Okay -- what can I drop?

[zaichiki]

I'm thinking I need to streamline the number of subjects I have planned for ds. This is the rundown. How realistic are my numbers (time and frequency per week)? Which of these things is really redundant? What would YOU drop? Why?

 

Latin: First Form Latin (10 mins/day)

Writing: testing Susan Wise Bauer's new writing program (how often?) and journaling (once/week)

Vocabulary: Vocabulary from Classical Roots (10 mins/day)

Literary Analysis: IEW's Teaching the Classics (no idea how long -- would once/week be enough?)

Grammar: Voyages in English 6 (30 mins/day)

Math: Singapore Primary Math 6, VideoText Algebra modules A & B, and MathCounts competition (not concurrently but something daily for 30-45 mins)

Logic: The Fallacy Detective (once/week)

History: Sonlight Core 6 and outlining History: The Definitive Visual Guide (history and lit total 1 hr+/day)

Religion: Christ Our Life 7 and The Story of the Church: Her Founding, Mission, and Progress (TAN books) (30 mins/day)

Science: Real Science 4 Kids Biology, Froguts (online dissection), hopefully a coop class on genetics, independent Paleontology study, and managing little brother's weekly science experiment (science total 1 hr+/day)

Russian: Rosetta Stone and children’s books (15-30 mins/day)

Art: hopefully a local drawing class

Music: Suzuki cello, group class, and orchestra

 

The music, Religion, and Russian are pretty much set in stone. I *think* the science and history plans will be a good fit for ds. I guess I'm mostly worried that I've planned too much latin, vocab, writing, grammar, and lit analysis. If I drop something, where do I start?

 

TIA!

[plain jane]

I'm thinking I need to streamline the number of subjects I have planned for ds. This is the rundown. How realistic are my numbers (time and frequency per week)? Which of these things is really redundant? What would YOU drop? Why?

 

Latin: First Form Latin (10 mins/day)

Writing: testing Susan Wise Bauer's new writing program (how often?) and journaling (once/week)

Vocabulary: Vocabulary from Classical Roots (10 mins/day)

Literary Analysis: IEW's Teaching the Classics (no idea how long -- would once/week be enough?)

Grammar: Voyages in English 6 (30 mins/day)

Math: Singapore Primary Math 6, VideoText Algebra modules A & B, and MathCounts competition (not concurrently but something daily for 30-45 mins)

Logic: The Fallacy Detective (once/week)

History: Sonlight Core 6 and outlining History: The Definitive Visual Guide (history and lit total 1 hr+/day)

Religion: Christ Our Life 7 and The Story of the Church: Her Founding, Mission, and Progress (TAN books) (30 mins/day)

Science: Real Science 4 Kids Biology, Froguts (online dissection), hopefully a coop class on genetics, independent Paleontology study, and managing little brother's weekly science experiment (science total 1 hr+/day)

Russian: Rosetta Stone and children’s books (15-30 mins/day)

Art: hopefully a local drawing class

Music: Suzuki cello, group class, and orchestra

 

The music, Religion, and Russian are pretty much set in stone. I *think* the science and history plans will be a good fit for ds. I guess I'm mostly worried that I've planned too much latin, vocab, writing, grammar, and lit analysis. If I drop something, where do I start?

 

TIA!

 

Well, my advice is not about dropping something :blush: but I did want to comment that it may be hard to get an in-depth study of Latin in 10min per day. That said, I would drop the vocabulary program (you'll get plenty of classical vocabulary studying Latin) and add the time to your Latin program.

 

I would tie in as much of your writing into science and history rather than keeping it as a separate subject. Have them do outlining in both subjects (like you have laid out) and focus less on it as an independent class.

 

I think your schedule looks fairly decent so I'm not much help in what to drop. At least this will be a bump back up to the first page. :D

[StephanieZ]

In similar shoes, I dropped Latin, Vocab, Logic. (I am a bad classical educator, lol) Personally, I decided Vocab could wait (just really started it recently as part of MCT), Latin was dead (sob, choke, strike me down), and my kids are so logical they could out argue most lawyers. So, those weren't high enough on my priority list to make the cut. (Something had to go.)

 

Looking at your list, I could also drop religion (he goes to church, no?) And Literary Analysis (read instead!)

 

I'd streamline grammar. 30 min/day seems too much for just grammar, IMHO.

 

Why do Singapore 6 AND videotext algebra? Do 6 first. When it is done, do Algebra.

[zaichiki]

Looking at your list, I could also drop religion (he goes to church, no?) And Literary Analysis (read instead!)

 

I'd streamline grammar. 30 min/day seems too much for just grammar, IMHO.

 

Why do Singapore 6 AND videotext algebra? Do 6 first. When it is done, do Algebra.

 

It may indeed be too much time for the grammar. Good point. (especially in addition to the writing program)

 

Gotta keep the religion (in fact there is more there that I didn't list).

 

I *was* wondering about the literary analysis... I'd love to hear more about Teaching the Classics from those who have used it. I'll go in search... Ds reads a TON, but this last year he had been in school for the first time and I got the distinct impression that literary analysis was his weakpoint (which is why I put TTC on the list). I want to learn how to talk with him about the books.

 

The math is *not* concurrent. One after the other, just like you said. The Video Text modules A and B are actually Pre-Algebra, I think.

 

Thanks, Stephanie. I am chewing on the Literary Analysis...

[zaichiki]

[quote name=plain jane;1923837it may be hard to get an in-depth study of Latin in 10min per day. That said' date=' I would drop the vocabulary program (you'll get plenty of classical vocabulary studying Latin) and add the time to your Latin program.

 

Hmmm... good point.

 

I would tie in as much of your writing into science and history rather than keeping it as a separate subject. Have them do outlining in both subjects (like you have laid out) and focus less on it as an independent class.

 

Another good point.

 

I think your schedule looks fairly decent so I'm not much help in what to drop. At least this will be a bump back up to the first page. :D

 

More to consider... :001_smile:

[plain jane]

It may indeed be too much time for the grammar. Good point. (especially in addition to the writing program)

 

Gotta keep the religion (in fact there is more there that I didn't list).

 

I *was* wondering about the literary analysis... I'd love to hear more about Teaching the Classics from those who have used it. I'll go in search... Ds reads a TON, but this last year he had been in school for the first time and I got the distinct impression that literary analysis was his weakpoint (which is why I put TTC on the list). I want to learn how to talk with him about the books.

 

The math is *not* concurrent. One after the other, just like you said. The Video Text modules A and B are actually Pre-Algebra, I think.

 

Thanks, Stephanie. I am chewing on the Literary Analysis...

 

Have you listened to SWB's talk on Literary Analysis? She has a great one that outlines how and when to start. You should be able to implement her ideas and use them to discuss the books your son is reading in history. For literature books, just have him read. Even SWB says that at his age you don't want to discuss every book, as the main goal is to get them used to the idea of literary anaylsis and to preserve a love of reading. I highly recommend her talk.

[zaichiki]

Have you listened to SWB's talk on Literary Analysis? She has a great one that outlines how and when to start. You should be able to implement her ideas and use them to discuss the books your son is reading in history. For literature books, just have him read. Even SWB says that at his age you don't want to discuss every book, as the main goal is to get them used to the idea of literary anaylsis and to preserve a love of reading. I highly recommend her talk.

 

I'll check it out. On the Peace Hill Press website?

 

I think I might need some handholding on this one (hence the TTC). Will think on this some more...

[5LittleMonkeys]

Using SWB A Plan for Writing wouldn't neccesarily add any extra time to your week since it should be incorporated into what you already do in science and history. As someone else mentioned, I would use SWB literary analysis for your literature study. It will take far less time than a curriculum and can be just as effective. I am not familiar with First Form but I am assuming it teaches derivatives in which case the separate vocab would be redundant. You can always have them keep a vocab list from their history, science and literature reading. Everything else looks like a good year to me.:D

[johnandtinagilbert]

I'm thinking I need to streamline the number of subjects I have planned for ds. This is the rundown. How realistic are my numbers (time and frequency per week)? Which of these things is really redundant? What would YOU drop? Why?

 

Latin: First Form Latin (10 mins/day) I don't hink this is realistic for study of anything beyond vocabulary or memorization type work

Writing: testing Susan Wise Bauer's new writing program (how often?) and journaling (once/week)

Vocabulary: Vocabulary from Classical Roots (10 mins/day)

Literary Analysis: IEW's Teaching the Classics (no idea how long -- would once/week be enough?)

Grammar: Voyages in English 6 (30 mins/day)

Math: Singapore Primary Math 6, VideoText Algebra modules A & B, and MathCounts competition (not concurrently but something daily for 30-45 mins)

Logic: The Fallacy Detective (once/week)

History: Sonlight Core 6 and outlining History: The Definitive Visual Guide (history and lit total 1 hr+/day)

Religion: Christ Our Life 7 and The Story of the Church: Her Founding, Mission, and Progress (TAN books) (30 mins/day)

Science: Real Science 4 Kids Biology, Froguts (online dissection), hopefully a coop class on genetics, independent Paleontology study, and managing little brother's weekly science experiment (science total 1 hr+/day)

Russian: Rosetta Stone and children’s books (15-30 mins/day)

Art: hopefully a local drawing class

Music: Suzuki cello, group class, and orchestra

 

The music, Religion, and Russian are pretty much set in stone. I *think* the science and history plans will be a good fit for ds. I guess I'm mostly worried that I've planned too much latin, vocab, writing, grammar, and lit analysis. If I drop something, where do I start?

 

TIA!

The only spot I would consider dropping would be Voyages 6. Is he proficient in grammar? If so, you may save some time by using a practice only course like Daily Grams or Editor-in-Chief/Student Editor. This will take about 10 min./day.

Honestly, I don't find the schedule heavy at all. I think you've put together a fine year. And other than coordinating the writing to be more Lit Anal. or history led,as opposed to its own topic, I don't see what else you could drop or streamline.

[MamaReads]

I'll go ahead and echo the thoughts of some others:

 

The grammar & vocab can be dropped in favor of Latin. Especially if you have done grammar in the past.

 

The Sonlight 6 and TTC seems redundant to me.

 

Also, are you planning on over an hour each day of science? For history I can see spending that much time because it is also literature however I would look at cutting science down from 5-7 hours per week to more like 3. Unless of course that is an area your dc is passionate about, then I would look into cutting out Sonlight, using ttc, and keeping Science as is.

 

Are you beta testing a brand new writing curriculum or are you using the newer material SWB has put out? If it is a new curriculum and you have committed to using it as written you may lose some time there. If not definitely fold writing into your other subjects.

 

 

Just my .02 good luck making it work for you & your family!

 

Jesi

[Hedgehogs4]

i agree with what the others have said, and to me, the topics you want to cover do not seem unreasonable for an 11yo. that said, have you considered the loop schedule that everyone is talking about? i'm going to try it (a more refined version of it for myself...i've kind of always used that approach, just didn't have a name for it) and it may take a bit of the pressure off.

[Capt_Uhura]

You don't need to do Teaching the Classics (TtC) weekly. I assume you are referring to Adam Andrews' curriculum sold by Center for Lit which is also sold by IEW. Watch the DVDs and/or read through the syllabus. Pick out a few books you want to discuss. If I remember correctly, you're doing this w/ the 11yr old. I'd start w/ the picture books as Mr. Andrews recommends. My boys really enjoyed A Bargain for Francis and Two Eggs Please (a good one!) when we discussed them. This year we will do Ferdinand and one of the other books from one of his MP3s. Then in other books we are reading, I might bring up an aspect of the book. For example: a book might have a great exposition or it might have multiple conflicts. Or we might just discuss the theme. Of course I"m a noob at this but I aim for 4 books/ year for full discussion, making a literary chart, and then just discuss on the fly w/ other books we're reading. We discuss literary terms such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, foreshadowing, etc in books/poems we are reading.

 

So, nope, it's not something you'd do weekly.

[zaichiki]

I am not familiar with First Form but I am assuming it teaches derivatives in which case the separate vocab would be redundant. You can always have them keep a vocab list from their history, science and literature reading. Everything else looks like a good year to me.:D

 

That's something I was thinking about... but I noticed that SWB recommends Latin and a Word Roots program for 6th grade. My ds has never studied Latin before and I do want to start. I also like the idea of a word roots program. Ugh: I'm so stuck! You have a point about possible redundancy there, though.

 

Does anybody have any thoughts about SWB recommending both Latin AND a word roots curriculum? Wish I could ask her directly (though I have an idea that it's been discussed before).

[zaichiki]

The only spot I would consider dropping would be Voyages 6. Is he proficient in grammar? If so, you may save some time by using a practice only course like Daily Grams or Editor-in-Chief/Student Editor. This will take about 10 min./day.

Honestly, I don't find the schedule heavy at all. I think you've put together a fine year. And other than coordinating the writing to be more Lit Anal. or history led,as opposed to its own topic, I don't see what else you could drop or streamline.

 

I think you're right about my time approximation not being realistic for Latin study. I'll make a note there.

 

He did grammar in school last year. Before that his only grammar instruction was the catch-as-catch-can approach in the lower levels of the old Sonlight LA and occasional Mad Libs. I have a whole shelf-ful of grammar curricula, but we never got to them with enough consistency. I had considered using Editor in Chief instead this year, but I thought this would be a good year to fill gaps and cover grammar bases thoroughly. I don't plan to do it again next year.

 

Good point about the writing.

[zaichiki]

I'll go ahead and echo the thoughts of some others:

 

The grammar & vocab can be dropped in favor of Latin. Especially if you have done grammar in the past.

Considering this... We haven't really done grammar consistently enough in the past though. I thought this year could be the last grammar "hurrah." I'd like to do diagramming with ds. He's a visual-learner, so I thought diagramming might be efficient.

 

The Sonlight 6 and TTC seems redundant to me.

Ds is a big reader. We probably wouldn't do ALL of SL as written, but I'd give him most of the books. (He enjoys history and historical fiction.) I'll be using SOTW with his sister, so it seemed a good match.

 

Also, are you planning on over an hour each day of science?

I think so. I thought this year could be more scienc-intensive. He's really into science.

 

For history I can see spending that much time because it is also literature however I would look at cutting science down from 5-7 hours per week to more like 3. Unless of course that is an area your dc is passionate about, then I would look into cutting out Sonlight, using ttc, and keeping Science as is.

We've been history-based in the past, and ds does love history, but I thought ds could do history more independently this year (outlining and reading historical fiction) so we could spend more time on science.

 

Are you beta testing a brand new writing curriculum or are you using the newer material SWB has put out? If it is a new curriculum and you have committed to using it as written you may lose some time there. If not definitely fold writing into your other subjects.

I wasn't planning on doing a formal writing curriculum with him this year, but he'll be testing sample lessons of the new middle school program SWB is working on -- I don't think it'll be a full-year.

 

Thanks for your thoughts Jesi.

[zaichiki]

have you considered the loop schedule that everyone is talking about?

 

I must have missed this. What's a loop schedule? Can you give me the lowdown?

[zaichiki]

You don't need to do Teaching the Classics (TtC) weekly. I assume you are referring to Adam Andrews' curriculum sold by Center for Lit which is also sold by IEW. Watch the DVDs and/or read through the syllabus. Pick out a few books you want to discuss. If I remember correctly, you're doing this w/ the 11yr old. I'd start w/ the picture books as Mr. Andrews recommends. My boys really enjoyed A Bargain for Francis and Two Eggs Please (a good one!) when we discussed them. This year we will do Ferdinand and one of the other books from one of his MP3s. Then in other books we are reading, I might bring up an aspect of the book. For example: a book might have a great exposition or it might have multiple conflicts. Or we might just discuss the theme. Of course I"m a noob at this but I aim for 4 books/ year for full discussion, making a literary chart, and then just discuss on the fly w/ other books we're reading. We discuss literary terms such as onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, foreshadowing, etc in books/poems we are reading.

 

So, nope, it's not something you'd do weekly.

 

Thanks for the info. I'm really looking forward to using it now... It sounds like it'll be just what I'm looking for...

[HollyDay]

I'd drop Latin and streamline grammar. Vocab or spelling, one or the other. Lit analysis for an 11 yr old? I wouldn't do too much, esp if you are reading a great deal in history. Writing, I'd do more within subjects rather than a dedicated separate program. Logic? See how it goes. If you have time and it is enjoyable, do it. If not, let it go.....

[Capt_Uhura]

There is a schedule at the back of the Teaching the Classics syllabus.

[Capt_Uhura]

On SWB's high school MP3, she does say to do a vocabulary program in addition to Latin. However, she recommends something like Vocabulary from the Classical Roots. She said the first book has the most common roots, prefixes and suffixes.

[JudoMom]

I'm thinking I need to streamline the number of subjects I have planned for ds. This is the rundown. How realistic are my numbers (time and frequency per week)? Which of these things is really redundant? What would YOU drop? Why?

 

Latin: First Form Latin (10 mins/day)

Writing: testing Susan Wise Bauer's new writing program (how often?) and journaling (once/week)

Vocabulary: Vocabulary from Classical Roots (10 mins/day)

Literary Analysis: IEW's Teaching the Classics (no idea how long -- would once/week be enough?)

Grammar: Voyages in English 6 (30 mins/day)

Math: Singapore Primary Math 6, VideoText Algebra modules A & B, and MathCounts competition (not concurrently but something daily for 30-45 mins)

Logic: The Fallacy Detective (once/week)

History: Sonlight Core 6 and outlining History: The Definitive Visual Guide (history and lit total 1 hr+/day)

Religion: Christ Our Life 7 and The Story of the Church: Her Founding, Mission, and Progress (TAN books) (30 mins/day)

Science: Real Science 4 Kids Biology, Froguts (online dissection), hopefully a coop class on genetics, independent Paleontology study, and managing little brother's weekly science experiment (science total 1 hr+/day)

Russian: Rosetta Stone and children’s books (15-30 mins/day)

Art: hopefully a local drawing class

Music: Suzuki cello, group class, and orchestra

 

The music, Religion, and Russian are pretty much set in stone. I *think* the science and history plans will be a good fit for ds. I guess I'm mostly worried that I've planned too much latin, vocab, writing, grammar, and lit analysis. If I drop something, where do I start?

 

TIA!

 

The only thing I would consider dropping would be the vocabulary. But your list of subjects look similar to what my 6th grader is doing this year, so I might not be the best person to ask :D.

[johnandtinagilbert]

After reading your responses, I'd encourage you to wait a year for Latin. Spend the next year completing Voyages and a word roots program. If you're just doing word roots, 10 min/day is realistic for memorization practice. You could even use Quizlet (free) for some computer, game based practice. Basically Quizlet is online flashcards with games to aid in learning.

 

After a year of solidifying grammar, easing through your lit. analysis, and some time to bloom from 11-12, he should prosper in Latin.