How hard is level three to plan yourself? I use konos and we have lots of books each day that could be used for the lessons. Would I be missing out on something if we just used the text? Thanks, Penny

Hi, I am about to pull my hair out. :tongue_smilie: I have been working with my dd(9) with SM and last year we did a SM/MM combo. She does not retain much after we move on. For example..she completed the addition and subtraction section(getting all problems correct) in SM so we moved on to multi/division(and was doing well) and she had a review page today with add/sub problems....she was crying at the table. Could not remember any of the mental math strategies she knew well just a month ago. She had about 6 of those problems to do then it moved into word problems involving multiplication. She has been doing so well with multi/div. She had such a hard time with the addition and subtraction part she bombed on the word problems. Does MIF have a more spiral effect? I am using the hig, textbook, and workbook for SM and I do understand what I am teaching. We play the games suggested in the hig. I like the idea of teaching mental math. In the middle of her crying fit she tells me "I can line up the problem and work it like this but you won't let me."(she is referring to borrowing) She does understand that she is taking a ten and turning it into ones...should I let her do it this way? Her biggest blowouts occur for SM adding and subtracting mentally. Anyone had a similar problem and had better luck with MIF? Penny

:iagree: Very well put.

I love my nook tablet. I rooted it and can do anything my sister's ipad does for less than half the price. I borrowed the ipad before I purchased the nook to see if the ipad would be better for me....my husband stayed up half of the night because the light kept him awake. I went for the more compact nook. My girls use it for school each day with no problems. If I would need a bigger tablet I would purchase an android instead because I like to have usb ports and the ability to add memory cards. My aunts ipad has no usb or slots for added memory. Penny

Hi, We are currently working through WWE 2 and only have about two weeks left. I have been thinking that I could save a little money and get the text instead of the next workbook. I see in the workbook that they have some poetry work in the WWE 3 wb. Is there a lot of poetry involved? I am trying to get an idea on how much work/planning would be involved if I just purchased the text. We did like a lot of the lit choices in level 2 but, some were really hard for my dd to pay attention. Penny

Hi, I am constantly questioning my curriculum choices and would like some input. I have the following that we are using: WWE3 Easy Grammar 4 Daily Grams Singapore Math 3 AAS 3 Konos(we were doing Weaver but my girls begged for Konos again) I plan on adding the SOTW cd's to our days with narration. For some reason, I feel as though I am missing something. It is likely because Weaver used to take a long time each day to complete where as Konos is done in no time. What do you think? Penny

:lurk5:

I do not use RS Grammar but....my dd hates to write. I go into my word processor and make the sheets myself or we do 95% of the work orally. I make her write only one or two sentences and tell her that if she wants to continue to do most of the work orally she has to do those two sentences neatly. HTH, Penny

I would focus on math during the summer days. The rest is really easy to fit in. I was going to suggest the same thing. I was thinking of putting my kids to bed twenty minutes sooner and have them listen to this before bed. They could each take turns retelling the chapter also. *You could place a timeline on their bedroom wall and they put a timeline figure up. I thought of using glow-in-the-dark markers to color the timeline figures(earlier in the day) so that when they put up the figure..they have something "cool" to look at while they are trying to sleep.* Penny

Hi, My dd is going into 4th grade and we have been using EG3 since the end of second grade. I have to keep going back and review with her cause she forgets so much. For example..we have been working on adjectives and reached a review worksheet that asked her to find prep phrases and she couldn't remember how to find them! We have spent so much time on prep phrases my eyes are crossing. She also makes the same old mistakes over and over...like can not is can't in contraction form but she spells it cann't. I have gone over it so many times I am starting to wonder if something else would be better. I am using WWE with her just fyi... I do understand that it will be covered over and over in the next levels but I dont want to just pile on more grammar while the basics are getting forgotten. WWYD? Penny

I think my dd's problem is that she can remember a bunch of rules but never actually applies them in her writing. I have to constantly remind her of the rule needed. That would not be bad if sometimes atleast one would actually stick. For us, SWR was a scream fest. My dd LOATHED marking the words. Every morning when I took out the materials she would just cry. The only thing she liked about SWR was the little red spelling notebook.(she wanted to have her own spelling notebook) The first time she used AAS she was excited to try something new. About a week later she started moaning and groaning when I pulled out the tiles so after about a month of her resisting the tile use, I eliminated the tiles and had her write the words down instead.(still using the rules as in the AAS Manual) We stayed on the lesson until she got all the words correct and could recite the rule. When she would write something for other subjects, she would get the words wrong again! I would back up and practice that same rule again and again and it just felt slowwwwwwwwww. I then purchased htts tm but it is confusing.(I didn't get the workbooks) Now, I am starting to question the need for my dd to memorize rules if she won't apply them. Penny

I wanted to try Spelling Power really bad but when I inquired about it here everyone said how it really isn't rule based.:confused: They also said it only works for natural spellers.:glare: I ended up back with AAS with no tile work. I still want to try Spelling Power though. Penny

:iagree:

Easy Grammar

Hi, I am here with another spelling thread! Ok, I want a program that teaches the rules and has coordinated word lists to practice. In the past I have used AAS with my oldest and although it worked, I had to use it without the tiles cause she hated using them. I ended up selling AAS thinking that it would be cheaper to use something else since I was not using the entire program. Well....here I am again.:tongue_smilie: I have been looking at spelling power. Is it set up to work with spelling rules? It says it is, but no samples are provided to help me. My dd is not a natural speller and needs lots of practice. If you use spelling power could you give me an example of how the rules are taught?(a week in a nutshell) It would be nice to have one book instead of a bunch of different levels to buy, but I want to choose what will be most effective. Thanks, Penny

Ok, I think I have narrowed down my choices to SS or R and S Spelling. My dd likes workbooks.(the more color the better) She is not a natural speller. I had originally looked at the Logic of English but my dd hated SWR with a passion so based on that...it seems to be similar. I need something that will have my dd working with 1 or two rules a week or something like that. She needs to focus on a few rules at a time and review them again later. What do you guys think? Penny

:001_smile:Hi, The title says it all. From what I gather, some spelling curriculum cater to natural spellers while others are gears towards the opposite. I would like to save myself some time and money by sticking to programs designed for the non natural speller. Please help me with a list. Thanks, Penny

I have a thumb drive and will also send a copy to my kindle cloud drive for extra protection.

:auto:

Hi, I am looking for a good spelling program that I can use with my girls(9 and 4) My 4 year old won't start until later but she can learn the phonograms. My oldest is not a natural speller at all. In the past I have tried SWR with her and she would cry having to mark the words everyday. I tried AAS but she hated the tiles. I then moved to htts but really found the manual confusing. Sigh....so here I am again looking for spelling. I like rule based curriculum and this seems to be a nice alternitive(middle ground) to SWR and AAS. Any opinions? Penny

I tried to use AO and had the same problem. There are way better book selections out there. I hear of so many people who love AO and I can't understand why. After taking out all of the books we didn't like, there really was not much left over. Penny

:bigear:

My library has all of the books and http://www.christianbooks.com has the titles available. I don't think any are oop. Honestly, it is very easy to substitute books. For example, in science we studied volcanoes. I just went online and chose several library books on volcanoes and that was it. The schedule does not tell you to read DK Volcanoes pages 6-20 or something like that. You will have a reference page in volume 1 that shows a few diagrams of the different parts of a volcano and you choose whatever library books you wish to use to read for reinforcement.(atleast for k and third grade) Day by Day has a daily schedule on what to teach if you don't want to plan your own way through. I do use Day by Day and find the creative writing to be a great addition. I still do some planning(tweaking) and ordering library books but it is actually pretty fun for me. I started off with unit studies. Fiar was excellent. I used Beyond Fiar and Konos briefly before going full WTM. WTM frustrated my dd and I just kept going until we were about to throw in the towel. Weaver really made a drfference for us. I know that what works wonders for one family wont work for the next though. They have a very helpful yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/u-weaver/ and you can tour Weaver here by scrolling down a click on try the weaver basic five tour. http://www.aophomeschooling.com/theweavertour.php Those are the best samples I have seen. HTH, Penny

Well, I like a lot of things but honestly, the Weaver curriculum has been a wonderful breath of fresh air. We had a terrible case of burnout and I was seriously thinking of sending my girls to public school. I received volume 1 and 2 for free along with MFW Adventures and MBTP. I looked through all of those intending to use one to just finish the school year. I also considered TOG but there is no way in the world I could afford $1200.00 a year for books. I am happy to say we will continue to homeschool using the Weaver. It has lesson plans for grades k-6 in each volume so I can teach both girls together at their own levels. This was so much better than the "teach for your oldest and the youngest will pick it up too" mindset. I will use this until it is over. Thanks, Penny

:D:iagree::iagree::iagree::D Yep...hated how any other suggestion was quickly shot down. If you posted that your kid cried over lessons your reply was generally along the lines of.."You're doing something wrong because this program is wonderful and all kids love it.":glare::tongue_smilie: