FawnsFunnyFarm Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 I have a VERY affordable to print from printer it only cost me pennies including the paper to print a unit (I have a Brother inkjet that duplexes and has crazy cheap generic ink), if you plan on printing tons in your future I totally recommend one of these machines.. Anyway, we had parent student conferences this week. The kids asked to do US history so it looks like we will be leaving our LoL journey (at least for now ;) ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 I'm going to use the ORIGINAL What Your Grader Needs to Know series as my main spine with a little Far Above Rubies unit study thrown in, but use the LoL units to supplement. NtK teaches 3 strands of social studies every year: geography, American history, world history. There are quite a few unit already published–First North Americans, Ancient South America, Vikings, American Peoples, Explorers, Age of Exploration–that cover early American history, as well as tons of stuff to use with the geography and world history strands. I think I'll have what I need as I need it. I was just going to use LoL as the spine, but after getting a better look at year 2, there is a lot I need to skip with remedial students that need a lot of triaging of topics. I think, for tutoring, NtK's and FAR's scope and sequences will better meet my needs as my spine, with LoL as the primary source of flesh. When it comes to printing, having a machine that uses cheap ink is critical. I'm having no trouble using these units as eBooks and taking noted by hand in a notebook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maela Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 I have them on Google drive and then I use Notability on my iPad to view them and take notes on them. It's working really well. I take the notes/circle things I want us to do, and then I erase the circle and put a highlighter checkmark on it when we've completed the activity/experiment. When I'm done with the unit, I can then resave it to google drive with my notes on it saved for when we use it again in a few years. and remove it from my iPad. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourcatmom Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 We started a few weeks ago so we are still on Unit 1. We are using History, Geography and the Arts but not the science. So far I feel like t's a good match. I will hopefully be writing my review on Unit 1 in the next week or two. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 LoL is an incredible deal even as a reference collection of maps, timeline figures, recipes, reading lists, projects, etc. This scope and sequence makes it easy to find what you are looking for. http://www.layers-of-learning.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Layers-of-Learning-Units-At-A-Glance.pdf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwik Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 I have a VERY affordable to print from printer it only cost me pennies including the paper to print a unit (I have a Brother inkjet that duplexes and has crazy cheap generic ink), if you plan on printing tons in your future I totally recommend one of these machines. Anyway, we had parent student conferences this week. The kiasked to do US history so it looks like we will be leaving our LoL journey (at least for now ;) ). I have really cheap black and white in the form of an old laser but not colour. I will need to look into it. In NZ sometimes generic ink is not available or still not cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
susankhan Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 I'm going to use the ORIGINAL What Your Grader Needs to Know series as my main spine with a little Far Above Rubies unit study thrown in, but use the LoL units to supplement. NtK teaches 3 strands of social studies every year: geography, American history, world history. There are quite a few unit already published–First North Americans, Ancient South America, Vikings, American Peoples, Explorers, Age of Exploration–that cover early American history, as well as tons of stuff to use with the geography and world history strands. I think I'll have what I need as I need it. I was just going to use LoL as the spine, but after getting a better look at year 2, there is a lot I need to skip with remedial students that need a lot of triaging of topics. I think, for tutoring, NtK's and FAR's scope and sequences will better meet my needs as my spine, with LoL as the primary source of flesh. When it comes to printing, having a machine that uses cheap ink is critical. I'm having no trouble using these units as eBooks and taking noted by hand in a notebook. What is NtK ? I tried looking it up on abbreviations but could not find it :( 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 Sorry NtK stands for "Needs to Know" as in What Your Grader Needs to Know. For awhile, it was a commonly used abbreviation here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FawnsFunnyFarm Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 I wish that there were more units on US history done, I may pick and choose a few to buy. I love the NtK books, but I always feel lost with them in the end. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunter Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 The newer NtK books just don't have the organization of the original series. I'm still discovering the organization of the old series. The new series had too much input from too many sources, and lost more than it gained in the updates. In the old NtK books, American history is completed in 1-2, and then again in 3-6. It took me awhile to figure that out. The current K book says 2nd edition, but it's really part of a 3rd edition. There was no K book in the original series. I'm curious if there is a complete new edition in the works. The new K book shows you where there are connections between topics, and refers you to the other topic. It's nice to be explicitly told instead of having to infer. The old NtK works well for remediation of older students. It doesn't follow typical American PS, and isn't all that developmentally appropriate for grades 1-6, but for top down organization of all that an American ADULT needs to know to be culturally literate, it's an awesome summary. Other than being lean on lessons in color, I've yet to find anything to complain about. The 2nd series dives into color right away and I laugh, because I think they must have received a lot of negative feedback about that. The original NtK is OOP, though, and will get increasingly difficult to purchase. LoL partially fills that hole. It's a much wider scope and sequence, though. I could definitely do just fine with just LoL, but I realized that it doesn't fit MY needs to spend equal time on the units. I could just slow down and compact by the seat of my pants as I go along, but…for this year at least, I decided to use some of what I have and have learned to trust over the years. Mostly I am using FAR to see what they have assigned as points to award for high school level credit. And for OOP book suggestions that I can sometimes still get from the library and cheaply used. And for a little home economics and Bible, when I want some of that. I'm pretty excited about what I have for this year. But LoL year 2, an equal amount of time on each unit–that just won't work for me. I could get really lost in year 2. It looks good for someone wanting "complete", though. I'm aiming for a net full of holes, not complete. I know I cannot accomplish "complete". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourcatmom Posted September 14, 2014 Share Posted September 14, 2014 I finally finished my review for Unit 1-1, First Civilizations! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maela Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 I finally did mine too. Now I have Units 1-5. We just started Unit 2 last week. We're still only using LoL for geography and science, but it's going really well! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
susankhan Posted September 29, 2014 Share Posted September 29, 2014 How is this going with everyone ? We are still in unit 1-2 as kids are loving Egypt and Astronomy. We started this over one month ago lol. Just wondering how others are doing and if they are enjoying it as much as we are :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yolanda Posted October 2, 2014 Share Posted October 2, 2014 I've only read the first page of responses so forgive me if this has been asked... What other curriculum would you say this like, if it only has....? It's like FIAR but more book choices and goes through 12 grade. It's like truthquest but has printable and crafts. It's like...? I'm trying to wrap my head around it and don't have the time right now to check it out. But the excitement is darn catchy! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted October 2, 2014 Author Share Posted October 2, 2014 I've only read the first page of responses so forgive me if this has been asked... What other curriculum would you say this like, if it only has....? It's like FIAR but more book choices and goes through 12 grade. It's like truthquest but has printable and crafts. It's like...? I'm trying to wrap my head around it and don't have the time right now to check it out. But the excitement is darn catchy! You can get the first unit if you subscribe to their newsletter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yolanda Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yolanda Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Does anyone have reviews for using this with older children, say 6th on up? Did you find you use many of their resources or pretty much just stick to the book list? I see that it can be used with 12 graders but I'm wondering if that really amounts to just a book list. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourcatmom Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 Does anyone have reviews for using this with older children, say 6th on up? Did you find you use many of their resources or pretty much just stick to the book list? I see that it can be used with 12 graders but I'm wondering if that really amounts to just a book list. Thanks! Hi, I am using this with my 7th grader who is studying Ancients this year. We are using it with SOTW and our own book list which we put together from several different resources. We also use History Portfolios and a separate timeline book. We spend three weeks on each unit and our only using it for History and the Arts. Originally we were reading the geography but I am starting to use different materials for that and science we already had scheduled through Apologia so we skip that. The first week she does SOTW which consists of reading and watching the videos online and then the quiz at the end of the week. She also has a literature book scheduled that she reads. The second week she reads LoL and then we schedule in the projects that look interesting to her, usually one to two projects. This is also when she would do any map work In addition to the Arts section in LoL. The third week she uses History Portfolio and adds any relevant pages for the unit and adds in the timeline figures that come with LoL and puts them into her timeline book. Also for the third week she write a one page report on the unit. We do history 4 days a week. We will probably be mixing things up for the next unit and try working on LoL for the first week and SOTW for the second week that way she has more time to complete the projects which is what is backing us up a bit. Right now we are mummifying a hot dog and that's taking quite a while and i would like to have the projects finished before we wrap up the unit. I have only done 1 review so far FIrst Civilizations and we are just finishing up the Unit on Egypt - we are a bit overdue on this unit. For the first unit we read Adam and His kin and for Egypt we are reading Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos. HTH! So far I feel like it's a good fit for us but we are not doing all the units and spreading it all longer since we added in additional resources. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourcatmom Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 If anyone is still looking at this, here is my review for Unit 2 Ancient Egypt Pharaoh Frank :D 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maela Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 I've written my second review. It's on my blog (in my sig). Not so much a review as a blog post of crappy pictures I took of our LoL activities. :-) We've just started using unit 1-3. I have Units 1-6 now of year one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto4inSoCal Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 Just wanted to bump this up and see how everyone was doing with it. Is this enough for science or have you added something? I want to use this next year along with the bible portion of biblio plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maela Posted February 19, 2015 Share Posted February 19, 2015 We are still using it for science and geography in a very relaxed (slow going) way. So we get about one unit done every couple of months, and often it's just one subject. Like in December, we did the science portion of Unit 1-7, I think, about Motion. And in a couple of weeks we'll be doing the geography portion of Unit 1-4 about Wonders of the World. ETA: forgot to add what we think of it! I really like it. I love the book and movie recommendations, I like the experiments and activities and explanations. I just feel like moving at a faster pace and doing all four subjects at once would be way too much for us. I'd rather focus on the three Rs more. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
susankhan Posted February 20, 2015 Share Posted February 20, 2015 I really enjoy this as well and am using it VERY slow as well :) I do use the library lists the MOST often.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaOz Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 I have been using LoL for some things and I REALLY like it. We are tying SL books in with topics covered and that is working well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momto4inSoCal Posted February 27, 2015 Share Posted February 27, 2015 I ordered it but I am not sure now if I will use it. I am not good with library books. I always end up with fines because I forget to turn them in on time. I didn't realize how dependent on the library list it was. :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LindaOz Posted February 28, 2015 Share Posted February 28, 2015 I ordered it but I am not sure now if I will use it. I am not good with library books. I always end up with fines because I forget to turn them in on time. I didn't realize how dependent on the library list it was. :/ Ha. Yes, I'm the same with library books. One thing I love about LoL though is that the books on the library list are suggestions only. The authors do say that you can use other books you have on the topic as well as, or instead of, their suggestions. So I am tying in SL books and other books that I have sitting around on the shelves at home. SOTW, MOH etc could be used as the extra reading along with LoL topics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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