Thanks everyone... I went ahead and gave her the TT Pre-algebra pretest and it said she was ready to move forward. Even though we're done for the year, I'm going to take the tests from Saxon 8/7 and give them to her for "practice" and to give me a better indicator of how well she really knows this stuff.

That's correct... just wanting to use the writing portion. I have one that will be fourth grade too so I was trying to figure out if I could go with the 5th grade book for both. It would be up a level for one (but she's not as apprehensive about writing) and down a level for the other (who hates writing and really needs the help). My other option would be to do the 4th grade with one and the 5th with the other. I looked at the grammar portion and compared with GWG. I liked the GWG better and so did the girls. I figured I would also be able to use that as a back up if we needed more work. The only other writing I've looked at has been Writing Strands and I don't really care for it. I just saw Writeshop yesterday and really liked it, but looks like that's for older students.

I think I've finally decided on GWG for the grammar work after reviewing it and hearing how it is very similar to R&S. It just looks more to the point and easier to read and get started on. I'm not looking at using the R&S for the writing instruction. DD's have had very little at the school they were at PT (used Shurley). I tried Writing Strands 3 with one of them and didn't really care for it. Glanced at R&S today and liked the writing sections to "get their feet wet." Is there any real difference in the writing between Levels 4, 5, and 6? Would you recommend one over the others if this is all I'm using it for? I'll have a 4th grader and a 5th/6th grader (who despises writing) at home next year. Thanks!

Then we may never progress :001_unsure: This is an issue with all of her grades. Because I'm holding her back and having her do 5th again next year (in name) I'm trying to figure out whether to move on with curriculum or have her slow down and repeat. My only concern in repeating is that she did actually pass these classes, just not with A's. I definitely don't want her to be bored... Grammar and Math are the two I'm looking at. B average overall, but some tests with low to mid-C's. Anyone else have ideas?

I'm glancing through WTM section on math and it (as well as other posts on here) talks about going a certain program if the child "isn't ready to progress." For example, do Saxon 8/7 as opposed to Algebra 1/2. So how do you know if the child has mastered something? DD has a test average in math of 82%. Her lowest test score was a 70 and her highest was a 100. I know if we were in public school she'd advance right on to the next level... same with homeschool?

Oh, I forgot to add... the early years just build that foundation, but like other programs, it adds to it. The jingles also change slightly to add a new word or two in to cover what is being dealt with in that particular year.

My kids have been in two classical schools and both used Shurley. This year I pulled one child out to HS full time and we switched to Abeka, only because I was going to hold her back and didn't want her to go back to the school and repeat the same level of Shurley. We hated Abeka and her retention has been very poor with it. When she get's confused and can't identify a part of speech I have her go back to the Q&A flow and we are able to get it immediately (myself included). The only reason I switched was after talking to SWB at a convention and her mentioning the importance of diagramming. We've done diagramming this year, but I think it flew through and didn't have you doing it often enough for us to retain. Maybe if we had done it all along it wouldn't be this big of an issue and we'd have it down like we do the Q&A flow (when she chooses to do it). For next year I'm going back and forth, but I think I've decided to do a hodge podge of things. Back to Shurley for the basics... the Q&A, jingles, and the practice problems on things like punctuation, capitalization, etc. I like that this is repeated throughout the lessons, but only with a couple of problems per page... not like 10 problems in a day and then you don't see it again for a long time. I will probably throw in some Growing with Grammar, but pick and choose some problems out of there. I've seen a lot of reviews that compare it to Rod&Staff, but without the writing. The samples I've seen have the child trying to pick a word (for example, an adverb) to plug into a sentence, which is something I don't recall seeing in Shurley. Don't like the Shurley writing at all, and Growing with Grammar doesn't include it, so we'll be doing something else there. Hoping to hear more responses to your post!

Hmmmm.... you've got me rethinking this whole thing... and vocab was my only area that I was thinking I had figured out! We have always done one Wordly Wise through the year and just broke it up into small chunks. I like the way you're planning. Thanks!:thumbup:

Just curious as to why you're doing two vocab programs. We are doing the Wordly Wise and I would like to do the Vocab from Classical Roots in the future... but now you have me second guessing myself :)

If I'm doing this right, you'd find them here: http://www.growingwithgrammar.com/indexofproducts.html

GWG actually has sample lessons on their website. It would be the teaching page as well as the written assignment page.

So do you guys ever find yourself using the question and answer flow to identify what some of the parts of speech are? Because this was our first year of Abeka and diagramming, I don't think we really learned it WELL and that may be why I'm having a hard time seeing the value in it... along with the fact that I'm actually going back and using the Q&A flow myself to find the different parts of speech. Even to do the basic subject/verb part of the diagramming. It's like it's ingrained in my head. I'm holding her back next year anyway and was thinking about going back and using the Shurley with the Growing with Grammar... and just picking out of the two to make the assignment. What do you think?

My head is spinning right now. I'm grading my 5th grader's Abeka grammar and she's done very poorly on the end of year review. We did Shurley English all the way up til this year and she could automatically label every part of speech in the sentence. It seems like this year has just confused her. I switched to Abeka because I kept reading that she needed to learn to diagram. But exactly how important is that? I understand that it is a visual, but aren't you getting the exact same end result with the Shurley method of classifying? I had planned on switching to Growing With Grammar next year, but now I'm seriously considering going back to Shurley. Can anyone help clear my mind????? :banghead:

WOW! I need to look through my bookshelves and see what I can get rid of! How are you selling your used curriculum?

I'd like to use DVD's as a supplement to our study on early through modern U.S. History... kind of like a treat and a way to piece things together when we've worked through a topic. Has there been something that you think would be entertaining but educational for a 4th and 5th grader?

Thanks... I will definitely check those two out. I was kind of leaning toward doing the 5th grade level again with different curriculum just for mastery, but I keep having this thing where I think I need to push them forward. I'm hoping that with both of them being home this year I won't feel that pressure to have everything accelerated to keep up with the other one.

Don't have a clue what a May basket is, but it sounds like fun... can someone elaborate?

DD has a summer birthday and is a 5th grader this year. She has always been at part-time classical model schools with the exception of this year, which is a FT homeschooling year. We pulled her to get a better idea of whether we wanted to hold her back a year for maturity reasons. We have decided to go ahead and call her a 5th grader again next year. Part of the reason I'm doing this now instead of saying she's 5th/6th next year is because we'll probably have her go to either public or private high school and this is the last year that I think I could make this change without it really messing with her self esteem. She's aware of what we're doing and understands. So my question is - do I go ahead and move to the next level in math and grammar programs or re-do the current level but switch curriculum? Her test scores for math range in the 78 to 100 range (usually 78 to mid 80's). Her grammar is in the mid 70's to mid 80's. Prior to this year we had been using Shurley English and Saxon 6/5. This year we switched to Abeka Language B and Teaching Textbooks 7. Next year I'll be moving to Growing With Grammar or Shurley English and not sure about math (either Teaching Textbooks PreAlg or Saxon again).