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momtofive

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Posts posted by momtofive

    What to use for high school writing?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    Yes, they have a lot of high school courses.  You would want the "Level C" of the Student Writing Intensives--the first one and the "Continuation Course".  The Advanced Communication Series and the High School Essay Intensives are the other main two courses for high school.  Good luck! 

     

    Thanks Sandy!  I was just over there looking, and see that they actually do have a lot to choose from for high school level courses.  I'll be leaning heavily on choosing the IEW SWI-C course.  It looks like a good fit so far.  Thanks for recommending it! ;)

    What to use for high school writing?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    We used a combination of Lightning Lit (LL) and the IEW "Student Writing Intensives" followed by IEW's Advanced Composition course.  Loved the LL for the literature parts and IEW helped really solidify my guys' writing abilities.  My Youngest, by the way, when he took English 101 and 102 through dual enrollment (junior & senior years), scored 100% on every single composition he wrote!  That was amazing to me since DS has dysgraphia and hates writing.. He's good at it, but he doesn't like it.  He was very "well trained." ;-)

     

    For some reason, I was thinking that the SWI courses from IEW were for middle school on down.  I didn't realize that they have high school level courses, too.  I should look again over there and see what they have.  Thanks for suggesting it! ;) 

     

    Thanks to all of you for your great suggestions.  I'll be checking them all out and doing some more research on what would work best for my ds.  Thank you! :)

    What to use for high school writing?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    This kind of depends on how you use it. We choose one of the writing assignments per book. Not typically a long one because we are also working through IEW SWI-B and doing some written narrations for history. I feel like I want SOME written output but I don't require a lot because it's not our main writing program. I think you could make it "enough" writing maybe by doing more of the writing assignments - maybe 2 of the 3 (they are varying lengths - not like research papers). I still think you would want to do some historical writing at a high school level to correlate with your Sonlight Core, otherwise you might not feel like you have enough "output" for history? I'm certainly as new or newer to this as you since we only have an 8th grader this year but I'm beginning to plan for 9th grade and I'm still unsure of how to fit the "requirements" into the curriculum I'd like to use! ;)

     

    This is where I've been at with my thoughts, too!  I don't know if it would be too much writing to do some of this along with another writing curriculum. I maybe could mesh the two and pick and choose writing assigments.  That still leaves me with trying to decide what to use for high school writing curriculum.  I need to do some more research to find out what there is to choose from, and what's good.

     

    Thanks for sharing how your using LL.  I appreciate your thoughts! ;)

    What to use for high school writing?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    We love Excellence In Literature. It has writing assignments and examples, but no explicit instruction.

     

    My oldest was in 7th grade when he did Core 100. He read all the books, but he also added Lightning Lit 7 for some Lit analysis. You could add one or might Lightning Lit units.

     

    If you completely skip the literature in Core 100 there really isn't much left. The history is weak without the correlated literature. If it were me I would still read all or most of their books and just add some outside reading that is a higher level and offers some good writing assignments.

     

     

    Oh yes, I wouldn't be throwing out the lit books from SL!  I really like the looks of those, and know they'll add so much to the course!  I was thinking if I did Lightning Lit along with this core, I might be able to find it for books we already have within this core.  I could sub some out and replace with whatever LL uses for lit books.  I even thought about reading *some* of SL's lit books aloud.

     

    Does LL include a fair bit of writing?  If so, would it be enough for high school writing?  I clearly need to go check this out further at their site! ;)

     

    Off to go look  . . . .

    What to use for high school writing?

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I plan on using SL Core 100 next year for my upcoming 9th grader.  I'm on the fence about using the literature/writing portion, though.  In the past we've not really liked the layout of the SL language, and have always opted to use other resources in it's place.  So I'm not sure if I'll like it or not.  I love the looks of the books for literature, and have kicked around using Lightning Literature for some of them. 

     

    My question is what to use for writing/composition?  Can you give me some thoughts on what's out there at this level that really good?  This is our first venture into homeschooling high school, so I'm a bit new to this level of curriculum, so any help and advice is much appreciated!

     

    Thanks! ;)

    What to supplement MUS with?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Thank you all so much for your kind thoughts and advice.  I love hearing about what's worked well for others!  Really helps me to figure out what might work well for us.  You've all given me some great suggestions.  I think I'll take some time to look at each, and go from there.  Singapore looks like it could be a good fit for my kids.  They could really use more instruction/practice with mental math concepts.  I think they'll really get a much better grasp of mathematics.  MM looks interesting too.  I haven't looked too closely at that.  I'll have to check it out some more. . . . .

     

    Thanks, again! ;)

    What to supplement MUS with?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    MUS is working quite well for the kids, and has created an enjoyment of doing math!!!  That's huge for some of my kids.  I am finding though, that they actually want to do more math, and am wondering if I should supplement with something.  I also worry that MUS won't cover all the needed concepts for their standardized testing each year. 

     

    The thought crossed my mind to try doing Saxon with MUS, so they would have a good grounding of concepts (from MUS), and the Saxon would help keep them sharp for standardized testing each year. 

     

    Maybe this is a poorly thought out combination, but I just feel at a loss of what I should do. . . . .  MUS is actually working well, but I feel like they won't be prepared for their testing if we just do MUS.  Is this wrong to think this way?  Would MUS be okay on it's own?  Should I supplement?

     

    Help please!!! :)

    Anyone do notebooking for SOTW 3 and 4?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I plan on using SL Core H this year with my oldest ds13.  We'll be using SOTW 3 and 4.  I would LOVE to do some kind of notebooking to go along with this core, but haven't seen anything that stands out to me as a great plan.  I didn't get the activity guides, because we have comprehension questions to answer in our SL IG, and we'll do mapwork on the markable map.  I know he's too old for coloring pages, so the activity guides are pretty much out. 

     

    I thought about doing some blank notebook pages that he could write a written narration on, but that just lacked the visual appeal.  Does anyone have notebook pages or could tell me how I could make some?

     

    Thanks so much! ;)

    Grammar with EIW?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I plan to use EIW with my 4th, 6th and 8th graders this year.  Grammar is included in the grade 4 and 6 levels, but there is only a review of grammar in grade 8.  What should I use for the 8th graders grammar this year?  What do others use?

     

    I know the grammar included in the 4th and 6th grades may be enough, but since I don't have my materials yet (ordered, but not here yet), I do wonder if I should be planning more grammar to do, or of EIW will be sufficient.  Any advice?

     

    Thanks so much for the help! :)

    Why Supplement MUS with LOF?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Okay, thanks! :) That helps clear up why people choose to use LOF with MUS. I know some feel that MUS is enough on it's own, and others feel it needs a bit more. It's good to know that these two programs can work well together! :)

     

    With LOF, would you try to work through one book per year? How do you schedule that with MUS if you do? Couple lessons per week? Just go at the child's pace?

     

    Thanks again!

    Why Supplement MUS with LOF?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    In doing some research on MUS, and if it would be a good fit for our situation, I noticed that quite a few people mentioned using LOF to supplement MUS. I'd like to know more (for those who do this), about why you felt LOF was a good supplement to MUS? And why you would need to supplement it? Thanks so much! :)

    Writing for 6th grader?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I do like WWS, but am new to this, so I thought I'd get some advice on these three options and see what might work for him!

     

    He is a struggling writer, and hasn't had much experience with writing. We've done informal writing, but nothing much structured. I really need to boost his level of writing proficiency before high school.

    Writing for 6th grader?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I'm trying to decide on a writing program for my upcoming 6th grader. He's done HOD in the past, and just started doing written narrations this past year. He absolutely hates this, as he struggles with what to write and how to write it. I'd love a more incremental approach that gives him some building blocks that he can use to grow in his writing skills. In the past we've also done R&S 2, and 3, and then used Winning with Writing this past year, which really turned out to be a bust for this child. This year we'll be doing Sonlight Core D (also with a fourth grade sibling), and I'm not impressed in the writing activities involved there. He needs more instruction. I've looked into WWE, and think this might be younger than I could use for my 6th grader. WWS seems to be above where he's at. IEW looks great, but it seems that they teach writing with only using key word outlines (which is fine), but just makes me wonder about other methods and how they differ. Will one work better than another for a struggling writer? He just feels like he has no direction in his writing, and I just want to give him a clear, well marked path to follow, so he can confidently write! (I apologize for the paragraph form of my questions! For some reason my return key isn't working on the forum toay! ) Thanks so much! :)

    AAR-Do you use any other Lang. Arts?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I'm planning on getting this to use with my younger two children this fall (2nd grader and K'er). It looks like it covers a great deal of skills, but I'm wondering (for those of you who use this), do you use any other language arts curricula with this?

     

    I'm thinking you'd still need to do handwriting, but what about Explode the Code? Any other readers? Copywork?

     

    I'm new to this program and am still trying to figure out how we'll use it. For those that use this. . . . what do you do?

     

    Thanks so much! :)

    So, why do you not use SL's LA?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Sorry to hijack just for a bit! ;)

     

    Merry, did you end up doing something with dictation, or just stop completely? Just curious, as many have said they liked the value of dictation, but didn't care for the SL format.

     

    Thanks, and back to your regularly scheduled thread . . . . . . . ;)

    What to use before TT 3?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I'm trying to decide on a math for my upcoming second grader. I've been kicking around the idea of doing Singapore with her, as I feel that they seem to give students a great foundation in mental math skills. What I'm wondering is if this would be wise if we plan on going to something like Teaching Textbooks 3 for third grade?

     

    I'm open to suggestions right now. We've used CLE up until now, but it's not a good fit for this child. She hates the long lessons, and takes forever to do them each day. She's very bright and picks up on new things quickly. We've not had any trouble with her being able to grasp new concepts, and she usually gets 100% on all of her quizzes and tests. However, it's like pulling teeth to keep her engaged in her lesson, and she's even told me she hates math. Now I know math will never be her favorite, but I don't want her to hate it either. I've been looking at using Singapore, or Horizons, or Mathematical Reasoning.

     

    What did you use before TT3 that you think prepared them better for it?

    CLE MATH 100 ??'s

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted · Edited by momtofive

    Speed drills are in the back of the light units! It does give an excellent coverage and review of addition and subtraction facts. My first grader did so well with this program last year and we look forward to CLE Math 200 next year!

     

    ETA: Do make sure and order the addition/subtraction flash cards. They cost a bit more, but are very worth it. You'll also want the teachers manual. It gives instruction on when to use what flashcards and has sections for explaining new concepts. There are also dictation exercises where you dictate the numbers in the teachers manual to the student and they write it down in their text. In the beginning you dictate numbers, then addition or subtraction problems and later money amounts. Both items were pretty handy to have!

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