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beka87

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Everything posted by beka87

  1. Alpha Phonics is my choice here. I actually do FSR alongside Alpha Phonics. We'll finish FSR long before we finish Alpha Phonics, though, so we'll just keep going with that on it's own until we're through.
  2. Also, Easy Grammar Ultimate Grade 8. It is set up in 180 daily lessons, though.
  3. singaporemath.com is where I order all of my materials from. :) We love the Standards edition here. Math in Focus is singapore math style, but, as I understand it, has a much more scripted home instructor's guide for those wanting a little more hand holding. There was a thread here once upon a time that compared Singapore Math's Primary vs Standards vs Common Core editions. I highly recommend Standards for the reasons the PP listed.
  4. FIAR has an awesome book list that is worth reading through. Like a PP said, I use it in a very simple way. I enjoy reading the same book several times so can really know it and love it. We find places on our map, talk about the LA and Art stuff with an occasional art project thrown in...sometimes we do a science activity, sometimes we discuss something from history. I used vlm 1 and vlm 2 with my eldest and planned and printed lapbooks and all that, but somehow a lot of the more involved projects still never happened. She still loved what we did do - it was her favorite part of school. I am using it in an even simpler way with my current K'er and she loves it, too. I think just being able to read a high quality story more than once is pretty appealing to little kids. We read all kinds of other stuff, too, but the last thing we do every day together is our "story book", with or without an activity. I'd say that if you want it to be a curriculum, instead of a pleasant supplement to your days, you need to be willing to do the messy projects, extended research, rabbit trails, etc. It's a unit study meant to be used that way and while we love reading and talking and even cooking now and then, we don't do enough of the extras to call it a curriculum. First grade could go without a formal curriculum, however. Maybe a light, sometimes-crafty year with your 4 and 6 year old's would be okay.:)
  5. I tried searching the forum, but didn't have much luck. Has anyone used Berean's Science in Ancient Times? Or any others in the series? I am considering using Ancient Times with my going-to-be-9 year old for science this coming year...would it be enough for her? Or is the text too easy? It looks like it would be easily accomplished and that would be a plus for me as we will have a new little one. Any opinions good or bad would be great! Thank you!
  6. My eldest will be in fourth grade and that's not fair... :) Good thing I have a brand new little on the way. Morning Time: covers prayers, songs poetry memorization, memory work from other subjects, Aesop's Fables, reading aloud well (elocution) with McGuffey readers (she hates this, a little...I made her start in reader 1, which is FAR too easy, but she reads aloud too fast and tends to skip words, etc...it's actually really good for her) and a read aloud rotation from either My Book House, Celtic myth and history, or American history. Copy work: daily, from something she's reading. 2nd Language: home made Gaelic Latin: maybe Song School...I haven't decided, but I do want to start this year. Picture Study: portfolios from SCM Art: ARTistic Pursuits, book 1 from the grade 4 to 6 set; also handicrafts (clay, needlework, origami, etc.) I am going to start drawing lessons with all my girls once weekly using Drawing with Children. Grammar: Simply Grammar Part 2, followed by Easy Grammar Daily (what's it called?), either Grade 3 or Grade 4 to review. Music: lessons with me on recorder...I'd like her to start lessons with a different instrument this year. Logic: workbooks and chess Math: Singapore...3B and into 4A, at least Shakespeare: home made, a few plays a year but no definite picks yet Spelling: continue with Apples and Pears, studied dictation Nature study - journal once or twice weekly Composition: written narrations once or twice weekly; Fable and Song from Cottage Press History: A Little History of the World, Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans, selections from 50 Famous Stories (all with little sister); on her own - Memoria Press Timeline Program Biography: Poor Richard Geography: not sure....maybe with little sister, maybe BF course, maybe The Kon Tiki and lots of maps....maybe the Draw Europe and such series.... Nature Lore: The Story Book of Science Science: I think Berean's Science in Ancient Times Literature: Andersen's Fairy Tales, Robin Hood (Pyle), and something else my pregnant brain has forgotten...it's written down somewhere. Plus ballet once weekly for her and once weekly being a helper for her teacher with younger kids. It looks like a lot, but really only takes 2 to 3 hours daily, depending on her attitude. ;)
  7. My second daughter will be starting first grade. :) We school year round, so we don't have an official start date - one thing just kind of flows into the next. We'll be finishing up her K work and adding in a few more real subjects via reading and narrating. So, something like this: Phonics: First Start Reading (whatever is left), Alpha Phonics (whatever is left), McGuffey Readers; I need to collect more high quality leveled readers. I've never been a big fan, but I have all the BOB Books and my daughter loves to pick them up and read on her own. I think she'd do more of that if I had more of that sort of thing around. Copy Work: Home made and only on days when she isn't doing a lot of writing in First Start. She'll start with individual letters, work up to short words, then short sentences. Speech Therapy: Home made Grammar: I haven't decided if I want to do this next year or not...we may do it, but start more in January or something. Either FLL 1 (orally) or EFTTC 1 (orally), whichever I think she'll like better. Spelling: none yet Math: Right Start B, moving into C History: A Little History of the World (no narrating), Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans, and selections from 50 Famous Stories. Big sister is coming along for these books and will narrate from all of them. Science: Nature journal twice weekly and books about whatever she is interested in; we'll also read The Children's Book of Birds, The Burgess Animal Book, and James Herriot's Treasury for Children. Literature: St. George and the Dragon, Viking Tales, Tanglewood Tales, Just So Stories, and maybe something from Parables from Nature toward the end of the year. Geography: Around the World in 80 Tales and Home Geography Lessons; map drill of oceans and continents. 2nd Language: We may start this part way through the year with home made Gaelic. Picture Study: Come Look with Me series Art: ARTistic Pursuits, book 1; handicrafts with me and big sister (origami, crocheting, etc) She'll also start chess with me and her dad, attend ballet weekly, participate in weekly Poetry Tea Time, start recorder or tin whistle with me, listen to a poem a day from our term poet and a piece of music a day from our term composer. Morning Time covers Aesop's Fables, poetry memorization, prayers, songs, and read aloud that rotates between My Book House, tales from Celtic myth and history, and tales from American history. That looks like a lot typed out, but it won't take more than an hour and half daily.
  8. At your daughter's age, I wouldn't worry about it. Narration and summarizing are skills she will learn over time. As she gets older, if summarizing is still really difficult, it may help to write her narration down or her and go over it together, noting what's essential and what isn't. Right now, though, I think I'd ease up...better to work on it later than have her decide now that she hates it. I've always ignored those sample narrations - they sound like something an adult sat and thought about, wrote down, then edited. It's just not practical to expect that from an eight year old.
  9. Dictation is a skill built over time. If you're child has never done it before, they may need to hear small chunks of the sentence a little at a time, then one whole sentence, then finally a short passage. I think when they start writing is probably up to them, though waiting till mom is done talking seems easiest for my daughter. :)
  10. I find that the STOW books seem to work out better waiting a year, so we start those in second. We use living books here, so Year 1 for my daughter next year will look like this: Phonics - Alpha Phonics and First Start Reading Math - Right Start B History - A Little History of the World and Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans, maybe selections from 50 Famous Stories Science - Nature journal twice weekly and Nature Lore books (Olive Miller, Burgess, Herriot, etc) Spelling - If she's ready, I like Apples and Pears, Spelling You See, and rule supplementation I do myself Geography - Around the World in 80 Tales, Home Geography, and map drill for continents and oceans Literature - Viking Tales, St. George and the Dragon, Tanglewood Tales, Just So Stories, and maybe a few from Parables from Nature Art - ARTistic Pursuits (K - 3 set, book 1) and the Come Look with Me series of books Music - recorder lessons and a few composers Grammar - FLL 1, all oral Plus Morning Time, weekly poetry tea time, daily copy work, handicrafts, and chess lessons
  11. I have made all of my own curriculum for about two years, except math. History, science, geography, literature, Gaelic, composition....I prefer to think of curriculum books as resources. I do like having those resources for some things, others I don't mind tackling totally on my own with a just a good library. It's worked well so far and I think I am a better teacher for it. I only use the math curriculum because it works so well and why reinvent the wheel? I think if you pick a few content subjects and utilize the library lots, you'll be able to save quite a bit of money. Depending on the age of your children, you could do writing without a book, too - or my daughter, I focus on oral narration, one written narration a week, pulling important information from a science book, copy work, dictation, and notes and letters to family and friends. It's plenty for elementary.
  12. I vote for the Book of Centuries from Cottage Press. Very nicely made and secular or Christian friendly.
  13. No changes for us...I'm keeping it light and laid back till March, after which the hyperemesis pregnancy will be over and I'll feel compelled to change up all kinds of stuff. :)
  14. We have a six day school week and only school in the mornings. Math is daily, some form of copy work is daily, everything else gets split into short, focused lessons that are distributed throughout the week. It helps us around here to switch it up often (my daughter is 3rd grade...I predict longer blocks as she gets older). For example, today: Story of the World (I read, she narrates, find places on map, do map activity) Apples and Pears (spelling, half a level) Literature with Copy Work (she reads an American tall tale, currently, on her own, narrates, and completes five minutes or so of copy work from what she read) Grammar (Simply Grammar, Part 1 - today was making up 10 sentences where the predicate was composed of the word is plus an adjective. Sometimes we write, sometimes we do it orally.) Math - today we have 20 minutes slotted for a game. She has a daily checklist where I rotate through things like math facts, cursive practice, recorder practice, Gaelic vocab flash cards, anything that is short and can be totally independent. She does this list in any order she pleases as she pleases, as long as it it don before dinner. I do think this would have been too much a year ago. I would worry about math, language arts, and reading aloud daily. I read aloud during our daily morning time as a family and once or twice more throughout the day. Everything else can be rotated and done as you have time. Don't fret too much. :)
  15. After FLL we went to Simply Grammar and Cottage Press materials. Nice combination.
  16. I taught the capital and lowercase of each letter, one and at a time, on the chalk board and she practiced on the chalk board. We kept up learning something new/reviewing until she had the alphabet and then starting writing words and connecting letters. Less than five minutes at a time and totally painless. For copy work practice, we have used Queen and now Prescripts from CC.
  17. A Little History of the World is a much shorter overview than reading all of SOTW in one year. I didn't care for CHOW, either, but I loved Little History. I think paired with a lot of quality picture books (of which there are many and a fourth grader wouldn't be too old) that she could read independently, it would make a really nice overview year. You could also supplement with Landmark biographies for U.S. history figures and visit some museums. Your K'er could listen in and would get more from the picture books than Little History, but really - that book is for any age.
  18. A program that uses spelling alongside phonics based reading instruction sounds appropriate. Ellie mentioned Spalding, other choices might be All About Reading/Spelling, McGuffy Readers, Alpha Phonics...there are plenty out there, but I would focus on her reading primarily, spelling second, and not worry too much about grammar or writing. If you really want to include those, use something no pressure and oral - Simply Grammar, English for the Thoughtful Child, etc. If you just want her to retain her parts of speech and such from FLL, maybe Daily Grams from Easy Grammar?
  19. We don't use formal comprehension or vocabulary. I think most vocab programs are a waste of time if your home is language rich - reading, writing, quality films, discussions, etc. We read a variety of living books across the curriculum, my daughter narrates (oral or written - she's going on 9, so she's old enough to have some written narrations in there), and that's comprehension. We use copy work every single day. We memorize poetry and have a weekly poetry tea time. I don't follow Brave Writer, but I know Julie Bogart includes many of these practices. Also, before narrating or starting to learn a new poem, I check for vocabulary words my daughter may not know and make sure she knows the correct pronunciation and meaning before we read. Anything more than this, especially at the elementary level, seems like far too much. I do include a real spelling program - Apples and Pears - because she needs it and because it uses dictation and copy work. We only do it four days a week and for only about 10 minutes. I also use a real grammar program - FLL 1 and 2 and now Part 1 of Simply Grammar. We've also read and greatly enjoyed Grammar Land. Grammar happens twice a week for five to ten minutes. I only use these because they feel very informal - I do it all orally, it's laid back with no pressure, and it's just enough exposure that she won't be totally at sea when we do a more formal grammar program later on. Cottage Press has some very gentle elementary materials that use narration, copy work, dictation, etc, that may interest you if you want something a little more pulled together. And, as a PP mentioned, Brave Writer has lots of resources, too.
  20. Chloe and Margaret in CO - I am so sorry, and you and your families will be in my prayers. Chloe, I can't think of much to add by way of advice - you've gotten a lot of really good ideas already. I think the only other thing you could add would be some overall big picture guidelines, things you and your husband both find important that would serve as a sort of litmus test for what he decides to do with the younger children as the years go by. Sarah MacKenzie talked about a Rule of Six (or 5 or 7, whatever works)...basically, a short list of things that guide your home (and school) life and help you make decisions. Some of mine, for example, are Relax Together, Read the Best Books, Encounter Nature....but you can have these be more specific as well. I was just looking at my list and thinking that it, combined with all the talking my husband and I have done about child rearing and education, would be so helpful to him if he was to have to finish this thing without me. I use my list frequently - in day to day hectic times and also bigger things like what curriculum to use, what subjects to include, what out the home activities to take on...if something doesn't contribute to the Rule of Six, or worse hinders it, I have no problem ditching it and moving on the important things I've already settled on. I do not know you or your husband, so I'm not sure if this would be helpful or not, but I thought I'd mention it. Many blessings this Christmas and in the coming year. *HUGS*
  21. I'm enjoying learning about EFL and her methods. I've read a good bit of both BL and ECatH. I also read the three linked articles in the very first thread. I'm still having trouble picturing a day in life, so to speak, especially in Arithmetic. Any chance one of you ladies using her methods could walk me through a lesson (or a whole day, over on thread number 2)? Thank you!
  22. We used History Odyssey for two years. I stopped using it for two reasons: too many moving parts/projects/assignments, etc. and I decided I wanted our home school to primarily use narration as a learning tool. It IS a good program. I will miss the maps in higher grades, all nicely laid out to correspond to what is being learned about. Here's what we did last year and now this year that is painless and gets done: SOTW is our spine. We read one section, three times a week. My daughter narrates the reading two of those three times. The time she doesn't narrate I let her do the coloring page for that chapter. We always do the included map work and find relevant places either on our glob, our big wall map, or in an atlas (the atlas is especially helpful when clarifying wars and such). Twice a week we read from a living book, usually we have three per year that take place during the time span covered by SOTW. This year we did Of Courage Undaunted (out of the time span but my daughter loves Lewis and Clark), are now reading Lord of the Nutcracker Men (excellent WWI book), and we'll finish with Number the Stars. Again, we find places on maps as we can. We talk about what we're reading from either SOTW or our other book all the time. For Lord of the Nutcracker Men, she is alternating oral narration with writing letters - in the book, the main character Johnny receives letters from his father at the front. She's taking the part of Johnny and writing back, including things that have happened to Johnny in the chapter. She thinks this is great fun and has no idea she's writing narrations for me. :) No projects, even though those were fun. Just reading, talking, narrating, and map work. She's in 3rd grade and we're finishing the SOTW series this year. I plan to do a similar lay out next year, but with A Little History of the World.
  23. My dd8 loves Memoria Press's 50 States set. It is workbook based, along with geography flash cards to help memorize the states and capitals. Each time you do geography, the child reads a page from "Don't Know Much About the 50 States", then fills in the workbook. We use the cards together during Morning Time and every few lessons she does a GeoPuzzle of North America. It's going great and except for the cards, it's totally independent. :)
  24. Honestly, if you want a language rich environment, the biggest thing you can do is keep reading aloud. Also, memorizing poetry is great for kids at this age. Talk about things a lot, too. Keep plugging away at Phonics...maybe supplement Pathways with something else so you can get a second lesson in. Brave Writer has all kinds of ideas - written out for you by day of the week - that you can do to create a language rich environment.
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