Very sneaky Ruth .. I like it. ;-)

Thank you all for the great ideas, I am enjoying this idea more and more. It will be just different enough to make it very interesting for them. Oh.. and Capt Uhura I found the reference to Indiana Jones on Page 20 in the new edition of Image Grammar.

I know it was in the old Image Grammar. I will have to look now in the new one to see. I haven't dug in enough to look at the rubrics though.. good idea. This is what I am saying.. we are so busy with CC and WWS that I feel like I am missing the few key things that I wanted to concentrate on with their sentences. I am hoping by stopping for a bit and focusing in more closely on it that when we pick back up with our normal curriculums we will have a few more creative tools in our tool boxes.

Me too.. I think we will just stop Latin, Spelling, Vocab work, traditional grammar, science & history for the week .. perhaps even 10 days like Paula and work on all sorts of writing and then do math after lunch. I just have to dig around and see how I want this to go.

Oh and we have been reading 'My Family and Other Animals' by Gerald Durrell and just started The Christmas Carol .. so we are getting plenty of descriptive literature reading .. except all dd10 can say is, "Boy they sure are good writers!"

I remember this!!! I needed to go back through it though and see if there was anything I could apply to my dc.. thank you for the link! I think my main goal with this is to get dd10 to start creating sentences that don't ALWAYS start with the subject of the sentence first. I would love to have her begin creating more intricate sentences. We have been learning about participial phrases, gerand phrases, appositives, etc. Now we just need to implement them. I know image grammar has good exercises... things that might help us break up the 'just writing' time. I remember something about watching an excerpt from Indiana Jones and putting it with the written version from the book and seeing how the camera zoomed in and took the information from the book and brought it to life. I am not concerned right now about essays or getting paragraphs straight.. just creating better sentences. Anyway... hopefully I will come up with something. I would love to hear more suggestions though. I am off to finish reading your writing clinic posts Paula. ;-)

Oh yes.. we would love that. It's always nice to see another perspective on the same assignment.

I would love to really dig in and work with the kids using Image Grammar, CW Homer/CC, and or WWS for an entire week. We also use MCT Town and Killgallon. I would love to set it up in a way that wasn't too tedious, but engaged them and created a fun atmosphere of writing, copia skills, possibly reading literature (say... A Christmas Carol) mixed in with writing work. I know that Image Grammar would do a brilliant job of this if I could bring in the movie selections mixed with the books to show how the zoom in technique works. I just can't seem to dig into all of this when there are so many other subjects to get to and would love to see what would happen if we did a whole week of writing (and maybe math in the afternoon).

Jane, There is a WWS samples post at the writing board started by Capt. Uhura, as well as one specifically about this assignment Wk 12, Day 4 that Roxy started.

We use it as our main curriculum. I use the Light Blue Series Curriculum for Grade 3 & Grade 5 levels right now. We have been using MM for two years now and it's working really well for us. I downloaded the pdfs for their grade level, along with the tests & cumulative reviews onto their laptops and they complete the work on lined paper. Occasionally I may find myself printing a page (multiplication table, geometry page, etc) but for the most part they work all the problems on lined paper. It has done amazing things for dd10s organizational skills and I noticed that after a month or really working to get things neat and tidy, most of her answers are now correct... so it has made a huge difference using it this way. We do two pages a day and if they get done within an hour I add in a page from MEP at their level. I also use the additional fact sheet generator page from MM to give them extra practice in measurement conversions, multiplication or whatever we are on and I think they need extra work in. I think it is a brilliant math curriculum and have been very pleased with it.

Yes, I had a chance this past weekend to read through the first two 6th grade KISS levels and I liked what I saw.

Halycon, I am living vicariously through you for the next few weeks as we finish up the ALL sample. We are in the middle of figuring out the diagramming with it and also doing Practice Town Sentences and Killgallon, so we are getting a lot of grammar. Once I am finished with ALL I plan to move into KISS, but I am enjoying hearing how it's going for you!

No.. we are a work in progress for sure. ;-) The 8 year old tags along because I can't perceive how to teach him writing separately. He does math at his level, and comes along for the ride with every other subject. ha I think the main thing that I am noticing with dd10 is needing to work on copia skills. She has a tendency to start with the subject of the sentence as the first word in every sentence she writes. For today's assignment - Wk 14 Day 1 she summarized the story in that fashion. So we stopped and looked at each sentence and decided if she might retell it another way, possibly using a participial phrase or gerund phrase or whatever. She is getting pretty good with the figurative language and similes within the stories from using CC, but I am excited to start copia skills with them. I do think that it is a bit early for us to have all that in place AND a thesis, but I absolutely love hearing how Lewlma is teaching it to her older student.

Great ideas Ruth. If you post the sample in the writing boards can you add this all to it. I love the idea of using CC's retelling the story backwards or in media res to change things up. My dc already know how to do this within the fable story, but it would be interesting to do it on a WWS story. I loved the Ivan the Terrible essays you found. Oh how I wished my dc were old enough to grasp this kind of idea and work within a thesis. We just aren't there yet, and honestly I am not all together sure how to even discuss this with them.

My 5th grade dd is currently combining CC Fable & WWS. She does days 1 − 4 of WWS M-Th, and then any rewrites on F. WIth CC Fable we work through one lesson each day, but we don't get an entire fable done in one week. The lessons are set up for 10 days and that is about how long it takes us to work through each lesson. Currently we are on Week 14 of WWS and Lesson 8 of CC Fable. It is going well so far for us. We spend one hour on writing each day, which equates to about 30 min. in WWS and 30 min in CC Fable. We also do 30 min of grammar each day.

My iMac did this once and wouldn't identify that there was even a disk in there. I just turned it all off and restarted it and once I had done that it identified the disk and I was able to eject it.

Listening in. Great info!

Yes, I look at it like I am integrating PE with our school day. ha. We still do all the local organized sports, but this helps to work out some of their excess energy. Not every kid is a push up kind of kid, but mine sure are.

I will say that I just won't work with belligerent or moody kids. I give them a warning, pushups, jumping jacks etc. If it continues their name goes on the board for the 'super' to talk to them later on that night (dh), and they get extra chores along with whatever else he deems necessary. I guess I am just not capable of accepting their worst selves on a daily basis. I love them dearly though, and because I want to enjoy this experience I just won't allow bad behavior. Also, they all go to their rooms for 'rest' time every day from 1:30 ish - 3:00. The 3 year old takes a nap and the other two read or finish work from that day. It gives me time to workout, everyone time to take a break from each other and then when 3:00 hits we all jump up and get piano, guitar, chores done and then get onto other things! I know I have bad days on occasion, so I must be in a generous mood to say that for the most part I am enjoying it. The sometimes bad attitude that dd has is something she would have regardless of who was dealing with it, and so I am grateful that it's not the ps teachers dealing as they were only making things worse. Oh and ds8 is definitely in the 8 mode that everyone else is speaking of. The days are few like that, but I have definitely noticed a change while I can see dd10 coming out of the very thing that ds8 seems to just be starting. ha Apparently I am not alone!!!

Original Fable - Two men were traveling together, when a Bear suddenly met them on their path. One of them climbed up quickly into a tree and concealed himself in the branches. The other, seeing that he must be attacked, fell flat on the ground , and when the Bear came up and felt him with his snout, and smelt him all over, he held his breath, and feigned the appearance of death as much as he could. The Bear soon left him, for it is said he will not touch a dead body. When he was quite gone, the other Traveler descended from the tree, and jocularly inquired of his friend what it was the Bear had whispered in his ear. “He gave me this advice, “ his companion replied. “Never travel with a friend who deserts you at the approach of danger.” Figures of Description - chorographia, chronographia and prosopographia Dd10 - The Bear and the Two Travelers By Aesop Retold by ... One spring day, when the bears and the other creatures were just waking from their long slumber during the cold months of winter, two men named Bob and John suddenly came upon a hungry bear who had just awoke. Bob quickly climbed up a tree to escape, not even thinking about John whom he had left in the undergrowth. John lay down on the ground hoping the bear, a Prince of Black Bears and a very ferocious one at that, would leave him alone. The bear, being of royal blood, did not like to eat dead meat. But John wasn’t really dead, he just acted like he was. That was enough to convince the bear though. He turned and trundled away, leaving John alone. Seeing the whole thing, Bob came out of the tree after making sure the bear was gone and asked John in a joking tone what it was that the bear had whispered in his ear. John, his face solemn, brow creased, and eyes clouded with anger, growled, “Never travel with a friend who deserts you at the approach of danger.” Ds8 - The Bear and the Two Travelers By Aesop Retold by ... One warm spring day two lads were walking through the forest. They were jumping, singing, and telling each other stories. The happened to forget that the bears of the forest were just waking up. The lads soon came upon a family of Grizzly bears. With sleepy eyes and hungry expressions, the bears slowly lumbered out of their den. When they saw the male bear, one man fled up a tree and the other man fell down on the ground. The bear ran at the body that was on the ground, he sniffed it, smelled it, and rolled it, but eventually walked away not willing to touch what he thought was a dead body. After the bear was gone, the scared man in the tree came down and jokingly asked what the bear had whispered in his ear. The other man replied, “Never travel with a friend who deserts you at the approach of danger.” ** I can see that ds got a bit mixed up with his story using bears / bear. We discussed it, but I didn't have him change it as he is 8 and other than that I thought he did a great job.

You know the one thing that I never expected was that after I brought them home from ps I would still be dealing with behavior disruptions and such. It's not that my kids were perfect at home before that, it's just that I assumed when it was time to school they would just get down to business. ;-) I have noticed a pattern though. There are 'certain' times of the month that I am unlikely to work with it better than others. Some weeks we discuss and they turn it around.. and other's I am a lunatic. ha. Well, maybe not that bad. One thing that I have noticed that has helped us is that we have immediate consequences to bad behavior. So, if dd isn't wanting to stop interrupting, or if ds is pouting over something I stop and have them give me 25 pushups or 25 jumping jacks. It sort of re-adjusts their attitude to know that 'something' is going to happen to them and the consequence isn't going to be me yelling at them. Just the other night (completely unrelated to school time) my dh took both kids to the local gym for bball practice. He is helping coach dd this year and wanted to work out a schedule before hand. She wasn't much in the mood for running lines and would just walk them if ds got ahead of her. So, the alternative isn't to 'walk' the lines, but for every line you want to walk you get to stop and do 25 pushups at it and then when you finally decide to run them you can stop doing pushups. I have to make it uncomfortable for them.. not for me. I have to deal with THEIR specific currency. For dd it's her horses and horse riding time or having a friend over. I think part of homeschooling is just going to be developing their behaviors and helping them become more appropriate to send out into the world. Each child is so vastly different, even within the same family, that the same thing will not work for both. However, instead of having the teacher in public school address it, I get to. Not my favorite part of the job for sure though! I told them both the other day when they weren't paying attention, that they were more than welcome to go back to ps. It really wasn't meant as a threat. I just wanted them to understand that I didn't grow up in the world intending to be a teacher. This wasn't my 'thing' so to speak, so my patience level for their antics was not the same as someone who loves a room full of wild children. However, I could teach them what they wanted and needed to know. I could fill their minds up with all sorts of interesting things. I could give them the space and time to develop their own interests on their own timetable. But I could ONLY do it if they came to the table prepared to work and ready to listen. Otherwise they could take their chances that some other teacher would be more patient or do a better job. ;-)

Snickerdoodle, are you using the Older Beginners or the Homer A & B?

I do think this is so important and something that we haven't concentrated on as of yet. You are absolutely right though in saying that the verbs and the adjectives you choose really set the tone of the whole paper and help carry your 'theme' along. Whether that theme is the destructive elements of a volcano, or the surprise and astonishment within the Titanic story, you definitely have a better narrative when you carry it throughout the paper. At least in my opinion.. and I am a humble beginner. lol The two room description examples are a good example, as just by changing the adjectives and verbs it creates an entirely different mood. I don't think that is something many kids will innately pick up on.

Deanna of Narrow Gate Academy just provided new information about what the Homer Core provides in case anyone is interested to learn how you might use just Homer Core - the link is below. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3348505#post3348505

I just emailed you a few things Roxanne.