Ida Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 I was planning to have my son do the entire Magic Lens I suite for 8th grade next year. I just noticed another thread in which the poster was told by RFWP that she should have her child go through Essay Voyage first. Do those who have used these levels agree with that reccommendation? Is ML I with AAW I doable by someone with no MCT experience? What would we be missing by not doing EV? If we really should start with EV, how long would it take to work through that book? The text in the EV sample pages looks excellent, but it's very difficult to tell anything about the nature or number of actual assignments. I haven't bought anything yet, so I can readjust my plans if I really needed to, but I'd prefer not to. Thoughts? Thanks, Ida Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 I think it would be difficult to start in Magic Lens and in fact I chose not to do so with my then 8th grade son. He did the Voyage level and it was a good fit. Also, Essay Voyage is truly an excellent introduction to essay writing. Advanced Academic Writing assumes that the child has a solid base in essay writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bookworm Mom Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 I ordered ML1 for my dd12 this past year and then quickly backed her to Voyage for writing. She did fine with everything else in the set; she just was not ready for the writing portion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LauraGB Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 I am not familiar with the grammar programs you have previously used, but I just ordered ML1 and the rest of that program with the exception of Academic Writing - I went with Essay Voyage instead. I chose this because I read in his catalog that this combination was acceptable. I am, however, a bit concerned about Poetry and Humanity - but I haven't actually seen it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ida Posted July 12, 2010 Author Share Posted July 12, 2010 So, it's sounding like I really do need to start with Essay Voyage for writing, but I'm relieved to hear that it's okay to use that in conjunction with Magic Lens I level for everything else. I think I'll go ahead and buy the full ML I set and get Essay Voyage in addition. Will Essay Voyage take the full year, or is there a chance we'd be able to move through it quickly and at least start AAW in the spring? It's quite possible that this will be ds's last year homeschooling, and I'm wanting to get in as much of this good stuff as possible, but I certainly don't want to make it backfire by overwhelming him and burning him out. Thanks for your replies, Ida Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiobrain Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 Will Essay Voyage take the full year, or is there a chance we'd be able to move through it quickly and at least start AAW in the spring? No, it will not take the whole year. Depending on understanding, frequency and drive, you could finish it in a few months and then start AAW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 I think I'll go ahead and buy the full ML I set and get Essay Voyage in addition. That's what I did. We started MCT January 2010 with Magic Lens 1. I looked at AAW and EV and decided that AAW was assuming a base we probably did not have. My boys have had a good foundation in paragraph creation as well as the 5 paragraph essay, but EV seems to go deeper into what makes a good paragraph (cohesion, word choice, clear topic sentences, etc.). So we'll move through that quickly this year and follow with AAW 1. I've scheduled out our grammar for the year and EV will be finished by mid November (starting mid August). So you can easily move on to AAW in the spring. One caveat - I'm hitting the boys pretty hard with grammar this fall - I project that we will spend up to 2 hours per day on grammar/vocabulary/writing. That may be more than you want to do. We're in high school and I want to focus on English this year. While we always do some sort of English I feel we have been delinquent and haphazard in our approach. This will be our first year to NOT do this in our co-op and I think I've got a better handle on where the boys need to go now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 I am, however, a bit concerned about Poetry and Humanity - but I haven't actually seen it yet A few days ago I posted about the poetry series on the yahoo group. I wanted to move to Plato & Truth without doing the earlier books because it would correlate with our literature/world views study this year. MCT discouraged me and felt that Poetry and Humanity would be the highest level to begin the poetry study. In fact he encouraged me to start with Music of the Hemispheres and move quickly through. But I'll start with Poetry and Humanity because that's what I already have. We haven't done a thorough, concentrated poetry study and I want to do that this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny_Weatherwax Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 I am, however, a bit concerned about Poetry and Humanity - but I haven't actually seen it yet. DS and I loved Poetry and Humanity. We thought it was a good fit for 7th grade. Everything was explained in detail and the selected poems were appropriate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ida Posted July 12, 2010 Author Share Posted July 12, 2010 Cynthia, If you have plans or a schedule you'd be willing to share, I'd love to see it. I'm also planning on hitting language skills pretty furiously with this child since want to make sure he's prepared if he does go to school for 9th grade. He writes fairly well, but is not detail oriented in the least. I'm feeling better about the idea of starting with Voyage instead of jumping in with AAW. I'm glad I asked the question and it's very encouraging to hear others have done the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted July 12, 2010 Share Posted July 12, 2010 I have a schedule in homeschoolskedtrack and I'm not sure how to copy it, but I'll try (and PM it to you). We did start with the grammar last spring, so my schedule continues where we left off. But you may be able to get a general feel for how our day will go. And, if the boys are absolutely dying from grammar overload, we'll tweak it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ida Posted July 12, 2010 Author Share Posted July 12, 2010 Cynthia, That'd be great! Thanks so much. -Ida Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 That's what I did. We started MCT January 2010 with Magic Lens 1. I looked at AAW and EV and decided that AAW was assuming a base we probably did not have. My boys have had a good foundation in paragraph creation as well as the 5 paragraph essay, but EV seems to go deeper into what makes a good paragraph (cohesion, word choice, clear topic sentences, etc.). So we'll move through that quickly this year and follow with AAW 1. I've scheduled out our grammar for the year and EV will be finished by mid November (starting mid August). So you can easily move on to AAW in the spring. One caveat - I'm hitting the boys pretty hard with grammar this fall - I project that we will spend up to 2 hours per day on grammar/vocabulary/writing. That may be more than you want to do. We're in high school and I want to focus on English this year. While we always do some sort of English I feel we have been delinquent and haphazard in our approach. This will be our first year to NOT do this in our co-op and I think I've got a better handle on where the boys need to go now. Cynthia, did you use The Word Within the Word, Vol 1 as well? I am in the process of scheduling it right now and I am blown away by the program. We loved CE II and I didn't think initially that WWW looked as slick as CE, but wow! Were you able to finish a lesson a week? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny_Weatherwax Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 Cynthia, did you use The Word Within the Word, Vol 1 as well? I am in the process of scheduling it right now and I am blown away by the program. We loved CE II and I didn't think initially that WWW looked as slick as CE, but wow! Were you able to finish a lesson a week? I'm not Cynthia but I will answer. Ds and I were doing a lesson a week until around week 12. By that time you are working with 300 stems and being tested over each list each week. We ended up devoting more time to stem memorization than we had planned and we used more like 2 weeks per lesson. It got better after lesson 21 when the lists became words. The words are ones that are learned with the stems so the work and memorization was a little less (but not much). Quizlet.com has many WWW word lists already on file. This program helped DS with all of that memorization. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 I'm not Cynthia but I will answer. Ds and I were doing a lesson a week until around week 12. By that time you are working with 300 stems and being tested over each list each week. We ended up devoting more time to stem memorization than we had planned and we used more like 2 weeks per lesson. It got better after lesson 21 when the lists became words. The words are ones that are learned with the stems so the work and memorization was a little less (but not much). Quizlet.com has many WWW word lists already on file. This program helped DS with all of that memorization. Yes, we're like Dragon. At the beginning we did one lesson per week, but now it's taking longer. I think I have scheduled about 1.5 weeks for each lesson next fall. The tests are cumulative and that's where we had problems. Once the lists became longer and the tests included material previously learned, my dss scores declined (WWW level 1). I also can be charged with negligence in assuming that the boys were working through the lessons thoroughly - wrong! So this coming year, I have decided that ML and EV are going to include more time with me:D Honestly, the vocabulary is the most rigorous portion of the grammar program, IMO. And my boys have always scored very high on the vocabulary portions of standardized tests! But this is stretching them...and me :001_smile: And, Dragon, thanks for the heads-up on Quizlet. I did not know about that and will check it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swimmermom3 Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 Cynthia and Dragon, thanks so much for the feedback and the information regarding Quizlet.com. Did you have your students make flash cards or would that just take way too much time? We have been in the habit of reviewing all the words each day but that could get out of hand quickly with http://WWW.:tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Granny_Weatherwax Posted July 13, 2010 Share Posted July 13, 2010 Cynthia and Dragon, thanks so much for the feedback and the information regarding Quizlet.com. Did you have your students make flash cards or would that just take way too much time? We have been in the habit of reviewing all the words each day but that could get out of hand quickly with WWW.:tongue_smilie: We started with making flashcards and it became a cumbersome task. Quizlet was much easier and, with the game like qualities to it, much more fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ida Posted July 13, 2010 Author Share Posted July 13, 2010 I had never heard of Quizlet. Thanks for the tip. We will certainly plan to make use of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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