Hi, I have a 7th grader (starting in fall) that worked through most of Critical Thinking 1 in 6th grade. She had worked through mind benders warm-up, 1, maybe 2 in 5th grade. I was checking in my WTM and it says Introductory Logic for 7th grade. Is is okay for us to skip CT 2 and move on to IL? Thanks, Katie

Oh yes, I've seen these before and they look great too. I should have written all of these down before. Thanks so much for showing these to me. Katie

I have looked at these in the past. I had decided to use them, but for whatever reason I didn't. We were trying to use old books in public domain, which we loved. It was just too much to try to schedule experiments to go along with them, plus prepare to have the supplies. I now know that I want something planned out for me. Science is something that I always let go when there is not enough time. I really don't want to do that because I love science. My girls do too! Do you think these are good for the ages of my girls...7th, 5th, and 2nd? Did you say on your blog, which is beautiful by the way, that there is a list of books for additional reading? That way I could have my oldest do a bit more. Also, I like that you use these with WTM methods. Thanks for the help, Katie

I forgot to mention that.... I have 7th, 5th, and 2nd. I have books that will work for the youngest. I was wanting maybe jr high level. I glanced at the Chemistry book, and it looks good. I will look at the others too. Thanks for sharing. Katie

Have you looked at Math-U-See. I let the videos do the "teaching" for the lesson (I listen too), then I can help/reinforce when needed. That might help take off some "teaching" time. We love Math-U-See. Then they can use the same manipulatives. Not sure if you were looking to change curriculum or not. I'm not trying to talk you into doing so. It may simlpify things a bit. Katie

We love R&S here. We do it all orally, except diagramming. Clean layouts are a big plus for me. They do have great explanations, like others have said. Katie

Does anyone know if there is such a book out there. I would like to use the WTM style for science, but I really don't like Usborne encyclopedias, or similar in format. I don't like the layout and pieces of text and information. It is too busy for me. It would be a bonus to find informational books from a Christian perspective too. Anyone know of any? Thanks, Katie

fit it all in? This fall I will have 3 girls doing R&S grammar. We do it orally, except diagramming. This fall my youngest will be joining in and I don't know how I will fit it all in. Does anyone else have experience with this? My oldest will be 7th grade. I could have her do the lessons on her own, then tell her what to do on paper, but then I still have to spend the time to grade it. I don't know if that would benefit us much. I would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks, Katie

Would the Guerber books be a good American History Spine for you? I have them, but haven't been able to look through them much. We used her Medieval books this year. We used them for my 6th grade dd to do narrations and outlines, while using SOTW as main spine. I would pick stories that were different topics from what we had just read, but still followed chronologically. Katie

I have been doing The Carbohydrate Addicts Program. I have been on it for 13 weeks or so and have not cheated once. I have never stuck with a diet this long. It is slow weight loss (1.5-2lbs per week), but it works well. The program basically is two really low-carb meals (I choose b-fast and lunch) and then you can eat anything you want for dinner. Dinner had to be eaten within 1 hour so you don't have a second release of insulin. There are other details, but these are the main points. I have had thyroid problems for a few years and have had trouble losing weight. This is actually working and I feel so much better to boot, not sleepy after eating lunch anymore. Most days I don't eat b-fast. I hope this helps. You can order used copies of the book on Amazon cheap, or maybe your library has it. Katie

Thanks Amy and Colleen for your help. I really appreciate it. Katie

My 4th grade dd went to ps last year, so we missed a whole year to work on this. It is difficult for her to tell me what she heard in 1-2 sentences. We are working through WWE workbooks with her. I started level 1 this fall skipping some, now we are on level 2. She has has a hard time going from "telling the one thing she remembers" to "telling the main points of the story in 1-2 sentences." I feel like I am having to coach a lot. Last week, I went through some of the lessons we are skipping, read them to her, had her answer the questions. Then I told her we were trying to tell what the story was about in 1-2 sent. I read the examples for her to hear, so she might understand what it is she is supposed to be doing. We'll see if this helps. I just feel that I am really having to change her sentence a lot for it to make sence. Does this skill just take a long time in some children? Katie

I bought this this past fall. I didn't really understand Latin, so it helped me understand it better. I don't do it with my girls anymore, just can't seem to fit it in my time. I can't seem to stuff much more information in my brain, because it pushes other info out. Not good. They do it on their own now. They are 4th and 6th grade. They both really enjoy it. Not sure what we will continue with after it. UUGGHHH, more decisions. :confused: Katie

R&S would be a great one to stick with for the long term. FLL was not a fit for us either. Harvey's just doesn't have enough practice and review, imo. You would have to come up with that yourself=more work for mom. If you are wanting to simplify, check out SWB's audios - A plan for teaching writing. They are fantastic. Katie

Anyone?

I have used MUS from the beginning. The Primer book does do a lot with the colors of the blocks, mostly count the units and color it to match the block. But, I think it is mostly for them to learn to identify the blocks quickly. Also, you could skip the Primer level if you wanted to. My youngest is 1st grade, doing Alpha, and there really is not much to do with the colors of the blocks. Ocassionally, the instructions ask them to color them, but we don't do that unless she wants to. He may mention colors of the blocks in the video lessons some, usually he says the number and the color. You could maybe write on a set of them the number that each block represents with a sharpie. Overall, the reliance on the blocks goes away quickly, I am thinking by the end of Alpha. There are other manipulatives for fractions later that are colored, but we didn't even buy those. You could make your own, and they don't have much to do with the colors of them. I really like the simplicity of the pages. They are very neat and clean. There are not too many problems on the pages either. Does this sound right to other users? Hope I have helped, Katie

We like R&S here too. My oldest is in 6th grade this year. She went to public school for 5th grade, but we had always used R&S before that. She didn't do any grammar in ps. I contacted someone that sells R&S online, can't remember which site, and he thought I should go ahead and do 5 this year instead of 6. I did, at first I thought I should have done 6, but now I am glad we did 5. I would think you should go with 5, since she couldn't tell you what a predicate is. She probably does know, but couldn't think of it at the moment. R&S has great review in each lesson. Also, if you choose to go back to 5, you still wouldn't be behind. You only go through level 10 anyway. I wouldn't want her to ever hate grammar b/c it was too difficult. You also mentioned that you want to learn with them. R&S is great to do that. We have done it orally for years, except diagramming. You will learn so well doing it orally with them. It is so much easier to do it orally as opposed to them writing it out, you then take the time to grade it, then go over any mistakes. I think this would take much longer. Katie

I would get The Well Trained Mind, like some others have mentioned. Don't be intimidated by the size of it though. They have divided it into sections - 1st-4th grades, 5-8th grades, and 9-12th grades. They do a great job of explaining what you are looking for and HOW to do it. Start with the Logic stage (5-8th grade section) and read it. Then as you have time, read the other parts. It is a very easy read and doesn't hurt your head like some other books might.:D I also agree with Brindee above where she said take your time and relax. A few weeks would be great for you to read WTM/ or other and get to see the big picture. You can figure out what you want to accomplish. Hope this helps, Katie PS. We really like Math-U-See and Rod&Staff for grammar. I have a 6th grade daughter that sounds much like yours.

Does anyone know what SWB says about correcting our children's narration etc... I recently bought her audios about writing, but don't recall her saying anything about this. I think she said on the literary analysis audio that it is okay if their answers to the comprehension-type questions are not exactly correct. I am unsure how to handle narrations and summaries on history and science. Do we ask them to correct a sentence with poor grammar or bad sentence structure? I would think spelling for sure. Has anyone ever asked her this before? I tried to search the boards, but didn't have any luck. I should get my WTM and look in there too. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks, Katie

:lurk5:

Gina, I am certainly not an expert in CM. I love the idea of Ambleside, but still want to add a few things that SWB recommends. I have not read CM's books, just parts, and have read other cm things. I am not a writing expert either, not even close, but I do want more writing instruction than AO seems to do. SWB's audios really helped me see the big picture and see how her suggestions get you there. I also feel that they are a more gentle way to do it than CW. I thought it just sounded unrealistic for me to do 2 - 45+ min sessions on CW every day. I already use R&S and love it. I have no desire to drop it. I am not at all saying that CW is not good, but it just seems like too much for our family. I considered just using it for the writing. They do some neat things with sentences, and I feel you just couldn't do one without the other. I think I will use some of the techniques that CW teaches, occasionally. Not for 1.5 to 2 hrs a day, I don't think that would be very CM. I feel that the audio cds really show you the steps to getting them to become good writers. She points out that most children are not naturals at it, and must be taught. And she tells how it should be done in history, science, and literature, instead of it occuring as a seperate subject. I think that is one way that it is more CM-ish. I know CM wants oral narration until ______ age, or so. SWB teaches in the early grades, through WWE, for them to do oral narration and you write that down, eventually training them to write down their own narration. (Still sort of CM-ish.) I can't tell you enough how much I recommend getting the audios. I have 3 dds, 6th, 4th, and 1st. I bought "A plan for teaching writing..." for all three grade levels, plus the literature analysis one too. I would highly suggest getting them all. I have the WWE core book, and there is much more in these audios, some of the examples she uses are from WWE. I think Colleen in NS said that the Writing without Fear is very similar the the beginning of WWE, so you might only need that if you don't have the core book. As for Logic, we use the WTM suggestions for that. We did mind benders, and now are working through Critical Thinking. When we first got the CTing book, I thought UGGHHH, this doesn't look like fun at all. My 6th grader loved Mind Benders, and CT is just not laid out very well visually. It is crammed together, like they were trying to save paper. But she is really enjoying it after all. I know that eventually these exercises will help her to construct a better argument in her writing, and maybe when she argues with me too.:lol: I did not have Logic study in public school, so it is new to me too. But I know even though it is being taught separately, it is my job later, I think, to help her see how it will flow over into her writing. Maybe the logic books later on down the road do this for me? I do think very much that SWB's writing ideas will work with AO's readings. I use a lot of the AO readings, but am mixing them up to fall into a 4 yr history rotation. So, I am mixing up the literature readings by historical times if possible. I am also adding a few easier selections that are historically in line to make the reading assignments not something they dread, since this is new to us. They have really enjoyed all of their books and don't complain about any of them, except my 6th grader is reading Kidnapped and doesn't like it. I also love that they are reading the original works, not adapted. I don't know that my girls would ever want to go back to read the original later. I have made reading charts for each of them. My 6th grader is reading 6 books stretched out over each 12 weeks or so, then 6 more over the next 12 weeks, and so on. Plus we are doing read-alouds too. We are new to AO this year, so I wasn't sure how this would work out. It has been great. I love the CM-ish way of spending a longer time on a book, so they really have time think about the characters. They almost feel like they know them. My middle dd 4th grade is not a big fan of reading, but we're working on that. One of her assigned books was Pinocchio, and she loved it. Every time she read it, she would tell me how much she loved the book and couldn't wait to tell me about it. This is what I want. Yippee! Just a side note... We loved Understood Betsy. Fantastic book. I am very sorry to go on so long.... I hope I have answered your questions. Katie

I was in the same boat as you... I just bought SWB's audio downloads called A Plan for Teaching Writing. She has one for each level, elementary, middle grades, and high school. They are great. They address this very problem in great detail. My oldest is 6th grade, but I bought all 3 levels so I can see (hear) the "big picture." I do a combination of Ambleside and WTM. I also have been pouring through Homer core book the past few weeks. I finally think I understand what they are trying to teach, but I have decided I don't think it has to be that complicated. I wasn't all that interested in using the CW student guides. I wanted to use legends/tales etc from the middle ages, since that is where we are in the history rotation. I think CW is a great program, but I no longer feel it is necessary. And now after listening to SWB's audios I am even more convinced I don't need to do it in a "program" format. I also feel that what SWB is recommending is much more CM-like. My 6th grader is working through Critical Thinking for logic and really enjoying it. We did Mindbenders in 5th grade, and she loved those. Katie

Yes, mine does the same thing. I liked it better when they go back to the menu. Katie

I, too, agree with the other posters. We use R&S for grammar. We do it all orally, except diagramming or writing. My oldest 2 girls went to public school last year for 3rd and 5th. They did no grammar at all. We had used R&S before that. So, I am using R&S 5 this year with my 6th grader. At first, I thought that we should have gone with 6, but now I feel good about choosing 5. Also, I agree with the other poster that said if 5 is too difficult, drop down to 4. Don't give up on R&S. It is very thorough. If you are not too confident in grammar, this will teach you along with your children. I am learning things that I know I didn't learn in public school. Hope this helps, Katie

I have considered this too. I use SS with my middle (4th) dd. I was thinking about using this same concept with word lists from Websters speller. I haven't thought it out too much yet, but it has been running through my silly head. Katie