Guest prudence Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 I will start homeschooling my kids next fall. They will be in 5th and 7th grade. I would love your feedback and my choices so far! Math: EPGY. We are going to start with tutor assisted. Science: The Story of Science History: The World in Ancient Times, OUP Latin: Cambridge Latin ELA: MCT, not sure which level to start them at. They've had zero grammar. Art History: Sister Wendy I would also love suggestions for logic and critical thinking. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Think about what you want to accomplish with logic/critical thinking. You could order old tests from Math Kangaroo and work through those problems together. They are puzzle-type problems, minimal calculations. Actually, there are a lot of sources for problems like that. For a different approach, you could look at a book like Philosophy for Kids, which introduces kids to various philosophers and philosophical problems by asking them to form an opinion on a scenario and then giving talking points for discussion. You could look at products from Critical Thinking Co. for more workbook-y approaches. If you don't need secular products you can find additional book options. My oldest will be in 5th, so I can't differentiate for your 7th grader. Once a week I plan to do a rotation through those and perhaps intersperse scientific reading and outlining. It would be nice to find an introduction to formal logic, but I haven't found anything that would quite work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harriet Vane Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 I think you should add on a writing program and some literature. Focus on grammar and writing, but include some awesome reading as well. You might consider LIghtning Literature, but don't do the writing assignments from LL. Rather, do the writing from whatever writing program you choose. I really like SWB's writing materials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 Welcome! My oldest is also 5th. Hopefully those with older kids will chime in soon. I'll say a couple of things that jump out to me, though. I've used MCT. I guess you'd start at the start if there is no grammar background at all. But it ramps up sort of slowly, and then just touches on things in some ways. I found myself having to add instruction to the verbals instruction (infinitives, gerunds, etc.) in the town level, which annoyed me given the expense. I'm sort of disillusioned with it at this point I guess. But I know it gets a lot of love, and the sentence analysis method has been very effective here. You could accelerate it. I do think that most wouldn't see MCT as nearly enough for composition instruction. You might want to look into additional materials for that, unless you have a plan for covering that in other ways. This is a thread I bookmarked for logic. I'm doing this, from that thread, at least as of right now! http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/539644-logic-looking-for-insight-into-a-few-different-programs/ That's almost exactly the same progression my DS has followed for getting familiar with informal logic and critical thinking principles. It has worked really well for us so far. Logic Countdown and Logic Liftoff in 5th, Fallacy Detective and Thinking Toolbox in 6th, and now Art of Argument in 7th. He's enjoyed all of them and I felt the level was just right for him at each stage/grade. No, not too much overlap. (FD teaches the "tools" and TT teaches *how* to apply them, for example. Then A of A takes the concepts even further.) He also uses Perplexors, because he just likes doing them. He can pick apart any fallacy or flawed propaganda he comes across - using the correct terminology - in advertising, billboards, articles, etc., better than many adults I know. We're saving formal logic study for high school - not many kids are ready for formal logic in middle school, I don't think - but I'm not too worried about it at this point due to how far he's come already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterPan Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 I will start homeschooling my kids next fall. They will be in 5th and 7th grade. I would love your feedback and my choices so far! Math: EPGY. We are going to start with tutor assisted. Science: The Story of Science History: The World in Ancient Times, OUP Latin: Cambridge Latin ELA: MCT, not sure which level to start them at. They've had zero grammar. Art History: Sister Wendy I would also love suggestions for logic and critical thinking. Thank you! Sounds like a fun year! You'll have some hits and misses, but that's ok. Most of those things don't come with anything to DO with them, so that's going to be your challenge, how you apply them or bring in creativity or art projects or something. You might look for syllabi. Preview the Sister Wendy stuff. The book is a tome and the videos bring in some nudity you may or may not want. Me, I think she's a little pervert. ;) Logic and critical thinking, hmmm... Well the normal logic puzzles from Critical Thinking Press are fine. Tinman might suit those ages. Anything from Timberdoodle is good. My dd is doing the James Madison logic course right now and I'll bet some 7th graders could do it handily. Are you going to do any competitions or anything? They sound like kids who would enjoy that. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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