Wayfarers Question

[DPayne]

Hello everyone,

 

We have decided to home school our recently turned 8 year old.  He is finishing second grade at public school this week.  After researching many books, methods, programs, etc, we have really come to like the program that is laid out in the Wayfarer books.  But I did have 2 questions.

 

1. Around the middle of this school year there was some concerns from our sons teacher about his reading level.  He was behind in reading and spelling.  We got him caught up but would really like to focus this summer on language arts.  When reading through the descriptions of English Lessons Through Literature it says the books numbers are about on par with grade level.  Meaning level 1 for K and 1st graders, book 2 for 2nd graders, book 3 for 3rd graders etc.  For a second grader that was having some difficulty with reading where should I start?  I was tempted to just start over the summer right at book 1, but I'm worried it will be too easy for him.

 

2.  Wayfarers terms.  I see the books are broken up into terms, each being 12 weeks.  So that would mean usually 3 terms per school year.  But I read Wayfarers is a rotating program.  So how is it meant to be run?  Would I just Wayfarers book 1 terms 1-3, then next year repeat with Book 2? Or are you supposed to do Book 1-Term 1 for 12 weeks, then Book 2-term1 for 12 weeks, then Book 3- term 1 for the last 12 weeks?

 

Thank you all for the help.  Im finding myself very excited to start teaching my son at home, but Im even more nervous about this than when i worked as a police officer (before getting disabled).

[silver]

ELTL is actually level 1 for 1st or 2nd graders, level 2 for 2nd or 3rd grade, etc. The author herself uses it with the higher of the two grades (so she would use level 2 in third grade). If you are looking for something to use during the summer only, level 1 would be a fine fit. If you are instead looking to jump into 3rd grade a bit early, you could consider level 1 or 2. My son is fine with reading but is a reluctant writer, and I had him do level 1 in second grade.

 

For Wayfarers, you would buy the three terms that cover the same history section and use that in a year. For exampke, you would use Ancients terms 1-3 before starting Medieval terms 1-3.

[boscopup]

I think you would be fine using ELTL level 2. All of the books are available on Librivox for free (audio), or you could read them aloud yourself. My kids listen on Librivox and follow along on their kindle. My oldest and youngest can read them themselves no problem. My middle, who is using a level behind his grade level, can read the books but still needs a little help sometimes, so listening to it is good for him.

 

Level 2 has all copywork, no dictation. Narrations are done orally.

 

Wayfarers does a 4 year rotation, so year 1 is ancients, year 2 is medieval, etc. Each year is split into 3 terms, but they are sequential. So for example, I'm doing year 2 this year, and term 1 has weeks 1-12,term 2 has weeks 13-24,and term 3 has weeks 25-36 - for a full 36 week school year studying medieval history.

 

It's normal to feel nervous when starting homeschooling. I know I did! You sound like you've done your research well. I'm sure you'll do fine. :)

 

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

[hands-on-mama]

I would probably start with level 2. My 8 year old (going into 3rd grade) is still doing level 2 and it is plenty. She is a wonderful reader. Honestly, you can read the books from this to him. You can work on his reading and fluency using easier books. His listening comprehension should be able to handle these books just fine. :)

[UCF612]

Just wanted to add that Wayfarers also rotates in that once you've got say all of the ancients terms you can use it for grammar stage then when you cycle back through to ancients you'd bump up to the logic stage (provided your kid has aged up to the logic stage in that time) and use that list. Then again to rhetoric stage. We haven't used Wayfarers yet but it's what we've got planned for next year.

[Holly]

I haven't used Wayfarers, but ELTL 2 is a great place to start an 8yo.

[Susie in MS]

Haven't used Wayfarers but agreeing with the others that using ELTL a year behind (of even 2) is fine. I have my 11 yo in Y4 and it can stretch her a bit (though not too much) at times, yet she has always used CM methods.

Edited June 3, 2016 by Susie in MS