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angelique

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About angelique

  • Birthday 08/10/1968

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  • Biography
    living on a few acres growing kids, plants, and critters
  • Location
    nowheresville, AR
  • Interests
    lol, who has time for hobbies?!?!?
  • Occupation
    full time homeschool mom, part time everything else
  1. This is not a workbook approach, BUT they do have a a Digital Spelling Tutor CD-Rom available with the newest version (also available separately). I honestly haven't seen this product but have considered puchasing it because we love Spelling Power, but I don't have time to do it myself with three kids. Here is Rainbow Resource's review of it: The Digital Spelling Tutor CD-ROM is also available separately, and it allows you to create spelling lists for multiple children, offers learning, drill and testing activities, tracks several children’s progress, allows you to create and print progress reports, and can be used with any spelling word list. So, I'm not sure how much time you would have to prep with this to set your children up with their lists, but it sounds like using it would allow them to work their lists independently. If your kids like doing some of their work on the computer, this may be a consideration. I wish I could give a better review based on experience, but this is just what I am considering for purchase.
  2. I am coming in on this discussion a bit late, but as I'm a newbie, I feel the need to post my two cents. Personally, I feel consumerism is based on desire - the advertisers try to instill a desire for a product. I read once somewhere that the source of all dissatisfaction in life is unmet desires. We can't be "hapy" if we have a desire for things that we don't have, whether that is food, material possesions, relationships, whatever. Since "the masses" really don't do much deep thinking anymore, they believe that these desires are a genuine need. A course in journalism may help spot the techniques that advertisers use to trap us, but I honestly think that a solid course in logic would be more beneficial. Logic is not taught in the traditional schools, nor in most home schools, because most homeschooling parents were educated in the public schools and aren't familiar with it themselves (we are guilty of this ourselves). I think a return to logic as one of the foundational tenents of our homeschools would remedy some of this situation. I am beginning to undertake a serious study myself on the area of discipline. As a society, I think we Americans are an extremely undisciplined lot. I think some serious training in logic and personal discipline (or self-government if you will) would solve many of the societal ills that plague us, including mass consumerism. This is all great and fine for homeschoolers to discuss this, but the problem is nation-wide, and we are in the minority. I wish we had the willpower to disconnect the cable. Financial need may dictate that soon enough. But as it is, we usually only watch a few channels that are generally "educational" in nature. We have two methods of ignoring commercials. During breaks we hit the mute button on the remote and discuss what we have watched, or just chit-chat. Even the kids do this when they watch kid's programming. We also have a dvr, so that when we are busy with life but there is a show we want to watch, we record it to the hard drive. When we are ready to watch the program, we just fast forward past all the commercials. This is just a suggestion for those who still watch t.v. I truly commend those who dont watch at all. Television is what it is, an addiction to amusement and entertainment (even in the guise as "educational programming") as opposed to constructive pursuits and I hope to be free of it someday. A friend once said that "rich is just a higher class of broke." When we spend more than we make, whether that is 20k or 1 million, we will be hurting financially. Delayed gratification is a lost skill and we live in a "gotta have it now" society. Again, this falls back to logic and discipline to solve this problem, not just personally, but as a nation, perhaps even globally. Sorry for the rambling.
  3. Thank you for your helpful post, the links to the previous posts were informative also. Since I don't need the TMs for the elementary grades, do you think it would it be beneficial for my 10yob to just start at the beginning at the lowest level and progress from there? We haven't made much progress this year in either writing or grammar (totally my fault, not his) neither have I covered poetry ever with him. Could we start at the beginning and move at a faster pace? Would he miss anything by skipping the first level? I figure if I have the funds and I can just get away with the TMs, then I could afford to just start at the beginning and not miss anything good. Any opinions? Angelique
  4. We've been homeschooling for 11 years now and I wish that we would have just stuck with WTM recommendations when I first read it way back when my oldest was going into 3rd grade (now an-up-and-coming senior) We followed that for awhile, then deviated and played curriuculum hop-scotch. Now we use TRISMS with IEW, Saxon math, Apologia science, an eclectic mix of language arts (which I hope to remedy soon), and other sundry bits and pieces. My biggest problem in deviating was that I fell victim to the "grass-is-greener-on-the-other-side" syndrome. If we ran into a bit of difficulty or a bump in the road, I would ditch a whole curriculum and try the next big thing everyone was raving about. We have used 5 math programs (not including supplements), ten history programs (mostly unit studies with one venture into the world of traditional history textbooks, yuk), two Latin programs, 3 spelling, 3 grammar and I forget how many science programs. I have more books than I know what to do with and can't bear to part with many of them because, well, I hope to have grandkids someday.... First, self-education is paramount. It would be better to not do any academics (except maybe math and reading) while mom takes the time to do some research, figure out what you and your children's strengths and weaknesses are (be brutal on this), set priorities, set short and long range goals for school and life in general, then develop a plan to reach those goals. When you know exactly where you want your kids (and yourself) to be in a year, five years and on graduation day, and have a general plan on how to get there, then curriculum choices are greatly narrowed. Second, if what you are using is working, leave well enough alone. Don't fall prey to the mindset that some great new curriculum that your homeschooling friend has discovered "might" work better than what you are already using. It probably won't, you will waste time and money and this will lead to the dreaded "gaps" in your children's education that everyone fears. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Unfortuantely, this has had another side effect in our family. While my dh supports my homeschooling efforts, he has no interest in it anymore because in his words, "I can't keep up with what you're doing!" He has never been a "hands-on" homeschool dad, but whenever I try to talk to him about homeschooling now, he really couldn't care less. All he is concerned about is that I give them a good education and won't be bothered with the details. Third, there will be exceptions. If you have several children homeschooling, what works for most may not work for one. Maybe what you are using just needs some creative tweaking, no one ever said curriculum instructions were set in stone: go at a faster or slower pace, add more hands-on activities, find supplements, take supplements away, whatever works. I have found that it's not usually the curriculum at fault but simply the way it is presented or expected to be done. For example, when we used MathUSee Pre-Algebra for my oldest he didn't mind the lessons but hated using the manipulatives. At first I tried to make him comply, to show me with the manipulatives that he understood the concept before working on paper, but this was frustrating for him because he truly didn't need them. We watched the video together and concepts "clicked" right away. Using the manipulatives just slowed him down. You bought it, so don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, rather, tweak to your hearts content! I promise that no one will beat you over the head with a stick berating you for deviating from the norm. Fourth, enjoy every moment, even the difficult ones, because it will go by so much faster than you could possibly imagine.
  5. Me-thinks this teacher has seen too many episodes of "Survivor Island" or "Big Brother" or some other such so-called "reality" t.v. Someone explain to me who gave this teacher the o.k. to delegate the fate of a child in her classroom, of which she is supposed to be the authority, to the rest of the students therein? I would think that would be a decision that the teacher, parents, counselor and/or principle would have to agree on, as opposed to a bunch of nose-pickers being trained in "group-think!" Just my .02 :glare:
  6. Years ago I purchased Caesar's English 1 and worked through most of it with my oldest ds. While clearing my shelves yesterday, I debated whether or not to keep it and use it for my youngest ds. So I went to the Royal Fireworks Press website to see if it was even still in print and I was delighted to learn that it's only one component of a larger language arts program! I'm thinking of purchasing the other four books for this level; Grammar Town, Paragraph Town, Building Poems and the Practice Sentences Workbook and also the Secondary Level books (Magic Lens, Word Within the Word and Poetry & Humanity) for my up and coming ninth graders. All that to ask anyone who has experience with these other books: Is it worth the expense (all those books will cost over $330)? I love the methodology of Easy Grammar but year after year of endless worksheets of meaningless sentences without any relation to real literature gets tedious. Does this language arts program keep their interest? I know it was designed with GT students in mind. Do they retain the grammar concepts that they learn? I don't care for the traditional method of diagramming sentences (don't shoot me) and from what I can see in these books, diagramming is kept to a minimal - binary subject/predicate form. Is that how it is done throughout the series? Also, we are working through IEW's TWSS program; could we use that in conjunction with this series or would that be overkill? I didn't really get a good feel for how much writing instruction would be included in the series. If I used all the books for one level, how much time would it take per day for a "typical" student to complete? Do the teacher's manuals contain lesson plans that show how to tie all the books together into a comprehensive whole? I think I just need some assurances from someone who has worked through a complete level of these books. I have looked through every sample page of every book in the series on the website and it appears to be an excellent curriculum, but we have changed programs before only to be sorely disappointed. That's all I can think of for now. I would appreciate any feedback about this series.:)
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