I searched and I found the website about this course. I am praying about putting my son in this program. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

The same as everyone else. I am working like a dog to get my son to understand grammar and write essays. We are still at the beginning stages. I want him to be able to outline a piece of reading. I want him to write summaries, take notes, etc. I want him to be able to quickly do basic math in his head. I want him to understand science, lab reports, and basic geography. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I did not give the chapter 3 test that week!:smilielol5::smilielol5::smilielol5: We are almost done with Rod and Staff 8. We are doing the completing grammar in a semester thing. The purpose of this is to focus on writing and incorporating what you learned from the grammar. He started his writing program and he started to incorporate some stuff from Rod and Staff and Essay Voyage. Don't sweat the ellipses! I only used it when I wrote a play. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Just to tell you, I did mostly Story of the World with AO because I had the SOTW books long before I found out about AO. I did not want to start getting new books. However on my second cycle with SOTW, I incorporated more AO books into the mix. SOTW has the Activity Guide and that has comprehension questions. For the AO books, I use the Charlotte Mason jar. I have my child pick a topic or task from the jar and they do it. Most of the time they do oral narrations. For Shakespeare, I would have my sons draw their narrations to me. One year, they got a comic book drawing book for Christmas. My older son used that idea to make some of the characters in the play. We made baseball cards one time as a way to narrate the story. All of the above are ways of tackling reading comprehension. It does not have to be those boring answer these questions things. Just my experience! Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

:iagree: the whole premise of an appositive is that if you remove it the sentence is still a complete thought. If you say, "any would like candy," it is very vague as if something is missing. According to Random House Pocket Grammar book, "anybody or anyone" are pronouns modified by the word "any." Zoo Keeper is correct that "any" is an adjective. Hey, Zoo Keeper! Maybe your child can write a letter to the creators of the game and you might get a free game! Just a thought! Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Just to answer your question, I love Ambleside. I started off slowly. I have gradually moved away from the classical approach and more CM. However, there are some overlaps of classical and CM. A lot of people combine the two. I did Year 1 years ago. I struggled dearly with the books because they were original texts. My difficulty was I did all the reading. I read almost every book to them. If a child has learning difficulties, this method is wonderful because you can slowly read. The child is learning information and narrating. The books are great pieces of literature and so they make great copywork and dictation lessons. It is just a nice way to get a child learning. I had a hard time with reading some of the texts because the books were so long. Thank the Lord, I found audiobooks, books on tapes, and movies of the book. This helped me a lot and it freed me up to do more hymns, folk songs, art lessons, etc. My pros: Love the rich literature that a child receives at a young age. I love that any child can do it like a child with learning disabilities as well as a highly intelligent child. If you follow the Charlotte Mason approach, there is so much to do that I found it hard to complete in a year. The cons: I read this in a homeschooling review website. The person did not like the program because she did not finish reading all the books. My feelings about that are that the curriculum is soo rich. A child learns so much just from reading these living books, even if you don't finish reading all the books, a child walks away learning so much! Just my experience! Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

this is just my opinion. I personally think that the best writing that I have seen anywhere is National Geographic Magazine. I mean the adult magazine. So many times they have had some outstanding articles. I tell you that I have learned to write reading those articles. I would strongly recommend to go to your library and look at some back articles. They are just class A work. They have geography articles, but a lot of science articles as well. They talk about geography which consists of science. We learned about hail storms in Africa and how a bionic arm works. I think if you spoke to that lady that kind of mentored your DS, ask her what she thinks of those articles. Maybe you could use some as copywork for your DS. Just a thought! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Just the bold part, the writer was asking about FLL and ALL and you are mentioning R&S. So, I was confused. R&S does talk about complements in R&S 8. It talks about intransitive verbs having predicate adjective or a complement. I just wanted clarification on that statement because my son just recently had to diagram a sentence skeleton and its complements. So, I was a little curious. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

This is a site that I usually go to whenever I am stuck in what my child should know. It is the World Book Encyclopedia's Typical Course of Study. Click on the words to get to the site. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

My report is up here. You will hear my difficulties with my younger son and his diagnosis. It was an emotional week for me. Thank you to all who read! Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I saw everyone said basically the same thing to try the audio CD. I would recommend the same thing. I want to say something in terms of the comprehension issue. I notice with the Apologia program in the upper levels that it does get harder as the child moves to the next year. Science can be hard and confusing. I guess it would not hurt to test your child, but I know that science does get harder for high school. My son had no problems with the general science last year, but the physical science is hitting him. I make him take notes. He summarizes and writes up his vocabulary words. We talk a lot about the subject, too. I got an idea to put the notes on index cards and the vocabulary words on index cards. We can make a game out of doing that like matching words to definitions and topic with vocabulary words. My son did really well on his last exam. He admitted that doing it this way did help. Just my experience. Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I understand Meaningful Composition's idea of having the child correct their own mistake, but the problem I have with that is this: Whenever I write something, I like what I wrote. I don't want to change it. I usually think it is perfect. I believe most people think that way too. Saying all that, I discovered something. The more I corrected other people's writing the more my writing improved. After editing someone else's work, I would automatically correct my own. It seems that when I get into the habit of doing it over and over, it becomes second nature to correct. Since I have gotten into the habit of fixing someone else's writing, I can correct my own work. Thus, I want editing to become my child's nature. I personally feel that the best way is by correcting someone else's writing. Overall, I think high school level grammar should consist more of correcting writing. Understanding the grammar behind why you are making the correction is very important. Like I said, these are my thoughts. I am struggling to figure out a lot of this myself. Blessing in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

If you like BJU grammar and it is working, I don't understand, why stop? It sounds like a great program. I have a few thoughts on grammar as to what I am contemplating myself. Here goes: 1. Continue with Rod and Staff 9& 10 Or 2. Get a book on just diagramming like Mary Daly's Diagramming book Or 3. Children learn how to edit better when they have to correct other people's writing. So, find an editing program where the child continues to fix grammar. The only two curricula I can think of are Editor-In-Chief and Fix-It Grammar. This is where I am debating with myself. I think that the more correcting bad grammar will teach my child how to fix his own writing, but he needs to learn what that grammar is. This is the way I am thinking if it makes any sense. Also, I don't look at continuing to learn grammar as just the mechanics of grammar. My son is learning verbals and verbal phrase in Rod and Staff 8. There are so many positions that verbals have. They can take on a noun position or an adjective. I think to understand how to use them in different roles is powerful and it is a mechanics that you just don't want to miss. Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

:iagree: Word problems with young ones work very well. Also, I would not start with zero because it is more abstract. Maybe try one first and then go back to zero. At that age, he should know up to his ten facts. I would just start with if I had one and add another one what would I have? One is a lot more concrete and touchable. Add one to everything! Does he take vitamins? Have him count them! If he has only one of his pair of shoes have him find the other, that's one and one. Just my thought! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

This is such a tough question. I feel that you have to really know your child to decide on this one. I chose to start my sons when they were older in grammar. I felt that learning grammar up to 8th grade is OK. That's it, no more. However, I feel differently now because a friend of mine told me that her son did really well on the SATs because he did his grammar programs to completion in high school. Well, that's all I needed to convince me. I am going to continue my sons in high school with grammar. I realize one thing. I did not learn a lot of grammar in school growing in public school and my writing suffered. I do not want the same for my children. Grammar is really everywhere and in everything. You ultimately decide. Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Thanks to Mary, my older ds did well in science. My blog is http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony! Thank to all who read. Sincerely, Karen

My sons did levels 1, 2, and 3. I had them do this program independently and I would check their work. They did 10 pages a week, but it was only one day. In other words, I pick Thursdays as Building Thinking skill days and we did 10 pages to do for that day. I also had my sons do other subjects beside Building Thinking Skill, but that was the only day we did it for the week. Hope that is somewhat helpful. Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Here's why I ask: 1. I would recommend Winston Grammar. It is very hands on and kinetic. I am doing that with my sixth grader now. It has those little plates where you put stuff over the words. It seems to fit him. I had to drop Rod and Staff with him too. It is too complicated for him now. We went with Winston Grammar. 2. If he is really good in grammar, Winston Grammar Advance is a little more challenging, but I think it is still fun. I'm not 100% sure about the advance on, but the regular program is not as challenging as Rod and Staff. Blessings in your homeschooling journey! I have an older son who totally gets grammar and understands the concepts. I have a younger son who is just not getting it. Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I agree with you. My friend (Janice in NJ) told me that her son did really well on the SATs and she had him do the entire Rod and Staff curriculum. It convinced me to remain in Rod and Staff. Blessings, Karen

My middle schoolers do the following on their own: 1. Math 2. Reading Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Well, I made it through another week even though I was sick. Here's my blog: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony'>http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I had struggles this week because my younger son was sick and we went away on vacation the week before so, this past week was hard!! But here it is: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony'>http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony'>http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony'>http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony Thank you all who read! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

Here is my testimony! Blessings, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I did this program with my 5th grader last year. I feel that with the maps, the test, and extra reading, it was enough for my 5th grader. I personally feel that the tests are at the 4th or 5th grade level. I do not know how the 1st grader would do on it. Maybe the 1st grader should narrate back more the contents instead of testing. I had my 5th grader narrate. Just a reminder, SOTW 3 and 4 are no longer this fairy tale like story. It is more facts and information. So, there is a lot more data being placed in the child's head. Blessings in your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony

I think that the SWI-B would be OK. I am writing challenged too. When I was in college, one professor said that my report was poorly written. I was able to teach my son this program. Partially because Andrew Pudewa does most of the work for you! The DVDs are great. I only got SWI (student writing intensive) without the Teaching Writing with Style. The SWI is only $99. It teaches everything, but the last two sections of the Teaching with Style book. I believe the $239 that you are talking about has both. Unless you feel really writing challenged and want both. I think you could be safe with just the SWI-B. Just my opinion! Blessings on your homeschooling journey! Sincerely, Karen http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony