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lulalu

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Posts posted by lulalu

  1. I am still struggling to decide history options. We will finish Veritas Press history cycle in the next two months. I want to start a three year cycle as we don't know what our plans for high school are as of now (homeschooling or sending to a school). I have many field trips planned for ancient history. So I want something that provides depth, but isn't so overwhelming with reading that we get behind while doing projects and field trips. 

    I have narrowed it down some. I want a spine text that is narrative in style. I like adding historical fiction, and biographies to round our readings out. 

    So right now I am looking at Memoria Press' Dorothy Mills' books. Looking at past threads people say these are middle school level books, but MP uses some in HS. These also look long. Are they too long to finish two in a school year? There also isn't a book for modern history so I would need to find something else for that. Are these books too much detail and info? 

    Beautiful Feet intermediate history. This looks like a good mix of using a spine and lots of other books to round it out. There are 4 years that I can find. Would it be too much to combine the last two into one year? 

    K12 History Odyssey seems like a great series. The samples I looked at seem like it feels very textbook like though. Does the reading feel more narrative? Does it give depth? Enough to follow rabbit trails? Does it spend enough time on ancient history to also add in a lot of literature and field trips? 

     

    Thanks for your thoughts on comparing these curriculums. 

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  2. On 8/15/2022 at 1:43 AM, OakParkOwlets said:

    Have you used any of the YouTube videos?  If so, do you find them helpful?

    I didn't know there were YouTube videos. We have used the recordings from the website and commentary. DS likes to use the recordings. 

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  3. Great time to start Latin! We have really enjoyed Getting Started with Latin and following up with Keep Going with Latin. The program is very easy to use and explains concepts well. 

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  4. 19 hours ago, caffeineandbooks said:

    Oh I'm so jealous, what a fantastic opportunity!  I hope you have a lovely time.  Homeschool for the win!!

    You might like to have him read Laura Amy Schlitz' book The Hero Schliemann: The Dreamer Who Dug For Troy.  You should know going in that she doesn't think he's a hero at all, but rather a boaster who probably made up legends about himself after the fact.  Nevertheless, a good account of the man and the discovery of Troy, as well as an encouragement toward critical thinking.

    Are you going to Crete as well?  You might have him trace connections between the Minotaur myth and the Knossos excavation - eg the labyrinthine palace floor plan, the objects that look like bull horns, the frescoes that depict bull jumping.

    I know there are sites in the UK that allow the general public to assist in excavations.  I wonder whether any sites convenient for you will do this as well?  Not sure who to ask - one of the universities, perhaps?  

    That book looks great! Thanks. 

    Crete is on our possible list as of now. We plan four days at each site totalling 8 places we visit. 

    I have looked into it before and Turkey doesn't have options for assisting digs unless you are in university. I have to look at what Greece has. 

  5. 1 hour long for 8 classes in a level. During summer the 8 classes are done in 2 weeks, during the school year the options are twice a week for a month or once a week for two months. 

  6. We will be spending a month between many ancient ruins now that travel has opened back up. We will be studying ancient/greek history to coincide with our travel. We have visited many ancient ruins in the past (and returning to some we have already been to) so my DS is past just looking and walking through the ruins. But we will be taking a whole month of travel to focus on sites that are of interest to us.

    I need help brainstorming projects/assignments DS can do. He will be 11. I plan to read a retelling of Troy while we visit Troy. And possibly have him create a map of the excavation and then match up with events from the story. We are already very familiar with the Greek Myths. What else can we do? 

  7. I'm looking for video or streaming options for elective classes. I was talking to my DS about my middle school experience and remembered all the variety of electives I was able to take. 

    I'm thinking of photography, art, home ec., P.E., handicrafts, etc. 

    Anyone know of places that offer electives in video or streaming? Or self paced books? 

  8. It will depend on a lot of things. Will visual memory tricks work? There are a lot of math programs and supplements thst are visually based. 

    For Latin, Getting Started with Latin would be easy to start with. It breaks everything down well. Learning one word or concept a lesson. Make some flash cards to help the vocabulary stick. But Latin might be very frustrating for someone struggling with memory. It could be held off for a few years too. 

    To figure out reading. Do some read alouds and have child narrate. That will tell you a lot. Then have the child read aloud then narrate. Then have child read silently and narrate. That should give you a clear idea if there is a weakness in understanding, or reading, or if the child needs to hear themselves reading. 

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  9. For the most part you need to wait until your child is school age amd see how best they learn. It will take a year or two to find your groove. For both teacher and children to find what resources and methods work for you both.

     

    Robinson was appealing to me before we started schooling. But that method doesn't work here for us. Remember it was a dad having to find something that worked for his family after his wife passed. His older ones were not schooled that way the whole way through. What works for one family won't work for all no matter how well a person can sell their ideas. 

     

    The best things to do now is to read aloud, play, and do fine and gross motor activities. These things will give you a lot of insight into the type of learner you have. My ds could remember books I read aloud so well, and he still is an audio learner. 

  10. The elementary books for math and LA have been around for a while. Written by a homeschooling mom. She just partnered with MB as a publisher several years ago. Her stuff was free on her own site for a time. If I am remembering correctly she does not have a math background. The math is very weak in my opinion. I looked at it when it was free. I am sure some changes were made with the change to MB but from what I read it doesn't seem like much changed. 

  11. 57 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:

    I'm not sure if the flight will be unmasked or not.  Anyone know the status of transAtlantic and other international flights?

    If I even hint that they should get a hotel my mother will likely never speak to me again.  They'll stay with her and dad; I think it's nuts but at least she hasn't brought up that I should offer to share hosting - I was going to do it proactively, but that's what I'm no longer comfy doing.  Having them stay with my mid-80s parents I think is nuts but I can't control other adults so I'm letting that go.

    I just flew internationally two weeks ago and masks were required on all my flights. 

    • Like 1
  12. On 5/8/2022 at 4:12 AM, Zenen said:

    Encourages me to read interest in Greek here. 

    I an my little family live in the Middle East, so Latin is not as advantageous here. 

     

    We live in the Middle East as well. We have enjoyed learning Latin as an academic subject. It has helped with grammar and talking through languages. That way our living language can be just that and doesn't need to be analyzed. 

    We started Greek Alphabet this year and have found it to be a fun addition. But my son loves languages. 

  13. 28 minutes ago, 2_girls_mommy said:

    I just realized that this is all about the Kingfisher encyclopedia, and I have the Usborne which is what I've been referencing.  I'm sure the Kingfisher is similar. I have the Kingfisher history encyclopedia and love it. I have the Usborne Science and love it. Sorry I confused them in my mind. Just wanted to let you know! 

    It does get confusing! 😁 

  14. 8 hours ago, 2_girls_mommy said:

    I think this plan would work very well. The Kingfisher science encyclopedia is great as a spine. It even has a few activities on some of the pages, not many, but a few. It's good for reading, outlining, and as a jumping off point. The Tiner books are great as read alouds and as the history aspect to the science. They generally give a narrative to the scientists or the branches of science and the discoveries. We always used them as read alouds with whatever sciences we were doing in middle school years. We particularly enjoyed the Medicine one. And then your other units would give you the hands on, I am assuming. I've never used them. I always wanted to do our science like this using my Usborne. It just made sense to me. But alas, our co-op was always doing Apologia, and my kids liked doing class and experiments in the group. But with my last kiddo, this is exactly how I'm planning upper elem-middle school. 

    Do you think the Kingfisher has enough alone to be the spine or would I need to supplement with the topic encyclopedias from Usborne too? I feel like the Kingfisher would give us a good overview.

    Or maybe adding in documentaries would make it enough? 

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  15. 8 hours ago, Lori D. said:

    Have you checked out the sample pages at Christianbook.com, or Amazon's "look inside" option? They usually give you the full table of contents + a number of pages to see.

    I just now went and looked myself -- here's the World of BiologyWorld of Chemistry, and World of Physics -- they are both more informational than I remembered. 😬

    I did look at the samples before asking here. But you just never get a good feel for it from just samples. And we spend a lot in shipping so I just like to be sure. I am glad they are more informational than you remember. I think I will get them just to have as the history and biography aspect since we don't have a library. 

    Is the science Kingfisher like the history one? I like the amount of information the history one has. 

    Any other spine you would suggest? We are fine with Christian or secular (we do plan to teach evolution during middle school and again in high school). 

  16. I have been looking at science for middle school. I looked at Apologia, but I think it looks dry (we could make it work, but I feel it is a lot to invest right now and would rather wait until high school). And I was looking at Sonlight. I like the looks of Sonlight science for middle school. 

    However, after looking at Sonlight I looked more at TOPScience. I feel like these would really be perfect for DS. So would it be enough to have three or so TOPS units, a corresponding Tiner book, and the Kingfisher Science encyclopedia? Would that make a well rounded science for middle school? And would it be enough? I would have DS write throughout the units. 

  17. Progeny Press is religious. There are questions where you look up a Bible verse and then apply it to what you have read. But those questions are easily skipped. I found there were too many questions per chapter that I went through and skipped several. 

    But they don't have religion throughout the guides, it is just found in some application questions. And then some character focus when the books lead to that type of response. 

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