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MGK

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Everything posted by MGK

  1. I'm looking for a grammar curriculum that is formatted like ACT test questions. My daughter is currently working through the English portion of the Kaplan ACT prep book, but that won't last a full year. She has an excellent grammar background and just needs review to be ready for spring testing. Surely someone has designed a curriculum like this! Any ideas?
  2. I'm teaching A & P to 5th and 6th graders using this book. I think it's well written, interesting and great for that age group. The "experiments" so far are simple, and illustrate the concepts nicely. Since there aren't tests, I'm giving weekly vocabulary quizzes.
  3. Thanks for the advice. I will allow them to use index cards during tests, and hope they absorb the definitions through working proofs.
  4. Do all the definitions need to be memorized in geometry? How about the postulates? The text indicated that students could look up these things in the back of the book, but then we encountered definitions on the test. Thanks in advance!
  5. Have you looked at Christian Liberty Press Streams of Civilization? The books are easy to read, great for outlining, and would not take too much time out of the day.
  6. Key Lime Pie is sooo easy and delicious - perfect summer dessert 1/2 cup lime juice 1 can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated) 3-4 egg yolks Beat egg yolks, add lime juice and milk. Beat until thick and creamy. Pour into a graham cracker crust and bake at 350 deg. for 15 minutes. Cool. You can use the discarded egg whites to make a meringue or top with whipped cream. Yumm!
  7. 8 hours a week will be plenty of time for TOG. I would tweak your schedule a bit: Monday - Geography and give the Writing Aids assignment. It won't matter how much reading they have done over the weekend. Tuesday - Complete reading assignments, begin A & T questions. Your younger children won't have these questions, so they could do vocab/people that day. Wednesday-Finish questions, work on timeline for your older student, youngers work on lap book if you wish. (hmmm...maybe vocab/people could be incorporated into the lapbook...knock both of those out at once) Thursday - Literature worksheets and discussion. You should have time for both. The worksheets really don't take that long, and neither will the discussion given your children's ages. Friday - all those lovely extras TOG is so famous for. Pick and choose! Some weeks the reading load will be light enough to do many of the extras. Other weeks are more rigorous. The curriculum tells you what to expect in the "week ahead" notes, so you'll know how many extras to fit in. Your children may not see the projects as "school" because they are fun, so they could be an evening/weekend activity if that works for your family. You won't be able to do everything - keep the extras enjoyable, and have fun learning along with your kids!
  8. Julie, Had your son finished the LitCT Vol. 3 book when he took the Latin III exam? We will probably be 2/3 of the way through the book in March, and are covering Roman mythology and history in a separate class.
  9. It is scheduled as an alternate resource for rhetoric level. If you want the page numbers to line up, you need the combined 6th edition.
  10. It's not a traditional map, but have you seen this one from Target It looks neat and has gotten great reviews.
  11. What is SW? Is that Spell to Write and Read? I've been lurking on this thread as I plan our 1st grade year also. :001_smile: Melanie
  12. My daughter is a rising 10th grader. We have decided to stick with TOG for high school because of the book selections and awesome teacher's notes and discussion guides. Last year, I finally decided to do all my planning and book purchasing in the summer so that when life got busy, we would stay on track. I reformatted the SAP pages, printed the maps, and put everything in a binder organized by week. I put sticky notes in the reading assignment pages with reminders to request library books. This year we will not have as much time to devote to history, so to simplify things further, we will use the Spielvogel text as our primary reading resource, and will supplement with the other TOG suggestions. One of TOG's greatest assets is the flexibility built into the program. Of course, maybe I'm like Brigid in NC and just love the planning part, and that's why TOG works for me. :tongue_smilie: Best of luck planning the high school years! Melanie
  13. We use TOG for history, and this year I added in TC DVD's during our study of Greece. We are doing the same with Roman history this summer, and will watch the Middle Ages lectures in the fall. I have found that covering the topic in our reading BEFORE watching the lecture on the same topic has been most beneficial to us. Sometimes, the lecturer seemed to assume that we had some knowledge of the subject. Also, the lectures tended to move at a fast pace, and it was easier to "keep up" if the topics were familiar to us. Like Kendall, I do not line up the topics, but I do plan start the DVD's after we are well into our course of study, and if I see that the lecture is on a topic/place/person that my children are unfamiliar with, I will take a few minutes prior to the lecture to give an introduction. That has been my experience with a 9th and 7th grader this year. I'm sure there are many ways to approach this. I should also mention that we used TC lectures alongside our reading of Homer's Odyssey and always watched the DVD first, then did the reading. Vandiver's lectures were so thorough that we had no problem following along, and her insights made the reading more enjoyable...but for history, we will continue to read and study first, then watch as a review/reinforcement. Hope that helps, Melanie
  14. I'm not the OP, but thank you for taking the time to explain this. It was incredibly helpful.
  15. This topic came up on the boards a while back and we ended up buying this dictionary based on the recommendations of a few people: http://www.amazon.com/College-English-Dictionary-Revised-Paperback/dp/B0047UJJZQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306635955&sr=8-1 We have been pleased with it - It looks like the price has gone up on Amazon though. We only paid about $6.
  16. Thanks for posting - I just showed my 2 kids and they understand it perfectly. That is so much easier than the trial and error method!
  17. by Seth Lerer, how did you like them? I purchased them during a sale a while back and am planning to use them next year while reading a few of the Canterbury Tales. The following is an excerpt from a review on the TC website that concerns me: " -- extremely analytical, going in to social issues, cultural subjects, etc., maybe with generous helpings of speculation and agenda, things I generally am not looking for when I read ..." Did you notice an "agenda" in the lectures? Was the content appropriate for 8th and 10th graders? I could pre-watch them, but would really rather not if someone is willing to share their experience.
  18. In my experience, TOG is one of those programs that can easily take over your day. Mine are now in D and R levels, but the way we managed that at the UG level was to schedule our other subjects first, including science. Of course, I like science so it was easy for me to be disciplined to do this. :tongue_smilie: Here's how we scheduled TOG at the UG level: Mon- Reading (History/Lit) Tues- Reading (History/Lit) Wed- Reading (History/Lit) -all history reading to be completed today Thu- Finish Lit. reading, history map work/discussion Fri - Literature discussion/worksheet; projects/activities, fun stuff It did take some time to get my children used to the amount of reading in TOG, but they rose to the challenge nicely. I just looked over the assignments each week and roughly divided it up into daily assignments. I know some people assign the reading on Friday so their children can get started over the weekend. We always did the vocab very informally, and I felt free to omit books that my kids didn't enjoy or that we just didn't have time to read. I wanted my kids to love history, not dread it. Even now, I have to frequently remind myself that I'm not supposed to do "everything" TOG has available.
  19. I'm so glad you posted this thread. I love RS but am struggling with organizing it as well. I think over the summer I'll use Jennifer's method of getting it all together.
  20. We used the syllabus from Dr. Callahan also. It's available to download free here: http://www.askdrcallahan.com/hwhdocs/Algebra1TeachersGuidev4r010610.pdf Also, I remember seeing in the front of the Jacob's teacher's key a suggestion about which chapters and lessons could be skipped if one was not pursuing an honors track. That helped us decide how to narrow the Dr. Callahan syllabus further.
  21. The map project is initially assigned in week 35 of year 2. If you look in the SAP for lower grammar geography for that week/year you should find what you are looking for.
  22. Yes - totally worth $30 - it will make finding and viewing specimens much easier and less frustrating for you and your children.
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