I'm reading through the Charlotte Mason in Modern English and would like to know some good resources for learning more about this methodology/philosophy of education. Also, would love to hear from those of you who follow/practice (see, I don't even know the right words to use!) her ideas, whether in part or fully, and what you like about it. Also, interested in hearing from you who have tried it and didn't like it, and why not. Does CM fit as a classical education method? Kind of? Not at all? Educate me, please! :001_smile:

hahaha!!! I love it!:lol:

we separate and wash the lettuce, then wrap it in paper towel (laying the leaves out on the paper towel, overlapping, then roll it up) and it lasts at least 2 weeks. Sometimes longer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/opinion/02engel.html?em Playing to Learn

Can I ask just how different classical and ecclesiastical pronunciation are? I like the look of Prima Latina, and I honestly don't know if I have a pronunciation preference. Will somebody ban us from speaking Latin if we pronounce it differently? Are there Latin police? :tongue_smilie: We are planning to start next year (3rd grade) and I just wonder if there is a reason to choose one pronunciation over the other, and how different they really are. Thoughts?

Thanks everyone, for your insights and replies. I would love it if it was something simple (like sinusitis or even something up his nose!:tongue_smilie:) that can be quickly or easily remedied. I'm hopeful for the sinusitis, since he didn't have any issues before the colds started. And I'm glad to know that we may need to seek further advice if the dr. doesn't offer any solutions. I'll press for a referral to an ENT if it seems necessary. Also, it's good to know that allergies can cause different symptoms. So, thanks!:D

my DH is doing it. He's also doing the diet, and it's going great so far. He and I tried to start together a couple of months ago, but I am just not up for that much exercise right now. (Bad, huh?) With ds1 still not sleeping soundly, I can't get up early enough to put in the time.

We have a dr. appointment tomorrow, but I'm wondering what it could be. He had a pretty bad cold right after Thanksgiving, and then another a couple weeks later (with eye drainage and yuckiness), but he's been healthy for 5 or 6 weeks now, but he still can't really breathe through his nose. He doesn't have a runny nose or lots of boogers, so it seems like maybe the congestion could be from enlarged adenoids? That's just my diagnosis from my online research. ;) He has some apnea when he sleeps and I'm hopeful that we can get it figured out and resolved. I thought for a while it might be an allergy, but it seems too dry--I would expect runny nose with allergy, or at least other symptoms. Any ideas? Anyone ever experienced this?

yes, thank you!

Trying to decide if I should get them with this order I'm placing or if they aren't worth the money. What do you think?

Yes, thank you Terabith! I am definitely going to try some of those ideas with my son. Holding the nails with an old comb is BRILLIANT! :D

We are only finishing up Alpha, but I'm guessing it would be kind of how they do regular subtraction. What they do is have you flip your block over so you see the holes instead of the bumps. The holes represent what you are taking away or being "in the hole" (he says that on the DVD, even). That's just my guess.

This has been my take on it for the months that I have been here. Everything we do for school is some sort of "curricula". :001_smile:

Back at the beginning of the summer I joined the forums looking for suggestions on getting my dd7 to the next level in reading. I got great suggestions, and her reading has improved LEAPS and BOUNDS in the past 6 months. It's truly been amazing. I think part of it was that she was finally ready, too, and things started to click. So now I'm wondering how much reading to require every day. She is occasionally doing reading on her free time, but she'd rather play with her brother or draw. I've been having her read 7 or so pages in a beginning chapter book series we've been working through (The Rainbox Fairies books) and often another easier reader (e.g. Henry and Mudge books) as part of her school time every day. We also have her read a couple of verses when we do scripture reading. Is this enough? Should I do more? I've been taking a break from "reading lessons" as she seemed to be getting things from just reading, but I think I might do some more of the later lessons in Progressive Phonics. Sorry to ramble, but I would love any input!

:lurk5:

No. My dd7 only recently has really begun reading with some degree of fluency, so we just read everyday. She is currently reading "The Rainbow Fairy" set. I'm not really that worried about comprehension at this point. She seems to be getting most of what she reads, and I just want her to hone her skills reading enjoyable stuff.

To cement my daughter's math facts, we did flash cards and I would have her do as many as she could answer in a minute and then reward her with that many Skittles. I think it is okay to move forward through the addition, as she will likely cement the "easier" ones as she gets more practice, but DON'T move on to subtraction until the addition ones come easily. Find addition games to practice. There is a good game you can make up called "The Ladder Game" or something like that, and you write the different numbers on a (drawn on paper) ladder and then roll a die and add that number all the way up the ladder. If she gets to the top of the ladder with no mistakes, she wins! If not, she falls down the ladder and has to roll the dice again. I'd look for other games for extra practice, too. Good luck! We are nearly done with Alpha here.

My DH speaks Spanish and I know a bit of German. I think I'd like us both to learn Latin along with the kids (ages 7.5, 5 & almost 1). Obviously the littles will "learn" what they pick up on. We have access to Rosetta Stone Latin, but I'm wondering what else would be good to use along with that. I would love some input. I'd like to start fairly soon, and price is a major consideration, so I'd like a less expensive program so I could acquire it soon rather than saving up. Would love your input/experiences!

I was in what was called a handbell choir but I now see that we played handchimes. I did it all through middle school. I loved it! I would love to do something like that with my kids someday. Maybe I'll get rich and buy a set. We started out with two octaves (I think) and eventually added an additional 1/2 octave below and above what we had.

I don't recall learning anything about composers in school until middle school, personally. But I've been doing some very introductory music study with the kids on the classical composers. http://www.makingmusicfun.net/ has some great resources--coloring pages, brief bios, some printable sheet music to play. I've also really liked this book http://www.amazon.com/Lives-Musicians-Times-Neighbors-Thought/dp/0152164367/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258345411&sr=1-1 We have just been doing some composer study on Fridays, pretty quick and straightforward. My kids are younger though. HTH!

I'd like to do something for my almost 5 year old son that would give him a chance to get to know more boys his age. It seems in our field trip group we have lots of girls my dd7's age, but only a couple of boys. I'd like to find more boys and start a club of some sort. Any thoughts about what sort of stuff we should do? I'm thinking boys ages 5-7 or something, meeting 2x/month for a couple of hours.

We do Science on M/W and History on T/Th. On Fridays we might finish up one or do neither. I have really liked it. I like having a break between the lesson days, personally. The kids don't seem to have any trouble remembering what we covered. We are doing Earth Science (following the Usborne First Encyclopedia of Our World, plus extras) and SOTW 1. History and Science are always the last thing we do, and they can take a while so I wouldn't want to try to do them the same day.

My dd7 is a late bloomer when it comes to reading, but she has improved A TON over the past 5 months. She just finished reading Ruby the Red Fairy (a beginner chapter book) for her daily reading assignment, and she has a hard time noticing the punctuation and also seems to just glance at and then fill in her own words when she comes to a short word (i.e. an, the, she). She is very right-brained, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Is there any way to help her notice these things more? Any sort of practice/drill we can do? I have her read a page from Phonics Pathways everyday to practice really looking at the words. The only reason I'm concerned about it is that she tends to get frustrated by the "weird" sentences when she runs them together or swaps short words. Also, she doesn't seem to be able to read silently yet. Does that naturally come later? Is it anything to be concerned about?

thanks!

We don't do the same order. As we have a workboxish set-up, I mix most things up, and try to arrange some "break" stuff in between some of the less enjoyed subjects. But we do pretty much always have history or science last, as that tends to work out the best with having ds4 join in on the lessons.