Thank you all for your insights. It has helped much. :)

Hello all, I am just wondering if anyone has or is using Writing Strands and what your opinions are about the program. If you like it, why and how did it help your child(ren)? If you didn't like it, why not and what would you recommend instead? Thank you to all in advance for any help or recommendations.

This is wonderful. Thanks a million! Felicia

:lurk5:

My son feels like he is actually learning the rules better with AAS than he ever did with ETC. It is just sticking better. He said it is just clearer to him. So I don't think I will be using ETC with my younger two unless it is just for review during summer time like someone else suggested.

http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html Here's one that have 1000's of great books. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/greatbooks.html Here is the WTM's list for high school books http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/ Here is another with several links to children's books suggestion. These have won various awards. HTH Felicia

Have you called Steve Demme or the people at MUS? They might be able to help. You might also just try giving math a break for him right now for a week or so and let his mind kind of clear. You could also try supplements like The Key to Series... and just let him work though these workbooks and then go back and try MUS later. Some have had good results with programs like Life of Fred or Math on the Level. I know very little about either of those but I know several here like them. It might be something worth looking into. Just a few suggestions, HTH Felicia Here is a link to another thread about math. I put in several math websites and thought maybe you could use these as supplements and have some fun with math. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81436&page=2

I have enjoyed your blog as well and advice that you have given me along the way here. I am glad that you'll still be around here but can completely understand your giving up blogging. I pray the Lord bless you. Felicia

http://ebeth.typepad.com/serendipity/gnomes_and_gnumbers_a_mathematical_tale/ (this one you have to scroll to the bottom and start there and work your way up) http://www.worksheetworks.com/ http://www.flashcardexchange.com/ http://www.mathpower.com/index.htm http://www.do2learn.com/ http://www.internet4classrooms.com/ (links to a lot of other free websites, you just have to do some surfing) http://www.mathplayground.com/mathvideos.html (This is a favorite with my kids) http://www.mathfactcafe.com/ http://www.montessorimaterials.org/math.htm (a lot of information and worksheets here) http://www.mathusee.com/drill.html http://www.donnayoung.org/dy-old/math/index.htm Here are several websites with lots of math facts, drills, worksheets you can create, and some lesson plans. HTH Felicia :) Ok, I'm sorry, I didn't read you post very well. I now see that you don't like putting your own worksheets together. However, with whatever program you do use, these websites could be used as supplements to whatever you do choose. We have used Miquon, but you really need the annotated lessons to get everything out of the program, or at least I needed it. :D

Have you looked into Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy? It is a one year program just on astronomy. I'm going to start it next week with my younger kiddos. https://apologia.securesites.net/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1 HTH Felicia

Not a lot of suggestions to add just to let you know I'm having to go back to work after 13 years of being home myself. I'll be working at night so I can be with them in the day. My husband will be home with them at night. I am going to try and plan out two weeks to a month ahead of time instead of just a week. This is a very hard and scary thing at least for me. I love being home but at times like these I have to go to work. I am making it into a life lessons for my kids. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do in order to pay bills and eat. I will make an extra effort to cuddle with them and read and on my days off go to the park more. I'm wishing the best of luck to you, Felicia

This is a hard topic for adults. My children and I have talked a great deal over the years about it. They know my position on it and why I feel as I do. There are times that they bring up the subject because they've heard someone else talking about it and they have questions. I have absolutely no problem talking with my children about this or any other subject that comes up. They are sheltered to a point, but even in church or our homeschool group, or the sports we get involved in, they hear things from other children. I don't shy away from talking about them. I want them to know if they ever hear anything and they have questions they can always ask us and we are ok about talking to them. All that to say, I personally wouldn't want them writing a paper on it until they are in high school. That is just my personal feelings though. They are going to have to defend their position on abortion and many other things when they go out into the world, but I don't think they need to focus so intently on these kinds of topics at these ages. Talking about them in our home when the opportunity arrises is enough. As parents, we know what will set them off and what won't. My 13 dd could write a paper about this, and though it would trouble her as far as the issue itself went, she would have a definite point of view and that would be that. My ds 10 would stew in it and be upset by it very much. I don't think that is healthy. I wouldn't have him do it. I might ask my dd if she wants to write on this topic or on another topic, but then again maybe not. You know your children better than anyone else. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can decide what to expose and when to expose it to your child, at least for the most part.

Getting AAS. It has wonderfully helped my ds in his spelling AND his reading.

Well, I'm no expert, but I think what you are doing is fine. If you really feel she knows the word and can adequately use it in her writing assignments then just doing it orally I think will be fine. If it is a tricky word like you say, then have her work on those words. The main reason for spelling, I think, is that the children can write well and communicate to others. I would incorporate her spelling words into her writing assignments. You might have her spell them orally to you first. Then have her do two or three different short writing assignments using that set of words (Just not all in the same day). That way you will know she can use the words in proper context and whether she is spelling them correctly. If she is, then move on to the next set of words to be worked on. When you come to one she is not using right or is misspelling then work on that word. This will help keep her from getting bored with spelling and will also help foster her writing imagination. HTH :) Felicia

I will have to third AG and JAG. I am using both right now. My 7th grade dd loves it and says it is the best thing we've used for grammar and that she understands it better as well. It is purely grammar, no writing or other language arts involved, so they get just the grammar lesson. My 5th grade ds is using JAG. He is a little behind in some areas and this is one of them. But with this program he is enjoying grammar and is learning quite well from it. JAG is targeted toward 4th or 5th graders they say. You can check them at here: http://www.analyticalgrammar.com/ They have a lot of videos that explains their methodology. HTH Felicia

You might check into Analytical Grammar here: http://www.analyticalgrammar.com/ It was put together by a teacher of 30 some years teaching grammar with the help of her daughter. Her website has a ton of videos that lays out the program quite nicely. I even called her and talked to her directly before I bought. I had several questions to ask and she very nicely answered them all. My 5th grade ds is doing Junior Anatylical Grammar and my dd 7th is doing Analytical Grammar. We love it. And it is a purely grammar course. It might be something you would like to check out. HTH Felicia

I really love those kinds of days. My ds can spend an entire day in his room building all his lego airplanes and cars and trucks and whatever else he can come up with.:)

Hello, Out of all these programs I have only used AAS. I'm not even sure what HTTH is and the others I figured out. All I can really tell you is that at first I thought it couldn't possible doing much. We don't really spend very long on it during the day. But, my son loves the tiles, I mean really loves them. He could spend an hour on spelling now if I'd let him. After having used it for almost a year now I have seen a vast improvement in his spelling AND his reading. You just can't put a price on the sense of confidence he has gained in his spelling and reading and I know it is from this program. I also like that it is non-cunsumable and I can use it with my two dds coming up behind him. I really believe it is a very easy open and go kind of program that gets really good results. I'm not very good at explaining how things are laid out and what style things come from or anything like that. I learn a lot right along with my kiddos. Everyone here did a wonderful job of explaining I thought. I just wanted you to know that it really worked wonders for my son. Blessings, Felicia

Thank you all. I really appreciate your insight. I was looking at the Cursive First book and I really think that is what I am going to go with. I don't think I'm going to start my dd4 quite yet like some have but I really think it will work for my dd6 to start on. I think I'll use it with my older dc also. I really think it will help improve my oldest penmanship and this is also the style my ds was wanting to learn. Geez, I should've just listened to him in the first place, huh? :D Again, many thanks for your input. It really did help me to put it in perspective. Felicia

I had it all planned out. I was going to use ETC books A, B, and C for handwriting for my 6 yr old. Start AAS 1 with her so that would put us in good line to start ETC book 1 when she starts AAS 2. ETC would be used for review purposes, as was suggested here. But now I've had an ACK!!!moment. I was reading the post were it is better to start children in cursive writing first and then print. This way they don't have to unlearn things to just relearn them for cursive. Doing a lot of study on this lately now, I've learned that this is how handwriting was taught in ps until about the 1940's or so. No wonder all those old grandmas and grandpas have wonderful handwriting. Now my question is, before I completely mess her up, how do I incorporate the two? Should I just throw out the A B C books since I am just using those for handwriting, (she already knows her alphabet but using these to reinforce the sounds and for handwriting) and get a different handwriting program? What should I get? There is also the question of which handwriting style... Ugh. We used BJU handwriting with my older two. I love the end product of the writing but it teaches print first. My dd 13 has not so nice cursive unless she painfully tries to really do her very best. Still it is not quite as nice as my ds10 who is a lefty. He has beautiful penmanship, but it is something he really loves and really wants to learn the art of the beautiful loops that BJU doesn't have. So I am off to find a differnt handwriting program for him. Something I suppose like I learned in school, or maybe even the spencerian style. *sigh* I'm sorry this is so lengthy a post for just handwriting, but I really just would appreciate anyone's thoughts on the subject. Thank you,:) Felicia

I never did parsing until AG. I wasn't even sure what it was. I'd been taught in the 8th grade to diagram but that was it. I actually like the parsing. Once you get that down, it seems easier to place it in a diagram, imho.

I don't know if this will help but we love Analytical Grammar. My oldest just loves it. She looks at grammar like a puzzle to be solved and that helps. My ds is in the 5th grade and we will be starting Junior Analytical grammar next week with him. I love their approach to grammar. It doesn't push it. It takes bite size chunks of grammar and then they want to let the kid's mind "marinate" with what they learned before giving them more. They are self-proclaimed "grammar geeks". They really love it. Here is a website for them: http://www.analyticalgrammar.com/ She has video on there where she explains the entire curriculum and how they look at how grammar should be taught. It is a little different than thinking grammar has to be taught year after year after year. We used BJU for the longest time and my older dc still didn't get grammar. They were starting to hate it. I'm glad I found this program. When I ordered mine I had some questions and called. I actually got to talk to her and she was very helpful. HTH Felicia

According to our Analytical Grammar book, you use italics or you can underline, either way, but never do both together. Here's a quote: "Remember: Underlining is to handwriting and typing as italics is to print or computer. If you have access to italics, you should use them. If you don't, then underline instead. Never do both." HTH

Wonderful! Thank you so much. This really has been a tremendous help. Now I'm off to go make index cards. :)

I was also wondering how to put these together for my dd6. This is wonderful. I'll wait and start ETC with her after she goes through AAS 1. A real lightbulb moment. :DThanks! I just love this board.