[German for younger kiddos]

The German Sat. School emailed me and told me they use these for kids that are not native speakers.

 

I like the look of this, but since we have no knowledge of German, do you think we could figure out the text?

[German for younger kiddos]

For someone who doesn't speak any German and would very much like to teach 5-year old DD the language, what would you suggest? I was hoping for a book that would be the following:

 

Containing some basic grammar (because I'm terrible with languages so it would help me to explain the language to DD)

Containing English translation

 

 

Please kindly tell me where I can purchase it. Thank you.

[Best versions of Robin Hood & King Arthur for 2nd/4th grade?]

We're not in Middle Ages yet, not even on page 1 of SOTW 1, but thanks so much for sharing the books that you liked and I've saved it as a future reference guide.

[Grammar book advice needed for 5 year old]

If this is the case, I'm not sure why you feel the need to add in a grammar program. If you don't mind my asking, how time do you spend doing school per day? At five, I was trimming all the extra fat I could to give DD the Elder enough to keep her engaged, but still keep school down to no more than an hour per day (not including read alouds). It's a fine line, but for the most part I managed to walk it.

 

I'm not confident enough in my grammar knowledge to only teach it from Henle. Also, being new to forum, I've developed a terrible habit of looking at all the suggested curricula and longing for them.

 

I was once asked the same question by a couple of non-homeschool parents on how much time I spend teaching because the answer is about an hour, if I added up 10 minutes here and there (also not including free reading time, read aloud). Parents of kids who go to traditional schools seem to spend a lot of time afterschooling - I'm talking about the parents I know who have k-2 children, and yet, I'm spending so little time. However, I can't tell others that DD reads chapter books so that she can learn on her own (she doesn't think it's learning) when other parents are still trying to teach their 5-6 year kids to read. Anyway, the reaction is "What? One hour?", and I'm sure they're all thinking I'm a delinquent parent.

[First Form Latin for 9th?]

As for the killing in Henle, perhaps that will finally hook ds7's interest, LOL. Catholic no problem (we are; indeed I remember my high school Latin teacher, a 70 y.o. nun in a wheelchair with MS, becoming *very* enthusiastic while translating bloody battle scenes, complete with hand gestures :lol:).

 

:lol:

 

I emailed Mr. Linney about writing Part 2, because we loved it so much, but he referred me to Gunnison. If the library carried the book, I would have liked to take a look, and $15 at Amazon is not too bad, but it's still $15, and my impression is Gunnison is more narrow in its coverage, so maybe 100 pages into Henle, I might consider it so that we can read Caesar's Gallic Wars (semi-joking). I don't know whether Henle 1 would prepare us for it as well.

[Favorite Latin]

This is a great idea. I found that Henle had much better explanations (of grammar) than either LCI or FFL.

 

Thanks for the comparison because I've been thinking whether FFL was more appropriate for us even though we already started with Henle.

[First Form Latin for 9th?]

Did you find that doing GSWL first makes the Henle any "easier" than it otherwise might be, for such a young student?

 

Did your kids like the format of GSWL? If yes, then they should like Henle. However, Henle has some mature topics (e.g. translating sentences involving killing of people, tribes, Gauls, etc.), small font, more Catholic-oriented (although you could skip those translations if it is problem) and lots of exercises, although some are labeled essential for the student's convenience. But I'm still continuing with it even though DD is 5. There are a lot of practice questions, very similar to GSWL, but more difficult, but the transition was easy. If it were not for GSWL, we would have had a much more difficult time, but Henle is almost exactly what I was hoping for and challenging enough for DD. If my budget were larger, I would have looked at more Latin books (e.g. Gunnison), but I had to choose one immediately after we finished GSWL, and given that DD still loves Latin, it must be just challenging enough but not overwhelming. I bought Latina Christiana (as well as Minimus and Prima Latina) but the format is different and not enough practice sentences are provided. That's why I was wondering if FLL is different from the previous MP books, because if it is, I may have tried FLL first.

 

By the way, I also bought MP's Study Guide that goes with Henle 1, but I haven't followed the schedule and I haven't done most of the recommended activities. It's helpful nonetheless because it provides answers (there is a Henle answer book that is cheaper, but I didn't find out about this until I purchased the Study Guide) and suggestions for activities.

[First Form Latin for 9th?]

My 5-year old has been using Henle, but after reading a couple of other threads relating to First Form Latin, should I have done FFL first? I didn't know about FFL until today. I didn't like Latina Christiana because after finishing Getting Started with Latin and translating more than 1000 Latin sentences, we were used to this format of learning and Henle is similar (although font is small, so I have to type out all the exercises). We like Henle because we translate from Latin to English and back, which I think is great for really understanding Latin. Is FLL similar in this way to Henle? Or should we continue with Henle if DD is able to do the work?

 

One thing I don't like about Henle (we are still studying only the 3rd declension nouns but after the unit on conjugations, it won't matter anymore), is that part of a conjugated verb is included in the vocabulary just for the sake of translating sentences - it's something that Ms. Bauer doesn't like - whole to parts instruction.

 

Oops, I just saw the title of this thread..., but still wondering whether FLL should be used before Henle. Thank you.

[Grammar book advice needed for 5 year old]

:confused: You're asking for advice for a 5yo, people give you advice, and you decide to get the grammar that they say is for 3rd & 4th graders for your 5yo? I don't get it. Maybe I'm missing something, but to me there was clear advice that it's NOT a good thing for a 5yo! :001_huh:

 

 

I should have mentioned that we've been studying Henle for some time, and before that, Getting Started with Latin, so DD understands the basics of Latin grammar. She's been declining nouns and translating Latin to English and back for almost a year. I've been informally teaching grammar to her while teaching her Latin, and I think she may be ready for more formal English grammar - maybe a grammar program that is almost as advanced as what is required by Henle. WTM mentions that Henle should be started either in middle school if a child has previously studied Latin, otherwise in high school, but I don't think it means that a 5-year old could not successfully study Henle, given some prior knowledge. We haven't had any problems with Henle and in fact Latin is our favorite subject. I've come to realize that a general suggestion of age-appropriate material is just that - a generalization. I've read in other threads that some 6-year olds have had no problems with MCT, so I'm hoping we'll also be able to use and love it.

 

I'm just really glad that people mentioned MCT to me because I was really hoping for a grammar program that is fun yet challenging. Not sure how much fun it is, but animals having conversations about grammar seems like something that would suit DD.

 

Thanks for your concern, and maybe I'll post a comment about our reaction to MCT in 2 weeks.

[Are your kids planning to go to college by 16 or earlier?]

Thank you for letting me know what your children have used, especially the free MEP program; I'm going to look into it. We're a bit early of course, but one of my hobbies now is to look at curricula.

[Grammar book advice needed for 5 year old]

Thank you for that because I was thinking of perhaps just buying the grammar book to try it out, but after your preview, I think it's best to get the basic homeschool set, and I'm actually kind of excited about delving into Poetry with my daughter since even at this young age of 5, she has been claiming that she doesn't like it. I have my own aversion and may have passed it on unintentionally, but I'm also hoping to study it and love it.

[Are your kids planning to go to college by 16 or earlier?]

Just out of sheer curiosity, did you start math really early, or did your children complete several years of curriculum each school year?

 

My daughter is almost 5, but I wasn't planning to teach addition until 6. However, since I thought I would give addition a chance, just to have something other than Latin to study, we progressed quickly to multiplication and now division, all in several months. I think every kid has the potential to learn quickly if taught correctly and, just from my limited experience with one child, children seem eager to learn so why not see what they can do. However, I'm going to slow her down after division and go through Miquon for those 4 basic arithmetic operations one more time, before moving to fractions and decimals, or whatever is the next stage of math. We were using Singapore Math 1 until I thought I should go a little deeper with carryover addition and borrowing subtraction, so we went off track. I used Kumon for practice. I'm also tempted to buy Saxon 2, but it's expensive and it's not the kind of money I want to spend if we're going to go off-track again.

 

It's great that your kids are doing pre-algebra. Any advice or curriculum on getting to this stage of math?

[Are your kids planning to go to college by 16 or earlier?]

Well we are in the trenches, dd is `16 and attending in the fall a semi large University.

 

But she is determined and focused, I have faith she is ready. I think it depends on the child. Every single one is different.

 

That's great for her and I agree that it depends on the child. My daughter is 5, and is talking about college, (probably doesn't even know what it really means) but if this still holds true in the coming years, it's overwhelming to think of all she has to learn, maybe not really on her part, but on my part to figure out a schedule and find the material. I had a lot of trouble just deciding on elementary curricula until I found this forum last week.

[Are your kids planning to go to college by 16 or earlier?]

Just out of curiosity and to learn how others have planned, are your accelerated children attending college by 14-16 years old? I know that some kids are eager to go to college even though they are on the younger side, so I was wondering how the parents managed to include all areas of study, SAT and AP prep, etc. For those parents whose children have taken the SATs or APs in their 6-8 grade years, how did you all do it?!?! It seems overwhelming to plan for such a course if the child insists on starting college early.

 

For those parents whose children did start college at a much younger age, were there any academic difficulties at first, anything that might have made your child reconsider and attend at 18 instead, or anything we as parents should think about as we prepare our kids who would like to go to college earlier?

[That's it. No more acceleration for us]

DS is 12, working at a grade 8th level, mainly because we slowed down and worked various subjects, like 4 languages.

 

 

Just curious to know what 4 languages your son learned, how you went about teaching them, and which programs worked or did not work for your son. Thank you.

[Grammar book advice needed for 5 year old]

I was thinking of FLL 1/2, but after reading through the threads here, I'm leaning towards MCT Grammar Island and the other books in the Island level. I know that beginning books on grammar will probably not contain diagramming, but I wanted to make sure that subsequent books of the same program would cover it, so that I know their philosophy is to teach diagramming. I was excited about Sonlight's Language Arts until the company told me that diagramming is not covered and that formal grammar is covered to the extent it improves writing. I'm sure this is fine, but I just have a preference to teach diagramming.

 

By the way you mentioned that you were skeptical after previewing the 3 MCT grammar books. Do you mean Island, Town, and Voyage? Could you explain further your opinion, if you have time?

 

Thanks for suggesting the diagramming workbook. We can always supplement if a program doesn't cover it.

[Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts]

In the books that we have purchased, the font is the same with teacher notes on the corners of pages or otherwise out of the way on the page. The RFWP website is great about instructing you in the books where you can purchase only the teacher materials versus where you need both books.

 

Thank you, that's exactly what I was hoping for and the website does provide a lot of information, including what books to purchase if on a budget, but nothing about font size. I had this concern because Miquon's Annotated Lab Notes use a small font with the student practice section. Thanks again for taking the time to respond to me.

[Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts]

I also reviewed it on my blog recently. I can't say enough good things about it, and would have no hesitation in recommending it to you.

 

I just read your review on your blog. You mentioned that the teacher manuals are essentially the same as the student book, with additional notes. Since we're on a budget, I'm planning to buy only the teacher manuals. Could you tell me if the font is much smaller in the teacher manuals in order for the student work to fit? Or is the font the same as the separate student book? I'm hoping that the font is the same so that I don't have to buy the student books separately.

[What's the best way to get a 5-year old to memorize math tables]

 

He enjoys Singapore Math and also EPGY and we just do a little bit each day (though lately it's more like a little bit every 2-3 days).

 

 

 

Thank you for your sharing your experience. By EPGY, do you mean Stanford's program for gifted children? The one that charges about $500 per class per quarter? If it is, please let me know the reasons you went with the program or at least just the advantages which you saw to motivate you to enroll your son with EPGY. What do they teach to kids in grades k-2 to justify the tuition amount that could not be covered with books such as Saxon, Singapore, etc.?

[Minimus?]

Thanks for your FLL opinion. And, no, Minimus will not ease anyone into Latin or English grammar. I was disappointed with Minimus until now, after learning the basics of Latin grammar. Minimus seems to be for a child who has been learning Latin and understands simple Latin grammar. It is fun once this happens. I also bought Latina Christiana (next level after Prima Latina), but after finishing Getting Started with Latin, I felt it would be better to move straight to Henle.

 

Also, the author of Getting Started with Latin has a website where he has posted lectures and pronunciations.

[Grammar book advice needed for 5 year old]

My daughter (almost 5) just started working on Working with Ease by Ms. Bauer. We really love it, but now I have to decide what grammar book to use. I just read about MCT on another thread, but the price seems really high for a grammar program. If people have been using MCT, please kindly let me know whether it incorporates copywork and narration, since WWE has this, and I didn't want to pay just to skip these two areas, and why they chose MCT over other programs. Also, I've considered FLL, but I haven't gone the next step of purchasing it (e.g. reviews are mixed). Of course if anyone has used and loved FLL, please let me know also. I was also thinking of Sonlight's Language Arts which incorporates copywork, narration, and grammar. For $38, it's cheaper than some other programs. However, Sonlight does not teach sentence diagramming at all in their higher level Language Arts books, so I hesitated in starting with their program; it teaches grammar for the sake of writing well.

 

Any other suggestions?

[Minimus?]

I had the same problem deciding what text to use. My daughter and I loved Getting Started with Latin by William Linney. The book is divided into daily lessons with 10 practice sentences per lesson (student will translate more than 1000 sentences by the end of the book). It's so manageable that we would frequently do 2 lessons per day. We started when she was 4 and finished in 4 months. I purchased Prima Latina and Minimus but found the former lacking in practice and the latter lacking in practice and order (not all words are translated). However, now that we are working on Henle Year 1, we're using Minimus for fun, but I don't think it's the best book to study Latin seriously. Getting Started with Latin does teach the child/adult Latin grammar, but it's not comprehensive because as the title suggests, it's getting the student interested. My daughter is almost 5 and seems to enjoy Henle, which provides a lot of practice questions.

 

I haven't heard of EL, and I was considering FLL. Could you tell me why you didn't like FLL? Were you planning to have your son study Latin grammar as a substitute for English grammar?

[What's the best way to get a 5-year old to memorize math tables]

I'm going to look into all of your suggestions. My daughter actually does understand addition, which naturally segues into multiplication. She prefers multiplication because she knows it's a faster way to add same numbers. Since we're supposed to memorize our multiplication tables, I put an emphasis on this, but I never even thought of memorizing the addition or subtraction tables; I just thought with practice, she would eventually remember them. However, I've read stories online where older kids and adults still use their fingers to add/subtract, but I prefer it if she would just know the facts. She does remember some math facts like 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s, and other random facts, but rather than arduously memorizing the others, I was hoping for something fun this time.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to offer advice.

[Help needed (bad mommy moment)]

I'm not the right person to give any advice because I'm kind of in the same situation as you. I focused on reading, math and Latin for my 5-year old daughter. I just bought Writing with Ease and we're on Week 1, Day 3 (we both love it, very short lessons, could even do 2 a day, great books). From all the research I did, I decided to go with Writing with Ease, rather than Sonlight's Language Arts, which is almost the same. It took me 2 weeks to decide this. I want to teach grammar now, but I haven't decided on which book, and I'm afraid it's going to take another 2 weeks. Your daughter is only 6, which according to WTM, is the age to start copywork, etc. Ms. Bauer does emphasize having the child read fluently and know basic math facts thoroughly, so your daughter seems to be on track. Could you let me know why you chose FLL and if you considered other programs?

 

Also, for spelling, I'm leaning heavily towards All About Spelling, but again, it could take me some time to decide.

[What's the best way to get a 5-year old to memorize math tables]

My daughter has memorized the multiplication table after she learned the concept behind it. She knows how to add and subtract, but uses her fingers. How do I go about having her memorize the addition and subtraction tables? Practice? Math family flashcards? We started with Singapore Math 1, but then I realized after having her learn addition and subtraction, she should learn multiplication since it's related to addition, so we've stopped using Singapore. We used Kumon for practice. I'm planning to have her work on division since it's related to multiplication and will be using Kumon. However, the thought of having her memorize 3 more math tables is daunting. Also, what's a good book to use to teach division? I heard that Saxon Math provides math strategies. If someone has used Saxon, please let me know whether it's Saxon Math 1 or 2 that does this. Please share your experience or any advice.