Can anybody here compare Building Poems to CW's Poetry for Beginners for me?

[plain jane]

I'd love to her the pros and cons to each and which you would choose. :)

 

I'll be doing CW Homer for sure and am on the fence about the MCT materials. I really like R&S because it simply gets done :) but I've heard great things about CE that I think at the very least I'll do CE. We didn't absolutely *love* the Island level of materials but I also like the sound of Paragraph Town (and skipping Grammar Town).

 

Of course, it's a slippery slope... since I'm already ordering CE, then I may as well get some other MCT materials.........

 

Talk me out of one of these poetry programs- PLEASE! (oh, and my dh thanks you ;))

[Capt_Uhura]

Ok, take this w/ a grain of salt as I've not done CW Homer. I've seen it. I have CW for Older Beginners which I bought used just to read through and scratch that itch..... but my gut feeling (again not from experience) is to if you're doing CW Homer, just use the poetry that comes with it. Is it intertwined w/ the other CW components? I don't think it'd be worth trying to do Paragraph Town if you're doing Homer. CE is pretty good but you get reinforcement through the other books. THose words show up in the Practice books, along w/ other words using the stems. The CE words also show up in the writing books (Paragraph TOwn and I assume Essay Voyage). I'm not trying to talk you out of using CE, just wanted you to be aware of that. I've always wanted to have a poll and have everyone stack up their writing curriculum and measure the height and see who on this board wins! :lol:

 

I'm really trying to simplify. So that's where I'm coming from w/ my recommendation. It seems like CW covers a lot and if you want the full benefits of it, stick w/ that and do it well. Others who've used CW can feel free to disagree w/ me. :001_smile: It just seems like Homer is a program which requires a lot of time...something scheduled everyday.

 

Doesn't CW cover grammar? You wouldn't do both R&S and CW would you?

 

My current plan is WWS along w/ MCT Paragraph Town (we've done all the other components but needed more work w/ paragraphs before giving PT the attention it deserved....or rather, I needed to learn more about paragraphs in order to guide DS in his writing for PT. The assignments for WWS will work double duty for PT for the most part I think. We'll also do Sentence Composing (finishing elementary and moving to middle grades). I think most of these components are all covered in CW Homer, no?

[plain jane]

Ok, take this w/ a grain of salt as I've not done CW Homer. I've seen it. I have CW for Older Beginners which I bought used just to read through and scratch that itch..... but my gut feeling (again not from experience) is to if you're doing CW Homer, just use the poetry that comes with it. Is it intertwined w/ the other CW components? I don't think it'd be worth trying to do Paragraph Town if you're doing Homer. CE is pretty good but you get reinforcement through the other books. THose words show up in the Practice books, along w/ other words using the stems. The CE words also show up in the writing books (Paragraph TOwn and I assume Essay Voyage). I'm not trying to talk you out of using CE, just wanted you to be aware of that. I've always wanted to have a poll and have everyone stack up their writing curriculum and measure the height and see who on this board wins! :lol:

 

I'm really trying to simplify. So that's where I'm coming from w/ my recommendation. It seems like CW covers a lot and if you want the full benefits of it, stick w/ that and do it well. Others who've used CW can feel free to disagree w/ me. :001_smile: It just seems like Homer is a program which requires a lot of time...something scheduled everyday.

 

Doesn't CW cover grammar? You wouldn't do both R&S and CW would you?

 

My current plan is WWS along w/ MCT Paragraph Town (we've done all the other components but needed more work w/ paragraphs before giving PT the attention it deserved....or rather, I needed to learn more about paragraphs in order to guide DS in his writing for PT. The assignments for WWS will work double duty for PT for the most part I think. We'll also do Sentence Composing (finishing elementary and moving to middle grades). I think most of these components are all covered in CW Homer, no?

 

Thank you for your reply. I really appreciate it, especially since nobody else seems to want to take a stab at this one. :001_unsure:

 

Thank you for sharing that the CE words are intertwined in the rest of the program. I wanted to use CE because I'm in need of a vocabulary program and everyone raves about how high their dc's retention was with CE. It makes sense that retention would be higher if the same words are use throughout the program. Drat. That puts me in the search for a vocab. program. :willy_nilly:

 

I've read (here) that several people use R&S along with CW so I'm going to stick with that. I don't love the writing assignments in R&S so I'm happy to use something else. :D I do like the grammar instruction and dd finds it to be quick and painless and therefore complains very little. ;) This makes the curriculum definitely a keeper in my home. :lol:

 

It wasn't a priority to use MCT this year. I liked it but I think Homer will be a better fit. That said, I think I'll always feel like we're missing out on something by not using MCT. :001_huh:

[Capt_Uhura]

Well, if you're only buying CE, it isn't that big of a financial commitment. You only need the teacher book. Try it and see how it goes. I do think several use it alone.

 

I can't make any comments on the poetry as I've not seen CW poetry although I've been curious.

 

I've been thinking more about this. I don't know how much seeing the words in the Practice Books contributes to the retention. It's not a lot. I think the retention comes in from reading quality literature and seeing those words used. I know we see CE1 words in our classic books all the time. So, after further reflection, I'd say give CE1 a try if you like the approach MCT uses.

Edited August 3, 2011 by Capt_Uhura

[Narrow Gate Academy]

Thank you for your reply. I really appreciate it, especially since nobody else seems to want to take a stab at this one. :001_unsure:

 

Thank you for sharing that the CE words are intertwined in the rest of the program. I wanted to use CE because I'm in need of a vocabulary program and everyone raves about how high their dc's retention was with CE. It makes sense that retention would be higher if the same words are use throughout the program. Drat. That puts me in the search for a vocab. program. :willy_nilly:

 

We use CE for vocab without the rest of the books and still have good retention. It does a great job of introducing words in context which DD loves. Also since each lessons contains cummulative review of all the previous lessons, there is plenty of practice with the words without using the other components IMHO.

 

I've read (here) that several people use R&S along with CW so I'm going to stick with that. I don't love the writing assignments in R&S so I'm happy to use something else. :D I do like the grammar instruction and dd finds it to be quick and painless and therefore complains very little. ;) This makes the curriculum definitely a keeper in my home. :lol:

 

It wasn't a priority to use MCT this year. I liked it but I think Homer will be a better fit. That said, I think I'll always feel like we're missing out on something by not using MCT. :001_huh:

 

We use R&S along with CW, and it is a good combo. I haven't seen Building Poems, but we do use CW Poetry for Beginners. It has a good combination of analysis and imitation similar to the format of the rest of the books. Actually I love their imitation method for poetry. DD was a little iffy on poetry to start, but the imitation approach made it seem doable to her. Now she loves poetry and enjoys writing her own for fun. HTH

[Capt_Uhura]

Narrow Gate- thanks for you expressing your thoughts! That's a big difference between the poetry books. W/ MCT poetry, you're not writing your own poetry.