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4peanuts

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  1. I know you say you have tried tons of curriculum, but because you mentioned it may be a motivation issue....Have you looked at Writing and Rhetoric by Classical Academic Press? It is high interest because writing activities are based on fables, parables, etc. (at least in the levels we are on). I've read many positive comments here on the forums about kids really enjoying it who did not necessarily enjoy other writing programs. My 4th and 5th grader love it, and I feel that they are gaining solid writing skills. We're in Book 2 and the focus is still on narrative/story writing (I can't recall the scope and sequence right now), so this may not speak directly to your need right now. I guess it all depends on the reason she's not motivated, which of course is sometimes hard to figure out! :) But if it's fear of a blank page, she won't face that in Writing and Rhetoric. (and you can download the first 3 weeks of the curriculum for free to try it out!)
  2. Just wondering if you proceeded with this plan, Hunter, and if so, how the Great Empires curriculum has been working out (or what else you've been using with it). I'd be interested in hearing any updates!
  3. I agree with this. Are there times when I cross out parts of the review? Yes--every once in a while when we are pinched for time. But not on a regular basis. The every-day-ness of it can be monotonous, but it can also bear great fruit, so I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing. This is just my 2 cents for your consideration....each student is different and I'm not trying to pick a fight with anyone who does regularly skip review. We homeschoolers have gone off the beaten path for a reason--we like to do things our own way, right? ;) But anyway--I don't think my either of mine have ever taken 45 minutes to complete a CLE lesson. Perhaps math time as a whole has--on days where a new concept merits special attention and I make it more interactive with manipulatives or the white board ---but never the independent written part. (unless there is an emotional meltdown in process that day, which would be another post. ;) ) On that count, children will vary, though....so If it does take him longer to finish than you'd like, you could consider splitting up the "new" concept instruction/practice and the "We Remember" portion of the lesson. So new stuff first (when he's fresh), and then the review part at another time during the day. You do not mention why you are switching to CLE or what you are switching from, but I have found it to be solid, reliable, and very open and go, which counts for a lot in my world. Math gets done here, even when some other things don't! ;) Edited to add: I just realized the 45 minutes thing came from another poster, and that the OP's post mentioned wanting to spend 25 minutes. (Sorry, after I read through more than a few posts, it all starts to blend together in my mind!) In any case, even the poster that said 45 minutes wasn't saying that her child actually needed that much working time...it included some daydreaming time. And.... she wasn't asking for advice so I won't presume she needs any! So I guess my main point is that although I don't actually pay much attention to exactly how much time we spend, I know it doesn't take us very long. If it did, I think breaking up the assignment into new and review would be my first thought on how to handle it, because I believe that using CLE in its entirety as written will yield very good results....
  4. Which new version do you have, Slache? There are two different newly edited versions--one from MP and one by Christine Miller. The Nothing New Press website gives quite a bit of info on the Miller revisions, but I'm wondering how different the MP version is....or if they both made the same basic revisions regarding the negro/savage language...
  5. I'm looking for thoughts on differences/ preferences of one version over the other, specifically for the 13 Colonies/Great Republic. I apologize if I missed a thread on this already; I have searched but not found much other than people mentioning that there are two versions. In a very old thread, I found someone who said they thought the MP version was much better, but did not say why. If you have a preference or have seen both, any details would be appreciated!
  6. I did email the authors....Julia replied back within an hour and was extremely gracious about my questions---and she was very up front about what they did and did not have in terms of academic credentials related to history. I was reassured by what she shared...their combined studies/degrees in Old Testament/religion/church history cover a lot of bases, particularly for Ancient/Medieval. As for history in general, she said that both she and her husband have a personal passion for history and have always been voracious readers of history; their home is filled with history books and they both love the process of helping children read and understand history. Now....I still plan to review it further, and have a source I trust look over it to get their opinion, but in general I feel encouraged, because I can appreciate the wealth of knowledge and perspective that can be gained from a lifetime of study--even if it doesn't have the "official" stamp of approval by a university. I know too many people who have succeeded without that piece of paper due to their own personal initiative and work ethic. I'm looking at starting up with Ancients this coming fall, and I am pretty excited. :)
  7. Regarding the reliability/scholarship of the BP companion....abrightmom, I have read in other threads where you mentioned your concern. I also had the same questions when looking over the info about the current and previous authors and seeing that most did not seem to have history related credentials. Is this still a concern for you, or have you found reviews/information that have reassured you? Does anyone else have any input on this? Just looking through the Year 2 Medieval sample, my first reaction is that I love it. As someone who is most definitely not a history scholar (and with no time to become one now) I like what the companion has to offer in the way of giving me the big picture as well as filling in some key details. I don't mind a textbook feel, because adding in literature is no biggie. However, I do want my spine to be reliable. :) I'm all ears if anyone has something to add....
  8. For the basics, I'd recommend Phonics, Math, Five in a Row (which will include some art, geography and science), plus reading aloud as much other sweet children's lit and poetry as you can fit in. I know there are a ton of reading lists to choose from; I found homeschoolshare.com to be a great resource--I just looked up their lapbook units and selected a lot of those stories as reading material even though I didn't do all the activities to go with them. You didn't ask specifically for other programs, but since I see you are currently using Saxon, I will mention that I switched to CLE Math 2 after completing Saxon 1 because I found it more open and go, which was invaluable with younger kiddos to balance. It is similar in spiral format, but I like that explanations of concepts are given/illustrated in the student workbook (which is called a Light Unit). As far as things she can do independently while you are busy with the littles, my kids love the "Tour the States" video on YouTube, and I made myself a favorites list that I could play for them to cover some drill type activities without me having to lead it. (skip counting, etc.) Also, I was just reading on another thread that BrainPop has a pretty cheap monthly rate for their iPad app. Congratulations on your coming little one!
  9. I agree with the comments from other posters, but would also like to add some tips to try on blending that worked for mine: tell him to take a big breath when you say "Get Ready", so that he can push the sounds out all in one breath. You could also tell him to think of it as "singing" the sounds. Also, 4.5 is still on the young side for starting, so I'd encourage you not to move on to something else just yet. NOT to discourage you or anyone else from starting at that age--it's definitely possible! I started my oldest 2 somewhere in that range, and have just started with my 4 year old, but it was/is more of a slow intro....We took it at a VERY relaxed pace, repeating lessons several times and closing the book when it got frustrating. We might have gotten through 20 lessons in half a year. I don't think I started in earnest, ( i.e. consistently), until they hit a solid 5...at which point they really took off. Getting through that initial phase of mastering blending is so critical, and if you have to camp out there a while I wouldn't let that discourage you. Having that foundational focus on blending is one of the major reasons this program is so effective, IMO. We would play the say it fast game in the car often, with whatever words I could think of on the fly, just to get in as much practice as possible. Also, for motivation in the beginning I awarded a sticker (put in the book) for each task within the lesson....because getting through a single task was that big of a deal. :) As we moved on I upped the bar to a sticker for the whole lesson (plus getting to color the story picture)
  10. To first speak directly to your baby playgroup analogy, I think that, unlike with homeschooling, it's generally a lot easier for people to find others they *already know* that have babies or have grown children, and therefore wisdom to offer. There are innumerable local chuch-sponsored Bible studies specifically geared towards parenting topics, or those who want to be parents. I wouldn't have to scour the internet or beg to be accepted to find anything like that. Furthermore, the homeschool parallel to an infant playgroup would be a homeschool co-op or playgroup, which is not what I tried to be a part of. Smoothing the Way, from what I understood, is a group that offers meetings to moms that are new homeschoolers, facilitated by an experienced homeschooler. There are directed topics of discussion at each meeting, so it would not be me showing up as a random mom at a social night, interrupting everybody's fun conversations with my irritating questions about homeschool law. (which I didn't have anyway, I had already informed myself about the basics like that.) It is not a meeting I would have brought my children to. I would have been a few steps behind the others there, not yet being an active homeschooler, but not by much. I wasn't there to have somebody tell me what preschool curriculum I should use, because I couldn't have cared less about that. I didn't even do preschool. I'm actually an introvert, and don't mind sitting quietly and taking in what's going on around me, but I do like the personal experience of face to face interchanges. That doesn't negate the value of the internet, which I can't imagine being without now. Although with the amount of time I can spend Googling things these days, I'd hardly call it efficient. In some cases I might be better off doing less of it.
  11. When my oldest were just 3 and 2, I was scouring the internet trying to find a local homeschool network to plug into, just to start getting familiar with options that were out there and start processing the different decisions we would be dealing with--curriculum and other things. I contacted someone who was in charge of a "Smoothing the Way" group, which appeared to be mostly mom meetings, and was told that it was only for current homeschoolers. Honestly, all I wanted to do was sit in and soak up some of the discussions, get my internal wheels turning and picking up bits of info that would be helpful to find out before I was actually on the cusp of "real" homeschooling. It really turned me off to be rebuffed like that, and I was frankly surprised by it. I have the same desire now, with elementary age kids, to "eavesdrop" on people discussing issues regarding high school homeschooling, but now I am better equipped to do that on my own, through forums like this, for example. To me, there would have been not all too much value, other than purely social, for joining a group that was composed of other "planning-to-homeschoolers". I wanted to hang out around (but not impose on) people who were already a little battle-scarred. My 2 cents.
  12. I'm not sure if this speaks entirely to your question, but I have been giving my currently 8 and 9 year old practice working from checklists since they were able to read independently. Not for all their work, of course, but just for activities they are capable of completing on their own. It's not exactly the kind of pride in work that you talked about doing with your English, math, etc., but I am hoping it is a start in that direction...at least laying the foundation for independent learning. I specify a set time they have to finish everything on the list. Usually they can complete the tasks in any order they choose, including the choice to take short breaks or work straight through and finish early with free time at the end. As far as self-policing quality, they know they will have to redo or correct incomplete/messy/careless work.
  13. If you are referring to the copying of problems from the text, then you might look at CLE (Christian Light Education).It is also an incremental spiral program, but students have workbooks (called Light Units). There are many threads discussing CLE math if you want to read reviews.
  14. Thank you for the review! I am curious about how you use it. On the website, it is described as a standalone history/geography curriculum, with more volumes to follow. Do you use it that way, or do think it could also work well used in conjunction with another history program?
  15. Critical Thinking Company has a software version of Science Detective (beginning level) that they label as a full science curriculum for grades 3-4. There are no video lessons, but rather informational passages with graphs, tables, etc. that students use to answer questions. I will be using it as a spine/assessment tool, adding in living books to flesh out the topical passages. If you want video lessons with an actual teacher, you could consider BJU online, and putting them both in the same level.
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