Tranquility7
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Posts posted by Tranquility7
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nm... I'm just complaining too much. Thanks!
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I highly recommend Lingua Latina after GSWL. Take it slow, but it is a very effective (and dare I say enjoyable?!) way to learn a whole lot of vocab and grammar. I had no Latin background but have learned along with DS over the last 4 yrs (we did GSWL for 1 slow year, and then Lingua Latina so far for 3 slow years, with bits of Latin Alive (a grammar-translation program) thrown in for good measure). (Lingua Latina does not need to be taken as slow as we have gone, but we started when DS was only 6.5, and we don't have a whole lot of time to devote to it.)
* Lingua Latina is a direct approach and is **superbly** written as such, though we do also explicitly discuss grammar, using the College Companion by Neuman (invaluable resource for Lingua Latina).
* We also do all of the exercises in Exercitia Latina (we do everything orally together, though we write out our answers to all of the free answer questions, just so we really think through all of our cases and such). (If you buy the Exercitia, also get the Answer Key.)
* We also add all of our new vocab to Anki and review it at least 4-5 times a week. This is an investment of time but is well worth it, imho. Without review, the vocab would get totally daunting. So far we have learned 900+ words, which I think is pretty fabulous for a 9 yr old (and he really *knows* them, not just kinda sorta knows them, iykwim).
* We also chant declensions, conjugations, pronouns, etc. on a semi-regular basis. Writing up a regular recitation for us in on my Gigantic To Do List but I have not yet gotten around to it :p
* For fun this year we have also added the Colloquamur as well as Cambridge Latin just for extra reading practice. The grammar is super easy for us, but there is a bit of new vocab, and we enjoy reading straight through the text and generally understand it all the first time through. It is just a fun little add-in for us; we don't study it at all. I'm also going to add in other fun reading practice once I have time to figure out what would be right for us.
Visual Latin, which you mentioned, was (I recall) originally designed around use of Lingua Latina and is still correlated with it (I think they offer a reading schedule). I like the teacher (and so does DS), but really we have not needed it (we have vol 1 of it). Our instruction generally comes from the College Companion and reading and rereading the Lingua Latina chapter... and then looping back again and again even as we make progress through the text.
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The Ancient book audio version was on sale today at audible for $5, if listening instead of reading may help.
We read the book last year but gave up on the guide about 15 chapters in, it was too much for us too.
Just wanted to make sure you know this sale is still on until Dec 2 -
SWB -The History of the Ancient World (now $4.95, usually $39.95)
SWB -The History of the Renaissance World (now $4.95, usually $39.95)
Wahoo!
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Bumping this to make sure people see it :-)
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Just wanted to give you all a heads up with some more info on the Audible sale - I started another thread about it particularly so people wouldn't miss it - here is what I wrote there:
Tolkien - The Fellowship of the Ring (now $4.95, usually $38.49)
SWB -The History of the Ancient World (now $4.95, usually $39.95)
SWB -The History of the Renaissance World (now $4.95, usually $39.95)
Here is the main sale site, so you can look for other goodies!!(I also broke down and got The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Yearling, The Black Stallion, and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH :blushing: )
Also, sale ends Dec 2!
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** Sale ends Dec 2 ** I found the Audible sale thanks to the Black Friday thread :drool5: , but I thought the sale on these titles was worthy of its own thread!
Tolkien - The Fellowship of the Ring (now $4.95, usually $38.49)
SWB -The History of the Ancient World (now $4.95, usually $39.95)
SWB -The History of the Renaissance World (now $4.95, usually $39.95)
Here is the main sale site, so you can look for other goodies!!(I also broke down and got The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Around the World in Eighty Days, The Yearling, The Black Stallion, and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH :blushing: )
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I see it mentioned in past threads but can't find an actual Scope and Sequence for the WWS series. Anyone know?
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Hank the Dog series.
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I am a fairly punctual person, but I also find myself trying to be efficient to not waste any possible productive moment... and so I'm often trying to squeeze in a last little chore (throw in a load of laundry, empty the dishwasher, whatever) whenever I think I have a moment, especially before heading out the door. But invariably I didn't REALLY have the moment I thought I had (and invariably the chore takes longer to do than I expect!), and so I end up late. Not very late, but maybe 5 min late. Instead of 5 min early, which I would rather be (in theory)! I really don't mean to be inconsiderate (and I don't know that anyone we are late to really cares all that much - for instance, our piano lesson - if we are late, it is just time missed in our lesson, it's not as though it pushes our lesson later and makes our teacher run late after us.. same for swim lesson - they don't wait for latecomers, they just start and end when they are supposed to and latecomers just join in whenever they get there).
I've always been this way, but with kids thrown in the mix it actually becomes a problem because of all the little unexpected things that come up and just the inherent difficulties in trying to "hurry" little kids through anything, kwim? It always takes longer to get out the door and get everyone in the car than I think it will. I think we need to leave at 9:10 for a 9:30 appt, but by the time we are actually pulling out of the driveway, it is 9:15... And it makes me feel frazzled and stressed b/c now I'm in a hurry, when really there is no reason I need to feel that way - just get ready earlier! So why can't/don't I?
How can I change my habit? It isn't as easy as simply saying we should go 5 min earlier, because I keep trying that and yet the same stuff keeps happening and we keep leaving 5 min later than I need to anyway. What is my problem?
I know some cultures are very laid back about time, and I tend to have that attitude in my own life, which I think is part of my problem. I feel like I live in a society that is a "9:30 on the dot" society, but I am a "9:30ish" kind of person. How do I get myself to be more "on the dot", or even early?
Thoughts?
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Interesting question, and honestly I can't imagine a teacher discouraging parental involvement, especially at 8 yrs old. Huh. Maybe that is common, but if it were me, I'd tell her I'll think about that, but still do what you think is best for your DS. You are the one paying for the lesson, and if his practice doesn't go well, then he is not prepared for lesson, thus money is wasted (at least, that is totally how I feel whenever we are not prepared for piano lesson).
That being said, we are a Suzuki family, and your DS sounds much like mine. Generally mature, diligent, and responsible, has played a few years... but is still 8 :-) I have started weaning DS from my oversight in several areas of piano, not because I believe he is completely ready for independence, but simply because I don't have the time now to sit for his entire practice every day the way I used to.
I do sit in on lessons and hear all of her input to DS (and I expect that to continue even as my involvement in practice decreases over the years). She makes notes about what he should practice, but she writes far less than what she says, especially as far as technique is concerned. When we get home I make up a very specific checklist for him for the following week's practice based on what she said to do and additional stuff I require (mainly review of books learned earlier). SOME of the practice I "require" to be done with me (doesn't always happen that way though!), some he can do totally independently. For us, it depends on both the music and the day. At least once a week, but ideally twice a week (preferably Monday and Thurs morning, since lesson is Thurs afternoon), I am seated by his side and focused on him for the entire practice. The rest of the days it varies from my being in the same room but somewhat focused on other things but periodically discussing with him between pieces, to sometimes I am not even home when he practices. Often I sit with him for a portion of his practice, while he does the rest independently.
Independently:
- Figure out new music hands separately. This includes new Suzuki, new scales, new technique pieces, new sight reading pieces, etc.
- New music hands together (the laborious phase before he can really do it)
- Most days, practice current pieces
- Lots of review (past Suzuki books or other repertoire, past hymns, Christmas songs, etc.)
With me:
- Play through new music (all types) he figured out independently for confirmation that he is practicing it correctly
- New Suzuki pieces where he has just gotten hands together.
- Current Suzuki pieces that are still getting correction from the teacher.
- Past Suzuki pieces in the current book, since they will be part of his book recital and I don't want them getting sloppy.
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Ok, I emailed directly with Landry and they confirmed that this is consistent with an offer they are running right now, though obviously they couldn't confirm the legitimacy of this particular poster's offer. The subsequent prices would also be as Truly Susan indicates. Just adding that info as an fyi...
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Just so you know I'm quite real and have no affliation with the OP. I would love an opportunity to participate in the promotion, but as I mentioned above I didn't notice the OP only had 16 posts.
Glad to see it! And I now see the OP just had a typo in your screen name.
Like I said, OP, I'm not trying to offend... I wish I could participate but am also wary of sending money to people I don't know with no guarantees beyond their word. IF I'm paying Landry directly, I'd feel differently about it. Is that possible?
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How do we know this is legit? Sorry, no offense intended, but it sounds like you are wanting people to pay you directly based on your promise to pay Landry, and only then will we hear from Landry?
You have only posted on WTM a few times, and at least three of the screen names you mentioned in your OP come up with No Results when searched on (chigurre, emzhengjju, stc).
OklahomaGirl only joined yesterday and while her profile says she has two posts, I can't actually find them.
Sorry, not trying to offend you, but does this sound kind of suspicious to anyone else?
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DS9 was precocious in LA and so I started him in Latin using GSWL at 5.5 (he was at a Boxcar Children reading level, and had been through FLL1 at that point). For the next year we covered GSWL and FLL2 and FLL3 and some MCT Island and Town level, and then at 6.5 we started Lingua Latina. GSWL was the perfect intro to Lingua Latina, and we have learned a TON from Lingua Latina over the last 3 yrs. Along the way we have also done some explicit grammar using the Lingua Latina College Companion as well as some Latin Alive (the program to be used after LFC, which we skipped altogether). Lingua Latina has been a lot of work for me (since I knew no Latin at all when we started) but it is such an effective way to internalize far more vocab and grammar than virtually any other Latin program I have seen.
I was pretty unmotivated with Latin to begin with and just started it on a whim as a fun challenge for DS who simply could not get enough LA and grammar :-) But we have both grown to love it and I have seen such rippling benefits that I am now a true believer and consider it foundational to our homeschool.
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I know, stupid first world problem.
But I do.
I DESPISE it.
I was a software developer ten years ago. Even THEN I hated dealing with IT junk. I wanted to write awesome software, not deal with random technical problems all day. But because I used to be in tech, everyone assumes I should be able to solve every computer problem anyone has.
The kids' laptop isn't connecting to the internet anymore. Do I know why? Nope. Have I already spent two hours I don't have trying to solve it? Yep. Is it completely hampering our productivity? Yep. Am I about to toss their laptop out the window? Yep.
Grrr.
DH is of no help because despite the fact that he works for a huge tech firm, his job has nothing to do with tech and he doesn't even know how to check his VM on his cellphone (I am not kidding).
:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:
:cursing: :cursing: :cursing: :cursing: :cursing:
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I read this thread a few days ago:
http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/572377-did-you-see-that-theres-a-new-dragonbox-next-week/
and then tried to find it again via Search. I tried the regular search of forums, as well as advanced search. No matter what term I used (Dragonbox, beta, Cuisinaire, etc., the thread never once appeared in my results. There were threads from before it, and threads started after it, but never THIS thread. Why is this?
I ended up finding the thread again in my browser history. I opened it and even tried to search for a term within the thread and no matter what term I used (same as above!) it told me that there were no results, when clearly the terms WERE in the thread...
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It might depend on your native languages, as well as your goals for language study, as well as your DC's other academics and how they are going.
We are not a bilingual family, however we do study multiple languages. DS9 has been studying Latin (rigorously) for almost 4 yrs, Chinese (rigorous, but not as much as Latin) for 1 yr, and Spanish (somewhat informally) for 1/2 yr. Our goals are fluent speaking and reading (fluent speaking in Latin is obviously less important, but I work hard to conduct our Latin lesson in Latin and treat it as a spoken language for learning purposes).
We began Latin first, and I chose Chinese second because I was concerned about Spanish interfering with Latin. However, because we encounter Spanish speakers so often in daily life, I finally gave in this summer and we started Spanish as well.
Our experience has been GREAT. Latin has been a HUGE help in learning Spanish, and even in learning Chinese. Latin has by far the most complicated grammar of the three (at least from what we can tell so far), and so the other languages seem relatively "easy" to us in comparison. The progress we have made via informal Spanish study in just under 6 mos has been amazing, all due to Latin.
If one of your native languages is an inflected Romance language, I would think Latin would be easy to add (though the benefit of it would be less). If one of your native languages is not an inflected Romance language, Latin will take more work, but the benefit would also be greater.
Btw, one of the less considered benefits of Latin (at least in my experience) is the "integrative" effect of it. We study it seriously and do a lot of Latin reading and studying vocab (in addition to studying grammar) and we constantly have discussions that touch on history, culture, geography, anatomy, science, etc., all sparked by what we are learning in Latin. I have realized that it has become the great connector that underlies our whole schooling experience (and this is from someone who wasn't all that enthusiastic about Latin to begin with... I'm a total believer now, though).
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I really think our Kindle contributed to DD learning to read early. I put various books on it - mostly children's classics she was familiar with already like Peter Rabbit, Pooh, Heidi... - and bought the WhisperSync to go along with it. She loved being able to "read" the Kindle while listening to the audiobook, because the Kindle would highlight the words as they are being read. By doing that combined with a bit of time on Starfall, she practically taught herself to read at 4.5 while I was busy having a baby and taking care of a newborn :-)
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Ohhhh happy trees and happy clouds!
But he is only about oil painting, right? Bummer! I know nothing about oil painting except that I fear a big mess with my DS9 and DD6.
Is there a "Bob Ross" of the watercolor or pastel world??
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... the aesthetic of HWOT penmanship is starting to really bother me. Is that a silly reason to switch? Am I alone in thinking that HWOT letter formation seems designed around simplicity at the cost of beauty?...
You are definitely not alone, and not liking the writing is a completely legitimate reason to switch!
We started off with A Reason for Handwriting and switched to Pentime because it is very inexpensive and I liked the script (I liked ARfH also but it was just pricey imho).
Here is an excellent website that enables you to easily compare some common styles.
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Thank you SO much for all of the helpful and wise advice. It gives me a lot to think about, as well as a big dose of encouragement (which I am totally in need of after the colossal failure of our "schedule" today).
Off to read and reread and ponder some more.... thanks again!!!!!
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DC #1 and #2 did All About Spelling Levels 1 - 5
DC#3 is currently in Level 4. I am not sure she will do Level 5.
And DC #4 Well, I don't know if I can stand any more All About Spelling!
I have also been procrastinating starting FLL 1/2 with her.
You know, funny you should mention this, as I just recently heard a homeschool podcast (maybe a Circe one, I can't remember b/c I listen to a lot of them) and a Mom of Many was commenting that she used a different reading program with EVERY child, because she simply needed the variety. I'd never thought of that before, although I can definitely see where it could get mindnumbingly dull to do the same thing with every child.
One upside is that since you have taught it several times now, you probably have it memorized (not the scripts or the words, but I mean the phonograms, rules, strategies, etc.), and so you could just teach your youngers more "on the fly" instead of using a curriculum at all. I notice that I'm FAR more equipped to teach my DD6 reading, spelling, grammar, math, and Latin since I already went through those so intensely with my DS9. I still use the curricula a little (just to make sure I don't forget to cover something) but I'm seldom dependent on it the way I was when I taught DS9.
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I have 3 DC... DS9, DD6, and DD1. DS9 and DD6 are bright, easy to teach, and generally enthusiastic. We have some typical discipline issues but in general they are pleasant kids. They are energetic but usually not out of control.
I'm happy with where they are academically.
I'm happy with our year-round schooling routine.
I'm happy with my Homeschool Tracker planning software.
I'm happy with all the different subjects we do and curricula we use.
I'm happy with how much we have accomplished over the last four years.
What I'm not happy with is a generally chaotic feel to our days.
What I'm not happy with is the fact that I am a block schedule person by nature, yet I really think shorter, more frequent lessons are far more effective academically.
What I'm not happy with is feeling already tapped out of time, yet I only have 3 kids, and they are only 9, 6, and 1 - how am I going to ramp it up more as they get older? I can't imagine having DD6 doing all that DS9 is doing - how will I ever have time for that?? (And while I know outsourcing is the answer for some people, it isn't for us. Even outsourcing to workbooks or DVDs is not for us.)
I am not a chaotic person. I am generally organized and I am a very faithful planner of our *week*, but not our *day*. KWIM? Every weekend I plan out our next week. I enjoy doing this, and every week we each start with a fresh To Do List (DS9 and DD6 each get an "Independent Work" list, and I have the master list of work I need to do with each of them). Sometimes we do well getting through most of it, sometimes not, though over the months, we get through enough that I'm pleased with our overall progress.
The problem is, I really wish I could curtail how loud and chaotic the days feel to me. I keep thinking the secret is in getting our *days* organized better. I always make my plan for my week, but during the actual days I simply look at my weekly list and decide on a whim what to do next. I love the freedom of that, but I hate the chaos that sometimes occurs because of it. I have SO MANY friends who schedule out their days by the half hour or so - planning what each child will be doing when, who Mom will be helping when, etc. I see SO much wisdom in this! And I can't imagine that it doesn't vastly improve productivity and peace. Yet I cannot figure out how to implement it. I keep trying, but it makes me feel stressed out because we invariably end up "behind" our schedule for the day (because I usually underestimate how long something will really take, or because I end up making what was scheduled to be a short lesson (30 min) into a huge block lesson (90 min) because that is what I prefer (and DS does too, I think), or because my 1 yr old invariably requires more of my unscheduled attention than I would like to admit).
I need ideas.
How can I decrease the chaos?
How can I increase the peace?
How can I improve our productivity without saddling us with a strict schedule?
If a strict schedule is needed, how do I make it work without it stressing me out and making me feel constantly behind?
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SOTW Review Cards in ANKI??
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
So glad to hear you are loving Anki and already seeing the benefit within your homeschool!! The longer you use it the more you will see that benefit grow, since it is such a great tool for integrating and making connections and conversing about whatever you have put into it :-)
I have not yet put SOTW into our Anki, although I have put in some VP OTAE. I have used cloze cards frequently in other decks (especially science), but unlike PP I actually find just basic cards to work well for our history so far. I like small bits of info on a card, though I may prompt for more detail it in a conversational way when the card comes up.
The history notes I have entered so far have often been based on the tests that were in the VP OTAE self-paced curriculum, and others I have made up myself. Here are some examples:
Who was Hammurabi? The sixth ruler of Babylon, and a lawmaker. He ruled in the 1700s BC.
For what is Hammurabi best known? His laws known as the Code of Hammurabi.
What were the laws in the Code of Hammurabi about? Protecting the weak from the strong, rates of pay, rules of trade
Who was the first woman pharaoh? Hatshepsut.
What are the approximate dates of the First Intermediate Period in Egypt? c. 2200-2050 BC
Who may have been the Pharaoh of Exodus? Amenhotep II
When did the Hyksos invade Egypt? c. 1730-1570 <though I might accept something more general, like 1700s-1500s BC>
For how many years did the Hyksos rule Egypt? >150 years
So, for instance, in the above example, DS would learn three questions about Hammurabi. But then once the cards are learned well and spaced out pretty far, when a card comes up about Hammurabi, I might actually expect DS to narrate back to me a more complete "story" of Hammurabi, tell me when and where he ruled, what he was famous for, what those laws were about, and even what was going on in Egypt during the time Hammurabi was ruling in Babylon. I might also ask him something like how the laws in the Code of Hammurabi compare to the Ten Commandments. It really just depends on how much time we have that day to do our reviews - sometimes we are quick and focused just trying to get through our cards, but when we have time, these more extensive impromptu questions that lead to narrating, integrating, and critical thinking are invaluable.