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Chloe

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Everything posted by Chloe

  1. This is us. All the other neighborhood kids get my children to climb the trees to get balls and things that get stuck up in the branches. They can't believe how well and high my kids can climb. Don't want to jinx myself, but four children and not a broken bone yet.
  2. JMCremps is where we got my son's whittling tools and books. He got them for his 8th birthday. After about a year of close supervision and learning to use the tools properly and safely, he's now free to use them on his own. He is only allowed to use them in our backyard and he needs to let us know when he is using them. Also, he isn't allowed to have his little sister or friends around when using them. He's made some really cool things and seems to have a knack for making 3D figures out of all kinds of things (wood, clay, paper, Lego's, Keva blocks, etc.)
  3. I've often thought this as well. There's a history curriculum that goes through world history each year using living books and focusing on different areas of each time period each time. I know I had it bookmarked at one time but can't find it now. Anyone know about it?
  4. :iagree: This is all we do for lower elementary. Starting in about 4th or 5th grade we do the Apologia Elementary books very informally (mostly just reading through them and some notebooking every now and then) until we start Apologia Physical Science in 8th grade.
  5. I tend to take the "mostly exposure" method for history and science with my dc until about 5th or 6th grade. With my 1st and 4th grader this year I have just had them read for history and science. My 4th grader reads a chapter of A Child's History of the World each day, then narrates orally to me about what he read. Then he chooses a sentence or two from the chapter (approved by me so that I can make sure it's more than a couple of words long) to copy. Ideally, at his age I would have him write his narrations, but he is dyslexic and struggles terribly with spelling. For now, oral narrations are fine with me. My 1st grader does the same thing, except that she reads a Childhood of Famous Americans book several chapters at a time. She tells me about the portion she read, then picks a sentence to copy (again, approved by me). Neither of my younger two dc have much interest in science. I do assign a Let's Read and Find Out book or a few pages of one of the Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers every couple of weeks. I'll probably have my 4th grader read one of the Apologia Elementary Science books next year. They have narration prompts throughout the book. This method worked very well for my oldest two. My 15yo now loves history and government and wants to major in that area in college. My 13yo loves science and is thinking about majoring in chemistry. HTH!
  6. We have and enjoy the US History, Countries of the World, Ancient Civilizations, Amphibians and Reptiles, Medieval Times and First Peoples games. Dd and I just played a couple today.
  7. Yes! My 10 yo son enjoys Dahl's books as well. Others he's enjoyed lately are The Borrowers, The Great Brain, The Enormous Egg, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, The Boxcar Children and Kensuke's Kingdom.
  8. I've only used grades 1 and 2 so far, but without the TM. I'll probably buy it for grade 4.
  9. Thanks all! I spoke with Bret. He was very helpful. I purchased AHL. My dd would like to start it as soon as it arrives. We're hoping we can keep plugging along and get all four years in, but Bret did give us a suggestion for doing US1 and US2 in one year. We'd prefer not to do that though. Dd is especially interested in US history and doesn't want to rush through it. What we've done so far this year can be used towards a half credit European or British history elective. We've done lots of "field trips" since moving to London last winter. We're very exciting to start MFW!
  10. My 9th grade dd is doing TQ Middle Ages and Renaissance/Reformation Guides this year. She's enjoyed it, but we've both decided we need something more planned out, with correlating literature and writing assignments. Also, I really need hand-holding for the writing assignments and grading. She's using WWS 1 this year and feels it's helpful, but she also feels like it's "too young" for her. She'd prefer not to use WWS II next year. We've settled on MFW for the remainder of her high school years because we love how it's all planned and gives writing assignments and guidance. The question is....where do we jump in? Dd is very interested in history, particularly American history and government, so we know we want to do the final two MFW years. If we start with WHL, dd will have some overlap with what she's doing this year. But if we do AHL and skip WHL she won't get modern world history. Also, if we jump in at WHL, will she be able to handle the writing assignments? She's not a reluctant writer, but hasn't had a lot of practice with different kinds of writing. ETA - Dd has more interest in doing AHL, but realizes it's probably more important to do WHL.
  11. This is exactly like my 9th grade dd as well. Looking at how much the previous posters' dc have read worries me. My dd has OCD issues. She looks up words CONSTANTLY when she's reading, even if she can figure out the gist of what a word means from the context. Her comprehension is wonderful and she's extremely diligent with her work, but it takes her FOREVER to get through it. I have kept records of all my dc's reading from the time they could read independently. This particular dd loved to read and her lists used to be so long each year. The OCD issues started when she went through puberty and that's when the lists shortened significantly. Last year was much better, but I think the high school level work this year has been tough for her. We're back to a very short book list.
  12. Thanks for the clarification. It does sound interesting. I'll have to see if I can get my hands on a copy to get a better look.
  13. My ds wants to study American history next year (9th grade year). Instead of a textbook, he'd like to read several biographies on main historical figures. A couple of nonfiction books on events would be ok too, but he's not a fan of historical fiction. I'd love some ideas. Do we really need to use a text or spine of some sort to pull it all together? ETA: He enjoys reading, but doesn't care much for history.
  14. My fourth grader does one lesson in Rod & Staff math, one WWE assignment, 2-3 sentences of cursive copy work, a lesson in Apples and Pears spelling and silent reading for one hour. The silent reading includes literature, history and science reading. He also spends about 10 minutes daily reviewing French vocabulary for the French class he has once a week. HTH!
  15. My 10yo 4th grader is a struggling reader and speller. He had vision therapy for 20 weeks, which helped only slightly. The good thing is that he really loves to read and has good comprehension. I dropped the reading aloud over the past summer and just let him read lots of lower-level books (Magic Tree House, Encyclopedia Brown, Homer Price, etc.). He just took off. Now he's reading books at late fourth and fifth grade levels (currently on a Roald Dahl kick) and can tell me all about them in great detail. His reading aloud is still painfully slow and he still has trouble decoding some words. Also, his spelling is atrocious. I haven't started grammar with him at all because of his reading and spelling issues and don't plan to until next year, 5th grade. I just bought Apples and Pears to use for spelling and will have him read to me daily from a book at a lower reading level than what he reads to himself. I also plan to continue with cursive copywork for handwriting practice. My dilemma is whether or not to continue with WWE or to hold off on that until next year when, hopefully, his reading and spelling will be more on track. We just started it with book 2 a couple of months ago. The dictation is painful because of his spelling issues. Anyway, yes, I think it's a good idea to hold off on formal grammar in order to concentrate on the reading issues.
  16. We do this. My two oldest check their daily lessons at the end of each day. I check the tests. I don't keep grades until Algebra 1, but if they get less than 90% on a test they have to backtrack a few lessons.
  17. Thanks so much, Laura. I may take you up on that. :001_smile:
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