Well, vomit certainly does show movement. LOL I think as long as he is actually answering your questions and doing the assignments, I wouldn't try to censor his content unless it was truly profane. The comments he made about the art and such are at least honest opinions and observations, even if they are negative and not what you want to hear. Maybe ask him to explain more? Ask him questions like why does he think Jesus wouldn't have abs? He was a carpenter, after all. Try to engage him where he's at instead of expecting the answers you want to hear. :)

Thank you! I did buy my BW stuff from HSBC, thankfully. Such a good deal!

Subbing because I think this combo might be where we are headed (I am still reading through TWJ).

We have been loosely using PLL and, while I like the idea of it, I do find many of the selections uninspired. Any time there is an Aesop Fable, for example, I find the same one in our copy of Milo Winter's version for DS to read instead since they are so well written. But I do like the loose guidelines it gives and I like that it brings up things that I wouldn't think to do on my own. I did end up buying some back issues of the Arrow, The Writer's Jungle, and Jot it Down, which I still need to print out and read. I do like what I've seen so far, though. :)

Thank you. So I guess it's something wrong on my computer.

What do you mean by Adobe status? Does it mean I need to upgrade or something?

So clicking around some more, it seems that the practice books are the ones coming up black. The lesson plans are fine. Littlelzumi, did you access any practice book pages?

Anyone else having issues with viewing the pdf files on the MEP site? I just when to print the next section of DS's math that I need and the PDFs are showing up all black with just a bit of writing in white. Is this just my computer, or is everyone having this problem?

Can someone compare these two programs for me? I understand they are set up differently (Arrow being monthly assignments based on classic books) but, from what I can tell, it looks like they teach much of the same stuff (copywork, dictation, poetry, light grammar, spelling and word usage, etc.) Is this accurate? If cost were not an issue, would you prefer on over the other?

Thank you so much! I do not like the idea of identifying mis-spelled words, either, with my very visual learner. And I want the spelling rules the be more explicit, as well. So it looks like Rod and Staff it is! I had pretty much already settled on R&S, but I just saw E-M and liked the looks of it (and the ability to purchase through Amazon), but the issues you had are deal breakers for me, as well.

From what I can tell by looking at the samples, these programs look quite similar. Has anyone seen or used both of these who can compare/contrast them for me? TIA!

We love MEP here, too. It's working beautifully for my math adept literal-thinking visual-spatial 3rd grader as well as my more absract-thinking, creative, story-loving 1st grader. I have on my shelf: Miquon, RightStart games and abacus activites books and CWP and I have rarely felt the need to use any of that. We do use the abacus and c-rods with MEP all the time, though.

The only story I remember him really freaking out about was the Minotaur story (where they sacrifice 7 boys and 7 girls every year to the minotaur). Mostly he just thought it was boring and complained everytime I brought it out. I was going to try CHOW instead.... it seems a bit more mild.

I agree that he hasn't been ready and that's why I've been putting off History studies (we tried SOTW in second grade and he was not a fan). But what should I do in the meantime? I was really hoping to continue our history cycle. I wonder if the Greek Myths guide from MP would help?

OK, I'm (mostly) kidding.... we do have fun together with Math and Sciency stuff, but trying to do History and Greek Myths has him bawling many days. :glare: Yesterday we started D'auliare's Greek Myths and he lost it when Cronus swallowed his children, even when I told him they were not dead and would come back out later. :chillpill: He cried during a Shakespeare story recently, too. And during Our Island Story. He seems to do OK with Fairy Tales (even violent stuff like Ali Baba and the 40 Theives). Actually, now that I think about it, he's mostly gets upset about bad things happening to innocents (babies, children and martyrs) which is understandable. He's just very literal and black and white in his thinking. He'll be 9 next week, though. I can't avoid unpleasent topics with him forever. But I also want to protect his innocence and I don't want to force him to read stories he hates. What's funny is that his younger sister was listening in and she was loving the stories! She's only in first grade, though, and I don't want to do greek myths with her formally yet. Can anyone familiar with D'aulaire's tell me if lots of bad things happen to innocents throughout, or if it's more rare (I admit that I am not familiar with Greek myths at all) I'm just trying to decide if we should press on with it, or go in a different direction. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I've been spending time on here reading about various language arts programs trying to plan what I want to use with my DS (9) and my DD (6) through 8th grade. I know plans can change, but I would like to at least have some sort of a plan in place. DS is a natural reader and speller and has beautiful handwriting, but getting him to write more than 2-3 sentences a day is like pulling teeth. He is very literal and likes instructions to be spelled out so he knows what is expected of him. I lean more CM than classical. So far with him we've done: K - he had already taught himself to read by K, so we just read together and practiced forming letters. 1st - reading books, CM-style narrations, HWT then Copywork and a bit of WWE 1 2nd - reading books, narrations, copywork and the first half of PPL 3rd - So far, we've continued in PLL, started going through Wheeler's Elementary Speller, continued with reading and narrations, adding in a bit of WWE-style dictation and HWT cursive. I would like to finish PLL this year, be more consistent about using WWE concepts across the curriculum, and go through The Sentence Family when he's finished with his cursive book. 4th - start ILL, finish Wheeler's and then go through English from the Roots up, continue WWE skills, and diagram sentences/reveiw skills learned in TSF 5th - continue ILL, continue WWE skills, maybe start Latin?, continue sentence diagramming (Rex Barks?) 6th - finish ILL, finish WWE (across curriculum), continue Latin and diagramming 7th - Start WWS, start Analytical Grammar, continue Latin 8th - continue WWS, finish AG, continue Latin This would all be in addition to reading through the years at Ambleside Online, discussing and narrating as we go. Does that sound like a good plan for a bright but writing-phobic, linear-thinking boy? For DD, she seems to be very different from DS. So far she has needed a very incramental approach to learning phonics/spelling, but she is very creative, loves stories and is really good at narrations. So for her, AAR is working really well so far, so we will continue with that, adding in AAS when we move on to AAR 2. And she is working through the 1st grade book of HWT and when she is done with that, I'll just have her do copywork from our AO readings. We are also doing a Waldorfish letter unit using the book The Wise Enchanter. She will also probably sit in on The Sentence Family with DS this year. And next year (2nd grade), I was thinking of having her do the Classical Writing Primers and continue with AAR/AAS. After that, I think we might continue through the levels of CW and and adding in Latin once she's done with AAS. Does that sound like a good plan for a very creative, big-picture learner? Thanks in advance for any thoughts you may have!

We don't use any other readers yet because my DD is still at the "sound out every single word even if you just read it" stage and it's tiring for her. If I were more organized about library use (as in, if I could actually manage to get books back on time consistantly) then I would get her some extra readers if I thought she needed them. But a big part of the program's appeal to me is that everything is included. I don't think having them is limiting, though. I do have her try to do some reading sometimes in her HWT workbook and many of those are words we haven't covered yet in AAR. But I just tell her what they are and consider it good exposure. If she was breezing through the program and eager, though, I think having the readers would be helpful to know what to look for in deciding what other readers with which to supplement.

The only foods that truly say "Thanksgiving" to me (because we rarely have them any other time) are turkey, pumpkin pie and deviled eggs. I don't dislike any other food on your list, though.

I am doing AAR 1 with my first grader and it's going really well! I love the layout; it's so incredibly easy to teach. And I love the incremental approach because I know everything will be covered. The quality of the materials is top notch and the readers are adorable and well written. And I love that most of the program is non-consumable and can be reused for my next two kids. In short, I think this program is absolutely worth the money!

I'm sorry if this is too off topic, but I was wondering if Serl's Intermediate Language Lessons would prepare a student well enough to jump right into WWS?

Well, MEP is all integrated, so you aren't going to find pages of practice just on addition/subtraction. I know some people supplement with it, but I don't think it lends itself well to that, IMO. We use it as our main program and love it.

Thank you all for your thoughts! My first grader is doing AAR, so we already have the board and the letter tiles. When she is a bit further along with her reading, I will probably do AAS with her, so maybe I can just have DS tag along every once in a while. We have a vintage copy of Wheeler's Elementary Speller and I really do like it. The poetry/copywork is top notch and the words are arranged by rules, though they are not specifically taught. I have been using the HTTS manual to teach the rules as they come up in Wheeler's, but because it's not all laid out nice and neat, it hasn't been getting done as often as I would like. I will continue to do that with him, though, at least for a few more weeks, because I don't have any extra curriculum money available right now. How important is it to memorize the rules? Doesn't AAS put a focus on memorizing the rules? I know HTTS does.

I am loving AAR level 1 with my 1st grader. I'm sure other (cheaper) programs might be just as effective, but I really appreciate the ease of use and the quality of the materials. I have two other kids after DD to use this program with, so the cost really evens out in the long run, since most of the program is non-consumable.

We, also, use AO and just started workboxes. So far, they have really helped my oldest be more independent with his schoolwork, which is what I really needed. Today we had 9 workboxes for DS (I use hanging file folders in a milk crate) and they included: 1. HWT cursive (I like to start with something completely independent so he can get going successfully while I'm still getting ready for the morning) 2. Child's Story Bible (we read this as a family over breakfast) 3. Math (MEP) 4. Our Island Story (I read, he narrated) 5. PLL 6. Just So Stories (I read, he narrated) 7. Science Lab in the Supermarket (he read to me) 8. Picture Study (w/ DD as well) 9. 45 minute silent reading of his choice. For the most part, things stay in the same work boxes from day to day. Obviously, #4,6, and 7 are changed daily to the different weekly AO readings and I alternate PLL with Wheeler's Speller. Also, #8 varies greatly from picture study to nature study to science experiments to art projects, etc. All the other boxes are just "do the next thing" I don't do workboxes for DD yet because everything she does is dependent on me right now. I just do her lessons during DS's independent or break times. Oh, and our "boxes" are just numbered. I don't label by subject, nor do I use the little velcro labels. HTH! :001_smile:

Oh, see, shows how much I know... :tongue_smilie: do you still think it will help with his ability to successfully sound out bigger words eventually?