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Originally Posted by <strong>MissRubyandKen</strong> <a href="/community/forum/thread/1283068/december-cm-classical-thread#post_16089106"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a><br><br><p>
MLW- Thanks for starting the new thread.
I agree baking Fridays sound awesome! My kids would love that, especially my eldest dd, who has a sweet tooth. I actually already purchased the Sentence Composing, hehe. It came today and I like the looks of it, so thanks for the rec. I'll be looking forward to your reviewing of both books. I'm coveting the All Things Fun & Fascinating as well. I went and looked at samples and I think my dd would enjoy the exercises. Do you think this is something I might be able to find used, or is more something that people treat as a workbook, then toss out? Also do you think the IEW book would be good to use after completing SC and do you think we might benefit from the All Things books even if I can't afford the teacher materials right now? I just placed several orders for next the rest of this year and for next, and I really shouldn't be spending any more money right now!</p>
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You might be able to find the All Things Fun & Fascinating book used - it is set up to be written in (from what I can tell), but personally I photocopy the pages that we actually need for the assignments instead of anyone writing in it (I didn't want to have to buy multiple copies). In terms of using it in relation to when to use SC, I'm not sure. I need to sit down and really go through the SC materials (and the SG book). But, then again, I'm using the ATF&F book while also doing WWE and MCT Island materials, so I might not be the best judge of which to do first as I plan on just integrating the SC materials into our days, probably 2x a week. I do love teaching grammar and writing and can't seem to have enough ways in which to do it! <span><img alt="Sheepish.gif" src="http://files.mothering.com/images/smilies/Sheepish.gif"> I am using the ATF&F book without having used or purchased any of the other IEW materials yet - I know it is recommended to not teach the IEW materials until one has watched the Teaching Writing DVDs (or attending the conferences) but personally I didn't want to spend that much money up front until I knew the boys would respond positively to it. I do think it is beneficial though ... I'm not crazy about some of the terms ("dress-ups" just doesn't work for me), but so far both my older two have enjoyed the assignments and have done more writing without complaint than they have done before, so that's a good thing. </span><br>
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Originally Posted by <strong>MissRubyandKen</strong> <a href="/community/forum/thread/1283068/december-cm-classical-thread#post_16089181"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a><br><br><p>
So, I'm looking for feedback or advice on this issue I've been kicking about. Part of myself wants to have a set plan mapped out for the coming years, especially as far as our History cycle. Prior to our school year starting in July we were relaxed, ecclectic homeschoolers. My interest in classical ed peaked as more and more of my choices were aligned with classical homeschoolers' choices. I skimmed through the original WTM book years ago, reading relevant parts to my children's ages. I'm now reading the new edition of WTM. I've pretty much read all of it aside from the Rhetoric Stage, which I skimmed through. I plan to go back and read that section thoroughly now. My children are ds, who just turned 9 and is in 3rd grade, and dd, who is about to turn 11 and is in 5th grade, and a dd who is about to turn 3.<br><br>
I decided to start dd, 10, in the grammar stage alongside ds, 9, so as to use the same materials for both of them and to assess where she is, as well as to not entirely skip anything important from the grammar stage she may not have picked up from our previous schooling choices. She is doing very well and I believe it is time to start transitioning her into the Logic stage so that she will be fully into it at the start of next school year. I'd started narration WWE style in our prior year of schooling mid0year, so she did have some experience from that.<br><br>
She is very good at narrating, summarizing, and grammar. I plan to start her on beginning outlining after the New Year. We are doing Ancients this year. I plan to start a timeline with her as well, but I am thinking of waiting until next school year with Middle Ages. This will mean our timeline will skip Ancients for now. I'm not sure if I want her to start outlining now in the middle of Ancients. Its seems it may be better to have her practice her outlining skills on other materials, then begin outlining History with Middle Ages next year along with the timeline. I was thinking then when we come back round to the Ancients she can either stay in Logic stage and outline and timeline Ancients, or move into rhetoric and skip Logic stage for Ancients altogether. I guess it would be preferable to start the rhetoric stage then, so she will then have a full round of History in the Rhetoric stage. I could possibly incorporate finishing the timeline and outlining into that year? I haven't read the Rhetoric Stage fully yet, so it might not be feasible.<br><br>
Then the question as to when to start ds outlining in our History cycle? As well as should I go ahead and have him participate in the timeline now? Have her work on the timeline and let him peruse it at will? I know he isn't ready for outlining quite yet. He needs to polish his narrating and summarizing skills.</p>
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I'm also very torn between The Story of the World Activity book and the History Odyssey guides. I think I will be using both next year. Where I'm mostly torn is which order should I follow? To follow SOTW order and incorporate HO into that, or follow HO order and incorporate SOTW into that? It seems it may be easier to use the HO order and incorporate SOTW because HO level 2 has quite a lot to do (outlining, timeline, summaries,etc), whereas using the the SOTW activity book is simply questions, narration (which I would have ds do, but not dd if she's outlining), and mapwork. I bought the SOTW 1 activity book to use for the rest of the year and decided to try using its order and I have to admit I like the ease and simplicity of being able to read straight through the chapters. The flow seems much better this way. Anyone have experience using both? MLW- didn't you mention using both? How do you use them together?</p>
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Ancients- dd 5th(grammar/transitioning to logic), ds 3rd(grammar)</p>
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Middle Ages- dd 6th(logic), ds 4th(grammar)</p>
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Early Modern- dd 7th(logic, ds 5th(logic)</p>
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Where to go from here? My little one will be 5 at the beginning of the school year after that and six mid year. I'm thinking of skipping Modern! ACK! So confusing! Or I may do Modern with the olders and either push History to 1st for the little one and/or spend K doing Geography. Thing is I bet she will want to participate with what they are doing, so I may just skip Modern. I know I will be open to changing at any time, but I've been pestering myself to have a tentative plan so that I can prepare.</p>
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Any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions?</p>
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I am in somewhat the same situation with my three boys. Technically we should have been in Early Modern this year with ds#1 in 4th grade and ds#2 in 2nd grade. But that would have put us in Modern Times with ds#2 only in 3rd grade, and I was not comfortable with that, nor did I want to separate them for history. (I have a couple friends who were doing Modern Times with their kids and they said it's different than the other books - more war, less story.) So, we backtracked and did Ancients this year (well, we started half-way through last year as we were off by a half-year anyway, and are finishing this year - I stretched basically a half-year over the full school year). That has us doing Modern Times when ds#1 will be in 7th grade and ds#2 in 5th grade, both logic stage. At that time, ds#3 will be in 2nd grade, but I do not plan on having him join in with any of it. I'll start him in Ancient Times in 3rd grade when the older two cycle back to it. I've realized after starting the history cycle and then restarting it that I think the ages in WTM are too young, at least if you are trying to keep multiple-aged children in the same history cycle. There's just something about Early Modern Times and Modern Times that to me are too "old" for 3rd and 4th grade. So, chances are the boys will only make it through 2 history cycles instead of 3, but I figure that's probably 2 more than they would get in public school, and it'll also give us some flex time in there for things like US history, government, economics, and civics, without having to sacrifice world history. I'm not sure what I'm going to have ds#3 do for K-2nd grade for history, but I think I might just focus on American history via picture books of various famous Americans, as well as some basic geography. I think I'll use the US history lesson plans from the <a href="http://books.coreknowledge.org/home.php?cat=314" target="_blank">Core Knowledge Sequence</a>. </p>
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And yes, I do use the SOTW activity guide and History Odyssey, but I follow the progression of History Odyssey. I tried to do Medieval Times according to SOTW and pull the HO materials as they came up, but it was too much work for me. I like how HO has every laid out for me. It is frustrating sometimes getting to a chapter in SOTW and having the chapter assume we have already read the preceding chapter, even if we haven't according to the HO timeline, but it wasn't worth trying to rewrite the program to make it work for me. But, I do like the SOTW activity guide for the coloring/activity pages (helps with what I feel is the monotony of HO with just map work), and I am using the narration questions in it as well since I decided we needed to do narration and dictation for history. So, basically I follow the lesson plan in HO, photocopy the appropriate coloring page from SOTW, use the narration questions from SOTW when we read the chapter, and sometimes do the dictionary work from HO when we read the pages from the Usborne Encyclopedia. Does that make sense (I keep getting interrupted by a 4 year old who is very concerned about where his marshmallows end up in regards to his hot cocoa - oh man!)?</p>
