We began copywork at age 7, first grade. Fine motor and writing skills are this dd's weak point. My 2nd dd will likely start earlier, at her own request. I'm interested to hear other people's opinions on the penmanship aspect of copywork. I tell dd to use her best handwriting and express disappointment when she doesn't. Maybe I am doing it wrong. :001_huh: Dd would be THRILLED if neatness were not a requirement. :D

:lurk5:

This describes my 7 1/2 yo dd. Really, she doesn't do much more in an hour than she can do in 20 or 30 minutes. The longer she spends on math, the more time I spend reminding her to stay on task. If the program seems ill suited to his learning style, I might change it or at least alter how I present it. If it is purely an attitude issue, I wouldn't switch away from a program that was meeting my learning goals for the kids.

:iagree: My oldest enjoys hearing the books again.

:lurk5:

Julie, what did you think? I've been curious about the CW primer also.

I haven't seen SWO, but my wiggly first grade dd is excelling with AAS.

:iagree: I understand that publishers don't want people to bash their products on their own board, but I don't like the unbalanced reviews. I like to know what people don't like about programs. Reading a negative review won't necessarily prevent me from buying a product. What one person hates in a program might be okay with me. Once I have actually purchased a program, I find the specific boards helpful for answering questions.

Hmm, I'm sorry for being vague. It has been nearly a year since we used the program. I just pulled the books out to refresh my memory. I now realize that the biggest area of trouble I had was actually more tied to the Storytime questions in BLHFHG. :tongue_smilie: For DITHOR, I think we chose the first Boxcar Children book for our mystery. It turns out that it wasn't very mysterious. :lol: Whatever the book was that we used, I just recall that it didn't "fit" the questions. It was along the lines of the assignment talking about tension in the plot and there hadn't been any yet in our book. That isn't a problem with DITHOR itself, it was just our book choice. In the biography section, there was a time to talk about responsibility or some other positive character trait. At that point, our main character was still a child and our book hadn't covered anything relevant. The only character to really talk about was the alcoholic father who showed a true lack of responsibility.:glare: I suppose that using Carrie's book choices would eliminate this problem. As I mentioned, dd really enjoyed the prereading activities and I do plan to use DITHOR next year. Dd will be writing better and may be able to use more of the worksheets. Her handwriting was much too large for her to write in the various boxes and bubbles. She can read more interesting and advanced books also. One thing I really like about DITHOR is that it does not focus on asking comprehension questions. Dd has outstanding comprehension, and is easily irritated by being asked obvious questions. What I said about it not being "open and go" turns out to be BLHFHG, not DITHOR. I had to write out the questions on a sticky and cover them when they cropped up in the story to make it work.

I do like it, but it isn't completely "open and go". I found that the books we used (2/3 level) didn't always fit the assignments. I do plan to keep using it since the good outweighs the problems. :001_smile: Dd really enjoyed the opening activities. HTH

:lurk5:

:iagree: with everything she said. I don't think you are overreacting!

A friend in my hs group likes the kits and so does my sister. Maybe she'll add specifics to this thread. I am planning to try one.

:iagree: I used to work in a preschool setting with a young woman who couldn't read cursive. It was a really issue for her. Parents would send in notes about their kids and someone else would have to read them to her. :001_huh: To the OP, I think your kids could learn to read it without writing cursive. My 7yo is learning cursive, but can read it much better than she can write it. I often write her notes in cursive.

:lol: That's funny! I could see myself having that same discussion with my oldest dd.

We read several in the series last fall. I was really surprised by how weird they were. Dd read a few more on her own, when dh and I tired of them.

:lurk5:

I've been on a couple of times today.

Dd did the mental math from 1A and 1B orally. When I saw the addition grids that start mental math in 2A, I assumed that they could be done in writing. Now she writes the answers, after doing the calculations mentally. HTH

I read this thread several days ago. Today, I got my letter! :lol: I saw the Santa Ana postmark and started laughing.

The only thing we have found to work is digging them up. There is a tool similar to a blade edge screwdriver that works well. If you have lots and lots of dandelions this may not be practical.

:iagree:

FLL- We will get to this. In fact, we are starting a FLL crash course next week. Singapore EB science- HOD BLHFHG- I used this for a few months and realized it just wasn't working.

:iagree: I also agree that without the HIG, I just wouldn't have known what I was missing. It was very important to me to present problem solving "the Singapore Way." Dh and I are amazed at how well dd grasped the concepts.

:iagree: This sounds like me. BTW, my oldest is just finishing up first grade. By third grade, I will expect more independence.