amyc78
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Posts posted by amyc78
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Bumping to see if anyone has any ideas...
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I've been wanting to respond to this thread, but have too much to say to tap it out on my phone. I'll try to be succinct! I did CC Essentials for two years with my daughter when she was 9-10 years of age. Prior to it, we had done FLL 3, WWE 1-3, and AG Junior. She was well-prepared by this background. The grammar of Essentials moves very fast, but was a nice big-picture overview. My DD is a very fast memorizer and she enjoyed it. The math games were a fun chance to race friends, but even as the youngest in the class, she was consistently the fastest; I can see how the set-up would be frustrating for a child who didn't already know all the math facts and/or wasn't fast. It worked for my DD, but ymmv. The writing assignments were the most beneficial for our family. We needed the 'deadlines' to actually complete papers. I don't love the IEW approach, but it worked well for us for a season. We chose not to re-enroll for the 3rd year because I felt my daughter was ready to move on from the memorization-heavy grammar stage to more logic stage work. We had a very good tutor. If I can find a campus with a lovely tutor, I will likely do CC Foundations & Essentials again with my youngest DD when she is 8-10 or 9-11. I could never do it multiple times through with the same child- that's way overkill for our family.
What math facts would you say would prepare a child for the math games? Just what they learned in Foundations or all the Times Tables, addition and subtraction facts and...?
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We used MUS for the 1st-3rd grade for oldest- Alpha, Beta, Gamma- before switching to CLE to fill in some gaps that I felt MUS had. We love CLE but I also love the conceptual way that Demme teaches place value, etc. I would like to continue using CLE for 4th grade but also 'supplement' with Delta... Anyone have experience doing this? We don't have time for 2 full math programs...
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I love Daddy School! My husband is currently doing the phonics lessons and some of our AO readings along with his own read alouds and catechism. He did take our son fishing with the parks and rec last year right after our new baby was born. Williams and Sonoma offers a free Little Chefs class on Saturdays. They are neat classes. Recent ones at our stores included waffle making, apple snacks, crepes, cooking using the Vitamix. We also do the National Parks Junior Ranger programs. Some of those can be completed without going to a park. Junior Paleontologist, Junior Cave Scientist, etc. Wild and Free has a Wild Explorers program, but I've been reluctant to join because it is $12 a month or so plus badges. DIY.com has LOTS of neat project ideas. Good luck!
Great ideas! We live in a small town so no Williams Sonoma. We do have Lowe's and Home Depot and they do those monthly build projects.
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1) Congrats on the upcoming baby.
2) You might want to see if your local parks and rec or county park system has a summer challenge. Ours used to----it involved hiking on a number of trails, finding certain plants/animals/locations, and you got a patch or something at the end. It could be a fun way to do a science/nature study if yours has one. If not, you could search for nature hunts. Note: the goal was never to take anything OUT of the park. You just found it and checked it off.
3) What are your plans for meals after the baby? By 6 and 9, your husband could help your kids get involved in meal planning. Reading/following recipes, making sure meals have certain components.....measuring/math
That's all I got for now. We are in a similar situation come August, so I'll let you know if we come up with anything else :)
Oh #3 is a GENIUS idea. We can cook summer meals and get the freezer stocked for fall!! Thank you!
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My fifth is due in June, so I know how you feel! My DH keeps encouraging me to let them stay in ps for another year (they've only been for this one year) but then I would have to deal with waking them up early, rushing them out the door, and either pick-up or drop-off for my kindergartener. Not to mention the grumps when they get home from school! A relaxed homeschooling year sounds much more pleasant to me :)
Yes and I remind myself that a year later with a toddler isn't necessarily gonna be any easier! Better to be home and all learn together as we go :)
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We are expecting a new baby in June. I would like to let my husband take over some schooling responsibilities this summer and fall. He works very long hours during the week and I don't want his weekends to be 'cracking the whip' on our normal curriculum. Other than readalouds, what are some ways husbands can help with school? Science projects, cooking, field trips, etc are all ideas I have but I'm looking for some specifics... He tends to need pretty clear instructions :)
One idea I had was for him to work through Science Chef with the kids on Saturday mornings. But getting them out of the house would be a bonus :)
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I'm interested to hear how you will wrap up 1st grade, what your summer plans are and what you are planning for 2nd grade in 2016/2017...
I'll go first:
Spring 2016 (1st grade)-
Finish CLE Math 100
Continue AAR 2 and ETC series
Getty Dubay Italic Handwriting
Finish SOTW Vol 1
Continue Sonlight LA1 copywork
Classical Conversations Cycle 1
Finish TheOlogy
Read, read, read
Summer 2016
Lots of reading
Lots of outside time
Art Camp
Horse Camp
Math and Geography games
2016/2017
CLE Math 200
AAR 2/3
AAS 1
Getty Dubay Intro to Cursive
Queen's Language Lessons?
SOTW Vol 2
Classical Conversations Foundations
Interest-led Science
Books, books, books
Start some sort of Character Education / Virtues Study (Integrity Time or Our 24 Family Ways)
Art, soccer, gymnastics, horseback riding, piano (not all at the same time)
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I'm interested to hear how you will wrap up 3rd grade, what your summer plans are and what you are planning for 4th grade in 2016/2017...
I'll go first:
Spring 2016 (3rd grade)-
Finish Abeka LA3
Continue Sonlight LA3 Copywork and Composition Exercises
Continue Phonetic Zoo (with some tweaking)
Finish CLE Math 300
Finish SOTW Vol 1
Classical Conversations Cycle 1
Start some sort of Character Education / Virtues Study (Integrity Time or Our 24 Family Ways)
Read, read, read
Summer 2016
Lots of reading
Lots of outside time
Lots of helping with the new baby
Art Camp
Soccer Camp
Math and Geography games
**I'd like to find something for my husband to do with the kids on the weekends... possibly kitchen science or geocaching
2016/2017
CLE Math 400
Phonetic Zoo
SOTW Vol 2
Classical Conversations Foundations
Classical Conversations Essentials??
Interest-led Science
Integrity Time or Our 24 Family Ways
Books, books, books
Art, soccer, gymnastics, horseback riding, piano and Scouts (not all at the same time)
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Complete Spring/Summer 2016
Mathematical Reasoning Level G
Language Smarts Level D
Spelling You See E
Around the World unit study
I've come up with what I want to cover and my daughter will get to choose from a selection of resources how she would like to cover it.
LA: Total Language Plus, CLE or CAP Fable
Spelling you see F
Ancient History: History Odyssey level 2, Story of the world or Unit Study of each major civilization.
Math; Relaxed Math, Hands on Equations, Barron's Painless Pre-Algebra, before moving to AOPS
Science: Interest led, Quark Chronicles, or Science Chef
Electives of her choice she has shown interest in Latin, Sewing, Logic, Guitar
Tell me more about Science Chef! is it just the book I see on Amazon? My husband is a retired chef and would LOVE doing this with the kids
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I'm interested to hear how you will wrap up 3rd grade, what your summer plans are and what you are planning for 4th grade in 2016/2017...
I'll go first:
Spring 2016 (3rd grade)-
Finish Abeka LA3
Continue Sonlight LA3 Copywork and Composition Exercises
Continue Phonetic Zoo (with some tweaking)
Finish CLE Math 300
Finish SOTW Vol 1
Classical Conversations Cycle 1
Start some sort of Character Education / Virtues Study
Read, read, read
Summer 2016
Lots of reading
Lots of outside time
Art Camp
Soccer Camp
Math and Geography games
2016/2017
CLE Math 400
Phonetic Zoo
SOTW Vol 2
Classical Conversations Foundations
Classical Conversations Essentials??
Interest-led Science
Books, books, books
Art, soccer, gymnastics, horseback riding, piano and Scouts (not all at the same time)
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We have recently switched from AAS to Phonetic Zoo. I am so glad to be rid of AAS (even though it works great, it was always a chore to get done). I love that my son can do it independently but I have discovered if I just 'let him go', he will do lesson after lesson without much retention. This week I slowed him down and added a dictation exercise led by me. Just wondering how others use Phonetic Zoo, what does a normal week of it look like in your school?
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Still making decisions but right now looking like...
DS, 4th grade:
CLE Math 400
Phonetic Zoo
SOTW Vol 2
Classical Conversations Foundations
Classical Conversations Essentials??
Interest-led Science
Books, books, books
Art, soccer, gymnastics, horseback riding, piano and Scouts (not all at the same time)
DD, 2nd grade:
AAR 2/3
AAS 1/2
Queen's Language Lessons
Getty Dubay Intro to Cursive
SOTW Vol 2
Classical Conversations Foundations
Books, books, books
Art, gymnastics, soccer, horseback riding, theater and piano (not all at the same time)
We are also going to focus on character building and home/life skills. We will have a new baby and it is a good time for the big kids to take on some responsibility. For Bible, we mostly read aloud from one of our Bibles or devotionals and discuss.
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Ugh I'm really not any closer to a decision. We are in CC and trying to decide if we want to do Essentials next year, or a different LA program at home. I know I would like to at least try Essentials but will have a newborn and 2nd grader as well and Essentials seems so time consuming. But maybe the accountability will force us to get it done? Idk...
Thanks for all the feedback!
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We like ETC but we use it alongside AAR. Not sure how it would work as a stand alone. But CLE seems like a lot of work and I think my 1st grader would burn out… We use CLE for Math and really like the user-friendly format but it is a lot of busy work so I cross out about half the problems every day. You may be able to do the same with their LA?
Edited to add: somebody posted recently about a BJU Phonics review workbook that looked great for a child that was reading well?
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My boys did CC's Essentials class in 5th grade. It was a very positive experience for them. We didn't continue with CC because I knew that the upper levels were not the direction I wanted to go down the road, but that one year of IEW w/ CC was worth it. If I had it to do over, we'd do it again.
My sons loved the IEW writing component, primarily because of the group aspect of it. They had an excellent "tutor" and a great group of other students in the class. The support and kindness and positive feedback they gave each other was heartwarming. They loved brainstorming ideas with their friends. The students shared their essays in class, which certainly upped the effort they put into their writing and the quality of their final, submitted work.
My sons also loved the math drill component. The class was mostly boys, and boys tend to be competitive. The tutor was very good at creating a comfortable environment in which the students could be competitive in the math games, but also work together toward a goal. For some children, math drills can be much less tedious, and even fun!, when done in a group environment.
The grammar component was ok. We had done Rod & Staff for a couple of years and continued it during the year we used Essentials. The EEL work was all review for my sons, which is fortunate because otherwise it would have been pretty time consuming. I think they've revised the grammar component since we did CC 5 or so years ago.
I did not have my daughter do Essentials. She would have hated it because she really dislikes any sort of competition in math. She might have liked the group writing aspect of IEW. She wouldn't have liked the grammar component at all, even though it would have been all review for her, too, because she doesn't like having to learn new lingo for concepts she already understands. (CC's grammar lingo is different than R&S's to some extent.)
So, bottom line, CC's Essentials program was great for my boys.... it gave them a social environment to work on writing and to participate in some competitive games & activities in a fun, positive way. They did some of the best writing of their grammar school years the year they spent doing IEW as part of Essentials. As everyone will tell you, the tutor is key. A good tutor makes for a great year. A not-so-good tutor can make for a verrrry long, not so productive year.
This was very helpful, thank you. I do not know yet who our tutor will be but I do know it will be a 1st year tutor (at least first year tutoring Essentials) because the current Essentials tutor is leaving. I do feel that the group aspect will be a great motivator for my son! He is very social and loves to share his ideas with others, and he absolutely thrives on verbal encouragement and affirmation.
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I am also wondering about the possibility of just participating in the IEW portion. We would of course be in class for all of the instruction but I might only require IEW work at home… I have heard really good things about this program and I like the idea of a the SWI DVDs when I am unable to do something teacher intensive...
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I am really struggling with making a decision regarding CC Essentials for next year for my rising 4th grader. I keep hearing great things about it from other CCers but I'm just not sold on the program. It seems like a LOT of time and work- it needs to be really effective for me and my DS9 to put that much effort into it. I understand that there are really 3 parts to the program- 1) Essentials of the English Language (grammar); 2) IEW (composition); and 3) Math games and drills. I'm not concerned about the math portion as really I just see that as an extra bonus. But I'd like to hear honest opinions about the EEL and IEW portions of the program.
I will add that I grew up a natural writer and never saw much merit in sentence diagramming, charting, etc. I am not sold on that method of instruction but I am not wholly opposed to it either. My goals for my students' language education is to produce writers who can effectively communicate in both written and spoken language, in multiple writing formats and with the ability to perform well in high school and college level classes. I would also like them to enjoy writing. My application leans toward more organic formats- Charlotte Mason really but I worry about retention with purely CM methods.
Help! :)
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I should add that I have several CC friends who do CC along with very rigorous curricula- Sonlight, Abeka and Veritas Press. I don't think that MFW at those ages would be too much. And if it is, you can always cut back to focus on reading and math and stretch out the other MFW work.
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I think it is doable depending on how you approach it. We do CC with other curriculum. We have combined it with Sonlight in the past but that proved to be too much. Right now, we enjoy CC for the memory work, community and brief exposure to science experiments and fine arts. We listen to the memory week CDs through the week but that is it. The rest of our days are filled with our other studies (which are pretty eclectic).
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I am not sure exactly how to implement the above with non and semi-independent writers. For example, this morning we are doing a journal entry entitled, "This morning I woke up to two feet of snow outside my house!" (we live in mississippi so this is fun to pretend :). My 3rd grader will write out his entry on his own and then we will edit together, look up spelling words ,etc and he will write a final product later. My 1st grader will dictate to me what she wants to write and then copy it later. My question is, how much do I correct their work? How much do I help the 1st grader form sentences, start new sentences, etc as she's dictating?
I cannot find anything that tells me EXACTLY how this exercise should be done :)
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I'm not really sure if I understand what people mean when they say grammar. We are doing 2nd grade this year. We are reading The Sentence Family and working on this workbook: http://www.amazon.com/Language-Arts-Grade-1-Spectrum/dp/076968131X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1453443058&sr=8-2&keywords=spectrum+language+arts+grade+1. It says grade 1, but it was too much for us last year.
The Sentence Family (to me) is not independent. The workbook, some of it could be considered independent though I find that I need to be nearby to get the lesson started or at least to check the work.
Well I can't speak for everyone but when I say grammar- at this age- I mean punctuation, capitalization, basic sentence structure, learning about nouns, verbs, etc.
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I started looking at Language Lessons tonight- specifically LL for the Very Young Vol 1 for my rising 2nd grader and LL for the Elementary Child Vol 1 for my rising 4th grader. I like the looks of it but am looking for others' reviews of the program… Is it relatively independent? User friendly? Effective? Any gaps, other than phonics and spelling?
Combining CLE and MUS?
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
I thought about taking this summer to work through Delta for my rising 4th grader and Beta for my rising 2nd grader... Even if they only got halfway I think it would lay a nice foundation for the next year?