Curricula with worthwhile teacher's guides

[annegables]

I am always hesitant to buy teacher's guides. For instance, I dont own the teacher's guide for Megawords and cannot figure out how it is worthwhile. Is it?

I got halfway through WWS1 without the guide and regret that. I just bought it to use on my second kid.

WTM Grammar I needed the guide.

Singapore I never needed the guide, but I am mathy. 

Thoughts on your experiences?

[mom2scouts]

MegaWords has assignments in every lesson that require the teacher to dictate words or word sounds. I'm not sure how you were able to complete the lessons without the teacher manual.

[annegables]

29 minutes ago, mom2scouts said:

MegaWords has assignments in every lesson that require the teacher to dictate words or word sounds. I'm not sure how you were able to complete the lessons without the teacher manual.

Huh. I just picked words from the list... Some of the instructions are starting to make more sense now...🤪

[2_girls_mommy]

I use Rod and Staff. The lessons are in the teacher guide, sometimes instructions for how to do the work are in the guide, not on the page, and aren't self explanatory. 

[Ellie]

17 minutes ago, 2_girls_mommy said:

I use Rod and Staff. The lessons are in the teacher guide, sometimes instructions for how to do the work are in the guide, not on the page, and aren't self explanatory. 

The first three years of arithmetic are taught from the oral class lessons in the TM, with no instruction in the student materials. From fourth grade on, it's all in the student text.

The English texts all include the instruction in the student book; there are oral lessons in the TM, but they don't add anything. I think they might add some warm fuzzy face time, but there's no new information in them. I think they're still important to have, though, and they aren't expensive, so there you go.

The spelling series: all info is in the student books; the TMs just have answers, maybe a little information for the teacher, but again, they're inexpensive, so I get them.

I think the TM for the science series could be helpful, if you like to teach that way (very school-teacherish).

[Reefgazer]

I think the following curricula generally have great teacher support/materials:  Writing With Skill and Writing With Ease; Classical Academic Press' Logic/Rhetoric, writing; everything from Memoria Press, everything from Rod and Staff; Saxon math; Michael Clay Thompson English; Jacob's Geometry; Zumdahl chemistry.

Edited July 29, 2020 by Reefgazer

[mellifera33]

MEP has great teacher support materials, and you don't even have to buy a manual!

[2_girls_mommy]

On 7/28/2020 at 11:37 PM, Ellie said:

The first three years of arithmetic are taught from the oral class lessons in the TM, with no instruction in the student materials. From fourth grade on, it's all in the student text.

The English texts all include the instruction in the student book; there are oral lessons in the TM, but they don't add anything. I think they might add some warm fuzzy face time, but there's no new information in them. I think they're still important to have, though, and they aren't expensive, so there you go.

The spelling series: all info is in the student books; the TMs just have answers, maybe a little information for the teacher, but again, they're inexpensive, so I get them.

I think the TM for the science series could be helpful, if you like to teach that way (very school-teacherish).

This is all true! I'm back in first grade now, using phonics and reading and  math. It's all in the tms. But later they work directly from texts. 

[8filltheheart]

My writing program is not meant to be a workbook.  It is meant to be an instruction manual for how to teach writing.  Without the TM, you have nothing but random bits of information.

[Guest]

Handwriting without tears. If you use just the work book in the earlier grades, you miss the multisensory stuff that is the meat of the program.

[Lori D.]

On 7/28/2020 at 4:06 PM, mom2scouts said:

MegaWords has assignments in every lesson that require the teacher to dictate words or word sounds. I'm not sure how you were able to complete the lessons without the teacher manual.

 

On 7/28/2020 at 4:38 PM, annegables said:

Huh. I just picked words from the list... Some of the instructions are starting to make more sense now...🤪

For the first book of Megawords, I flew without the teacher guide with no problems. Yes, you can do it -- you just take a few minutes in advance of doing the teacher-dictated exercise to select the words from the list that contain the syllables in that exercise. It's just faster to have the teacher guide, and it also makes overall grading faster. 😉 

Edited July 31, 2020 by Lori D.

[annegables]

5 hours ago, Lori D. said:

 

For the first book of Megawords, I flew without the teacher guide with no problems. Yes, you can do it -- you just take a few minutes in advance of doing the teacher-dictated exercise to select the words from the list that contain the syllables in that exercise. It's just faster to have the teacher guide, and it also makes overall grading faster. 😉 

Oh, that is reassuring. We are only about 20pgs into the first book.