Hey there Luckymama, great to have you back and I am glad that her school year went well despite all of the loss and change that you had. So sorry about your parents. Hugs to you and welcome back!

My dd11 is going into 6th, but we finished WWS1 this year and during the summer I have allowed them to pull together their own narrations using the various topoi that we have learned so far. It really is a very interesting way of writing. It pulls you out of the basic 5 paragraph essay model and honestly makes a lot of sense. Learning all of these various topoi have been like adding tools to our box of options. So when dd says she is going to write about Jane Goodall she isn't just writing 3 paragraphs of things she knows about Jane Goodall along with an introduction & conclusion. After dd11 did her research she instead chose to include a descriptive paragraph about Jane Goodall's accomplishments & what others think about her (just two of many aspects to choose from) into a sequence of natural events about the life cycle of the chimpanzee. She could have just as easily chose a description of a place to include, or done a chronological narrative in science about the discoveries Jane Goodall made while studying the chimpanzees and instead had a descriptive paragraph about chimpanzees wrapped into a narrative mostly about Jane Goodall. She is only 11, so we are still learning and playing with sentence structure, style, and all the other things that go into good writing, but having these topoi in place just gives you options to pick from.

My library allowed me to extend my check out dates as a home schooler. So I was able to check out SOTW texts, the tests to go with it, and the activity guide to copy from. Basically, anything that was not being requested by another indiv. I could keep for a while. Dr. Nebels BFSU (Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding) is an amazing little science text. I got it from the library, but you can download the kindle version for about $10. MEP is a very good math curriculum, and we used it alongside MM for many years in elementary. Even the MM Blue Series can be downloaded per subject for just a few dollars if you notice there are areas you want to work on in math. Every kind of library book imaginable is also available to you. Just reading each night to them from a classic book will be huge!

I think the first 16 weeks or so of WWS you can definitely add some other type of writing. We used Classical Composition Narrative with it for the first 1/2 of the year. I will say the last half of WWS steps up and the writing takes longer and you will find a week stretching into 2 weeks or more depending on how much you want to research your topic before hand and also how much practice your dc have had with note taking for reports. That just all took a lot longer than it says it will in the book. I was using it with an 8 & 10 year old at the time, and I will say that having done the research a few more times this summer they are speeding up with it, but when it all starts to come together expect to spend more time on it.

It really is a great program. By the end of it you are just pulling all the different sections of WWS together and they are writing. We could honestly spend the entire year practicing just the skills we have learned. We loved MCT as well. Finished all of Island and Town, and this year I am going to have to pick through the Voyage level to see what we can get to besides CE2 and Practice Voyage. My question is how much to focus on grammar beyond what we have already done with MCT, SC, AAL. I have thought about adding something in, but it would have to be something quick or oral we could all sit down and run through together.

Is this what you are talking about? http://sotw-videolinks.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html That is amazing! I would love SOTW Vol 3 & 4 video links .. am I missing a link to those, or did she only do Vol 2?

SBP - Can you tell me how you help your dc with their organizational and study skills? I have bought dd11 (who will be going to middle school this year after 2 years of HS) a daily planner and have told her I expect her to write each subject and its assignment in there daily just so I can keep up with whether she is getting her assignments in, etc. I swear .. I can't remember a day in my young life that my parents ever helped me with my homework or checked to see that I was doing it. I think I am guilty of the micro-managing these past two years for sure .. but in doing it I have TRIED to create a more organized mind. The main issue that I see is that PS teachers rarely teach organizational skills or study skills and since the students are with them primarily during the day it's hard to figure out how to keep it going. Are some kids just innately more organized? I would love to be given a few tips on how to manage this coming year and what my role is.

I am not sure how many weeks the beta testers will be given of WWS2 though, and the release date is set for sometime next spring so we may find ourselves writing narratives as we did in WWS1 at home during our after schooling. I am anxious to see WWS2 though! SC & CE don't take us very long but I have found them both to be so unique and really worth the time. Math is there because I have zero faith in the teacher or the curriculum (Math Connects) so we need to take it a step further. Science is just plain fun .. McHenry makes it fun! I think we will also be listening to SOTW audio tapes and anything we watch on tv usually has a science or history spin on it .. Nova, History Channel, etc. It's just a matter of setting the priorities. dd11 wants to ride her horses a lot as well, and I can't factor in afterschooling, 2 hours of volleyball practice M-F AND horse riding .. so we will just do afterschooling and horse riding to start off.

I will be happy to share. ;-) I suspect the writing there will be based on more of a 5 paragraph essay style, but I know 8th graders who have yet to learn how to write an appropriate thesis or develop an argument. I think most of the kids in dd11s class are still learning how to summarize a book, or write a short narrative including 3 things about a subject which they break up by paragraph. WWS this past year was an absolute breath of fresh air for me. dd11 was writing 8-9 paragraph narratives about Marie Antoinette, or the life cycle of an octopus. lol. This summer she is just finishing up her own choice of writing a sequence of natural events about chimpanzees. She interjected a desc of place (Gombi reserve I think) and desc. of a person (Jane Goodall) and chose aspects about her to write about .. her achievements, what others thought of her, etc. in the paragraph. I know for a fact they won't teach writing in PS as good as SWB has written WWS.

We are also entering the realm of PS again alongside afterschooling. I realized all the same things that I have read here about the why of putting them back in. My dd11 will be in 6th grade (beginning in a new middle school) and they have decided to move her into the 7th grade pre-alg class. We are working through MM6A this summer and will start AoPS Pre-Alg for afterschooling. I also want to keep WWS and will hopefully be beta-testing WWS2 this fall with both my students. My ds9 will be doing math a grade ahead, but I am not so in love with either math program to think that just because they are at the right level they will be receiving the right instruction in math. Anyway, I realized that dd11 needed more competition to really start to push her. She has a few smart kids in the class that I know will push her. ds9 needed more of a push in a different way. He works slowly, and I am hoping the idea of missing recess, etc. with his friends will get him to rev up the pace a bit. Other than that, I honestly just needed the break. I have a DH that is turning 40 this year, it's our 15 year anniv. and I want to spend some time nurturing him for a change. ;-) AND .. there is ds4.5 .. a wild man. It's his turn for my attention and he is going to be learning how to read this year! We'll see how it goes, but I definitely plan to continue with - WWS AoPS Pre Alg for dd11 MM4 for ds9 Sentence Composing Caesar's English 2 Practice Voyage McHenry Science I am considering a grammar curriculum too, but can't quite decide yet .. so for now we will stick with the above. My only concern is trying to figure out how to fit it all in. We won't be playing sports to begin with so that we can find a schedule that works for us. I can't foresee lowering my expectations with regards to their education just because I am sending them back to PS, so we will have to make time to afterschool.

With regards to tackling problems with ideas and how to get her to just start writing MORE, I would consider using Writing Tales or Classical Composition Fable. We used both and it created a love for writing without the stress of figuring out the entire story themselves! We have since moved on to more academic writing, but just getting a child to love writing will go a long way with her beginning to develop her own voice and style of writing.

Hi Ruth. What an awesome experience to be able to follow you along on this journey. Thanks so much for sharing with all of us. Yes, I would personally love to have you add closer views of the graphs. It would be helpful for me to see how they are constructed and read things a bit more closely. I also loved the live presentations. They did a great job! I love hearing these American kids with their NZ accents! ;-) I grew up in Bermuda, so I remember sounding completely different at this age as well! ;-) They seemed so well prepared. Wonderful eye contact! Keep it up long enough so I can show my dc. They have oral presentations to give next month for their upcoming trip to the local fair with their chickens!

We have been using this curriculum for cursive instruction .. by grade level .. and it is self directed, interesting copywork, and gets the job done. http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/031231/65f977684c6365e6e59de194

I did VL1 with my dc this year, and we are going to back up a bit and redo parts of it using Lingua Latina as per the schedule that VL gives out using them both. I would have LOVED to add in Henle, but our school will only pay for the Lingua so I will start there. Having said that, I felt like VL1 on its own moved rather quickly. They understood the material, but I think slowing it down with either one (henle or lingua) will be beneficial. I love his sense of humor and the kids both enjoyed the video lessons.

I did VL1 with my dc this year, and we are going to back up a bit and redo parts of it using Lingua Latina as per the schedule that VL gives out using them both. I would have LOVED to add in Henle, but our school will only pay for the Lingua so I will start there. Having said that, I felt like VL1 on its own moved rather quickly. They understood the material, but I think slowing it down with either one (henle or lingua) will be beneficial. I love his sense of humor and the kids both enjoyed the video lessons.

Halycon, how did you like it? Did you decide to buy the actual hands on manipulative's with it?

I am bumping this hoping someone might respond as I have the same questions.

Also, are their other lessons they should probably do at CR prior to the Algebra ones? Is this your favorite beginner algebra video series so far, or have you used others that you have enjoyed?

Beth, can you tell me how you might get started with Crewton Ramone? I am looking at the website and I can't really figure out where Start Here is .. and then Do This Lesson Next and so on. I have ds9 who is done with MM3 and working his way through Beast Academy right now. He would enjoy learning algebra using the manipulatives and worksheets while watching the video, but I can't figure out where the actual lessons are. Thanks!

I would think both MEP and perhaps signing him up for an acct on Khan Academy and having him earn badges from the practice would be fun for him?

I am with you .. I rarely know how much they can take of the information and still have it be their own. I understand direct quotes, but I feel like with the little bit of knowledge that I have of copia sentence skills I would have to see a sentence that had the 'information' without being exactly what the author intended. It would practically have to be turned into common knowledge for me to be comfortable not citing it directly. That said .. I would think an indirect quote is exactly as you are stating .. I just don't know for sure about the citation of it.

um .. I am going to take a stab at it, but I know so little about how to critique. I will tell you what I might tell my dc when they turn in papers. I would probably have her work on the section 'they simply assumed .. " and ask to be more descriptive in who assumed that the orbits were circular. I wouldn't let them start a sentence with so .. as "So when Tycho died .." I have been trying to get them to understand the difference between conversational writing and academic writing and anything that remotely sounds slang we remove. I would just have them start the sentence 'When Tycho died .." I would remove the Then and just say .. 'Four years after .. and not end it with an ! unless she is wanting to have it yelled when told aloud. ;-) He discovered this on this concept, which he stated as ... could be said a bit more clearly as well .. it's a little wordy. Sometimes my kids get a notion to create these confusing sentences and I have to back them up and ask what is the main thing they are trying to get across? I would probably get them to a place of just stating .. Kepler was 'moved by an exceedingly powerful desire for knowledge of the heavens' when lead him to formulate ... I think the last section is good. She told the story in order, and it is clear she knows the subject enough to write intelligently about it. It was a chronological narrative about a scientific discovery if I remember correct. It's fairly early in the program still and all that I am talking about will come in time. It wasn't meant to nit pick at all, just point out what I might say if I was correcting my own dc's work. WWS has been a great program and really stretched their minds. I have really enjoyed it, but I must admit it took a while to truly love where we were headed with it. Initially I couldn't grasp the concept of taking someone else's notes and having them write a paper on it. They didn't CARE about the topic and knew next to nothing about it, but once I started adding in extra readings or youtube videos it helped immensely. My goal with them is to get them to be able to make a connection with their reader that engages them and makes them want to read further. I've been working a lot with transitions between paragraphs. Yesterday I came up with the analogy of taking their grandmother on a tour of a garden and being in the rose garden .. describing the roses, etc. then immediately jumping to the Zinnia beds without any transition. Something like, "The roses have been lovely this year, here is my prize winning red rose that is ... " "Zinnias are amazing you know .. we have blue, purple, red & yellow zinnias." lol. I said that grandma wouldn't be able to keep up with them moving at that pace, they needed to meander their way over to the Zinnia bed... perhaps prepare grandma a bit first. "While the roses have been amazing to grow this year, I must admit that my favorite part of the garden is the Zinnia bed." or something like that .. I think I came up with better versions on the fly yesterday. ha ha .. Alright.. there is my two cents worth.

The above all together would not be considered fun or light in my opinion. It will be 5 days a week for us and more in depth. They like Latin though so they are fine with the extra workload. Visual Latin alone is rather fun though. So was Lively Latin 1 for us the year before.

I typically did 1 weeks worth of lessons .. Grammar, Sentences, Reading & Translation to 3x per week .. M - W- F. This worked well until the translations began to be several pages long. Then it seemed like it took 1 1/2 weeks at the above pace. I really love his style, but in my opinion it would be better slowed down and have another curriculum brought in to back up the work learned in his DVDs and give them a chance to practice it further before moving on. At that pace it might take several weeks for one lesson. Next year we plan to bring in Henle Latin 1, some Lingua Latina and review about 1/2 the material in Visual Latin 1 alongside it. The kids will enjoy his teaching style. They can translate easily, but they don't yet KNOW the grammar of Latin and that is what I want to hone in on.

I wouldn't say there are any negatives to it. We are finishing up with Visual Latin 1 soon. He is very entertaining, and my only thought would be that depending on the age of your child you might consider working through Henle Latin 1st Year or Lingua Latina alongside it. The Visual Latin page .. perhaps the blog area .. actually give you a schedule for how all of this might line up. We will be reviewing concepts and about 1/2 the lessons along with bringing in these new materials starting in August. I just think it might move a little quickly if you keep at the weekly pace without added practice work.