unity
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Posts posted by unity
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No one has mentioned them so I thought I'd jump in. If you go to the Early Advantage website you can buy lesson plans, workbooks, reproducible activity sheets, etc. I am on my second time around using Muzzy with all the extras and I find it to be a decent early language-learning course. So far I haven't seen anything that works better, at least. (Although the picture quality and especially the sound drives me crazy). I don't think any child will pick up significant language ability simply from watching videos without any direct instruction. I dunno, maybe if they watched for 8 hours a day...but the tradeoff there would be too great, imo.
My daughter really loves it, too. She watches the videos by herself, but I go over the lesson plans, reinforce the vocabulary, play the suggested language games, etc, with her. She doesn't love doing the worksheets, but I think they help reinforce the lessons.
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After he had completed Suzuki book 3 of the cello, I allowed him to begin piano. (He was 7, I think). He made very fast progress on the piano and really enjoyed it more than the cello. Gradually it became more challenging for me to get him to practice both every day, and about after 2 years of doing both instruments, he decided to quit the cello in favor of the piano. It was very sad for me when he quit the cello, since he was quite advanced (at least for a 9 year old). He was somewhere in book 6.
Now he just does the piano, and the upside is that he really enjoys it. The downside is that cello music tends to make me sad since I regret that he gave it up.
Maybe if I hadn't let him take both instruments he never would have given it up. But then again, maybe he would have decided to quit anyway and then would have nothing.
Not sure if this helps you, but it's what happened in our house!
Unity
mom to ds 9, ds9, dd 6, ds 1
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We tried to do both Spanish and Chinese. Enrolled the kids in weekly Chinese school from ages 3-7, I think, before we finally gave up. We tried to reinforce their Chinese lessons with Rosetta Stone and Chinese video tapes and just doing the homework. They did achieve some progress but it was soooo draining, and at some point the class just got a little too hard for them, and we lost the will to keep devoting an entire half-day to Chinese every week.
At the same time we were teaching them Spanish at home. We are not native speakers, but I had a lot of Spanish in school, so it's much easier for me to teach. Now their Spanish is ok, not great, but I'm satisfied that they are making progress and by the time they are in hs they will be moderately fluent (like, they could pass the AP). They are 9 right now.
I really wish I'd had it in me to continue the Chinese. It was really special and cool--it was just so difficult that it was impacting the entire rest of the week, too. While I don't regret giving it up, I wish it had not been necessary to do so.
Good luck!
Unity, mom to ds 9, ds 9, dd 6, ds 1
Sonlight Kindergarten
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
I did it several years ago with my boys. A few of the read alouds were big hits (My Father's Dragon, Boxcar Children, Wizard of Oz, both Dolphin books, Grain of Rice...maybe a few others) but a lot of them were a real struggle to get through. I really didn't like any of the choices in the "History" section, and I felt the Christian ones in particular were of lower quality than the rest of the selections. Some of the books were just plain disturbing...the dog who gets killed while saving someone, the child who is taunted mercilessly at school, the children who are in mortal danger from the Nazis throughout 20 and 10. Some of the books were (yawn!) really dull--Hero Tales, Apple and the Arrow, Light at Tern Rock, and Children's Encyclopedia spring to mind. I liked Living Long Ago but my boys HATED it, especially the section/chapter on what people wore.
I did not do it again with my daughter when she reached 5. I planned to put it off until she was 7, hoping it would go better for her at that age. She is very sensitive and would have flipped out at many of the "scary" and uncomfortable situations in the books.
However, now that it's actually upon me, I've decided not to use SL K again, but instead I think I'm going the way of TOG, so that I can combine them. Even if I weren't settling on TOG, though, I must admit that the thought of doing SL K again is just not that exciting to me. I'd be very likely to try something else first rather than do it again as written.
For the record, I am not just in the "anti-SL" camp. I used and really enjoyed SL PreK 4/5 (twice) and also Cores 3 and 4. It's just Core K that doesn't inspire me. Notice I didn't do 1 or 2. After our uninspired year with SL K, I thought I was leaving SL for good. Just came back after an unsuccessful time trying to find something else. If I'd had these forums, though, I might have had an easier time finding alternatives!
Anyway, I do think I'll be using SL K Science with my daughter this coming fall. It's pretty lightweight, and she's not really into science, so I'm hoping it will be fun and easy enough to keep her interest. Plus it has the big advantage that I have it! ;-)
I hope this helps!