I got the online access to LivelyLatin and downloaded it. I printed out the first lesson on both sides of the paper. Then I realized that if I am supposed to file the completed work in the notebook as she suggests (using the notebook dividers), this will be a problem since there might be vocabulary on one side and history on the other. So is the solution to only print on one side of the paper? This seems like a waste of paper to me. :confused: What are others doing? Should I just forget this whole dividers thing and just keep them all together? I do realize that some pages will need to be on their own sheet because they are used to make flashcards. I'm talking about the non-flashcard pages. :)

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-12-Hour-Student-Clock/dp/B00000JH41/ref=sr_1_2?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1333718586&sr=1-2 Forgot to add, I would also get something like this. I got a slightly different one, but you want to have one where the hands move together, like they would on a real clock. We also have a couple of very simple ones where you can manipulate the 2 hands separately. I like having both kinds.

I got these: http://www.amazon.com/CUISENAIRE-RODS-SMALL-GROUP-155/dp/B001AZ6W7E/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1333718346&sr=8-3 http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Plastic-Starter-LER0930/dp/B000F8VBBO/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1333718387&sr=1-1 I would definitely still recommend both of these for level 2.

I agree on the base 10 blocks and Cuisenaire rods. The C-rods really helped my dd get missing addends in MM1, and I have used the base 10 blocks over and over in each level of MM (have used 1-3 now).

Hmm, for a 4th grader, I would say no. I think it would be a great intro to US History for a K/1st or maybe 2nd grader on its own, but any higher than that and I would want to go deeper. Especially w/ my ds, who is a voracious reader. If your ds doesn't like writing, I would not recommend the journal as there is a lot of writing involved in that. We are just doing simple notebooking instead. We are pulling in books using TruthQuest as a guide. I started off w/ just TQ, but there are just too many topics to cover and I didn't care for the commentary at all. I felt really silly reading it out loud because of the way it's written. W/o the commentary TQ lost some of its cohesiveness, and I started looking for a spine to use w/ it. There are a few topics that LHOW skips that I knew my children would really enjoy reading about, so I am using TQ to find books on those topics and we just read them at the appropriate time, chronologically. It's going really well and history is my ds's favorite subject this year.

:iagree: We are doing this as well and really enjoying it w/ a 3rd and 1st grader. I am adding in tons of living books, but it's not necessary, especially w/ a 1st grader. My children enjoy the narrative style quite a bit, and I don't feel like an idiot reading it out loud. ;)

By teacher's manual, I assume you mean the Complete Writer book? If you are just looking to implement this method, the workbooks suffice. But if you want to understand the philosophy behind the method, you can get the CW book. OR you can do like me and just read the article "Why Writing Programs Fail" (available on the PHP website in the Complete Writer sample) and listen to SWB's writing lectures. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/audio-products/audio-lectures.html Look at the second row down. There's one each for elementary, middle, and high school. I actually bought the book after doing the above and saw that I had gotten pretty much all I needed. So I returned it. :001_smile:

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/audio-products/audio-lectures.html Look on the second row at the three "A Plan for Teaching Writing: ..." lectures. They are excellent! Between listening to those and reading the "Why Writing Programs Fail" article, I honestly don't feel a need to buy the Complete Writer book. The article is in the sample of the CW book on the PHP website.

I just finished giving my ds the evaluation "test" at the end of the WWE2 and will be starting WWE3 tomorrow. I DO feel like it has helped him organize his thoughts better, and his narrations have definitely improved. When we started level 2 he needed the questions to help him shape his narration and pick out the main ideas, but now he's doing great w/o them. I also have noticed that his writing for his history notebook has improved dramatically since starting level 2. For example, if he was doing a notebook page about what he learned about an explorer, he might have started w/ some random factoid, then where he was from, places he explored, when he died, and then when he was born. I just let him do whatever he wanted w/ it. Without my pointing these things out, he has started writing things in a much more logical order, starting w/ when and where he was born, childhood, explorations, and THEN when he died at the end. His punctuation and capitalization are also better than when we started level 2. I am excited about WWE3 because I think it will help him w/ his reading comprehension. He tends to just read as fast as he can because he wants to find out what happens. I'm hoping WWE3 will cause him to SLOW down and pay attention.

That sounds like an interesting idea that would really promote mastery of the material. I just love curriculum that comes as PDFs! I have way more space on my computer than I do on my bookshelves. :tongue_smilie:

Fabulous! Thank you!

:hurray: Awesome! Thanks for checking for me. One more question -- you said the videos are streaming, what about the audio pronunciation files? Can I download those to burn to a CD?

I'm thinking about trying this out and was just wondering if it ever goes on sale or if there is a way to get a discount. Also, if you get the online access, does this mean you can only print when you have internet access (and you CAN'T download a PDF)? If so, I think I would probably spring for the CDs.

We just bought this Brother laser printer about a month ago, and I've been very happy w/ it: http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Printer-Wireless-Monochrome-HL2280DW/dp/B004QM8J8S/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1332807891&sr=8-4 We had a Canon color inkjet that started getting really flaky on me. I simply cannot run the risk of being w/o a printer for 3 or 4 days, so I decided to get a b/w laser. They seem much cheaper to operate in the long run. The Canon is still limping along, so I'm just using it for when I have to have color (not very often). The Brother machine is totally wireless and was pretty easy to set up. Duplexing (double-sided printing) was on my must-have list, as well as a copier/scanner. It prints super fast and is not loud. Love it!

:iagree: We are doing GrammarLand right now w/ a 3rd and 1st grader. We were using EG but decided to take a break and do this for a little while. I wanted to see how he would react to this type of grammar instruction. We usually read one chapter of GL and then discuss it a little and put what we learned from that chapter on the whiteboard. The next day I have them do the corresponding worksheet. My 3rd grader is enjoying this soooo much I'm thinking of getting the MCT Island materials for next year. The 1st grader complains at first but then gets sucked in to the story and is listening intently by the end of the chapter. But she wouldn't admit that. ;) I think she would enjoy (and actually admit to enjoying) the MCT materials because they are so colorful. Both of them seem to like doing the worksheets. OK, here are some links for you: GrammarLand: http://www.homewaypress.com/freebies/GrammarLand.pdf (You can also get this on the kindle from Amazon for a couple of bucks, I think. I just printed this PDF and then had it comb-bound.) Worksheets from a WTM member: https://docs.google.com/#folders/0B97VumpziE6VZDdhZGQ0YmYtNzhiMi00NTU2LTk3YzItOTNlOGYwNWIyOGRj Worksheets from someone else: Go to http://www.hslaunch.com and search for "grammarland"

Could you try that link again? It just pulls up my shopping cart on CBD, not a product page.

I think in one of SWB's lectures she mentions that a child who finishes WWE 3 and is doing 5th grade level work can go right into WWS. I may be misremembering, though. I'm planning to do this w/ my ds, so I hope that's the case.

:lol: He must get it from me, because I like going back and "cleaning up" my writing. I have a feeling my dc2 won't like it so much, so I probably won't do much w/ her until WWS actually calls for it.

:thumbup: Yay! I am soooo glad to hear this! I have glanced thru the WWS sample but obviously I missed some things. Very reassuring to know that the tips I'm giving him now will be covered more thoroughly later. Thanks, ladies!

I have the elementary, middle, and high school lectures, but haven't listened to the HS one yet. Maybe I should do that. :) I'm just wondering about the future, if these sorts of skills are addressed in the upper levels of WWE or in WWS (the level that is available). I'm not really concerned at this point about his style, but he seems to enjoy making it sound better so I'd like to give him tips. But I just don't feel totally equipped to do it on my own.

So if WWE 3/4 or WWS does not address these writing skills, what is everyone supplementing w/? Or do people just teach this on the fly like I have been trying to do w/ my ds?

:iagree: We are using GGC OT 1 this year and love it, too! I have a review and thorough explanation of how we use it on my blog. http://dougcarla.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/gods-great-covenant-ot-1-review/

For my 7yo 1st grader in MM 1, she does 1-2 pages, depending on the density. If it's all word problems, 1 page. For my 9yo 3rd grader in MM 3, he typically does 2 a day. If it's not dense or has lots of teaching, he gets excited about having a "light" day. :) If there are a lot of problems, I will tell him do half in this section and let me check it. If he gets them ALL right, he doesn't have to do the rest of that part.

We like Easy Grammar here. Crossing out prepositional phrases first really helps my ds. But there is no diagramming, so if you want to teach that skill you would have to supplement. We weren't thrilled w/ GWG, but everyone is different. :)

Hmmm. I guess I don't think of those things as grammar, but maybe I just haven't seen enough grammar programs. :tongue_smilie: We do some sentence combining in EG but none of the other stuff. I guess I figured that was a writing curriculum thing. Please don't tell me I need to be looking to supplement my grammar program, too! :lol: I was really hoping to hear WWS would cover at least some of this.