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Malenki

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Everything posted by Malenki

  1. Raggedy Andy Stories and Raggedy Ann Stories by Gruelle are good. I've glanced briefly at some of the others in the series and wasn't as happy for some reason but I don't remember why. My son loved for me to read some books that are considered "early reader" type chapter books. Series that were big hits here were Henry and Mudge, Poppleton, and Mr. Putter and Tabby. All by Cynthia Rylant. Mary Poppins on an audio CD was also a huge hit. Uncle Wiggily's Story Book was good too. I could only read one chapter at a time, though, as I would doze off. Very gentle. All of a Kind Family and series was sweet. James Herriot's Treasury for Children is five or six longer stories that are real and funny. A number of the d'Aulaire history books are fairly long and involved without being scary. Each page of text is fairly dense. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Pocahontas, etc.
  2. Along with the Henry and Mudge series the author has a few other series (Cynthia Rylant) at the same reading level: - Annie and Snowball (cousin of Henry and very girly) - Poppleton (hilarious) - Mr. Putter and Tabby (I actually laughed until I cried with some of these...)
  3. Very funny books! My son loved this as one of his early chapter books too.
  4. Yes, definitely! Heart of Dakota for us. I always thought we'd end up with Sonlight at some point and maybe we still will. But I never thought HOD would end up as our curriculum. But for this year, it fits. After having a panic attack when it arrived I've spent some time with it and think it's going to be a great year for us. TOG is still on my radar...
  5. :iagree: My boys LOVE this book. They call it "the book that helps us know how to behave". Little Pilgrim's Progress is wonderful as well. He meets so many people with good and bad character.
  6. And watch your spam box! The email ended up there for me and I've read that it has for others too.
  7. There are some other threads about this right now but our experience was that the CD followed the book just fine. She made a few pronunciation errors here and there but it didn't worry us. It was classical pronunciation.
  8. We used it without the teacher's guide to good effect. My goal was just to show that Latin was interesting and to learn a bit about the Romans. So that was accomplished. We'd already done Prima Latina, Song School Latin, and some of Latin's Not So Tough (levels 1 & 2) so we had some background. He still likes to look through the books and read them. We liked Minimus a lot more than Secundus but he liked knowing how the story continued. And totally off topic, but my two fellows are similar aged and also adopted internationally. Tiger was born in Feb 01 and adopted Dec 01 from Russia; Panda was born July 04 and adopted Aug 06 from China. :o)
  9. Not exactly sure what all you're asking but maybe the name of a few Latin curriculums would help you start researching? Memoria Press: Prima Latina, Latina Christiana, Henle guides Classical Academic Press: Song School Latin, Latin for Children, Latin Alive Lively Latin Galore Park: Latin Prep (for your oldest) Greek 'n Stuff: Latin's Not So Tough There are more but I think those are the ones that most people are using with these age groups.
  10. :iagree: Just change it to "son" and that's my answer. Seeing my son understand concepts and apply them to other things throughout our day is outstanding. I am always hearing that Saxon doesn't teach kids how to think mathematically but for our son it has given him the tools to do so. Although, we're only in level 2, so who knows how it will apply later. But seeing him be able to say "I understand! It's like this..." at other times of the day is priceless. He is not mathematically inclined at all (his strengths are in language). He bombed horribly with R&S and Singapore and wanted nothing to do with MUS. Horizons was way too colorful and moved too quickly. We'll use it with the little guy at first. He's quicker to understand concepts but loves repetition so it will probably work. Plus, I like teaching it so that's half the battle right? :)
  11. We did R&S Math 1 and at the end of it DS didn't seem to be understanding the material. We tried Singapore but that was a total disaster for this child. We switched to Saxon and it has been wonderful. He is getting both true understanding and solid memory of the addition/subtraction facts. He's not a math whiz (he's language oriented) but actually thinks he's not "dumb at math" anymore using this program.
  12. Story of the World never worked here for us for our eldest. He just didn't like it, even with the activities and extra books. He has *adored* learning American history, however. Just absolutely loved it. We've done all three TruthQuest guides and they worked fine but I wish I had found Heart of Dakota's programs earlier. They use a number of the Christian Liberty Press books, btw. It's all laid out so well and at the same time easy to adjust. There is a lot of info on the website and forums. We'll be doing Bigger Hearts starting next week. It has a biographical approach to American history with a focus on character traits. Here's the website... I'm seeing more and more people using their programs and the ladies at the HOD forum are very, very helpful. Heart of Dakota
  13. We've really enjoyed the Hymns for a Kid's Heart series! We have two of them (#1 and #2) and have enjoyed them enormously. We play the CDs often and usually have music on in the car. We may play 4-5 hours of music in the background during the winter so we hear a ton of music. The boys pick up songs that way. If Mama sings along (out of key probably) they'll giggle but perk up their ears and sing along too.
  14. Saxon by far. No tears and DS learns and makes connections all the time. He adores the program. Singapore was tears daily... he never knew what to expect and the colored drawings were just too much for him. So that is where Saxon shines for us: he knows exactly what to expect each day and no colorful drawings to distract him. Lots of manipulative use.
  15. Thanks so much for the polite and insightful comments! The reason DH is concerned is that DS tends to slip into fantasy/pretend land very, very easily. He'd like him to be "with us in reality" a bit more often. He is so lost in his book that he forgets to acknowledge people at times (or jump up and come running with the rest of us when his brother fell down the stairs and was crying hysterically...). But I can see instead of doing a time limit we could have a "book free" time when Papa is home so that DH has time with him that's actually interactive. He *is* getting things done and with a good attitude usually. I try to give him a warning (lunch in five minutes) so he can get to a good breaking point; he's never complained about having to put his book down. As for the outside time, it will rise when we have nicer weather. But in the winter it can be pretty miserable and in the height of summer it can be just as bad. You all have given me some reassurance and gave me an idea how to give DH what he wants (some time with his son) without making me the stopwatch. I think DH will be fine as long as everything else continues to get done!
  16. Our 8 yo son reads... and reads... and reads. My husband has asked me to limit his reading and I randomly picked 2 hours as a maximum for him to read to himself. I'm sort of feeling out here if this is a reasonable amount of time. Too much? Too little? He gets other things done... schoolwork, chores, an hour of walking the dog with us, outside free play time for 60-90 minutes, free art time (drawing), read alouds from me, meals with the family, wrestling with dad, etc. We might be able to squeeze in one more hour of "self reading" time without affecting the rest of life. Do you even limit at all? It seems funny to have to put a maximum on it but the reality is when we've left him to his own devices he's gladly read for 6 or more hours.
  17. We used the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker which was fun but we cemented it all by using "Hey Andrew Teach Me Some Greek" level 1. It focused on just the alphabet and was super straightforward. (We've continued on with the Hey Andrew series and are in the midst of level 3 now.) I felt that DS was not going to learn the alphabet the way he needed to from the Code Cracker. He gets distracted by the story line, the art, etc. The Hey Andrew workbook was spare by comparison but was much more effective for him in learning the alphabet.
  18. That's exactly what we do! So when that Vocabulary sheet came up in order we stopped all "progress" with the worksheets until we had it down cold. It did not take long to learn; 2-4 days really. I print out one lesson at a time and put it into a binder. We just take the sheets in order as they come. We found then that as the worksheets were done it was cementing the vocabulary instead of us using the vocabulary sheet and/or flashcards to know what word to use. We have on occasion had me refer back to the sheet to make sure we spelled the word correctly but he'd already vocalized what the answer was so it was just a matter of writing it. He's had no problem retaining the grammar at all. It's very light so far and it does show up again here and there as review. So far I've been very pleased with the grammar presentation and how's it's building up step by step. Also, there isn't new vocabulary with every lesson. So in Lesson 1 ("A") and 2 ("B") but then 3 is a breather for new vocab; then new stuff in 4 and 5 is another breather; new in 6 and 7 is a breather; and so on. You keep using the words previously learned as you go. We went this way because I had read of some people getting lost in Lesson 10 or 12 or so and they would say they didn't know the vocab and had flown through the earlier lessons with the child doing 2-3 sheets a day (using the vocab sheet to fill it in) and now they were lost. I figured we'd be better off with slow and steady progress that stuck so when we get further down the line we won't feel overwhelmed! Does that make any sense? We're not flying through the material but at the same time we aren't dawdling either. He loves it! So I figure that's half the battle, right? :)
  19. Alison, (We've never done the online games so I can't help with that.) We're taking it nice and slowly with our focus being on mastery. We do one page per day, five days a week. When we get to new vocabulary and chants we take as long as needed to master it, which is usually just 2-3 days since that's all we focus on, before moving on. I find he does better on the worksheets if he knows the vocabulary cold; then the grammar is all he's learning. For studying the vocabulary we do the flashcards. I literally cut out the sheet and use a glue stick to stick them onto an index card cut in half. We use a pencil and write the English on the back. That's it! We go through them once a day until he has them down. We'll say it right out including the English word and then flip it over. I sit right with my son and am learning alongside him. We only take about 10-15 minutes a day to get through one worksheet. We do better with doing "one sheet" or "this side today" then doing a timer, but that's just us.
  20. I ordered from them this week and received the book today. It was only one book, though.
  21. We've definitely tried something like this and have enjoyed it immensely. We did a geography year (world cultures really) when DS8 was 5. Then we did the three TruthQuest American History guides which he *loved* (ages 6-7.5). DH was pretty urgent that we cover American history first. It was tons of fun at this age. There were so many good books! (We could care less for the TQ commentaries, however, and mostly used it as a great book list.) Then, we've done most of the SOTW 1 guide with him being 7.5-8 years old. He's liked it okay. We sorted it by cultures as reading straight through confused him and we flew through it. We will do a four year sweep through all of history yet (4th-7th). We'll also do a one year history overview using CHOW in 3rd grade. I showed DH the article and he didn't agree with all of it but we're probably closer there than to WTM. SOTW just hasn't appealed and while DS has been okay with learning about the ancients he's been thrilled with American history. For his interests and personalities, it's worked out great. :) We'll do a similar thing for our younger son. It seems to fit our family really well!
  22. We are doing Latin and Greek right now. After all his other seatwork is done (math, spelling, copywork, memory) we do a page of Hey Andrew Greek for 5-10 minutes and a section from the bible as copywork in Greek. Then we do a page in Lively Latin which is usually another 5-10 minutes. It hasn't bothered him to do them this way but at some point I can see doing one language to start the day (Latin probably) then doing Greek after the rest of the seatwork is done. They are complimenting each other really well right now. We learned about subject-verb agreement in both on the same day, so that was neat! We will be adding a third language starting August 2010 for him. We may break them up at that point and do Latin, seatwork, Greek, snack, history/science, walk the dog, lunch, literature, and then the new language. Actually, just writing this out makes me think we ought to start with Latin at this time. Currently for seatwork we do: copywork, math drill, math lesson, spelling, memory, Greek, Latin. But it seems like I could pop Latin to the front of the day easily enough. Hmmm. Something to think about!
  23. We're switching pace with our main history program but the plan is... Heart of Dakota: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Apologia Astronomy tons of library books, magazines on science Singapore Math 2A, 2B Saxon 2 (we did both this year but may be able to drop Saxon next year... he seemed to need both this year) Hey Andrew Teach Me Some Greek 4; 5 Lively Latin Big Book 1 (will only have a few chapters left) Lively Latin Big Book 2 Rod & Staff English 2 Writing With Ease 2 (we enjoyed WWE 1 this year) SpellWell B, BB Drawn into the Heart of Reading continue copywork in cursive * may do Queen's cursive with the art (not the primer but books A-C) tons and tons of reading Mind Benders Building Thinking Skills God's World News lots of poetry selections for memory Sort of an eclectic mix but a similar mix worked great for us this year now that I can look back and see what we finished. :)
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