LCC users - what would you do differently?

[diaperjoys]

We've very interested in LCC, but still in the learning phase, trying to understand how it will affect day-to-day curriculum choices, etc. The following is what we have planned for first grade, and I'm wondering what changes a LCC devotee would make to this list; how does it change methodology in the early grades? We had planned to add latin (Latin for Children) in second grade. Our first grader will be 6 in the fall, and is already reading fairly fluently.

 

Math - BJU 1, finish

Phonics/English - BJU 1, finish

Literature - Veritas Press First Favorites

Spelling - All About Spelling level 1

History - Story of the World vol 1 + Veritas Press cards (going as slow as is comfortable, with a heavy emphasis on enjoying the read alouds and activity pages)

Art - Artistic Pursuits k-3 vol. 1

Bible - VP Bible cards, memorization.

Science - wait till later, maybe some human body study during the summer

Music - piano lessons (I'm a piano teacher)

[Mama Lynx]

A "typical" LCC first grade schedule would look like this:

 

Phonics

Math

Copywork

Fairy Tales

Bible Stories/Prayers (along with whatever religious education is important to you at this age)

Nature Study

an enjoyable, narrative history

and a gentle Geography overview

 

 

My current first grader's schedule is this:

 

Phonics

Math

WWE (that's our copywork and narration)

Fairy Tales/Greek Myths (we use these as models for our copywork and dictation)

Bible Stories

Nature Study

 

And they get a little history and geography as their older brothers do it with TOG.

 

What is in the Veritas Press First Favorites?

[diaperjoys]

A "typical" LCC first grade schedule would look like this:

 

Phonics

Math

Copywork

Fairy Tales

Bible Stories/Prayers (along with whatever religious education is important to you at this age)

Nature Study

an enjoyable, narrative history

and a gentle Geography overview

 

 

My current first grader's schedule is this:

 

Phonics

Math

WWE (that's our copywork and narration)

Fairy Tales/Greek Myths (we use these as models for our copywork and dictation)

Bible Stories

Nature Study

 

And they get a little history and geography as their older brothers do it with TOG.

 

What is in the Veritas Press First Favorites?

 

Thanks! The Veritas First Favorites has the kiddos reading real books - Floss, Blaze and the Lost Quarry, Curious George, A Chair for My Mother, etc., then doing some copywork and then a bit of worksheet style activity.

[Jumping In Puddles]

Following LCC,

 

ART would not be a school subject, just a subject to do outside of school time if the child had an interest.

 

Music would also be extra curricular

 

Science would be nature study

 

Literature would be Fairy Tales/Fables/Tall tales

 

History/Geography would CHOW/workbook. Your plan for this seems to be just a variation so it is already LCC

 

 

Of course, I think LCC is meant to be adapted by individuals to fit learning styles and goals but keeping the basic principles in mind (Multum non Multa, don't overlook the great things for good things, latin/greek, etc.)

[shehmeth]

Stephanie,

 

I've set my planning with WTM in mind, but I've read other threads about LCC and it seems interesting - I like what I read in one of the posts that talked about "Multum non Multa"...

 

What would you say are the biggest differences between following WTM and LCC?

 

And what other guidelines does LCC offers for 1st grade?

 

My impression (from the back threads I've read) was also that Latin has a biggest part.. so there' no Latin in first grade?

 

Thanks..

 

Kate

Edited April 20, 2009 by shehmeth
added question.

[Mama Lynx]

Stephanie,

 

I've set my planning with WTM in mind, but I've read other threads about LCC and it seems interesting - I like what I read in one of the posts that talked about "Multum non Multa"...

 

What would you say are the biggest differences between following WTM and LCC?

 

And what other guidelines does LCC offers for 1st grade?

 

My impression (from the back threads I've read) was also that Latin has a biggest part.. so there' no Latin in first grade?

 

Thanks..

 

Kate

 

Yes, Latin is an extremely important part of LCC. And you *can* do Latin in first grade, of course! But most first graders aren't ready for it. If you have a good reader, you could do Minimus, Prima Latina, or a natural language method (but for a natural language method, you would need to learn Latin first, yourself). I think that the first edition of LCC had kids starting Latin in first grade, with Prima Latina; the recommendations changed in the second edition to starting in second grade with Prima (which is a very easy, gentle introduction).

 

First grade is kept short and sweet. The goal here is to develop a good foundation in math and phonics, and to become very familiar with Bible stories and fairy tales. So for the OP, LCC would say to use the Veritas stories as fun reading, but make sure you get plenty of fairy tales, too.

 

The biggest difference in following LCC as opposed to WTM ... it largely comes down to philosophy. We place a much greater importance on Latin. We put our focus on classical languages, mathematics, logic, and writing. Our reading lists are short for school. Of course we do science, history, art, etc. but they are not our focus. In fact, most LCCers believe that if all you did was classical languages, math, writing and excellent, foundational reading, you'd not only have a "good enough" education, but an excellent education.

 

Everyone tweaks it their own way - I have one history buff and one science buff, so we certainly don't neglect those areas. But our "school day" is short and sweet, and as long as the older kids do their Latin, math, CW and classical studies; and as long as the younger kids do their phonics, math, copywork, and listen to Aesop/fairy tales/Greek myths/Bible stories - we're good.

[diaperjoys]

Yes, Latin is an extremely important part of LCC. And you *can* do Latin in first grade, of course! But most first graders aren't ready for it. If you have a good reader, you could do Minimus, Prima Latina, or a natural language method (but for a natural language method, you would need to learn Latin first, yourself). I think that the first edition of LCC had kids starting Latin in first grade, with Prima Latina; the recommendations changed in the second edition to starting in second grade with Prima (which is a very easy, gentle introduction).

 

We have Song School latin, which of course is followed up by Latin for Children. Is that considered a good resource by the LCC users? My husband and I each had 2 years of Latin at the classical liberal arts college we went to, and we had 2 years of Greek as well. I'm not fluent in either, but he's pretty good at Greek now and spends most of his day teaching it to high school students. So I guess I'm saying we aren't necessarily looking for a program that assumes zero Latin background from the teacher, but rather something that is easy for a busy mama to work with. Would the Latin for Children curriculum fit the bill do you think? Or is there something I'm missing about Prima Latina that makes it more appropriate for the goals of LCC?

[Baseballmom]

Would the Latin for Children curriculum fit the bill do you think? Or is there something I'm missing about Prima Latina that makes it more appropriate for the goals of LCC?

:lurk5:

[elegantlion]

We have Song School latin, which of course is followed up by Latin for Children. Is that considered a good resource by the LCC users? My husband and I each had 2 years of Latin at the classical liberal arts college we went to, and we had 2 years of Greek as well. I'm not fluent in either, but he's pretty good at Greek now and spends most of his day teaching it to high school students. So I guess I'm saying we aren't necessarily looking for a program that assumes zero Latin background from the teacher, but rather something that is easy for a busy mama to work with. Would the Latin for Children curriculum fit the bill do you think? Or is there something I'm missing about Prima Latina that makes it more appropriate for the goals of LCC?

 

If you read some of the other LCC posts you will see a wide variety of Latin curriculum being used. We personally use LFC and enjoy it. We felt it was a better fit for our family than any of the other Latin programs. We have two weeks left in Primer A and I have been well pleased with our choice. I had no Latin background.

 

IMO when we started LCC keeping Latin as the center was the important thing, which program was more of a personal choice.

[dragons in the flower bed]

Our first grader will be 6 in the fall, and is already reading fairly fluently.

 

Not sure what it means to you, but if he's already reading fairly fluently by my definition (knows his phonics, still practicing putting them into action), you don't need to teach phonics, reading or spelling. All you'd do for English, per LCC, is copywork.

 

Literature - Veritas Press First Favorites

 

Those Veritas Press First Favorite books are great books, but they're of family reading and independent reading caliber, not worthy of formal study during your weekly literature period. Choose core, essential, foundational classics for studying together and discussing during lit class. Choose good books like First Favorites for your child to read by himself or to knock off casually at bedtime.

 

You could use the copywork in the First Favorites series to fulfill the English recommendations above, but, again, those books aren't exactly classics. They're favorites, as the title says. You want to choose books that have complicated sentence structure and have been stamped by the test of time as of great literary merit. When you consider that you could be using Aesop's Fables, Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, and the tall tales of America's pioneer period, Curious George (much as I love him) doesn't hold up.

 

History - Story of the World vol 1 + Veritas Press cards (going as slow as is comfortable, with a heavy emphasis on enjoying the read alouds and activity pages)

 

Sticking to the book, you'd want to do an overview of history first, then dig into the periods and plan to go much more slowly than SOTW 1 in just one year. You'd do Egypt the first year, Greece the next, Rome the year after that. But this isn't really that essential, I think, to the LCC method. What is essential is 1) going slowly and deeply and 2) not letting history take over your school week. You could theoretically do that with SOTW1 & VP cards this year.

Edited April 20, 2009 by dragons in the flower bed
Well, our little LCCers may not, but clearly I need direct grammar instruction.

[diaperjoys]

Not sure what it means to you, but if he's already reading fairly fluently by my definition (knows his phonics, still practicing putting them into action), you don't need to teach phonics, reading or spelling. All you'd do for English, per LCC, is copywork.

 

Well, he's reading pretty well, but isn't done learning his phonics, and can't spell at all yet. We did phonics instruction and got as far as short vowels and consonant blends, and he just exploded and started reading things far, far beyond anything I'd ever taught him. Seems to be doing it largely based on context and educated guesses. But if I were to ask him what sound "oo" makes, or have him tell me about "ough", or "ing" words, he'd be clueless. Put those same words in the middle of a paragraph, and he does pretty well. So we've kept the phonics and spelling instruction on the list for those reasons.

 

And thank you for your critique of the VP First Favorites and History too. It is all very helpful. We actually do plan to go just halfway through SOTW in 1st, just get through Egypt and save the rest for 2nd grade. It isn't on the list, but we're reading the superb literature out loud every day - the classics, the fairy tales, etc. We usually have several books going at once, one we read at breakfast, one at lunch, one before bed, etc. I'm just not sure how to have him interact with them during our formal school time, hence the VP First Favorites. But all this discussion has been terrific and so helpful, particularly when I'm making those day-to-day decisions throughout the school year about which things will get done, which things to skip, which things to emphasize, and which things to scurry through. Thank you so much! Keep the good information coming!

[dragons in the flower bed]

It isn't on the list, but we're reading the superb literature out loud every day - the classics, the fairy tales, etc. We usually have several books going at once, one we read at breakfast, one at lunch, one before bed, etc. I'm just not sure how to have him interact with them during our formal school time, hence the VP First Favorites.

 

Suppose the Wolf Were an Octopus K-2 has discussion questions for classic fairy and folk tales and Evan Moor sells books with paper crafts for Aesop's Fables.