I recently read The Core's math chapter, and it struck me as very "drill and kill." Bortins suggests Saxon all the way up, including K-3, and just as a pp mentioned, sometimes had her children repeat a level just to really glue in the material. Her children do all the problems assigned on the page, even if she feels that they're not struggling with the material. Bluedorn's Teaching the Trivium was my first introduction to both classical and Charlotte Mason philosophies of education, actually; it's funny that you've connected CC with the Bluedorns. There's really no connection, and in many ways I don't think the Bluedorns would like CC's approach to the different subjects. In their chapter discussing different methods in the light of the trivium, they very briefly described CM philosophy. I didn't get it when I first read it, but in a chart at the end of that section, they prefer using either CM or a unit study approach for before age 10, and starting the classical approach around age 10. This is over-simplifying what they say, but anyway, it stuck with me because I had never heard of CM before, and here were the "classical" guys saying it was a good approach to use before age 10. That to say, that they would lean more CM in many regards than CC. They recommend Beechick as well in their recommended reading list. For the OP: I remember when I first read Bluedorn's section on math, I rolled my eyes. Yeah, right. But now that I've taught one child up through 3rd grade math, I realize that it can be done! I still prefer using a curriculum to keep me on track and save me work, but maybe I'll be more relaxed after teaching a few more kids. One lady I know told me she sort of follows Bluedorn's recommendations in grammar and math--she uses the old MUS Foundations and Intermediate levels for math in elementary before switching over to upper level maths. Here are some quotes that might help clarify what the Bluedorns think about memorization in particular. In their section on the CM method: A bit of an aside from just the discussion on math, but wanted to make sure that Bluedorns were not connected to CC. ;)

Some of the biographies by Demi are on kindle; unfortunately you lose some of the beautiful gold artwork that her books are known for.,nevertheless they are usually $3-4, and sometimes on sale for $1.

Teach Them the Faith is a CD by Dan and Karen Vitco. It puts the Westminster Children's catechism to song. Really well done.

I'm not familiar with that one, but we're using Veritas press's timeline cards and song with SOTW2. It includes a lot of church history.

I handle it a lot like Arctic Mama. My 2nd grader is flying through learning multiplication right now, whereas my K-er is struggling with basic addition facts. I definitely wouldn't try a trickle-down math approach or try to do a math time at the same time. Too stressful. Right now, my 2nd grader practices the piano for 15 min, then does xtra math on the computer for 5-10 minutes. Then at the table with us, he does some independent seat work: a handwriting page, phonics page, 1-2 math pages, writes a times table or two, and on occasion practices his AAS app or subtraction facts on an app. He starts all of this around 8:30 or 8:45 and is usually done by or before 10 am. That gives me enough time to teach my lessons to my Ker. Sometimes the Ker has to finish some seat work like handwriting or a phonics page while I begin teaching my 2nd grader. Everything besides what I mentioned, including reading, is done with me. I would really work on getting your 2nd grader to focus when doing whatever independent work you have assigned. I'd see that as necessary for both you and her. And for the toddlers...I'd try to survive the 1yo, lol!, but the 3yo can be sent off to play sometimes without needing to interrupt so much. I'm trying to work on my littles with that right now. It is hard!

I think it looks fine. You already finished the "first grade" language book, so if you don't want to do level 2 yet, don't worry about moving on yet. :)

Oh my, I could have written this...it's what I was trying to say, but you said it so much better. Congrats on the nice testing results.

You definitely had an amazing week! I'm thankful for all of your links too; it's fun to check them out. If I "like" you here, that means I read your post, but found it tedious to sign into blogspot with my wordpress profile. But I do read them!

I didn't post last week, so this week's post covers two weeks: Aztec Hot Chocolate, Mayan Math, and Incan Corn A lot of stuff went well! But we (especially I) are soooo tired. We have head colds, etc., and I'm just dragging through the weeks here. Since we start in January, this is our February/March syndrome y'all get, I think. Whew! Need some encouragement this week to keep plugging away!

You've gotten some great advice for AAS, so I'll just give my two cents on WWE. I would not stagger the children on different days, because otherwise you lose the benefit if having them all in the same level, meaning getting to teach them together. It would be worse in my opinion to have to read the sections all those different days, than to have to write three narrations in one day, if that makes sense. If you listen to SWB's lectures on writing, I'm pretty sure she's addressing a group of teachers on how to do "her" writing in a class, so there must be a way to do this with multiple children on the same level. With the goal of keeping the children together to save time and work for you all, here are a couple of options you might try: Keep on as you were doing in WWE1, by staggering the review questions after the reading, and then either stagger who gives you narration for that day, or if you want them each to narrate, then send two to different rooms so they can't hear the first one's narration while you record it; then do the second one's, then the third, etc., and you stagger each week who gets to narrate first. You could read their narrations to each other so they can see how the others did it and improve their summaries. Instead of writing them all by hand, you could just record one per week and stagger whose turn it is. Or type them all, since it's faster and easier. Or they could work together for the narrations. Ask one child for the first sentence (summary of the beginning part or "problem"), ask the next child for one sentence summarizing the middle, and ask the third for the ending. So each one adds on to the former, giving a little more info. Stagger which ones do which order. Pretty soon you may find that perhaps the middle is the hardest part to summarize so you could either give that part to your strongest summarizer, perhaps after giving the others a shot first, so they can help one another to come up with a good summary. Perhaps the second method could be used on Day 4, so then you can pick which sentences to dictate to them, which will be done all at one time to them. Make sense? I'm sure there must be a way to do it all together. Hope you can make it work for you and keep your sanity! ;)

We did just the non-flying parts of lesson 1'before starting Zoo 2. Now we're almost done with 2, so I may do more of the birds section from Zoo 1 to finish out our school year.

Can I just pitch in the thought that it would be great if y'all would comment your weekly reports in with the bloggers' thread? We already have one non blogger lady who has commented the last few weeks just for accountability, and I think it's great and makes it so much more fun and real. When I started my blog, it was for a few reasons, one of them being accountability to do e fun stuff and needful stuff in homeschooling. That's why I still write and submit my weekly report here; but at the time there was no accountability group for non bloggers. So what I'm saying is that I would love to be a part, but I already do the blogging one. Can't we just combine the threads? Is there any reason not to?

It sounds like you've already decided, but I'm using ABekas K phonics right now, and have done their phonics program through second grade, so I can pitch in on that end. I've been tempted with MFWs programs, but I hear a lot of people say that the K program isn't quite enough, (so they might use it for K4) but then the 1st ramps ups too quickly. ABeka does have a lot of extras you are encouraged to use with it. I would not solely use the handbook for reading. I would definitely get the TM. I hadn't heard that they combined their math and phonics TMs though. With ABeka you begin with learning the alphabet, moving into CVC words, then long vowels, then blending of two consonants like "fl, cr, etc." and then they add other phonograms such as ou, sh, th. By the end of K, they have really learned a lot. Then first grade takes at least the first 50, maybe 70, can't remember how many exactly, lessons to review, and then finishes out the phonics instruction. It's a very solid program that works on word attack skills, not so much "word families," although rhyming is taught more in first, and the workbooks are great I think. The only place they have too many worksheets are in the handwriting department, not the phonics! But ABeka is not going to be as "fun" as MFW.

I'll give it a shot. These might be too hard for your ages, but you could consider reading aloud. The nice thing about Bethlehem Books is that you can sort them by historical age and also see reading ages recommended for each book. S. From the early Middle Ages category, here are some goodies: Augustine Came to kent Rolf and the Viking Bow Beowulf Son of Charlemagne Beirn the Proud spring Tide The ides of April Galen and the gateway to Medicine Beyond the desert gate The only one recommended for reading level 4 is the Locked Crowns, which I haven't read. Again most of these will be too hard for 3-4th graders to read independently, depending on how strong of readers they are.

Oh my goodness, we just did this last year! We visited the States for four months smack dab in the middle of our school year and then returned to South Africa where we're missionaries. I was just wondering whether you are returning to another country or to the States permanently now?

:iagree: I do have a question for you: it sounds like you're not using Abeka's phonics TM and entire program, just the Handbook for Reading? I would consider that by itself neither enough nor fun. I've used Abeka phonics for three years now, on my second time through their K program. Here's how they usually schedule it: one, maybe two, "special sounds" from the phonics charts per day. The rest of your phonics time is spent on drilling (a lot!) the former sounds learned and learning word attack skills by practicing the "blends" like scra, scre, etc. In this way, you gain mastery. The child also does one phonics workbook page per day to reinforce the phonics and spelling rules. The basic phonics flashcards are wonderful, in my opinion. When introducing the new sound for the day, you help the child mark about six words containing that sound (as well as maybe some sounds already learned). So for example when learning "ar in stars" you would circle the /ar/ in these sample words: car, mark, farm, etc. If it's a sound like "gl in glue" you would also mark the vowels with long or short vowel markings (and cross out the silent vowel, if the first is long), etc. The phonics workbooks give plenty of practice with this and make it automatic for the child to find those sounds and remember them. Also when you review the charts each day, you say the sound, clue word, and then spell the sound, like so: "ar in stars, a-r." Or "a-r says ar in stars." This helps them in the dictation portions of the lessons to know how to spell the sounds, which really cements them as well. In first grade, they spend almost half of the year reviewing K phonics (alphabet sounds, long vowels, and the first three phonics charts); the second half learns the remaining 5 charts and learns some spelling rules for suffixes. Sorry if this is talking down to you, but if you have the TM, it seems that a lot of the games and fun and drill for mastery is in there. Hope you can make it work for you. (One final note: I wouldn't call ABeka phonics fun, but I haven't heard of too many fun phonics programs. The TM does suggest some little games you can do, though. None of this is in the handbook for reading. The Handbook is just that--a handbook.)

Ours, 2nd and K, Farther Than Timbuktu.

Does it not seem a little pricey?

I've wondered the same thing. I could see myself only ever adding to our day with it, not cutting from the rest of our list later in the day. That seems tiring!

So for those of you who feel like you've hit on the "right amount" can you help those of us who feel like we aren't getting it yet? What is the right amount, and what do you cut to get there? (Bravewriter's philosophy was mentioned as a possible example in the subject of writing...)

I'm overseas, but I'd love to go sometime. Do they usually have their conference in October, or at different times of the year?

You could also try different colors of electrical tape instead of the dots plus clear tape. My picture books are organized in a way clear to me and ds1, mostly clear to ds2, and incomprehensible to the 2- and 3yo, so I definitely need to get around to the stickers sometime for those. :)

Could you please elaborate on this? I'm not sure I understand how grammar is intertwined with theology, gove, philosophy or math, nor how studying it in the 1s to 4th grades gets you to this level in a better way.

I have also been reading a bunch from Rollin's blog and Schole Sisters and trying to "get" all this "Kern speak." I'm a wanna-be, but I don't think I get how to relax or rest in my teaching yet...which is what I think Rollins was trying to get at. She mentioned several times her personal lack of understanding in grammar, so that would answer the teacher-being-competent issue. Secondly, her oral discussions involved diagramming a sentence from MCT together as a family during morning Time...so isn't that using a workbook (just orally and in a more relaxed way)? When I read that article, I definitely got the impression that using all of my R&S books on the shelf would be ineffective and that I'd be better served by ordering that Mother Tongue book. :) But I think once again, the bigger question being asked here comes down to how much to teach grammar (how rigorously?) and at what age to begin. That's something I've been mulling over for a while. I read Rollins or Beechick or CM and almost decide to give up grammar stage grammar. But then I read Tibbie or someone else who's btdt in classical ed, and decide to keep plugging away with it just in case. :/ By the time my kids are grown maybe I'll have decided on my philosophy?

In WWE1-2, SWB suggests writing down the child's oral narration while he watches. When I read "Jot It Down" at Brave Writer, it also suggested Mom being scribe for the child's narrations or thoughts. I've done this for 1.5 years now with ds1. Sometimes scribing his history narrations can be kinda lengthy... so lately I've been slacking off on the actual you-write-down-while-he-watches part. I still have him narrate, do copywork, and dictation, I just haven't always taken the time to write down his oral narrations. So I'm wondering about theory here. Is the thought this: that if I keep writing it down for him as he watches that eventually he'll figure out that he can do it on his own, and therefore decide to do it on his own? (Thus I'd be speeding up the writing process.) If I skip the writing down part, and just let him orally narrate with no words going down on paper by him or by me, am I skipping the most valuable part of narration? Or can I just let him orally narrate, and when it's time for him to switch over to writing down his own narration or taking a sentence or two from it from dictation that we can just do that at that time without my hand having to get sore over it for the year and a half leading up to that point?? :) Or am I missing something important?