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smg0918

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Everything posted by smg0918

  1. Do you think Writing Tales is enough in terms of writing? If I do end up piecing together my own curriculum, I'm was thinking of combining this with Growing with Grammar. For the Noeo science, which one did you start with? Does it matter which program goes first? I have always heard good things about Singapore Math. You mention that it's confusing -- do you mean confusing for you in terms of how to teach it, or confusing for your son? My kids did so well with Calvert Math in first and second grade, and then last year we ended up with a horrible spiral program that didn't reinforce the basics at all, so now I find we're having to backtrack. They haven't even memorized their times tables yet. :sad: Even if I don't end up going back to Calvert as a complete curriculum, I am considering going to Calvert third grade math since they did so well with it previously. But I'm certainly open to other ideas. Thanks so much for your post.
  2. Hello everyone. I'm very happy to have found this board. I have been homeschooling my now-9 year old twins since mid-way through their kindergarten year and they are currently in fourth grade. I pieced together their materials for kindergarten, and then went with Calvert for first and second grade. Although they both did really well with Calvert and learned a lot, we found it to be very dry and sometimes struggled to force ourselves to get through lessons. Last year I bought a packaged curriculum through Curriculum Services out of Florida. Most subjects were thorough, but math turned out to be a nightmare and both kids lost ground. So I went back to the drawing board for fourth grade. I found (and fell in love with) Moving Beyond the Page and Right Start Math and had very high hopes for this year. While the kids are both enjoying MBTP, I am not liking it at all and I find the approach too "loosey-goosey" for my personality. I don't like the cuteness of many of the assignments and find that I'm skipping a lot of assignments and simply avoiding others. Clearly this curriculum is not working and again I feel like my kids are losing ground. As for math, I like the approach of Right Start Math, but the thought of spending an entire year on basically addition and subtraction again has me fearing that my kids will not be where they need to be at the end of the school year. Knowing that we may at some point return our kids to school makes it very important that we follow national standards and I don't feel either of the programs I've chosen for this year will allow us to do just that. So I am back to the drawing board yet again. I would love some advice and recommendations. I work outside the home three days a week, so it is very important that I have lesson plans and teacher editions to keep me organized and on track. I basically need to be able to sit down and move right through the lessons with very little planning on my part. This was one of the things I loved about Calvert -- I stayed VERY organized and had all the reassurance of knowing every subject was thoroughly covered. On the other hand, I've seen single-subject materials that I think my kids would like, so part of me thinks maybe I should just piece together a curriculum on my own (as long as each subject has a teacher guide or lesson plan). After researching this forum quite a bit, I like the looks of Writing Tales, Trail Guide to World Geography, Math U See, etc. But there are SO MANY choices and I just feel completely overwhelmed. I would love to hear what is working (or has worked) for your fourth graders. We are currently using Spelling Workout, HWOT for cursive, and Maps, Globes and Graphs for geography and will continue those. We need a very strong language arts program, math, science and social studies. My kids are like night and day in terms of learning styles and abilities -- my daughter constantly has her nose in a book and reads years beyond her age, she loves to write and pretty much succeeds at everything she does. My son, although equally bright, struggles to focus, is a reluctant reader, and really needs help in language arts/grammar/writing. He excels in science and loves social studies. Both kids need to backtrack in math and get the basics down more thoroughly than the spiral curriculum they used last year that proved to be a huge mistake. We are not Christian, so secular materials are my preference. And if it's not already obvious, unit studies simply do not work for my personality and teaching style. If you've gotten this far, THANK YOU! I appreciate any and all input.
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