AFthfulJrney
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Posts posted by AFthfulJrney
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If you don't have a strong preference, I would ask the kids what they want to learn and why. Do they want to learn something that they can speak with people in? (Spanish and Chinese are widely spoken. Latin is not ;) )
I would also consider what kind of commitment you want to make and what your goals are. Do you just want to dip your toes in? Or do you want them to achieve a high level of proficiency? Spanish and French would be easier to find resources for, for a wide range of abilities and commitment levels. Chinese and Latin are much more of a commitment if you ask me, and don't lend themselves much to toe-dipping. (Although if you just want to speak Chinese and not read or write, then you can learn it a bit more casually.)
Regarding the earlier comment about ease of learning, Spanish is easy to learn as far as consistent pronunciation. But there are a lot of verb forms as the students advance. Its kind of the opposite of Chinese which is harder for most Westerners to pronounce, but there are no verb conjugations to memorize.
Duolingo is a good place to start. Its free, and they could try out different languages and see if there is one they like.
Thank you for this explanation! I'm thinking I'd like to start them with Spanish. Other than Duolingo, can you recommend any other books/curriculum/resources to use?
Thank you so much!
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I ended up going with GSWL. I figured it was an inexpensive start and hopefully a good place to begin and eventually branch out from.
Thank you to all of you for your help!
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I am looking for some help in choosing which Foreign Language to begin with my 10 and 8 year old. They have had no prior foreign language and neither myself nor my husband speak any language other than English. I wasn't sure if one was better to start with over the other, or if it was all just basically personal preference. I'm also looking for program/curriculum recommendations as well.
Thanks so much!
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I would put a 10 year old into Latina Christiana I or First Form from Memoria Press, depending on the type of student you have (one that gets overwhelmed, might need another year before daily assignments like in FF are required,) and how serious you want to take it this year. If you want to enjoy it, go a bit more slowly, and not focus a lot of your week together on it, then LC would be a gently intro. If you are ready to help with Latin daily then I would go into FF. Your choice. With either, I would make sure you are doing some Roman history and culture from something like Famous Men of Rome.
She is currently reading Famous Men of Greece and Story of the Greeks. Would that mess her up too much?
I'd like to take it a bit slower since we haven't done any latin in the past. She has been working on Grammar though, so that won't be too foreign for her. Would you still recommend LC, or would FF be a better fit?
Thank you so much for your help!
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I'm not familiar with the other two, but Memoria Press is a good program. First Form Latin is where you would place a 10y.o. The thing about the MP program is that it is designed to teach grammar before translation skills. So by the end of First Form your kiddo will know and be able to recite lots of grammar information, but will only be translating some sentences from the workbook. There are no big chunks of translation work or stories to translate. This is by design since MP believes that understanding the grammar before learning to translate is really important, but it can make kids who expected to be able to "really read Latin" feel a little frustrated if you don't make sure they understand the approach MP takes.
As to the materials themselves, the books are well done and present the information very clearly. If you haven't looked at the samples online you really should. You can get them here: https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/latin/first-form-latin/
I suggest having your kiddo sit down and study the student book sample and then try some of the workbook sample to see what she thinks of it. If she, or you, hates workbooks then MP might not be the best choice.
I also encourage you to take a good long look at the teachers manual. If you think you could teach the class from the book then you could order the basic set without the DVDs which would bring the price down quite a bit. You can see the basic set here: https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/latin/first-form-latin-set/
To give you an idea of what using this program is like I'll run you through a day with it.
To start the lesson you have a student recite a paradigm of grammar information (noun or verb endings), decline a previously learned noun, or conjugate a verb. Suggestions for what to have them do are in the TM.
Next you either teach a new lesson (on Mondays) or review the lesson in progress. Answer any questions and then assign the workbook pages for the day. You can also use this time to review vocabulary.
Lastly the student does the assigned WB pages and does more vocab review as needed.
The lessons are meant to be completed 1/week with a quiz on Friday and tests every 6 weeks or so. The daily amount of work is very reasonable and, if used as written, will teach students the entire Latin grammar in 4 years, at which point they will be ready to learn to work with translating authors such as Caesar.
I hope this helps you decide.
Thank you so much for this detailed reply. It has been very helpful.
I will do as you suggest and have my daughter look over the samples and then go from there. I hadn't realized there was a less expensive package. That is one reason I kinda turned away from this particular curriculum...the price. Thanks for letting me know there is a less expensive option.
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I'm trying to decide on a Latin curriculum for my 10 year old. I was recommended Memoria Press, Visual Latin, and Getting Started with Latin. Obviously, out of the three, GSL is the cheapest option, but I'm looking for opinions on it, as well as the other two. This will be her first year studying Latin. Thank you!
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Has anyone purchased and or used the curriculum titled A Gentle Feast? It looks pretty good, but I'm having a hard time finding any reviews, manly because it is newer. Hoping to get some answers here.
Thank you!
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I'm already feeling overwhelmed and burned out, and we are only finishing up week 3! I know I must be doing something wrong, but I'm not sure what! Im hoping to get some advice/suggestions on what I can do differently.
I have a 4 th grader who is reading well, but struggles a lot with her spelling. So, independently, she does math (everyday), ELTL (4 days), and her independent reading (Everyday). I do not have her do the dictation yet, because of her spelling, but she narrates to me what she's read and she does the Copywork assigned in ELTL. I also use RLTL with her 4 days a week to help with her spelling.
My 7 year old son is not reading yet, so all he does on his own is Math (everyday). Then he and I go through his ELTL lesson together (more reading for me) and I'm also using RLTL with him to teach reading/spelling. I try to have both my kids together for the RLTL lessons, but sometimes I work with each one separately.
I'm using Wayfarers and Quark, so I spend 1 1/2 - 2 hours every morning reading through all the readings, including our Scripture readings, geography, and depending on what day it is, Shakespeare and poetry. I'm usually exhausted by this time and we have yet to start a "just for fun" read aloud for the year...and I have sooo many great books on my shelf waiting to be read that I bought specifically for read aloud times. Plus, I'm wanting my kids to want to choose reading as their quiet time activity, or their "I'm bored activity", but I think they are feeling just as burned out as I am, so this never happens. I know not all the readings are suggested in Wayfareres, and I do not even do them all, so that's why I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at what I could be doing wrong.
I also have a 4 year old that I am trying to spend some one on one time with reading to (more reading for me) and helping her with her letters and numbers.
I would love to have my oldest daughter work more independently, but I'm not sure how to do this with my son not yet reading on his own. I know i must be doing something wrong, or is RLTL/ELTL/Wayfareres/Quark really this teacher intense? (this is our first year using all of it)
Thanks so much in advance for any help!
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I'd just add it on. Add some reading on for him, or even a whole separate study if you like.
I wouldn't give up ancients, but I would certainly follow the interest of your child as well, you know?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Yes, I definitely want to go with his interests...especially at this young age. I want to keep learning fun! Thanks for your encouragement.
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We are on our third week of our new homeschool year. We started using Wayfarers Ancients this year and I have no complaints about the curriculum and the book choices, however, my son is already disappointed and asking for more recent history, like George Washington and Abe Lincoln recent. He always has a lot of questions regarding American History and I'm wondering if I made a bad decision starting with a four year history rotation this way. I already purchased everything we need for term 1, so I really don't want to change everything up just yet. I'm wondering how best to handle his disappointment and disinterest. Should I just carry on and hope something peaks his interest soon? Maybe switch after the first term is over to American History? Or, I was thinking of adding some light reading of American History to our Morning Basket, while continuing with the wayfarers ancients during our normal history time, but wasn't sure if that would get confusing for my kids at all. If this third option is a good idea, can anyone recommend any books that would be a good fit for a 7 and 9 year old?
Thank you!
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I have several questions that I am hoping to get some help/clarification with.I apologize in advance if this post becomes too long. This is our first year using ELTL. I am using Level 1 with my 7 year old son who is still learning to read and Level 4 with my 9 year old daughter who is a fluent reader, but terrible speller. I am also using RLTL Level 1 with both...for my son to learn to read and my daughter to help with her spelling. We are only on our second week using it and I'm just wondering if I am using the program correctly. With my so, I sit with him and read the assigned literature (for ELTL) reading, then talk him through each example. We then read the poem and fable, if there is one, and then he does the copywork. My question is, he does not enjoy most of the fables and always asks me why we are reading a poem everyday. Am I supposed to have him doing something with the poems and fables? Or just reading them to him daily, then having him narrate on the lessons that it says to do so? Does anyone skip reading the fables/poems, and if so, what do you do instead?
Now, for my daughter, she does most of her ELTL lesson herself. She reads her literature assignment, does the exercises and writes in her commonplace book. My question for her is, when it comes to dictation and the condensed narrative, since she is a pretty poor speller, how would you go about doing both? So far, I've just been skipping the dictation and today, for the condensed narrative lesson, I had her just narrate to me instead of writing it all down. Is this ok to do until her spelling becomes stronger, or should I be doing something else?
With RLTL, we are still just learning the phonograms. I've been going over 4 new ones a day with them both, having them review the ones we'e already learned each day, and writing them in their notebooks. And that's been it so far. It just feels like I'm missing something. Has anyone used RLTL with a struggling speller successfully, or should I supplement with a spelling program? If so, which program would you suggest?
Again, I apologize for the length of the post, but appreciate any help you can offer.
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My oldest daughter is 9 years old. We will be using ELTL for the first time this year. This past school year, we were using R&S for Grammar and Spelling. She loves to write stories and does pretty good forming sentences and paragraphs. However, her spelling needs a lot of work. So, my questions are, should I be using a writing program as well, or will ELTL be sufficient? And, should I give ELTL a chance before supplementing with a spelling program, or should I do a little extra in this area since I know it's already a problem that needs addressed?
Thanks in advance!
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Do I need a separate book for each child, or since we are combined for our history lessons, will one book be enough? And, what do you all use? Do you make your own? Purchase one already made?
Thanks in advance!
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I have so many titles that I want to get to this year like The Silver Chair, Little Britches, The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness, just to name a few. These are in addition to the titles we will be reading for our LA and History. (We are also doing Wayfarers and ELTL) I'm just not wanting to overwhelm myself or my kids, so I'm trying to be intentional with the planning now.
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If you have a morning time/basket, what do you include in it? Do you try to get to everything in it everyday, or use a loop schedule?
Thanks in advance!
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I'm in full blown planning mode and I'm really striving to have this be our best year yet and that starts with me trying to get as organized as I possibly can. So, that being said, I'm wondering how do you organize your read alouds for the year? Do you just pick from a list and read ones that sound interesting, try to read a certain amount each month/year, count what you are reading for history as your read aloud? In previous years I've always just picked something off our shelf, but I'm wondering if I should be more intentional about this. Thank you!
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I've never done any type of nature study with my kids. No journals, no nature walks, nothing. And I'm sad about it. I really want to add nature study to our homeschool this year and I'm wondering how best to fit it in.
We are studying Botany this year with Quark Chronicles for science. Would I make our nature study separate from this, or include it as one? If I did it as something separate, how many days a week would we devote to it? I also purchased awhile back Lynn Seddon's Exploring Nature with Children that I planned on using for nature study at some point.
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I'm looking for some Handwriting Lesson suggestions. My kids are 9, 7, and 4. My 9 and 7 year old both have terrible handwriting. My 4 year old isn't really writing yet. What would you all recommend I use, especially with my older two, to help them with neater handwriting practices?
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Thank you, everyone, for your responses.
Our co-op meets every Friday from 9-2, so I’m pretty sure I won’t do any other “school†that day other than our reading in the evening after dinner as usual. I was able to pick the classes my kids get to take, so I chose classes that wouldn’t interfere with what I was teaching at home. For example, I didn’t choose the science classes because none of them line up with what we will be studying this year and I didn’t want to overwhelm myself, or my kids. The classes I chose are Bible quizzing, PE, crochet for my daughter, cooking with Little House for my daughter, a Lego class for my son, a watercolor class for my daughter, baseball for my son, an American history class for my son, and a math games class. I basically wanted to join a co-op for the social aspect of it. Also, the nice thing about it is it starts in September, two classes of which we will be missing because of vacation, and ends at the beginning of November. So, if by then I realize it really isn’t for us, I won’t go back after Christmas. However, I know my kids are going to love it!
I think I’ll go ahead and spend the rest of this week going through my curriculum and fitting it into simply 4 days. I’m not real concerned with not finishing everything by years end. Our state requires 180 days, so I will work with that. I’m actually considering trying out a sabbath schedule and schooling year round. However, I’m also wanting to start back on Monday, so…I have a lot of work a head of me. I might just have to push our start day back a week.
Thanks again for taking the time to respond. 🙂
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We joined a co-op for the upcoming school year for the first time. I’m excited to give it a try, but stressing a bit about fitting everything into a 4 day work week. Those of you who are part of a weekly co-op, or have been a part of one in the past, any advice or tips to share on making it work successfully?
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Do you allow them to do something quiet while you read? My older two enjoyed playing with Thinking Putty during read alouds when they were younger.
Yes, they play with Legos, draw, color, puzzles, etc. I've had several people recommend Thinking Putty to me. I think it's time I get some! ;)
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I was thinking maybe it was the Narnia books too. I think those are tough to sit through at younger ages. Maybe try something a bit easier like Boxcar Children.
I haven't read the BFG (gasp) so have no idea what it's about to give advice on that one. Although, I also told my kids that we have to read it first before seeing the movie.
The Narnia books are, surprisingly, the ones they both enjoyed the most. They didn't like the Green Ember or the Little House books that we read. I haven't read the Boxcar children to them yet, but have several on my shelf to choose from.
I'm really enjoying The BFG and am so excited to see the movie! ;)
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First, keep in mind that I am new to this HS thing. Our kids are almost 6, 4, and almost 3. But here are a couple thoughts.
First, the only time I have ever read more than one chapter of any book in a given sitting is when the kids ask for it. (We are currently re-reading the My Father's Dragon trilogy. They often ask for 2 chapters at a time because the chapters are short.) So I think you should aim for no more than one chapter from a book. Then read something else if you want to keep reading. It could be a picture book or a chapter from a different book or a poem or whatever.
Second, do you allow them to do some quiet activity while they listen? Perhaps they could color or build with legos. This is helpful for some. (Not mine, who just sit and listen. But that's not due to anything I've done. It's just who they are.)
I hope others chime in!
I think I'll start with only reading a chapter a day and see how that helps.
And yes, they do color or build puzzles, Legos, etc. My daughter ends up, usually, just sitting next to me on the couch and my son is the one who always has to be doing something else while Im reading to them.
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Well, honestly, maybe it is the reading choices. DD didn't like any of the Little House in the Big Woods books, only read the first Narnia book (on her own). She's turned her nose up at a lot of classics, but other things like Calpurnia Tate and the sequel were a joy for us to read aloud together.
Have you tried asking the older two for what types of books they'd like to read together?
I just purchased Calpurnia Tate on my Kindle...maybe I'll give that a try with my daughter.
I have asked them what they would like for me to read to them and they alway say they don't know and what are their choices and then I'm always stumped and pulling titles from various booklists...I'm probably making this a lot harder than it needs to be, but I want this to be a treasured, fun, memorable part of their homeschooling years.
Benefits of Audible
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted · Edited by AFthfulJrney
I’m trying to figure out if the monthly audible cost is worth it. How does having an audible account differ from just using Overdrive provided by the library? I know with audible you own the book and with Overdrive you obviously don’t, but what other benefits are there to becoming an audible subscriber?
Thanks so much in advance to all who take the time to respond! :)