Renochka
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Posts posted by Renochka
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12 hours ago, Dudley said:
We did this a couple of years ago, and so I might not be remembering everything totally accurate but what I remember is ....
we did the cartography history part in a short 15-20 mins and occasionally we did the activity on Tuesday and did the drawing part for maybe 30 mins on Thursday. I dont remember there being any correlation in the two. Only that the history started at the beginning and the drawing started with the Tigris and Euphrates and moved historically from there. We did it kind of minimalisticly, you could do more if you wanted
Each drawing lesson we did in a slightly oversized sketchbook. (11x14) she teaches you how to draw the geography of different parts Mesopotamia, then Nile, then Greece, Italy , etc... we do each on its own page then at the end of the year we had a poster board they put the lessons together and drew the whole world . I didn’t make them memorize it . If I did I would have had them practice each drawing more.
She tells you where on the page to start each map
Thank for the response! So as the child progresses each drawing is separate? I thought it was to be ONE drawing of the world?
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For those who use Mapping the World With Art, what size paper do you use? I'm confused about where on the page to start? I assume there are multiple pages we will need to tape? Am I missing where these directions are? Also, do you read the history portion and then draw? For example, does Map Drawing 1 coordinate with reading 1: The Very Earliest Maps? Guide me please! I feel like I'm missing something. Thanks!
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I’ve used IEW and W&R. I prefer W&R. I still use the All Things Fun and Fascinating as a precursor to W&R and I use W&R on the older end of the grade recommendation. IEW has its benefits, but I’ve seen writing from kids who have used it for a while and it’s very predictable and often stilted. If you use it, don’t force all the dress ups if they aren’t going to add to the piece of writing.
W&R only uses fables in book 1. There is no 4 years of fables. I’ve used books 1,2,3,5,6. I like the progression and the thinking that goes into the writing process. There are aspects that are more for a classroom, but you can drop or change those aspects. The book is written to be flexible for both home and school use and I think they do a pretty good job. They learn skills such as narration, outlining, identify different types of narratives, dictation, summarizing, amplifying, dialogue, taking a sentence and changing it in various ways, copiousness, revising, thesis, compare, contrast, argument, and if you use the Speak it section: elocution, public speaking, memorization.
It does require more teacher time than IEW because you are meant to discuss the narratives and (later) model essays. But there are sections that my kids do on their own and I go back with them and look at what they’ve done, helping them if they didn’t quite get it. I also choose some of their writing to edit, revise, and type out.
Thank you! Soooo helpful! I have All Things Fun and Fascinating in a RR cart. Can you tell me what it's like? Do I need any other IEW guides with it or is it self explanatory? What else would you recommend from IEW that will help me but not lock me into their stilted structure?
Thanks again!
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It might be an age thing, but my DD loves the excerpts for WWE 3.
With W&R, there were acting and group assignments. My issue with W&R was mainly working on a steady diet of 4 years worth of fables. I was sick of them and needed to stand back for a while. W&R uses fables.
WIth WWE, don't be boring...Allow your son to pick the readings that he likes. Take an existing book that your son is reading, select two pages out of a chapter for him to read, and then have him tell you a basic plot summary in 3 complete sentences. Scribe them. Ask Socratic questions. He needs to tell you what happened with no pressure or anything. Write the sentences down and if you like, revisit them later. Play with the sentences and the vocab. Eventually, he will assume control. He is 8 years old. And if he has recall issues, have him draw picture notes as he reads and allow him to use them. Success to me is when they can provide a 3 sentence oral summary using complete sentences.
You could also take an existing paragraph and write a KWO. You don't need IEW for that. Check out this link. Page 14 of the PDF I linked might be helpful.
That link looks great. Will print it out.
I know I can do my own, but I like the lay out of the WWE and was really hoping to like the readings. They seem to just get worse and worse for us. For 1 and 2 i bought and my son read nearly every book they excerpted. I look forward to the complete works of W&R but why soooo much fable?
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I’ve used IEW with my oldest and am currently using WWE with my youngest. Last year, we used W&R and stopped because I’m sick of Aesop and the program is written for the classroom.
It sounds like you need to scribe for your son. Remove the process of handwriting, punctuation, and grammar completely while he tells back the narrative plot summaries. Reading a portion of story and then reducing the events down into 3 complete sentences is challenging because they must learn to discern which details to include. Scribe for him and ask Socratic questions until he masters the process.
IEW teaches writing by employing KWOs of existing paragraphs. Each bullet of a KWO is limited to 3 words and unlimited symbols. The student then uses the KWO to create original sentences using strong verbs, quality adjectives, adverbs, clauses/phrases, and various sentence openers. IEW is alright for some, but I am not a fan. Like, I need to locate a box and test IEW’s 100% money back offer.
Maybe, pull back from WWE for awhile and give him time to mature. During that time, allow him to perform copywork, dictation, and basic plot summaries from chapter books that he is reading. Scribe his summaries and then use them for his copywork. WWE is much more pleasurable when the student has matured.
If you feel like you must try another writing program, I’d use W&R over IEW. Ultimately though, you want to remove the process of writing while he learns to process and organize his thoughts. Dictation exercises will cover the punctuation and grammar aspect for now. Lastly, he’s 8 years old. My DD started WWE3 in 4th grade, and she loves it.
Interesting! Why did you find W&R is written for the classroom? Just because of the end assignment?
As for scribing, I do. Oh I do. He can answer the 3 questions she gives to guide the student to write a narration. And then we have 3 sentences which he works very hard to construct. But I feel like he has answered questions and not really, independently, narrated. Does that make sense? Maybe he's a brilliant narrator but I just don't know it? I'm confused! Also, he doesn't like WWE 3 and I don't blame him. The readings are BORING. Paul Revere, magicians, sheepdogs. There's less literature and more details. Overwhelming ones. And I find the instructions confusing. Does she not want the kid to go back to the reading or can he? I let him but I guess I'm confused what is best to show he has truly mastered narrating. Sorry for babbling. I want to love WWE 3. I want to know we are doing this "right." And I just don't know.
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Well, here's my philosophy...
Teach the child in front of you with the resources that work best for that child. Also, one size does not fit all. In other words, it sounds like what you have been using isn't the best fit for him right now. That doesn't mean it wasn't a good thing to use. That just means that maybe right now what he needs is some handholding. There are a lot of us out there that won't make the next leap forward without it and that's o.k. No biggie.
IEW might actually REALLY help him make that leap. It will give him scaffolding to help learn the process for coming up with his own ideas while providing some structure, a framework from which to pull those ideas. It breaks everything down into manageable pieces then helps the child re-assemble those pieces. As for all the videos, well, once you get the system down you don't have to watch a video if the two of you don't like them. Also, they really aren't that bad. You could also just get SWI (videos for the student), which is a shorter program than TWSS (the primary program to teach the teacher). Just watch SWI together. The videos are usually only once a week. The rest of the week is the writing. There is a 100% money back guarantee so you could return it if it didn't work out. Or you can get TWSS and just teach the program yourself. He never has to watch a video.
And you can be flexible. If you want to shake things up a bit, you don't have to marry yourself rigidly to the way things are done in this program. Be creative. Make it fun. What worked well here was watching the video on a Monday then for the first assignment of the week we would all brainstorm together on a dry erase board, discussing, collaborating, even drawing some illustrations on the side. Then we would write a collaborative retelling. The next assignment we would still brainstorm together but then retelling was done more independently. Eventually we didn't really need the collaboration anymore but often still chose to do it that way because we had come to enjoy it. We only watched the video once a week.
It helped all of us to get used to the system and the videos and my doing the writing assignments with them helped them get used to this way of thinking (which was very different from what we had used before and took some getting used to) without feeling alone. They improved dramatically in their writing. And the videos really weren't so bad. They could be funny at times.
I will admit that at first I was uncomfortable. I don't write this way. And it was HARD for the kids to transition to this type of thinking. I got a lot of frustration and confusion at first. What I had to embrace was that writing in general (getting full thoughts onto paper) was hard for them (even though they had terrific moments of brilliance), and would be regardless of the system we used, but with this one they were getting necessary scaffolding. Embracing that fact, tackling the IEW lessons with enthusiasm, going as slow or as fast as they needed for that particular lesson, really worked so much better than what we had been trying before.
Once things started to shift in their brains, then pieces started falling together, writing assignments started to flow much more effectively, and then outside writing began to improve. It was kind of a roller coaster effect. The first few lessons we were riding that upward trajectory where it took tremendous effort to get moving, then we dropped down the first hill and gained some significant momentum. Then we hit another upward hill and it was kind of hard to get up it but we already had some momentum so we made it over. We did that over and over and each time the ability to get over the next hump got smoother and faster. It was absolutely what my kids needed for writing to really click and I am so grateful we finally went this route, at least for a season.
And this is not set in stone. Maybe all your child needs is this one year of IEW before returning to material you prefer.
One other resource I would highly recommend, though, is A Word Right Now. It is a fantastic little spiral bound book that has TONS of wonderful words to choose from, organized by all kinds of topics plus types of words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.). It really helped the kids to get over writing humps when they wanted that "perfect" word but could not pull one up out of whole cloth. They could flip through this incredibly easy to use resource and then, boom, writer's block was over. It also leaves spaces for students to add in their own words, which the kids loved as well. They got to make that book their own.
http://iew.com/shop/products/word-write-now
Good luck with your decision. I hope you find something that works for both of you. Best wishes. :)
Thank you for taking the time to write this. Definitely food for thought. Will look at the curriculum again. Hopefully the epiphany of what to choose hits soon. :)
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I have an 8 year old 3rd grader finishing WWE 3. He's bright, loves the idea and act of writing for himself, has amazing dictation skills but from WWE 1-3 struggled with narration. He never has anything to say. He is a perfectionist and won't narrate anything less than perfect, often taking an hour while he searches for the best adjectives, transitions, varying his words. It can take FOREVER. Mostly it's blank stares and daydreaming, with the occasional brilliant thought chucked in or nothing at all except for "I don't know what to say." Often, he spends so much time contemplating semi-colons and colons that he loses touch with the topic. It's driving me insane. I want to trust the classical process and continue with the narration and dictation approach and think maybe something a bit richer like W&R will help. But then I think maybe he needs his hand held and to be outlined to death. I hate the idea of all the videos he and I have to watch with IEW. But maybe that's what he *needs*? So do I trust the process and do the Progrym or do IEW?
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When you're reading to her, try to have her face you. My son is a visual learner and that really helped him to take in the information.
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I have a third grader doing WWE 3. How do you tackle the child who understands the reading, can correctly answer a majority if not all of the questions but still has nothing to say when it comes time for narration. He simply "doesn't know what to write." He has a phenomenal grasp of writing mechanics: use of semi-colons, commas, parentheses, quotation marks. (Doing great with FLL 4.) He's meticulous in his word choice and often a perfectionist. Dictation is a breeze. Memory is fantastic. We have had this problem since the beginning and I can't say narration has ever gotten easier for him. He seems overwhelmed by the limit of sentences and the need to condense his thoughts and so he can't do it at all. And if I tell him to forget the limit and "just write" (we are finding if he writes his own, the thoughts flow better) or "just speak" he can't do that either. I feel like I need to reset this for him somehow. He doesn't want to drop the curriculum, I've offered. He wants to do it but just "can't." Looking for some helpful hints, something to bring on the aha moment for both of us. I feel like someone must have a secret for me to unlock the constipated narrator.
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My son is learning the Soroban abacus for enrichment. He is working towards a Dan certification right now. I tried to buy the few English language textbooks that I could find as well as a curriculum written by a non-Japanese company to teach my son at home. I was not cut out for teaching the Soroban and I gave up and signed him up with a Japanese tutor locally who uses a curriculum affiliated with the Japanese Abacus association. There are a lot of levels to pass in both abacus proficiency and the mental math portion (anzan) to reach the black belt level that I think that it is best to go with a tutor who knows their stuff.
So this is an impossible feat to teach on my own? I would need to teach myself first. I'm using youtube videos. I guess that won't cut it. Is this a curriculum? Rather is there a curriculum? Or is it just a skill?
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My 7 year old is successfully doing Singapore math 3 (standards edition). For some reason the curriculum buying bug has hit and I was considering incorporating the Soroban abacus and curriculum for enrichment. Is this crazy? Anybody have experience with doing both? Or have experience with doing Soroban?
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I switched for 2 reasons: first, my oldest daughter really had trouble reading regular cursive such as lower case letters like b, f, z...even some of the different looking uppercase letters too. It doesn't seem hard, but for her it was. Also writing speed. She can go so much faster with regular cursive. I think it depends on the person. This daughter has a disgraphia issue and we needed to help her with speed.
My younger daughters love to write "in cursive" partially because they think it looks "grown up." I do want everyone in my house to know how to write in regular cursive. But what I see happening by about 5th- 6th grade is they come up with their own mixture of all of the styles they have learned. My youngest girl is still too young yet to tell.
I also had an easier time finding handwriting books appropriate for my middle daughter in regular cursive. She needed to copy for a while but with interesting content. I used the New American Cursive from Memoria Press that went along with our Latin book. A few upper case letters (A, W,V) were so ugly that we kept a few letters in their Italic form.
Makes total sense! I think consistency is key. If you found what works, stick with it! And you are very right that eventually they find their own style. :)
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Do you have the teacher's manual for the Italic series? It does give more ideas for fun projects to apply the handwriting to other content areas. It also includes letter descriptions for what to "say" as you demonstrate a letter. You could just skip the print review at the beginning of most of the books. concerning copywork: most handwriting books are copywork. The handwriting books from BJ Press are similar to the GD Italic because the print is pre-cursive - rather than stick and ball. The D"Nealian (sorry, I forget how to spell this) books are also similar in letter forms. Any alphabet that teaches one stroke letters will be similar enough to the Italic that you could utilize it. The GD books D and E continue to give guided practice for the specific letter patterns that need review. When your son is ready, you can have him copy from printed regular type into the alphabet he already knows. Some possibilities might include checking out the various handwriting books on the Queen Homeschool Supplies website, or even to pre-plan this summer some of your own lists, quotes, and Bible verses to supplement the GD books.
I am deciding about what direction to go with my 6 1/2 year old too. She finished book B, but had trouble getting through the pages due to her attention span. I had to make handwriting copying pages for her related to other school content for her the last semester. My middle daughter worked through the Italic printing and Italic cursive briefly, before switching to traditional cursive.
Fun fact: I found out about this writing program from my college calligraphy teacher who bought the entire series for her homeschooled grandchildren. I love the clear letter forms it teaches!
Good luck as you examine possibilities.
Thank you! I actually forgot to check the teacher's manual. Will do that now. Regarding copywork, what I mean is there is a Character Italic Cursive book but it directs a kid to copy without guiding on the connection of the letters. We are not ready for that. We still need the slow direction and instruction. I almost wish there was just a cursive book so I didn't feel remiss ignoring half a book. :)
Why did you decide to switch to traditional cursive? I also like the clear letter forms it teaches and the crystal clear and legible cursive that GD offers.
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Thank you! My gut tells me to let him write as he wants and luckily it is cursive, which is my goal. It seems GD is not used as much as other handwriting curricula so I don't get much feedback. It throws me that there is no GD exclusive cursive book, one that actually guides, doesn't just offer copywork, so it feels like we need to do the whole book. But I guess not! As for regular cursive, he can pretty much read it already. I guess it just takes some getting used to. :)
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My 6.5 year old just finished book C. We started D. He doesn't love doing handwriting but the results are great and we are sticking with it. He does, however, enjoy the italic cursive. Do any of you just skip the print italic parts and just do the cursive? I figure since it's such a legible cursive, nothing is lost by always writing in cursive. And I doubt transitioning to print would be so difficult, when needed. So my question is, anybody just do GD cursive and skip the print. Anything lost in doing that?
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I left after one day. I lost only the registration fee. My check hadn't been cashed yet. I would have walked away regardless though. It was not for me. If I had stayed, I fear we would have all been turned off to homeschooling. I say walk away. It's a loss like any other. Like a speeding ticket. To continue suffering is not worth it.
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Thank you for all your help!
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I think for $20 I can get the books. My son will likely love them. And I can supplement with science encyclopedias. And easy experiments are right up my alley. :)
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Thank you, desertflower. How do you think a 6 year old, First grader would take to it?
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Any feedback for the Earlybird Start-Up Science 1, 2, 3, 4 for 1st grade? We love Singapore Math. Thought maybe we would equally enjoy the science. Any experience to share would be great. Thanks!
AP classes
in High School and Self-Education Board
Posted
My 14 year old rising 10th grader is looking for AP Language and Compostion and AP Computer Science Principles for the fall. He is looking at Johns Hopkins CTY AP classes for the Language. Any experience with this program? Any suggestions for a good class? Please guide. We are very new to AP classes and high school in general. Thank you!