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Posts posted by Kim C
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Thanks for the info Lisa and Rose! I just received the TM a few days ago but haven't had time to really look through it yet.
Kim
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Yes, you are fine with the TM.
Thanks Rose!
Kim
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Does the Essay Voyage teacher manual include the student text (like most other MCT levels) or do I need to get both the student and teacher books?
Thanks!
Kim
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My 12yo son wants a pen pal. He has no preference whether he has a male or female pen pal. He is interested in music, Irish dance, video games, tennis, and writing books. He would love to have a pen pal in Ireland, but mainly wants to connect with someone and find out about his/her life. Please contact me if your child would be interested.
Thanks!
Kim
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Thanks Lanny!
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My 12-yr-old son is interested in having an international penpal. (We're in the US.) I saw a website called penpal world, but I know nothing about it. Has anyone here every used it? Have you used any other penpal websites?
My son would like to have a penpal from Ireland. Are there any Irish families here with a child around 12 who is interested in having a penpal?
Thanks,
Kim
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I'm at a loss for how to help this child. She wants to be a writer, but refuses to complete writing assignments. She definitely marches to the beat of her own drum. Remember the discussion about Cloud Children from a few years back? She definitely lives in the clouds.
Should I try to gently push her through WWS? Switch her to something more free form? I have several creative writing resources (The Creative writer, several writing prompt books, etc.). I also have the Writer's Jungle, and I'm starting to lean more and more towards a Bravewriter philosophy and CM principles in general.
Soo...I don't know what I'm really asking. Advice? Commiseration? Questions that I should be asking myself so I can stop beating my head on walls?
I can soooo commiserate. My DS 12 and I have been working on WWS 1 for a year now. He does not like WWS, so we have been working through it slowly. Periodically I think about just dropping WWS, but then I re-read lewelma's posts about WWS and decide to keep going. :) She just makes it seem so doable.
My son wants to be an author, so we have several creative writing books that we use when we need a break from WWS. I also have the Writer's Jungle. I've looked at IEW. I think part of the problem is that WWS is parts-to-whole and my DS does better with whole-to-parts. He needs to see the big picture and then work on the details.
I recently downloaded the first few weeks of WWS 2 and my DS said it likes it and wants to do it, but I have a feeling it will be the same frustrations all over again. I'm not sure what we will use.
Is it the 'baby steps' that drives your daughter crazy? Would she do better if you used a curriculum that taught the big ideas and then refined the process?
Kim
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One great thing about Hake is that it includes the lesson number by each review question, so if the student misses something it's easy to flip to that lesson to review, relearn, or refresh.
Hake has tons of review. It's not uncommon to put students a year ahead or skip years. If yours don't have a solid grammar background you might want to stay at grade level. Maybe you could find samples online?
Christianbook.com has samples and a TOC for each level.
Kim
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We are planning on using Hake Grammar 6 this year for grammar. I am also wanting to use IEW SWI-A for writing, so am I ok in just eliminating all of the writing/composition portions of Hake (besides the journal and dictation)? It looks decent, but my dyslexic DS needs help with his writing BAD. I think it would be too much for him to do both.
I definitely would not try to do both. If you think IEW will work best for your son, use that. The grammar and writing portions are totally separate so you do not lose anything by not doing the Hake writing.
Kim
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I emailed Patti to see if I could get a sample of the first few weeks, because we start school next week and I didn't want to wait to get started. She said they will be posting the table of contents and the first ten weeks online prior to publication, but she didn't say when that would be. Kind of a bummer since that throws writing off for us. It is nice that they give such a generous sample though.
Hopefully someone more "in the know" will reply to you. I think people were testing all last year.
In case you missed it, in this thread today they said this about WWS 2:
1. On Monday, August 5th, we will make available the first TEN WEEKS of the Student and Instructor texts, as a free downloadable PDF (it will also include the Table of Contents and Introduction, so you can get a good idea of where the year's curriculum is going).
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To answer your question: Yes, you can do Maxim without having done Aesop/Homer. I do like the instruction for the six sentence shuffle in Homer though.
And to give you unsolicited advice: I own CW (Aesop/Homer for Older Beginners, Diogenes, Herodotus, Plutarch), WWS 1, WWS 2 Beta Version, and The Lost Tools of Writing...and I am trying to implement them all at the same time. I am learning the hard way that it is okay to just pick ONE writing program. They each are complete programs all by themselves.
Thanks for the reply and for sharing your advice. I'm always willing to learn from the experiences of others. :)
I have been reluctant to do more than one writing program, but my ds 12 likes variety. He tolerates WWS, but it's not a favorite. So, we would alternate weeks with the programs.
Kim
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For those of you who have used CW, do you think it is necessary to have done Aesop and Homer before starting Maxim? I'm considering using CW along side WWS 1 this year (we're half way through WWS 1), but I'm not sure if it's OK to jump into Maxim or if we need to do Aesop and Homer first.
TIA,
Kim
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Has anyone used these? My ds 12 is finishing up Lial's Introductory Algebra this summer. We're moving on the geometry this fall, but I want to 'practice' algebra once a week to keep up his algebra skills. I plan to finish LOF Algebra, which we use as a fun supplement but got behind on, and Zaccrro's Real World Algebra. This morning I came across the Algebra Survival Guide again, which I had looked at before and have had in my 'Save for Later' list on Amazon for months, and thought I might add it to the mix. I would like to hear from anyone who has used it before.
Thanks!
Kim
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We started the year with ACS Middle School Chemistry. It's easy, but my son enjoyed it because there is a hands-on activity with each lesson. Not all of the activites were exciting (like watching water evaporate), but they deomonstrated the concept we were studying. Some lessons were bigger hits than others, but when we finished my son said he enjoyed it and he seems to have retained what we covered.
Now we are going through Ellen McHenry's The Elements, which my son is also enjoying.
We also have the Thames and Kosmos C3000 chemistry set. (I found it on sale around Christmas.) We have done some experiments from that as well.
Kim
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Thanks for the replies, The Critical Thinking catalog & website have Critical Thinking and James Madison Critical Thinking listed for the same grade level. We will probably give Critical Thinking a try, working through it at a leisurely pace along with Fallacy Detective which we didn't seem to get around to much this year.
Kim
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I'm planning for fall and trying to decide which of these Critical Thinking Company courses to use. I would like to hear from anyone who has used either (or both) of these courses. What did you like or dislike? Would use use the course again? Also, what age was your child when you used them?
Thanks!
Kim
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WWS Week 14, Day 4:
Mars, the fourth planet from the sun, has a diameter of 4,200 miles --- roughly half the size of Earth. Its atmosphere is made of 95% carbon dioxide, 2.7% nitrogen, and 1.6% argon, with traces of oxygen, water vapor, and carbon monoxide. In short, not good for humans.
Suppose, however, that you are standing on the surface of Mars. The ground of this cold, dry desert world is covered in reddish dust. The dust has this color due to high levels of iron oxide. Occasionally the dust is whipped up into huge dust storms. There is no liquid water on the planet due to the planet’s frigid temperatures. Even now on the planet’s equator, in the middle of summer, it’s only 78 degrees Fahrenheit. Good thing it not winter, the HIGH would only be -230 degrees Fahrenheit. Look up and you will see a clear pink sky, soon to be followed by a clear night and an appearance from Phobos, one of the planet’s twin moons.
Phobos and Deimos are Mars’s twin moons. Through a telescope they appear as giant potatoes made of rock and ice. Phobos’s diameter is 13 miles, and it completes its orbit of Mars in seven and a half hours. Deimos has a circumference of 8 miles, and completes its orbit in 30 hours. All of these statistics are in sharp contrast to our moon, which has a diameter of 2,000 miles and which takes 27 days to orbit Earth.
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they stopped cuddling with their momma? I was rocking with my 8YO and it suddenly hit me that his days of wanting to sit with mommy are probably going to come to an end soon and boy did that make me sad! He doesn't do it ALL the time, but he is a cuddler. I can't picture a teenager sitting on mom's lap though! LOL
My son is 12 and he still loves to cuddle. He sits on my lap whenver he can. Sometimes he still holds my hand when we are walking. He always hugs and kisses me good-bye when I leave, even when his friends are around.
Kim
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My dd13 is using Winston Grammar Basic. She has done well, although sometimes she relies on the cards too much. I'm not sure if I want to continue on with Winston Grammar Advance when we are done with basic or move on to something else. I would like her to learn to diagram, which Winston does not teach. I would also like her to form a better understanding of the parts of speech without using clue cards as a crutch. I'm just not sure what program to use. Winston Grammar has been our first and only experience with grammar so I really have no idea what other programs are like. Any suggestions?
I recommend Analytical Grammar. I have used it this year with my ds12 and he has done very well with it. There is diagramming and it covers all parts of speech. The lessons are short, covering one topic each week. You cover the lesson/new topic on Monday and then the student practices identifying and diagramming the rest of the the week, with a test on day 4 or 5.
Kim
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Dd12 will be 8th grade this next year and I want to do a good rigorous year of grammar with her. I am hoping this will be all for grammar aside from review, from time to time. I want to use the highschool years to concentrate on literature and writing. Last year she did Winston Grammar basic. She did well with it and learned alot. I have looked at the Advanced level but not sure it covers everything. I have looked at AG but not sure if she would tolerate it. She is an out of the box thinker and bores easily. What is everyone else using???
My son is in 7th grade and we have done AG seasons 1 & 2 this year (with the reinforcement exercises in between). We will do AG season 3 next fall and be done.
I wasn't sure how much son would like AG as he usually bores easily too. However, the lessons are short and to the point, which he likes. He has done really well with grammar this year. AG has been a good way to wrap up grammar for us.
Kim
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What's AG stand for? Sorry, mine are all younger and I'm just planning ahead.
Thanks,
Nicole
Analytical Grammar
Kim
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We like Hake and Analytical Grammar. We used Hake for 2 years, before switching to Analytical Grammar this year.
Kim
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Yep, that's the one. It's being used in the Coursera class "How Things Work" which is taught be the author, and is awesome!!! It covers just the first two chapters, on Newton's law's of motion, but I have read that he is planning to make more coursera courses for further sections in the book.
I've actually decided (since posting that plan) to wait to do How Things Work & the Coursera class until 7th grade, and I'm hoping that by then there will be more courses.
I warned y'all that I would be changing my mind! I am back to doing the Astronomy term as described above, then doing the whole book of Story of Science: Newton with the T&K Milestones of Science kit and Ellen McHenry's The Elements in 6th grade, and then doing a more in-depth physics using How Things Work + Stop Faking it books for labs in 7th & 8th grades.
I've been spending a lot of time recently thinking about how I want to do science, and how to use the next 3 years (6th-8th) to prepare for high school. Just got through revising my plan for 6th-8th grades. I haven't dropped anything above, but just re-ordered it.
Thanks Rose! I'm doing some physics planning for fall and looking at lots of options. I have the SOS books and the T&K kit. Now I'll look at the How Things Work and Stop Faking It books to see if they will work for us. We have not tried any of the Coursera classes yet, so maybe I will look into that.
Kim
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Term 2: Physics, part 1: Mechanics & Light/Optics
Texts: Story of Science: Newton at the Center w/ Quest Guides Ch. 12-17
Life of Fred Physics Ch 1-21
How Things Work Ch. 1-4 plus Coursera class online
Labs: T&K Activities
Stop Faking it: Force & Motion
Stop Faking it: Energy
Stop Faking It: Light
Rose
Is this the How Things Work book you will be using?
Thanks!
Kim
Help me with Writing/Grammar for 6th grade
in Logic Stage & Middle Grade Challenges
Posted
Yes, WWS is writing all about writing and not grammar/mechanics.
We used Hake Grammar for 3 years after FLL 4. It worked well for us. We did not use the writing portion of the program as it was not very robust. There wasn't much instruction on how to write. I think doing Hake grammar alongside WWS would be fine.
After 3 years my son grew to dislike Hake grammar, much as he did Saxon math. For the past 2 years we have been using Analytical Grammar. I know AG has a junior program, but we have not used it so I cannot comment on it. I do like AG. It's very thorough and my son can diagram sentences like a champ.
We are nearing the end of WWS 1, having started in the fall of 2012. We have worked through it slowly, taking breaks as needed. Although it has not been my son's favorite program, I have seen a lot of improvement in his non-creative writing since we began the program.
The Creative Writer books are good, but if BW is working for you, stick with it.
Kim