Ellie, She does do the writing in R&S. We have been writing paragraphs for a while now, and she understands the concept of a paragraph. It may be that I want her to practice more? Today, she was given a picture to write a paragraph about. After her paragraph of 3 sentences (that were good sentences) I had her go back and ask who? what? where? when? why? and incorporate all those answers/ideas into her paragraph to make it interesting. With me pushing her to dig deeper, she was able to expand on what she wrote. If I had all day to spend on just her and grammar, we would have even come up with a full story of the picture, but we quit after the second rewrite where she had 6 sentences. I don't think I am doing the best in explaining/ teaching how to write an interesting paragraph. Maybe I'm looking for something that might guide her to expand her imagination? We are finishing W&R narrative book I. That has been ok in stretching her imagination by a bit. But she's not really enjoying it, and I don't see leaps and bounds in her creativity. Reading all the responses now, I think nansk might have hit the nail on the head. I will be looking into a resource to teach sentence variety such as Sentence Composing. Also, Jennifer jens2sons had a great link! Thank you! I am really interested in trying Here to Help Learning. Even with all the reading she does, I think she might be needing to see more concrete examples of boring vs. interesting/fun paragraphs. Thank you all so far! I would LOVE to get more ideas either on a resource that helps with igniting imagination, sentence variety, or paragraph practice.

I wanted to add that we have done W&R book 1 and 2 and I'm not to eager to go for the next book. She reads above her grade level, she has enough creativity for writing, but I think she needs more practice on writing different kinds of paragraphs. Any suggestions??

I was wondering if the hive could throw some ideas my way as to a program that does a decent job teaching how to write different paragraphs. I am not that great with the search function on here. This is for a 5th grader. She CAN write a paragraph, but just a simple info 3-5 sentence one. I would like to have her practice writing more different style paragraphs. We are doing Rod and Staff for grammar, so she's good on grammar but her paragraphs are sad to look at... Thanks!

I also wanted to chime in and say that you should teach the Russian reading then English. We are a Russian speaking household in an English speaking community, with only one set of grandparents near by to speak to the kids besides us parents. By emphasizing reading in Russian, even when teaching English, it will help the child retain the ability to read and speak in Russian later once English is well learned. My oldest is in 3rd and reads great in both English and Russian with a preference for Russian. Even though we have more English literature around the house. My second is in 1st, and reading in general is not her strong point. I think I am going to delay teaching English reading until later this summer or next year, just to solidify her Russian reading. That said, we do math in English and she understands me when I speak to her in English, but answers back in Russian 95% of the time. My 3rd is only turning 5 next week, but from listening in on me teaching the second one to read, she has taught herself to read. I actually have to tell her DAILY that we won't read for more than 20 minutes together. I don't want to push her into schooling too early. She has also learned to write the letters all by herself. This child understands many English words and phrases, but speaks Russian. I understand what you are saying about the playing with others and understanding other kids ..... I had that fear too. I would suggest you enroll her into music classes or art classes where she can interact with others and learn words without being taught the letters and sight words. That is what I did. I also read to them in English. I started with picture books while pointing to things, then progressed to books like Little House On The Prairie, Charlotte's Web, and others. They would hear the words and try to grasp the main idea or concept of a paragraph. This helps TONS with understanding English without confusing them on the letters. From personal experience, when my family immigrated from Russia, I was 7 years old. I had finished 1st grade, my older brother finished 2nd grade, my younger sister and brother never went to school in Russia. Both my brother and I can write, read and speak very well in Russian. My sister can speak it with difficulty, but my youngest brother has just about lost it altogether. I do believe that learning to read and write in a "minor" language, along with speaking it regularly, will help the kids retain it later in life.

When you say you want a native speaker, do you mean from Kazakhstan or Russia in general? I have a link to virtual Russian lessons for everything: math, reading, grammar, science, chemistry, literature and more. The only drawback is it is all in Russian and you need to be able to read in Russian to select which lessons you want. This could be awesome though just to listen to a teacher speak in Russian. In the "learn to read" section, they even read books and short stories. Let me know if this could help you in any way. We don't have skype, or I would have my girls talk to yours. If one of the girls has the ability to speak it, does she read at all? If she does, maybe she can help navigate the site?

3rugrats- I got a 6year old grader EXACTLY like your daughter. It sounds like you are describing my DD in your post. To answer your question, routing, routine, routine! As long as she knows there are set things for her to do, and a time for them she does WAY better. I also found that setting a time limit is a hit and miss. Sometimes she works harder to finish by the time is up other times she will have "Just a quick question mom.....". I admit, I have walked away from "school" for the day with her far more than I want to say. HUGS!

Listening in, as we will start Sequential this fall.... :bigear:

Oh, I feel for you! I need to take some of the advice given here. My mom CONSTANTLY asks "Did you school....today?" If I say we are having an easy day/ week she gets SO worried, and rambles on and on about some of the kids she knows are "doing sooo much, aren't your kids falling behind?" That usually ruffles my feathers, but I point out that ODD8 is reading fluently in two languages, she writes VERY well in two languages and can add double digit numbers (think 79 and 47) in her head at the drop of a hat. Sure, we could do more science experiments, but how many 8 year old girls know the names of many tools in mechanic's shop? How many 8 year old can cook (supervised) a chicken/mashed potato and salad dinner for the family? I need to learn how to "pass the bean dip" on the phone. ;)

Kassi, Thank you for your input. Good to know. :001_smile:

I was wondering if we even need to learn/know this. To me, it seems like it's not something that is used IRL. I don't know if they are used in upper math though.

Wow, I feel a bit dumb right now :blushing: :leaving: . Should have had my coffee first this morning, then come here..... cagirlintexas: You are correct, checked numbers are NOT taught in B. I just flipped through the lessons. It's in the games book. What happened was a few weeks ago we were doing math games to review, I was flipping through the addition games and came to the game with checked numbers. I was just so confused. Just as I was this morning. :huh: :laugh: I figured that since we are in B, and are doing the addition games, therefore we need to learn checked numbers. :scared: Needless to say, we never played that game with the checked numbers.

I just read the other thread about checked numbers. We have been doing rightstart for two years now (done A and B ) and about to start C. I skipped over the intro to checked numbers in B, was that wrong? How important is this to know down the road in rightstart? In other math curriculum? I have never been taught this, which is why i skipped it. We're thinking of switching to Singapore later, will this be an issue if I don't cover checked numbers? Please someone explain it to me.

We are going to keep up with math and some easy handwriting/copywork/dictation over the summer with the oldest and read, read, read with the second. My 3rd is BEGGING for school, but she just turned 4 and I don't want to rush it.

:iagree: Mine says the same thing as we go back and forth between Russian and English. I LOVE it!! It proves that the stuff is sticking to SOMEthing in between those two ears. :laugh:

Is it worth it to get the "Helps and Hints" ?

Well, we are doing R&S 2 this year. Yes, it's pretty much as independent as you want to make it. There is a lesson to read together 3/4 of a page, but the books are not that big. Then there is an oral part and a written part. The reading of the lesson and the oral part could be done in 5 min or so and then the written part takes how ever long the student writes. I have FLL1 and I used it to fill in the gaps of the things that are not covered in R&S like: Mr., Mrs., address, and a few other thing I can't remember. Oh and FLL has more interesting poems and things. I often do R&S all orally and assign copywork from FLL. Still, the oral (teacher intensive) part only takes 10 min max. I haven't done R&S 3, but it's in the plans for next year. HTH

Thanks!

Mamaraby: What is HSBC? Sorry to hijack. :blush5:

Our inter-library system only has one edition, and I have read it. It's the 3rd. I was looking into buying the book for me to have. Like reefgazer1963 mentioned... [ for "big picture" planning, information, and ideas.] Thanks for the input ladies!

I searched, but didn't see the answer I was looking for. What is the biggest difference between the editions? Which one do you think is more valuable? Why? :bigear:

THIS is hilarious!!! :hurray: :lol: I wish could use this on DH. :lol: :lol:

Thanks for the suggestions! Homeschoolmom3- we have been reading the Bible stories since the kids were tiny. They know almost all of them by heart. Justicesmom- I haven't looked at Long Story short, but that sounds EXACTLY what I;m looking for: read a bit, and discuss with kids. Except I am not good at coming up with good discussion questions. Maybe this will help me. Off to look! Keep them coming, if you have something you love!

Thank you ladies!

I am looking into getting something for next year for me and the kids to do for our morning "Bible Time". Right now we are reading a narrative style book of leading kids to God. We will be done with it soon. I would like something that is structured with questions/discussion promts, but that isn't a MUST. I could be a short study or a year-long curriculum. I was looking at Telling God's Story, and it looks good, but I am undecided and thought I'd ask what you ladies LOVE. So, what have you used that was just. awesome.? I will have a 1st grader, 3rd grader and a very smart (and sassy) Kinder that picks things up super fast. Go ahead and recommend for older kids as well, as I like to plan things out.....

If I have the WWE Instructor Text do I need to buy the individual level workbooks like lever 1, 2, 3, etc? Thanks!