[2 boys + 1 sledge hammer = fun]

My boys found some large sheets of particle board in the woods the other day and dragged it all home with great plans to build a dog house for the dog. Naturally I told them the wood was no good and naturally they ignored my observation. Yesterday they started their building project, but just a few minutes with a saw and they agreed the wood was junk.

 

So how do 2 teenage boys solve the problem of getting rid of large sheets of lumber...sledge hammer it. They spent hours seeing who could make the biggest hole (boys always have to one up the other). They also came up with several games ....make an X and see who can hit it, put a log under the wood and a ball on top and see who could launch the ball the highest in the air, and more games that kept them going until dark.

 

So much entertainment from free wood and a heavy tool. Boys :rolleyes:

[Question about FLL and WWE....]

What FLL are you using?

 

The lessons do get more involved as you go through it. At first it took us 2-3 minutes to get through a lesson, but now it is taking us about 15 minutes or more.

[A quick mention of WWE]

:iagree:I bought the WWE 4 after reading TWTM, reading about it here, and because SB seems to know what she is talking about. My son has gone from having no idea what to say in 3-4 sentences about a passage to getting the picture of what to write. He still needs some prompting but now understands what narration of a passage looks like and has started to apply it to other readings.

[(LS) Okay, but how are all you WTM'ers teaching your dc HOW to write?]

If your looking info on how to write a narration paragraph, I suggest the Writing With Ease book. It holds their hand as they learn how to narrate. We are using book 4 and at first my son had no idea how to get 3-4 sentences about what he just read. The first few weeks of lessons walked him through the thinking process with a series of 3-4 questions creating a 3-4 sentence paragraph he was to write on his paper. We are now at the point in WWE4 that the questions have disappeared but it will prompt him on what to focus on....Give 3-4 sentences telling what he looked like, what he did, and where he went (this sort of thing). It is helping his brain process exactly what he needs to focus on to get a good narration.

 

If your looking on just a general how to write program, then I would agree with a previous poster and suggest Writing Strands 3. As she said, it starts then out with 2 words, but over the week they are building it up to a detailed sentence. The next lessons start them out very small but build to paragraphs, then different type of paragraphs and so on. Very step by step...but little steps so as not to overwhelm.

[Experiences with Calvert for 7th-8th grades?]

My son used Calvert for 7th grade and absolutely loved it. From a teaching perspective, it was extremely easy to use, literally an open and go program. Scripted lesson plans make it easy to get your mind focused on what to discuss (which I needed at the time since I just had a baby). For the student, lessons are short but full. The writing assignments were varied in the type of writing they needed to do and were across the curriculum, so there was always some type of writing going on (but not overwhelming, it was well choreographed). The history, as another poster mentioned, was dry and if I was to do this now (with out a newborn) I would add to it with with other resources. My son enjoyed the literature choices as well as the discussion. I found it to be a enriched literature program with vocabulary, discussions, projects, and comprehension questions that were not all regurgitating the facts. (It was this program that got my son to actually look at classic literature as not some boring old books). I agree with the other poster about the English text, it was good. Calvert also has computer skills lessons that are coordinated with the other school work to show how each skill can be used in their work.

 

I forgot to mention, the manuals are written to the child at that level, so it is encouraging independent work.

 

I did not use the services provided so I cannot comment on how those work or the quality of them.

[Questions about Time Travelers....]

I've used the Time Travelers:New World Explorers two different ways, exactly as given and bits and pieces to supplement. Both ways worked really well for the child I was using it with. I did not however just read the pages for the lesson. I used the info pages as a guide and grabbed books from the library to read about the given topics.