Logic, Memorization, and HOD Help!!

[JoyinIndo]

Hello everyone!

My oldest son is finishing up 5th grade this year with HOD CTC, with his 4th grade sister studying it as well.

 

It has been a wonderful year. They have learned much, enjoyed their studies, and have made some truly beautiful notebooks. It has been a mostly painless year for us, as much of their study has been independent, yet we still read together and learn together.

 

As my son heads into 6th grade, I am seeing, however, a few gaps.....mainly in logic and memorization. Neither of these are too strong in HOD. He learned a lot and can tell you all about Julius Caesar or Marc Antony, but can't remember dates. And, well, logic, it just needs some major work.

 

My question is this:

 

-should I look at something perhaps more rigorous to give my son an all-encompassing education? If so, what? Veritas Press? Or???

 

-should I beef up HOD RTR to include some logic study and some memorization? If so, what? Veritas Press memory cards or????

 

Thanks for the help!

Joy

[Michelle My Bell]

For memorization, I would just add in a daily memory work time. Make your own lists using dates from the program, speeches, etc... No reason to throw the whole curricula out because it is weak in one area when it has been working well for you. Just add in what you want to strengthen.

[JoyinIndo]

Thank you Michelle. I see that your middle one uses HOD. Do you make your own list as you suggested? What other things do you add to HOD?

I appreciate your sound advice, I will do that. And, I see that your oldest uses TOG, is there a time that you transition from HOD to TOG or just use different curricula for different kids?

 

Thanks for the help!!

[Donna T.]

My 7th grader is using CTC. He uses the extension books and we add some other things as well. He has memorized all of the poems so far and is keeping up with the Bible memory work. He has also memorized most of the dates from the timeline that runs across the top of the notebook pages.

 

Some other things he uses to add a little memory work:

Scripture verses for Sunday School and the mid-week children's program at our church

The Latin words portion of English from the Roots up (he memorized the Greek ones in the past)

Some additional Greek vocabulary from Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek

Additional poems from IEW's Poetry Memorization (I do not consider this necessary at all. I am happy with the amount of poems in CTC but he likes it and we use it in a relaxed way; i.e., listening during breakfast, in the car, etc.)

Living Memory by Andrew Campbell - http://www.lulu.com/shop/andrew-a-campbell/living-memory/paperback/product-4080865.html;jsessionid=21AB5F353D2F3BC4B440067ADBFB5D3C - this book is priceless, in my opinion. There is content for every subject, from geography to mathematics to grammar.

Right now he's working on a list of Greek gods/goddesses. We are reading The Trojan War by Olivia Coolidge together. We have already started it but then I decided to add the study guide available through Memoria Press, so he will actually begin that tomorrow.

 

We also use a variety of things for beginning Logic. He doesn't like Mind Benders but we do try to spend a little time on that atleast once a week. We use Red Herrings (both of these are published by Critical Thinking Company) more often, usually two or three times a week. He finished The Fallacy Detective and has recently begun The Thinking Toolbox.

 

Those are some of the things we have done or are doing. He has a memory work box full of index cards and The Plan was to use cards for a variety of things but to be honest, we aren't very diligent about doing that, but overall, I am very happy with the way it's all coming together for him :). It is easy to just pull content from whatever he is studying. I personally would not change curriculi for this reason alone. It's better for us to just add some things according to his interests and my own goals for him.

[Donna T.]

This is the system we have used to set up our memory box:

 

http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/

 

This is great and works very well though I have to say that we get too lax with it! If you want a very structured approach to memory work, this is an easy way to organize your cards and to implement a plan for learning new things while reviewing things that were previously memorized.

[JoyinIndo]

Thanks. This gives me a good starting place! Thanks for all the help!!

[Michelle My Bell]

Thank you Michelle. I see that your middle one uses HOD. Do you make your own list as you suggested? What other things do you add to HOD?

I appreciate your sound advice, I will do that. And, I see that your oldest uses TOG, is there a time that you transition from HOD to TOG or just use different curricula for different kids?

 

Thanks for the help!!

 

I have recently switched 3 more of my kids to HOD from TOG. My oldest is taking a break from TOG to study for the ACT exam. We used TOG for several years along with my one daughter using HOD independently because she loved it so much. I loved the planning with TOG but right now I needed a break from that and I have to say we are actually getting a lot more out of HOD than we ever did with TOG.

 

I have discovered that TOG had too much good stuff that I didn't really do much more than go through the readings, do some map work and possibly a project or writing activity. With HOD, it feels much more put together for me and I feel like my younger ones are learning a lot more. My oldest daughter loved working in TOG and was getting a lot out of it but I have to be honest, if HOD were available in her level right now, I would be considering switching her for the same reasons listed above.

 

This is just where we are at right now as a family. If someone has the time and understanding to pull TOG into a fantastic learning opportunity, the tools are all there.

 

As far as memory work, we spent the first half of the year doing memory mornings. I had made video's that I uploaded to youtube that taught skip counting. (user name wellroundedscholar). That was for math however. I also found a neat presidents song I had the kids memorizing. They watched that every day as well. Finally we worked on bible verses. Currently my younger kids are working through Preparing Hearts so there really isn't a lot of memorization they could/should be doing with that as we are only on week 5 and we have covered a lot of biblical history so far. We have added a song that helps them remember the continents and oceans.

 

I do my own language arts plan and math so I made bookmarks that have a standard weekly checkmark for each language arts and math assignments. At the beginning of a new week, I get out my bookmark and date the top. I file last weeks bookmark in the kids binders. I designed the bookmark with one daughters assignments on the top and the other daughters assignments on the bottom so I just cut it in half to file it away. I have days 1-4 listed with each subject listed. I keep track of finished assignments this way. For instance it might look like this:

 

Child 1

Day 1

__ Math

__ Handwriting

__ All About Spelling

__ Memory Work

__ Independent Reading

 

Day 2

__ Math

__ Dictation

__ Grammar

__ Xtra Math (computer drills)

__ Independent Reading

 

etc...

[birchbark]

And a logic program would be easy to add in on your fifth day. Carrie mentioned at some point she was going to add logic in one of the upper guides, but I'm not sure when that would be.