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Amy in CO

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Everything posted by Amy in CO

  1. My son had this sentence to diagram today and it stumped me. I think I may have got it, but wanted to see if anyone knew for sure before I go over it with him in the morning. The sentence is: The ants worked all day to drag the enormous dead cricket into their nest. "The ants worked" I was able to get easily :D "to drag the enormous dead cricket into their nest", I think this is an infinitive phrase coming on the direct object line beside worked. Is that right? Would "into their nest" be a prepositional phrase off "drag"? Then the last part, "all day", is "day" an adverb telling when the ants worked, and "all" is an adverb modifying day? I hope that all made sense. Did I get it right or is there another way to do it? The right way :lol: Some days I wonder how I am supposed to teach them these things when I know so little about it.
  2. I have been using history, literature, and writing logic suggestions for my dd, in 9th. We are also pushing logic itself into high school for her. She just hasn't been ready until this year to process things this way, and even now I am pulling a resistant child into it. Don't know if you want specifics, but here is what we are doing. In writing, we are progressing faster. For example, instead of taking a year to do one-level outlines, she worked on those for a couple of weeks, then moved to two level, for a month or two, and is now moving onto three level. I expect her to be fully confident in those by the end of the school year. We will start rewriting from outlines in April. History, I managed to get the Kingfisher Illustrated Encyclopedia for a good price, and dd loves reading it. I have several history encyclopedias and let her choose the one that was most interesting to her. I figured the new skills would be difficult enough that I didn't want to add something that she didn't enjoy reading to the mix. So we have been working from that for her outlining. She is very good at summarizing, so I haven't done much with that. But for for literature, we have been working with basic written analysis. We use 3-5 questions from the novel/biography list, and 1-2 questions from the evaluation list. She writes the question and then the answer. I just told her it was time to make them more into essays, and she shouldn't be listing the question first. Logic, I put on hold until next year (10th), she just isn't ready. She has had to repeat pre-algebra this year because she wasn't ready for algebra. So while she is struggling, my ds (5th) is already ready to do most of these things. He is more math, science, and analytical in nature. So is my other ds (2nd). But my dd is definitely more artsy, and can't stand school or even see the point of school. In her mind it is something standing in the way of what she really wants to be doing.
  3. What is a reasonable amount of reading to expect a high schooler to read for history and literature? Either per day or per week. Also, when you have a research paper or some other big project, do you just lessen the reading, or do away with it altogether for that period of time? I assigned way to much this year and I am trying to get a better idea of what to expect as I plan for the coming year. I cut the reading back, but now I worry that I cut it too much. Thanks for any help.
  4. My dh rolls his eyes, but I get each edition for the WTM. There is so much in each one. I wouldn't part with any of them. here is the 5th grade 7-7:30- get up 7:30-8:30 breakfast 8:30-9:30 math 9:30-10- break 10-10:15- spelling 10:15-10:45- grammar 10:45-11:15- structured reading 11:15-11:45- writing- lessons or dictation 11:45-12:15- logic puzzles 12:15-12:45- lunch 12:45-1:45- rest and free reading 1:45-2:45- history MWF 2:45-3:15- modern foreign language MWF -or- 1:45-3:15- science TT 3:15-7- clean up, exercise, practice music, play, chores, dinner 7-9- M-art T- Latin W- music T- Latin F- free evening
  5. I have the book, but the schedules are unique to each grade, so they fill 6 pages. As an example for 1st grade: 7:30-8- get up 8-9 breakfast 9-10 math 10-10:30- break 10:30-11- spelling and writing 11-11:15- snack 11:15-11:45- grammar 11:45-12:15- reading 12:15-1- break 1-1:30- lunch 1:30-2:30- history or science 2:30-3:30- free reading 3:30-4- break 4-5 art or music
  6. At CBD, if you click on the additional fews for the G and H kit, then click the previous button, it will show you the list of what is included in the kits and what you need to provide. I would say that there is no way they are worth the $150 or so that they are asking for them. Most of the items are things you would most likely have on hand or can get very easily. That being said, I bought the kits for G and H (books and supplies) on clearance for $12 each. So if you have a question about what a specific item on the list is, please pm me and I would be happy to go through the kits and let you know what they mean. For example- lesson 6 in G, red blood cell beads are simply red pony beads, the platelet beads are small orange beads, and the white blood cell beads are 5 green star beads, 2 yellow star beads, 1 pink tri-corner bead, 1 purple oval bead, and 1 black oval bead.
  7. My kids, 14 and 11, are using Rosetta German 1. They both really enjoy it. The only problem I have had is the headphone/microphone. I had 2 and they both broke within a month of use. For the cost they should be better quality. Anyways, I bought a microphone and just let the sound come over the speakers. That has been working for a several months now. It is the homeschool edition, so it schedules lessons and tracks what they are doing.
  8. I haven't even used the book yet :D I am collecting the books for this coming year. I haven't been able to find the teacher's book to go with it yet, or the maps for a price I will pay. but did get good deals on the student and teacher texts.
  9. I got our study guide for Human Odyssey at Amazon used. I think I paid about $5.
  10. We used this program mentioned above: Principles, Theories, and Precepts of Biology and Precepts of Anatomy and Physiology. I got our set at Rainbow Resource. My dd is on book 6 for biology, and will be starting anatomy next month. For us they have been very good. I added in dissection and a few other experiments. I want my dd to know the basics, but it is very obvious that science is not her passion.
  11. something I do for my son if it is obivious that he isn't going to get it is to break the sentence up. I give him the first part 2-3 times, until he has the first part, then I give him the second part, then I give him the first and second, and so on. Until he has the whole thing down. Then he writes it all out. Personally, I sometimes have the problem that I am so focused on remembering it all, that I focus on only one part, instead of the whole thing. So breaking it up this way helps to focus on one part, get it in his head, before he has to remember the next part. As he improves, the parts get longer. I think write it after hearing it 2 times is a goal, rather than a starting place. In SWB plan for writing lectures, she talks about saying it as many times as the child needs, and being write there to help them should they forget it.
  12. We do history because it is fun. The kids love it and beg to do "just one more chapter". Also, as far as the question of remembering it goes, my almost 15 yr old will sometimes join us to listen to the stories again. She remembers most of the stories from when we read them the first time when she was little. And she will tell my son, just wait, such and such story is coming up. They may not remember everything, but you are lighting a spark so that they will think of history as being fun. When I was in school history was boring and dry. It was a class you had to do, but few, if any, enjoyed it. I love history now, so does my dh, so I am thrilled to teach history to my children in a way that they will love it from the beginning.
  13. We love Elemental Science. It would be great as written for your 1st and 3rd. And a few days ago, the author of Elemental Science wrote about how you can make it appropriate for 5th graders too. Here is a link where she explains it- http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151583&highlight=elemental+science
  14. My son is just about done with WWE 1. First, he always starts with "that". "That pa dug a well" or "that the rabbit was in the garden". I have to remind him daily that we don't start a sentence with "that". Second, I have noticed that the stories that don't catch his attention, will have very short sentences with just one piece of information, usually not the main idea. On the other hand, if the story excites him, and he is interested, he will give me several sentences. At this point, I am not pushing him. If I remember right, in the WWE 1 book, it says that the child might just repeat an answer from one of the questions abotu the story, and that is okay. That the whole point is for the child to think of something and get it on the paper, even if they are dictating to you and you are writing it. As you go through the levels, they will learn to write more detailed summaries. If they can do it now, great. If they can do it with a little assistance from you, great. But if they are just not there yet, that is great too.
  15. we love Elemental Science. It has been a great start to science for us. We are currently using Biology, and getting ready in a month or so to finish that and move on to Earth. It follows the suggestions in WTM, but it is all laid out for you so that you don't have to figure out what to do each day. Ds looks forward to it, the experiments are all simple with things that you have on hand. The lessons are short, and planned for daily lessons of about 15 mins. We do two a day and do them 2-4 times a week because ds is loving it so much.
  16. Likes- it does the job, made learning the sounds into a game with the pictures and flash cards, it was the only thing that worked for my dd, repetitive Dislikes- price, too repetitive for some children (dd needed it, ds didn't, next ds did), length of lessons After trying some other programs, I finally went with this for dd, it was the only thing that made the connection for her. Trying it for the next one was too overwhelming. I guess he was listening in to our lessons, because all I had to do with him is go over the short vowel sounds and he was reading on his own. For the last one, I again tried other things, they were not working, we got Saxon Phonics 1, did half the year, and that was enough to make him confident and not afraid of reading. Then we switched to OPGTR which we are finishing up this year. So it really depends on your child, some really need the hand holding and the repetition that Saxon provides.
  17. I haven't used Horizons, but I have used Abeka for 3 kids. Dd stared with the 4th book, but both ds have done 1st book and on. We don't use the speed skills or tests until 4th grade. And after my dd, I stopped using the speed drills period. Due to some issues, my ds can't handle working against a clock like that. I have the kids do all the problems through 3rd grade, but in 4th (maybe 5th) there gets to be so many problems that it is overkill. So at that point, we just choose 15-25 problems for them to do. And if they struggle with a concept, there are more problems for them to practice with. For how well they learn with the books, my youngest took the 1st grade IOWA last year, while about 1/2 way through book 1, and he scored at beginning of 3rd grade for math. Oh, wanted to add that I also use miquon so that we can have the hands on aspect too.
  18. Where would you start an 8th grade child in Rod and Staff, that has had little grammar work to this point? Or at this point, would you try something else?
  19. I know for my kids, it may seem like they aren't retaining anything, but it always surprises me what they will come up with. My dh will be watching the history channel and some ad will come on for a future show, the kids will say "we know all about that" and then proceed to tell dh and me all about it. It shocks me every time. Especially since at the time they don't seem to have gotten it. Maybe they just need some time for it to "stew" a bit before they get it. And tests don't really show what they are retaining. I believe most kids learn it for the test and then promptly forget it. The tests didn't work well for us as tests. But I did use them as a way for the kids to go back and find out the answers and reveiw. And we did it open book. If you really want the tests for grades though, you can always get them and use them with HO. Give them whenever you read that section from the SOTW book. So you wouldn't necessarily have a test every week.
  20. I like level 1. I already owned SOTW and the AG, but had gone through Ancients book 3 times. When bought HO Ancients level 2 this year for my middle child, I got level 1 more for me than my other son, because I wanted something new. My youngest loves it. He likes the history pockets and the activities. I am planning on continuing to use level one (and 2) next year because both boys have enjoyed them so much.
  21. I have always read it as 172 days. Then if you have a bad day and only do 2 hours, and the next is a good day and you get 6 hours, it averages out. However, I don't count hours. I just have a year at a glance calendar that I highlight the days I anticipate having classes. Then I make a check mark in the squares at the end of the week for every day we did do school. At the end of the month I total the number of days for that month and keep a running total for the year on the side. Once I hit the magical 172 days, I stop. I don't record anything past that point. I also don't keep a separate sheet for each child, I just have one sheet that I add it up on.
  22. After several other attempts this year, we went with the one listed here http://www.pacworks.com/pages/curriculum.html#_ipc We are doing the biology and the anatomy classes. I have my dd do one book a month (there are 6 for biology and 2 for anatomy). She likes the lay out of the books and seems to be doing well with them. Then I add in experiments once a month from the Castle Heights Biology book.
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