buram Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 I know I want to use this program with my daughter for K but I was wondering what others found was needed and / or very usefull. If this question has already been asked I would love a link to it. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommee & Baba Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 Just the workbook. The only one that I've seen that needed the TM was the preschool one and that's because it has the fun songs and such in it. Also it has the Mat Man that I ended up copying and printing out and laminating for my dc to play with. And instead of purchasing directly from the site pick up the following items at a dollar store or walmart to save money. Small Child Size Chalk Board or Marker Board Small Child Size Chalk (or break the chalk in half) or Small Dry Erase Markers (I know Walmart sells a pack of 6 small Expo dry erase markers with erasers on the caps) Otherwise I backed up HWT with Kumon workbooks for Writing Sentences as my dd FLEW through her HWT workbook in under 2 months! And I also picked up the Kumon Write and Wipe Flashcards. DD5 loved all of what I included. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celia Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 The beauty of HWT are the manipulatives. We found the stamp and see screen to be very useful and fun, but the rest you could construct yourself, or find at the dollar store. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MangoMama Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 The only other thing that we got was the mini chalkboard and we do fine! :001_smile: If you want a mini chalkboard, I have two, so if you want one free of charge, PM me with your addy and I'll be happy to send it to you. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutTN Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 We got the TM and the workbook and I'm glad b/c the TM has a lot of good teaching ideas and explanations of why they do certain things certain ways. My DD has already finished the K book (doing about 3-4 pp /week) and we are doing the yellow printing book now. I didn't buy the TM it is very similar to the K one. I think with my DS, we may use more of the manipulatives. DD didn't really need them, but they do look fun and the explanations of how they help children learn are good. Ditto pp on the small chalkboard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 The "meat" of this program is in the manipulatives and the TMs. It will probably work for you either way if you have a natural writer, but if you have a child who has any hesitancies at all about writing, I would not want to be without the manipulatives. We found the following to be the most effective: Chalkboard Workbook TM Wooden manipulatives Short pencils Block paper Two line paper Name plates (this may be just in our house though) Ds had fine motor delays and this program was the ONLY thing that got him writing and took him from not even holding a pencil to copywork stage. I highly recommend it, but it does have a very specific progression from manipulatives to writing - and doing it without the manipulatives is not really getting the full benefit of the program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhornby56 Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 I hope you don't mind me jumping in! I'm going to use the K program too. I would like to just purchase the wooden letter pieces or the stamp and see screen (along with some other stuff). Of those two, which is more useful? I'm leaning towards the stamp and see screen. If I really need both, you can tell me that too. Thanks for any help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairProspects Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 I hope you don't mind me jumping in! I'm going to use the K program too. I would like to just purchase the wooden letter pieces or the stamp and see screen (along with some other stuff). Of those two, which is more useful? I'm leaning towards the stamp and see screen. If I really need both, you can tell me that too. Thanks for any help! Of those two I would definitely buy the wood letter pieces. They are a key part of the program and are used to show kids how letters are formed (big line, little line, small curve, big curve). Building letters with the pieces is the precursor for putting that all together in pencil strokes (Capital J is a big line, little curve with a short line, etc.) We didn't use the stamp and see screen, but I think it would be helpful for the preschool age. As far as I remember though, even the Pre-k book doesn't use it in the programming, its just an extra for letter recognition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonshineLearner Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 And... you should read about "Cursive first" ...meaning to teach cursive first. I found that using the 3rd grade cursive book from them was perfect for teaching cursive first. I had tried before... but this program make it just easy...... And... there are a ton of reasons out there... that you can read online... about why cursive is best first... It's actually the way students use to be taught... went out of style to teach it first... about the same time reading by "site words" came in........ :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 I bought a lot of "stuff" and found that I only use the workbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buram Posted January 14, 2011 Author Share Posted January 14, 2011 Thanks everybody for the suggestions. I really appreciate it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwoodbri Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 I bought just about everything to go with the program and only use the workbook with my 5 year old. He already new most of his upper case letters so I think that might make a difference. My 3 year old likes to use the wooden letters though and I guess my 5 year old has used the chalkboard a few times but more just for fun. Hope that helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swirl Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 On a side note, I really like using their lined paper for our other writing assignments too. DS used it through 3rd grade and DD is still using it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trying my best Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 On a side note, I really like using their lined paper for our other writing assignments too. DS used it through 3rd grade and DD is still using it. You can also make double lined paper yourself in word format. I did just that for my 1st grader. In fact where i am from we only use double lines :) PM me if you would like a file of doable lines. I use less nerrow lines for 1st grade and larger double lines for K :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swirl Posted January 17, 2011 Share Posted January 17, 2011 You can also make double lined paper yourself in word format. I did just that for my 1st grader. Hey, I did that for the first time this year too! Only it took me a few years to finally think of it. :glare: I made pages for copywork and pages with picture boxes for Apologia Science notebook. The little pictures below are fuzzy, but if you click on them, they will enlarge and look better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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