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Everything posted by Ariston
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Where do you sell used Barton levels?
Ariston replied to Hikin' Mama's topic in The Learning Challenges Board
i have bought them off of homeschoolclassifieds before, so maybe you could try there? -
Rod and Staff also offers complete programs in Spanish, but they might be hard to administer if you don't speak it yourself. They could at least get work with vocabulary, grammar etc. by reading the instructions themselves maybe? http://www.milestonebooks.com/list/Libros_en_Espanol/ Harry Potter seems like a good idea too...maybe as an audio book?
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Rod and Staff also offers complete programs in Spanish, but they might be hard to administer if you don't speak it yourself. They could at least get work with vocabulary, grammar etc. by reading the instructions themselves maybe? http://www.milestonebooks.com/list/Libros_en_Espanol/ Harry Potter seems like a good idea too...maybe as an audio book?
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What I do is a I have a short morning, afternoon and evening routine that involves a combination of a to-do list and using a timer. In the morning for instance I: make my bed put a load of laundry in unload the dishwasher clean up after breakfast The kids also have a chore each for one of the 'hotspots' in the house: Son has to straighten the shoe area/entryway, and daughter has to straighten the area where people throw dirty clothes and make sure all of the clothes are in the hamper. Then I spend 15 minutes in each of 4 different rooms. So it might be: kitchen, dining room, living room, and bathroom. I choose whichever 4 rooms are the worst. If I'm running late I do less than 4. Then that's it and I start school. I am at the opposite end of the spectrum though...I do this to make sure that I clean at all....not to limit the amount of cleaning I do :)
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I know what you mean--in a sense it is worth it because we went from floundering and frustrated to reading. So in a sense, any price would have been worth it. I think what is bothering me is the attitude of the company. When i bought Level 3, they 'let' me buy Level 2 tiles and they made it very clear they were doing me a huge favor as this is very against their policy. I felt like saying "I have $500 in my bank account, and I am spending $350 of it on your product, and you are doing me a favor?!" Without the Level 2 tiles, i couldn't continue with Level 3--so in essence they were holding a $350 sale up over a set of $10 wooden easy to DIY tiles. A main reason why anyone is willing to buy Barton in the first place is because of the high resale value, so I think they should be friendlier to the idea of people buying their product used. The tile app with the exorbitant price (again, for a letter tile app??) just put me over the edge i guess in terms of not feeling like an appreciated customer. I already have their expensive program, and am now supposed to pay $300 more if I want the tiles on an app?! Except even if i wanted to buy it, they'd only 'let' me purchase Level 3 anyway. I just don't get why they charge so much, unless the answer is that THAT THEY CAN. And this doesn't seem very customer friendly to me. I know the comparison is often made to private tutoring, but that is rather convenient for Barton. Really the comparison should be made to other book and DVD products, and then it would be much harder to justify the price. I think they set their price based on their product having little competition rather than what a DVD and book should actually cost. It seems predatory to me. I know that is harsh language for a company that is dedicated to helping dyslexics read, but that is the sense I get dealing with the company. Sorry, I guess I'm still in a ranting mood :) I'll stop now...
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My Mardel A Simple Plan Free Online Planner
Ariston replied to Tidbits of Learning's topic in K-8 Curriculum Board
Looks AMAZING! Thank you for sharing!!! -
Is it just the materials part of it that is keeping you from doing it, or is it other parts of BFSU? If it is only the materials and you like every other part of it, what about spending an afternoon with a cup of tea, going through the book and making a list of all the materials, and then ordering from science catalogs? That is what I plan on doing for this year when i have some $. Because if I wait until the week of, i'll end up not having things I need and then not doing it. I have heard Nancy Larson described as being similar to what you're looking for, but I've never looked into so i can't say for sure, but I would look into that. http://www.nancylarson.com/index_hs2.html
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BTW, the first lesson in VL introduces a LOT of new words. Maybe this is what you meant by needing more hand holding--it is an overwhelming amount of new info. I kind of freaked out and thought "How am I going to teach my son all these new words so he can keep up with this program? But I thought I would have him do a few more lessons just to see how it went. To my amazement, it wasn't a problem at all. The same words are reinforced over and over for the entire first level--its not like they are constantly introducing new words. And I think having the little animations with each phrase or word helps my kids learn them. Anyway, just wanted to say you might want to try it for a week or two (it is free after all) and see how it goes.
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Visual Link has been amazing for my kids. Curious in what way you feel you need more support? It is pretty open and go for us (well, turn on and go.) I do need to help them type for the games, but 90% of it they just do on their own. And they are learning a ton. When my kids were younger we got a lot of use out of the Usborne books (First 100 Words and First 1000 words.) They enjoyed learning the words when they were toddlers and finding the pato on each page. They have a website where you can click and hear pronunciation of the words, page by page. I'd recommend you start introducing vocab and short phrases around the house into your daily life--start off small, with maybe just one per week and build up.
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Here are a few: http://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Spanish-Reader-ebook/dp/B004UITU9K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374892196&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/First-Spanish-Reader-Edition-ebook/dp/B004TQYXPY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1374892095&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/Second-Spanish-Reader-Readers-ebook/dp/B009XDNM9G/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1374891956&sr=8-5&keywords=spanish+reader These are more advanced: http://www.amazon.com/Spanish-Tales-Beginners-Edition-ebook/dp/B005HKGM8C/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1374892424&sr=8-7&keywords=spanish+stories http://www.amazon.com/Heaths-Modern-Language-Series-ebook/dp/B004UIU40E/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1374892366&sr=8-4&keywords=spanish+stories
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My son is in Level 4. Things are going swimmingly, and he's gaining a lot of confidence and skill in his reading. But the new Barton tile app has sent me over the edge. It is a free app, but you have to buy each level of tiles you want to buy--for $30 each!! And, as with the wooden tiles, they will ONLY sell the tiles for the levels you have bought from them (which for me, is just Level 3.) They act like they are protecting the crown jewels when they are talking about alphabet letter tiles--they did not invent them!! I can't believe that if I were insane enough to want to spend $30 on Level 1 tiles (which correct me if I'm wrong consists of only 5 blank tiles, right????????) that they would actually turn me away. I have already paid through the nose to use this program, and have recommended it to others too. I have tried to suppress my thoughts about it being ridiculously overpriced. I understand that she is running a business and has put a lot of time and money into developing a quality product. But she did not invent letter tiles, nor the O-G method. Level 1 is $250 for 2 weeks worth of lessons! I know she does a lot of speaking engagements for free and is helpful on the phone to many people, and I try to tell myself that it is probably an expensive program to produce. Maybe I am just used to buying things mass produced in China for cheap. But any mother of a child who has cried over reading is in a vulnerable place and when you get to that point where you will pay ANYTHING even if you don't have anything, I'm just left feeling taken advantage of. And also feeling a little stupid for not finding something that would work for less $. Its a quality program, but at the same time it isn't exactly rocket science... OK, rant over. :drool5:
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IKYM...its hard with foreign languages for kids who aren't ready for grammar, especially for the ancient languages although there is much more available for Latin now. If your child isn't ready for grammar yet I would work on transliterating, and vocabulary. She can probably learn a lot of vocabulary in a year which would help later. I haven't used it, but Level 2 of Hey Andrew looks like it might be good for you?
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That is actually what I had in mind...I work best that way. How much time per day would you think I'd need to set aside? Does it work best daily? or a few times a week? I have not purchased it yet and am trying to figure out how much of our schedule it will take up. I already have things pretty well laid out, with not too much extra room... Thanks everyone!
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If I were to do MCT with my 7 and 9 year old this year, what would that look like? How often would I do it and how long at each sitting? Thanks!
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Math for the kid that wants white space
Ariston replied to NatashainDFW's topic in K-8 Curriculum Board
MEP is great for my ADHD kid. Very plain, b/w and each section is clearly separated from the other. -
I would take a look at the free movies of the week to get an idea. For my children when they were 6 I think Jr. would have been better. You might also want to check out the HSBC deal right now on Discovery Streaming--they have a free trial until August 31st. I am finding tons of stuff on there to supplement BFSU.
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I think its great he is using mental math and would no require him to show work for this type of problem. Mental math is used to make things quicker, so I think it would be frustrating for him to be trying to take shortcuts in his head, and then just have to write it all out anyway. He might as well be doing long division on paper, kwim?
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If 'less is more' is working for you, then I wouldn't add too much. I do better with less, but am always adding more in, self destructing, and going back to basics again. That said ;) , Lets-read-and-find-out Science is a great series for science. Most libraries carry a lot of them and they are short little books on a wide variet of subjects. Easily understood, but still 'real' science topics. Also if he is your oldest and you have some more coming up behind him close in age, you don't necessarily want to start history or science or anything too intensively if you will want to combine them later on...
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I recently bought Better Chinese My First Chinese Words. Even though it is advertised as Pre-K, I think it is a good level for my 9 and 7 year old (and me!) We haven't started yet but they've already memorized the first story (Wo ai wo de jia) just based on hearing the song on the website. I'm excited to start, I think it will be great. I'm actually auditing a Chinese 101 classs at our local college so that I can have a leg up on helping them. I am wondering from those of you who have been doing it for a while...do you teach reading and writing separately? In other words can your kids read more characters than they can actually write? It seems to me like it would be hard to visually recognize a character without learning to write it, but from the way My First Chinese Words is set up, it seems like you are just supposed to be reading them. (There is a section in the activity book where you are learning to write, but it is not any of the characters in the story. ) How do you teach the characters, flash cards? I'd like to do one story a week (there are 36) but I couldn't keep up that pace if they were learning to write the characters, because it seems like there are at least 5 or 6 new characters in each story.
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Resource for Learning to read in Spanish?
Ariston replied to Ariston's topic in Bilingual Education Board
bárbaro, gracias! I was asking for my friend, but this looks good (and cheap.) Thinking of getting it for myself. (Not that I need yet another Spanish resource..... :glare: ) -
Resource for Learning to read in Spanish?
Ariston replied to Ariston's topic in Bilingual Education Board
Thank you, I have passed on the suggestions. Her kids already speak Spanish as that is what they speak in the house, but she needed something to teach them to read and write during the summer. -
Do you have a kindle? If so there are some fantastic first readers in Spanish that are free b/c their copywrite has expired. I think a first spanish reader designed for a foreign language learner would be much better for you than a first reader designed for a spanish speaker. First readers for native speakers, just as those in English, often have vocab that would be unfamiliar to FLLs, as well as grammar that would be advanced (and yet perfectly understandable to children--think of a sentence like "the swan had been stuck in the muck.") First readers designed for FLL will have very controlled vocabulary and verbs. Usually everything is in the present tense, etc.
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Just wanted to offer a differing opinion. I absolutely hated SFC. It is to date still the ONLY thing I've bought that I went to the trouble of returning instead of saving to see if it would work down the line. I can't remember all the details (I think i've written other posts about it) but I remember finding it completely disorganized. And I also didn't understand why they would want to teach a language like Spanish (which is the second most widely spoken language in the world) the way you would teach a dead language like Latin. I think there is a much stronger argument for moving in the other direction, i.e. teaching Latin more they way we teach living languages. I would especially not recommend it for children under 10. There is a lot of focus on reading, writing, and grammar. As far as the DVD goes, the teacher is charming and a good teacher, but I think there is absolutely no excuse in the USA with so many hispanics to use a non-native speaker, especially one with a heavy American accent. Maybe they could have had her doing the teaching, but a native speaker doing the chants, etc. There are a number of programs that look fantastic for elementary spanish, especially Calico and Sube. But they are expensive (I think $250) so I've never tried them. Something else to look into: there are is a series of video lessons with a PDF packet of activities to support it on Discovery Streaming called Elementary Spanish. I mention this because Discovery Streaming is free now until August 31st through HSBC, so its a good time to try it out. I tried the First/Second grade with my kids and I didn't like it, but this time around we're doing the 3rd/4th grade and its going much better, not sure why. But that is something to look into. There are also the Salsa videos which are free and good for young kids. (I don't have the link to Salsa but I'm sure you could find it on these boards.) Last but not least, if I only had one resource for teaching Spanish, it would definitely be Visual Link. It is the one thing which has helped my children put together sentences on their own and really attempt to communicate naturally. I paid for the downloads, but I think most of it is available for free. ETA: Also there are a ton of videos in Spanish on Discovery Streaming, including a lot that are at the perfect level for beginners. Many are about animals or topics in science, so they tie into what we are learning that week. I think I'm going to have to subscribe after my free trial is up...