Is Memoria press just not for us?

[Amanda1989]

Hi, I have  1st and prek children. My 1st grader is pretty advanced in literature so I have been wanting to bump her up a grade in reading level. My preK son is also reading on a high 1st grade level so I was wanting to bump him up. We started with Abeka but it moved too slow for them so we switched to MP. Well my son quickly go through the entire phonics program in 8 week. It was too easy for him, So I bumped him to 1st grade lit and math and started him on song school Latin 1. My 1st grader quickly blew all of 1st grade reading out the water minus the writing parts. When I tried to ask for advise on what to do the MP community quickly jumped on me for allowing them to  excel because they HAVE to do all the writing... um what? I have been forcing them to do the writing parts and now a subject they once loved they HATE. I beginning to think MP is just not for us, although I LOVE everything about MP there are many other classical education curriculum that are not so writing intensive. I am thinking we will finish this school year and just do things orally like we were before as I think the lit guides are soooo good but not all the writing! I don't want to leave MP but I am preparing myself for it because of this heavy emphasis on they must write everything out. Any suggestions on other classical curriculum? I am actually pretty upset I spent a lot of money on MP, maybe I can resell everything I bought.

[Dmmetler]

Honestly, most young ALs are going to be able to read and discuss a lot more than they can write, and that's perfectly normal. The answer is a) do a lot orally until their motor skills catch up b) find programs built to NOT have a lot of writing and c) don't be afraid to mix levels. For my kid at age 6, it looked something like "5th grade math, books at whatever level you want to read at and discussion of same (kid was post high school in reading, but content-wise was pretty happy with MG at the time), every science book available in the local public library and regular trips to the university library, SOTW, and 1st grade handwriting and Draw Write Now. 

The fact is, NO curriculum in a box works for most of these kids. They need bits and pieces pulled in here and there. And the classical "stages" don't really hit well either, since they're often in every stage at once. 

 

It does eventually even out, but much, much, MUCH later than 1st grade and PK. Typing was the big game changer for mine when it came to writing stamina.

 

 

[Amanda1989]

2 hours ago, Dmmetler said:

Honestly, most young ALs are going to be able to read and discuss a lot more than they can write, and that's perfectly normal. The answer is a) do a lot orally until their motor skills catch up b) find programs built to NOT have a lot of writing and c) don't be afraid to mix levels. For my kid at age 6, it looked something like "5th grade math, books at whatever level you want to read at and discussion of same (kid was post high school in reading, but content-wise was pretty happy with MG at the time), every science book available in the local public library and regular trips to the university library, SOTW, and 1st grade handwriting and Draw Write Now. 

The fact is, NO curriculum in a box works for most of these kids. They need bits and pieces pulled in here and there. And the classical "stages" don't really hit well either, since they're often in every stage at once. 

 

It does eventually even out, but much, much, MUCH later than 1st grade and PK. Typing was the big game changer for mine when it came to writing stamina.

 

 

OMG another gold star post. This forum is going to be my new go to. I never thought about typing!!

[Dmmetler]

Nessy Fingers worked well for mine-Nessy is a British company that primarily makes teaching tools for dyslexia, and their typing program was very gentle-correcrions would literally be directed at "Nessy", the loch Ness monster mascot, not at the student, who was "helping Nessy". For my dragon/snake/sea serpent loving kid, it was perfect. 

[teachermom2834]

My dd is 16 yo and in a private high school now but I homeschooled her K-8 with MP. In middle school we did some of the online classes but it was straight MP out of the box until then. I don't know that I called her accelerated (I had three older boys I was schooling and busy with) but she was always bright and inquisitive and she is a top student now in traditional school and entered in 9th from MP as a top student. 

All that background to say- we never did all the writing with MP. I don't even remember it being recommended to do all the writing. Never. Maybe we would pick one question in a lit guide lesson and I'd have her write it. Or I'd pick a subject to try to do more writing in one particular week. But seriously we never did all the writing. I swear the line from MP at the time was that the guides were overkill and produced for a school setting and that you didn't need to do it all. But I would have called it my own way, anyway, even if it said to do it all. 

I'm pretty sure when I passed on my MP stuff when we were done with it most of it was hardly written in. And my dd got a great education and jumped right into all honors/AP classes at ther school in 9th grade. 

[rebcoola]

We never did all the writing in a program.  With my 2nd we didn't do any writing besides the actual handwriting instruction until 2nd grade. I would definitely become comfortable with modifying curriculum cause their are probably no perfect fits