Someone recommended a curriculum for daily practice w/ editing. I think it Paragraph Editing or Editing Paragraphs. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? :lol:

I think, I could be wrong, that it's hardest for those of us w/ 5-10lbs to lose. I haven't really changed all that much after 2 rounds but the before and after photos tell a WHOLE different story. And people comment on how much weight I lost. Well, I lost fat and gained muscle so it all about evened out. I think I'm down 3lbs finally. I have about 5 to go. But even better, my resting heart rate went from the mid 70s (still in the good range) to 63-64bpm, in the excellent range. I was just watching Dr. Oz and he said the number one indication of a healthy body is your resting heart rate.

How is everyone doing! Last week I finished Round 2 of P90X!!!! I am sooooo much stronger. I'm taking the week off to let my shoulder heal but I did do PlyoX yesterday and I am proud to say I kept up w/, oh darn, forgot his name, doing the fast jump knee tucks as well as all the rock star hops! WOOOHOOO! Next week, I'll be starting Insanity!!!! I'll also continue w/ 2-3 days/week of resistance training from P90X. What are you doing?

Thank you everyone for helping me to think through this important decision! Love this! Thank you! I think the kids want a pet to hold and play with.

I'm not sure I'd agree w/ the statement that WWS is different from the writing talks. I don't really see it as different. I think it's all just fleshed out. I should go over my notes and look at WWS beta again but that is my off-the-top-of-my-head reaction.

Colleen - The Lively Art OF writing is not a curriculum. It's a little, tiny book which cost about $6 through Amazon. NO kidding. I learned so much from that little book. Well worth $6.

I think SWB alluded to this in her new writing lectures. I know she's expanded upon the middle grade writing lecture which she will be giving at Valley Forge. She probably gave it at the Texas convention last week. Colleen - I will certainly take notes on your questions and have them ready for SWB at the Valley Forge conference. I do think that we are ahead of SWB's writing curriculum unfortunately. She is not planning on her rhetoric curriculum until 2022! :lol:

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I have to say, I don't know much about grade levels. I take each of my kids where they are and try to move them forward. But if my 5th grader had written that, I would be happy with it. I found it engaging and it made me want to read the story. Was it all his own spelling and grammar? Does BJU give you a grading rubric for determining if your son met the goals of the assignment?

Cleopatra - what levels of CW are you discussing?

Interesting! Darn, you're right, probably my oldest DS will be just ahead of the publication dates. I guess I have to ask what is the purpose of outlining. If I'm outlining for note taking, I expect the product to be shorter than the original and contain just the important facts. If I'm outlining to understand how good writers structure their thoughts and then practice transition skills, time order words, strong adjectives/adverbs, then I would expect a different product.

I'll probably butcher this so I'll have Kalmia further elaborate but a college friend of hers has been chatting w/ her about grammar. He is now of the thinking that students need grammar to have a common vocabulary for discussing their writing. It's hard to discuss good sentence structure, varied sentence structure, why a sentence moves us in literature w/out having a common vocabulary. My Aunt's DD got marked down for subject-verb disagreement. Her DD is a rising 7th grader. She had no idea what subject-verb disagreement meant or much idea about parts of speech. She's in a well to do school in a well to do neighborhood. How can you discuss these things w/out a grammar foundation?

If you mean 5 paragraph essay, SWB said in one of her talks that she doesn't believe in teaching the 5 paragraph essay. You need as many paragraphs as you need lol. BUt I see it as a starting point. Here is a model, use it while you're learning but then progress to letting the message dictate the form.

I think I read that SWB intends for WWS to cover grades 5-7. I do find that WWE and WWS progress a bit faster/begin earlier w/ some skills than what SWB outlines in WTM or in the audios. Perhaps so that folks can slow it down if necessary but it's all there for folks who want to forge ahead. WWS might be just what you need. We are under a gag order regarding WWS until it's released which is why no one has been discussing details of it. I think WWS goes nicely after WWE and I can see how the skills learned would be worked on over several years as you start adding in transitions between paragraphs etc.

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WE're about 3/4 through SC for Elementary school w/ a 5th grade boy. I think it has really helped his writing. I see more varied sentence structure. It has reinforced grammar vocabulary. We can read the Hobbit and discuss why a particular paragraph sounded so beautiful b/c of the varied sentence structure using appositives, adjective clauses, strong adj, etc. capt Uhura

SWB said she would post a teaser about ALL when she returned from Texas which I assume is today so hopefully some time this week!

I think it's a difference in philosophy. More sooner/faster is not always better. You have to decide which path you want to take. Some of the things listed in WWW3 are/can be addressed in dictation: quotations, strong verbs, strong adjectives. Some of the topics are covered in SWB's First Language Lessons. It just depends on your philosophy. Many have used SWB's methods and produced great writers. For many, the method doesn't work. YOu have to look at your goals, your kid, your teaching style. Several of those topics are covered in SWB's new writing program Writing with Skill which is coming out in the Fall. Also, some of the topics I think become intuitive for kids where copywork, narration and dictation has worked well for those kids. My thoughts are that some of the issues addressed in GWG explicitly (and some of us need that - like me lol), is handled by the parent when it occurs using narration and dictation. For example, DC gives you narration with choppy sentences that need to be combined. You then help DC to edit the choppy sentences and rewrite the narration which is from his/her history, science, or literature. This is something I've struggled with. If you do a separate program such as WWE, WWW then you really don't have much time to do a lot of writing in history, science, literature. It's a trade off of having it laid out for you and being pick up and go, or forging the road alone lol. My oldest is finishing up WWE4 this year (he's in 5th grade but we didn't start HSing until 3rd grade so he's done nearly 4 levels in 3yrs) and I'm so looking forward to having the WWE time slot for writing in history and science. We did Writing With Skill beta test and I'm going to replicate that using content from his history and science so we're working in writing but also cementing/discussing history and science simultaneously. I don't know....I hope others chime in. Perhaps we should start another thread about this.

I"m using Safari v5.0.3 on a Mac and I see the marks, no lines.

WOW Lori! I had no idea! WOOHOO!!! I'm looking forward to Christmas now! Thank you thank you thank you!

There is no other source unless you buy it used.

Tomorrow is my last day of Round 2 of P90X!!! I did doubles for all three phases this time and loved it. Today I went for a hike that we do often but this was the first time this spring. Not once did I gasp for breath. Not once did I stop talking to catch my breath. It was a great feeling! I'm taking a week off and then I'll do Insanity w/ about 2-3 days/week of P90X thrown in. After I do a complete round of Insanity, I'll decide if to do that again or if to do a P90x/insanity hybrid. It's hard to take the week off but my shoulder needs the rest.

Hello all, After a recent thread about pet mice, I'm now thinking rats or gerbils. I have a DS11, DS8, DD4. They really would like a pet. I've taken care of rats before and found them very loving and social. But someone said she has had rats and gerbils but preferred gerbils b/c of less mess. So, which would you choose and why? Thanks for helping me with this possible decisions, Capt Uhura

WE are just loving The Hobbit. My boys beg, beg, beg for it everyday and just one more page. The writing is just beautiful and engaging. SHhhhh don't tell them but I couldn't resist and read ahead last night! :001_huh: I can't wait to start LOTR. We're just reading them for pleasure right now, picking out great descriptive passages or great use of grammar as we go along.

Lori D - somehow THank you is just not sufficient. But Thank you!:001_smile: