How about another Classical/CM thread?

[theretohere]

'cause it's been a while since the old one was updated. For people who are considering classical education or have questions, or those of us doing it, and those just using parts.
My DD1 has been having a great year. We're doing Prima Latina, Story of the World: Ancients, Writing with Ease, Primary Math, Spelling Power, Cursive First, Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching reading, Usborne internet linked encyclopedia for science, and First Language Lessons. We'll add in Artistic Pursuits as soon as I get the supplies.
It sounds like a lot but most days school takes between 1-2 hours. We're using short lessons from Charlotte Mason. And lots of free reading, crafting, and play the rest of the day.
What's everyone else doing? Are things going well? Are you tweaking your plans, or were the beginning of the year ideas spot on?

[jlpumkin]

I'll join =) We have crept our way over to CE and it's been a great fit for us. Next year we'll do some tweaking, but what we have now is working for us:
sonlight core 1 for history, geography, readers, First Language Lessons, Explode the Code, CHC Spelling, Math U See, Seton Science 2 (Astronomy), Artistic Pursuits, Color the Classics... I feel as though I'm forgetting things but that must be preK stuff I do with my little - or that SL actually has so much bulk but 'Core 1' sounds light... Either way, next year we hope to add Prima Latina as well. And I think I'll switch to a Biblioplan so I can keep all of us on the same cycle.

[MyLittleWonders]

I'm here. I still hang out on the Eclectic thread, but we are classical/CM people. We're doing History Odyssey/SOTW vol. 2 (Middle Ages), Miquon math, All About Spelling, ETC, Hooked on Phonics, Classical Writing Primer (mostly ds#1; ds#2 is doing a mix of CW modified and WWE), FLL, Song School Latin, nature study, physics (using mostly non-fiction picture books and Lego Education simple machine build kits), and Meet the Masters (1x a week) and Art in Story (when I get around to it - art is the first thing to get dropped around here ).

In the spring and/or summer, ds#1 will start Classical Writing: Aesop and Latin for Children. I want to make sure he is really firm with his writing and reading first.

History I try to do 2x a week; science and nature I try to do 2x a week. Latin for now is just singing songs and playing memory with the vocabulary. Our "core" (L/A and math) is done daily, with AAS being 3x a week and ETC 2x a week. In all, between my reading to them, their practicing their reading with me, our core, and whatever other subject, it takes 2-3 hours, spread out between morning and just after lunch.

[Momma Aimee]

I am here

---nurseing a 2yo standing between me and the computer ---

we are jsut in the learning stages ... Theo will not have to be offically accounted for to the state untill 2011 .. and with his challanges and peronality adn ALL BOY status we are not going to push too much seat work till a soild 6 years of age or so -- maybe later ...

here to learn all I can -- espcailly with regard to teaching multi-ages together as much as possible -- the boys re only 23 months apart adn with Theo's issues i am fairly sure at least for the first few years it will be more like twins ..

Aimee

[*Jessica*]

We're inspired by classical education and Charlotte Mason ideas. I'm piecing together Ambleside Online and The Well Trained Mind ideas that feel right to our family.

Currently Nik (who is 6 and doing a combination K/1st grade) is doing the following:
Math: MEP Math (with occasional free Math Mammoth worksheets to help illustrate concepts in different ways)
Reading: choosing books on his own to read to me
Spelling: lists from Super Teacher Worksheets (IMO spelling is unnecessary, but he enjoys it!)
Copywork: The Months by Sara Coleridge from Simply Charlotte Mason
Grammar: reading Grammar-Land by M.L. Nesbit and playing a lot of Mad Libs
Writing: he continues to spend at least an hour a day writing and illustrating his own books
US History: pieced together from various resources, we are starting Columbus this week
Ancient World History: also pieced together, we are currently studying ancient Egypt
Geography: mostly corresponding with history, we are currently studying the Great Lakes (and reading Paddle to the Sea) and the continent of Africa
Science: we are using a combination of Classic Life Science from eequalsmcq.com and R.E.A.L Science Odyssey Level 1 Life Science (scroll to the bottom for the free "try before you buy" segment) I'm trying to figure out which program fits our family best so I can buy the "right" one next year. I think RSO will be it.
Nature Study: Outdoor Hour Challenges from Handbook of Nature Study blog, keeping a bird notebook of the birds we read about in The Burgess Bird Book for Children
Literature: mostly Ambleside selections
Poetry: Ambleside
Artist Study: Sandro Botticelli
Visual Arts: he'll be finishing the last page in his Art Book this week, not sure what we'll move on to next
Composer Study: using Classics For Kids, currently studying Vivaldi

Plus we're working on the Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six and trying to incorporate some handicrafts. Looking at this list it looks like we do too much, but we keep things short and simple unless he's really interested. I promise he isn't chained to a desk for hours a day! We do math (15 minutes?), reading (15 minutes), writing (however much he wants to do), poetry (5 minutes), and literature (Mom reads, approx. 1 hour) every day but the other subjects are all once or twice per week.

Am I allowed to post a link to my blog, or is that a no-no now?

[jessicaSAR]

I guess we fall in this category. I have a 3rd grade dd, a Kindy dd and a 1yo ds. Here's what we do

3rd grade - Cursive First (just about finished with this, so on to copywork); Writing with Ease 2; First Language Lessons 3; Explode the Code; All About Spelling; Lively Latin; Singapore Math; History Odyssey with living books from AO; REAL Science Odyssey Earth; AO reading list for Literature, Geography, Natural History and Poetry and Art; Suzuki classical Guitar.

Kindy - FIAR, HOP 1st grade, Singapore Early Bird Math, Cursive First

Teddy (1yo) - pretending to do everything his sisters are doing plus fifty thousand books an hour and duplos all over the house, and climbing on everything in sight.

[MyLittleWonders]

Jessica, how are you liking Lively Latin? I went back and forth for a while trying to decide between LL and LfC. I haven't bought anything yet (I'm thinking spring) but think I'm going with LfC, but am curious to hear your views on LL.

[jessicaSAR]

Originally Posted by MyLittleWonders

Jessica, how are you liking Lively Latin? I went back and forth for a while trying to decide between LL and LfC. I haven't bought anything yet (I'm thinking spring) but think I'm going with LfC, but am curious to hear your views on LL.

This is the first Latin program we have tried, so I can't really compare, but my dd loves Lively Latin. It is broken up into nice short and varied lessons. There is vocabulary, latin grammar, derivatives, Roman history and art history. We do one short lesson a day, so we are moving pretty slowly, but the BBI will probably be plenty for us for at least two years. And, it is very easy to teach. I purhased the ebook, and everything we need is right there in front of us (with the exception of the vocabulary lesson which we listen to online). I think it is a fantastic, user friendly program.

[theretohere]

Originally Posted by jessicaSAR

This is the first Latin program we have tried, so I can't really compare, but my dd loves Lively Latin. It is broken up into nice short and varied lessons. There is vocabulary, latin grammar, derivatives, Roman history and art history. We do one short lesson a day, so we are moving pretty slowly, but the BBI will probably be plenty for us for at least two years. And, it is very easy to teach. I purhased the ebook, and everything we need is right there in front of us (with the exception of the vocabulary lesson which we listen to online). I think it is a fantastic, user friendly program.

Does it have a pronunciation cd or anything?


And yes, you can post links to blogs in a post, just not a sig.
Mine is : http://concordiaclassicalacademy.blogspot.com/

[MyLittleWonders]

Originally Posted by jessicaSAR

This is the first Latin program we have tried, so I can't really compare, but my dd loves Lively Latin. It is broken up into nice short and varied lessons. There is vocabulary, latin grammar, derivatives, Roman history and art history. We do one short lesson a day, so we are moving pretty slowly, but the BBI will probably be plenty for us for at least two years. And, it is very easy to teach. I purhased the ebook, and everything we need is right there in front of us (with the exception of the vocabulary lesson which we listen to online). I think it is a fantastic, user friendly program.

Thank you for your review!

Originally Posted by theretohere

Does it have a pronunciation cd or anything?


And yes, you can post links to blogs in a post, just not a sig.
Mine is : http://concordiaclassicalacademy.blogspot.com/

Mine is Red Mountain Academy, though it is greatly ignored by me. I need to get a bit more disciplined about actually writing something every once in a while.

[pageta]

We are doing a combination of WTM and CM. We started out with WTM but now are more CM, I think.

Here's the run-down:

Reading - BOB books along with various early readers from the library (most as suggested at Ambleside Online and other CM sites)
Spelling - McGuffey's Eclectic Speller - doing this rather than phonics as my ds hated the little sentences he had to read as a part of OPTGR (we did make it almost to lesson 100, though)
Handwriting - I taught him his letters via Handwriting Without Tears and now we practice handwriting by writing words and short sentences taken from our reading
Math - Singapore 1A with other things like counting by 2's and telling time thrown in by me for good measure
History - SOTW 1
Science - following 4-year cycle from WTM, using Rookie Read-Aloud Series by Jim Fowler and our Childcraft set to do biology this year
Poetry - currently reading Robert Louis Stevenson
Bible - my own curriculum using the Children's Illustrated Bible, Your Story Hour, and readings from the actual Bible
Nature Study - once a week (we're just getting started with this) using the Handbook of Nature Study and blog cited by *Jessica* above
Music - using Classics for Kids; learning hymns and folksongs (we're weak in this area but getting better at it thanks to CM)
Art - Artistic Pursuits

We're kind of doing an Ambleside 0.5 year. We're reading some books from Year 0 as well as suggestions from Year 1 electives, and we're reading each book once a week so we're spreading it out like Ambleside does. I also make ds do narrations. I had started doing AO Year 1, but my ds was having trouble following books without pictures and doing the narrations, so I decided to take a step back and do books with more pictures (but not necessarily picture books) and master narration with those (which he does very well) before moving into AO Year 1. We may start back into it in January if he is ready - I don't know.

I'm doing Ambleside Year 11 myself as a personal challenge and am really enjoying the selections, even though I have never heard of most of them before and I have a B.A. in Humanities. I'm enjoying studying things like Plutarch and Shakespeare without a teacher breathing down my neck, LOL!

[jessicaSAR]

Originally Posted by theretohere

Does it have a pronunciation cd or anything?

Yes, you can buy it with a CD or log on to the website and listen to the vocab online. It has both classical and ecclesiastical pronunciation.

[*Jessica*]

Originally Posted by theretohere

And yes, you can post links to blogs in a post, just not a sig.
Mine is : http://concordiaclassicalacademy.blogspot.com/

Thanks! Mine is http://dontneednoeducation.blogspot.com/

I'm off to check out the blogs everyone linked to.

[Momma Aimee]

wow this is so encouraging.

Jessica can I jsut send my boys to you?

Can any one address with me the STARTING ...going from zero to homeschool?

We want the boys to have a more structured and challanging expereince. however we do not want to push too much too soon.

i find i don't know where i should stand.

does that make sense?

Aimee

[theretohere]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

wow this is so encouraging.

Jessica can I jsut send my boys to you?

Can any one address with me the STARTING ...going from zero to homeschool?

We want the boys to have a more structured and challanging expereince. however we do not want to push too much too soon.

i find i don't know where i should stand.

does that make sense?

Aimee

It makes a lot of sense and is a tough thing! Have you read the Well Trained Mind? She has some ideas for gearing up in there. One way to do it is adding one subject at a time- with the ages of your boys it'd probably be read alouds.

Pageta- are you doing Earlybird 1A or Primary 1A? Standards or US? I'm happy to find someone else doing Singapore. And what a fun idea to do Ambleside 11- I'm going to look at that now.

[chrissy]

subbing

[*Jessica*]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee

wow this is so encouraging.

Jessica can I jsut send my boys to you?

Can any one address with me the STARTING ...going from zero to homeschool?

We want the boys to have a more structured and challanging expereince. however we do not want to push too much too soon.

i find i don't know where i should stand.

does that make sense?

Aimee

Are you talking to me, or to the other Jessica? Somehow I think if you send them to one of us you might miss them.

As for going from "zero to homeschool" I agree that starting slow and adding one thing at a time is the least stressful way for everyone involved.

Your boys are so young that I would just start with reading good books to them.

Maybe add in some nature study by filling a backpack with your nature study materials and grabbing it every time you head outside, just in case they find something interesting. Sometime I take out paper and colored pencils for me to draw with while they play. It never fails that they end up sitting with me and drawing something that interests them.

Buy or check out some math stories (Living Math has some great lists!) and put them out where Theodore will see them. If he's interested, read them. Play games together! So many board games involve math, even if it's only counting the number on the die and moving that many spaces.

You will be amazed at how much difference 1 or 2 years will make in how much he wants to do if you keep everything low key and don't push anything at an early age.

[yippityskippity]

We're easing into a CM-influenced style. For my 6 yo DD we're doing:

Reading: Primary Phonics
Writing: almost nothing right now (waiting for her love of "writing" her own stories to return)
Math: Living math books (e.g. Greg Tang's Grapes of Math, Mathstart books, Family Math, pattern blocks, geoboard, games, etc.) supplementing with a bit of Miquon and Singapore 1B.
Literature: I read aloud classics (currently: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, next up: probably Stuart Little or The Wind in the Willows).
Social Studies: World Cultures (mixing together geography, folk music, art and folklore from a given region. Just finished Africa. Not sure what's next.) This is *really fun.*
US History: Read-aloud picture books (currently: Early non-Native American explorers up to the Mayflower era)

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by *Jessica*

Are you talking to me, or to the other Jessica? Somehow I think if you send them to one of us you might miss them.

As for going from "zero to homeschool" I agree that starting slow and adding one thing at a time is the least stressful way for everyone involved.

Your boys are so young that I would just start with reading good books to them.

Maybe add in some nature study by filling a backpack with your nature study materials and grabbing it every time you head outside, just in case they find something interesting. Sometime I take out paper and colored pencils for me to draw with while they play. It never fails that they end up sitting with me and drawing something that interests them.

Buy or check out some math stories (Living Math has some great lists!) and put them out where Theodore will see them. If he's interested, read them. Play games together! So many board games involve math, even if it's only counting the number on the die and moving that many spaces.

You will be amazed at how much difference 1 or 2 years will make in how much he wants to do if you keep everything low key and don't push anything at an early age.

We do read a ton. I am adding our frist "read-a-loud chapter book" this winter.

All summer we cught bigs and collected leaves and so on .. actually caught a catapiller, and brought it in with the agreement we'd watch it for the weekend and retrun it to its momma on Monday -- monday we woke up to 1/2 coccon!!!! so we of course let it finsih and got to wait for the moth and see the moth -- that was unexpected and cooooool.

I am glad to have such BTDT moms to follow.

We have no intention of rushing Theo (or Charles, but i think he may rush himself to keep up with Big Brother once Theodre actually gets started, yk?). and I do intend to do them together as much as possible -- maybe at differnt levels, but the same material.

I guess i need to chill and wait. but i get so excited about stuff

Thanks for the math suggestion. I will go look at it. (and I am finding many book titles here to snag ... )

We have an additional challange of Theo's speech being almost 2 years behind -- so it is hard to know what he does know, yk? So I am not even sure he knows all his letters and their sounds. he can't make all the sounds i do KNOW that. so for now there is no point in trying much.

[Citymomx3]

We're doing AmblesideOnline Year 2 with ds (8). The Nature, Artist, and Composer study is similar to *Jessica*'s, and here's what else we're using:

Math: Teaching Textbooks Math 5

Language Arts/Reading Help: The Complete Book of English and Language Arts; Hooked on Phonics Master Reader.

Copywork: Poems (various)

Geography: AO readings, The Complete Book of Maps and Geography, and a monthly homeschool group geography club

History: AO readings w/narrations, book of centuries timeline

Science: Science Essentials, AO readings, experiments, and monthly classes at the science center

Nature Study: Outdoor Hour Challenges from Handbook of Nature Study blog

Literature: Ambleside selections (scheduled and free readings)

Poetry: Walter de la Mare

Artist Study: Sandro Botticelli

Composer Study: Vivaldi

We love the CM philosophy and use short lessons, narrations, copywork, book of centuries, handicrafts, lots of living books, and we try to get out every day. Ds loves it.

With dd (13) we do some AO literature selections, Composer, Artist, and Nature study, Poetry, and Copywork. She also uses Life of Fred books for math, Barron's Painless Series (Life Science, Vocabulary, Grammar, and Writing), and The Everything American History Book. She will be going to high school next year (for performing arts) and has been stepping her game up a little so she feels ready.