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Thoughts on Voyages in English?


amsunshine
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I've searched the boards and find mostly negative reviews of this program, but some positive.

 

I've looked at the samples and it doesn't look that bad. However, I'm wondering if anyone can tell me what the idea is behind having students write "how to" articles? VIE has the student doing one of these every year. What's the purpose?

 

Any other thoughts about VIE?

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Are you considering the current, secular versions, or the 1950s Catholic version?

 

I have -- but have not used much -- grades 5, 6, and 7 for the old, Catholic editions. The content is thorough, and formally presented. (No colour pictures or "cute" captions.) To me, the texts remind me of a terse version of Warriners (another out-of-print, yet popular among home schoolers grammar/composition series). These are not "exciting" books, but their very "functional" style suits some students !

 

(Now you shall post back that you are talking about the current, secular series -- and I shall have wasted your time ! )

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I thought of switching from Rod and Staff to it for this year. I think that it is far easier than RS 6, but it also conveys more of an overview of grammer, which RS doesn't. With RS, sometimes you can't see the forest for the trees. It gets so detailed that you don't necessarily put it all together. Although I know enough grammer to compensate for that, it seemed to me that DD might consider it a nice rest to do Voyages, and that that would solidify her overall grammer knowledge into more of a system.

 

However, DD wants to continue RS, so we are.

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Are you planning to use it for writing or grammar? Or both?

 

If only for grammar, you'll be effectively discarding half the book, which if I recall, is pretty expensive to begin with.

 

The same publisher makes less expensive grammar only workbooks that seemed to me when I looked at them (3-4th grade) to cover the same material as VIE for a lot less money. Similar grammatical material can be covered using Easy Grammar.

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Are you planning to use it for writing or grammar? Or both?
I wasn't really sure -- this was just something I was going to keep on my radar potentially for logic stage. I was curious to see if anyone had done the writing component. I know SWB does not recommend it. However, it appears to be head and shoulders above what the public schools in our area are doing, at least. And if private schools use it, can it really be that bad? I just want to make sure I'm considering all options -- and if SWB likes it enough to recommend it, at least in part, I kind of think it might be worth a look.

 

One of the things it does have in common with our public schools, though, is it has the student writing "how to" articles. I still cannot, for the life of me, figure out what the value of this is. It seems pretty darn boring and not worth much. Otherwise, the writing assignments don't appear unreasonable. The grammar looks solid, too.

 

Just wanted to see if there were any new opinions or thoughts to add to previous discussions.

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Hi Amsunshine,

We've been using the secular versions of VIE for 1st, 2nd and now 3rd. We do use the writing portion but we do quite a bit of other writing in the form of book reports and letters too. Dd's test scores are 3 levels above grade her current grade. I wouldn't say that it is completely due to VIE, but it hasn't harmed her in anyway. If you feel the writing isn't to your standards you could always add FLL or Writing Strands. Even though I love this program, I'm on the fence about continuing next year; the price goes way up for the upper grades and it is already pricey enough. I'll be searching all year for it used. :001_smile:

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Ordering information sequentially, and logical writing. I think that they are good practice for lab reports and other scientific writing down the road.

 

Ok -- this makes sense -- thank you! I just could not wrap my head around why this type of writing might be needed and that definitely helps.

 

We've been using the secular versions of VIE for 1st, 2nd and now 3rd. We do use the writing portion but we do quite a bit of other writing in the form of book reports and letters too. Dd's test scores are 3 levels above grade her current grade. I wouldn't say that it is completely due to VIE, but it hasn't harmed her in anyway. If you feel the writing isn't to your standards you could always add FLL or Writing Strands. Even though I love this program, I'm on the fence about continuing next year; the price goes way up for the upper grades and it is already pricey enough. I'll be searching all year for it used. :001_smile:

 

Thanks for this -- good to know you enjoyed it. I do think the emphasis on mechanics looks quite good from the samples. I'm going to keep this on my list of options.

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