I just received the CW Homer B Student Workbook in the mail today.

[Beth in Central TX]

All I have to say is...WHOA! It's a big workbook. I didn't think you could get any bigger than the Homer A Student Workbook, but obviously, you can. I've been flipping through the pages, and I really like the selections; I can't wait for next year. This is truly my favorite part of homeschooling. I feel like it's Christmas all over again.

[cajun.classical]

All I have to say is...WHOA! It's a big workbook. I didn't think you could get any bigger than the Homer A Student Workbook, but obviously, you can. I've been flipping through the pages, and I really like the selections; I can't wait for next year. This is truly my favorite part of homeschooling. I feel like it's Christmas all over again.

 

We'll be starting Homer B in a few weeks. I can't wait to get to skill levels 6-10. That's the fun stuff!

[Beth in Central TX]

Angelina--How do you schedule CW? We stopped mid-year to do Beg for Poetry, but we will still finish up Homer A before our school year ends. As you finish one level do you just keep going, or will you be starting your new school year soon?

[cajun.classical]

Beth,

 

We're taking a short break between Homer A and B to brush up on some grammar. We plan to do CW Poetry in the Fall. I want to combine my son and daughter for the Poetry course and I wanted to give her a little more time to mature before tackling it. I'm postponing the poetry for purely pragmatic reasons. She just turned 9.

 

If you have time left over, you could do some Homer-style writing in other subjects or just keep going. I prefer the second option because it gives me more flexibility later should we need to spend more than a week on a more difficult model. On the other hand, taking a break can be nice too. Homer is tough stuff, so I don't mind taking a breather. I don't want my son to get burned out. We school year round, so we can afford to take breaks or go at a slower pace if need be. So far so good. We've enjoyed Homer A immensely.

[Beth in Central TX]

If you have time left over, you could do some Homer-style writing in other subjects or just keep going. I prefer the second option because it gives me more flexibility later should we need to spend more than a week on a more difficult model.

 

In looking over Homer B, I think I will need to slow down the pace next year, or at least plan for some cushion as we move through the year. I could spread out those down weeks that come at the end of the year through our Homer B work during the year. The down week would be there to catch up on a particular lesson, or we could just use it to review writing concepts and new grammar concepts. This is very helpful as I begin to plan for next year.

 

I also appreciate your idea to use our Homer A knowledge in writing projects for other subjects at the end of this school year.

 

I understand about letting your daughter catch up before you start poetry; I think you will really like Poetry for Beg next fall.

 

Thanks for your insight!

[cajun.classical]

In looking over Homer B, I think I will need to slow down the pace next year, or at least plan for some cushion as we move through the year.

 

Beth,

 

I didn't get the student workbook for Homer B because I want to try using my own models this time. I haven't sat down and planned it out, but I'm curious what your thoughts are about Homer B, looking through the workbook. What makes it look like you'll need to slow down. Is it the analysis and grammar portions that look tougher? Or are the writing projects more difficult? Or both?

 

Thanks.

[Beth in Central TX]

Beth,

 

I didn't get the student workbook for Homer B because I want to try using my own models this time. I haven't sat down and planned it out, but I'm curious what your thoughts are about Homer B, looking through the workbook. What makes it look like you'll need to slow down. Is it the analysis and grammar portions that look tougher? Or are the writing projects more difficult? Or both?

 

Thanks.

 

I still don't think I would tackle Homer B without the student workbook. Quite honestly, I didn't even consider using CW until the workbooks were published. I just chuckled at the suggestions that I can use my own models, if desired. There's no desire here; but maybe one day. I might feel more comfortable when my youngest gets to the Homer series.

 

It looks like both the selections and grammar portions are presented at a higher level than Homer A. Looking through the Table of Contents I see 'Scylla and Charybdis', 'The Martyrdom of St. Alban', 'The Story of Aeneas', 'The Story of Prometheus'-covered over 3 weeks, 'Paul Revere's Ride', and a couple of selections from Shakespeare and a couple from A.A. Milne.

 

Looking specifically at Week 12 (The Tale of Aeneas [sic]), the selection is almost 6 pages long (and the typeset is smaller than Homer A). For analysis you still answer Theon's questions, but then you compare the answers and see how they complement each other. Parsing is expanded to include 6 of the 8 parts of speech. The 6-sentence shuffle is expanded to use all 6 steps for two separate models. The writing project includes dividing the narrative into acts and scene along with asking Theon's questions for each scene. Disclaimer: These differences I'm noting may already be part of Homer A since we've only completed 1/2 of the workbook so far.

 

Based on my experience with Homer A, Homer B definitely has the student stepping up to the advanced levels of narrative work.

[HollyDay]

You ladies are scaring me! We are at week 14 Homer A. How can anything be bigger than Homer A????

[Beth in Central TX]

That's what my boys said! We compared pages numbers: Homer A has 298 pgs and Homer B has 376 pgs. The upside is that you take each workbook just one page at a time; eventually we will complete each book.

[cajun.classical]

Well, Beth. It remains to be seen if I'll regret my decision to go without the workbook. I did download the recommended models so I'll have that as a backup if I need it. Writing and grammar is my field, though. I LIKE sorting through it all and planning.

 

The end of Homer A definitely ramps it up. Once we started dividing models into Acts and Scenes and writing summary sentences for that, it took longer. But ds eventually got the hang of it. Now when he reads the model the first time, he's thinking about how to divide it up.

 

I'll be spending my Spring Break making up my Homer B lesson plans. I'll let you know how it goes.

[Mamagistra]

You ladies are scaring me! We are at week 14 Homer A. How can anything be bigger than Homer A????

 

LOL That's what *I* was going to say! And we have yet to crack Homer! ::teeth chatter::

[Melmc]

Not to hijack the thread, but I decided to go with WT2 for next year (first year homeschooling) and then switch to Homer after that. Would you recommend ordering the CW materials way in advance to get familiar with them? It just sounds a lot more teacher intensive and intimidating to me!

[Beth in Central TX]

Honestly, the workbooks & IG make the CW approach much more user friendly in my opinion. It's just not a workbook that you can hand over to your kids and have them do it independently. To be successful, it does require teacher involvement. I'm more involved in the beginning of the week, but my teaching time does decreases as we move through the week. On most Fridays, my boys are rewriting their final draft, and I'm just needed for editing guidance.

 

I really don't want to scare anyone away from CW. I think it's a superb program, but it does require teacher preparation and lesson involvement. As I work through the CW series, I usually purchase the core book and read through that the summer before I teach that part of the series. I still reference the core throughout the year, but reading through it all at once gives me a good overview of where we will be heading and why we are doing the different assignments each week. I'll probably re-read Homer and Poetry for Beginners this summer. Each time we finish a workbook or I reread a selection for the core books, I get a better picture of the progymnasmata and the Classical Writing approach.

[cajun.classical]

That's my take too. Don't be intimidated by CW. Once you learn your way around, it's really quite easy to navigate. And I agree with Beth that the beginning of the week is more teacher intensive. We're in a real nice groove and routine right now; I don't find it burdensome at all. We enjoy it.

 

You definitely want to familiarize yourself with the Core before you start. Just go slow and take notes. I made a chart as I read through the Core of what each sections' goals were. The book is broken down into 4 days(which are different types of activities/analysis) with 5 skill levels for each day (that's for Homer A; skills 6-10 are covered in Homer B). You spend 4 weeks on each skill level. It's very incremental and not difficult once you get the hang of it. And the workbooks make it very teacher-friendly. The workbook tells you exactly which sections of the core to review before teaching the lesson. Because each skill builds on the ones before it, you are only introducing a few new things at a time with lots of review in between. Don't be scared.

 

I fell in love with Classical Writing. I think it's a brilliant program. I was a college composition instructor, and everything I ever desired in a writing program plus lots of things it never occurred to me to want are in this program.

[Julie in GA]

I've gone through Homer B, and yes, you will need some cushion time, Beth.

 

Angelina, I think that you can easily use your own models. However, as you get into certain projects, especially the ones regarding arrangement, just know that the models chosen by the authors lend themselves well to the skills needed. For example, when learning how to write "in media res," you'll need a narrative with a definite sequence of events (or scenes) that enables your child to choose a mid-point at which to start re-telling the story.

 

In addition, the parsing and diagramming, as well as the imitation sections during the A&I portion become much more involved. When using your own models, you'll need to be able to do all of this w/o the benefit of the answer key that the IG gives. I have to say, though, that when I used Homer A, it was before the workbooks came out. I really enjoyed going through the Core Manual and coming up with my own stuff. I felt like I was truly learning the concepts. Now, using the workbooks, I've backed off just a bit and don't feel quite as connected to the curriculum. (I can't go back, though -- not with 5 dc and #6 on the way -- I need those workbooks!)

 

Beth -- don't forget to check the errata board on the CW site. I believe there are a few errors/typos in Homer B that you'll want to know about.

[cajun.classical]

Angelina, I think that you can easily use your own models. However, as you get into certain projects, especially the ones regarding arrangement, just know that the models chosen by the authors lend themselves well to the skills needed. For example, when learning how to write "in media res," you'll need a narrative with a definite sequence of events (or scenes) that enables your child to choose a mid-point at which to start re-telling the story.

 

Thanks, Julie. That's very helpful. I did download the models from Lulu so that I could use them if I got in a bind or at least to have a sample model to compare to when using my own models. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Beth in Central TX]

I've gone through Homer B, and yes, you will need some cushion time, Beth...-- don't forget to check the errata board on the CW site. I believe there are a few errors/typos in Homer B that you'll want to know about.

 

It's good to know that I was actually on the right track. It's becoming harder to plan out our school year as my boys get older and the programs get more rigorous. I really need a plan in place (or at least a skeleton) to stay on track. I'm not very good at just winging it.

 

I appreciate the tip about the errata sheet; I'm sure that will be very helpful. I'm off to the CW website to find it.

[Beth in Central TX]

I just wanted to let whoever is interested know that most of the errors listed at the CW website have been changed in the Aesop, Homer, and Poetry for Beginners workbooks and IG. I still made a few changes, but it was mostly the ones listed with dates in 2007.