Obviously, from my thread yesterday, I'm feeling some unrest with my language arts plans. I realy want everything all in one nice neat package. Needing secular I don't see that happening with anything written to homeschoolers. There is no secular version or comparison to LLATL. Well I woke up thinking, "You know you plan on using Treasures workbooks for reading comp and vocab and spelling. Why not use the reading books as well? Then drop the Scott Foresman grammar and writing handbook and use the Treasures Grammar workbook". I can use all of these things free online... yes even the Treasures reading books can be found online. I have been looking at the books a bit. They are very nicely varigated in it's content, which I like for exposure. They have nice Time articles in them. If we go this route I will try to buy the books for the kids, but I want to see how it fits first because even on ebay they are not cheap. I would also require "real books" being read every day but they could be of their own choices. Anyone use something similar to this for their language arts program?
A few years ago I used one of McGraw-Hills other programs called Imagine It!. I really liked the program and would have kept using it but I like to switch things out more often then I probably should. It had everything my kids needed, vocab, spelling, grammar, writing, and even Across the curriculum projects to get kids thinking about how this stuff integrates into life. I looked up the Treasures and it looks very similar. The fact that you can find it all online and print it as needed is great too. I didn't have that option. I say use it!
You could possibly get refurbished books from Follett Educational Services. Schools sometimes turn in their old books and unused workbooks, even TMs, for money to buy new books. Schools use Follett to replace books that took a walk, or to even just buy enough for a whole classroom cheaper. Scan their website, and you might luck up and find the ones you want.
Can you post the links for everything again? I know you did the workbooks last week sometime....Sorry, I'm being lazy! But I'd love to see the books online, too... Trying to find stuff for my 3rd grader, and I looked at the workbooks last week, and like them, but if I had the reading books to go along...
Book codes. Place to find books. All the workbooks. Oh and then there are online activities for them too!!! Lindina, their prices are a little better.. still a lot when you think you need a few books a year, first grade is 5 books at $17 each plus shipping (I didn't look to see how much that was). I really think I like this plan of attack.
I just wanted to update... I found the reading books by searching by isbn on amazon for decent prices (at least some of them). I just ordered both 3rd and both 2nd grade books for under $30 after shipping.
Crazymama, when I looked at your "our curriculum" link a couple of weeks ago and found the Mcmillan Mcgraw Hill links to complete LA materials that were FREE I was thrilled! I found the accompanying Treasures reading book,used, at Amazon for $7. I see you've already found your books there too. I have gotten various other resources for writing, which my daughter does not enjoy at all. I hope to pique her creativity with writing and grow her desire for it. We are a Christian family and I used BJU Reading and grammar for my 3rd grader this past year. I wasn't thrilled with it and wanted something different for the next school year. The Treasures LA program looks awesome to me, especially with the added online activities to accompany it, and it's all connected with a mutual story to better improve all LA skills. I am really thankful for your shared resource.:angel:
I need to update that link some... since I'm going to be dropping the Scott Foresman Grammar workbook... which I really like, I just have this need to streamline. I'm trying now to figure out what we need to do each day of the week. I keep reading reviews from teachers saying there is too much in each "theme" to get done in a week, but then they have all kinds of charts to show the kids and have other readers it seems on top of the big reading book. Have you looked enough to see how it needs broken down? I'm almost thinking 2 weeks per theme, but then we won't get through the book... not even close..lol
I've already planned out the workbooks for about 32 weeks for next school year, but honestly that may feel too slow for my daughter. However, LA is her strength. She flies through the stuff! I should honestly probably use a higher grade level of LA material, but I don't want to make her feel challenged all the time. I find other challenging resources to use maybe once a week. Math on the other hand...ugh! Thankfully we have Singapore Math, which works really well for her visual strength. I am anxious for the reading book to arrive so I can look through it and determine if I need to rearrange the plans for the coming year. I see that MacMillan has a totally new set of materials for 2014. Can't remember the name of it though.
I'm kind of torn... I have 2 kids who are a year apart.. the older seems to struggle more than the younger. I am almost tempted to put them both in the 2nd grade level. She struggles more with reading than the grammar aspects of language arts, and she tends to struggle with spelling but the 2nd grade spelling definitely starts too low for her even with her struggles. I would probably not feel like I may need to space them over 2 weeks if I knew I only had to do one level each day.
I was thinking that since you are teaching multiple children you probably need to take things slower. I received some good advice from a fellow homeschool mom: Teach a child at the level they can succeed, even a lower level than their age/grade, read to them at or above grade level, and test them above grade level to determine how far they comprehend. I know several homeschool families who teach their children subjects on varying grade levels. Although we could be doing a higher grade language arts, I am sticking with her current age/grade level, and we are below grade level in math. The purpose is to allow the children to feel successful and sometimes that means going back; making it easier. They will catch up eventually (and I sure don't want to push my girls to graduate high school sooner rather than later :wink: I want to keep them home and maturing as much as possible.) Have you had your girls academically tested? We do the Woodcock Johnson testing, which finds the level at which your child can best succeed in each area of LA, writing, and math. The testing adminstrator can give advice about curriculum as well.
Rylee is working behind in math... but we are using McRuffy and it's advanced. She doesnt' think in math. She is rather ditsy... you know very blonde even though she's not (at least she got something from me :lol. Reagan is an aspie, he is great academically when he is in the mood to try and I'm working things to work for him. He gets overwhelmed easily though... but usually just because he doesn't feel like doing what we are doing. I have never done testing, I don't really believe in testing though we have to do it for our state, Rylee won't have to do it until this year. We have to test in 3rd, 5th and 8th... though I'm thinking of registering Rylee as a 2nd grader this year when I have to register her for the first time through the district.
Registering her a year lower makes great sense to me. Allows her her own time to grow and develop. She'll be out there meeting the world's expectations long enough when she's done with school and on her own, so letting her stay "just little" a while longer is just fine! She'll find her way.
If I could do things all over again, I wouldn't have started my 8 year old in kingergarten as early as I did. She was academically ready but not emotionally ready. When I pulled her from public school to home school, she was in AIG in public school. However, at homeschooling her emotional immaturity became apparent. Her public school teachers sensed it and mentioned it to me a few times. I wish a million times I had waited another year to enroll her in school. Now that she's progressed through the grade levels, I can't humiliate her by "holding her back" a grade level. Although, I hope to go slowly enough that she is homeschooled one extra year after "12th" grade, if she needs it at that point. I would totally agree with registering Rylee as a 2nd grader, to give you and her extra time for her to be ready.
I finally got my first book... after my order of all of them was canceled by the seller... I had ordered all of them from International Books. So, I had to hunt for all of them again... then I decided I might want to buy the 1st grade books..so I did. I'm glad I went ahead and found all the first grade books (hubby is going to crap when he sees 8 more individual books showing up..lol but it was all bought with money from curriculum I sold and I still have some paypal left). The book that came is the first book of grade 2. I looked through it (yes I had looked at them online, but a real book makes things seem more ummm real?), I will put Rylee in this book. I don't think she is ready for 3. She hates reading and she struggles with it. I think this one starts out at about the level she is reading at. Reagan is about through 3 box of HOP, I'm not sure if I will start him in grade 2 or grade 1, maybe halfway through 1? I would rather them be "learning" a little lower than where they are so they aren't stressing about it, and well they haven't done much of the stuff that we will be doing with the books. They have learned nouns and verbs and a few other things but not in the way we will be learning them with Treasures.
