thank you both for your thoughts!!! I'll keep mining the For Sale boards and see if the DVD comes up for sale. If not, perhaps if DH gets a good bonus, I'll splurge on the DVD! Wish me luck! Capt_Uhura

bumping in case you missed it.

Hi, I posted to you under the "what curriculum has worked for you" or similar title but I was afraid it was getting buried. Are you using both the DVD and student book of Teaching the Classics? Have you purchased any of the book guides from Teaching the Classics? I've been impatiently waiting for the DVD and student book to come up on the For Sale board but I keep missing it by mere minutes lol. I'm thinking of just getting the Student syllabus for now and see how it goes. I also love De-constructing Penguins. I would like to get a book discussion group going in our co-op. Thanks! Capt_Uhura

Yes, I would say she is ready. I'm doing WWE 1 with an advanced 5yr old who reads and writes well. The lessons follow the same pattern. Day 1 is a copywork exercise of one sentence. DC gets to choose between 2 sentences (one short and one longer). Day 2 you read a passage of about 4 paragraphs, then ask DC 5-6 questions about the passage which they must answer in a complete sentence. Day 3 is copywork again. In the copywork, you discuss the topic such as pronouns, nouns, proper nouns etc. Day 4 is narration again as on day 1, DC after answering the questions, tells you one thing she remembers from the passage in a complete sentence, you write this down, and then DC uses it for copywork. This is my son's FAVORITE part. He loves to copy his own thoughts!

Yes I do the same ie half in the morning and half in the afternoon as well.

Mamabyrd, Are you using both the DVD and student book of Teaching the Classics? Have you purchased any of the book guides from Teaching the Classics? I've been impatiently waiting for the DVD and student book to come up on the For Sale board but I keep missing it by mere minutes lol. I'm thinking of just getting the Student syllabus for now and see how it goes. I also love Deconstructing Penguins. I would like to get a book discussion group going in our co-op. CaptUhura

If you click on each product, on the right side of the page, you'll see "samples." Click on that for a few sample pages.

If I had to start all over again, I'd do Rightstart all over again. My son did half of RS A, all of RS B, C, and is finishing up D and will move onto E. My 2nd son has done RS A and is finishing up RS B. There math intuitiveness is amazing. RS C has a lot of worksheets and RS D even more so! I think if you work through transitions and play the games, your kids will be in a good shape in short order. Of course, no one curriculum works for everyone so perhaps RS isn't your cup of tea or theres. RS is very conceptual etc and some prefer a program more like Saxon.

Yes the workbook has everything in it for that level. I don't even use the textbook now that we're up and running. The textbook gives you exercises for all four years and tells you what kind of passage to look for for the weeks it doesn't have exercises.

Julie, Those look like the books I have. They are probably rated high b/c the students are expected to read the student books themselves but for science-minded kids, these can be done much younger IMHO.

I don't see a grade level on what I have. OK I found a link that has a pdf with sample pages. http://www.snapcircuits.net/learn.htm If you scroll to the bottom of this page http://www.elenco.com/snapcircuits.html you can see the manuals I have. I don't see anything about grade level. Do you have info that there are different grade levels? Student Guide for Electronic Snap Circuits MOdel SC-300R Student Guide for E. Snap Circuits Model SC-500R Student Guide for E. Snap Circuits Model Sc-750R Teacher Guide for E. Snap Circuits Models SC-100R, SC-300R, SC-500R, SC-750R. The Teacher's guide is just quizzes to be given to the students and nothing more. Ok from the SC-300R student guide: Chapter 1: Basic components and circuites: electricity, wires, batteries, the switch, the lamp, etc chap 2: motors and electricity: motors, motor circuits, fuses, your electric company etc chap 3: resistance: resistors, LEDs, resistors in parallel and series chap 4: capacitors chap 5: transistors chap 6: oscillators and electronic sound chap 7: integrated circuits chap 8: electromagnetism and radio the manuals are in color. they are in fact color-coded. Much of the test is green and blue. the orange boxes are more advanced material while the brown boxes are considered additional/background material, either can generally be omitted w/out a significant impact on the course. each chapter introduces new parts, gives info of real life use of that part, you then build some circuits to learn about that part. another ex: it talks about how the base grid is like a PC Board and differnet items PC Boards are used in, in your home and about wiring inside your house. I see there are also quick quizzes and a summary at the end of the chapter. There is also a Quiz that has practice problems some of which are ciruits and you ahve to answer a question about the circuit such as 3. Three of the choices of circuits below are the same circuit with the parts arranged in different ways. Which choice is a different circuit? 4. Which of these circuits is a short circuit? (4 snap circuits are pictured). does that help? I haven't used these but i think they are wonderful for HS. WHen I bought these, my son wasn't quite ready for anything formal. Was hoping Dh would pick up the torch with this but he hasn't. My boys love making circuits. This is my 1st year HSing so before this, we didn't have the time for anything formal. Probably not this year, but in the summer, I'll plan on doing a formal course where we'll start w/ the first student book (SC-300R) and work through it sequentially perhaps get a couple of kids together.

I have the Teacher's guides. IF you have any questions, I'll try to answer them.

Rightstart has worked beautifully for us. I've done RS A, B, C, and finishing up D w/ my older son and my younger son has done RS A and is finishing up RS B.

I would play some games w/ the abacus and switch it up, he makes a number and you say what it is. WHen my son needed a hiatus, I did some SM with him. We took a few weeks break b/c I jsut haven't had time to do RS with him and he's been working in SM Primary 1B. The methods are very similar and just seeing the visual representation in SM is helpful. My son needed work on 2 digit mental addition over 100 so in SM he's been doing 30+70, 30+75, etc.

Thank you everyone for your responses!!!! Capt_Uhura

I just noticed that SOTW has test books for each of the levels. I actually never thought about tests (1st year HSing) because I figure that I will know through our discussions if he is retaining the information. If you've used the SOTW tests, did you find them useful? Do they include critical thinking questions or is it regurgitation of factual information? Thanks! Capt_Uhura

Also, I photocopy the worksheets and will have DS re-work them if he starts getting rusty. If you're going to do RS C, there is alot of review in the beginning so either you work to mastery now, and quickly/or skip parts of RS C, or you work to "fairly solid" and then work to mastery in the beginning of C. And continue to play those games! Also add in games like Chutes and Ladders and don't allow counting up but use addition to jump to the next position.

Mama2Three - what lesson in RS B are you on now? What exactly is having trouble with regarding 10s and 1s? Sometimes in RS, a concept is revisited in more detail later after moving off in a new direction. That gives the child some brewing time on that concept....perhaps that is the case. For ex: my son is working on 2digit mental addition - he's a bit slow with it but RS has moved into money and fractions which gives time for that 2 digit mental addition (over 100) to brew, for us to play some games, but keep moving forward. There is practice daily in the warm-ups. Now if he can't move forward b/c of something, then obviously if you have to stop, review, maybe present it in a different way. I pulled out my RS B, what part of the 9week test do you think he was not totally comfortable with? BTW, I afterschooled my oldest in RS (did half of RS A, all of RS B, and RS C - he's now HS'd and half way through RS D). I'm not afterschooling my other son with RS as well. It's not easy but it can be done! Capt_Uhura http://afterschoolers.yuku.com/bafterschoolers

Here's a third for BFSU!!!! I"m using it with a Ker and 3rd grader and it's how I did science naturally before I saw the book. It's inexpensive as well, I think horribly underpriced!

Thanks! I'll keep my eyes open and if nothing, perhaps I'll just start with the book.

Whitestavern - are you using WT1 or WT2 w/ your 3rd grader? Thanks! 8-)

Hi Sarah, FOrgive me if you've answered my question previously as I asked this a while ago in a TTC thread but do you think you absolutely need the video or can you get by with just the book? I'm impatiently waiting for a used copy of DVD/book - I just missed 1 by a few hours AARRGGHH - to come up at WTM for sale forum. I've joined a co-op and I might like to lead a literature discussion. Thanks! Capt_Uhura

Nan wrote: "The skills that you are dutifully doing are more important at this time than in-depth content because later, if you can't do academic work fairly easily and automatically, it is difficult to do anything fast enough to have time to go in depth. The way to speed that up is to speed up reading, comprehension, and writing, all of which require the base that you are providing now." Nan, this really jumped out at me! Thank you for taking the time to post. CaptUhura

Level B has a lot more worksheets than level A, if that is what floats his boat. :001_smile:

RS doesn't assume you can't count, just encourages seeing groups of 5s and 10s. You count up to 5 and then you see 5 and 1, 5 and 2, 5 and 3, 5 and 4 and 5 and 5. You then group things by 10s to count above ten and you see 2-ten 2 items for 22 items rather than 1,2,3,4.....12,13,14,15...20,21,22. As far as manips - the RS abacus is GREAT! I've seen some just the Activities for Alabacus along w/ water program they are using for that visualness of RS. Many use the RS games kit along w/ SM or other programs. I love the game Corners! I think you can just buy the Corners cards.