Suzannah
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Posts posted by Suzannah
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I remember a discussion about this a very long time ago on the old boards. I think the trial period is good. You would probably also want to draw up a contract so everyone knows what to expect. This would include things like following through on homework, who is responsible for teaching what, meals, materials, errands, doctor's appointments, vacations.... Anything you can think of that might be an issue should be addressed up front so there's no confusion later. It may be a little uncomfortable to talk about discipline or money when everyone is happy and excited to begin the new year, but if the situation presents itself in the middle of the year when everyone has already made their plans it will be more stressful and difficult to change them.
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They're going out of business? I'm sorry to hear that but can't say I'm surprised considering the price. I've almost bought several of them several times but never could justify spending that much money when there are so many documents available online for free. On the other hand, as I found this year, just because there are tons of online primary sources doesn't mean I'll be able to figure out which ones to use. I really, really tried this year to just pull together some primary sources for our Ancient Studies this year. But trying to choose an appropriate selection from Caesar's Gallic Wars or various other sources was time consuming and difficult.
FWIW, we did enjoy reading Pliny the Younger's description of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and the evacuation of Pompeii.
The Jackdaws website doesn't say anything about going out of business. I would think you could still order from there.
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I LOVE World War II for Kids!! I actually just loaned it to a friend who is covering WWII this summer and she loves it too. I used it as a reference for a co-op class with ages 6-11 a couple of years ago. My friends' boys are aged 8-12.
Oh, and the Five in a Row book All Those Secrets of the World is also good, considering your kids' ages.
Good luck!
:D
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You said you didn't want to hang the maps on the wall, but this idea might still be helpful if you have the space to hang it but just don't want it to show when you're not using it. Several years ago someone here suggested hanging a quilt or other artwork over maps, charts, etc. We have our periodic table behind a large, framed picture in the dining room. It was very easy to take down the picture when we needed to use the chart and cover it up again when we were done.
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Ebay. Be sure to check often and make sure you have the edition you want. I don't know how much difference the edition makes, but there are multiple ones out there.
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I haven't put a great deal of time into researching it, but I think there are more noticeable meteor showers in the Fall/Winter time frame. The weather is generally more cooperative too.
Having said that though, we'll probably do them somewhat simultaneously since my 1st grader is facinated with volcanoes and earthquakes and we have weather all year round. :)
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I believe the WTM says it's not necessary to do science in the recommended order, just that it roughly correlates to the chronological history sequence and ability of the kids at those stages. But you can (fairly) easily find resources in each topic for younger or older kids so I'd say do whatever interests you.
Blessings!
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We'll be starting Saxon 76 in September. DS has never been thrilled with math but this year in 65 it has been a drudgery with lots of staring into space and dropping pencils. Then when I correct the work I often find he's made a lot of careless mistakes which then take time to correct. Towards the end of the year we took a break and just drilled basic facts to make sure those were solid, then went back to the lessons with me sitting next to him for most if not all of it. I think it helped some. I think my plan for the coming year is to do "Life of Fred" a couple of times a week in addition to the regular Saxon lessons. I haven't worked out the scheduling, but my plan is to limit math lessons to something reasonable in two sessions. For the last two years I've tried to say anything not finished in a hour is homework, but frankly that disrupts the rest of our day and he was sloppy in his work too.
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I'm also in Fairfax County and might make use of it if it were available to us. I've never had to deal with the district other than to file my letter of intent each year. I guess if you find anything out let us know.
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I confess, I didn't actually do the calculations to determine what percentage of our coursework is from WTM. Let's see, it's probably easier to say what we do that's different. Here's what we use instead of the WTM recommendation:
Classical Writing
Apologia Elementary Science (in conjunction with WTM science recommendations)
All About Spelling (just starting this next year for first grade, low-vision DD, but use Spelling Workout for DS)
And then some of what we do or will be doing next year was recommended in the first edition of WTM but not the second:
Latin Primer (worked really well for DS)
Abeka Grammar
Introductory Logic
So take that as you may.:seeya:
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We did 5th grade last year with Classical Writing Aesop B, Spelling Workout E (we started a bit late on spelling to get other basics in place) and Abeka's God's Gift of Language B.
I loved Classical Writing and we'll continue with Homer in the Fall.
I don't totally love Spelling Workout, but we've finally found a groove that works for us. I like having a workbook that he can take in the car or to siblings' doctor's appointments and I like that it teaches editing skills. DS scores well in spelling on standardized tests, it's inexpensive and easy to use. Why fix what isn't broken.
We began using Abeka for grammar in third grade as recommended in the first edition of TWTM. It's our only other workbook (see above) and it has way more exercises than any child needs to complete in a single year. But every 6-8 weeks I look ahead and circle the exercises for DS to do then assign 3-5 pages at a time (usually 3 or 4 exercises). If he does well on those we move on, if he needs more work we do another exercise. We skip the writing since we use CW but do the diagramming. We also copy all of the charts and definitions for the grammar notebook.
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I'm late to the game here, but I did want to chime in because this is something that I think we all struggle with. Go slow. DS loves to read now. But in 2nd grade, after I read to him every single day since he was a baby and doing phonics since he was about 5, he DID NOT like to read. He could do it, but not well and not with a happy face. Then in the beginning of 3rd grade I walked past our front room where the bookcases are and did a double-take. He was sitting on the floor READING!! In his free time!! I managed to keep quiet and noted that he kept reading for nearly an hour. Your kids may or may not ever LOVE to read. But give them time and keep giving them the opportunity to discover new worlds in books.
Now about Omnibus...
I heard of Omnibus for the first time a few months ago. It looked so incredible that I went ahead and bought a copy. As I browsed the pages my emotions swung wildly from excitement to despair.
"It's fantastic! Look at these books and those 'Questions to consider!' This is everything I've ever wanted!"...."Oh my goodness! There is no way my son will get through the first week of readings. He'll be sliding out of his chair, flopping around on the floor bemoaning his fate as the child of the meanest mom in the world. It'll take us 4 years to get through the book and we'll both hate it by then."
So then I re-read the preface and instructions at the beginning of the book and decided that it will be MY textbook. Our reading list is basically from WTM (which is about half of the Omnibus list). DH and I will be reading the same books (probably on CD or Ipod). I will use do the Omnibus study myself and perhaps mark sections to do with DS. I love the textbook, therefore it is my textbook. I will use what I learn to guide DS through the reading.
That's the plan anyway.:thumbup:
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Well like the others I used Adventures with Atoms and Molecules and we really enjoyed it. I think we skipped one experiment because I didn't have the itmes on hand. Mostly though they were very easy to do and we learned a lot. We also used a chemistry set I got from Rainbow Resource for about $20...I think it was called "Wild Goose Chase" or something like that. I looked some time later and they no longer carried the exact same kit, but I would think most of those kinds of things are about the same. It was nice because all the supplies were included and there were test tubes and beakers. More "scientific-looking" than our household items. Chemistry was fun. We're looking forward to doing it again in a couple of years.
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Cool! I haven't heard of this but will be checking it out. Thanks! :seeya:
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I have them and they are useful, but they tend to get loose and end up on the floor a lot. I've been thinking that the Math U See stacking blocks might work better since they stick together. We use Saxon and have never required the rods. We just used them for fun. We always use Duplos when lessons required "linking cubes."
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Great info at those two links kls126s. I've been searching for memory work sources myself. I wish we had done more memory work with my oldest (it always seemed like there would be more time later!) and I want to make sure he and his siblings don't miss out because of my lack of organization. I scribbled down a list from WTM and have been trying to decide which long passages of scripture to work on. It's really nice to have Hannah's e-book all ready to use! Thanks!
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We used Apologia's Botany book last year for 5th grade & K. Well, the K only joined us occasionally. But I was so happy with it that we're planning to do Apologia's Astronomy next year for 6th & 1st grades. I think it will work quite well.
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Well I'm not sure how helpful this will be, but in an effort to bump your thread a bit, here goes. I use Classical Writing. This past year, the last half really, it made more sense for us to alternate the writing lesson one week with history writing the following week. So it took us about twice as long to get through Aesop B, but we were a bit overwhelmed when we tried to go at a quicker pace (new baby, outside commitments, etc.) We probably won't do that next year. I think DS can handle one lesson per week in addition to various history/science writing assignments.
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I used to post more frequently on the old boards because I had more time. When I started DS was 2. Now he's almost 11 and I have two others. We're busy all the time and I actually use my spare time for things like folding laundry and school planning.
I'm not sure that I would say the boards are less classical than they used to be, but there are more flavors of classical education represented than in the beginning.
:lurk5:
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We used Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany for the second semester of 5th last year. First semester was WTM biology, but we had a new baby so it wasn't as thorough as I would have liked. Botany went very well and DS enjoyed it.
FWIW, in 4th grade we did a couple of the Science in a Nutshell kits recommended in WTM for physics. Those were a big hit too. Next year in 6th we'll do Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy in the fall and WTM earth science in the Spring...or something like that anyway.
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Isn't SOTW written for a younger age group?:confused: Do you just read it by itself or does it branch off into other books?
Well, yes and no. It's written in an engaging narrative style that younger children can understand, but I enjoyed reading it myself when we first got it and I plan to continue to have my oldest read it through middle school. He loves history and this is his second time through the SOTW series. Perhaps your dd doesn't care for history because she doesn't see it as a story. If that is the case SOTW might make it more readable.
For an older child you would probably want to supplement SOTW with Kingfisher Encyclopedia and the SOTW activity guide which includes suggested supplemental books and other info. Since you have a toddler you would probably use these again in a few years anyway.
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The first edition of WTM recommended Latin Primer (Canon Press) so we used that with the DVDs. I have never seen or used Latina Christiana but it is the new recommendation from WTM.
I have no Latin experience but did take two years of high School French and two years of college French so the process of learning a language was at least familiar to me. It was not until midway through Latin Primer 2 that I began to worry that I would get out of my depth. DS enjoyed the program, but it is completely frill-free. This year a friend offered to tutor DS along with her own daughter and she used Cambridge. I thought DS would enjoy the storyline, pictures and cultural background. But all year long Latin was a chore. He seemed to enjoy his "class" but during the rest of the week complained that it was too hard and he preferrred Latin Primer. So next year we will return to Latin Primer with level 3.
I said all that to say, this is a solid program, I did not have any difficulty using it (keep in mind we watched every single video lesson and did Latin every day including chants and word list reviews.) I suspect if I had compared LP to LC, I might have chosen LC and perhaps DS would have done very well with it. But as it happens, he did very well with and seems to have preferred LP to some of the other middle level programs we looked at.
My plan right now is to use Latin Primer 3 next year (6th grade) and then try to let DS compare hard copies of Henle 1 with Latin Grammar (the next level of the Latin Primer series). But if either of them comes out with a DVD by that time, that's the one we'll do.
Good luck!
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We're getting ready for 6th grade here too. As far as I can tell it looks good. I'm curious about Caesar's English. What is that? I also notice a lot of writing, but since I don't use IEW I'm not familiar with the individual programs. Do they all work together?
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No, we just put all the history info in as we do it, chronologically. When we review it just makes more sense to us to see the whole unit (maps, outline, paragraph on Julius Caesar, coloring page) all together. Sort of a snapshot of the chapter so-to-speak.
What supplies do I need to get started? plus...
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
I haven't read the rest of the replies yet but wanted to share a few things from my experience. For PK and K, keep one binder for each child. Put all of the schoolwork (narrations, pictures related to your studies, math worksheets, photos of projects) in the binder. It doesn't have to be very elaborate. You may find you have way more than you can fit into the binder. It was so rewarding at the end of DS' K year both to look back at the binder we kept. I didn't do that exactly for DD this past year and I hope I get to go back through the separate folders we used and compile a binder for her.
The most important things you will need for PK and K are crayons (which you have, but if you get school supply fever you can always pick up a couple more boxes at Walmart for 50 cents), pencils and paper. I would suggest that you lay in a supply of printer paper. You can use it blank for drawings, print out coloring sheets or worksheets, or print out handwriting paper from http://www.donnayoung.org. She also has story paper with lines at th bottom and a space at the top for drawing.
Of the permanent school supplies I would suggest a pencil sharpener, plenty of toner/ink cartridges for your printer, a 3-hole punch and a globe. If you find one that you like, get that one. But there's no need to get anything expensive. The only caution I would give is to make sure the water is blue. Some of the antique-looking ones are attractive but can be a little confusing to a child who is just learning how to use one. If you have the space for a wall map that's nice too, but the globe is the most useful at that age.
Blessings!