unity
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Posts posted by unity
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It's a pretty hefty book, and it's not written for children at all. It's more visually daunting than many high-school history texts I've seen. I think it would be a challenging read for many high-school students and it would not surprise me to see it on a college survey class reading list.
That said, if your child reads at an 11th-grade level and loves history, I'd say go for it. It's definitely comprehensive.
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hmm, that's a good idea. See, it takes a calm perspective to come up with an idea like that. :001_smile:
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Yeah, I guess I could complain to WP. It's just that I bought it in March and am just now using it. Seems crazy to ask to return something or even complain so long after I bought it. I wish I had thoroughly examined everything.
I am trying to analyze why I don't want to write to complain, and I think it's because I've always felt kind a personal connection when doing business with them. I mean, the dad handles business calls, the daughter helps fill orders, and the mom writes the stuff. How can I call and gripe? But that's also why I feel so let down now, I think. Hey, I thought we were family and now you go and do this? kwim?
Also, I think I'm so used to getting curriculum and then having it not quite work out --- in which case of course I'm usually just out of luck --- it honestly didn't cross my mind to complain to the company. I suppose it couldn't hurt. I hate conflict, though.
Luckymama--aww, :blush: thanks. I have learned so much from people on this forum who don't even know they've helped me. The work I'm doing with my twins (all the humanities and history) is basically all derived from recommendations from this board, and with the exception of the history (when I went against the Hive and got WP) everything is going great, but I am not sure how much I can contribute that's new. Others who use, say, LLfLOTR or MCT generally respond quickly and thoroughly. But, ok, I'll try to chime in more. :001_smile:
My dh, though, could contribute a lot if he were into this sort of thing. He's doing the science/math portion of the schooling and I don't even understand what they're doing any more. Talk about lucky--he actually takes the boys for 2 or 3 hours every day to work on math, physics, and computer science.
Anyway, whatever happens with the Geometry stuff, I feel better knowing you all empathize. :001_smile:
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This is my first vent here, but I could use a little commiseration. So I bought 2 copies of Tips and Tricks to Gothic Geometry to use with WinterPromise QMA, and the website said they were consumable...They so totally are NOT! At $14 a pop for a plastic bag full of a mostly black and white printout, I am sitting here stunned to realize there is nothing at all consumable about it. It's directions on how to make some of those figures, and kinda neat for the right kid I guess, but it's hard for me not to feel lied to when there is no reason at all they couldn't have shared this one. Grrrr. So now, when I see that in fact my kids are not going to use this after all (not their cup o' tea), I've actually wasted double the money.
:mad:
Thanks for listening. I'll go back to mostly lurking now. :tongue_smilie:
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Well, actually I don't know, because I've not done 2 or 1+2, but I've done 1 and 3, 4, 5. Core 1 was quite light last year for my 2nd grader, so it doesn't sound like a good fit for your older daughter at all. If your younger dd really hates reading it might work, but honestly you might want to keep curriculum shopping b/c it doesn't seem like this is the answer to your issues. What about SOTW? That's world history, and maybe a better match ability-wise.
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You're only a day past the length of your other 2 PP cycles? I would not worry yet!
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I know you say you've used this at a higher grade, but why not use level 3 for your son? It's cheap, grab-and-go, and seems to be more or less what you're looking for.
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I use it on and off when I need a review page. I like that I can subscribe for such a short time and not pay a lot.
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I've got one in GDI, one in RFH, and one in HWT. I did allow them to choose because as someone else said, there are so few subjects they can have a say in, and it is after all their handwriting. I don't really care what style they use, as long as it's neat. I choose when they are really little, but at a certain point (around cursive, I'd say), I will let them choose.
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I've moved across country a few times and done it both ways, but I have to say the buying worked to our advantage. When we moved to San Jose, CA, we couldn't have afforded to buy, but renting worked out well because we did move 6 months later. Also, renting worked out well when we moved to AL because we were living on base which turned out to be a good thing for us at the time.
BUT both times we moved to NH (different parts of the state) we just bought a house--once sight unseen (but my mother scoped it out for us). The first time I got a good real estate agent who helped find what we needed. We made money on that house, even though we sold it mid-market crash. Even though I did not feel, when we were living there, that it was the most perfect house imaginable, it was OK, had most of what I wanted, and, did I mention we made money? ;)
The second time we moved back to NH it was to a town I'd never been to before, but thanks to the Internet I learned a LOT and we took our time scoping out online listings. I Googled how far the YMCA (only plausible swim team in the area) was, researched churches, gymnastics places, everything. I viewed topological maps of lots (to avoid the drainage issues common in NH), scoured floor plans, and studied pictures of the houses like a detective.
Now, we've been in this house we bought sight unseen for about 2 years. It works extremely well for our needs. Yes, sometimes I regret that I didn't move to this or that location, but then I remember the tradeoffs that a move like that would make. Because there are always tradeoffs. We thought very hard, researched very carefully, and bought a house that suited our needs, and it does. In 2 years I have never seen a house that was "better" across the board than our house, taking into all factors like price, privacy, and other things important to me. Time will tell, but I am pretty confident we will make money eventually on this house, too.
So if I had to do it again, I would definitely buy and not rent. Especially in a market like this one.
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for my kitchen/foyer/hallway area and it has been a disaster. It cracks so easily. If I drop a heavy plate, the plate AND the tile will both break. There are so many broken tiles on my 2-year old floor that the whole thing would need to be redone to look right. It cleans up fine but it's hard to make a broken tile look good, kwim?
I remember looking at numbers of brittleness but I don't think I accurately predicted how hard a family with 5 kids would be on a tile kitchen floor.
If I had it to do again I might choose either hardwood or make sure I got a tile with the highest hardness number possible.
And no, it's not that it was installed incorrectly. The subfloor or whatever was above standard.
Just saying that expensive does not always mean better for a family. Look at those numbers!
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No one has mentioned noeoscience.org. There's also msnucleus.org (which is a free K-6 curriculum). I also have tried Bite Size Physics, available from Lulu press.
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I read it to my 2nd grader last year and a few of the stories were too mature for her. None of it seemed particularly babyish. I think a 6th grader would do fine with it.
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And I bought 2 copies of the hardcover, when we already had other editions, just so that the page numbers would line up. I'm VERY irritated. That was $50 spent for nothing. :-(
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According to Bruno Bettelheim that fairy-tale violence serves a purpose for little kids. Obviously, some kids/families don't want it but I totally agree that it's unfair to imply it should be withheld from kids under 17 (like an R rating indicates).
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I used Calvert's program with the first 2, 100 Easy Lessons with the next, and Hooked on Phonics with ds4. Calvert was fun but not systematic, 100 Easy Lessons was systematic but not fun, and Hooked on Phonics was so easy and systematic that it didn't need to be fun (although my son thought it was). Of the 3 I've used I prefer HOP.
I also use computer programs like Reader Rabbit and Click-n-kids.
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We lived at Ft Rucker near Enterprise, AL for about 20 months. Beautiful lake there open to the public, and 2 hrs to the ocean. Good community in nearby Enterprise. Lots of churches, lovely park in town. Friendly people everywhere. Way more affordable real estate than I was used to in NH.
Dothan is much bigger and might offer more opportunities, although we found most of what we needed right in Enterprise. The whole area was very nice.
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I think you may be right that CAW might be a lot for a 3rd grader. The good news is that there is no way that WP has even looked at your order much less shipped it so I'm sure you can cancel and change it.
Depending on the interests of your child, I think you could have a happy year doing American Story 1, Animal Worlds, or Hideaways in History. It's ok---even good---if your child is on the upper end of the suggested age-ranges of the programs. I have personal experience only with Animal Worlds and Quest for the Middle Ages, but in both there is plenty of work to do and it would be tough going at the youngest of the age range. That's why, for example, I think HIH would work fine for 3rd grade. Check out the resources used (MLK's Microphone, for example)...they are good for 3rd grade, imo, but not so good for Kindergarten.
Since this is your first year homeschooling, I would suggest you not overload with stuff to do. Give yourselves plenty of time to explore and do child-led learning while still hitting the basics.
You might also ask at the WP forum.
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If my kids ever tell me they are bored they get a cleaning assignment that takes about a half hour. That is non-negotiable, even if they then claim they were "kidding" or not really bored. I almost never have to hear that particular whine. :001_smile:
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I have the one with 3 inserts, too. It is awesome. My last one broke, too, and when I had to get a new one I got the 3 inserts. For our family of 7 I sometimes use the largest, and sometimes the smallest, depending on what we're making. Plus I just put whichever ceramic insert I use in the dishwasher to clean, and it looks good enough to use as a serving dish.
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Tapestry of Grace has younger kids reading about Corrie Ten Boom while high schoolers read The Hiding Place.
For Upper Grammar (about 4th-6th) they use Corrie Ten Boom: Keeper of the Angels' Den, and for the youngest kids they use Correi Ten Boom: Shining in the Darkness. For a family read-aloud, maybe the first book would fit the bill as gentler than The Hiding Place but giving you some real substance.
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I really like My Pals are Here. My girls find it to be tough. The material is basic but true to Singapore style it really requires the child to understand the material and be able to reason based on the information presented. :iagree:
Based on the samples of the textbook, I bought a level a few years up from my daughter. The textbook (old level 4) looked so basic and easy, I thought she'd be fine, especially when I read that in Singapore kids don't start studying science until 3rd grade. What a disaster! She seemed to understand the text just fine but the workbook and some of the lab questions required thinking skills that she hadn't yet acquired and she was immensely frustrated.
I agree that this is true to Singapore style. We had the same issue with NEM--they presented how to do a certain kind of problem, and then it was like, ok, if you can do that, then you can do this really heinous 15-step problem of the same ilk.
Anyway, I think Singapore science is good, but I would caution against choosing a level based on the look of the textbook.
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:bigear: I actually came here looking for the exact same information! Anyone? There's a pretty scathing review of the first edition on Amazon; I was wondering if the second edition fixed any of those perceived problems...
Graphic novels/comic books for dd7?
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
All of my kids have just loved these comics. There is definitely conspicuous consumption in them, and also some kidnappings and heists. But still, they honed their reading skills on these vintage comics bought in bulk off ebay.
I second the Shannon Hale Rapunzel's Revenge/Calamity Jack series, too.
My daughter really likes the Betty and Veronica stuff, too, but I have mixed feelings about that so I wouldn't exactly recommend it.