Does anyone here use this? Or used it in the past? Can you use it but skip the spelling? Would it be useful as a supplement to another program? (Namely R&S which I just love and already have. LOL) Is everything in the books based on the literature, or how much is the literature utilized and how long does it take to get through each novel?
I used the old one, and it was quite a while ago. It didn't have any spelling in it. But I found it very hit-and-miss. What it's like now, I can't say because when they revamped things, stuff was added to it.
I am the same- used an older version, and used it 4 years ago. It also seemed like there were gaping holes so we only used it a very short while. Since they have revamped it though, I am thinking about trying it again.
I used the newer version, briefly. It was hit-and-miss. I was SO EXCITED about it, but it was a total bust for us. You could leave the spelling out though (I think-It's been a few years).
So... with it being hit-and-miss, might it make a good supplement for another program? We use R&S and I REALLY like it, but I've been looking for something to help with literature studies mostly (and maybe some reading specific things), for the middle boys. Any of y'all have some of the old ones you might be willing to part with for free/shipping/cheap? I wonder if anyone around here has one I could borrow for a week or two.... Thanks for the feedback y'all!
If what you really want is literature studies, try googling the name of a specific book with "literature guide" or "reader's guide", and see what you come up with. Or find some titles from Progeny Press on used curriculum sites. Or Novel-Ties which are secular but pretty well put together. You can choose specific books from bookadventure.com lists according to reading level and find the actual books at the library. Pathways readers aren't very expensive, but I'm not sure if you want anthology readers or if you're looking for whole chapter books/novels. I'd suggest CLE readers, but those would cost a bit more new.
I'm hoping for activities and expansions on novels - the ones you'd find on good reading lists anyway, but something to do with them besides just reading them. Arts, crafts, projects, and maybe some of the things like vocab, graphic organizers, content studies for things like comparisons and character outlines, but mostly fun stuff to go with our novel readings. I'd like to say a unit study, but every time I find those they have stuff for math and all kinds of subjects I don't really care to delve into. Like FIAR, for instance. I just want to expand the novel some! I for sure can't afford a PP sg for every book, and we are doing some of that with our oldest one in the Illuminations curriculum. grr... I guess I don't know what to call what I want and that's why I have such a hard time finding it!!!
Novel-Ties and some PP guides have stuff like that in them. Kinda hit-and-miss, yes, but that's what you find with this sort of approach. See if you can find PP guides or Novel-Ties guides for cheap at the used curriculum sites...
http://teach.fcps.net/trt14/LiteratureGuides.htm Try this -- I'll BET you find something here! FREE! and the ones that say "Book Unit" seem to have the better stuff, but try several and see... http://www.mce.k12tn.net/units/units_with_books.htm Found the page where the Book Units came from! I think this might be exactly what you're looking for!
DaLynn, I just got back from camping this weekend. I'll look this week to see what levels I still have; I'm sure I have some! You can have any/all for the price of shipping.
Well thanks Jackie! Still not sure what I'm wanting to do. I just know that I'm not finding the "early learners" readers from our Illuminations curriculum very easily, and anything else feels like not quite enough as far as just reading the books and leaving it at that. Need some sort of "deeper" tool! Sonlight looks fantastic, but it just provides me with a reading list (that I can then access through the library LOL), and I still don't get any deeper with the books and reading/language components than just the stories themselves. *sigh* I dunno!!! My oldest just "got" most of that stuff without much doing on my part, because his brain just works like that. LOL Guess I should go bump my sale thread again then. LOL
I looked last night, and they weren't in the two places I expected to find them. I'll keep looking; I'm 90% sure I didn't sell them, because no one wants them!
LOL! No one wants them. Let me know if you find them and how much you'll need for shipping! Still working on selling some things, but I'm sure we'll work it up here in a bit. Have a couple of "needs" that come first, but I'd love to have these around in case they end up being what I'm looking for. I'm also looking into Drawn Into the Heart of Reading. Know anything?
I'm still looking! I was thinking today that I should let you know they haven't turned up yet. I'm going to give a friend a call. I gave her a lot of stuff, but I don't think that was with it.
LOL Okies! No big rush and no worries. I'm starting to think that literature study is going to be one of those things that I won't ever find what I'm really looking for, so this year (and probably next year) we'll piece-meal it and then... maybe I'll write my own. Thanks for looking! You're a gem!
