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JeannineW

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  • Biography
    Homeschooling for 3 years
  • Location
    NC
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    Mom
  1. Yes, but only a few at a time. I think you add 2-4 per lesson. I think the sight words are what make is so great. When they learn so many sight words, they can read so much more easily. They don't have to sound out EVERY SINGLE WORD. At the same time, they are learning all the phonics so they CAN sound out words. It's a great mix. If that part doesn't appeal to you, you could skip it or minimize it. Once we got to "critical mass" maybe 20-25 cards, we started removing as many cards as we added. So, if we added two new ones, we removed two that she had mastered.
  2. I just finished all 80 of the PAL Reading lessons with my daughter. She is almost 5 1/2. When we began, she was working on CVC words. She really enjoyed PAL and is reading pretty well. She is trying to read all sorts of things that are no where near her reading level. I love it! I'm homeschooling four kids so she didn't get nearly the time it says. She picked up on things pretty quickly so we did a lot less than it said as far as repetition of the games and such. I thought it was much better and much less "painful" than the other programs I've used. We are still continuing with the loose pattern of the lessons because she enjoyed it so much and still could use some reinforcement. We are also doing PAL Writing. We have proceeded a lot more slowly until recently so we are just a few lessons into Part 2. I'm really impressed with the writing part and look forward to working on it with her. We love the IEW writing program, and it's a great way to ease her into it. We also use AAS, and it fits nicely with PAL. I would think it would be great for your kids. You could teach your 6 yo and your 8 yo could be your assistant. As far as time consuming, it is what you make of it. I only did 2 -3 lessons a week. You can break the lessons up in any way that works for you. I think I answered your questions. If you have anymore, ask away.
  3. Thank you so much for posting this thread and the responses, too. We finished our book of Bible stories a few weeks ago, and I wasn't sure what to do next. We picked up the Book of Mormon reader, again, but I wanted something more/different. I ordered the Discover the Latter-day Prophets last night. I can't wait to start tomorrow. I think it will be perfect for our school "devotional" time. I also ordered Scripture Study for Latter-day Saint Families. I think we'll do this as a family during our scripture study time at night. Thanks everyone.
  4. I think core 2 would be great for the younger two. If you want to combine all three, it would probably be fine for your 10 yo. I just finished yesterday with my 10 yo. We really enjoyed it. I think Alt 7 would be a stretch for your 10 yo but I haven't done it, yet. If you go to the Sonlight Choosing forum (free), you'll get great advice. Good luck.
  5. I had the same issues as everyone else. I was lucky enough to get 3 seats free by buying all 8 books for my 3 yo. My other three kids had done all or most of the books. I started them on much earlier books. They all struggled. Keyboarding/speed was a big issue. Spelling was also a HUGE issue. In the book they can look back if they don't remember how to spell a word. Online, they must get it right. My kids can read way more than they can spell so it made it very frustrating. I also find the books far easier to assign.
  6. Thank you everyone. I used many of the suggestion the past two days. I read the passage twice. The first time I explained everything and then I read it normally. Then today, we read it together and she answered the questions pretty easily. One minute I feel like I know exactly how to proceed then the next I'm totally rethinking everything. I will definitelly keep working on the narration a lot more and a lot slower. She reads pretty well. She is finishing up the readers 2 so she is about a grade level ahead, I think. Her comprehension is good IF she knows the vocab. Vocabulary is a big part of her comprehension problems. An example of how difficult it is for her to learn words - she was speaking English for 2 years (4 yo) before she knew the name for peanut butter, 3 years (5 yo) before she knew the name for toilet paper and she still (7yo) called Fritos those curly things just today. We don't eat them that often but aaaahhhh!!!! The good thing is that I think she is finally comfortable telling me when she doesn't understand something. Her comprehension of things she hears is significantly below that of my bright 5 yo and it is painfully obvious to her and her siblings. Oh well. She got 100% on her math test today!
  7. She could read them with me. I have her read most directions with me and it does help. She is finishing up the SL readers 2 and can narrate them pretty well. That makes me wonder if I could continue to progress with WWE but with simpler passages. I think I'll fight that urge and work harder on narration. I know she'll rebell and hate me reading to her if I make her narrate everything. I think I'll choose a passage from our daily SL core reading for her to narrate later in the morning. That way she won't hate doing core. I think I'll also have her narrate her reader everyday. I think she enjoys that anyways. I can also find copywork from those things. If that doesn't work, I'll get a copywork book. I was wondering last night if it is something that just needs time for her to mature. She has so far to go before she has the vocabulary to understand more complex literature. She has a really hard time learning new words but I'm working on that from multiple angles. I'm also working on her learning to listen. I think she has gotten in the habit of tuning out auditory stimulus since it didn't make sense anyways. Thanks to those who have been there. It helps to hear that it does get better.
  8. Thanks for your responses. I will try reading this week's selection several times over two days and see if it helps. I think I'll stop next week and go it alone in WWE style. I'm so afraid that without a book to follow it won't happen. I really like a schedule even if it is only "do the next page or lesson". I have looked at a few copywork books so maybe I can have half of it in a book to follow. Unfortunately, I don't like the lines for the student to write on. I guess she could just write on paper but I wish I could find a nice book that she could write in. I found one book but it was so much more expensive with less content than the others. :confused: Hmmm. I'll have to look at FLL3. I have that, too. Maybe I can tweak it to work for her. Is there such a thing as a narration book? Silly, I know.
  9. I am totally confused with what to do with my dd 7. She has been using WWE1 this year. She does the copywork great but can NOT answer most of the questions for the narration. She has auditory processing difficulties and expressive and receptive language disorders. In other words, she does not have the vocab or comprehension to understand and answer the questions. The passages are just too abstract for her. For example, today I read "Saturday morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh, and brimming with life." from week 21. I stopped there and asked her, "What day was it?" DD said, "Sunday. ::: pause ::: Friday." Uggghhh. "What season was it? Was it spring, summer or fall?" "Spring." She couldn't answer even after I repeated the sentence. We went thru the whole passage a few sentences at a time. I would explain anything she didn't understand and ask her questions. It was maddening. You would have thought she had ear plugs in for most of it. AAAAHHH!!!! She is finishing up therapy to help her out but it will not be a quick fix. At best, she has a lot of making up to do with vocab and comprehension. So, what do I do about writing? I can't see moving on to WWE2 anytime soon. Should I just take a break for a year or more and come back to it later? What do I do in the mean time? I know I need to work on her comprehension but what about writing? I really like something prepared and not my own creation. We are using SL cores plus science so I have been considering their LA. I always thought I'd use Writing Strands when we finished WWE. I think I could start her on book 2. I also like Just Write by EPS. I could just do copy work with her while also addressing the comrehension side. For comprehension, I may work thru FLL 1/2 and 3 picking out the narrations. I already own them so I might as well put them to use. I also looked at Language Lessons for the Very Young but I don't see story narrations. I just see picture narration in their samples. I also have SL Cores P3/4 thru 2 so I have tons of good books I could pick passages from. Help! What would you do? She does pretty well with other aspects of LA.
  10. We test in mid-April. I think we have to mail in our results by the end of June.
  11. I'm using Core 1 with my 3rd grader. She is enjoying it. I got her the 2 Int readers. She has taken off! I love it. She had always been a very reluctant reader. I had to drop her 1st grade sister back to P4/5 with 2 readers. Core 1 was too much for her but she has some language issues. You can see in my signature the other assorted things we use with Sonlight. Part of me wants to switch to SL LA just because I love the core so much but I like the combo I'm using. I think it better addresses strong areas vs. weak areas. For example, my son would be ready for the 2 readers next year but would only be in K. I don't think that would work well for him.
  12. I would start with ETC Book A unless he knows all of the letter sounds. If it is easy, he'll fly thru the books. My son started slowly working thru book A and did book B much faster and flew thru Book C. He has now completed Book 1 and is working on Book 2. He will have finished books A, B, C, 1 and 2 in about one calendar year. I'm using OPGTR with ETC. We typically do 1 OPGTR lesson a day and 1 lesson of ETC a week. That means that ETC is way behind where he is skill wise in OPGTR but it's a great review. He is PreK and is using MathUSee Primer and SL Core P4/5. For K, I expect he will be using the next levels - MathUSee Alpha and SL Core K. SL Core P4/5 could easily be used for K. He is doing it with his 1st grade sister and they are both enjoying it. Their 3rd grade sister also listens in.
  13. I have a pretty similar group, too. I have a 3rd grader, 1st grader, PreK and toddler. Our schedule seems to be working well lately. We start school about 9:30. We are doing 2 SL cores so we start with the core reading for core P4/5 (1st grader and PreK but all four listen) then a scripture story and family prayer and we are off to school in the basement. Sometimes based on how the day is looking, I will encourage the kids to start their independent work before we "start school". My 3rd grader did that yesterday and got finished so much earlier. She was very proud of herself. Maybe she'll do it again. When we go down to the school room, I turn on the TV down the hall. I have it programed to play music and then turn on Sesame Street and then turn it off when it's over. If I could only get it to actually turn on the TV, I'd really be set! We work in the school room which is joined to the playroom. The toddler plays around us or runs down the hall to watch Sesame Street. My two dds are very "sensitive" to the noise so they encourage her to go watch Sesame Street. If ds, PreK, finishes his work, he is off to Sesame Street. He only has about 30 minutes of work but lately it takes forever. My dds want to watch SS but seldom work quickly enough to get to it. They don't have to finish just do significant work. Whoever watches SS comes back when it's over and plays quietly until I go upstairs to fix lunch. All three do independent work and I work with them one on one as they need it. I also do their hair and my makeup while they work. We work until 11 - 11:30. Before I go up for lunch, I make a list of everything that still needs to be done. The kids are responsible to bring their books upstairs. After lunch, they watch one educational TV show. This is for my sanity. I need quiet time to finish my lunch and clean up the dishes. Between 12:30 and 1, the toddler goes down for a nap and we start school back up in the family room. I usually start with the dc with the shortest list which is usually PreK ds's reading lesson. The others do independent work. If they finish their independent work, they have a break until I can work with them. We always save WWE for this time since it's less chaotic. Once they are done, they get to play on the computer for 20 minutes and then go downstairs to play. It works well because it's quiet and we can get thru the work pretty quickly. I usually read SL core 1 with my 3rd grader last thing. She is typically the last dc to finish. We are done by 2:30 or 3. It's not a tight schedule but everything gets done. It gives the kids a lot of flexiblity on what to work on when based on their mood and my availability. It also gives them control over how much play time they have by how fast they work. The biggest stress is keeping all the kids going without interupting my one-on-one work with the dc I'm working with. They have enough work that they can do independently that it usually works pretty well. I'm also starting to encourage them to help each other if I'm busy. I'm happy with how our schedule has evolved. Unfortunately, we dropped the science ball when we started SL 5 weeks ago! I need to get that going again.
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