Suzannah
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Posts posted by Suzannah
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Let me preface this by saying I do make a detailed schedule every year, but I don't stick to it completely. I basically serves to help me place subjects within the day or within the week (math is always done early in the day, some days are busier than others so try to keep those schedules a little lighter, etc.) It also helps me to see whether something CAN work in a single day. We usually have to try it though to see if it really DOES work. Usually within a few weeks I'm willing to let DS do things out of order and he's always allowed to work ahead as long as he doesn't skip today's math assignment in favor of doing all his history and science readings for the week on Monday. Here's the schedule I made for 6th grade this year. It's a fairly good glimpse of our school week, but we aren't a slave to it.
Daily
Bible
Memory Work/Copywork
Math
Latin (alternating between lessons one day and reviewing vocab and chant the next so it's more like twice a week than daily)
Writing
Omnibus
Monday & Wednesday
Grammar
History
Tuesday & Thursday
Spelling
Science
Friday
Logic (this sort of fell apart somewhere in the middle of the year, but we'll try again next year)
Fine Arts (also fell apart mid-year but we've picked it back up again--alternating between drawing, pictures/artist study and music appreciation)
Generally we spend 30-60 minutes on a subject at a time (except for bible, copywork, memory work and Latin review.) Anything not finished in a reasonable amount of time can be completed during "Study Hall" at the end of the day. This way we don't spend the whole morning on math getting frustrated, then the whole afternoon doing everything else and not having time to play. That break sort of eases tension.
Oh, I actually do this in a table, all color-coded for the various subjects. It sort of helps me to see it all better that way. I didn't know how to post a table though.
HTH
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I'm really loving all the e-workbooks I've found lately, mostly copywork, but still.... We use the downloadable versions of Julie Shields' copybooks, Jeannie Fullbright's notebooking pages for Apologia's elementary science and some downloads from Curriclick.com. But we do still buy workbooks for some subjects.
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I think if it were up to me, I'd do Middle Ages for most of the year, then take the last month or two...or less, to cover county history. But if we happened to take a trip to a local historic site, I'd do whatever you do to document it for the charter school. This way the chronology isn't disrupted.
But that's just me. I also think taking one day a week for county history would be fine. I'd be more likely to do it that way if we were doing early modern or modern history and it naturally worked-in with our regular history.
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Hank the Cowdog, any and all of them.
The Hobbit
The Chronicles of Narnia (the series where Kenneth Branaugh reads the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is great)
Winning His Spurs (DS prefers Jim Hodges)
In Freedom's Cause (DS prefers Jim Hodges)
Ribsy
Henry Huggins
Rascal
Black Beauty
All of the above heartily approved by DS.
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Sing in the car. Sing while you're fixing lunch. If you sing, they will hear you. Buy recordings of the hymns you want them to learn. Listen to these. Don't ask if they want to listen. Just turn it on and listen during lunch or while they're playing with Legos. This will make them familiar.
Teaching to sing harmony is another matter however. I decided earlier this year that my son might be able to learn the tenor part of some of our favorite hymns. I sing alto and DD is only 7 but has a good ear so she gets to sing soprano.
I practiced with each of them seperately, then had them sing together. Then seperately again. They heard each other learning the parts, but I wanted to make sure each one was comfortable singing his own part before combining them. Only when they were comfortable with their parts did I add in my alto.
It would have worked much better if we'd been more consistent about it. But they did learn. We do attend church regularly, but in recent years the song service has moved away from some of the old hymns and I wanted them to enjoy that part of our heritage too.
Blessings!
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You mentioned that they didn't really get any ancient and medieval history. I think in that case, beginning now or over the course of the summer, I'd have them read/listen to the first two SOTW...maybe even all four of them. That way there's a chronological, narrative flow. It'll set the stage for the new stuff and review the things they've already covered, but put it all in the proper order and perspective. You didn't say you wanted a writing program, but FWIW, we will be using IEW's "U.S. History Vol." which covers Jamestown (1607) to the Gold Rush (1849).
Best wishes!
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Ahh, well, that's sounds good then. I've never seen MFW, just used SOTW.
Blessings.
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Thank so for posting that link Michelle! That was very helpful. I have considered Phonetic Zoo for my low vision DD but really hate to spend the $$$ without a better understanding of what exactly it is. Flashcards with pictures of animals don't really do it for me. But that presentation has convinced me. Soooo, is anyone selling it on the Used Curriculum board? ;)
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It looks like you already have your answer here, but we have just thoroughly enjoyed Julie Shields' history copywork books (Julie in GA from the boards here). You can order a hard copy I think, but it's also available as a download from http://stores.lulu.com/julieshields . It comes in different styles too (Zaner-Bloser, Italics or HWT.)
Blessings
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I simply read a page (front and back) to a page and a half each morning while they eat breakfast.
Heather
This is how we do things that might not get done otherwise. :) They are a captive audience!
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We've used Botany and Astronomy, take a semester for each one. I think that's the perfect pace for us, doing science twice a week. I do think it might tend to drag a bit over an entire year. But even doing it in a semester wasn't difficult.
We did WTM science recommendations for the study of humans and animals a year ago in the fall semester, saving plants for when we would be planning and taking care of our garden in the spring. We enjoyed Botany so much I decided to use Astronomy this past fall. Right now we are finishing up the WTM recommendations for Earth Science.
DS may be taking a science class next year and I will probably use 1 or 2 of the Zoology books next year for DD, maybe saving a few weeks to dabble in chemistry. She'll only be 2nd grade, but her birthday is in January and she's been on the same history and science cycle with her brother.
You are right though, there's no particular need for formal science in the elementary years. Priority should go to the reading, writing and math. But science can be an enriching experience.
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Well, wars did make up a good part of the 1850-present time frame. But if you have a truly sensitive child you might make a list of significant figures from the time period and have her read easy biographies of them (Booker T. Washington, Lincoln, Clara Barton, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, JFK, Edison, Einstein, Amelia Earhart, Wright Brothers, etc.) You could do the same with all the technological advances (history of flight, history of the automobile, history of the telephone, space exploration, movies.)
Or...what about the Little House on the Prairie Unit Studies? Maybe a study of the 50 states?
I appreciate that some have concerns with the violence of the modern era. But there's barbarity all through history. I think the 20th century tends to worry parents more because it is so fresh and so well-documented.
If you do decide to have your dd study moderns with the others, you might preview chapters to determine whether or not they are suited to her. The American Girls books are written for girls about her age or slightly older, and while they are not always rosy (be cautious with Kirsten's story if dd is very sensitive) they are a nice girls' eye view of the time periods they cover.
I also really like the PBS series "1940s House." Like the others in that series, it follows a modern family living in a different time period for 3-4 months. In this case it's a British family during WWII. They had a really great attitude about the whole experiment (unlike participants in some of the other shows) and it was a fascinating look a life on the homefront for the British which was in some ways similar to the American experience.
Another one of that same PBS series that I enjoyed was "1900 House". It's been a long time since I saw it, but that and "1940s House" are the only two I ever recommend. The others were sort of ruined by poor sports.
Good luck!
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I think that's up to you. I loved the idea of memory work when I first read TWTM, but didn't do it very consistently until this year.
Kendra at preschoolersandpeace.com inspired me to make a memory notebook which included everything I wanted the kids to memorize. Some of their memory work is the same (memory verses, kings of England, continents, layers of the Earth and a sonnet). But DS has other items too, including math formulae, tectonic plates, beginning lines of the Prologue to Canterbury Tales, things for Boy Scouts, etc. (Most of this was taken from WTM suggestions.) They each spend 5-10 minutes each day, first thing in the morning doing memory work. At the beginning of the year I told them which things to work on (Choose a memory verse for this week, do the first 5 kings of England and the continents.) Towards the end of the year since most of it had already been memorized, I told DS to just read each page every day. I quiz him periodically, but I figure re-reading it will help solidify it. We have not used copywork for memorization, but I'm adding Italic Science for next year for that purpose.
Blessings!
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I don't know what width your timeline is, but whatever it is, you may be surprised at how history bunches up sometimes. During the study of ancients, for example, you may have centuries without much going on. Then all of a sudden there are overlapping civilizations, major wars, significant kings...all within a few decades of each other. Our timeline figures often creep up onto the wall. Some people do different lines for different cultures or continents. I've been thinking that might be useful as we get into more modern times.
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As to the narrations, can one narrate while the other draws a picture, then switch? We added Julie Shields' copywork to our schedule this year and it's worked so beautifully I'm adding even more for next year. Do you have something along those lines that is fairly independent, even for a 5 or 7yo? One could work on copywork while the other does his narration, then switch. Or, maybe one could narrate and the other could re-copy it?
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DS didn't take off until the end of 2nd grade. I walked past a room on a Saturday and did a double-take. He was reading a chapter book about Star Wars. Ok, so not my choice of great literature, but that was what hooked him. He's just finishing 6th grade and we have worked through selections in VP's Omnibus II including Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Canterbury Tales and others. He reads stuff all the time for fun too. There are still Star Wars books and Calvin and Hobbes, but he also enjoys selections from VP and Sonlight's reading lists.
We worked at reading when he was little, largely following the WTM recommendations, and he was capable of reading for school. But it didn't become a joy until a bit later.
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Yep. We read SOTW, discuss and do mapwork together. Then DS places timeline figures, reads more in Kingfisher, reads library books and fills out a form for significant people &/or primary sources (I made these based on the WTM suggestions for what to include in a summary of people we encounter in history.) I'd like to say that he also outlines the chapter and writes summaries for all these things too, but that hasn't happened as regularly as I would like. We use CW: Homer for writing and just haven't managed to do as much writing across the curriculum as we should. I hope to remedy that next year with IEW's U. S. History Vol. 1 but we'll also use CW Poetry and then pick up again with CW Diogenes the following year. Hopefully by that time I'll be able to rely on DS for independent work a little more. He's a good kid, but he's a kid. ;)
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We're just finishing 6th grade this year:
Math--
LOF:Fractions and LOF: Decimals and Percents (love LOF!)
Saxon 7/6 until about February when I finally ditched it for good in favor of Teaching Textbooks 7. We had reached a point at which Saxon was just introducing new and more complex topics too quickly. I'd take a week to review, then move on only to find that we needed to take another week to review. It wasn't worth it and was really causing terrible attitudes with both me and DS.
Just added: Copying the Facts--math copywork, downloaded from Currclick.com for $5.95
Writing--
Classical Writing: We probably should have done CW for Older Beginners but now that I know that we're just picking up the pace to finish Homer in June
Latin--
Latin Primer 3--it was originally recommended in TWTM and we had already started the series and were doing well with it before the 2nd edition came out. DS thrived with it, but we took advantage of a tutoring opportunity in 5th grade that used a different book so we're just finishing LP3. I believe we'll be switching to Henle next year. LP is fine, but what I've read of Henle sounds like it will appeal to DS. Plus the series will take him into high school.
Grammar--
Abeka's God's Gift of Language C--this was originally recommended in TWTM and since it was working well for us we stuck with it. FWIW, I like having one or two workbook subjects that are easy to do in the car or in the waiting room at the doctor's office. Abeka has way more exercises than anyone would ever need so every so often I go through and circle the exercises or parts of them that DS needs to do. I also mark which charts or definitions need to be copied for his notebook.
Spelling--
Spelling Workout...umm, F? I think? We got a little behind because in first grade DS would burst into tears when he had to write anything and I didn't think it was worth the hassle to push it so we postponed beginning spelling until towards the end of that year. I figured we would catch up sometime, but often when we have a busy week, spelling is one of the things that gets pushed aside (that and fine arts). DS scored badly in spelling in 1st and 2nd grade and his scored skyrocketed in 3rd grade. Nothing significant changed in our curriculum, so I attribute this to his reading skills taking off (willingly reading longer books for his own entertainment) at the end of 2nd grade, after our testing had already been completed. Inexpensive, low-maintenance. Hopefully we can get through the last two next year to get back on track.
History--
SOTW 2 + Kingfisher. I've been pretty bad about having DS do history outlines/summaries this year. We did well last year but CW Homer has more in-depth requirements, plus we're doing Omnibus (more on that later). I'm hoping to have him do a few more by the end of the year. He does, however, have to fill out a form for "Great Men/Women" and "Primary Sources". I just modified what WTM says to have them do notebook pages on.
Omnibus--
This was sort of an experiment. Omnibus I is intended as a 7th grade literature/religion/history by Veritas Press. But it covers ancient times and we did that in 5th grade. So I compared the 6th grade reading list from WTM with the readings covered in Omnibus II and decided it was worth a try. It has actually gone really, really well. Now don't get the idea that we did ever single reading or every single writing assignment or that we always used the suggested editions of the readings we did. For the most part I used WTM recommended editions since they were intended for 6th graders rather than 8th graders. We did most of the Primary and Secondary readings, we discussed the readings orally referring to the discussion questions, and ocassionally did the extra activities (writing, picture study, etc.) I'm thinking of doing the same thing next year with Omnibus III since there is once again significant overlap between it and WTM. However, Omnibus III actually covers moderns too, so we'll actually only do about half of it. I thought perhaps I might use it for 8th too, but I'm not very happy with the selections for modern readings so we'll either use TOG or something else...yet to be determined.
Bible
For most of the year DS used the Soul Gear devotional books. They're a bit twaddley, but he really enjoyed them so I figured they balanced out the heavy lifting he was doing in other areas. He would read a chapter from one of these books on Mondays (Weird and Gross Bible Stuff, Bible Wars and Weapons, etc.) Then on the other weekdays he read scriptures based on the "Bible View" discussion questions from Omnibus. When he didn't have a specific, assigned reading he just worked his way through various books (I Sam. when his Bible class was studying this, Acts because I think it's a fantastic, action-packed book that everyone can enjoy). He still does daily Bible readings (working toward the Boy Scouts' religious emblem award) but together we take about 5-10 minutes to do a page in Drawing to Learn Proverbs from Notgrass. Everyone, even the toddler can do this together and it's very low-maintenance.
Memory Work/Copywork
This is always either the first or second item of the day (depending on when everyone is ready to do Bible together). Last summer (thanks to inspiration from Kendra at www.preschoolersandpeace.com) I printed out all of the memory verses, science facts, kings of England, poems, etc. that I wanted him to memorize and put them in a folder. During the course of the year I also added the Boy Scout law and oath, math rules (how to find the diameter of a circle, pi to 5 decimal places, etc.) and other things that came up. At the beginning of the year I helped him work on these each morning. At some point they became his responsibility and he was just required to read each page every day. I quiz him from time to time, but I've been THRILLED with how well this has worked. It literally took 5-10 minutes each day and we very painless for everyone involved.
Copywork is always the third thing each day. We've used Julie Shields' (Julie in GA) Medieval Copybook. We use Getty-Dubay Italics. She actually has it available in different writing styles. There is also an Ancient Copybook and I think she's working on another one to follow Medieval. This came about after I told DS if he could show consistently neat handwriting in all subjects he would no longer be required to do it as a separate subject. Well, he didn't quite uphold his end of the bargain, but I thought maybe history (his favorite subject) as copywork would make it a little more interesting. It has worked beautifully and even though his handwriting in other subjects has improved, we're going to stick with it. In fact, I've even ordered Italic Science from Italic Builders and will add that to his copywork next year. And I've already mentioned the math copywork.
Fine Arts--
This was on the schedule for every Friday but after the first few weeks it was pretty much hit-or-miss. More misses than hits in fact. I had thought I would use Harmony Fine Arts and we may still use it next year. But sometimes at the end of the week we were just done. I did get some use out of my Usborne Internet-Linked Introduction to Art. It's the first I-L book we owned and the kids had a great time on the website.
Oh, and Logic--
I almost forgot. The original WTM recommended Introductory Logic for 6th grade after using the Mindbenders books in 5th. I found a deal on IL so we began the year with it. The first lesson was fine. The second was o.k. The third was over his head. So formal logic studies are on hold for a bit. I'm thinking of continuing with the Mindbenders and maybe doing Fallacy Detective next year. Then maybe in 8th grade we'll come back to IL.
Science--
We did Apologia's Astronomy in the Fall and we're doing WTM suggestions for earth science right now.
I hope that's helpful to you. Blessings!
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I would pick up where the older ones left off and continue moving through history chronologically. The kinders will have plenty of time to revisit Ancient civilizations later and you don't want to bore the olders.
Blessings on your new journey!
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This may not be the place to ask, but part of my dilemna about TOG (I'm still interested...I think) is...what is it? I've downloaded the 3-week sample lessons but I just can't seem to grasp it fully.
Is there a spine? Is there a main text that guides you through everything and then the additional readings are, well, additional readings? That I could probably handle. Scrambling for books, then only reading 2 1/2 chapters here and another chapter there just sort of drives me bonkers.
I think that's why I love SOTW so much. SOTW is the main text and everyone reads it in order, from beginning to end. I don't mind finding additional material in Kingfisher or library books or websites, but if we're busy that week and don't get to it, the whole thing doesn't fall apart.
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Thank you for posting this question. I've been planning on doing Henle next year with DS but hadn't considered that there might be different options.
DS has had 4 years of Latin and is going into 7th grade. I personally don't care how long it takes him to progress, as long as he doesn't forget anything. My goal is to keep him in Latin for at least a year or two of high school so it can go on his transcript.
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I think maybe in the first few lessons the model for analysis is the same as the original model. But as the models become longer, the model for analysis is usually kept to a page or so. I believe it's also double-spaced to better allow for editing marks, etc.
Blessings!
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I use both. I bought the book 5 years ago and I don't know whether the audio was available at that time. Then when we did the rotations again, a friend offered to let me borrow the CDs. I think most of the time I read aloud. Occasionally DS reads the lesson himself, but since DD is joining us more regularly this year I don't usually have him do that.
Maybe 1/3 of the time we listen to the CD. Sometimes we listen during lunch or in the car. The drawback with the CD is that sometimes one or all of us will get distracted and miss things. I guess that happens when I read aloud too, but I'm more likely to catch it I think and will go back and re-read a paragraph to make sure they're following.
Bottom line, I would recommend definitely getting the book. If you have some extra money & want to be able to listen in the car, get the CD as well. I would not recommend getting the CD alone. You can't easily flip back through the CD to find something later.
Does anyone drop Spelling Workout after Book F?
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
Louise, what vocabulary program do you use?
I was thinking of dropping SWO but then decided we'd use it one more year per WTM. Would it be appropriate to go from SWO F to Vocabulary from Classical Roots? DS has scored well in the spelling portion of the Stanford test since 3rd grade (his reading skills really took off in 2nd and I'm sure that was the reason.) He's not particularly gifted in spelling but I've been hoping to streamline our day a bit.