CourtneySue Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 I'm looking at this curriculum for my 4 yo DS. There seems like there is a lot of manipulatives that go with it, which is great, but I'm just trying to figure out which ones are essential for the program to work and would love recommendations from those who have used it. Thank you in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeefreak Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 I think the Slate is essential for pre-k and K. I really like how they teach with it. I also liked the wood blocks, but they are kind of spendy. You can find them used on homeschoolclassifieds.com. If you can't afford them, don't worry about them. Everything else is unnecessary IMO. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't even buy the pre-k book. It was basically an expensive coloring book. I would buy the K book and spread it out over two years. Or, don't start it right away and do the wood block activities and the songs etc for the first semester of pre-K. HTH! Dorinda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CourtneySue Posted August 3, 2009 Author Share Posted August 3, 2009 Thank you! This is exactly the kind of information I needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cholderby Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 OK, I don't think I'll ever figure out all of the abbreviations! HWT isn't on the abbreviation sticky... Handwriting Without Tears? I am a newbie with a 4yo son too, so that got me interested. If you are talking about handwriting, I'd be interested to know if your son is at all interested. My 2yo daughter loves to scribble but my son would rather do ANYTHING else. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agamemnonsmom Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 I made the wooden shapes with cardboard and it's working well. We just started the K book last week. He's using the slate board and cardboard cut outs right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffeefreak Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 OK, I don't think I'll ever figure out all of the abbreviations! HWT isn't on the abbreviation sticky... Handwriting Without Tears? I am a newbie with a 4yo son too, so that got me interested. If you are talking about handwriting, I'd be interested to know if your son is at all interested. My 2yo daughter loves to scribble but my son would rather do ANYTHING else. Thanks! LOL! Not only will you figure them out, you'll have trouble on all other boards/forums that are not homeschooling boards. Every time I try to read something on another site with abbreviations, I automatically insert curriculum for the acronyms:lol: It totally doesn't work. I don't have boys but neither of my girls was really interested in learning to write. That's why I LOVE HWT. I wish I had bought it for my oldest when she was learning to print, it would have saved us A LOT of tears.;) Teaching cursive to her was a snap, teaching print to my youngest has been just the right pace. Because of the struggles I had with my oldest, I waited to push the issue until she was in Kindergarten. However, she was a 6 year old Kindergartner (Nov birthday). Had she been 5, I would have waited until 2nd semester to give her fine motor skills some time. Blessings to you both! Dorinda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CourtneySue Posted August 3, 2009 Author Share Posted August 3, 2009 OK, I don't think I'll ever figure out all of the abbreviations! HWT isn't on the abbreviation sticky... Handwriting Without Tears? I am a newbie with a 4yo son too, so that got me interested. If you are talking about handwriting, I'd be interested to know if your son is at all interested. My 2yo daughter loves to scribble but my son would rather do ANYTHING else. Thanks! Sorry, I know the abbreviations can be confusing sometimes. My son is interested, and up until recently I thought I was going to be able to teach him to write without a fancy curriculum. But he has started confusing his bow-hold (he's takes a Suzuki violin class) with the proper pencil hold, which he had almost perfectly down. We have had so many battles about it lately that I thought I need to try something that goes about it a bit more gently and it seems like HWT does that. Hence, the name, right? We don't do a lot of school work, yet, but I'm trying to prevent him from developing bad habits. It's something I've read lots of moms on here say time and again--to try to nip certain bad habits in the bud when they are young. So, I'm trying. I know he won't have the perfect textbook hold, but the bow-hold on a pencil looks so uncomfortable. One of the things I did to help him develop fine motor skills was have him work with lacing cards and things like that for a while. BTW, I have 2 yo daughter, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LynnG in Arizona Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 I ordered almost everything from the HWT Pre-K level. The things I would most recommend are: ~The student manual ~The teacher's manual (be sure to check out their gentle schedule) ~The wood pieces ~The laminated letter cards ~The slate board ~The little chalk pieces ~The CD The flip crayons have also been a surprise hit, and their small size helps the kids to do a proper pencil grip. HTH. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 The wood blocks are unnecessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CourtneySue Posted August 3, 2009 Author Share Posted August 3, 2009 Thank you so much. You have all saved me a lot of money! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MsAlimar Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 We found that only the slate is absolutely necessary. The music CD is great especially since my dd is really into music. We would listen to it while she did her letters. The teachers manual comes with the patterns to make your own wood pieces. Bought our own chalk and broke it into little bits and cut a sponge up to make our own sponge erasers. I also broke my own triangle crayons to make little crayons. For full disclosure, I have to say that this program was NOT a good fit for my dd. She did not like to color and the slate confused her when making rounded letters. She did better with a piece of paper. We eventually switched to Startwrite. The phraseology that we learned with HWOT was helpful in communicating how to make the letters even with Startwrite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama2Three Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 I agree that you might consider skipping the pre-K book and moving (slowly) with the K book. The teacher's guide is important for the first year you use HWT to learn their methods, but probably not necessary in subsequent years. The slate is a definite necessity. My kids really liked the wood pieces and were able to manipulate them to form letters well before they could write the letters. They have good resale so may be worth it for you. The little crayons are nice -- even my 1 yo has a better grip when he uses them -- and the CD was pretty impressive. My oldest DS has fine motor issues, and this program was by far the best investment in his writing. Can't say enough good things about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veritaserum Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 My 4yo loves the music CD. Really the workbook and teacher book are what I use the most. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbsweetpea Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 We just use the workbooks, Teacher book, chalk board's and little chalk. We "create" letters with straws and playdo (if curved parts). My kids really enjoy this part of each day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satori Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 We bought everything, but I have been telling people they only need the slate. You can make your own pieces out of cardstock, make your own dough, break your own crayons/chalk... I wish I would've heard the advice to start with the Kindergarten workbook. If you want to see some of it in action: http://satorismiles.com/tag/hwt/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sewinglady Posted August 4, 2009 Share Posted August 4, 2009 I actually bought a cheep slate from the dollar store and drew two lines on one side. I cut my "blocks" out of craft foam. (But we never really used them.) Oh and later for the pencils, just took gardening shears (the kind that cut small branches) and cut pencils in half. Stick an eraser on the end and you have the perfect size pencil. I still do this, and my dd is 6. I never bought the music cd, but I wish I did! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.