Any other ideas/suggestions?

Chris in Va, We really enjoyed SOTW for Middle Ages. My kids loved the audio CDs and the projects were a hit, too. For the Ancients study are you planning on incorporating Biblical readings? Hunter your post gave me food for thought. I will check out the links. OCD runs in my veins for some things, too. If that is possible? Well accepted and understood.:001_smile:

Share what made your study of these time periods fun/memorable for your family. Tell why you liked it and what you used (curriculum guides, books, projects). What made it a good study academically. Give details and titles, and ages please! :001_smile: We are trying to decide how to study this for next year and are looking for ideas. Thanks!

Thank you abrightmom!

Do any of you write out weekly lesson plans for teaching WRTR, or do you just follow the steps and sample pages? I really don't have much (if any) lesson planning time, which is why I usually do scripted or planned out programs. However, I do feel pretty comfortable with teaching reading because it is not unfamiliar to me. Some days I just can't make decisions like which phonograms to review, etc. These little decisions trip me up.

Are the instructions from Ellie and Hunter the ones in this thread or was there another thread you are referencing? Thanks, I know I came in on the tail end of this discussion.:001_smile:

BTW, we are doing AAS this year, but it is only spelling (and reading). I would like to streamline with a program that fits the pieces of the language skills puzzle together for us to reduce overkill in any one area.

This thread has answered so many questions for me! I tried SWR last year while I had the 5th ed. of WRTR on my shelf. I I read both and went for the one that had the lessons broken up for me (SWR). The markings were just too overkill (redundant- sp? on purpose), IMHO. I spent too much brain power on those and lost momentum on the lessons just trying to make sure I got everything right. Enter PR1. Bought it and watched the videos while my eyes glazed a bit. Now that you mention it, it was missing the "why." Ultimately dropped it for PAL because of the expense and the pace seemed daunting for my 6yo. Some of it I have skipped teaching. It seems silly to me to teach 'ear' and 'eir' when we have already learned 'ea' 'ei' and 'r' separately. Am I making sense? Lent out WRTR 5th ed. and am rethinking. Should I just read WRTR as a reference for the why's and use PR1? If not, how do I do this (spelling, reading, grammar, and writing with WRTR? The cohesiveness of and AIO program makes such sense and I like the streamlined approach. Some days I'm just a little foggy teaching 5 dc at different levels KWIM? Thanks to all who have posted. This thread is most timely for us!!

Well, for dd6 I don't really want to speed up. I just don't want to spend too much time with my older guys practicing and writing spelling words like : black, clock, milk, duck, neck, pick, ask, rock, desk, snack These are straight from the AAS 1 manual, step 19 out of 24 steps. The steps befor it are even easier. The 4th and 5th grader learned all of this when they were learning to read. that's why I'm wondering about jumping in at a higher level. They have been spelling these words correctly for some time. Is there a reason to start at the beginning of level one with all?

So, is it hard to speed things up? How fast can you go b/c my dd6 is reading CVC words. She is ready to learn multi-letter phonograms. My boys tested into Level M of SWR (about 1/2 the way through the 4yr program). Is there a placement test, or do I have to speed through 3 or 4 levels of AAS to get them to their level?

This helps so much. I did do SWR last year with my boys and it was a bit of a learning curve. I don't feel confident that I can get the most out of the program with the amount of planning time I have, currently. I really want reading to be enjoyable for dd, but am wary of choosing a program that throws all the other studies out of balance for my other children, or makes us overlap too much on some things. So, it is good to know that you use AAS with WWE and FLL. I love everything about AAS, except for the slower pace...

Ok. Here I go with another latin question today. Would you use The Big Book of Lively Latin, or Latin for Children A with a 4th and 5th grader? Which one would be more independent? Any help is appreciated!

I have 3 dc that I will teach this year. ds 11, ds 9, and dd 6. The 6yo needs to learn to read and the two boys need to work on spelling. The older boys have had very little formal grammar (one year of R&S and one year of CC memory work-which really helped them, btw). My dilemma is: Do I put everyone into Phonics Road and catch reading for dd, spelling for all, and grammar for all; or do I use AAS (which has a more varied approach), WWE for all for writing, and R&S for grammar? A lot of people have said that Phonics Road streamlines the LA program for their family because it covers spelling, reading, grammar and literary analysis. I'm wondering if it will be too much writing for dd to learn to read quickly enough, and a bit laborious, too. The older boys would be fine with the writing in PR. However, I also wonder if doing all the different pieces of curriculum will be too time consuming, or have too much overlap, and a bit of redundancy. Any comments? Help?

Thank You for the details! It is very helpful to know that it is independent. I will have to think on it more, since Latin Road and LFC are such different types of programs. I would love to hear from someone who uses Latin Road. I know WTM recommends it starting in 7th grade for kids who have not had previous Latin experience.

If you use LFC, do you do something like English from the Roots Up, or another word root program? I am asking because I know that Phonics Road aprroaches Latin first through word roots in third and fourth grade. I just don't want to miss something they are supposed to have. Thanks!