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forwardbyfaith

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Posts posted by forwardbyfaith

    Questions about math relief

    in High School and Self-Education Board

    Posted

    I am looking at Math Relief and like what I see, but I had a few questions.

     

    1. My daughter is in 8th grade this year taking Algebra 1. She is going to a small Christian school and they are using a McGraw Hill Alg. 1 book. Will she have any trouble transitioning? My daughter is not strong in math, but she studies very hard and got an A last semester. My son is in 7th taking pre-algebra. He has a B in math this year. Neither of my kids enjoy math. So I am just wondering about the transition if anyone has experience with that.

     

    2. Is this a spiral program or mastery? How much review is there? We had used MUS years ago and there was just not enough review for us. What is this like?

     

    Thanks in advance!

    Cindy

    Growing with Grammar Vs. Rod and Staff

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I use GWG but I researched both before I bought GWG. They are both very similiar in approach with R&S maybe being a little more rigourous. If you use R&S you will have to write the answers in a notebook. It is a non-consumable book. GWG you use a workbook and fill the answers in the blanks. I liked having the problems and answers all on one sheet like GWG does so that is why I chose it. For some they might like that R&S is non-consumable. GWG is a little bit more expensive, but I like having the workbook to write in and I liked that the instruction book was taught directly to the student. The student reads the two or three short pages and then works out of the workbook. With R&S, it is a bit more teacher intensive maybe because you go over the information with the students instead of an instruction book. Either way, I don't think you can go wrong. They are both really great programs.

    • Like 1

    A year of Physics and Chemistry: looking for input

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Thank you Cindy, I've had doubts about the academic level myself. I cannot comment on the boring part of whole God's Design series, I only have The World of Plants which I don't find boring at all but a very useful tool and a wonderful academic layer to our studies. I saw RS4K at a homeschool fair and it might be a wonderful text academically but I couldn't stand the layout of it. :D I do have a backup plan for chemistry in case these are inappropriate for dd's level.

     

    You've touched on exactly what I'm worried about, I've read through all the posts I can find of users of God's Design and McHenry's Elements.

     

    Well, everybody's different. :) If you have already looked at some of the design series and it appealed to you, then I would say go with that. I personally have never looked at it, just relaying what my friend mentioned. I hope you can find something that works well for you guys. I hate spending money and then finding it is not a good fit. Ugh! I have done that so many times!

    A year of Physics and Chemistry: looking for input

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Sorry to put a damper on your plans, but I don't think I would go with the books you are planning. I have both the Tiner books and although good, they are a little bit over the heads of my 4th and 5th graders. I think they would be better for 6-8 grade. We are half way through the Chemistry book and I know dc are not picking everything up.

     

    As far as the God's Design series, my friend started out with them this year and she said they are so boring! She could not stand them and dropped them. I have heard that same review about the God's design series from others as well.

     

    If your kids have never studied Chemistry before, I would highly recommend RS4K. I am using that this year and really liking it. The experiments are fantastic and really help the reading to "click". I bought the Tiner books to supplement, but I am going to set them aside for a year, plus I did not think they were a real good complement to RS4K content wise. I am going to add in instead The Mysteries and Marvels of Science and just pick and choose through that book what we are covering that week as a supplement.

     

    Anyway, I hope you can find something you like. Just given your kids ages and first eposure to Chemistry and Physics, I think the curriculum you are thinking about may not be a good fit.

    Help, someone please help

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    You are not the first one to have this problem with MUS. I have used MUS for two or three years and this year I realized that my kids just were not getting enough review. I realized for us we needed more of a spiral approach than a mastery one. So we have switched to Horizons and it has much more review which is what we needed. We still use Flashmaster for drill, but there were concepts my kids were forgetting that were not drill related (how to find areas of different objects) just because there was not enough review. You might want to consider a spiral based program for math such as Saxon or Horizons.

    I'd like some info on Rod and Staff Bible

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I am using it this year with my 4th and 5th grader and I really like it. It isn't just your typical read the verse and fill in the blank - it requires them to think critically. Sometimes the answer isn't spelled out word for word in the verse, but it is in there. They introduce how to use a Bible dictionary and concordance and there is some teaching on how things were in Bible times. This is one of the few Bible programs that I feel is very meaty and informative and yet has good application. We normally do one chapter a week. At the end of the week when they have competed all the sections for that chapter, we discuss it and I use the discussion helps in the teacher book. I have even learned some things I had not realized before by using this program. I highly recommend it!

    Can I take a peak at your 4th grade plans?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Here is what we are doing:

     

    Language Arts:

    Writing Tales 1

    Growing with Grammar 4

    Sequential Spelling

    English from the roots up flashcards

     

    Math:

    Math U See Delta

     

    History:

    Sonlight Core 4

     

    Science:

    RS4K Chemistry and Physics w/ some Tiner books to supplement

     

    Electives:

    Typing Instructor for kids

    Music Ace

    Drawing Textbook

    Critical Thinking Activites

    Does anyone have a GWG5 and WT2 Schedule?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I'm not sure it would line up very well, because you cover most of the grammar in WT2 first semester and review it 2nd semester as you expand and start to apply it to writing. I'd just run them separately and be done with it.

     

    I can see that this is the case with WT. Most of the grammar is the first semester. I was finding it hard to get them to line up. I think I will just go through both books in the order they were written. Thanks for the responses.

    We finished school!

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Congrats! We finish our Sonlight materials on Tuesday, but we are going to continue school till the first week of May. Like yours, my kids complain about being bored too easily, so I checked out some fun read aloud books from the library and are doing some other light LA and Science as well. Congratultaions at finishing another year. What a great accomplishment! :)

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