I am interested in watching and working through the TWSS seminar, but I am not interested in using a dvd targeted at the student. Has anyone found the seminar to be useful even if they don't use the SWI? Thanks!

:bigear: I want this too, as much for me as for the kids! Imagine being able to burst out with Jabberwocky when a conversation gets dull!

I agree with above. That's a LOT! If it helps, my plan is to spend elementary school dealing with our two family languages (French and English), to be sure of fluency in both. Then we'll move on to just doing one or two subjects in French (like just lit and composition or smoething). In middle school, MAYBE add Latin for a taste, using a program that teaches "applicaable" Latin like Latin Road for 2 years. Finally, we'll probably do Spanish in HS because we hope to be living in CA by then and Id like some conversational abilities. But my kid is only 4, LOL. So I have no idea how that will go!

Thank you!!! That makes sense. Honestly, I'd like printed books rather than pdfs, but I don't need a grader for the younger years, so I'll probably do some of both.

First off thanks to your detailed instructions in the post below, I finally found something useful on the CNED site! Yes! Next- do you feel like sending away for the grading is helpful? Are you unable to grade the work yourself, or do you just prefer an outside opinion? I like the idea of just downloading and printing the free books, but if you feel the grading aspect really adds to it, I'd like more details. :-) :bigear: Thanks!

We love RS. I don't find it complicated to use, but it is teacher intensive.

Giving myself a little bump... anyone???

Has anyone seen all of these and compared? They all look so good!

We also read the stories only once, and my son never got a grip on "the fast way" while using this book, so he was still sounding out at that point. Once we finished, we switched to Explode the Code, and it has been amazing for my son. He zipped through the first two books, and now we are going through book 3 at 2 pages per day and his reading ability has skyrocketed. He now reads most 3-5 letter words "the fast way", understands the reules that are not explicitly taught in 100EZL, etc.

I am wondering if there is a book that thoroughly covers all aspects of grammar, that can be implemented by mom as she sees fit, with no scripted lessons- sort of an all-inclusive grammar reference, including diagramming. Does such a thing exist? Thanks!

Understanding the physical sciences is enriched greatly with calc. Knowing that position, velocity, and acceleration are inherently related mathematically is much better than memorizing the formulas. Knowing calc in order to thoroughly understand statistics is important for anyone going into any field that involves research- knowing the strengths (and limitations) of statistical analysis of data is very important. Calculus is simply a very, very powerful tool, and I happen to think it's incredibly fun to learn. Knowing that you can take a section of a function on a graph, spin it about the x-axis, then calculate the volune of what you've just created seems useless, but just understanding that simple math, done by hand even, can do such a thing is AMAZING! Calc was my favorite class in highs school. :-)

I think you can get it at Rainbow Resource. There is a TM for the first 4 or so books, then another for the next 4 or so books. I don't think it's necessary though. We are in book 3 and I've never felt like we needed it.

My kids are still young, but I do plan to combine these two ideas. I prefer the 4 year history cycle rather than the 6 year cycle of AO, because it seems like it's a bit more logical, and seeing things three times at three levels is better than twice, imo. I prefer the reading lists from AO- I can't imagine spending all of first grade doing almost exclusively ancient myths for our read alouds. It would drive me crazy. So we'll probably to SOTW+AG "lite" and then add in some AO lit that I find more fun. I actually don't see a huge difference between SWB's recommendations for grammar stage lit and Mason's recommendations- but SWB made it a bit easier by putting it all together in FLL and WWE. Nothing is stopping me from selecting my own passages if desired. Things from CM to add in, for me- composer study, art study, memory work. CM things to leave out- "whole language" reading (I'm pure phonics) Things from classical that I love- almost everything Things from classical I'll leave out- Latin in the grammar stage (we'll be doing French, as the kids are bilingual), the intensity of the history focus. I'm ok with history being the spine of the year, but I can't limit myself to just the history book lists and coordinating science topics without going crazy myself. :-)

Fantastic! I have my NMI application packet, but now is just not the "season" in my life. :-) The world needs more midwives!

I agree with all the others. We used 100EZ and it just leaves you hanging at the end, with an incomplete phonics education. After 100EZ, we switched to Explode the Code to fill in the blanks, which is also a fun program, but for kid 2, I'll just use OPGTR from the start.

Just to throw a monkey wrench in things... Why not do one year of US history, that way the olders start fresh with the cycle the following year, and you can find a lot of age appropriate resources for the youngest?

I was just pondering this very question! Glad you asked it. :bigear:

Book 1 is CVC words and assumes a knowledge of the most common words- the, on, in, at, etc. Book two is beginning and ending blends, all short vowels Book three is long vowels (short words ending in a yowel, y that says i at the end of a short word, and silent-e words) as well as digraphs sh and ch. If you start at the beginning, he can do 4-5 pages a day, and then slow down around book three or so, which is what we've done. We did 4-5 pages a day through 1-2, and are now doing 3 pages a day in book 3. It's a fantastic review for a new reader.

Thanks for all the tips. I think I'll order one and resell if necessary. I'm not opposed to using one, just don't want to spend the $$ if I don't need to.

If I've read Liping Ma's book (and was a physics major myself, so very comfy with math), do you still recommend the Singapore HIGs? Just trying to plan for the future, lol. :-)

This is probably not it, but double check that you are really looking at your blog home page- when you look at the URL, does it show just blogname.blogspot.com, or is there a /titleofmostrecentpost after the .com?

I have the same problem! I love to read a history book for the story, but then ask me the names of some of the major players, the dates events took place, the locations... and I'm lost because I was busy just enjoying the story. :-) I think WWE helps to show the importance of details.

I second reading the good books outloud, at least until she is "hooked". Books like Little Women take a little getting used to- the language, the style, the pace... With certain books, you can also "reward" her by letting her watch the movie once she finishes the book.

Hopefully ElizabethB will chime in! I use a whiteboard and copy down the part of the syllabary we are working on, then we just go through it. It's a really "no frills" method. lol.

I'm also on my first kid, so take this with a grain of salt. We did 100EZ lessons, and now are doing the syllabary and Explode the Code. At the breakfast table, I mark down pieces of the syllabary for him to read. We haven't gotten to the word lists yet, because we just started. This takes 5 minutes max. After lunch, we do 4 pages of ETC, and then he reads 2-3 pages from I Can Read books- right now we are doing the Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel. I much prefer these books, even though he hasn't yet mastered all of phonics that he needs to read them fluently, because the stories are very interesting and funny. He is very willing to read them because of the fun characters.