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edeemarie

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Everything posted by edeemarie

  1. Thank you, Heather, but I just had another board member email me the pages, so I am all set. I appreciate your willingness to help!
  2. I need a little bit of help from someone who currently has Saxon 8/7 (the 3rd edition homeschool set). I bought a set used last year on eBay and assumed everything was there. Well, it turns out there are a couple of the test pages missing (tests 1 & 2, pages 183-186). Would anyone be willing to scan or take pictures of these couple of pages so I don't have to buy a whole new book, please? If you could just pm me I will give my email address there. Thanks so much, and I'm totally done with buying used curriculum. This year has been awful! I've had missing parts, mismatched books, writing in books...ugh. Apparently saving a few dollars isn't worth the hassle. 😕
  3. We had a great year using Wayfarers this past year! For this upcoming year, I used Wayfarers as a guide to put my own thing together. I wanted to do a two-year American history but still continue using Quark Chronicles as our science spine, so I had to use the books that have been released. So for history (American history-up through the Civil War), my older kids will be using the Foster books (Columbus, Washington, & Lincoln) as a spine and they each have individual literature reading lists for the same time period. My younger kids will be using the D'Aulaire books and the If You Were...books as their spine. Together as a family we are doing a Book of Centuries and using the 200 American History Questions from Memoria Press. We also have family read-alouds we will do together at night that are based on the time period we are studying. For science, we are studying Anatomy and Astronomy using Quark Chronicles as our science family read aloud. Together we will be doing science experiments using the Janice VanCleave books, and we will also be putting the Scholasitc Body Book together. Each child has their own science book to read (CK12 for oldest, CLP grade 5 science reader for second, and Usborne First Encyclopedia for youngest two). They all each have some living science to read too (Burgess books for the younger two and The Secret of Everyday Things for the older two).
  4. We actually do ELTL Monday through Wednesday and RLTL every day. But I am also using it for reading instruction, so I feel it is best for us to do RLTL every day. It really doesn't take too long once you find your rhythm, but again, that is where the beauty of its flexibility comes in. If it only works for you to do it twice a week, than that works too! The spelling lists are the group of either 10 (levels 1 & 2) or 15 (upper levels) words that you teach to go with each story. You take each word individually and call out the phonograms as the student writes them down. For example, if you are spelling the word "each", you tell your student what word you are spelling. They you say "write the phonograms that says E, e, A" and they would write on their paper "ea". They you would say "write the phonogram that says ch, k, sh" and they would write "ch" on their paper. I usually have my kids then look at the word and read it to me again, just to solidify they know what it says (this is very beneficial to them, especially when it comes to the longer words). If your son needed the extra practice, you certainly could have him copy the words. Once they read the story, they will see the words again and practice them that way. As far as the markings, we do that right after they have finished writing down the individual word, and that is where the spelling rule instruction comes into play.
  5. If your son is already familiar with the phonograms, you could easily start in level 2 of RLTL. For my 7 year old, this is what a typical week looks like for him. He is very familiar with the phonograms so we only review those on Friday. The other days of the week we alternate days of spelling words and reading the story. Here's an example: Monday: spelling list #60 Tuesday: read story #60 Wednesday: spelling list #61 Thursday: read story #61 Friday: review phonograms and review spelling words from that week (we don't really do tests because he doesn't seem to need them) But the thing I love most about RLTL is the flexibility. My younger son only does 10 words per week at the most and reviews phonograms more often. So he may only read a story once a week, or even once every two weeks. So you really have the freedom to use it however it works best for your family. As far as independent learning, there isn't much with RLTL. You are calling out the phonograms as they are writing down their spelling lists, and you'd probably want to listen to them reading the story in order to make sure they are pronouncing words correctly. The spelling rules are just introduced as you use them in words. I actually have flash cards of the spelling rules and we review those several times per week (I purchase the SWR spelling rule flash cards because they are very similar to RLTL's rules). I think that has helped tremendously with remembering the rules because then I can ask them "why is that word spelled that way?" when they are writing down spelling words and it really helps cement in their minds the whys of spelling. (This has worked well for my older kids that aren't even currently using RLTL!)
  6. We just finished the third book in the Growly series. We are also reading The Black Star of Kingston while we anxiously await the release of the Green Ember sequel, and for our summer book club we are reading The League and the Lantern.
  7. I put together an 18 week anatomy program for my upcoming 5th grader for next year. I'm using Quark Chronicles Anatomy as a family read-aloud, she will be reading Christian Liberty Press science reader 5 independently (as well as keeping a vocabulary notebook with it), we will be putting the Scholastic Body books together, and we will all be doing experience from Janice VanCleave's Human Body for Every Kid experiment book.
  8. For my kids, the skill of spelling has come easily for my visual learner, but not for my auditory learners. With standardized tests, my auditory learners think if they can read the word then it must be correct! I have literally tried just about every spelling program out there, and simple studied dictation using passages from books they are reading has had the best results for them (also, years and years of seeing the words written correctly is finally starting to help since they are 12 and 10 now). I really wouldn't stress about it because being in the 60th percentile isn't a bad score at all. Spelling has always been our lowest scores for my oldest two, but they make up for it by excelling in other areas so it all even out in the end. 😉
  9. Here is another list that may be helpful: http://www.nea.org/grants/50-state-booklist.html.
  10. We own the "Science for Every Kid" books. The A+ books looks like there are about 30 in-depth experiments that could be used for science fairs (complete with charting and graphing activities), while the science for every kid books have many more experiments that are pretty basic and easy to get done. I will be using the Science for Every Kid Astronomy and Earth Sceince books next year with my kids. Unfortunately I'm not sure what the step-by-step experiment books are like.
  11. We are using CLP's new textbook "Changing Frontiers" (https://www.clp.org/products/changing_frontiers_textbook_3068) next year as our spine for a two year history study. We are adding in lots of great historical literature too. :-)
  12. We have enjoyed all of the books we have used. I love that the experiments are easy to do and use materials we mostly have in our house. There are so many experiments in the book that it is pretty easy to skip the ones that either look too complicated or that you don't have the materials for. I purchased the books I have at betterworldbooks.com during one of their 40% off sales.
  13. How is Anki different from Quizlet? We currently use Quizlet but I wondering if Anki is superior to Quizlet somehow.
  14. Even though we aren't currently using KONOS, here is a post I did back when I was blogging about how I used and planned KONOS: https://wateronthefloor.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/planning-our-konos-units-with-a-free-printable/.
  15. We are currently finishing up Song School Latin book 1 and are looking at purchasing book 2. We have done fine using book 1 without the teacher's manual and just using the student book with the cd. For those that have experience with SSL 2, is the teacher's manual optional for that book as well, or should we purchase it? Thanks!
  16. I know I have ordered printed books for 30% off, so if I were you I would probably hold off.
  17. We are currently using Fallacy Detective with my ds12 and he really enjoys it! I would highly recommend it. From what I understand, the Thinking Toolbox is the follow-up to the Fallacy Detective.
  18. We have ELTL level 4 in the larger size. I also have several levels of RLTL that are in the smaller size, but those are only around 350 pages. They are very manageable to use, but if the smaller version is 700 pages, I'm not sure how manageable that would be. I think it may also depend on whether or not you get the optional workbook. If you don't get that and your daughter needs to use the ELTL book for copywork instead of using the workbook, you may want to go with the larger size so it can lay flat. All of the other levels of ELTL we have are downloads and we read them on the iPad.
  19. I don't have any first-hand experience with this yet, but I'm leaning heavily towards using Novare science for middle school. Here is a link to their Earth Science: http://novarescienceandmath.com/catalog/es/es-preorder/
  20. I have heard several people say they just stretched out LFC into two years instead of doing it in one year to slow down the pace. It is such a thorough program that I don't see doing that causing any problems at all. I actually wish we would have done it that way. As it is, I think we are going to spend the first half of next year just reviewing what we learned this year in LFC before we move on to the next level.
  21. We are using it so I'll see if I can answer your questions. :-) As far as the literature selections, days 1, 3, & 5 list the literature that goes along with ELTL. For example, if you are doing ELTL level 3, you follow the list next to the number 3. This assumes you start at lesson 1 at the beginning of the year, so it may not line up if you didn't start it then. She basically put that in there as a reading reminder for those using ELTL, or as a list of good books to read if you weren't using ELTL. The only other literature scheduled (the Narnia series if you are doing the ancient history book) is an optional family read aloud. I believe that is scheduled 3 times per week. Health is scheduled throughout the year, but not necessarily every week. For example, week 12 you watch the movie "Fat Head" and then weeks 13-17 you read "Primal Kids". So even though you don't see it in week 1, it does show up later. :-) I would say, in general, most things on the second half of each day's spread would be considered optional (things like composer study, experiments, art, health, etc.). She has them scheduled in case you want to use them, but you certainly don't have to use everything she suggests to get those subjects done. As far as terms, there are actually 3 twelve week terms for each year.
  22. I think the TumTum and Nutmeg series sounds like it could be a good fit. They are very sweet chapter books.
  23. The only reason I started with All Things Fun & Fascinating was because I was too cheap to get any of the SWI programs. 😉 I think SWI-A would be a fantastic place to start and would definitely give you more hand-holding than any of the theme books.
  24. We have successfully used IEW for several years, and I have never watched TWSS. I did watch the overview DVD (I think it was like $10 or so) and IEW posts free webinars on each specific unit if you get stuck on something. All Things Fun & Fascinating was what we used first when my oldest was in 3rd grade (I think...it may have been 4th grade), but we had a great time with it. With IEW, there is no such thing as helping them too much and modeling is a big deal. It hasn't been until this year, now that my son is in his 3rd IEW book, that he has been able to really flourish with his writing on his own. The time I spent modeling and helping him is really paying off. But in my opinion, it's totally doable without watching TWSS. :-)
  25. ELTL is strictly a grammar/writing program, so starting it is more dependent on your child being able to copy a short sentence than it is on how far you are with reading. For what it's worth, my 7 year old is currently in RLTL level 3 and is also doing ELTL level 1 (we just started at Christmas). I will continue to use RLTL with him until we get through level 4 since that is what he is using for reading/spelling. If you are using and enjoying LOE, there would be no reason for you to use RLTL.
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