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tomandlorih

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Posts posted by tomandlorih

    Why is A Beka so disliked?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I haven't read all the replies but imho most burn out on Abeka because they try and follow the lesson plans which were written for private Christian schools.  Teachers take the material and lesson plans and take or leave pieces and actually teach the material but home users just get overwhelmed and confused.   Their spelling works really well for my dd and I haven't found a health program I like better (haven't run into the mental health problems are the result of sin thing yet.. lol)   My dd also LOVES all the Abeka readers and has read them for fun reading ever since she learned to read.  I personally really like the readers because it is a mix of fiction, non fiction, myths, fairie tales, cultural stories etc.  so literature appreciation gets covered effortlessly.   

    If you like the look of their textbooks (and I do :) ), just be relaxed about it..   I would suggest using them as a spine and adding in living books and narration and timeline work.  Just ditch all the teacher materials and tests.  

    Preschool - Where to start

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    My pre-k'er is just going to be loosey goosey this year.  I gathered a couple of resources and used them to compile a list of learning goals I want him to know by the end of Kinder and I'll just kind of work on them informally.. or maybe next year more formally.. lol  My two main things for him to work on this year is Math U See Primer w/ blocks and Reading Eggs.  For "science" he'll observe, and maybe have a worksheet/craft, of whatever topic big sissy has for the week.  History, Art, Music Bible the same..

    PS  I am going to go check out those Rod and Staff workbooks though.. I've heard rave reviews from many about them..  Have fun!

    • Like 1

    Duolingo vs. Rosetta Stone

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Well I'll tell you my experience with Rosetta Stone German.  My husband is a native speaker.  He doesn't have a ton of time to work with the kids though.  And I don't speak any German.  So we bought levels 1 - 5 (thank goodness for very cheap...long story how we got it so cheap).  Anyhow, DS went through level one and that went pretty well.  He rarely needed DH's help.  DS probably was at about that level anyway because DH had spent years speaking German to him.  So then he hit level 2.  After getting about halfway through he became more and more lost and stuck.  DH tried to explain some of the grammar, but DS was just too frustrated and confused at that point.  Rosetta Stone teaches the grammar in an indirect way.  Apparently that approach does not work for everyone.  We have the homeschool version.  The worksheets often did not match up what was taught in the program and required way more knowledge than what one would have gotten from the program.

     

    I was really hoping it would have been the answer for our situation, but it has not been at all.  And we actually have someone who can answer questions! 

     

    I suspect this program works better for adults (who are willing to work very hard) and possibly with high school students with a lot of guidance.  I don't believe this is a good program for anyone younger than that. 

    This has been our experience with Rosetta Stone Latin American Spanish.. (although I am not a native speaker.. just took years of it. ;)  Thankfully, it didn't cost us anything to try it out but my dd9 hated just clicking randomly until she got the right answer when a simple explanation of the concept was all that was needed for her to understand.   It might work for some kids but my dd is definitely parts-to-whole and we are trying Spanish for Children this year.   We also did Getting Started with Spanish last year to go with the RS and that was great!  

     

    Immersion might work when you are a baby but once you can think and wonder why?  Not so good.  lol

    I Made My Own All-in-One Curric. and Had it Spiral Bound!

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I just noticed that I have to look at the bottom to attach files. D'oh!

     

    Here are the samples as requested.

     

     

    attachicon.gifmusic.jpg

     

     

    I did this idea last year but just stapled her papers for each day..  I started out with a whole week in a binder but spent to much time hole-punching so I just started stapling the days when I put the weeks together.  It works GREAT!!  

     

    May I ask where the music worksheets are from?  website or curriculum or??  TIA

     

    Lori

    Creating Spanish Immersion Program

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Many of us here have our children do lots of copywork and slowly progress to dictation before we expect them to write their own content. This gives them a chance to become familiar with grammar rules (like punctuation, capitalization, comma useage) and spelling before having to write on their own. This could also be incorporated into a Spanish program.

     

    I think a really top-notch program would include movement, visual, and auditory components. Most adults probably cringe at the way they were taught, which probably was to spend most of their time learning rules to conjugate verbs, while rarely heaing anyone speak the language, and learning little vocabulary of everyday items.

     

     

    Yes to this except for one thing.. Some of us (and our children) need to know WHY. So a mix of the parts to whole type instruction in with the rest would be good.

    Good map/geography resources for map-obsessed 6 year old?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    McGraw-Hill Science textbook, workbook, lab book free Grade 1-6

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

     

    What exactly did you Google? I tried all kinds of things. I am thinking they don't exist like this for FL.

     

     

    I think the original post talked about how CA had passed a law that required the new editions of textbooks to be published on their website somewhere .. so I think that it is unique to CA (with the exception of SC? but the textbooks are not on there for SC). I'm not sure even if CA is required to post all new textbooks or if that was just for a time or what. But to your question, I think the original post linked to a page that said something like California List of Gratis Instructional Materials.. so I used variations of that.

     

    You could also just google Online science textbooks for Florida or any number of combinations of that.. include the grade or whatever too. It's amazing what will come up sometimes.

     

    Good luck and if you find anything interesting... =D

    McGraw-Hill Science textbook, workbook, lab book free Grade 1-6

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    How do you get these to come up in PDF form? The only thing I can find on their website is online texts. I would like the Florida version. Thanks

     

     

    They actually are already in .pdf when you bring them up. So, click on the one you want and wait until it comes up, then if you hover your mouse in the lower right hand corner a little menu bar should pop up and there will be a disk icon. You just click on that and save it where ever you wish. I don't know if there are the Florida versions, I can only bring up the CA and SC ones with a Google search. Sorry :(

    Getting Started With Latin

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I am going to use it this coming year. We did Getting Started with Spanish this year (started halfway through the year to supp the RS).. anyway it was great! But DD9 wants to go back to Latin. We did Song School Latin in 2nd grade and it was a little easy but she loved(s) the songs. I would recommend SSL if they can write a little (all the words are dotted in to trace) maybe 1st, then SSL2 in 2nd and GSWL in 3rd.. then.. well, we haven't got that far but I have all next year to research=D

    SOTW 3 Did you take time to include more American history?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Yes. I used History Odyssey for SOTW3 with my third grader this year and it worked out better for us because HO is arranged by continent-ish so instead of having a chapter here or ther on AM Hist, it has it arranged all together and you spend several months on it. We also supplemented heavily from the library, watched all the Liberty's Kids episodes, American girl books, If You Were There books, Maestros books, and many others fiction and non.. HO has a booklist and there are the booklists in the SOTW AG also.. HO also includes Evan Moor History Pockets which are always fun so that stretched it a bit more and it sounds like you are not opposed to stretching=D I used History pockets Ancient Civilizations for SOTW1 in 1st too. HO is not for everyone, but it was a really good fit with us because it was bugging us to jump around like that and I wasn't as concerned with keeping in a strict timeline as I was just the time period. lol

     

    HO is more about reading and notebooking but if your dc's prefer worksheets etc.. Well, History Pockets are good.. (paper projects with lots of coloring), but for great worksheets, The Complete Book of US History is very inexpensive and just about covers it all, in order.

    Raw Milk--Yea or Nay?

    in The Chat Board

    Posted

    I don't have time to read all the replies because I had surgery today and should be in bed! However, I highly recommend the book The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid http://www.amazon.com/Untold-Story-Milk-Revised-Updated/dp/0979209528/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369366738&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=the+untold+sroty+of+milk as well as the Westin A Price site.

     

    I personally switched my baby to raw goat milk at 6 months (from a certified grade A dairy) after she developed an allergy to the milk based formula (I was unable to nurse this one and I refuse to do soy) . My other children have had both raw goat and raw cow's milk off and on as I can afford it. My SIL was raised on a dairy and that's all they drank.

     

    If you look it up there have actually been "many" (yes, I realize this is subjective to what your personal opinion of "many" is.. but if I remember correctly in my medication addled brain it was almost 150 cases) of people getting sick from PASTEURIZED milk so it is not perfectly safe either.

     

    And I had to shake my head last pregnancy when the experts were telling me to not drink raw milk, eat soft cheese or eat deli meat but to eat more fruits and veggies and there were outbreaks of the same dreaded listeriosis from cantaloupe and spinach and what was is? green onions? or some such. So my baby and I weren't very "safe" eating fresh fruits and veggies either!!

     

    I think it is a great thing to eat local and the best thing is to know your farmer, ask questions.. I noticed some good ones above as I scanned through. and IMHO, even if you purchased the raw milk and pasteurized it yourself.. your kids (and you) will be better off for having local, FRESH milk that is not homogenized and is grassfed and WHOLE.

     

    Good luck in your decision for it is a personal choice. =D

     

    BTW, my family drinks a LOT of filtered ice water.

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