Rosie, Thanks for the specific advice :-) I was thinking that if we went with MCT that we would use the island level and we do like to sit around and read (sometimes we don't get anything else done, if I don't watch the clock :001_smile:) But I am getting the impression that I would probably need to supplement to get the results we are looking for. Exactly! He was very good in English/grammar/handwriting (it's textbook perfect:001_huh:) and so his expectations are high in my opinion, but he's really just looking for the effort to improve and not perfection :) I looked at this on amazon and it seemed more complicated than what I am looking for, or maybe it is one of those that looks complicated to implement, but when you get it home and use it, it's not? I want something open and go, not where I have to read lots in the teachers manual each day or plan out everything for each day. It's not as likely to get done in our house if I have to spend that time. I don't mind some of that but if I wanted to do that I would go with something like BJU English, because I like their program, but I'm not willing to put in that kind of time on 1 subject each day. I will look more into the WWE for my guys. Thanks again for all the feedback. It helps to get real life opinions on this stuff.:)

I'm sorry I wasn't clear... I have 5 children, my older two did R & S and because of the overwhelmed feeling with it, I didn't use it with my 3 younger children. I have only used pll and CTGE with the younger three. My boys are 1/2 way through Latina Christiana I, and I do see it translating into their work, so I am hoping as we go along in that it will help. All three write (they recite and I type :) -they even will say "capitalize this letter or put a comma or period in here" when reciting, it's more of a motor skill issue that I take dictation for) fairly well in the sense of using grammar properly, they just can't explain what they are doing or explain the parts of speech. :001_huh: I didn't see that!, where was it, I definently don't want my kiddo's learning that. :iagree:Actually, I love the writing teacher that my older 3 use. She has really gotten some wonderful essays/poems out of them. I sit in on her class and have gotten some good ideas to help them enjoy writing more, but we only see her in the spring, and so I only get those good ideas then! Thanks for all the ideas of curriculum to look into. *KISS-- I did look at the website, but it seemed complicated, has anyone put together a easy plan of how to use it? *Writing Tales-- I can't get the link for sample pages to work :confused: I was also a little concerned about the use of fairy tales, we don't do "magic" or fairy tales, regular fiction, "tall tales" type stuff would be fine, but I don't know writing tales phylosiphy The others I don't know much about, guess I'll have to look into them, thanks!

I did R&S 1st through 4th with my two older children. I found that by 3rd grade we were spending 45 min. to an hour on English and still not doing everything in the books. Now some of that was instruction time, but they both struggled with writing ~20 questions out and fixing them each lesson. (to me it is busywork if they have 20 of the same types of questions in one day, maybe to others that is simply thorough) Granted, I could have cut down on the repetition some, but I wasn't sure what to cut and what to keep, so we did it all. My hubby is not a fan of doing grammar orally and so even though we did some of that also, it still seemed like to much. Since then I have learned more about culling unnecessary things, but I would prefer to use something that I don't have to edit so much. Now, I haven't tried any later years because of my previous experiences, and I do agree that they cover everything well, I'm just not sure how to cut it down to manageable bites, especially for boys that hate writing. Let me know if you have any suggestions :001_smile:

Thanks for the input, I guess my main concerns with the MCT is that it will confuse me (the teacher!) and would be so teacher intensive, we wouldn't do it properly and I really need something this next year we can do consistently that will give them a good foundation in grammar and writing. My hubby dislikes asking them questions like "what is an adverb" and them saying :confused:. Or having them write a sentence for him and it being poorly spelled or very slowly done. I have not really pushed grammar with them and he wants that to be more of a focus this coming year (nice handwriting, writing, spelling, and grammar). So, I need something thorough, that I will do diligently with them, that will translate into improvements in daily writing! (I know, why not ask for the moon :D)

Okay, I am trying to decide what to do for LA next year. I have two accelerated students, 1 a 7yr. old girl who will be going into 3rd, 1 a 9yr. old going into 5th, and a slower (on paper- but really smart with hands-on type stuff) 11 yr. old going into 5th. I'm struggling between what I want to use with them (MCT), and something they can do somewhat independently line Essentials in Writing. I keep waffling between something I know will get done with our schedule (that's more independent stuff) or something that I think they would really enjoy and make English more useful to them. (I'm not a grammar person either, so it has to make sense to me or be independent:)) MCT - I like the way it is presented, the poetry (not just 1 small unit each year), and the way it looks to instill a love of language (it reminds me of LoF which all my children love) -I don't like that it looks teacher intensive (my eyes crossed trying to understand some of the level 2&3 stuff:blink:) I would like to do the same level for all 3 if the curriculum is teacher intensive, so..what to do? For reference, my 7dd spells well and can write nice 4-8 sentence paragraphs, neither boy enjoys writing (although the 11ds will produce a really nice 1 pg. personal narrative if he does it by dictating to me), my 9ds is super quick to get things (explain it once and he's got it) but doesn't apply that knowledge to paper in LA very well. We have tried: R&S (like what it teaches alot, but hard to cull the busywork, and boys have a hard time with all the writing) PLL (to "light" for my Grammar loving hubby's taste) CTGE (This is what we are currently using, the boys don't mind the work, but it doesn't seem to be translating into improvement in their work outside of the "workbook", dd does fine but if I change the boys it would be easier to change all of them, and I would like to challenge her more) The boys will have a co-op writing class in addition to whatever we choose, so they don't need extra writing instruction (it covers creative writing and research papers) and they both are in Latin, so I liked the Latin focus of MCT. Any thoughts?

"These certainly don't eat like fries":) She loves to use foreign "speak" and names in her writing, I am trying to encourage her but also figure out how to make it easier on the reader. OK - I did read it like that but thought I was wrong because of the word "eat". Wouldn't it be "taste" like fries? or is using "eat" a Dutch figure of speech? The Dutch (by that I mean PA Dutch, which is what she has been around) have all sorts of unusual ways of saying things and I think she was playing off of the word usage she has heard growing up, which is an odd assortment of PA Dutch, English, German, and Spanish.:001_smile: "Many times he would be to (should be too) busy to. . ." (What should have changed here?) the "to" should be changed to "too" (I meant that by putting it in parentheses but it wasn't clear.) I got it now. Thanks for clarifying that point. I appreciate the help and clarification. Next time I will have her do an outline and see how that improves her writing. Thanks Kathryn

Thank you for the feedback. Most of the points you bring out were also pointed out by her instructor. However the idea to do an outline is a good one. She does do an outline for formal writing (research papers, biographies, etc.) but I didn't think to have her do one for "creative" writing. Here are a couple of answers to your "questions" "These certainly don't eat like fries":) She loves to use foreign "speak" and names in her writing, I am trying to encourage her but also figure out how to make it easier on the reader. "Many times he would be to (should be too) busy to. . ." (What should have changed here?) She is pretty tenderhearted and in her mind she felt that to stop going to a restaurant that an old friend had owned was not acceptable, therefore the townspeople should also put up with the new people out of respect for their friend and to not be rude (as opposed to the Asians in the story) Squash fries (in the story) were cheaper than regular and so they were cutting costs to make more money. No one knew about the clause in the contract until the previous owner brought it up. Thanks again for your points, I agree that there were a number of things here she could have improved on and it helps to have that "outside" voice to show her.

Wow! I didn't know this forum was here :) I am just this year starting the high school stuff and so haven't looked her before. My daughter, who is working on a high school level in language arts, wrote this for a creative writing class at co-op. She was supposed to write a short story (~2pgs.) with no more than 2 main characters, a good hook, climax, and conclusion. She received a 95, the main issue was her conclusion. I was hoping to get some other feedback/suggestions :001_smile: (especially in how to write better conclusions, she has consistent trouble in that area and I'm not sure how to help.) The French fry Feud Zcandren Slaovix bit into the long, hot, yellow fries. “Dees cartontly dunt eat like frees!†He exclaimed. The man looked about thirty-five, and had defining Dutch features. And if someone would talk to him, his Dutch origins were positively confirmed. Zcandren was a stranger in the town, though it was rumored that he used to live there in his younger years, because he appeared surprisingly familiar with the town. Also, one of his favorite places to eat seemed to be Lanita’s Luscious Luncheonette, since he went there so often. However, the local townsfolk thought it rather odd, since the food was not as high quality as some of the other restaurants around. It used to be the finest place east of the Mississippi to eat at. That is until it changed ownership. The former owner, Paul Snader, was a kind old fellow who took care of the place himself. Many times he would be to busy to run it solo, so he would have his grandchildren, nephews, and nieces help him out. But then he had sold it to an Asian fellow. Not a soul in the town had a clue why, nevertheless several people gossiped that maybe he was running out of money to hire helpers to repair the quirks of the building. (Even though everyone in town would have volunteered in a heart beat.) Mr. Slaovix seemed remarkably fascinated in the place. Zcandren was exceedingly weird. The luncheonette wasn’t interesting. It actually was rather austere. It was named after Mr. Snader’s wife, and the main reason it was so popular, was because they served scrumptious, mouthwatering fries. When it transferred owners, Mr. Snader had assured everyone that everything would continue as normal, because he said that he had sold his special recipe to the new folks. But the Asian people who purchased the eatery obviously did not use it. The kind townspeople thought the fries gross, but continued to come occasionally for courtesy’s sake. The Asians (the head man’s name was Shongklang Chang) were quite unfriendly and rude so the locals didn’t say anything to them concerning the nasty food. Whenever anyone tried to befriend Mr. Chang or the others, they rather curtly refused to have much of anything to do with them. The villagers also had another worry- Mr. Zcandren Slaovix. Mr. Slaovix noticed this and had already gone to the Mayor. The Mayor ordered some of his men to go out and collect all the townsfolk for a meeting. Soon everyone, except the Asians, was gathered at the town hall. Then, Zcandren rose and walked to the front of the crowd. He asked one of the young men to get him a microphone, and appeared to begin to announce something, when suddenly he paused and began talking about a new brand of soap. Everyone was puzzled and started to whisper among themselves. Then just as suddenly as he had begun, he stopped and walked down into the crowd. Searching for the mayor, Mr. Slaovix finally found him and explained that he saw Mr. Chang peeping through the window, listening intently to what he was trying to say. Thereby, the mayor sent one of his men to tell the people that the meeting was postponed. Later that night, it being a small town, Zcandren Slaovix went around to all the houses and revealed that he was a detective. The next afternoon, while getting a bite to eat at Lanita’s Luscious Luncheonette, he took a whole box of food to go. This puzzled the Asians because he also asked them to pose for a picture. Mr. Slaovix declared that he was going to put their story of the luncheonette, etc., in the newspaper. Satisfied with this explanation, they went on about serving the other customers. However, Mr. Slaovix flew immediately to the state police department and showed them the picture and food. Later, after inspecting it, several officers came back with him and arrested the Asians. Mr. Chang was, according to the records, a notorious criminal and had been settling down in their little town, making enormous sums of money on his fries made of squash! In the terms of agreement for the purchase of the restaurant, Mr. Snader had written, unbeknownst to the villagers, that if Mr. Chang did not follow Mr. Snader’s recipes, the deed would be transferred to Mr. Snader’s grandchildren. Paul Snader declared that the reason he had sold the eatery, was because he wanted to retire and didn’t want to burden his family with the responsibility of running a restaurant. Upon hearing this, his relatives stepped up and announced they wanted to continue, as a tradition, running the restaurant. After this announcement, the town held a big celebration at Lanita’s Luscious Luncheonette. And with Mr. Snader’s grandchildren again running the restaurant, everyone enjoyed the scrumptious fries and food.