Meriwether Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 Dd7 is in third grade now, so next year will be out 3rd year doing the Veritas Press literature. My sister also has a daughter in the same situation. We talk about what our kids are doing a lot, but since the girls are the oldest in each family it has been the blind leading the blind in some situations. Last year and this year we've gotten all of the lit books and lit guides for the girls (except for one lit guide I missed when ordering). This year there is no possible way we can finish every book doing one chapter per school day. When I was filing for this school year, I told my sister that it must be a curriculum where you choose *some* of the books. Surely the kids at the schools can't do more than one chapter a day. Should the kids be doing each book? If so, how do you schedule it? If not, how many do you choose? This isn't such an issue with Dd because she is a fast, avid reader. But I've got a couple of boys coming on that I don't know about yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in VA Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 Well which books are you using? They have many more books in their catalog than you read. We use the Scholars literature list. This year we read (well almost done) Baby Island Boxcar 1: The Boxcar Children A Child's Garden of Verses Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective Little House in the Big Woods Little House on the Prairie Milly Molly Mandy Storybook Owls in the Family Pinocchio The Railway Children Secret Agents Four The Velveteen Rabbit Winnie-the-Pooh For third grade we will do: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Book of Fairy Tales Charlotte's Web Homer Price The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe The Magician's Nephew Misty of Chincoteague Story of the Treasure Seekers Stuart Little The Dragon of Lonely Island Peter Pan We haven't had trouble getting them done. We alternate between my reading to her and her doing independent reading. I make sure she narrate both when she reads herself and when I read aloud to her. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted April 4, 2011 Author Share Posted April 4, 2011 I buy every single book in their lit section. So far this year she has done: Black Ships Before Troy Book of Fairy Tales Charlotte's Web The Children's Homer (through History) d'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths (through History) Detectives in Togas (through History) Homer Price Misty of Chincoteague Stuart Little (and she has almost completed one of the 3rd Grade Pathways Readers and will start the second one soon) She is currently on The Treasure Seekers She has left to do: Alice in Wonderland The complete set of The Chronicles of Narnia With the selections that don't come with study guides, she has read Ballet Shoes, 4 books from the Louie Lighthouse Series, Pompeii Buried Alive, and The Trojan Horse. She still has The Dragon of Lonely Island, Paul Bunyan, and Peter Pan to read. She doesn't have a problem with the reading. She could read the 11 books she has left in 2 weeks. My question is more with the study guides. I overlap the history and lit study guides, but rarely ask her to do 2 chapters worth of questions from a single book a day. If I assign just one chapter a day, we can't do every guide this year (in a regular 36 weeks). Does that make more sense? So when you say you easily get it done, how do you do it? Do you do 2 chapters some days? Skip some projects? Is the difference only doing 2 books from the Narnia series (these books are the ones we'll have to do in the summer, unless we do one book per week and answer the questions orally)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in VA Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 Ok - yes I see what you are saying. My instinct is to say you are doing too many guides. The guides can be great. I use several. But they can also overwhelm as you are finding. What I do is look at the list from VP that they provide with Scholars (the program that has lesson plans). The list I put before for 3rd grade is the list of books they schedule. Then I do the guides that are on that list - for 3rd grade it would be my list below with the exception of Peter Pan and Dragon of Lonely Island (note they only schedule 2 of the Narnia books even though the guide is for all 7). For history the scholars plan only schedules the guide for Black Ships. I use this as a basis for a solid year. In my view, if I'm doing their recommendations which I see as challenging without being too much, then I'm doing well. Those are the books I consider 'academic studies' for lack of a better term. Then I relegate the rest of the books for her reading time. She reads them all, but we don't study them all at the same level, if that makes sense. Remember, the guides serve a purpose. They help develop writing skills, work on comprehension, and there are some fun projects. But they are a tool. If you are finding that there are too many guides, cut guides rather than cut books. You can have her narrate to you. That's very good for developing comprehension. You can pick some projects from a guide but just discuss it orally. But it's ok to just read some of the books. They are great books. Feel free to just enjoy. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meriwether Posted April 4, 2011 Author Share Posted April 4, 2011 Ok - yes I see what you are saying. My instinct is to say you are doing too many guides. The guides can be great. I use several. But they can also overwhelm as you are finding. What I do is look at the list from VP that they provide with Scholars (the program that has lesson plans). The list I put before for 3rd grade is the list of books they schedule. Then I do the guides that are on that list - for 3rd grade it would be my list below with the exception of Peter Pan and Dragon of Lonely Island (note they only schedule 2 of the Narnia books even though the guide is for all 7). For history the scholars plan only schedules the guide for Black Ships. I use this as a basis for a solid year. In my view, if I'm doing their recommendations which I see as challenging without being too much, then I'm doing well. Those are the books I consider 'academic studies' for lack of a better term. Then I relegate the rest of the books for her reading time. She reads them all, but we don't study them all at the same level, if that makes sense. Remember, the guides serve a purpose. They help develop writing skills, work on comprehension, and there are some fun projects. But they are a tool. If you are finding that there are too many guides, cut guides rather than cut books. You can have her narrate to you. That's very good for developing comprehension. You can pick some projects from a guide but just discuss it orally. But it's ok to just read some of the books. They are great books. Feel free to just enjoy. Heather Thank you! The bolded was particularly helpful. I've spent thousands on curriculum purchases each year, but I've never sprung for the lesson plans. I thought it must be something like that though. It just didn't seem reasonable to do that much. The red part made me :lol:. My poor kids. They don't only do the books listed. They do the series or other books by that author. Ds6 is working through a stack of Nate the Great books now. Dd7 just finished Detectives in Togas and is ready to start the second one. I just ordered two more by that author. When she finishes The Story of the Treasure Seekers she will have 4 or 5 more books by that author ready for her. And on and on. I won't cut the books, but I may be more choosy with the guides. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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