Malenki
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Posts posted by Malenki
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I'd sell it. Seeing it on the shelf would just make me feel guilty for not using it!
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We were blindsided this week when DH's company closed. Apparently the CEO was making payroll out of his own pocket for the last 3 months although nobody knew that. Not a huge company, but 15 people are affected. (Well, not including all the wives and kids...)
We know one other who lost his job this last week as well. My aunt was laid off right before Christmas (Linens 'n Things closing).
We're a wee bit stressed. :P
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Minimus seems like it would work. There is an audio CD where they dramatize the stories with different voices. It was a big hit here. We didn't use the TM. Just the student book and CD won't be that expensive (and both do show up used at times).
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Just do WTM... I would not spend a bunch of money on a laid out program like WP or MFW or TOG when history is not your thing.
Perhaps I just need permission to not make history the core of our studies!
Three or four have mentioned just doing WTM but tweaking it. I'm leaning heavily that way right now as it seems cost-effective and I can try to make it more interesting to him.
I'll also look at the AO readings since there are fewer history books.
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That might work with the SOTW audiobooks. We usually have one checked out from the library for our longer trips (we have to do a five hour round trip twice a month for medical reasons). I'll have a captive audience at the time. :)
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Thanks for all the responses!
I'll definitely look closer at Veritas Press. I was thinking that a whole year on Egypt and OT history may be hard on us, though, so haven't looked too closely at it lately.
I will check out the old version of WTM from our library as it had suggestions pre-SOTW and see if that might work for us. Audrey - that's a great suggestion! We've definitely done that with American history with TQ by reading all about scientists and inventors as we've gone along.
We studied flight and sailing extensively with Konos (unit studies were a disaster for him... we tried FIAR as well) so WP's Sea and Sky program has a lot of duplicates. I thought of that too earlier and looked but we've read a bunch of the books already and he's just not that interested in flight or sailing when it comes down to it. Especially to spend a whole year on it.
Hmm. Thanks so much for the suggestions! I'll look further into some of them. Any others? As far as DH is concerned, he doesn't think we have to do history until high school (!) so he's not much help in this particular subject area. LOL
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Our son is 8 yo and will be 8.5 in the fall.
He loves variety and loads of books. "Book" was his first word ("mama" was sadly 12th... so depressing). He is reading just about everything he picks up at this point but still loves being read to.
He loves science. Loves it. We're never doing enough science for him. He's enjoyed the Apologia Zoology books (we'll do #1 and 2 this year) but they are almost too in depth. Variety of topics is more interesting to him then depth.
He also loves language. Words and what they mean. He's finishing two years of Latin and is finishing his first year of Greek. He delights in both languages. He's been asking for another language but I'm holding him off on that front for now.
Math and history. Eh. Could leave them both far, far away and he'd be happy enough.
We've done TruthQuest American History for Young Students I, II and are finishing up III any day now. He loved the reading and variety but I felt there was nothing sort of tying it together. (Neither one of us liked the commentary by the author so we didn't read that and none of the spines seemed right for him at age 6 when we started.)
SOTW hasn't worked. We've tried it twice and both times he gave it a thumbs down. It just doesn't appeal to him. He *has* loved American history, however.
Sonlight may appeal but we'd have to add more books (we have a good library so no problem there). Not sure if we'd be happier with Core 1+2 or Core 3 at this point and not sure he'd want to do more American history right away. (But he has and does love it... so maybe?)
MFW Creation to the Greeks *may* work. But the only part he mentions thinking he'll like is the dinosaur book. And I look at it myself and think "eh" so I'm having a hard time getting excited about it.
Tapestry of Grace may work but I see so often not to use it with younger children. So I'm hesitant.
We could move on in TruthQuest but it's not recommended to do the Egypt/Greece guide until 5th grade (around 10 years old) so I'm hesitant on that as well. We could redo American history but we'd definitely need something driving our studies a bit more than last time.
So what would you study next year? (or even now... we're winding down and it's only the end of March) And if you read this far, thank you. History has been the thorn in my side with him! He doesn't mind it but isn't excited about it exactly either.
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If Elementary Greek doesn't look good to you, there's also Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek but it definitely moves slower. And isn't Classical Academic Press (who make the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker) coming out with Greek for Children 1 soon? Just to throw another option at you.
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Not here yet in Colorado! Did get the Winter Promise catalog which was a nice surprise. Maybe I'll be convinced to go a different way this year... :)
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Hey Andrew has been super easy for us to do. We're about a third of the way through level 3 and started at level 1. You'll definitely be fine starting at level 2 since it reviews/teaches the whole alphabet (we skipped that since we had just finished level 1). We do a worksheet a day. It's amazingly gentle and so easy to teach. We're learning together and even my old brain is wrapping itself around it just fine.
Also, Classical Academic Press may release Greek for Children in time for you to use it in the fall. It's a new program for them but apparently will have a similar format as their Latin for Children if that might appeal. They put out the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker which we did as well; we liked Hey Andrew better for actually learning the alphabet but he enjoyed the Code Cracker book.
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We use Hey Andrew and are in book 3. The first level is just the alphabet but since the letters are so different it didn't hurt; we just sped up where needed. We did the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker too but my son (now 8) enjoyed the Hey Andrew more. He liked the puzzle in the Code Cracker but wasn't learning the alphabet solidly from it; too much distraction for him really.
Hey Andrew is very gentle so far. The first level was the alphabet; the second reviewed the alphabet (we skipped that since we did the books back to back) and taught 11 words; the third level is starting with sentences using the words we know and will add some new words.
What we'd really love, however, is a Lively Latin program for Greek. We may move over to Greek for Children by CAP when it comes out but so far Hey Andrew is getting the job done and isn't overwhelming.
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Dirt on My Shirt by Jeff Foxworthy -- my guys laughed and laughed at this one; we've checked it out at least three times from the library
Jack Prelutsky for sure... My Dog May be a Genius has a ton of silly ones; my older DS loved a lot of them. We liked his The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders as well.
Maybe it was the particular Mother Goose collection that was a problem? We've read some really fun ones like Mother Goose Numbers on the Loose which has really funky art and all the rhymes have something to do with numbers. Lots of laughs with that one.
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It was one of the original reasons we did but it's become even clearer lately that the medical issues would have made things so difficult for our son. He has lots of food allergies which I know many work around at schools but he has a ton of environmental allergies and a closed school (like ours nearby) would be a nightmare experience for him. Well, and a horrendous experience for his teacher too!
We're not at the doctor as often as some but for the last three months have had at least one appointment every two weeks and it's 2 hours each way, so we lose a day each time.
Our younger son will need a half dozen surgeries (and has already had four) before he's fully grown and each one has a recovery period.
So, we didn't start off thinking the medical issue was the top of the list but it's definitely much higher on the list than I thought it would be!
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We also LOVE Mr. Putter and Tabby. The one with the pears had me laughing so hard I was crying. Poppleton is awesome too if you haven't read them. :o)
Here's another site that is searchable for series. I use it often:
http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/readers/series/juv/
The direct link to Mr. Putter series:
http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/readers/series/juv/title.cfm?id=750
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Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Ann story books. Each chapter could be a stand alone story and they're a load of fun. Little House in the Big Woods is wonderful at that age too.
My older son loved the All of a Kind Family series at that age. The Moffats was a hit as was The Saturdays. All books about siblings having adventures.
The Courage of Sarah Noble and Bears on Hemlock Mountain were good too; not too long but exciting and interesting.
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We love it too! I'm so glad to read others using it and enjoying it as I also had read many negative reviews. We find that it's so easy to teach and adaptable. We can easily skip a section one day if we want to. DS even asks to do the similar problem on the back if he had a rough time with something... "I'd like to practice that again." and flips the page over and works out the problem. I would never have thought that he would like math so much after the tears with Singapore!
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My son *adores* Saxon. He's successful with it and it makes sense to him. We did the Singapore Earlybird series (1A-2B), MCP A, Singapore 1A, and R&S 1. We also looked carefully with him at MUS and RightStart and he hated the manipulatives.
He did great in Singapore and enjoyed it as long as he already knew how to do the material. Once we hit new material, it was a complete nightmare. Tears and gnashing of teeth. It seemed to move too fast from concrete to abstract.
We've found that with math he needs to have the same new concept introduced 2 or 3 times in a row and then the lightbulb goes off and it's easy. So we don't always do every problem on the sheet each time. And the way the concepts are introduced in Saxon click with him; the concept presentation was a disaster with Singapore.
He's very language oriented; that's where his gifts are. Math is just something he has to do but Saxon makes it something he doesn't hate.
(But, we probably won't use Saxon for our younger son. He gets concepts in math quickly and would probably love the method in Singapore. But I have two years to figured it out!)
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We take time off in little chunks but at that age I found my oldest did better with a week or more off from some of his subjects. When we came back to them he was fresh and eager and learned much faster. It always seemed like the previous content had solidified in his brain while he had a chance to catch his (mental) breath.
We don't tend to take any time off right now; we save it for the week we usually have sometime in February or March that is unseasonably warm. :o)
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We're on week 15 for tracking purposes. We took one week for Thanksgiving. We started earlier for some things, like our math program, in case it bombed.
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Very cool! My DH adores Google Earth; he'll love this.
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We're using it in combination with Hey Andrew! Level 1. It's only the alphabet and a few sound combinations. It's supposed to be a fun way to learn the alphabet. It was so-so here for us. I'm not sure it would be of much use to you but might be a fun afternoon for your kids.
I recall their Greek for Children program was to be ready for this fall but we're not using either. Maybe that would be a better fit?
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Go back to MUS. You both are familiar with it and you can speed it up. Saxon has worked *wonders* for my son after trying other programs (including MUS) but I'm guessing we'll do a different program for my younger son; he gets math easily.
And just in case she loves the format but the content is too easy, could you skip a bunch of lessons and start later in the book? Or even change levels? Used Saxon shows up a bunch too.
Or could you make it work if money is a consideration by skipping loads of problems? Do the new concept problems for a few days and drop anything she has mastered already. You could delay the purchase of something else for a few weeks/months that way perhaps.
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A silly one this week!
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We do this and DS has never been confused. As VaKim wrote, the differences are enough that it's never confusing!
Do you prefer the recommendations in LCC 1 or 2?
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
I have them both and actually preferred the scope for LCC 1 (so haven't sold it). It gave a bit more breathing room in the early grades and I liked doing two different histories at once. It would be more work to plan it since there isn't a handy-dandy Memoria Press guide for each year of American history.
Unrelated to your question, but I keep reading both over and over and really struggling with the multum non multa concept. We read a ton of books so the idea of really focusing (for school) on a few good books is throwing me off. BUT, the whole thing just appeals!