TyraTooters
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Posts posted by TyraTooters
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Realistically I'm not sure we could get out the tiles EVERY day having a little sister around. I guess I could do AAS during her short nap time or maybe while we let her play with play-doh for a little bit since that keeps her occupied and contained. Him making his own tiles would only last for a few minutes. Which is why I'm making some with the glass stones/gems myself.
For those who have used LOE...did you have to do EVERY single lesson? Would it be possible to skip some of the writing out the words in place of something hands on from time to time?
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Me again! Help me decide between the two. It wil be for my seven year old who is mostly a kinesthetic learner. I like the idea of both of them. With LOE there are YouTube videos on all the spelling lists. I could have him work on that a little alone while I work with his brother. But I also like the tiles used in AAS. I'm making some alphabet stones from th clear stones/gems from the dollar tree so I could use those as a hands in way to spell words. But AAS has some other tiles that I won't have. I could make them but realisticlly...!
Anyone want to help comvince me to to go for either one?
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Do you use the teachers key with the reading time line, vocab, and comprehension questions? How do you like it? Pros? Cons?
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He would be in level B
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I've not bought one before but I'm thinking maybe I might this year. Just wondering how much I'd actually use. So I'll be following this post!
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I'm looking at getting RS Math for my seven year old. But I've got a question, which edition is preferred? I see there are two different ones.
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Yep, ELTL includes copywork. We use ELTL and LOE and don't find it redundant. We do each program 3 days a week, so 1 day includes both and the other 5 days we only do one. On the day that we only do one I'll let him skip any LOE copywork. 3 days a week will finish 1 level of ELTL and 2 LOE books in a year (we school 33 weeks).
Nature Study just consists of us going into nature and finding one thing to sketch or paint in our family nature journal. We own several nature guides so sometimes we will look something up. I try to be audibly observant, "hmm this cricket is brown but the ones in our yard are green." "look over here, all the grass is bent down. I wonder why?"
Artist appreciation last year was simply picking an artist every month and looking at their art online, putting a print on the wall, reading picture books about the artist from the library (I mostly picked artists according to who had books written about them), and trying to recreate our favorite piece or two. This year we are going to work through, "Drawing with Children" and then maybe find something similar for watercolors.
Music appreciation last year was units on Peter and the Wolf, The Magic Flute, The Nutcracker, and The Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra. We read picture books from the library, listened to the CD (from the library) several times, and for Peter and the Wolf watched a DVD. We were lucky enough to be able to see The Nutcracker live. This year we are going to work through Story of the Orchestra. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1579121489/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 And, you guessed it, check out books/CD's from the library.
At this age I don't find I need a lot of prepurchased curricula. Granted, I have a fairly nice library, with a good selection of books.
Gotcha! I was confused at first with ELTL and LOE. I was afraid that using both would almost be the same thing. Then I wouldn't have to use AAS. I'm making some alphabet stones/gems so we can use those as a hands on way to spell the words in LOE. I think doing AAS would bore him. He knows all the phonograms and sounds the letters make (read at a 4-5th grade level) but spelling stresses him out just because he tends to be a bit of a perfectionist and if he can't get it right on the first try he gets upset. But the lists with LOE look great.
It's looking like I might be using ...
~ELTL
~LOE
~SOTW
~Right Start Math
~random stuff for science. Things that the kids show interest in
~weekly journaling
~'literature studies' at least that's what I'm calling it. Picking a classic book for me to read aloud and we do lapbooks, crafts, and activities with. I have two picked out already and will be on the lookout for more.
I have a friend who did a Peter and the Wold little study. I might see what all she did and try that one as well. We have a (kind of) local playhouse so I could always see what was coming up and do little studies on that and then go watch the play!
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Bump for my questions added in replies/quotes!
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Given what has gone wrong, I agree with you to focus on more engaging choices. I would also keep it short fwiw.
My choices in your situation:
Right Start B for the 2nd grader. You take it at his pace. RS is a terrific math foundation, and sounds like a good fit for your kind of learner. It's my favorite early math program.
Handwriting Without Tears 2nd grade, or copywork if you prefer. It won't hurt to have some review. Get that mastery and start cursive 3rd. Or does he do cursive only and/or have manuscript mastered? If so skip to 3rd
WWE is gentle. Feel ok about writing for him as he speaks to you if you use that program. I would do Sentence Family for a fun intro to grammar perhaps, and skip the more formal grammar for this year I think. But FLL is fine. I don't know anything about the other program you mentioned, it may be better.
People love All About Spelling I know. I wait for spelling until reading well myself. It sounds like you're there with the older.
SOTW with the Activity Guide. Focus on the experiences and activities.
I'd consider getting the Magic School Bus video set. There are little experiments that go with the videos available online. You could add library books on the topics if you want. They will learn and they will enjoy science. This is so much more important than specific material covered at these ages. No one will burn out with that either.
He knows how to form all letters properly. It's a matter of writing them properly on the lines. If that makes sense. If the paper we're to have three lines he doesn't pay attention to the height if his lowercase a or make his t go as high as it should or have the g hang down in the 'basement' like he should. He has been learning cursive with Abeka but I think I'm going to stop and work on getting neater handwriting with manuscript. And then approach cursive once that's all straightened up.
I'll be looking into Sentence Family. I've not heard of it before. Thanks for letting me know about that one!
There are several MSB episodes on Netflix so I should definitely check that out and maybe use it the way you suggest. They love that show and it would def save me some money! Why didn't I think of that!!
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What about Apologia with the lap book for science? Link here. My kids love being able to cut, color, and glue while I am reading and it includes LOTS of experiments. You could also just do random lap books for science at this age or tie them to a read aloud (like do a lap book about spiders, pigs, and farming while reading Charlotte's Web).
My kids find FLL terribly redundant and boring. I think it's great and I use it but it might be rough on your kiddo.
I agree with other posters that copy work might be a better choice for your older DC then HWOT.
I think I'm going to wait on the Apologia as much as I love the way it looks. They love that kind of stuff but they kind of max out after five minutes. The seven year old is a perfectionist and the five year old needs constant supervision (read one-on-one) with stuff like that still! But I LOVE your idea about the little lapbooks to go along books like Charlotte's Web and others. That would be fun. We could be reading the book and work on the lapbooks after the days reading! Will be hitting up Pinterest for lapbook ideas for that!
And yes, the more I look into it the more I think y'all are right...copywork for the older dc. HWOT for the five year old!
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Right Start Math- I've heard great things, even though I've never used it. Solid choice for a kinesthetic learner.
HWT- I'd personally skip this if he knows how to form his letters and just be mindful during copy-work of using best hand.
FLL/WWE or ELTL- Both great options. I prefer ELTL because it uses whole books (and whole books available as audio books) but that's me.
AAS- We use LOE, but this would be my second choice. I just hate the tiles.
Story of the World- A classic pick. I highly recommend the activity book.
Science- REAL Science Odyssey is something we've enjoyed, hands on and easy to out together. I make google eyes at TOPS every time I plan.
Your first grade is really similar to mine. I would personally add some extras- drawing, artist appreciation, music appreciation, poetry, nature study... Something you would love and could be tacked on as "fun". But it's also ok to get into that after you have a groove.
I just took a few minutes to look at LOE. It looks great and now I'm adding that to my short list! I'm also worried about the tiles so this is a good option. I'm making alphabet gems/stones tonight so if we need something hands on we can use those or the salt trays like someone suggested.
He does know how to form his letters properly, he just needs practice on writing neatly. What would one suggest for copywork? Oh wait, if I go with ELTL that includes copywork so I wouldn't need to worry about putting anything together for him. Would using ELTL and LOE be redundant and overkill?
I've not heard of REAL Science Odyssey so I'll have to check that out ;-)
What would you suggest for some of the extras you mentioned? To add in as we get in a good groove. I've seen the artist and musician studies that Erica at Confessions of a Homeschooler has available. Something like that? Or something else? I need to look at some nature study stuff!
Thank you so much for your I out so far!
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We are using ELTL, AAS, and AiG Science this year. My son is doing 2nd grade. We really like ELTL because it is a very gentle approach. AAS is great at teaching spelling through phonics. My son is also reading way above his "grade level" so we don't do an additional phonics/reading program. AiG Science is well liked by my son. We are using the 3 books in the God's Design for Life portion. We have finished the first 4 lessons and I gave him the quiz to see how he was retaining information. He is retaining well and really enjoying it. We used Apologia for science last year and it was too long winded and dry, this is much better. My son LOVES science.
Im so torn on the phonics for my seven year old. He can read and sound out words like a boss. But he often gets hung up on spelling/phonics rules whole spelling. Which is why I'm not sure about AAS. I love the idea behind it but I wonder if it might be too much since he's reading so we'll. thanks for your I out on AiG. That's the one we'd be going with if we go that route. If I use AiG I can combine them in this subject. I'm afraid I couldn't do that with Apologia just yet.
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If you can keep up with all those very teacher intensive subjects, that is great. I personally would meet your kids half-way and require a mix. Choose a few to add the extras to and keep the rest simple and combine.
I would skip RS Math and go with Christian Light.
I would skip HWT and go with Pentime.
I would do either FLL or AAS but not both.
Go ahead and do Story of the World w/ activities.
Keep science simple and read books from the library, get some fun kits, watch videos like magic schoolbus.
Addition: Try adding in Art. How about this? https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/home-art-studio/
We used it last year. Oh and buy 1 level, not individual levels for both students.
Extra bonus: school will be a lot cheaper and less stressful.
CL math looks very similar to the Abeka math we are doing right now...which isn't working for us. I could be wrong? Are you saying to not do any grammar yet, even though it's light? What's in FLL isn't in AAS. Again, I could be wrong!
School is very stressful right now because he can't handle all the boring/basic work in Abeka. I do my best to make it fun but what we're using right now isn't working. It's a lot harder for me to adjust each lesson (scrapping Abekas plans for that day and finding my own each week/night ahead of time) to fit his learning style than it would be to just use something more geared towards his style that already has the ideas/suggestions/tools right there for me. No, it's not entirely too hard for me yo do that but with two other kids (one who is a very curious 19 month old!) I find that every minute of my downtime goes to lesson planning. I'm exhausted.
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If he's reading on a 3rd or 4th grade level, then doing something like AAS is going to sweep up phonics so to speak. I wouldn't add anything for that. I would make sure he's reading regularly, but that could just be a free reading time every day. For this age, it can be really short too. And that you're reading aloud plenty, but SOTW will help you do that.
They look like good choices to me. The one thing I'll say is that I feel like finding the right writing program is tricky, especially for young kids and especially for wiggly learners. So just be ready to burn through a choice or two there.
For science, maybe look at TOPS? Simple, hands on. You could do Lentil Science. You could probably just do it once a week and have the other day just be a library book about science - they could even pick.
Thank you! I really have no idea what writing program to use. I like the looks of Handwriting Without Tears since it's so hands on and visual. Hoping it works for them. I'll probably buy it for the kinder boy and the seven year old. Kinder will start with pre-writing since he still doesn't really have any idea how to form his letters. Not sure which level to go with for the seven year old. He knows how to properly form all letters but he needs work on copying sentences correctly and making sure the letters hit the top, bottom, middle lines correctly. Proper spacing is also something we need to work on.
Also trying to figure out what level for All About Spelling. I don't want to bore him (or set him off) with level one but I've heard so many people say to just start out at the beginning and sort of fly through the lessons if necessary!
I used to think that the hardest part was picking curriculum choices...but it's totally figuring out what level they need!
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The seven year old is reading above his level...I think on a third or fourth grade level. Right now we are using Abeka phonics but I do maybe still need something. Suggestions?
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I have two kinesthetic learners. I figured this out after I spent money on Abeka kindergarten through second grade! I'll be selling those and replacing them with choices that are more hands on, short, (mostly) pain free, and to the point!
Here's what I'm thinking but I'm not 100% set and could really use some suggestions/input!
--First/second grade (I say that because he would be in second grade in public school but we on,y got halfway theough the first grade last year since we de-schooled the whole first semester and didn't start until January.)
~Right Start Math (trying to decide which level)
~Handwriting without Tears (again, deciding on level since he knows all his letters and can write a little in cursive but we need to work on better/neater handwriting)
~First Language Lessons & Writing With Ease OR English Lessons Through Literature
~All About Spelling (if spelling isn't covered I'm ELTL)
~Story of the World with the activity guide
~Science...no idea yet. Thought about going with Answers in Genesis but I'm just not sure. I'd ideally like something that's done twice a week and on day two we do so,etching hands on.
I feel like I'm missing something. I know we could add more but after a somewhat decent first semester of homeschooling for the first time (with Abeka) and a REALLY rough start back after the summer (went to talk to the counselor at the ps to put him back in because dealing with his sensory issues which cause emotional issues and anger it was just too much) I think I'll keep this semester simple. I had to take a couple days and evaluate him and try a different approach. We did the Abeka lessons but I modified to pretty much be all oral and hands on and it was SO much better and we both really enjoyed that!
I'm THINKING that with the kinder boy that I might just keep him with the K5 Abeka since we already have it and he's done a few lessons from it (who would buy the workbooks when they are missing a few lessons?). We'll see how the first year goes ams if he seems to fade away from liking it (right now he loves it and responds we'll with it) or seems drawn to his brothers approach more then we might talk about switching.
So anyhow. Thoughts? Tips? Suggestions? Anything?!
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Thanks for the reply! My kinder boy would be the one up and running/walking around, hanging off the couch doing some lessons. The seven year old is the walker, looking off in space, fidgeting with things. They seem to have the same learning style, so far. Which is great for the subjects that I can/do combine. Harder for the core subjects since those involve a little more time and one-on-one guidance. They each have a desk and I've noticed that they prefer to stand vs sit, which is completely fine with me!
I'm torn between Math U See and Right Start Math. We are using Abeka right now and for the most part he loves the worksheets but he doesn't like the lessons. He'd rather just do the sheets and be done with it. Today we did the worksheet in a hands on way...actually, he had no idea I had the worksheet and lesson guide outside with me. He thought I was looking at my planner. So we did our math lesson with a few different things and all orally or on our little white board. He was quite shocked when I said he just did his worksheet without having to DO it. ha
For English/grammar/language arts I'm trying to decide between FLL along with WWE and English Lessons Through Literature. If I went with ELTL I would probably use it for both (different levels) and then use Reading Lessons Through Literature with the kinder boy that way he's used to it when he moves up and he's not jealous that brother gets to do something and he doesn't. That's where having the same learning style comes in handy!
Handwriting, I have no idea....thinking I won't need anything extra for handwriting/copywork if I use either of the two above? Not sure.
Thinking about All About Spelling for the first/second grade boy. Maybe even for the kinder boy if I don't go with RLTL.
History will be combined. They are close enough in age that I can get away with it. Might have to do some extra explaining to the younger one but I feel he could follow along just fine. So I'm thinking Story of The World.
Science, again, no idea. At one point I was thinking about Answers In Genesis. But that's as far as I've gotten.
Reading/literature, if I go with English Lessons Through Literature I won't really need anything else except a few library books they kids pick out on their own or slightly mom-guided. But if I go with FLL and WWE I'd like to have something that comes with a list of books and some questions or something?
And I think the plan is to keep it simple with the basics at least for the first few grades. Unless something catches our interest. Maybe some child picked unit studies.
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Anything specific you were looking for about it?
Anything and everything. The good, the bad. I can't find any good reviews of it online so I thought I would ask here. We are currently using Abeka for the kinder boy but I think I'd like to change to something a little less...um, intense!?
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I'm back again! I went with a curriculum choice that worked for one semester but it's time to switch. Should have never second guessed my original choices! Anyhow, throw some good suggestions my way. I've got a five and a half year old kindergarten boy and a seven year old first/second grader.
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I'm considering using English Lessons Through Literature (for the seven year old second grader) and while looking at some reviews I came across Reading Lessons Through Literature. The review looked great but I was wondering if anyone here has any input on RLTL?
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The poems are for read aloud (kids can memorise if that's your thing, it's not ours). The poetry selection didn't really work for us (a bit old fashioned/religious for our tastes) so we used our own collections and dd chooses a poem each session that I read to her.
The parts of stories? If this is what I think you mean these are usually a few lines from the chapter of the book that is being read. There is usually some grammar activity associated with these - e.g. underline the adjectives/linking verb/pronounn etc. - at least that's how it works in ELTL2, I don't know about ELTL1. There is also a fable or short story (for narration). The box next to the text is if your child likes to draw pictures associated with the story. Mine doesn't!
I like ELTL in that pretty much everything is there, some grammar, copywork, narration, poetry read aloud, plus occasional picture study. It's adaptable for secular families, but has the occasional bible quote/copywork, for those that aren't. Even if you choose not to use all of it, supplement it with more, or substitute a little of your own (as we do for poetry), it's an easy structure to slot in to the day. It gets done and without tears or tangrums :) My dd is older (10) than most using ELTL2, but she was a late reader and it suits her well. There's enough repetition to learn, yet at the same time enough variety to not make it the same each day. We download the books as audiobooks and she listens to a chapter each morning while eating breakfast. The rest of the session takes us around half an hour at most.
We did WWE1 and started WWE2. Each day felt like the same format and it became rather a drag. Like others, we found it frustrating only getting to read excerpts of a book. (I had good intentions of reading the whole books, but y'know)...so we bailed out and opted for ELTL instead.
There's a yahoo group where you can ask the author of ELTL any questions.
Thank you so much!! I was thinking that you read the book along with the lessons but I was just making sure. So the lessons are to be done three times a week...do you also read from the book three times a week or daily? Sorry for all the silly questions!
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Glad to have found this post! I'm trying to decide between FLL & WWE and ELTL. I downloaded a free sample of ELTL and I have a question. Where there are poems or parts of stories do you just read those aloud? The copy work is obvious as it says 'copywork.' I'm just confused a little on the other parts. Anyone care to give me a quick rundown on how a typical lesson might go?
And those who have used both...which did/do you prefer?
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I'm still really new to the hs group here (small town) and am finding it hard to talk curriculum. About a year before I started (was in the thinking/praying stages) while dropping the 2 year old off at a moms day out I noticed a small group of hs moms swapping kids. It's their own little co-op that seems pretty private. I've asked a couple times what they use not for nosy reasons but for guidance, support and sincere inquiry. No answer. Not sure why.
AAS (level 2) or LOE Essentials
in K-8 Curriculum Board
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I think you're right, not ALL of them are on there. I got a little excited and didn't see that.
And interesting on the act of writing words out, but it makes sense. I watched the video intro and somehow missed that, too! Maybe I should stop doing research so late at night!!
I really think, in the end, that we will end up going with LOE. Maybe.