I'll have a 4th grader next year and a little stumped on the writing choices. We are likely going to enroll in Kolbe and they use an old version of Voyages in English with Classical Composition (from Memoria Press). Frankly, Classical Composition scared the bejeebers out of me and upon looking at the sample I can't imagine how my son would be ready for that, but maybe I'm wrong. He's done WWE1-3 and FLL 1-3, with Language of God (from CHC) as a supplement. He has no experience with outlining, paragraph formation, topic sentences, etc. He's done very well with WWE and FLL. We're at the end of WWE3, and he's giving great summaries and doing well with the dictation. I guess I'm starting to second guess WWE a bit because it seems like other programs have so many other exercises that he's not getting. So is he ready for WWS? or should I just go with Classical Composition even though I have no familiarity with that method? My son is an advanced reader, and enjoys writing and I'd say he's a bit above grade level, not the stereotypical boy that hates it, if that helps.

thanks for the scott foresman tips! I was hoping to find something on edhelper since I bought the membership, but didn't really find anything. I suppose I do need to trust that this is still an early learning gentle intro to concepts they will master later, but it seems like the only thing he's retaining are the poems. It's not the fault of the program, I don't think. We both love it, I just feel like on the off days that we don't do a lesson (we generally do 2-3 per week) he could use some extra practice that he could do on his own.

I'm wondering if anyone has a good source for some extra independent help with concepts in FLL 3. My son is doing well with it, but it seems like he needs more review of stuff. For instance when we do the lesson on predicate nominatives, he does fine but if I ask him 2 days later what that is he looks at me like I have 5 heads. I don't mind some sort of work-booky type thing. Just simple exercises like "circle the adverb, underline the adj." etc.

I need a new handwriting direction for my son. He just learned cursive and I think I wanted a copybook for him to continue practice, he'll be 3rd grade. I also need something for my 1st grader. I am frustrated because I just can't seem to get enough info on the copy books from memoria press. They don't have any samples from #2 and seem to mostly have samples of blank pages for #3. Can anyone give their opinion and short description about how they are set up?

I'm a lector at Mass (for non-Catholic's, it's just a fancy way of saying I do the Bible readings up front). I had a priest once tell me that I shouldn't say "ay" because it sounded like I was trying to be pretentious. So I shouldn't say "ay reading from the letter of St. Paul to the...." rather "ah reading from..." Frankly I thought he was being weird, I always thought that saying "uh" for a was just more common and "ay" was a little more proper, something you'd say in a speech or whatever. Just like we often say "gonna" instead of "going to" but we wouldn't say that if we are reading something out loud.

aahhh, ok, thanks for the deep breaths! I know the program is getting significantly more difficult I just thought by now he was supposed to be getting better along with it! Good to hear we're on the right path. I think we'll chug along and through the summer keep working on some of these skills as we finish up history.

So we're coming to the end of WWE2, DS (8, 2nd grade) was doing very well, but the dication seems to be getting much harder for him and he's struggling. I'm pretty sure I have to repeat the sections 4-5 times and even then while he's writing I still need to help him along. So I'm not sure what to do. Is this ok, does it mean we should do some extra stuff before moving to level 3 in August? Should he really be able to repeat long sentences back to me after hearing them only twice? I feel like I'm asking him to do something even I'm not sure I could do so quickly. Any thoughts? His narration is ok. Not great, but ok. His comprehension is fine but sometimes he likes to change things to his own words that end up changing the meaning of things. Really though, I'm more concerned with the dictation skills than I am the narration.

how would I know which level to put him at?

Here's the quick back story... DS is 8, end of 2nd grade. He was a natural reader and we never really did much phonics instruction. He just sort of taught himself without my help! We were doing some phonics, but he just pretty much figured it all out on his own. We did Seton spelling for 1st grade which he was totally bored with, would do several weeks in one weeks span and never missed a word. He hated all the writing. Then we switched to Sequential Spelling mid year last year and have gone on to SS book 2. He likes it in that he can spell big words but I don't think it's helping him be a better speller at all, he still makes the same kind of mistakes, even though he does better with the lists in SS. So here's what I'm looking for, keeping in mind he'll be in 3rd grade but a reading level closer to 6 or 7th (not really sure). He is a natural speller, probably because he's very visual and sees the words correctly...but still needs a lot of help for bigger words. --something he can do more independently. Next year I will have a son in 1st, a 3.5yr old, and a new baby in October, and I love the other programs that we use so not willing to go more independent on those. --it can have more writing, and I don't mind workbooky stuff for this subject. We do enough other non-workbook stuff for other subjects --I would like it to be something that gives him help with knowing how to spell words without just guessing. For myself, I know hardly any spelling rules as I learned to read similar to how he did, just picked it up at an early age on my own. --it can be computer based I love AAS for my other son, and he loves it too, but I just don't know how to get my 8 yr started on it. He will be so bored and think I'm crazy if I make him start at level 1 but it seems that I need to do start at the beginning or he's going to be lost. I'm also not crazy about how much involvement it takes from me. But I'm open to ideas on how to make it work for an older child if anyone has any to share! I should also say that we're Catholic and while I certainly don't need anything Catholic or even Christian, I don't particularly like to support companies that have a strong anti-Catholic bias, even if it doesn't show up in their spelling...it's just a principle thing. Ok, so can anyone help me? I know it's a lot and I'm hoping there's some magic program out there for him! TIA!

my kids tried making animals shapes out of various plants and things they found in the yard. Fun stuff...looking forward to some more sunny days to do that again.

yep, my guy does that too occasionally. I tell him its a sign of much needed extra practice...:lol: Seems to be a quick cure! :tongue_smilie:

not much writing unless you want it to be. My son does the 10 words with the tiles, then writes the phrases and extra optional words with a white board marker. You could do everything with tiles if you wanted. You can absolutely go faster. I truly thing that with a little extra review at the beginning of level 2 if you have an older child who is fluent reader, you could start with level 2. My son is really blowing through this program fast and we've been doing about a lesson a day (3-4x week). But he loves it so we can sit for 20 mins or so and do it, and he picks it up quickly. It is very easy to tailor to your child. There is optional practice with each lesson. For a struggling child you would use it for extra practice to solidify the rule. For my son, I just use it as more stuff to do because we've gone through everything else quickly and he just wants more words to spell. HTH!

I have used FLL 1/2 with my 2 boys starting both at 5.5, midway through kinder year. My 2nd grader is now just starting FLL 3. What we like... -oral lessons...I love that it's not dependent on handwriting and not workbooky. They retain stuff much better because it's oral. -short lessons (takes no more than 5-10 mins each day) -easy to tailor to your kid...substitute a poem here or there if you don't like it ...skip a few lessons if they get the material quickly -built in review. What we don't like... -picture narrations in the first edition are pretty pathetic. I thought the drawings were a little hard to decipher, but I know this was improved for the newer versions -I'm not a huge fan of the poem selections, but they aren't terrible and they are easy enough to swap out. Hope that helps!

My son is 5, midway through kinder and just finished level 1, we started after christmas. We did about a lesson a day but sometimes we didn't get to it, so maybe 3-4x a week. So it took us about 2.5 months. The first three lessons are very basic and are meant to be sort of in tandem with each other, and if your child knows all the basic phonograms those lessons will go very quickly. I think AAS works best if you decide how long you can reasonably spend on spelling each day and just work on it for that time or until you finish a lesson. The beauty of the program is that you can pick up and start whenever and just move to the next level when your child is ready. If you have a longer summer break in the middle of a lesson, just plan for a week or two of review when you pick back up.

My 5yo has been sailing through OPGTR and is currently reading Magic Tree House books on his own., but we're still plugging away at OPG just to make sure we cover all the bases. We're on lesson 220 or so and ever since we've done multi-syllabic words I've noticed that he doesn't have a sense for where to put the emphasis. So for instance, he said "EN-joy" or "EN-a-ble" and the other day it was "IM-pah-shent". I suppose what I'm seeing is that he's often putting the emphasis on the beginning syllable. I know some of this is just being familiar with the word and it will likely work itself out. But is there a way I can help him learn this skill? I have no phonics background myself since I was a natural reader mostly sight. But when I correct him, he often asks me "why?" and frankly I have no clue how to figure out where to put the emphasis on the word. Also I'm a little curious as to why there isn't anything about this in the book? I also noticed that when I did one of those online reading tests with my older son, by the time he got up to the 8th grade list, he could read many of the words, but he just had the emphasis on the wrong syllable. So I'm sure it's a skill that he could use help with too. Any ideas?

we love it here. My 2nd grader does the workbook, takes only a few mins a couple times a week. We listen to the cd together (with my Ker) and I make up flashcards for that weeks' words and they practice them each day. When we get to review weeks, they are allowed to play the game online to practice. Even my 3yr old goes around the house singing "Salve, salve...magister...." :lol: It's a great fun, gentle start to Latin.

:iagree: FLL1 is very gentle, simple, and fun, and takes only maybe 5 mins or so a day, unless you do the optional extras. You don't have to do any of the writing part unless you want that to be extra.

So we are in ch. 12 and I hope this isn't a stupid question...but... for the wind-chime activity, what "highlights" exactly are the pictures supposed to represent?? I'm not good on retaining this stuff, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've seen Spanish history in vol2 and I'm not sure what the symbols are supposed to be representing? There's a guy on a horse, a soldier kneeling at the foot of a cross, an archway, and a mosque(?)...can someone fill me in so I can answer the blank stares from my son? :lol:

my son is kinder and is at lesson 200 or so of OPGTR. We started AAS level one a couple weeks ago and he's at lesson 15. I've had him try, though and he can read all the words at the end of OPGTR without any assistance, so I'm just finishing it out to make sure we touch on all the phonics. I think it really depends on your child when to start AAS. Keep in mind, the first three lessons of AAS are just the phonograms of the alphabet, and segmenting words. So you could do that easily while doing almost any part of OPGTR. If your child is not really motivated to learn spelling, then just wait until 1st when there may be more interest. My son was def. ready and always wanting to know how to spell things and why so I didn't see the benefit in waiting.

I wouldn't say AAS is right for every kid, but if it's right for yours, it's worth every penny. I like that it is non-consumable (all except for the progress charts which you can easily do on your own or skip them, they aren't necessary just a fun extra). I do plan to use it for more than one child. I think it's a great program. I do think it is pricey for just one subject, but if you need it, you need it! I love the fact that it is all done for me, I don't need to do any planning, just making sure the tiles are ready to go and cards organized. I see that a lot of detail-oriented work has gone into this curriculum and so I think it's worth the money. I appreciate the little tips on the side. While my son is breezing through it all very quickly, I can see that all the little extra helps placed throughout the book would be very helpful if my child was needing more practice. So yes, expensive but worth it. And frankly, it isn't anymore than I spent for the whole kit and caboodle of SOTW materials...AG and all.

So we just started FLL3 and it's going well, but I'm a little confused with scheduling the optional exercises at the end. At the end of the book there are sample schedules and Option C shows to do the dictionary skills lessons starting after lesson 12. But then if you flip to the dictionary skills lesson it says they should have completed lesson 83 in the book. Just wondering...:confused:

I would just keep plugging along, my son also is picturing some of the words in his head and giving me spellings occasionally, but I just remind him to do the sounds and now he catches himself. And ultimately, if you say "home" and he's already thinking h-o-m-e then he's ahead of the game, right? :)

I have a paper that lists his daily task then space for me to fill in the details and list other things, then there's a box to check off. I put it all in a clear sheet protector and give him a wipe off marker. so the list says "Handwriting" and underneath I write the page # in wipe off marker for the day. It takes just a minute or so to fill everything out from our lesson plans each morning (or night before). And also doesn't use so much paper.

thanks ladies for all your great ideas! Would love to see pics and/or details if you have them. I'm wondering how much space you need between kids to be effective. I was thinking of having a spot for each of them with a spot for me in between, have to figure out if I have enough room to do this. Our challenge will be to make this a very visually appealing sight, without cluttering up the lovely view we have outside.