ABQmom Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Can someone tell me about this curriculum? I already know David Quine and his viewpoints, so I'm looking more for what you thought about the structure of the curriculum and the books used in it. Were the books engaging for your teen or boring? Was it easy to teach? Easy to learn from? Challenging? Any opinions are welcome. Thanks! Chronicles of Narnia, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, and Mere Christianity are books listed that I'm familiar with. What about: Know What You Believe, Assumptions, Answers for Difficult Days, How to Read Slowly, Never Before in History, and The Deadliest Monster. Any you would skip? Any you wouldn't? We'd probably skip Narnia since we've read those many times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ereks mom Posted June 15, 2012 Share Posted June 15, 2012 Can someone tell me about this curriculum? I already know David Quine and his viewpoints, so I'm looking more for what you thought about the structure of the curriculum and the books used in it. Were the books engaging for your teen or boring? Was it easy to teach? Easy to learn from? Challenging? Any opinions are welcome. Thanks! Chronicles of Narnia, Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, and Mere Christianity are books listed that I'm familiar with. What about: Know What You Believe, Assumptions, Answers for Difficult Days, How to Read Slowly, Never Before in History, and The Deadliest Monster. Any you would skip? Any you wouldn't? We'd probably skip Narnia since we've read those many times. I used Starting Points with ER when he was a high school senior, and I plan to use it again for EK next year for her senior year. ER read all of the books you listed except Never Before in History (we skipped that section of the book). Also, we had already read the Narnia books, so we discussed them briefly, but we didn't reread them. ER graduated from college last month, and I just now asked him his opinion on these books. He said he only vaguely remembers Know What You Believe, Assumptions, Answers for Difficult Days, and How to Read Slowly, but he LOVED Mere Christianity (so did I) and he also really liked The Deadliest Monster, paired with Frankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde. He said that he thinks all Christians should read these books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABQmom Posted June 15, 2012 Author Share Posted June 15, 2012 I used Starting Points with ER when he was a high school senior, and I plan to use it again for EK next year for her senior year. ER read all of the books you listed except Never Before in History (we skipped that section of the book). Also, we had already read the Narnia books, so we discussed them briefly, but we didn't reread them. ER graduated from college last month, and I just now asked him his opinion on these books. He said he only vaguely remembers Know What You Believe, Assumptions, Answers for Difficult Days, and How to Read Slowly, but he LOVED Mere Christianity (so did I) and he also really liked The Deadliest Monster, paired with Frankenstein and Jekyll and Hyde. He said that he thinks all Christians should read these books. Thanks so much! Just the kind of opinions I'm looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Photo Ninja Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 My dc had already read most the books in the Starting Point curriculum, but I think it is worth reading them again. The books are included not just to read, but to learn to analyze. If your dc have already read the books, great. Now they get to read them with a different purpose, and since they are familiar with the content, they can focus more on the analysis taught in the curriculum. I would not skip the books for that reason. The books themselves may not be challenging to all students, however the analytical instruction may be new. It can be easier to analyze a book that is a slightly lower reading level or is familiar. It is a different purpose for reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dooley Posted June 17, 2012 Share Posted June 17, 2012 ...its a lot of work and even with an excelled student, we did not get to the last book...which looked awesome! So, if I do it again, I will definatly cut some of the books or work on the books we are familiar with so we can do the last one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABQmom Posted June 18, 2012 Author Share Posted June 18, 2012 My dc had already read most the books in the Starting Point curriculum, but I think it is worth reading them again. The books are included not just to read, but to learn to analyze. If your dc have already read the books, great. Now they get to read them with a different purpose, and since they are familiar with the content, they can focus more on the analysis taught in the curriculum. I would not skip the books for that reason. The books themselves may not be challenging to all students, however the analytical instruction may be new. It can be easier to analyze a book that is a slightly lower reading level or is familiar. It is a different purpose for reading. I appreciate your input. ...its a lot of work and even with an excelled student, we did not get to the last book...which looked awesome! So, if I do it again, I will definatly cut some of the books or work on the books we are familiar with so we can do the last one. What do you mean that it's a lot of work? For you or for the students? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dooley Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 A lot of writing for the student. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jatoga Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 We read all books and would not suggest skipping any... the writing assignments will require you to comment on/analyze the books... Excellent curriculum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABQmom Posted June 19, 2012 Author Share Posted June 19, 2012 A lot of writing for the student. We read all books and would not suggest skipping any... the writing assignments will require you to comment on/analyze the books...Excellent curriculum. Thank you both. Now I'm wondering if we will have time to do this curriculum. Mmm... decisions, decisions. Any other comments to help sway me one way or the other? I was planning on doing the Excellence in Lit curriculum next year too. Would Starting Points and EIL vol. 1 be too much? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanvan Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 A lot of writing for the student. I'd like to pipe in to add that I found it a lot of work for me (the parent) too. There are some helps on the Starting Points yahoo group, but the parent still needs to do the same reading as the student in order to discuss it and evaluate assignments. We've had great discussions, but there are no teacher's notes or guidelines provided. With other Dc to teach it can become cumbersome to plan and keep up with SP assignments. I still think SP is an excellent curriculum, but it's not anywhere near open and go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABQmom Posted June 19, 2012 Author Share Posted June 19, 2012 I'd like to pipe in to add that I found it a lot of work for me (the parent) too. There are some helps on the Starting Points yahoo group, but the parent still needs to do the same reading as the student in order to discuss it and evaluate assignments. We've had great discussions, but there are no teacher's notes or guidelines provided. With other Dc to teach it can become cumbersome to plan and keep up with SP assignments. I still think SP is an excellent curriculum, but it's not anywhere near open and go. Ah! Okay, thanks for this info. With a rising third grader who isn't reading well yet and a 7th grader too, I need something more open and go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
profmom Posted March 23, 2013 Share Posted March 23, 2013 Searched the boards and found this thread from last year. What age would you say is good for Starting Points for an average boy? Also, what credits do you think are fair to give? Three credits (Bible, literature, & history) seems excessive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom@shiloh Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 Bumping this up because I'd like to know..... If you've done Starting Points, what age would you recommend it for? Did you do other history in addition to it? Has anyone used the curriculum for all four years of high school? Thanks, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 Searched the boards and found this thread from last year. What age would you say is good for Starting Points for an average boy? Also, what credits do you think are fair to give? Three credits (Bible, literature, & history) seems excessive. Bumping this up because I'd like to know..... If you've done Starting Points, what age would you recommend it for? Did you do other history in addition to it? Has anyone used the curriculum for all four years of high school? Thanks, I used it with all my kids in one form or another. I also taught it in our co-op and I taught the World Views of the Western World in our co-op as well. My impressions: I love the program(s). I have tweaked them to fit our needs or the needs/ages of the group I was teaching. I would not recommend Starting Points for any younger than 8th grade unless the student is an excellent reader - and that includes not just reading the material, but synthesizing arguments, writing papers, and understanding viewpoints. It comes at the literature from a very focused viewpoint so I added in other literature components using SparkNotes, PinkMonkey, etc. I wanted to round out the literature portion rather than just look at literature from a Christian/Biblical perspective. The writing assignments are very good, IMO. I do believe that assigning 3 credits is a bit liberal. I never assigned credit for Bible - that, to me, is wrapped in the literature component. There is no grammar so if you want a full English credit, you would need to add that (esp. if using with a younger student). I think history is weak for 1 credit. I added in other things - more reading, history channel shows, dvds, etc. I believe one could realistically give 1 credit for literature (with adding in other components of analyzing literature) and 1 credit for history (if rounding out with other readings, etc.). I guess you could use it over 4 years, but I don't think there is enough content there to do much with each year. It would require adding a LOT to each year. And being that the only history studied is Early American (pre-American), you would definitely need to do more with history for a high school course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom@shiloh Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 Cynthia, That is VERY helpful. Thank you for your response. Jean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandra in va Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Just wanted to add that iew has a writing book that goes along with starting points. It looks like it would greatly help with the writing assignments. http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/spb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mazakaal Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Sandra, I'm considering Starting Points for my ds for next year. We've never done the IEW dvds, but he has done their History Based Writing Lessons for both Ancient History and U.S. History. Would we be able to use the IEW Starting Points curriculum without having done the dvds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom@shiloh Posted April 20, 2013 Share Posted April 20, 2013 :ph34r: Listening in.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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