Anyone else have any feedback about the textbook companion?

We are LOVING Visual Latin (http://www.visuallatin.com/). I've never taught Latin before, but I couldn't imagine an easier to use curriculum than this is. And the guy is funny and engaging to watch... I am actually excited about doing it. I am "teaching" it at our home school co-op. It makes more sense to me than other things I've seen because they are actually using it from Lesson 1 doing some translating...

Thank you. That is helpful... I think I am leaning towards the easy classical. I don't really care for lots of cut and paste activities, and I could probably benefit more from the weekly scheduling than the detailed scripted lessons... I tend to skip over scripted things anyway. I did see a used copy of the Veritas teacher's manual at a used curriculum store in town, so I may end up buying and using it as a supplement too.

One more bump... and then I will leave it alone :001_smile:

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So, I had planned to use the Easy Classical schedule for ancients next year, but I'm wondering what the differences are between it and just using the Veritas Press History (and getting the "Scholars" schedule). Can anyone compare the two?

I would highly recommend The Logic of English as well. It sounds like it would fit the bill perfectly. You can pace it to your needs and it is a great program to start back at the beginning without it seeming babyish. And, you'd get basic phonics, spelling, and grammar instruction from the beginning too. I can't say enough good things about it.

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My son didn't have a problem with spelling without immediate reward. And they are reading from day one in SWR. They are supposed to be reading back the words from their lists to you and reading them as they write them, etc. As a PP said my oldest hated simple readers like Bob books and it was torture for him to have to sit and sound out words in a reader like that. But, he followed the pattern and by about section I he was reading well... really well. He skipped from struggling to read bob books to reading the Bible without many steps between it seems like. It made me a believer in the method for sure! I am a lot like him and can understand why he thought it was torture to read "Bob sat, Cat sat, etc"

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SWR is great! But, although I LOVE the method, the results, etc, I found myself always wishing for an excuse to do something else. It is not so hard once you get the hang of it, but I really wanted to find something that was more open and go. SWR became very open and go for me for the spelling list part of it, but I never got into a good routine for the grammar, practice, and really explaining and applying the spelling rules. I felt like I was still wondering every day what else I needed to do, or which thing to concentrate on, etc. After using it every day for a year and a half, you'd think I would have got that down, but I still was finding things that I should've have been doing all along. In a lot of ways, this is a good thing about SWR. It really will last through lots of years of kids, and you can do it over and over again (starting higher up in the lists each year) and always have something new to learn. But, I found the Logic of English and decided that it was all that I was wanting SWR to be. It is laid out logically, telling exactly what to do to incorporate grammar, spelling rules, etc and it really explains the why of spelling. Yesterday we discussed the spelling of the long a sound and drew a little chart on the board that showed how "ea" only says the long a sound in 9 words, "ai" is usually used in the middle of a syllable, "a" usually is used to say "a" at the end of a syllable, and "ay" at the end of the word. All I remember doing in SWR is learning that "ay" usually says "a" at the end of a word. Anyway, I feel like it is SWR applied and laid out systematically. If I hadn't found LOE, then I would certainly still be using SWR. I could never convince myself to use something else, because I really believe in the method. I think any of the programs based on the spalding method would be the same as far as effectiveness... LOE is the easiest to use from what I have seen.

LOE does have 4 sounds for y. When we did SWR I added the fourth sound when I taught it to my kids. I understand the reasoning of why they don't use the E sound, but it just seems so much less complicated to teach them that Y sometimes says E. The reasoning that it is easier to just think to spell babi, so then you know it has to be a y because English words don't end in i, doesn't seem easier to me. I'd rather have as few "think to spell" words as possible. When they hear a new word I am not always going to be there to tell them to "think to spell" it in a certain way. There are a LOT of words that end in the E sound spelled with a Y.

I bought 3 decks of cursive. We did cursive first, so I figured we'd just stick with those. I think it would be fine to get whichever and mix cursive with bookface, etc... The backs of the cards are all the same (the Logic of English logo), so in matching games, etc. that wouldn't be a problem. My kids that are using it are 7 and 5 (almost 6). My 7 year old is breezing through so far, but he already had a year and a half of SWR, so he already knows all the phonograms, etc. We are loving it- they both beg to do more every day. We are just on the 4th lesson and anything new is fun to them :001_smile:... Hopefully they will keep loving it. I am!

We bought the Teacher's Manual, one workbook per kid and the game book with 3 sets of game cards. I had used SWR before and figured I could just modify the phonogram cards from it (there are 4 new ones a few new sounds). This is working fine. I plan to make our own grammar and spelling rule cards. Everything is listed pretty conveniently in the teacher's manual and it would not be hard at all to make your own flash cards. The game book and game cards are nice. Having 3 decks of cards is best cause some of the games require 3. If you really needed to, you could buy the game book and make your own game cards. The game cards are really nice though- more like playing card quality. You could get by without them though. I would probably not buy one deck if you aren't going to buy 3. It would be hard to play some of the games if you had cards that didn't match I think... So, just make 3 decks yourself, so they all would match. We didn't get the spelling journal, so I'm not sure what it is like. I have just been using a regular composition book for my son to write the vocab development words in. I think that will work fine for us.

I am using it with a K and a 1st grader. We have only had it for 2 weeks, but are LOVING it so far. It is very "logical" :001_smile:. I don't know anything about PR1, so I can't compare, but I like the way LOE is laid out and open and go. I also really like the fact that they are doing some grammar, etc. with the spelling rules. We have 4 kids 7 and under and would like to have more, so I appreciate a little bit of overlap of subjects... It seems more efficient to be using your spelling words to learn grammar concepts and basic writing, etc. We did SWR and I love the method. I just wanted to streamline my daily work as much as possible and though SWR is great it is not as open and go as I would have liked, even after using it consistently for over a year. We got into a good routine for the spelling lists, but I had a hard time implementing all the extras. LOE seems to be basically SWR with a few tweaks here and there, but in a easier to use, more logical format. I don't want to speak ill of SWR though, cause if LOE hadn't come along I would have stuck with SWR, I think it's great.

We just started using it a few weeks ago and I haven't decided if I am going to do it together with my 1st and K or do lessons separately, but play the games together. My 1st already knows all the phonograms from SWR, so he will only need to learn the 4 new ones. My K knows about 3/4 of them. So, I think we should be able to play games together, but I am thinking I want to go faster with my 1st grader, so I can't decide though if I want to just plow through and let my K do what she can/wants and then cover it deeper with her next year. It would be nice to do only one lesson! The only day that really is a problem so far to do it all at once is the spelling list dictation. My 1st will have the word written and have to wait too long while my K is taking longer to figure it out. Maybe we will do all together except for that... I am interested to see what everyone else says.

We are using the Logic of English. We are loving it. It is very open and go and I think you could do whatever penmanship style you want. There is a cursive or a manuscript choice for the workbooks, but I would think you could write in whatever style you want. Same with SWR, they encourage cursive first, but you could do whatever you want- it wouldn't change the program at all to write in a different style. With both of those, though like others have said, you will have to do some writing. I found that the writing with SWR (which we used before LOE) was pretty minimal, but enough for handwriting instruction for my son. He does not like writing, so I didn't want to do a separate handwriting program for him, because just writing spelling words was plenty to teach him the mechanics of writing. I am moving on to some copy work/dictation now so that he becomes more fluid, but I would rather do that than have him go through an unrelated handwriting program which seemed like busy work.

Great! I will start adding those in for sure. We do a lot of mental math where I just ask him different ways to make 10, etc. already, and he enjoys doing things orally and not having to write :001_smile:. I'm glad to hear that that is what we are supposed to do with it! Thanks!

Is there somewhere in the HIG that explains what to do with the mental math worksheets? Do I just give them to him as worksheets for him to do in his head or is there something else to them? I do have an HIG, that I bought used, but I never saw explanations about what to do with the mental math.

Which level Miquon? It looked like it was for 1st grade and up... And what do I buy with it? What exactly are c-rods :)?

Hi, I posted awhile back for advice about my son's math. The replies were very helpful- we took some of the advice and have been using MEP and playing with numbers- re-arranging facts making 3 or 4 member addition sentences and then combining them to 2 member, etc. I am learning that he REALLY responds well to being challenged. If we just sit and review fact cards he doesn't focus, but if I give him a challenge he can spout off facts no problem. We are going to take a break from SM for a little while and do MEP and challenge him with the abacus to get his facts cemented better then go back to SM. So... on to the new question- My daughter who is almost 6 has done almost a year of Horizons K and is struggling to understand math at all. She is opposite of my son in a lot of ways. She tends to memorize well, but does not understand concepts well. She has become very dependent on the number lines which I really don't like, and I don't love that she is "adding" 92+4, etc. without really understanding what 4+2 is. She can count it on the number line, but if you ask her in another context she just randomly guesses whatever number comes into her head :001_smile:. I only did Horizons this year because I had heard that the Singapore K wasn't great and I was wanting to do something gentler with her at first. She actually likes doing "math," but what she means by that is that she likes writing in the colorful workbook. She cries daily multiple times during the lesson saying she doesn't understand, but every day wants to do math first and says she likes it. I had planned to move to SM 1a with her next year, but I've got to do something now/over the summer to get her ready for it. I think MEP would be way over her head. She's just in K, so I'm not exactly worried about being "behind", but I'd rather spend the rest of our year cementing understanding instead of the mechanics of adding on a number line. I have a hard time feeling like we have done anything if we aren't using a curriculum, but I'm thinking I should spend the rest of the year playing games and working with her understanding. She writes her numbers well and doesn't really need practice with that part of it. Anyone want to give me "permission" to go "rogue" and not finish Horizons K? :001_smile: Just kidding... kind of... Thoughts? And what do you guys think about math for her for next year? I like mastery programs and I like singapore... but I don't know if that is going to be best for her. I don't think I can stomach teaching Saxon and would prefer not doing Horizons again...

We just got The Logic of English and I'm really excited to start using it. It looks great! Definitely suitable for older students as well as young ones.

This is our favorite picture book. It's a really cute story with a twist at the end... The best pet of all We also love the baby brains books.

Thanks everyone! There are a lot of great suggestions, and I have a lot to think about. We do talk through his strategies for solving his problems, and we tend to talk about math a lot as we go through the day as he really loves it and asks questions a lot (my husband is an engineer and I am was a microbiologist, so we both tend to be more math/science minded). Tonight at the dinner table he was doing multiplication in his head and trying to explain to his sister how 4x2 is the same as 4+4. Then he went on to asking "What's 4x4?" and working through that, and then was super pumped when he realized he could easily figure out 5x10... We aren't even doing multiplication yet (the concept has been introduced). Thanks so much for all the resources. I think I am planning to really slow down with the workbook lessons as some suggested and do a bunch of games, etc. to get him to have automatic recall of his facts. Bill, I appreciated your saying there is a difference between memorizing math facts and internalizing them... It makes sense that even though it seems like he understands, he still needs to get to the point of it being automatic. I'm sure all the other "fun" stuff will be more fun later if he doesn't have to add up facts in his head ever time. My husband, being the engineer, is excited about us possibly getting an abacus. Don't know anything about using that, but I checked out the link from crimson wife and that looks great! Thanks again everyone!

I haven't been using the HIG at all actually. I did not have one for 1a or 1b, and since he always seemed to "get" a concept before I even finished explaining it to him, and he was doing the workbook without any problems, I never thought we needed to do anything else... We just started the IP book. I hadn't been using it either because it seemed like each lesson took him so long I didn't want to make him do any more. But, I should've been doing the IP all along and not going through lessons so fast. But, again, he really seems to "get" it, and hates busy work, so I've just always hesitated to give him extra practice for something that he "gets." I think this is a problem with all of my teaching though, cause I detested busy work as a kid (and still do), but I forget that they really need more practice to become proficient... even if they do understand it... Should I be using the HIG? Right now we just go through the lesson in the textbook. I explain things to him using the textbook and then we work through some examples to make sure he understands, then he does his workbook lesson. So, usually there are a few workbook lessons for every textbook lesson, so I only do a textbook lesson every other day or so, and he does the workbook lessons on his own (with me prodding him to pay attention :)). Am I doing it wrong?