smalltown mom Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 Should I go with CW Homer, or CW for older beginners that combines Aesop and Homer (intended for a 7th grader)? We're a little behind since we combined some WWE and WT2 last year for 5th grade. Now my 6th grader is finishing up Writing Tales 2, and I'm wanting to try CW. My son does pretty well with reading comprehension and grammar, so I think he'd probably be capable of doing the Aesop/Homer, but I'm just not sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chai Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 It really depends on your future goals--do you want to get through all of the CW levels? Although I'm not familiar with the Older Beginner's Book, I think that it would be appealing to finish Homer in one year. I think Homer A and B would provide plenty of challenge for a sixth/seventh grader, but with that scenario, you won't get to Maxim until 8th. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 Should I go with CW Homer, or CW for older beginners that combines Aesop and Homer (intended for a 7th grader)? We're a little behind since we combined some WWE and WT2 last year for 5th grade. Now my 6th grader is finishing up Writing Tales 2, and I'm wanting to try CW. My son does pretty well with reading comprehension and grammar, so I think he'd probably be capable of doing the Aesop/Homer, but I'm just not sure. You know it is up to you and what your student can handle. If you do separate Homer A and B then it would look like this: Homer A 7th grade, cover basic grammar and verbals, focuses on marking accidental details and essential then breaking the essential into scenes, acts and paragraphs, ending with a summary. Homer B 8th grade, cover phrases and clauses of all types, continues with A work but focuses on telling the story from the end, middle with an eye to credibility and an focus on concision. If you do OB then your child will cover all that in 7th. A couple of other thoughts. Homer is generally the heaviest of all the levels from what I hear (and I had someone who is in higher levels back me up on that in a different thread today). It might be easier to condense things later. Right now they don't offer programs that condense like OB, but they do offer classes taught by Kathy who writes the student and teacher texts. Do you plan to do each homer week over 2 weeks or at normal pace? Do you plan to do Poetry? If you plan to go at normal pace without the poetry then you would slowly over time make up a year. Beginning Poetry at normal pace has 24 weeks, an the O/B has 12 weeks. Intermediate Poetry is 16 weeks. Advanced Poetry is 15 weeks. Between OB, Intermediate and Advanced you have 43 weeks of material. By just staying focused on the main part of the program you gain over a year. Because Homer is the hardest level for both parent and student to get through I hesitate to know how to advise anyone. Is it better to get it over with or take your time? It again comes down to the student. Do they need repetition or not? Homer is built on teaching language skills and having the student do them repeatedly till they are automatic, till it becomes part of their thinking without thinking. This makes it both tedious and effective. Really only you know which would work best for your child. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallory Posted October 23, 2010 Share Posted October 23, 2010 (edited) I agree that OB is hard! My 5th grader is doing WT 2 this year and we will not be doing OB next year. Homer A is still at the top of my list and no matter what writing we do he will probably do the poetry (I love CW Poetry!). 8th is plenty early enough for Diogenes. My 10th grader is doing it this year; it is so much easier than OB. I think she will finish both Diogenes this year. Of course she will also do the inter. Poetry- like I said we love it! Edited October 23, 2010 by Mallory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smalltown mom Posted October 24, 2010 Author Share Posted October 24, 2010 Do you plan to do Poetry? If you plan to go at normal pace without the poetry then you would slowly over time make up a year. Beginning Poetry at normal pace has 24 weeks, an the O/B has 12 weeks. Intermediate Poetry is 16 weeks. Advanced Poetry is 15 weeks. Heather Wow, thanks for taking time to respond!! Umm, poetry?? I guess I'm ignorant about this part. Is there a level of poetry that is supposed to be used along with each level of CW? Is this part of the CW curriculum?? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted October 24, 2010 Share Posted October 24, 2010 Wow, thanks for taking time to respond!! Umm, poetry?? I guess I'm ignorant about this part. Is there a level of poetry that is supposed to be used along with each level of CW? Is this part of the CW curriculum?? Thanks! Yes it has a Poetry element, though many people don't use it and just focus on the main program. OB has 22 weeks of work, and OB Poetry has 12, for a total of 34 weeks. Homer A has 20 weeks, and Beginning Poetry A is 12 weeks for 32 weeks of material. Homer B has 20 weeks, and Beginning Poetry B is 12 weeks for 32 weeks again. Diogenes Maxim is 26 weeks, Diogenes Chreia is 24 weeks, and Intermediate Poetry is 16 weeks. They recommend 7 weeks with Maxim and 9 weeks with Chreia. Herodotus is 24 weeks and Advanced Poetry is 15 weeks. My guess is they will recommend you split Advanced Poetry with Plutarch once it is out. Then they will have two years of Demosthenes with Shakespeare. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrincipledPilgrim Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 Diogenes Maxim is 26 weeks, Diogenes Chreia is 24 weeks, and Intermediate Poetry is 16 weeks. They recommend 7 weeks with Maxim and 9 weeks with Chreia. Heather Heather, Could you clarify what you mean about the 7 weeks of Maxim and 9 weeks of Chreia? :confused: You mean if you combine them this is what they recommend? We did the summer crash course through Homer and my daughter is taking Maxim with Kathy right now. Loving it. I am trying to figure out how to get Chreia in after Maxim finishes so we get caught up to the right level. I am bummed that we don't have time to do the Poetry. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dovrar Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 We tried Homer with dd in 6th and it was just too overwhelming to try and do all of the work they suggest in one week. I would recommend giving yourselves at least 2 weeks per lesson. After awhile we decided to set Homer aside and are now doing Beginning Poetry instead. Dd is more interested in poetry and it seems a more gentle introduction (IMHO) into formal writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siloam Posted November 13, 2010 Share Posted November 13, 2010 Heather, Could you clarify what you mean about the 7 weeks of Maxim and 9 weeks of Chreia? :confused: You mean if you combine them this is what they recommend? We did the summer crash course through Homer and my daughter is taking Maxim with Kathy right now. Loving it. I am trying to figure out how to get Chreia in after Maxim finishes so we get caught up to the right level. I am bummed that we don't have time to do the Poetry. Thanks! The 7 and 9 weeks is referring to how you break up the 16 weeks of Poetry between the two levels, so if you aren't doing Poetry you would ignore it. :D Heather 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.