CM method (lol - I realized I like some elements, but I'm not a die-hard.)
Honestly, if I weren't trying to combine, I think I would've liked it more. However, we missed reading together (especially SOTW!) and the cohesiveness of studying just one time period. In our case, my guys are "just the facts, ma'am" kind of fellas. It was just too much information for them. They want to get their studies done and work on catching critters and building projects.
If you enjoy the CM method of teaching and learning, then it may be worth considering. The Carrolls have done a wonderful job of making it very easy to implement.
Additionally, since your children are much closer in age than mine and if they are academically as well, it may be a good fit.
- the book selections
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I'm particularly looking for my 8yo ds for Christmas.
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After 105 posts, I'm not sure who's still looking at this thread, but I'll post anyway because I haven't seen anyone list this resource.
I, for one, am definitely still looking! I'm curious what SWB's decision will be. :bigear:
Would you mind sharing the amazon link and/or ISBN?
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I was feeling rather inept and frustrated because I'm not where I should be right now. Today, a few things dawned on me:
1.I'm only behind in some subjects, not all.
2.The subjects I'm behind in are the ones that require the most prep.
I have felt the very same way.
Last year we had our best year out of 10 years of homeschooling. And this was even with a new baby in the house! At the end of the year, I began to look at other options and methods and found myself mesmerized. I purchased a rather expensive curriculum for the next year. About six weeks into it, I found myself longing for the peace and joy we had the year before. The prep was killing my joy and in-turn, the boys.
Fast forward to present day studies, we dumped the "new way" are back to the "tried-and-true". These are all either no or low-prep yet they meet the academic criteria we desire.
The other thing that makes me put off this and any non prepared course is this feeling like when an actor takes the stage and someone says, "You're on!"Lol! Put them on stage. I have found that asking questions and letting them talk has been the answer to this problem. The SOTW AG and Apologia Science texts (semi-prepared?), as well as narration, have been key in this regard. It has translated into other subjects and I feel suprisingly more comfortable as time goes on to ask my own questions. Their narrations have improved as well so my questions become less and less. I feel confident that the job is getting done.
I just feel so thankful that I can tailor everything to our family's and individual dc's needs.
Hope this will encourage you further! :)
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If it were me...
Yes! I would consider another approach and involve her in the decision making process (at least to some degree). Perhaps having more ownership will cause her to take more pride in her work? I'm not sure if faith plays a role, but something less conventional like Oak Meadow might appeal to her.
Or maybe you could just tweak what you're doing a bit, tailoring her studies to involve topics on what she's passionate about... essays on what's involved in childcare, writing recipes, compiling a cookbook etc.... This way you could meet in the middle somewhere?
My 2 cents :),
Explode the Code users: Do you use the Teacher's Guide or just the student book?
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
I didn't use the TM, but I always used it with another program. Most recently, it was part of a Winter Promise LA program. (Which my then 6yo ds loved I might add.)