TC5
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Thanks, Robyn! I am excited to have another boy soon! Although my husband would like us to go sooner, as he'll be going back and forth (and has been since February), we are planning to go to Costa Rica as a family in July sometime -- when the baby is 2 months old. Mid-July maybe. It's nice to have some time to plan this time. :)
I'll be interested in your ideas even after I return home, though. I am leaning toward getting GSWS to take along. I'll wait until we return to buy SfC or something else.
I agree that the DVDs are needed -- for us, too. And I'm sure my boys could get over it if they're annoying. If the program overall is what we need, then we will probably be OK even with them.
Now I just need to find a way to keep track of your posts while were gone and when we get back. :D
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Thank you for all of the details, Robyn! I am going to use a lot of your ideas.
I'm in a little different situation because we are going to Costa Rica for 2-3+ months for my husband's job. We went last year for 5 weeks, but I had less than a week's notice so planned to use free internet resources to learn Spanish. Then we didn't have internet access. We still learned a lot -- mostly in restaurants -- but we couldn't capitalize on it because I got very sick as soon as we got home, and we did no school for several months and interest was gone. This time, I am determined that we will learn more.
GSWS looks very gentle, and I hope it is enough. I could understand and translate most of the sample sentences I saw online, but I wouldn't be able to form those sentences myself. And I noticed that I understood the language last year better than my children did (because of my limited French and Latin studies, I assume), so this will probably be good for them (and me) to start.
SYRWTLS looks too complicated to start with at my boys' ages, although I didn't see an early chapter to see how it begins.
I really like the structure I see in SfC, with the written work. I love the structure of Lively Latin with lots of reading and writing, which I need and my 10yo seems to do best with. But I have heard the DVDs for SfC are not good and may annoy all but little girls (or was that LfC?). I have boys, so that could be a waste of money. I hope you'll post more about your journey, so I can get a better idea of especially how SfC follows GSWS. Also -- can we use the workbook for more than one child (and me) if we write on separate paper? Or does each child need a workbook?
The knowitall.com videos look good, and I have downloaded all of them just in case of internet failure in Costa Rice or a disappearing act similar to Salsa (which I never viewed but read much about here).
I recently got an old copy of Kids Stuff Spanish based on reviews here and will look for simple Spanish books when we get to Costa Rica. Assuming we have cable TV like we did last time, we'll have the Disney channel in Spanish and very few English choices, if any. Our library here in California has lots of Spanish books, but with my baby due in 11 days and all the other things we need to do right now, I don't think we'll fit in much of that before we go.
I'm also looking into a couple of fun Spanish CDs to take along (Ana Lomba's Hop, Skip, and Sing; and either one by Jose-Luis Orozco or Joel Valle -- Mi Guitarri).
Last year, we had little interaction with Spanish speakers during the week, while my husband was away at work. This time we will be in a much larger apartment complex, so I am hoping to see some children around. We also should be able to go to church more regularly than we did last year, which should help with immersion.
I asked my husband to find a tutor, and that may still be possible once we get there. But for now, he arranged to have a co-worker's girlfriend just come chat with us in Spanish every week or so.
My plan is to get in as much Spanish instruction and exposure as possible without burning us all out. That will be our academic focus while we are there. I want to take the best advantage of this trip and learn as much as we can while there but also build a strong foundation (not too fast through GSWS) to continue our Spanish studies when we return home. Any advice?
Any games you've come across that I can make or buy to help reinforce the language learning in a different way?
Thank you again, Robyn, for pointing me in what feels like the right direction for now! I am going to need to add some structure, but I am liking the variety you've inspired me to try.
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Robyn,
Recently, I have been looking into a lot of options for Spanish, and although I wanted a ready-made curriculum at first, I am now leaning toward your plan. I'm not finding anything else I like enough, either. I also found your December thread, in which you seemed to be considering Galore Park's SYRWTLS. I've heard so may good things about it and was wondering why you rejected it. Also, my top pick for several days was CAP's Spanish for Children. But I'm not sure... Have you looked into that much? Does SfC go much further than GSWS?
Have you finalized your plan? I'm interested in how you are going to put everything together and how long you expect it to take each day, especially with the continued Latin, which we're also doing.
Thanks for any additional details!
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:bigear:
My oldest will probably finish BB2 sometime in 6th grade, and I've also been wondering about the next step.
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Great thread. Thank you. This answered almost all of my questions about what to do for logic for the next few years.
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and my boys (6th and 7th grade) LOVE it! They beg for more and think it is fun. I'm amazed at how well they remember the different fallacies (better than me). We are going to do Thinking Toolbox next year. I looked at the CAP materials at the Cincy convention this weekend and I'd like to use all of them too. They looked awesome but I'm going to continue with TT next year because no writing required (remember I have boys) :)
I think Art of Argument (fallacies), the Argument Builder (like Thinking Toolbox) and Discovery of Deduction (formal logic) look great and will probably do them in that order, doing the first two in one year and the last one over a year by itself.
I looked at Traditional Logic and just can't imagine my boys doing that anytime in the next few years. Much too dry for them.
Have fun with it!
Jennifer
This is helpful, since my boys don't prefer to write, either.
I am trying to sort out all of these programs for the next few years, but my son will be 11, like the OP's daughter, a few months into in 6th grade, so I am most interested in the first steps.
Would it be repetitious to use FD and TT as well as Art of Argument and Argument Builder? They all look so good, but I don't want overkill. Is it possible/common to do FD and TT in one year -- in three hours or less each week? I'd like to get through as much Logic as we can in the logic stage, even if that means ending with Traditional Logic 1, but we haven't made it very far yet (just Mind Benders A1-A4 and will finish Building Thinking Skills Level 2 for 5th grade), as my son spends less than 30 minutes on it each week. Also, is DoD a substitute for Traditional Logic 1, or do students "need" the TL1?
Thanks for all the ideas!
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You might want to check out Lively Latin. Though idk if she can work on it independently. It has the usual worksheets, plus some art work, and the history of Rome. There might be some other things that I'm missing but can't think of right now. Her website has links to games to practice vocabulary.
I think her website offers a free mini course. http://livelylatin.com/site/index.php
:iagree: This would fit your requirements. My son started it when he was 8, and it was mostly independent. He started Lively Latin Big Book 2 this week, and I have a few more chapters of Book 1 to do myself. It's a lot easier to answer his questions if I keep up, but as he has gotten older and more into the program, he has far fewer questions for me anyway.
The worktext itself (downloadable PDFs -- or you can buy it on CD or printed) has word finds and crossword puzzles, as well as Roman history to read -- with maps, art study, vocabulary flash cards to print, online games, downloadable mp3s with vocab pronunciation... The text is fill-in-the-blank, matching, drawing pictures, and more. I love it! I would love to find a similar program for Spanish!
Good luck!
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I remember reading on the Elemental Science yahoo list that Physics for the Grammar Stage would be fine for a 5th-grader and that you could do the sciences in any order. The author did say doing chemistry first would make physics easier but that you could do physics first.
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Elemental Science, mentioned above, is also available in PDF form, so you can get it anywhere. It is inexpensive, and then you just have to get a couple of books to go with it -- some you might want as supplements to any program. We are enjoying Chemistry for the Grammar Stage now, and I plan to use Physics for the Grammar Stage next year. You can download samples that include the short book lists to see whether they're available to you there. Some, such as scientist biographies, are optional or just suggestions.
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I've used Cursive First and made copy work with Start Write after that. It was $15 for a helpful booklet that explains preparation, theory, and how to do it and a packet of worksheets that you can copy over and over for practice and for more children. It also includes phonogram cards with scripting to help teach the proper letter formation, as well as other helps.
I started my now-8yo son with this in K, and his cursive is beautiful. My 10yo started with printing and usually still prints less-than-neatly, but when he does write in cursive, it looks quite nice. My 5yo son is now learning cursive with this. It is cheaper and appears easier than other programs I have considered using.
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I'd definitely say combine them (option 1), but as you continue, if you find a reason that one needs to slow down or speed up, these ideas may help a bit.
I have a 5th-grader and 2nd-grader this year, so last year they were 4th and 1st. We combined history and science (and are this year, too). It worked great. As it is the first time through, both have plenty to learn, but I can change the requirements depending on skill level. Next year, we'll be on the same topics, but I don't think I'll be using the same programs -- for science, at least. That may become more complicated, but it will be much easier than teaching two completely different areas. My oldest says he wants an independent science program next year, so he doesn't have to wait for me. I'm all for encouraging that, although I don't know how much he'll really need my help. Your son may reach that point soon, too, which would open up more options for you.
And neither is on the right 4-year plan for the WTM because we started homeschooling when my oldest was in 3rd grade and the second was in K. I had thought about ways to get one of them on the right rotation, but I figured that once they get to high school, we may not do the 4-year plan anyway, depending on interests. It is a little challenging to know whether the WTM recommendations will work for my boys at different grade levels than intended, but most resources have worked out very well.
Now I have a new plan to get some of my children on the WTM rotation. Even though you're talking about just two children, this may help if you feel the need at some point:
We will be on Year 4 (physics and SOTW4 for us) for 2011-12, when my boys are 6th, 3rd, and 1st. Nobody is on track.
The next year, we'll do a one-year quick overview of world history, maybe with Sonlight, which I've never used before. I haven't decided science, but as we haven't ever done any formal nature study, I am thinking of really devoting time to that for the year. That may make biology more fun the next year, too. Or we'll do interest-led science, which we haven't done.
In 2013-14, I will have 8th, 5th, 3rd, 1st, so if we start again in Year 1, then 2 of the 4 will be on the WTM schedule. My youngest, who is due next month, will also be on the WTM schedule this way. In a few years, my boys will be 12th, 9th, 7th, 5th, and 1st, so three of the five will be on track.
I think it is worth stepping out of the rotation for one year, and doing some really fun things, to get three of my children on the right rotation. Two will still be off, and that's going to have to be OK. If I had just two children, I might try to get the oldest on track -- not the youngest. That way, I'd have a better idea of the materials being used at that level and would know whether it would be appropriate for my younger child when he reached that level. Does that make sense?
I'm sure you didn't need that much information, but I've been thinking about this a lot lately and think I've finally decided what I'm going to do. And I'm excited about it!
Good luck with whatever you choose to do!
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You have been given lots of great advice. I just have a few ideas -- hopefully not duplicates, as I didn't read everything completely. We had to suddenly travel twice last year. We had less than a week to prepare each time.
The first time, which was a 4-month trip, we drove to another state and took 8 bins with us -- 4 were for homeschool and the rest were clothes and other personal items. That obviously wouldn't work on an airplane. My greatest relief came when I realized I could take my computer (desktop -- actually sat on top of the bins wrapped in our coats) and printer (included in the 4 bins) with me. Will you have access to the internet and a printer when you get there? You can do A LOT with these -- just buy some printer paper when you get there.
The second time, we had to fly out of the country, and I changed everything we were planning to do. We did not have reliable internet access this time or a printer, but we had an old laptop that I loaded with ebooks and audio books. We used this for bedtime stories, entertainment, readalouds, history and science, some foreign language, etc. I took a 1" binder for each child, loaded with math (Math Mammoth, which is printable PDFs) and Latin (Lively Latin, also printable PDFs). I took a few basic art supplies that fit in a pencil case, mostly for fun. You could buy a few things when you arrive so you don't have to pack them. In a 3" binder for myself, I also took memory work, some supplementary science and history materials (things I could print or copy a few pages from, including some games -- things I may never have gotten to if we'd stayed home). I copied some SWR spelling lists for one son and took a Spelling Workout workbook for another. That was about it. We covered just the basics. These items weren't very bulky or heavy, so they were OK in our 2 suitcases. Again, they were more important than taking lots of clothes.
This was just a 5-week trip, but with a library with English books or with the internet, we could have managed for much longer. Still, the best education my sons got was from the experiences they had there. Our schoolwork was mostly to give them a sense of routine in a strange place and something to do to pass the time.
I was worried about falling behind, but that was just the beginning of our forced delays in our current school year. We just completed Week 19 of 36 today as others are almost ready to finish the year, but I know we'll eventually catch up. Even with a baby on the way, we may be ready to start the next school year in September. We school year-round, so we've been taking fewer breaks.
My prayers go out to you and your family in this trying time. I agree that academics aren't always the most important thing, and I hope you'll find the balance between family time and routine that you and your children need. Good luck!
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WWE 5
PHP's New Creative Writing Book
Is that Writing With Ease 5? Is it ready? And I couldn't find a Creative Writing Book on the Peace Hill Press site. Could you please direct me to these books or correct my hopeful assumptions on the acronyms?
Thanks!
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One of the changes I'm making this year is to extend from 36 to 42 weeks.
My boys aren't yet aware of how many days or weeks we are officially doing school. Our schedule is so random that it's difficult even for me to keep track! The public school is right behind our house, and my boys know our schedules don't align at all.
We homeschool year-round out of necessity, as well as desire. My oldest son went through second grade in a year-round public school (it's the one behind our house and is now on a traditional schedule). He had three months on, one off. So after his second-grade year, he got one week off school before we started homeschooling. I wanted to get him hooked on homeschooling before his one-month public-school break was over. Since then, we take breaks whenever it is convenient for the family. My husband travels a lot, and occasionally we can go with him. Even when we can't, we like to be flexible about hiking trips and the like when he is home. We take some schoolwork when we go on long trips, to keep us entertained, but it's mostly break time.
We've also had lots of life events in the past year and a half that have made breaks necessary. We started our current school year in November because we unexpectedly went to Costa Rica (business trip) for five weeks. We took only spelling, a little math, and supplemental history and science. We did maybe 8 hours of school a week maximum. As soon as we got home, I started getting sick with my current pregnancy. I was in bed for about two months. The boys practiced lots of life-skills but not a lot of academics. And now that the baby is due in 8 weeks, I am trying to cram as much school as possible in as quickly as possible. At the same time, though, I am trying to relax and slow down -- also kind of necessary because I've had to go to see various doctors an hour away every week since the end of January. That means 4-day weeks for the most part.
So we didn't get the full Thanksgiving week off as I'd planned. We took only one week off for Christmas. And we've had very little time off at all. But we're on track to finish all our books sometime in August or even July, depending on how much time we take off when the baby is born and how much he slows us down. But that looks pretty good for starting our next school year in September. I'm hoping that will be a more relaxed school year, but as there are no guarantees, I never print a schedule more than one week in advance. I enjoy the planning, so I have an Excel spreadsheet with my plans, but I know they are just goals. Often we don't meet them, but sometimes we exceed them. I make my weekly schedule after all the work is done on Friday, with whatever adjustments are needed. This works great for us. And I can't imagine having the whole summer off. Two weeks is about all my oldest son can handle before wanting more structure.
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I've purchased some items from Rainbow Resource and some from Dick Blick, depending on prices. Mostly Dick Blick -- and search online for a coupon code. I seem to remember getting free shipping that way. I even got one or two things from Michael's, but that was more trouble than the few cents it was worth. And Rainbow Resources may have more supplies now than they did when I bought mine last. I'd check there first.
I used K-3 book 1 last year for 4th, 1st, and Pre-K. I duplicated a few supplies, but mostly they shared. This year, for K-3 Bk2, I duplicated more of the supplies. I especially wanted each of the three older boys to have their own watercolor paints, which were fairly inexpensive. And I have enough brushes that the older two can paint at the same time -- but the younger ones have to use cheap brushes, not the recommended ones. When they're older they can use the good brushes. Most things can be shared. The watercolor paper comes in pads big enough for everyone -- unless every child is painting several pictures each time painting comes up in the book or extra paintings outside of the lessons. We did some of that and still had leftovers for the next year. Same goes for other papers.
Don't buy the big packet of tissue paper like I did. I think you need it one time, and it doesn't need to be anything special. Just use leftovers from gift bags. As long as you have a few colors, your "stained-glass windows" will be beautiful. I now have a lifetime supply of art tissue paper.
As for the watercolor crayons -- my boys have enjoyed them, but they aren't what I expected. Not the painting method we were used to. But then, we've all learned lots of fun things with this program!
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:iagree:
My now-8yo son didn't do very well with any writing in kindergarten, but we used Cursive First anyway. He still struggles to put anything on paper (numbers, letters, drawings), but his cursive is beautiful. I am now teaching my 5yo son with Cursive First, and he is doing very well and loves it. This program has many elements to it, and for this 5yo, I'm doing the minimum. I just gave him the worksheets, explained how to write the letters, showed him, watched him and corrected him, and he does well. Now he copies words. But the program also has information about more that you can do if your child needs it (probably any child would benefit from it, but I just wasn't getting it done).
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Our scripture study is separate from our history lessons, as we read the scriptures as a family, but my husband and sometimes younger children are not present for history. When we studied ancient history, though, we were using Mystery of History Vol. 1, which includes a lot of Bible. I really liked that. I also added in about 10 lessons from the Book of Mormon as they fit chronologically. We got all the way through the Old and New Testaments and the Book of Mormon that year -- but not reading the whole books. We just brought in stories from the scriptures as we came to them chronologically. Now we're in SOTW 3, so I plan to add in some history of the restoration of the gospel and church history this year and next, but we're not going to read the Doctrine and Covenants as part of school.
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I've just added all of these to my list. Thanks!
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Some I've recently read to my 10, 8, 5, and 3 yo boys that all liked:
Mr. Popper's Penguins
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Pippi Longstocking (actually, my 10yo didn't care for this, but it's short, and he listened)
The Little House books
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Thank you for sharing those articles. What great resources! Last year, I wanted to know more about Martin Luther and watched a 2003 movie called "Luther". It was excellent. Not for young children, but it gave me a lot of details I wasn't aware of.
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Wow! Thanks so much! I thought I'd get some help on how to do this, but I didn't expect to get excited about spelling! I really appreciate all of your help.
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How do YOU use Spelling Workout? This probably seems very basic, but I'm sure I'm missing something, and my son needs me to do this correctly!
I'm switching my 2nd-grader from SWR to SW this year. We just started with SW-A yesterday. He didn't get very far in SWR last year, which is why we switched, but SW is very easy so far (we orally went through lessons 1-6 yesterday and just did lesson 7 today, and I expect to do one lesson each day for a while).
I did not get the teacher's guide and realized I don't really know how I'm supposed to do this. The format in SW does appear to be more like Spelling Power (which I have used with my older son) than SWR.
Should I pretest my 7yo? If he spells all the words correctly, should we skip the lesson? Post-test at the end of the lesson? Review? I know there are review lessons, but what do you do?
Also, how do you use the Spelling Notebook at the back of the workbook? I had my son write the Lesson 6 words in it today, as a kind of quiz. I planned to have him write the Lesson 7 words there tomorrow before he does Lesson 8.
Any scheduling ideas or tips on general usage would be very helpful.
Thanks a lot!
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After having listened to SWB's lectures and read the WTM 3rd edition, my interpretation from the mp3 was that no other writing program was needed and that we should even skip the R&S writing portions.
Still, this is my tentative plan for my 9yo son who will be in 5th grade next month. We may make adjustments, but here's our starting point:
M: dictation, letter (2/month); Tu: dictation; W: literary essay; Th: science report; F: history report.
Daily: Rod and Staff grammar (orally), which has 10 units, skipping most or all of the writing lessons (with tests, this leaves 101 lessons). He will still read the writing lessons for an overview of the concept.
Between each unit, my son will do one Writing Strands lesson (he has 10 lessons remaining in WS3, which we attempted at the beginning of 3rd grade, for a recommended total of 56 days). In the weeks that he does Writing Strands, I will ease up on the other writing requirements and will try to use WS across the curriculum when possible.
My son is a strong writer (though he'd rather not put pencil to paper) and has requested more writing instruction. I also have an editing/writing background, so I feel confident teaching him -- with the guidance of curricula! I am going to closely monitor his attitude this year, though, as I don't want to kill his love for writing. Also, I just now realized that if I try out all these methods at once, I'll have a better idea of which ONE small part will work for my second son when he's older. I don't expect him to be able to do nearly this much.
I'd love to hear how others are implementing SWB's writing recommendations.
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Thank you for your generosity!
Oregon Trail books or activities
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
Oregon Trail interpretive Center site:
http://www.blm.gov/or/oregontrail/
And here, you can download a great resource to teach about the Oregon Trail:
http://www.blm.gov/or/oregontrail/education-teachers-packets.php
Near the end of this PDF is a list of interpretive sites in other states, all along the trail. There is also a book list, activities, activity ideas, history, recipes, songs, etc. I'm planning to use parts of this later this year, before our next trip to Oregon.