We are on week 32 and only have a few more weeks to go. Almost everything got done. We finished IEW Intensive C, we are one unit away from AFF-IEW with my 5th grader. We are one spelling list away from our goal in Spelling Plus, and we are more than 75 percent away from completing our history and science paces with one child, though we may just read and notebook the last few to focus on our math skills. My oldest finished his Algebra 2 from MUS, his World History Course, and he is almost finished with his Computer Programming FLVS course. We are nearing the finish line for the year, but I am seeing where we could have done better, and where would could have relaxed. I'm realizing that history and science at the elementary stages do not have to be something that you write about daily. It will be okay to just read through and discuss. The basics must not take a back seat to any other subject. We have not neglected our Bible reading, but I can see areas where we could have done more in relation to the Word and memorization, but we let the schedule got in the way, or determine the order of things. Thirteen years in this journey, but I am still learning...

My son has done very well with MUS Geometry, Algebra 2, and is now working on the Pre-Calculus. He won't even let me sell them (his MUS books) because he says he wants to keep them for college. My son has also had to use a lot of Geometry and Algebra 2 in his Florida Virtual Programming course and has kept up an A average. I can't speak for the younger levels since we came into MUS at Algebra 2, but so far, so good on the upper levels. I guess it's about where it's going and for us, it's ending up very well. HTH, Dee

Six years old! Whatever you are feeding him, I need for all of my children!!! Great job!

This is very good! I would be so proud of him!

too cute! I don't think you are going to have any trouble teaching her to read. :)

Okay, I had one of these, a daughter who wrote like crazy since age 7. If your child has a grasp on the WWE style, then I think it will work. I know I saw a few on the yahoo board who have 8 and 9 year olds doing SWI-A. You can always take it as slowly as you need to. Dee :)

I didn't realize that your children were 7 and 5. I think that's too young to start an SWI intensive. I would wait a bit. I started my fifth grader with All Things Fun and Fascinating and it was a great introduction, but I'm not sure a 7 and 5 year old are ready to grasp it all...:001_huh: They might do better with the new primary program that IEW sells. I'm sorry, I don't remember the name... Dee :) ps I would continue with WWE (for those young ages) for a few more years before the IEW...

The Key Word Outline is only taught as a method/way to gather your thoughts and get them in some type of order. It is removed and sort of changed for how to write a story, writing from pictures, and even in writing an essay/research report. Then you are no longer writing a kwo from every sentence, but gathering up 5-7 of the most important facts or parts of a story/paper, to write about. At first it seems overly simple, but you begin to see the process as the papers grow in levels of difficulty. My son worked on an SWI intensive the first half of this year. He is now working from Format Writing and telling me that much of what is in Format Writing is exactly what Mr. Pudewa teaches, but uses different terminology. In the end, the basic essay is the same exact essay format I've seen in every single essay writing program. Topic sentence, facts to support topic sentence, closing sentence, etc. etc.... It's just that Mr. Pudewa uses different terminology, almost like a recipe, and makes the child think that it will not only be easy, but doable! I say that it takes the stress out of writing. It is not a system that you have to be married to for life. You can even use it for a few years and switch to something else later on, and the tools that they learned in IEW will still benefit them. My son will be doing the Continuation Course for his senior year, and I was pleasantly surprised that much of the checklist is removed from many assignments. Now that my son has the tools to write and use complex sentence structures, it is up to him to develop his paper with his own style and structure.

Open the dvd's. Watch a few lessons. Trust the process. You can always return it to IEW at any point, assuming you purchased from them. Give it a good shot before deciding...:lol:

Reading Reflex (mildly dyslexic and learned to read with this in only about 4 months) and then followed up with Tatras for one son Reading Reflex and then followed up with Let's Read, A Linguistic Approach...for the other. With this son, we are now using Tatras phonograms to help with spelling and decoding of larger words. I've loved this combination. He is by far, my best reader at his age. I like RR for getting the child quickly through the short vowel sounds and into short vowel readers. Dee

I'd move him into more challenging lists like in Spelling Power or Spelling Plus.

I agree with using Lial's BCM, or Jump Math. I also agree with not trying to catch her up, but instead making sure she shows complete mastery of each concept before moving on. I have noticed that when you have a student who typically achieves in reading, literature, and writing, they don't do as well in mathematics. At least that's been the case with my four children. The two that are real writers struggle with math; the two that aren't that great at writing, were very successful with math and science. Just an observation, not a total truth...:D Blessings! Dee

Very Nice!!!:001_smile:

Where can I see sample pages? What age/s is this for? Can this be done/worked with an older (16-17) student? What is retention like? How has this worked for you? Please share your experience with this whether good or bad??? Dee :)

MUS for highschool math, and IEW!!!

:iagree: I would just go to the library and have her read books for pleasure...the last two months of school aren't spent doing any real learning...but I think the Time 4 Learning is a great idea as well! okay, I see she has to have something so show for her two months, so I think that the summer curriculum workbook, or the SAT test prep for her grade would suffice for those two months and would have everything that she should have learned in the 4rth grade.

My son turns 12 in October and he will be in the 6th grade.

:iagree: I was about to ask the same thing. I love that she had a topic sentence and a clincher/closing sentence in each paragraph.

If he's 11, that means he's been using IEW since he was 8-9. I honestly think that may be too young for the IEW method to really sink in, but that's just my humble opinion. Even though my 5th grader is doing very well with IEW, I recommend not starting IEW until junior high, or better yet, even highschool. I think that it takes more years of writing narrations and just plain ole development of maturity before the real writing connections kick in, or at least that's what I have seen with 3 previous children. My 11th grader used IEW for the first half of this year. For the second half he's writing essays with Format Writing and so far he's transferred all his knowledge of IEW into his assignments. I think the mix has actually been good for him. Remember that the way IEW is set up is to make writing almost seem easy. They break it down from the outline, to the rough draft, to the original piece in a sort of recipe style plan. A lot of the guess work with organization is removed, thus a lot of stress removed a well. Maybe you can somehow break the WWS assignments down in a similar fashion as to help out a bit... HTH, Dee sorry if this is a repeat, haven't read all the posts...

We will keep the math going because we are already sort of behind on that subject for one of my children, but only a page or two a day...just something not to break the math momentum. We also continue our summer reading, but that is all. No writing, no official assignments for at least 6 weeks. Now if the children want to pick up work and do it on their own, they can, but I'm not really responsible for checking in on them or grading work. Besides that it's fun in the pool, outings, ice-cream, late mornings, cuddling in bed with mom lots!, and lots of movies. :)

With a 5th (using ATFF) grader, it takes us 20-30 minutes a day. With my 11th (using SWI-C) grader, it can take anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how much he decides to do for the day, but we usually do one assignment per week. And that's from beginning (ideas, outlines, rough drafts, and final copies) to the end. :)

http://www.christianbook.com/capitalization-and-punctuation-rules-writing/kim-anton/9780838826119/pd/826113?event=WL&item_code=WW I really like this one!

Hmm? I've used a lot of programs for two years in a row, but only a few for three years in a row of my 13 years homeschooling: Reading Reflex 3yrs. (started in prek, k, 1, and some second) Explode the Code Megawords (did all 8 books in 3 years) Ace paces-we use a subject or two every single year Christian Light math-actually used for 2 and a half years Math U See-used Geometry, Algebra 2 and now using Pre-Cal. Spelling Plus-We have used this for four years, going on 5 next school year That's all I could think of at the moment. We don't change much once our year starts, but the following year can totally change products if I find that they did not work or produce the results desired.

Okay, got it from post #28 link! Thank you so much!!!! These look great!

I clicked on the link, but am not able to view them. :001_huh: