Donna T. Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Hello! I will be using Bigger Hearts next year with my youngest son. He will be a 4th grader and will be using the Extension Package. I have a question about the dictation & grammar. I have Simply Charlotte Mason's Spelling Wisdom and I really like it. The passages start out simple but they get quite difficult alot faster than HOD's dictation. I know this is a silly question because I can do whatever I want to do but do you think it would work ok to have him use Spelling Wisdom instead of the lists in HOD. Also, I'm not sure about R&S. He used 2 last year in 3rd grade but it was sporadic because it makes him cry :confused:. He liked it at first but by the end of the year he truly hated it. I know that not all school has to be fun but I'm not going to have him crying over grammar. I think I am going to use First Language Lessons 3 with him. He is using Sonlight's Grammar Ace now and he loves it, it's fun and silly and he enjoys it. I think I'll use Grammar Ace as a supplement but FLL 3 as his main program. I used it with my oldest and he loved it. Any reason why I shouldn't make these changes? He places into Preparing with one exception and that is that he needs more time to work on writing his own sentences, rather than just doing copywork, dictation, or asking me to do it for him :001_smile:. I do want to wait on Preparing anyways because I want him to use the Extensions when he gets there and I think having a year in Bigger Hearts will just really help him to do the full Preparing program. Unlike some who have found Preparing to be "not enough", we found it to be VERY full and I know he will enjoy it more if we take a year to work on his Language Arts skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChicoryChick Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Hi Donna, I don't see any reason why you should have trouble substituting your own LA. We just finished up Bigger this year, during the year I switched both grammar and dictation (for a lighter grammar and AAS) and had no problems with it working with the rest of the program. :D I would definitely switch from R&S if it is making him cry. We switched because it was difficult for me to balance 3 different levels of R&S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna T. Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 Kay, thanks for sharing. I have been considering AAS for him but I've never seen it and I just don't know. Something just isn't clicking for him with spelling. He is a strong reader but he rarely writes anything without asking me how to spell it. I mean, simple words. He makes 100% on his spelling words in R&S but then can't spell the same words the very next day. He recently had to write the names of the months and he couldn't spell any of them even though he had previously studied and made 100% on them. I do think that a stronger focus on dictation will help him, but I don't know if that is going to be enough. Either way, I'm dropping the R&S workbook because it's just not connecting for some reason. So, at his age, he would start at Level 1 with AAS? How long do the lessons take? What components do you use? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmschooling Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 If he's having such a time with spelling, do you really want dictation passages that get more difficult, more quickly then HOD's? Carrie uses the same books CM herself used in her own classrooms! Can't get much more CM than that! I suggest that although you can sub dictation, that perhaps the pace in JOD would be what he needs?? As for R&S grammar, were you doing it mostly orally or all written? It should be done mostly orally, saving maybe a third to do written, and sometimes less! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna T. Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 (edited) If he's having such a time with spelling, do you really want dictation passages that get more difficult, more quickly then HOD's? Carrie uses the same books CM herself used in her own classrooms! Can't get much more CM than that! I suggest that although you can sub dictation, that perhaps the pace in JOD would be what he needs?? As for R&S grammar, were you doing it mostly orally or all written? It should be done mostly orally, saving maybe a third to do written, and sometimes less! I know, I have considered that and I'm still considering it. But, it's not dictation that he has a problem with. He can handle more difficult dictation passages. The ones in Bigger Hearts are great but they are very simple for a 4th grader. I was asking about AAS because I think he just needs a different approach to help it to stick. We do do studied dictation but I have heard so many good reports about AAS for kids who need a little more explicit instruction. I don't know. He can reproduce a dictation passage that he has studied quite well but it's his own writing that he has to ask for constant help with, even if he has previously learned those words. Maybe he just needs more practice. We do R&S both orally and written. Edited June 7, 2011 by Donna T. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twoxcell Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 My ds will be doing both AAS 3, and the dictation from Bigger Hearts for 3rd grade. Do you still have the preparing manual? You could use one of the harder dictations if you do. As far as grammar I do not think it would be a big deal with substituting although there may be some overlap with FLL if it has copywork, dictation, narration etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donna T. Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 My ds will be doing both AAS 3, and the dictation from Bigger Hearts for 3rd grade. Do you still have the preparing manual? You could use one of the harder dictations if you do. As far as grammar I do not think it would be a big deal with substituting although there may be some overlap with FLL if it has copywork, dictation, narration etc. Yes, I do still have it; that's what I should do. I just realized today (total DUH :tongue_smilie:) that I could use the Preparing lists with him. I had ordered Spelling Wisdom right before I decided that we would definately go back to HOD. I do really like it, but I don't need it... so, I just packed it up to return it. That's the thing about HOD... most of what I have around here, we won't even need. FLL may be a little bit of an overlap but not too much. He really loves Grammar Ace. Maybe we will just finish that and then he can go back to R&S English. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birchbark Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Just to make things more confusing Donna, my son loved The Sentence Family for grammar at that age. We went from hating grammar to loving it. (Had been doing FLL.) He asked to do it two or three times. It is short, sweet, and inexpensive. I really think TSF with copywork and dictation is just fine for a third grader. Whatever you do, don't sweat it too much at that age. It will be just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abrightmom Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Just to make things more confusing Donna, my son loved The Sentence Family for grammar at that age. We went from hating grammar to loving it. (Had been doing FLL.) He asked to do it two or three times. It is short, sweet, and inexpensive. I really think TSF with copywork and dictation is just fine for a third grader. Whatever you do, don't sweat it too much at that age. It will be just fine. Birchbark, I just picked up TSF... Do you think it is enough for third grade if we are doing Bigger? We would pick up with RS 4 in 4th with Preparing or...? Hmmmmm. Rod and Staff does include some composition instruction which Carrie is counting on when she plans the guide.... Thoughts? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
my2boys Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Just wanted to say that we are also doing AAS along with HOD's spelling in Beyond this year and it's working well for us. We plan to continue on the same way with Bigger for 2nd grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birchbark Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 Birchbark,I just picked up TSF... Do you think it is enough for third grade if we are doing Bigger? We would pick up with RS 4 in 4th with Preparing or...? Hmmmmm. Rod and Staff does include some composition instruction which Carrie is counting on when she plans the guide.... Thoughts? :) If I had a child that cried when doing grammar at that age I would say it is enough. Copywork and dictation contain a lot of implicit instruction so I would definitely count on doing that. We went from TSF (in third grade) to R&S 4 (in fourth). I haven't done any earlier levels of R&S so I guess I don't know what we've missed out on! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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