Ok--thanks!

I forgot to ask you if it would be unnecessary to buy Figuratively Speaking if I bought Image Grammar. I'm not clear or whether they do different things or not.

Ah, I didn't realize that surprise me would bring up different pages. Good to know! It sounds like I could wait to buy this then. Maybe after we're done with the Killgallon books & MCT. Thank you for the explanations of what's available in this book!

Thank you all for explaining why you like the program! The only part of Latin dd even sort of enjoys is the translating & being able to figure out meanings of English words b/c she knows the Latin root so she'd probably enjoy this program. If I start CE 1 now & then continue on with 2 next year, but don't do the rest of the Voyage series until the year after that will that be a problem?

You're right of course :D I don't know why I get so hung up on grade levels--esp since this is a program for gifted children & mine aren't! Thanks for the encouragement! Good idea! I hadn't thought about just redoing the assignments at a higher level next year. Thank you! I inadvertantly clipped out the part of your post re: Adventures in Fantasy, but I'm curious about that. Is this what you're using? Dd enjoys writing fiction and I'm hands off about it, but I shudder at her paragraph construction so having something that would provide some gentle encouragement might be good. Thank you! We are doing Killgallon too, but I hadn't thought about using it as our only writing program. Thank you Karie! I will pm you. I'd love to see samples of your children's writing. It seems like the samples in books tend to be WAY above my children's capabilities so I always feel like I'm doing something wrong.

My fifth grader has done quite a few written narrations. These have been good for her as she is developing her voice. We're also using MCT's Paragraph Town & have just begun Killgallon's Sentence Composing for Elementary School as well. I like Killgallon b/c it gives her models to follow in a step by step way. It plants lots of ideas for ways to structure sentences. Paragraph Town has been good b/c it explicitly teaches how to form paragraphs & then how to order a set of paragraphs. It also teaches more formal writing. This is good for dd b/c she likes to write what she considers to be comedy. ;) It's very difficult to get her to write what she calls BORING school-y stuff.

This should be my final question post for the night ;) I have Killgallon, MCT Paragraph Town, Practice Town, & Grammar Town & Everyday Editing. Would Image Grammar be a legitimate additional tool for my toolbox or would it be covering the same ground as the books I already have? Unfortunately, I'll have to buy it blind since my library doesn't have it. Secondly, how do you use Image Grammar with your children? Does it work well with just a child or two or is it fairly classroom oriented? Does it have assignments or is it more of a philosophy of LA & then you need to figure out how to implement the philosophy? Thanks for any help.

This question is for people who LOVE CE. I didn't buy it this year with the Town series b/c dd is doing Latin & I didn't want to duplicate effort by doing vocabulary as a separate subject, but I keep seeing such raves for this program. Why do you love it so much? If you are doing CE, are you also doing Latin &/or Greek? Does it feel redundant at all? I'm willing to be convinced to buy the program for next year :D

My fifth grade dd is on her second year of using MCT materials. We did the whole Island series last year & this year we are just doing the grammar, the writing, and the practice book. We began fourth grade with R & S & ended up quitting since she had absolutely NO retention. With MCT she's understanding grammar to the extent that she can transfer the knowledge when she's doing other subjects. I've been astonished. However. She's on Lesson 6 of Paragraph Town & as I was looking through the remainder of the book today I can see that she probably won't be ready for the assignments that will pop up in the next few weeks. I'm wondering if I can stretch some of the assignments over a couple of weeks & then not introduce Essay Voyage until at least 7th grade. I'm also wondering how you as a teacher determine that the essays are good enough. For instance, in Lesson 13 (of Paragraph Town) the assignment is to write a 5 paragraph essay which uses the same 1-3 key words in each paragraph. The example essay is on Wind in the Willows & the repeating words are "incorrigible" & "individualist". I don't see an essay of that caliber happening here & I don't want to discourage dd, but I don't want to allow her to slide by either. Any suggestions? I have some other questions, but I'll stick them in a separate post. Thanks for any help!

I'd like a workshop on how to get all the subjects done with all the kids & still have time for a 2 hour break in the afternoon. I can make sure my 3rd grade ds gets the break, but there's no way that the 5th grader can get everything done and have 2 hours of quiet time.

Hmmm, we may need to implement the "pay for practice" idea.

.

:iagree: And I believe I'd include a bill for the laptop repair as well.

A SWIMSUIT competition? Seriously??? For 5 year olds???

We're off, but only because dh is.

Thanks for posting this! They'll be around until people quit giving them $$$$.

Thank you! I ordered the one you recommended from Amazon & should have it Sat. I have Timothy Ware's Orthodox Church on hold at the library so I can read that next.

Thank you. I posted on the other thread too. :) Is there a source that defines terms according to Protestants & EO? Does that mean you have a title in mind? :bigear:

Thank you! I don't think my library has Common Ground, but I'll check on Eastern Orthodox Christianity. I have Facing East on the way from Amazon & the Timothy Ware book recommended someplace is on hold at the library. :)

Mine doesn't have it either so I'm trying to decide if I really want to buy it or not. Ok, thanks.

This--in large part b/c I don't want to have to undo teaching my kids receive at church.

I originally posted this in a new thread since I didn't want to hijack this one, but my thread got buried, so I'll post my question here after all. :) ========================================== Has anyone read Through Western Eyes by Robert Letham? The review I read indicated that it was pretty balanced in showing what Orthodoxy could teach those of the Reformed Protestant perspective, what the Reformed could teach the Orthodox, how the 2 are different, and how they are the same, but the review was from a Reformed perspective. I'm wondering what the Orthodox take would be?

Has anyone read Through Western Eyes by Robert Letham? The review I read indicated that it was pretty balanced in showing what Orthodoxy could teach those of the Reformed Protestant perspective, what the Reformed could teach the Orthodox, how the 2 are different, and how they are the same, but the review was from a Reformed perspective. I'm wondering what the Orthodox take would be?

:iagree: My dd is the kind of person who is never ever satisfied. If I spent a bunch of time with her she'd be posting about how her mom never gave her any space. If I didn't she'd gripe that I didn't spend any time with her ever & that she was sooooooo neglected. If I let her quit music lessons she'd say I should have made her stick it out. If I made her keep on going she'd say I forced her to waste so much time on something she wasn't interested in. And on and on and on.... I'm always astonished at how little grace people are willing to extend to others. Were my parents perfect? No. Did they make mistakes? Yes. But they made the choices they felt were right & whatever they did was b/c they loved us & believed they were doing what was best for us. I really, truly hope that my kids are willing to extend grace to dh & me as they move into adulthood, but I'm not really holding my breath on that until they have older kids of their own.

Sentence Composing is organized by types of phrases/clauses/verbs used in each sentence. For example, there's a section in SC called Using Prepositional Phrases. It is then divided into the following 7 2-page practice sets: 1. Matching 2. Identifying 3. Combining 4. Unscrambling 5. Expanding 6. Unscrambling to Imitate 7. Unscrambling & Imitating Then there is the heading Putting the Prepositional Phrase to Work. It has 2 activities, one in which the student writes 3 sentences using 3 different types of prep phrases & one in which the student writes a paragraph using diff kinds of prep phrases in diff positions within each sentence. The other main sections focus on appositive phrases, participial phrases, compound verbs, adjective clauses, & adverb clauses. Every main section has 7 2-page practice sets followed by 2 activities. (There is also an introductory section with 7 practice sets & 2 activities which introduce the ideas of chunking, unscrambling & combining.) The final set of 3 exercises uses Charlotte's Web to review the contents of the whole book. hth