Abbeygurl4
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Posts posted by Abbeygurl4
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materials? I really think that Classical Comp and/or IEW is the way to teach writing only I don't want to teach it ;) I just don't feel very confident. I also think my ds needs outside accountability and peer review.
I've been reading old threads and it seems like The Potter's School and Laurel Tree tutorials are good options. Anyone have any thoughts on online composition classes?
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Thank you so much for your advice. I was wondering if once I add in all the extras if HOD really duplicates what I have in mind, and it sounds like you think that it will. I was also wondering if I was buying a very expensive history program (I just had this conversation with my DH last night). This is very insightful, and I really appreciate your advice!
I really wish that I could get my hands on a HOD TM to see if anything included in the basic package could replace any of the above items. I like the approach of the items I listed in my OP, but DD is such an avid reader! I think that she would do well in either scenario, but I would like her curriculum to be a little more cohesive than the mish mash that I pulled together on my own (hence, looking at HOD in the first place). However, a program like HOD seems to lose a lot of value if I use a ton of flexibility (i.e. only use the history/read alouds).
Thank you again!
You can order the TM, look through it and send it back if you don't want it. You'd just be out shipping costs.
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If you and other people can read it and he's content with it, what are you upset about? Because he does it differently than you? Because he writes more slowly than you do? So? He has to live with it for the rest of his life. If he's satisfied and it's legible, why get yourself all in a tizzy over it? There are so many much MORE important things to deal with. Let this one be.
Well, his printing is fairly legible but sometimes his 2's and 3's look very similar and I can't tell them apart. He puts a downward tail on his 2's and doesn't curve the bottom of his 3's. But, for the most part, his handwriting is legible.
I'm concerned about the speed because I'm afraid he won't be able to keep up with notetaking when he starts some online classes next year. He's slower than my 9 yo. When he does IEW I have to pause the video for him to copy down what Mr P. writes on the chalkboard. I let him do as much as possible on a computer but sometimes he's got to write.
I'm actually a very very slow writer due to a tremor-type problem I have. I know what a hinderance being a slow writer can be. I missed a lot of notes because I'm so slow.
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the Fagles translation and not Butler like Memoria Press uses? The Butler translation just doesn't look like much compared to Fagles. Plus I already own Fagles :D
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At that age, I think he'd need to want to change it to get any real change.
Has he done cursive? Cursive starts at the bottom. ;)
His cursive is really slow and awkward. I let him print like he does because I figured when he realized how inefficient it was he would write correctly. i gambled and lost.
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He is 13 and has been writing this strange way since the beginning. He insists that if his letters end up formed correctly it doesn't matter how they got that way. His handwriting is okay, but certainly not efficient. It really irks me that he writes like this. He's really slow, but I'm afraid the pattern is formed and that's it unless he really wants to write efficiently which he doesn't. What would you do?
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Can anyone explain what a summer boot camp is? I'm wondering what they cover and how long they go. On her website it mentions that registration will open in March for them but not what they actually are. Thanks!
Me, too! I want to know!
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I would also make sure he knows how to divide by a decimal, since they were clearly wanting him to practice that. 0.4 was easy to convert to a fraction, but what if the problem was "80 is .12345 of what number?" Then he'd want to use the decimal (and long division by .12345 probably isn't real exciting :lol:).
Good point, I'll make sure.
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There is no difference - he is doing exactly the same thing. Whether he calls the fraction 0.4 or 2/5 makes no difference.
He should, however, learn to properly write out his procedure, using a variable for the unknown quantity:
80 = 0.4 of X = (2/5) X
80/ (2/5)=X
X=200
Gotcha! Thank you!
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My ds is on lesson 74, lesson practice problem "c".
C. Eighty is 0.4 of what number?
The method they want him to use is :
80 = 0.4 x Wn
80/0.4 = 0.4 x Wn/0.4 ( I couldn't type it as a fraction)
200 = Wn
DS's method is :
80 = 0.4 of X
0.4 = 2/5
(80 divided by 2) 5 = 200
My question is : Is there a reason behind Saxon having him do this problem a specific way or can ds use his method? Ds says that the Saxon method is very confusing to him. I'm not sure what to do.
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Two more questions:
Are you using the DVDs with FFL? I own it and it looks awesome but I don't have the DVDs. I have heard that the FFL DVDs are good (as compared to LC).
Is your daughter handling the writing load with all of the MP materials plus CLE/IEW?s
We are using the DVDs and they are helpful. I didn't like the LC DVDs nearly as much as FFL. We watch a short video on Mondays and do the lessons as scheduled M-F.
DD needs a lot of work on her handwriting, but she's fine with the writing. I don't make her do all of the workbook questions in writing (except for FFL, which she always does all the writing) I usually have her do about half the Famous Men orally and most of the Literature in writing and all of the Science. CLE doesn't have that much writing and we are doing IEW at a pretty slow pace.
MP works really well for dd because she likes checking off the boxes and being able to do Lit, Science and Famous Men fairly independently. She really likes memorizing the flash cards and "Facts to Know" questions and the fact that there are no crafts, lapbooks, notebooking pages or art projects. It's just a great fit for both of us.
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I'm sorry, but HOD just hurts my eyeballs. I'd have to go with TOG.
ETA: It hurts my eyes because it is stilted and unnatural in its tone. It's way too scripted. There aren't enough choices for activities (well, NO choices, as far as I can tell. I like options). It looks like a public school classroom that is "writing across the curriculum."
:iagree:
I think that you are either an HOD kinda person or you aren't. I tried 3 times until I realized that in no way, shape or form are we HOD people.
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I don't have time to type out all the details, but .....
I did EVERYTHING wrong with my now 22 yo dd. We did some Sonlight in the beginning and switched to Bridgeway Academy homeschool in her highschool years. Math made her cry, we skipped a lot of it. She did pretty poorly on most of her IOWA testing at the end of the year. I didn't even put her transcript together until she was 18!
She did well on her ACT's, got into a decent university. Math was a struggle but she was determined to be a teacher so she found a tutor and has passed all her math classes with a B+ average. She has been accepted into the early education program and is in her third year of college. Her professors LOVE her and she's on her way to becoming a preschool teacher. Her professor told her that she will do her best to get her a position at the Child Development Center at the University after she graduates. I think our "accidental unschooling" has actually helped her become a very unique teacher.
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I'm not disagreeing at all that MP is a fantastic curriculum, but for what it's worth, most Catholic schools (we are Catholic and up until 4th grade our daughter attended a Catholic school) use a completely secular program but for religion specific class(es).
I have a love hate relationship with MP :D. I want it and try it every year, but know I would substitute so much that I end up sighing in depression and giving up. Lol. I *adore* that they go out of their way to truly make an attempt at being non-denominational (even though most non-denom curricula is heavily protestant); they have an awesome mix of Catholic/protestant publishers.
As for the Latin, I wasn't sure if her child had had Latin before - the Latina Christiana and I believe the Prima Latina seem to be heavily prayer and worship oriented (at least it appeared that way when our co-op used them).
ETA: just reading this thread made me go back and look at the curriculum - wistfully. Lol.
I agree, Latina Christina was pretty Christian. We tried it and it was pretty boring and my dc hated the videos. We ditched it.
Have you looked at Seton since you are Catholic? I looked at it for my ds for high school but I think it may be a little too Catholic for me ;)
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Your review is moving me closer to trying MP. Are you using all of 4th grade except for the math? I see you are also using CLE LA and IEW; we have started CLE LA and I have yet to,pop in the first IEW DVD.
The line up you have seems like a lot of writing. How is your DD handling the writing load? I have four kids and wonder how well I could run MP with my oldest 3 in different guides.
We are not using any R&S. I replaced R&S English with CLE LA and IEW. We are doing IEW very slowly. I tried Classical Comp., but I just don't feel confident teaching it and I bought IEW before I bought MP. At first 4th grade was very teacher intensive but as my dd got the hang of it she is doing much of it on her own. We do FFL together because I want to make sure she really gets the most out of it and I really like it too (-: I suppose it would depend on your dc and their ages. I would think that around 4th grade and up they could do a lot of MP on their own. Ask on the MP forums, Tanya is extremely helpful and easy to work with. She could let you know which things you could combine your dc in to make it easier. If you haven't done Christian Studies or the Famous Men series you could combine them in that and probably science. MP is more than willing to customize their lesson plans for you! (No, I don't work for them (-;)
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I think I remember the FM study guide we used as having christian slanted questions; and I'm pretty sure that the Dorothy Mills books used for middle school are pretty christian - I could be wrong though (just something I read in a review somewhere when I looked at them). The History of Medicine (Tiner) is definitely Christian (scheduled as, I believe, 5th grade science?) - I own that now and love it. I'm sure the lower latin is christian (as in it includes prayers and chants); I'm admittedly unsure about the First Form series (we only did a few chapters of FF1).
I guess I'm just not sure how much one would get out of the program if they ditched the science, the grammar, the math, the christian studies, possibly the latin, possibly the guides for history, and the copy books in an effort to secularize the program. Lol.
The math and English/grammar are NOT integrated, they are only added to the lesson plans. There is no reason she wouldn't be able to use whatever math and English/grammar program she wanted. Many people buy the packages without R&S Math and English. Copy books aren't used from 4th grade on (the op said she was looking at 6th grade). 80% of the questions and all of the geography in FMOG and FMOR are secular, the rest could easily be skipped. FFL is very solid and has a negligible Christian references, I really doubt that all but the most anti-Christian would be bothered by it. I think if you skipped the Christian content in the FM guides and in FFL you wouldn't miss much, but including it certainly wouldn't turn someone unintentionally Christian. Science I don't know. Fourth grade insects certainly isn't very Christian but I don't know what you'd do about the Tiner books. I think even if I weren't Christian I'd have my dc read them.
I think it is a matter of how secular the OP wants the curriculum to be. MP has a lot of great stuff that would be a shame to miss out on. Heck, when my older kids were in Catholic school a loooong time ago (back when we were still Catholic) they had Muslim students there who just wanted a good education and sat out during Mass. They stayed true to their Muslim beliefs and just filtered out the things that weren't in their belief system.
Of all the Christian curriculum out there, this is the VERY least Christian. Although I am Christian, I find MFW and HOD too much for us.
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Also, MP is not secular; I'm not sure that it could really be used secular either. The copybooks are christian, the math and english books used are mennonite, the history books are from a christian perspective (and the student guides as well), the full curriculum also has bible study...
No, it's not secular. But math and language arts are only scheduled, you can use whatever you want for those. Christian Studies is only one day a week and can be skipped. Famous Men of Greece and Guerber's Thirteen Colonies is just barely Christian. I have FMOG and I don't think it's very Christian at all. Hopefully someone in the know will chime in, but I think it would be extremely easy to secularize all of MP but the Christian Studies.
Here is the sample of The Thirteen Colonies
http://www.memoriapress.com/images/book_insides/American%20Modern/13colonies_Guerber.pdf
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Has anyone used the full Memoria Press program for upper elementary? I would love to hear what you think. I've searched the boards and it looks like most of reviews are by people using K - 2nd grade. I am interested in using 6th grade next year for my son. Specifically, are the student workbooks and literature guides busywork, or is there more to them than that? I think my ds would like the books used; I would probably use them anyway. It would be great to have a schedule.
If someone could compare Memoria Press to Oak Meadow that would be the icing on the cake for me! I am looking for a secular program (or something that can be used secularly) that is planned out, with some questions to answer. We have tried SL, TOG, WTM, and "winging it" (multiple times for each).
Amy
We are into week 5 of 4th grade and I'm loving it and my 9 yo dd is thriving! I've used SL, HOD, MFW and Trail Guide POS, and so far MP is the only curriculum I haven't had to drop books, add books or tweak. DD likes knowing what's happening each day and can actually do parts of MP on her own. The lit guides are NOT busy work in my opinion. They have vocabulary, comprehension questions, discussion questions, quotations and an Enrichment section that includes various copywork/dictation passages, drawing or lit analysis. My dd did NOT like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when she read it last year on her own. When I saw that it was part of MP's 4th grade I almost let her skip it but I'm so glad I didn't. She actually understands it better and is enjoying it because of the lit guide. And First Form Latin ROCKS! We've used other Latin programs and FFL is by far the best as far as my dc are concerned.
MP has shown me that there truly is beauty in simplicity and certainly much more than meets the eye. If you buy it, even if it doesn't look great to you when you get it, use it for at least 3 weeks before you form an opinion. It took us a while to get into it and really appreciate what was being taught. I'm already planning on ordering 5th grade! I've finally, after many years, stopped curriculum hopping.
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We are just working through lesson 1, but I LOVE it! I seems to make sure you KNOW your work before you move on!!
:iagree:
I love it! Dd 9 is doing very well with it, better than ds 13!
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I have written about this many times.
Long story short the experiments are excellent, but the supply lists are LONG and that makes it quite expensive and IMO difficult to use. I had to shop in several stores, order hard to find stuff on-line, etc. It just became too much.
Also, the woman who created it claims it will be so captivating and you won't have to do anything but plop your child in front of the computer and she will do the rest. That didn't happen.
:iagree:
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I have a 13yo boy. In the last year: his appetite doubled, he grew 4 inches, he has worked hard at producing the snappy comeback, he suddenly became very embarrassed by everything I do or say (anything he can think of to say is ok), he loves to give opinions about things he does not fully understand. He tries very hard to look unexcited or uninterested, even if he is excited or interested in something.
On the other hand, he is no longer puny and can mow grass. :-) He also still wants bed time kisses and prayers. I wonder how long that will last.
Yep! That's my son, too! Sometimes I want to smack him when his mouth starts running.
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Congratulations, you have a 13 year old boy. I spent all of last year repeating myself, harping, nagging, standing over, nudging, shrieking like a banshee. My sons sleep patterns definitely changed at 13. My up with the son boy would sleep until 9-10am. My husband calls the slow motion thing boy brain and insists it is normal.
That actually makes me feel better. At least I know it's normal and not just "him". I just feel so out of my element with a teenaged boy. Dh is absolutely no help, so I'm alone in this.
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I have 5 daughters, 4 of whom are in their 20's, and 1 boy. I'm used to dealing with hormones and emotions and everything girlie. I'm out of my element with my son. How do I know what is normal for a 13 yo boy and what isn't? He has no motivation, it's like he is in slow motion all the time. I have to repeat myself constantly. His sleep pattern is all messed up, he goes to bed at 10:00 but sometimes gets up in the middle of the night (says he can't sleep) then he sleeps until 10 or 11. There is more, I just can't remember it all right now. Tell me it gets better or that there is a farm I can drop him off at and pick him up in a year or so :confused:
Any encouragement or tips or help?
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Online writing classes that use the Progymn or IEW
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted
That may be an option. I forgot they had online classes! Thanks.