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quelques_fleur

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Everything posted by quelques_fleur

  1. I don't have much advice, but my son will be a challenge a student this fall. I'd be happy to chat with you if you wanted to talk through whatever it is that you're confused about. Was he in foundations and Essentials before this year?
  2. Thanks for all the help ladies. I decided not to skip ahead and go to the next level as expected because I will definitely be doing Ceaser's English II.
  3. Hello, my son just wrapped up his last year with foundations, first year with Essentials. We found CC after starting out with MCT, which we absolutely love so I refused to give it up. We did both because MCT just clicks for him. It was simple enough. He followed the 4 level analysis under the sentence and filled in the EEL sentence pattern on top of the sentence. We love how MCT separates parts of speech analysis from parts of a sentence analysis. We found it a bit confusing how EEL combined those 2 separate analyses into one line...lol I'm glad we signed up for one year of Essentials before challenge so he could establish a schema for CC style sentence dissection, which will come in handy for Latin. However, I believe MCT's method was simpler and "stuck" better. Also, there is a grammar controversy I stumbled on that I sided with MCT. So, he teaches that there are 2 main types of verbs (LVP and AVP) but he also teaches there is a third [lesser known/used] type (a BVP.... being verb predicate). CC does not have this type of verb. The curriculum teaches that a being verb should be identified as an intransitive verb, which I disagree with. My son was able to accept that this is a grammar controversy and he applied the MCT method, no problem. He was also in 6th grade last year, so it may have made it easier for him to adapt. I loved the question confirmation algorithm that he learned in essentials. The faces of history experience was an amazing experience for him. IEW was a great curriculum for writing. And we enjoyed learning sentence diagramming. All in all, worth the experience for our last year in foundations. Though, I'm glad we stuck with MCT.
  4. This is where I believe the year we spent in CC Essentials will fill those gaps for me. I have a pretty solid understanding of all the intricacies of grammar because of it. However, I'm wondering if it would be challenging to work through the grammar practice sentences in Magic Lens series and be exposed to the Word Within a Word vocab while we are working through Ceaser's English II. I definitely saw the benefit of his vocab words showing up in a practice sentence for grammar. It helped him solidify his understanding of the vocabulary words and incorporate it in his everyday speech. Hmm...I'm flip flopping a lot just reading everyone's comments!
  5. Geokitty, Why are the verb tenses bothersome? How much of a leap is it to Voyage from the Town level? My son is ready for a bit more meat than what we are getting from the Town level currently. We *love* Caeser's English and I was planning on moving on to the second one. Hmm... didn't realize there was that much of a jump from voyage to magic lens, AdventuresinHimeschooling. I do like how the vocab words we are studying in that level show up in his practice grammar sentences.
  6. My son is entering 7th grade in the fall. I found MCT's curricula later in our homeschool and he just wrapped up the Town level. He also had a year of Classical Conversations Essentials of the English Language this past school year. I plan to skip the Voyage level for the grammar/practice books and move right into Magic Lens 1. Would you say this would be a seamless transition for a child of his age who has gone through the first two levels and has a year of an in-depth analysis of grammar from the CC program?
  7. Thanks for the feedback. I did speak with someone in their customer service department. I was told that the HIG was never created for it because the curriculum development department had a lot of other more pressing projects that interfered with it. They suggested I look for it used online, join their forum on their website to ask their curriculum expert questions if I encounter anything that is challenging or consider skipping to grade 7 since we've been using the standards edition for that last few grade levels. I like the idea of exploring the grade 5 concepts in more depth as I don't believe my son has truly mastered the skills to begin with. He demonstrated understanding at the time but true master was not there at the time. I feel comfortable with using grade 6 on my own. I may come here from time to time with advice about alternative approaches.
  8. Hi, We have been using the standards edition of Singapore math since 4th grade. My son is in 6th currently and it turns out they no longer produce a home instructor's guide for this grade level....grr. The only option is the very pricey teacher's guide. Has anyone used the grade 6 level without the guide? I like the guide, it gives me nice background info, alternative approaches, and the answers! Don't know if I can stomach spending $60 after shipping on it. It would be difficult to switch to the US edition at this point, so not sure what to do.
  9. I absolutely adore this curriculum. It is full of life and it lays out all the concepts of a somewhat complex and dry topic in simple layman's terms. I would highly recommend registering on his forum to locate all the editing errors that crop up in the practice books. He is quite responsive if you have any questions as well. I recently had a lengthy exchange with him as I stumbled on a third type of predicate that he doesn't discuss in the earlier levels (we are currently in the town level). He was quite patient with me answering all my questions and explaining himself in simple terms until I finally "got it." It is an excellent series once you figure out how to use them. I suggest reading through the teacher resource sections in the back of each book prior to working on each chapter in the books for help in working through them. For our needs, I broke it down to a 6 level analysis: parts of speech, parts of a sentence, phrases, clauses, sentence structure and sentence purpose. He lumps the last three categories in level 4 of the sentence analysis but it was confusing to my son.
  10. It seems that his series does not delve into the parts of a sentence where the verb is a "state of being" verb. His focus is only on the action verb predicate or the linking verb predicate.
  11. So, I don't have the strongest grammar background. We have been using MCT's series and we are currently in Grammar Town level. I feel quite at ease with the concepts presented to date on Subj-AVP-DO and Subj-LVP-SC. I recently stumbled on a sentence where the verb "to be" was being used not as a helping verb (making it part of an AVP) nor as a linking verb for LVP but it was being used to show a state of being. For those who have gone through the entire series, at what point is this taught in his series? Does the series ever delve into transitive and intransitive verbs? Does he ever separate the subject complement into predicate nominative versus predicate adjective?
  12. The book arrived and it seems like an interesting way to study history. I was curious if there is some sort of student guide that complements this for my child to answer questions about what we read. I don't see any questions to answer at the end of each chapter.
  13. My son is entering 6th grade. We have not used any intense science curricula to date. For the K-4 years, we used Oak Meadow. We started shifting away from Oak Meadow during grade 4 and we found Classical Conversations for grade 5. I'm happy with the program so far. For grade 5 we used Apologia's science on human anatomy. Now the he is in middle school, I think it is necessary to expose him on a more academic level with easy to do experiments to the various science fields. I have been leaning towards RS4K and using the Building Blocks text for a somewhat in-depth overview of science. The book looks very engaging, which I need in order to feel excited for science since this tends to be my weakest area as a home educator. I am also leaning towards using the grade 5 version since it seems to be a bit more basic, which is what we need being that some of these topics will be the first time he has been exposed to it. I was hoping for some feedback from those who are familiar with this curriculum. Did you like the Building Blocks series? Will grade 5 be adequate for a 6th grader? Does it sound like this book will give my son that overview of real science that I need at this point? If you have any better suggestions, I am open to those as well. I need to order science books this week...talk about last minute planning this year :-D
  14. Thanks for pointing that out. My son is also in a Classical Conversations program in my area and does learn about major historical figures there, so we may be okay with that combo. I order it for $6.35. What a deal! I was thinking of listening to the audiobook of SOTW vol 1 as we take a 6 hour drive when we go on vacation in a couple of weeks.
  15. Thanks for the replies. I wanted to be sure I was purchasing the right book! We never went through SOTW as it wasn't a good fit for us in earlier grade. The concern is that now I think it's too late as I need something meatier. I was hoping this series would fill that gap for us, giving us a story type approach to history. It sounds like it is not as good as SOTW??
  16. I am considering purchasing The Human Odyssey vol 1 for my son's upcoming 6th grade school year. I was on Amazon and I saw that it was available used for under $10. Am I misreading the listing? Is this the actual text for this series?? It seems like such a huge difference from the new price. Here is the link to it: https://www.amazon.com/Human-Odyssey-Vol-Prehistory-Through/dp/1931728534/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469411756&sr=8-1&keywords=the+human+odyssey
  17. I would be fine with a secular curriculum and teach church history separately. I haven't heard of History Odyssey. I took a quick look and it seems interesting. I want to do a chronological study of history starting in 6th grade with ancient times, 7th grade middle ages and use 8th grade for modern time. Trying to plan for September...thanks for any help :)
  18. I could use some feedback on what to choose for middle school social studies and science. Here is some background info: My family is Eastern Orthodox Christians (Greek Orthodox specifically). We have had trouble with some of the Christian based curricula because of the doctrinal concerns that come up occasionally. I also personally believe in an Old Earth versus a Young Earth, which presents its own set of unique challenges within the Christian curricula. I was looking into Mystery of History and The Human Odyssey for middle school years 6th through 8th. I liked the way Mystery of History seemed similar to the Story of the World but it seems to spend a bit more focus on YEC concepts and even doctrinal concepts that I wasn't sure I could easily use the curriculum in our homeschool. Can I use that curriculum and just skip over some of the lessons that I have issues with and still get a good feel for the curriculum? How do I avoid the YEC stuff that comes up. In line with my background info, what sort of science options would you say I have. I don't necessarily have to follow a Christian curriculum either.
  19. I'm back with my spelling book questions. So, now I purchased the ABC's and all their tricks. It looks like a great reference book, and definitely useful. It's not exactly what I was hoping for. I really need to thumb through these books in person to make a more informed decision! lol I figured what I would like is to have all the rules listed out in a logical way with a sample list of words. So, after reading older posts in the forum, I'm trying to decide between How To Teach Spelling and Uncovering the Logic of English. Does one do the job of what I am hoping for better than the other?
  20. Yes, videos are definitely useful. I was just confused by the comment about wishing you had used it with your son when he was in 4th grade. I was trying to figure out what was different in the video than what was presented in the book and hoping I didn't overlook anything last year when we went through level 4. Or was it that you used a totally different math curriculum with your son? I never thought about looking for videos on YouTube to watch tutorials on the methods, so thanks for sharing the video!!
  21. Heathermomster, this is explained in the HIG and in the textbook, no?
  22. Singapore math only requires memory of the facts through the 10 times tables actually. We are part of a Classical Conversations campus and it was part of his memory work this year to learn them through 15x15. So, it is definitely not something that you will need to worry about! If they know their math facts well through 10x10, they can easily handle 14x8 via the Singapore way because they would do that mentally as this: (10x8)+(4x8). Does that make sense? Sorry to mislead you!! The 11s through 15s was something we did beyond what SM was expecting of my child. :)
  23. For us, it was his multiplication facts that made it the most challenging while in SM level 3. He would get stuck on a multiplication fact, which occupied all of his mental activity. There was no real space mentally to comprehend the steps of the standard algorithm of long division. I didn't get too hung up on division then as I felt we needed to spend more time mastering his times tables. So I helped him with most problems during that level. In 4th grade, he had a better handle on his math facts and was better able to mentally focus on the concept behind long division but still struggled a bit. Again, I simply gave him a bit of extra assistance. This year in level 5, he has truly mastered all his times tables through the 15 times tables and long division is no longer a challenge. Since SM does spiral the concepts taught year in and year out and you have level 3 as a reference, I would do your best and resolve to delve into it at a deeper level in level 4. At that time, you can simply refer back to level 3's HIG if you need a refresher in how to teach the standard algorithm prior to work on long division at level 4. Side note, I always used the mnemonic Does Mcdonalds Serve Burgers Raw....lol
  24. That's all I use for my support. I read through past threads using the search function for whenever I have a particular question. I'd like to hear what others are using myself.
  25. So, the book came in the mail the other day and as I've browsed through it, I noticed that drawback. That's why I wanted a resource for all the spelling rules since I'm not seeing them listed in a logical manner in Spelling Power. Natural Speller was one I looked at before deciding on Spelling Power but I couldn't really get a good feel for it just from the internet. I am feeling at a loss right now to find a better fit. I have Spelling Power at home....is it possible to make it fit with the ABCs book or Logic of English book? Thankfully I got it used, but still, that's money wasted. Need to take a closer look at Natural Speller now. Back at square one!
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