are teacher manuals necessary in lower grades?

[Wildflower_Mama]

here's my plan for language arts for my 2nd grader:

voyages in english 2, spellwell and wordly wise 3000.

i'm wondering if i have to get the teaching manuals or would they be a waste of money?

 

thanks for your help?

[Gretchen in NJ]

I have found that they make thing a whole lot easier. For example, I use Spelling Workout and they are not necessary. I buy them because every once in a while you come across a question that makes you wonder what they are looking for. They have suggestions in the front of the book on how to teach spelling using their books. They have 2 sentences written for each spelling word. Sometimes, it is nice not to have to think.:001_huh: KWIM

 

May I ask why you chose Voyages in Enlish over Rod & Staff?

[Wildflower_Mama]

i ordered rod and staff, but then i returned it. i didn't like that most of it was supposed to be done orally, that it didn't come with a workbook.

[Gretchen in NJ]

I did FLL with my girls. I liked it a lot. Their first two years are mostly completed orally too. It worked well for us. Are you using the older version of Voyages or the new one?

 

I was looking at going with Voyages, but I think I am going to go with R&S 6th grade.

[AudreyTN]

For Spellwell... No. :)

[Wildflower_Mama]

well, i don't actually have any of it yet. i just looked at the samples for voyages in english and it looks really good and fun to me. the teacher manual is expensive though, so i want to make sure i really need it before i spend the money.

[Wildflower_Mama]

For Spellwell... No. :)

 

 

Thank you :)

[JudyJudyJudy]

I don't find teachers' manuals to be necessary in the lower grades. I guess it depends on your confidence level. Also, I am only homeschooling one child, so I like to have to think. If I had multiple childen, I'd probably have a different view.

[dymphna57]

I used these for my first dc. The teachers manual is really essential. It gives lots of instruction and also more excercises for you can use. It turns you into an english teacher!

That said, I am using Shurley English now and used FLL with my youngest. I really liked FLL as it helped me do dictatiion and narration, sctivities that i didn't do with VOE or Shurley. I knew it was important and tried to include it but it was random and I was glad to have more direction.

Good luck!

 

P.S. I switched from VOE because it was very classroom based and even thugh we often enjoyed pretending we were a classroom, I prefer the results from Shurley. My older children say that the younger ones missed out on instructions of how to answer the telephone and introduce people!

[tjo]

I used different programs. I did not need the TM for FLL or Spelling Workout, but you may for the programs you've chosen???

Sorry, probably no help whatsoever ;-)

[babysparkler]

I think it depends on the teacher and subject. Sometimes I use my TM's, sometimes I find it easier (and better) to do without.