thowell Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 We are finishing up the first week and so far I am not very impressed. I have been looking forward to using this for so long and now I feel let down! I know there is a learning curve to any new program you chose, but I just cant seem to get a good flow going with this. I also have a hard time seeing that this will be enough for my 7th grader even with the add on books. Science is not an issue as she will be using BJU Life but even the geography portion seems light. The book readings seem choppy to me. We aren't used to starting and stopping several boons at one time so maybe this will get batter. Any advice from those who have used this program. Any adjustments you found that seem to work better? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 I've used it and liked it. I viewed the geography books the same way I'd see snap shots of a trip somewhere... an introduction time to see the places and have overview. almost like tourist brochure to get an idea of the places. Over time, we saw differences in all kinds of things.. "hey this place is not like USA, or this place is like this one..." That was with the illustrated world atlas. one adjustment? go ahead and read the entire Map and Globes book with oldest. the idea there is to make sure they can do those skills. That book is done slowly for younger children to stop and absorb the concepts. I know.. sometimes it's hard to understand new concepts for some children. My oldest did ECC in 7th grade... starting in week 3, they'll do a country summary sheet for each of the 15 focus countries where they research the topics on the summary sheet and write about it for each one. so that's when you keep on reading on a topic. Things I enjoyed, but mileage will vary, were craft time and food time. My oldest enjoyed the break from the research for country summary sheets and geography research packet (cross reference worksheets in World Geography) by doing the music, and crafts, and foods. sometimes she liked to "block schedule" her ECC stuff. She was getting used to being in jr. high science and math without us doing much. and doing Progeny Press guides more on her own. So... she liked the ECC stuff almost like it was fun without pressure on her. She use to enjoy getting to play geography game with us. This was especially after having to write a few paragraphs on country summary sheet. and she told me multiple times in 10th grade in WHL that she was glad she did ECC in 7th because it made the map work in high school and history readings that much easier to grasp and see. just how it worked over here.. hope it gets better with you. I liked my ECC year, both times. I know plenty of people who hate it too. -crystal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heritagelearningacademy Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 We start Week 5 of ECC next week. We are off this week as kids are going to Grandmas. I, too, have a 7th grader. I also have a 3rd grader doing it as well. We changed science in our house from the curriculum. Science -- oldest is doing Apologia General Science as suggested and he LOOOOOVES it. Younger is doing the Book of Animals and will be starting a separate science next week. (Debating between Mr. Q and Apologia Astronomy) I like the books in MFW, but they just were not a fit to my very concrete learners. We just completed the two weeks on the US and my oldest did enjoy the country report. He loves to research and so that was a good fit. Both of my boys also like the Exploring World Geography sheets. We have not started the puzzle games in the curriculum yet. Maybe because we only had 1 country so far...US. LOL I know my boys will love that. My boys are very interested in Geography and love looking at flags, etc. The Kingdom Tales has been great! We finished the first book this week....they will be very unhappy to learn they don't get to keep reading that next week! I have worried if I can really have both a 7th and 3rd grader working from the same curriculum. This does work. The 7th does more research. WHen I look at how things are stepping up in other subject areas for my oldest, I figure this is a good transition year for us. I did think things moved a bit more in weeks 3 and 4 than the first 2. Now, I know I am not in it very far, but I thought I would share anyways. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edeemarie Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 We are just starting our 4th week with ECC. I was told that you don't really get into the flow of the program until week 5. Since my kids are young we aren't doing much of the Properties of Ecosystems for science (it seems too over their heads- we do just enough for them to do any student sheets that go along with it). We are using the Complete Book of Animals, library books from the book basket, and a world animal lapbook from Confessions of a Homeschooler (free!). I would give it a few weeks before you decide, but if you want to switch out the science I have heard many people do that. We are having a great time reading all of the books from the book basket and the kids really seem to get a lot out of our read aloud time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethben Posted July 30, 2012 Share Posted July 30, 2012 You'll get into a flow with it in a few weeks. Unfortunately for me, the flow was a lazy river that looked the same every two weeks. I did this program with a 2nd grader and while he found it fun, I found it to be mind numbing. The adjustment I made was to condense two weeks into one - it worked a little better for me. I know a lot of people like it a lot, but as a person who likes a little variety, I dropped it as quick as I could. Beth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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