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keslas

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  1. Our Plans So far: Math: Singapore Primary math Finish 1A, 2A Language Arts: FLL Reading: Variety of readers from VP, MP. Finish OPTR Memory Work: Catechism and Classical Conversations Spelling: No Clue Yet ...Suggestions? History/Humanities: Tapestry of Grace Y3 Science: Ds is a science kid - Academy of Science for Kids (ASK) Kit on Dissection and Chemisty Art: Drawing With Children, plenty of paper and markers Handwriting: HWT Any other suggestions? :001_huh:
  2. My dd14 started FF last year in Jan with nearly no Latin bkgrd and she has done very well with the curriculum. We've been taking it very slowly and she's nearly done with the curriculum, then we'll move to SF or Henle for ninth grade. I've been very happy with it. You may want to check out the FF Yahoo group. Memoria Press provides a lot of support for the program there.
  3. Hi, Funnix is offering free downloads of their beginning phonics program throughout the month of January. Its a two year reading program and the complete program is being offered for free.:D I have downloaded the program myself and given my ds 5 the placement test. It looks good but I haven't tried it yet, still reading over the program. The website is http://www.funnix.com I hope this helps.
  4. Has anyone tried the Piano Wizard music tutorial curriculum? I've received several emails from Sonlight highly recommending it the price tag is so high, I'm reluctant to try it. I want my dc 14, 5, 1 to receive piano instruction but have had no luck finding a teacher and I don't have room in my house for a piano - so a program like Piano Wizard is very attractive to me. I'd appreciate any reviews or recommendations for an at home piano curriculum that the Hive Mind can offer. ;)
  5. My dd 14 used to struggle through the week with loads of reading assignments and math. Our day stretched from 9am-5pm some days. I started assigning her the reading in TOG History and Literature on Fridays and over the weekends and this has worked wonders. Now we spend her class time having discussions and writing assignments. She's a lot less stressed and since she likes to read at night anyway, doing her assigned weekends over the weekend isn't a big problem.
  6. My dd14 never received good cursive writing instruction when she was in public school. This year she's been working through a Latin cursive copy book published by Memoriam Press. She loves it because she gets the basics practices her cursive using various Latin sayings and phrases. It doesn't seem to babyish to her. I've noticed a lot of improvement in her cursive, so I guess its working! :lol:
  7. :iagree: I am so scattered brained. I start off with this wonderful money saving idea to do all of my planning via Excel and Word docs but I end up losing papers, forgetting which file folder I saved what end, etc, etc. I've looked at countless planners but they were all missing vital features. How, the Well Planned Day is the best I've found. It has everything I need and all in one place. I've introduced two of my girlfriends to it and we can't say enough about it. I've even bought the middle school planner for my dd. We'll be ordering next year's planner soon.
  8. My family is in its third year doing CC and overall its been a very positive experience. I've done both the Challenge (junior and high school programs) and Foundations so I'll offer my perspective on both. My dd started in the 6th grade(last year of Foundations) so we used CC as our spine - but many families don't. She is a social butterfly and enjoyed the interaction with the other students in the class. It really helped her to want to be prepared for class. That year I was pregnant with my third child, so CC really helped keep us on track although so weeks were harder than others. However, I was never pressured to keep up with the group from week to week. CC really emphasizes each family going at their own pace. The students went at different paces in each subject. That year my daughter also did Essentials, which is a separate program for Language Arts, Writing, and Mental Math. This was EXCELLENT! My daughter came in a struggling writing with very basic language arts skills and by the end of the year, she no longer cried when she had to write a paper and her Standford 10 scores in Language Arts were in the upper 90th percentile. The Challenge program I've learned to pick and chose what we will do because unlike the Foundations program, it actually uses various curriculum that may or may not work well for your child. For example, my daughter and I hated Latin's Not So Tough in Challenge A, so we dropped that class and I bought First Form Latin to us at home. But CC Challenge is flexible, like most other co-ops you can choose which courses you want to do there and which you'll do at home or elsewhere. But the opportunity for my dialect/rhetoric child to interact, discuss novels, present papers and debate with other students is something I can't replicate at home and I like the structure that CC provides. Now honestly, I do believe that TOG is a more rigorous program and that will be our spine next year for history and maybe literature, but my daughter will still do some CC Challenges classes - Science, Economics, Latin (Henle 1), etc, for the reasons I stated above. This year my ds5 is doing foundations and he loves it! Although our spine is now Tapestry of Grace, I find that CC introduces him to topics that we touch on later on in TOG. CC gives us a peg of knowledge that he can later hang more information on. I don't stress connections with him because thats not the purpose of CC at his level although sometimes he makes them on his own later on in the year as we study CC topics in TOG. I'm interested in immersing him with facts of information, which CC does well. He also does Science experiments and art activities there, which is a plus for us. I have found that THe Story of the World on Audio has tremendous benefits for CC users because the CC History Sentences are also topics in SOTW. My son has reached many of his connections that way. Example, a few weeks ago we learn a memory sentence about The French Revolution and Reign of Terror. It didn't mean much to my son then, but when he heard the references on SOTW audio book, he head perked up, he smiled and said, "Oh, I know about this and broke into a rendition of his CC History Sentence. Then he had me replay the STOW chapter and listened intently to the story. As we progress through CC he'll learn more and more. This has happened time and time again with CC - hanging pegs of knowledge helps the students make connections later on. That moment when things click is priceless. Hope this helps - this is just one homeschool mom's perspective :)
  9. My ds5 loves creating lapbooks. He not ready to write on his own now, so I do a lot of the writing but he does enjoy drawing pictures and gluing the pictures into the books. I've considered doing my own lapbooks, but honestly, I'm not that creative and my dd14 and ds1 keep me too busy with other tasks. So, the TOG pre-made lapbooks work well for us. My son loves to look through the book and review what he's learned with friends and family. He's very proud of all of his hard work. That alone has made them worth the investment. We do one for every unit. :001_smile:
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