Meadowlark
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Posts posted by Meadowlark
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How about sending him knowing that if the bullying continues you could bring him home? I would never subject my kid to bullying and that would be the final straw if it was happening. But given the circumstances with you working (and him spending a lot of time in his room gaming), I think I would definitely give it a go and see if it works out. You can always change your mind at semester and bring him home without always wondering if it would've worked out.
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I am trying to make a decision. Here are my choices:
1. Buy SSS Level A and do it with my 4th and 5th graders next year (followed by year 2)
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2. Wait and start IEW SSS Level B when they get into middle school (already purchased).
The dilemma is, I keep reading about how formal writing is not needed until middle school. So that would certainly save me some money and time. But then I’ll read a random post about the more years with IEW the better, so I’m conflicted. Your responses will probably decide this so thanks in advance for your help!
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Hello,
I recently found these literature guides online, and I was planning on using them. However, I just noticed that there are no answer keys to go with them. Does anyone know why or where I could find them? Thank you.
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I never thought I'd consider either of these, but here I am. What I've done in the past just hasn't worked. I'm looking for something simple to implement, effective, and won't kill us. Oh, I also want to combine my 4th and 5th graders if possible. Thanks!
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I don't know about 1A, but I have two kids doing 2A. We are on week 19 and have been doing it all year. We almost never finish from beginning to end in a week. They follow the lesson plan for 5 days normally, but it always takes us longer because we just have to take more time on the days 4/5 part. Plus, I don't like to feel rushed. Writing is not something that I want to be intense 5 days a week.
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On 3/3/2021 at 4:24 PM, JessinTX said:
Ooo?. How so? Any specific examples of disorganized and all over the place. That would be a problem...
All I can say is that there were so many problems with it, I don't even know where to start. First, the reading for each day was WAY inappropriate for the grade level. I was doing 2nd or 3rd and the books they were supposed to read (or me read) were 20 or so pages with text written at an 8th grade level. I was like...what? I couldn't believe it. Next, the lesson plans were all over the place. One book this day, another book the next day...nothing at all was cohesive. Sometimes the reading on the lesson plan didn't even make sense. It would say "read pgs. 101-141" and 141 was the second page in a new chapter or something-so random stopping point. But the absolute worst thing was that the reading had NOTHING TO DO with the theme of the week! The theme could be slavery in America and the reading was about Lewis and Clarke! I was completely dumbfounded. Not to mention I called customer service a lot to express my concerns, and while the girl was nice enough, all I ever heard was "I'm really sorry" over and over again. The whole experience was bizarre. We do MP now, and I can breathe because it all makes sense and goes together beautifully.
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For a larger family, definitely the BJU streaming videos! They are a Godsend to me and I will never, ever go back!
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I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but BJU's distance learning videos are amazing. I would be lost without them with 6 kids. They teach and explain things visually, SO much better than I ever did (and I tried). Just a thought!
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Not lately, but just the mention of Wp makes me shudder. Never in my life have I used a curriculum that was so disorganized, non-age appropriate and all over the place. I was totally taken in by their beautiful website and their colorful, beautiful descriptions and materials. But then using it in real-life was a whole other story.
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2 hours ago, caffeineandbooks said:
I don't want you to miss the fact that this is available for free, searchable, online at http://www.classicalreader.com/
It's a great resource, coded by genre and whether it's easy, average, hard or teacher read-aloud for its nominated age group. Like @Lucy the Valiant I also ended up buying a copy, but check out the free version first.
Thanks! So what’s the advantage of buying the print version? Or, is it the same thing? I like that there is more info given and a picture online, but I can see the convenience of having the book too. What else should I consider before buying (or just being satisfied with the website?)
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2 hours ago, Lucy the Valiant said:
I'm not really sure how it's MEANT to be used, but here's how we use it: My kids are fairly avid readers, and I wanted to direct them toward high-quality stuff while still allowing them a wide range of choice. So I bought them each one of these list-books, and showed them (in the younger years) the joy of reading high-quality material. Our shared goal is that each kid read most of the books on the list by the 3-year mark (AKA complete the "Lower Grammar" section by the end of 3rd grade, the "Upper Grammar" section by the end of 6th, etc. until graduation).
We read some of them together, and kids read most of them independently (some are family read-alouds and / or car listening audio books). Sometimes we discuss / I gently introduce analysis / we make jokes / take a field trip / watch a related movie or documentary.
This is the only "literature" we have done through all the years up until high school (I'm an English teacher by training), and it has worked so beautifully for my crew. I'm sure it wouldn't work the same in every family, but - that's how we do it. ❤️
That is helpful. What exactly is inside the book? I see the TOC from the sample, but I can’t figure out what the book is FOR. Do you just check off the books after they’re read? Or is there more to it than just a list of titles?
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59 minutes ago, Lori D. said:
Curriculum Vendor Booklists (by grade or age range)
Sonlight/Bookshark
Build Your Library -- family reading crates; booklists per grade
Moving Beyond the Page
Heart of Dakota
Winter Promise
Tapestry of Grace
Veritas Press
Exodus Books: Reading Roadmaps -- book packages
"Good Books" / Old Fashioned Book Lists
1000 Good books - classic and good books, by age range
Teacher's First Recommended Reading Lists
Charlotte Mason Home Education: Twaddle Free Literature
Charlotte Mason Help: Books and Schedules
An Old Fashioned Education: Classic Literature
Ambleside Online -- booklists by grade/yearHistorical Fiction/Non Fiction Book Lists
A Book in Time (K-12) - historical fiction / non-fiction
Home's Cool - SL books in WTM 4-year cycle, by grammar/logic/rhetoric stageNational Book Lists
Read Aloud America - annual read aloud list; by age/grade range
Mensa Excellence in Reading Award Program - classic literature by age/grade range
Teacher's First Recommended Reading Lists
Teachers 100 Best Books - list of good books by age range
The Art of Simple: Summer Reading List for Tweens
NPR Backseat Book Club: 100 Must Reads for Kids Ages 10-14
Association for Library Services to Children: Tween Recommended Reads
1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
Penny Gardener's Readable Science - list by science topic
Caldecott Winners (picture books)
Newbery Winners (late elementary/middle grades books)
The ALA Notable Lists (useful for new books)
Coretta Scott King Award Winners (books by African-American authors)Can I just say that you are beyond awesome? Thank you so so much!!!
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1 hour ago, Lucy the Valiant said:
We use The Classical Reader for this purpose; I bought one for each kid, and we have enjoyed the whole experience richly, over many years.
Can you tell me more? How is it meant to be used?
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I know there are quite a few resources out there, but at the moment I just can't remember them!
I'm looking for somewhere that can give me titles so that I can put together 20-30 books for grades 3, 4, 5. Of course, I want only the best quality literature-think full, rich, beautiful, virtuous and the absolute best writing. You know, the ones that shouldn't be missed.
Where can I look to develop these lists? Thank you.
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On 2/2/2021 at 2:28 PM, Trilliumlady said:
DD is in Second Form Latin this year in 7th. She’s doing fine, but I’m wondering how far past this point it is truly “important” to continue. I don’t plan on having her complete any Latin Exams in her future. The purpose behind her studying Latin has been for the vocabulary support for future coursework and mental processes that will make future language learning more smooth. She does it uncomplainingly, but doesn’t LOVE it. She is interested in learning other languages I believe.
At what point do I consider moving from the Form series to a modern language? What would be the purpose of continuing into Third Form? I’m just not sure where to go from this point, and when to start moving more to modern languages. Any thoughts?
Just wanted to say I’m in the same boat. My 7th grade son will probably finish SFL this year. He doesn’t want to continue Latin, and I’ve heard that TFL is a beast. Do I want to take that on AND spend the $, especially when he’s headed to public high school? Idk. But on the other hand, what a blessing or could be to get one more year of Latin in-and might it be super beneficial all around? I just don’t know.
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I’m strongly considering just scrapping all of our moving parts, and just devouring nonfiction books for science and history AND reading quality fiction as our reading “program”. Up until 6th grade that is. What do you think about that idea? Will I be ruining my kids for good? Any tips on how to make it work?
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30 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:
You could look at BFSU, too, if you like. Although it doesn't have demos that go along with it and it's not really fun... but it covers the basics nicely and it's just some books. On the other hand, I think people find it intimidating to plan.
I wouldn't know about CLE, because we only use secular curricula. So I hope you don't mind me chiming in!
You should let us know how CLE goes! If it works well, I'm sure lots more people would like to know that it's a good option.
I've heard that about BFSU, which has scared me off. That is the beautiful thing about CLE-the format of the lightunits and the simplicity. Of course, it depends on where you are in your homeschooling journey. I'm at the place that I need simplicity 🙂
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Just now, Not_a_Number said:
Oh, totally. I don't think experiments by themselves lead to much, especially since the showier experiments contain science that's far too advanced for kids to understand, anyway.
I do think that demonstrations can be good, though. We've been meandering our way through BFSU (it's not our main science program, which largely consists of just reading together whatever we're interested in, but I got it to make sure we get good coverage of the basics), and it has demonstrations that illustrate things. Those do make the kids think... but they are very tied into a main idea, and the point is to have conversations that involve the idea.
From what I see online, the 5th grade CLE science *does* have "demonstrations" or activities that go along with the bookwork. It feels like I can handle that and you can even buy a little $20 kit from somewhere in case you don't want to gather your own supplies. I'm just trying to figure out why this wouldn't work and why more people aren't interested in it. Maybe most people combine their kids...or maybe it's just too "booky" or schoollike. Idk. I've already invested way too much in science and this looks like a fairly frugal investment. So, it wouldn't kill me if it didn't work out. But if it did, then I have 4 kids that could use it.
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On 2/12/2021 at 8:49 PM, Not_a_Number said:
I think the question is... what do you want them to retain? Why are they not retaining it?
Honestly, we don't do any formal science at all except for some read alouds and some demos that I've been loosely pairing with BFSU. Most of the science my kids learn is from conversation, anyway. And I feel like that's a fine way to get.
Good question...why? I don't know. Maybe no kid younger than about 6th grade remembers science, Idk. But what I did with my older kids is gone in the wind somewhere because although I spent hundreds on Nancy Larson Science, BJU with all of the experiments (that about killed me), they still remembered nothing. However, the year I got pregnant (and was so sick), I just dumped a bunch of non-fiction books in their laps and had them read every day. One always chose science, one always chose history. No coincidence that the one who chose science scored very well on that year's assessment, and the one who chose history scored very well on social studies. So...that's why I'm not doing anymore science until 5th/6th. I know that experiments, while fun, don't lead to lasting retention.
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1 minute ago, 2_girls_mommy said:
I haven't actually ever seen the science, but was just going to say, if you are using it as a spine, then I think anything can work that covers what you want to cover. I am using a CLE My Calendar Book with my 1st grader. It is kind of our spine for her current science. It has her recording something different each day each month of the weather and doing a graph at the end of each month. This month we have springboarded off of it to do a unit on precipitation using other books and project that I shave here that we like. Of course, she is only in 1st grade, so not the same thing at all. It is just my only experience with CLE.
I have used those very plain Tiner books that Memoria Press sells as spines for elem/middle science using Well Trained Mind style notebooks and experiments and science fair projects and enrichment at co-op. I would not call one of those books a full science, but they served fine as a starting point.
Yep- those are scheduled in the MP curriculum. We did the Tiner Medicine book last year (super interesting) and my 7th grader is doing Biology this year as part of the Trees study. I won't do that same path for my next group of kids. I want to go general in grades 5/6 and then heavier in 7/8 (probably with online classes) because they are headed to public HS. Live and learn I guess.
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Hear me out. I’m totally over the fluffy experimental science programs out there. I did a few with my older kids with ZERO retention. Therefore, I’m not doing any formal science until 5th grade from now on. I want something streamlined and to the point.
I looked at CLE’s website and see that their 5th grade science is the Sunrise Edition and uses a textbook. It looks almost like what I want-a spine with those nice little light units. Of course there’s this little part of me that thinks I’m nuts for even considering it. Can someone talk me in or out of it?
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1 hour ago, Gobblygook said:
Mystery Science was a big hit for us at those ages.
What would a week look like with MS? We get the free weekly videos so I’m quite familiar with Doug’s style. But it seems a little light...unless they’ve changed something lately. What is a lesson besides the one day video?
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Of course, I'd love to be able to combine them. This year we're doing MP's Astronomy, and while I like it...I do not want to do their Insects program next year. I need something where we gather around the table and experience a variety of teaching methods. Most importantly, it needs to have sticking power (MP is great at this) and we want to have a little fun. The rest of our curriculum is pretty serious and I want science to be a little lighter, but definitely not fluff either. It's not my style.
Ideally, it would be minimal prep for me, NOT a ton of "fluffy" projects (not a fan), and real books/videos. I wonder if I just need a spine of some sort with a little more. I've already ruled out Memoria Press, Apologia, Nancy Larson and Singapore. I've looked at TGATB so that's an option, but the supply list completely overwhelms me.
What else is there for this age? (ideally, about 4th)
5th grade science (esp chemistry)
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
If you're looking for simple and to the point, CLE's 5th grade science is updated. It's textbook learning, but it does have some experiments and activities. The real magic is in the lightunit, which spirals back to previous concepts. Not for everyone, but if you're a "get er done" kind of person or in that phase of life, it could be perfect.