FlockOfSillies
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Posts posted by FlockOfSillies
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What would give her more bang for the buck is sitting down with SCHOOLWORK -- ANY SCHOOLWORK -- instead of being schlepped to work with Dad!!!!!!!
Truly, the dad is a bigger problem than the kid.
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Poor kid needs the Lord. What a mess she's got on her hands. She sounds very angry and powerless.
The dad sounds clueless and imperious at the same time. Tell him that Latin and Critical Thinking *are* SAT prep. He wants her ready for the SAT? Great! Tell him to let you do it your way. Go ahead and get a prep book or two, but so much of SAT prep is vocab and math. Latin is excellent SAT prep for vocab.
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I love having the workbooks for FLL. It has the diagram lines pre-printed, so that's a big plus (and it was a real time-saver for my poky oldest dd). I like the order in which they teach the diagramming, too. R&S left my oldest confused.
The nice thing about review is that you can skip it if you don't need it. For students who need the constant review, it's a necessity.
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Apples & Pears for spelling (although if it were independent work, it would be PERFECT). Megawords for vocab.
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I would just start at the beginning of book 1 for the 1st grader. I don't think you'll be "behind." Just lay that strong foundation. You could always skip a few lessons here and there if you see amazing progress. Or, you could start book 1 just a little behind where you think your kid is in her skills. If week 1/day 1 looks wayyyy too easy, then start a little further in the book, kwim?
For 4th grade, I wouldn't get WWE 4 (is it out yet? can't remember). I thought there was a placement test somewhere online, but it may have only been in the textbook. Just start at the beginning of whatever book you've got and go slowly from there. Give a lot of hand-holding at first on the narrations and dictation if she struggles. But don't worry too much about catching up. I strongly agree with the other posters that doubling up on lessons is not the best way to go. I see mutiny brewing, frankly, if you go that route.
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I stumbled onto the name the other day at College Confidential. It looked great, tuition a comparative bargain.
Then I saw that it's a Pat Robertson project. That's a no-go for us. Too bad, too.
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You might want to consider Apples & Pears Spelling. It's designed for remedial spellers, but can be used by "regular" kids, too.
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There are those words I love: "open and go."
My dd is pretty happy with workbooks, so that's a plus. I like the idea of running the books in parallel, almost as two separate subjects. Things never stay lined up around here, anyway. I think this might work. Now, should I wait for the used curriculum sale on Father's Day weekend and hope that BJU8 will be there, or just bop on over to Amazon to piece it together now? The questions never end! :lol:
Thanks, everyone. I think I'll give the SOTW4-BJU8 combo a try. I saved Lori D.'s booklist, and the SOTW4-History of US chart, so maybe piecing together a schedule won't take too long this year. Aw, who am I kidding? :D
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I was hoping you'd chime in here! I thought about using the BJU8 w/ SOTW4 (we desperately need to go over the outlining), and then just adding in some lit suggestions from WTM. If the BJU8 is scheduled enough, then that half would work. But the bottom line is that it still requires me to sit down and fold the two together into one schedule that my dd will actually follow. I just don't have that kind of time, and given my track record in this area, I'm almost certain it will fail. Maybe I can make HER plan it out. Ugh.
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I'd drop the class and either find somewhere she could take it over the summer, or teach her myself.
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LL8 covers:
Treasure Island
A Day of Pleasure by Isaac Bashevis Singer
A Christmas Carol
The Hobbit
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
To Kill a Mockingbird
some short stories from Stories & Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children
poems from various poets (Whitman, Emerson, Keats, etc.)
We did LL7 last year for 6th. That one covered:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
All Creatures Great and Small
plus short stories and poems
I was hoping to follow LL8 with Windows to the World.
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I do have SOTW4. We tried doing the outlining in 5th grade, but she was not ready at all. It's one reason I'm revisiting the idea.
For lit, I have LL. That will get done, at least. The study guides might work. But I have SOTW AG, I have WTM, I have ATTA... they just don't get done. She's read a few things over and over, but the breadth isn't there. It's really depressing. If I could put all the assigned corresponding lit books in her bed, they would all get read a hundred times. Wait a minute, maybe that's exactly what I should do, LOL!
I'd appreciate any schedule or plan you could pass along. The simple fact of the matter is that I do not have the time to put together my own thing, and that's usually where things fall apart. I just can't enforce deadlines with this kid, but I need to, or else she'll slow down to the most turtle-like pace you can imagine. It's why I put her in the cottage school for math. We both need a "do this today, do that tomorrow" setup -- 180 days of SOTW+AG+corresponding lit in one document. I don't think that exists, and I can't be the one to create it.
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I was looking ahead toward rhetoric stage in WTM the other day, but hadn't reviewed the logic stage history recs. Thanks for the reminder.
I worry that my dd would be bored with the encyclopedia, but I'd have to ask her opinion.
Late in the eighth grade I ran across "America, the Last Best Hope" and I really, really liked it. I wish that I had found it sooner. That, combined with Kingfisher, and the Critical thinking books would have been perfect for us.I've heard very good things about Bennett's book, and I was wondering if it would be over the head of an 8th grader. Thanks for the recommendation!
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Need a little help figuring out history plans for next year.
My oldest will be starting 8th grade next year, and we're scheduled to do Year 4 (Modern) for history. She'll be doing two or three classes at a cottage school one day a week, as well as VPSA Latin I online 2x/week. Trying to figure out what to do about history and lit has me flummoxed. The math homework takes her a long time -- OK, everything takes her a long time -- and I'm worried that she'll never see the light of day if I overload her with work.
I've decided that I'd really like to have something all laid out for us for history and lit. TOG was a complete disaster, though. I really need "do the next thing" stuff, and I think a workable schedule will help her stay on track as well. I've tried creating those, and I stink at it. My schedules always start out too full, and end up too empty. Everything falls apart because I can never get a whole year planned out properly.
So help me out here, Hive Mind. Here are some of the options I've considered in poring over 100 logic stage history threads:
-- SOTW 4 w/ AG. Pros: It's SOTW. Easy on the brain while so much else is going on. Cons: Needs more meat for 8th, no daily schedule.
-- HO Level 2. Pros: Scheduled, all laid out. Can be combined w/ SOTW or other spines (although that involves planning :ack2:). Cons: Lots of people say there's not enough lit reading or discussion. Seems to have overlap with Omnibus in reading choices. (Haven't compared it to WTM yet.)
-- VP Omnibus. Pros: Scheduled, all laid out. Looks fabulous. I'm seriously considering it for HS. Cons: Everyone says it's tons of work, and it's Great Books, not history. If we do the Modern era according to our schedule, that means we'd use the 9th grade readings (1984 by Orwell), and I'm not sure I want to do that. The Medieval period uses more books she's read before, so that might be a better option for us. (BUT we'd have two time periods going on for history. :glare:)
-- MFW. Pros: Scheduled, all laid out (I think). Uses SOTW. Cons: Not sure if I like the overall plan for 8th. The book suggestions seem youngish, more geared toward my middle kids.
Is there any way to take the best of two of these options to come up with the right mix? Or just pick one with slight modifications?
FWIW, we're using either IEW SICC-B or Lost Tools of Writing I next year. I plan to focus on getting her outlining and summarizing skills down cold next year, since she's the type of kid who gets the vapors at the thought of leaving out any detail, no matter how insignificant. (Not enough SOTW narrations the first time around.) My dd is also a fast reader who reads well above grade level.
I also have LL8 on hold for next year, since we didn't get to start it this semester.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading.
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Nobody told me I'd be spending an hour a day closing up folding chairs.
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"do the next thing"
These are my four favorite words in homeschooling. Chris, I'm assuming you did Omni 1 on your own with the lesson plans, not online?
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Can we keep "do we hafta?"
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I use it for my 2nd and 3rd grader. It's very easy to use, just open and go. I usually spread out a level over several days. We do several parts at a time, but dictation and tests each get their own days.
My 9yo started out in SWO and loved it, but didn't retain a darn thing. His spelling is so much better now. If AAS were completely independent for the student, it would be perfect.
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My 11yo dd spent nearly a year in SM 5A, and I was so concerned about her poky speed that I signed her up for an outside class using Saxon 76 at a once-a-week cottage school. She enjoys the class and is OK with Saxon for the most part, but it does take a long time for her to complete her assignments. She gets A's and B's on her tests, and many of her mistakes are of the careless variety. I like that someone else gets to breathe down her neck for math output.
I'm looking toward next year, and the cottage school offers both Saxon 87 and Alg 1/2. But I'm also exploring other options, because I don't know how long I want us to stay in Saxon. The cottage school's offerings seem to end with Algebra II.
What should I do? Go back to Singapore? Community college? Kinetic Books? An online class? :confused:
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My oldest just finished Great Latin Adventure and is looking forward to Level II.
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My 11yo dd spent nearly a year in SM 5A, and I was so concerned about her poky speed that I signed her up for an outside class using Saxon 76 at a once-a-week cottage school. She enjoys the class and is OK with Saxon for the most part, but it does take a long time for her to complete her assignments. She gets A's and B's on her tests, and many of her mistakes are of the careless variety. I like that someone else gets to breathe down her neck for math output.
I'm looking toward next year, and the cottage school offers both Saxon 87 and Alg 1/2. But I'm also exploring other options, because I don't know how long I want us to stay in Saxon. The cottage school's offerings seem to end with Algebra II.
What should I do? Go back to Singapore? Community college? Kinetic Books? An online class? :confused:
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If you can afford it, yes, it's doable, especially for the ages of the kids involved.
So here's the thing about FLL 3 and a ? about 4
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
I've had days where I drop the kids at Gma's to run errands. On those days I write instructions in the workbook. Not sure that's something you want to do every day. I'd prefer something more independent too, but I like the way it works.