Of the texts I use almost all of them
I could probably be persuaded to use something else. There are
only three that I absolutely would not give up: Spell to Write and Read, Saxon Math, and Shurley Grammar.
It may surprise you that I would so adamantly stand by this much
maligned program. There seems to be no end to it's detractors,
especially since The Well-Trained Mind took it in it's sights.
But for all it's perceived faults I love the program.
We
should start back when I was starting to homeschool. I really had
no idea what to do about Grammar mostly because I hated Grammar.
I hated the underlining and the doulbe underlining and the circling and
the boxing and all that extraneous crud that I could never
remember. I was so glad to leave middle school and never see it
again.
Fast forward nearly twenty years to when I am beginning
to homeschool Stanley. I was invited to a homeschool meeting in
South County (that would be OC to those of you outside the Orange
Curtain). They were organizing a group of people who were using
The Well Trained Mind. I had not read the book yet but was told
it was about Classical Education. Since this was the method that
I wanted to use I decided to attend.
There were a lot
of interesting things I learned at this meeting but the one that I felt
was the most important was that the writers of TWTM disliked Shurley
Grammar immensely and the reason was because it did not make the
student diagram sentences. My interests, of course, were
immediately piqued and a few years later when I went shopping for a
Grammar program and saw Shurley in the Veritas Press catalogue I didn't
even hesitate. All I knew about Grammar was that I hated
diagramming sentences and a program that didn't have that would be my
favorite I was sure.
To say that Shurley does not require
diagramming, I learned, was to strictly define diagramming as
underlining, double underlining, et. al. Shurley does have
diagramming but it only uses the actually words. For the subject
noun the child uses the initials SN; for verb, V; for adjective, Adj,
etc. The simplicity of it is overwhelming. While I know it
is an apples and oranges comparison, I am still surprised at how I have
learned more in a year of Shurley than I did in four years of public
school Grammar. My son, as well, has been able to retain his
knowledge because his mind is not bogged down by also trying to
remember which line or box goes where. It is simple and straight
forward.
The only thing I do not like about Shurley is the
jingles. They really are, well, lame and unmemorable. I
will read the jingles to him but we use the School House Rocks Grammar for music instead.
Well, we finished it up and I can only say...thank goodness that's over.
I suppose a long story is due because, well, I don't know how to explain anything without going way back to the beginning...
It all started on a September morning in 1973...Ok, blaming it all on
my public school education is probably a bit overkill but if I blamed
myself how would that look?
When I started homeschooling a few
years ago it was half out of desire and three-fourths out of necessity
(look, I already told you I went to public school, leave me alone about
it). Aside from Stanley's reading struggles, most other things
were learned easily. We started out with Modern Curriculum Press
Math and found that far too easy. I had heard good things about
Saxon but had been afraid to use them at first. I bought their
level 1 and, while at the beginning I liked it, I began to find all
that repition tedious. So I went on the hunt for something
exciting and, perhaps, colorful. I found Calvert.
We had
already been using their Music and Art programs and found those to be
very good so why not their Math? Besides, it looked just like the
books I used to use in school and I ended up being very good at math.
Well, I must have had some natural talent because if my math books were really like this I doubt I retained much.
I think my trouble all started with SWR. After reading that and
learning how kids learn, etc., I began to realize that the new problems
Stanley was having in Math had less to do with him and more to do with
the curriculum I had chosen. In Calvert there is little
repition. When a chapter is finished, it's finished. What
was taught previously is rarely, if ever, revisited.
Thinking
back to life with Saxon I can now see why they had so much repition so,
as boring as it may seem to me, we will be returning to Saxon come
January.
Calvert seems so nice. At first glance it seems
that, compared to Saxon, there is really no work for the parent to
do. You just help the child learn the concepts in the workbook
and go on with your life. Unfortunately, you will end up having
to supplement quite a bit, especially if your child struggles in
Math. I really do not recommend it at all.
I got this movie out tonight since my dh
had a consistory meeting and I wasn't feeling too great when he
left. The kids have never seen it. I had practically
forgotten it was in there until Stanley got into this Star Wars craze
and I had to pull out my old Star Wars videos. We don't have a
lot of videos but they are in a drawer and if I don't "see" something
it doesn't exist.
This movie is one of the best. Not the
best of all times but the best overall because it's good from beginning
to end. It's fun and funny. Of course, they have to do that
whole smoochy-goochy thing that I hate but for some reason it works in
this movie. It's probably the hokey poetry...
I had
forgotten about the gratuitous violence though. I hope it doesn't
negatively impact Stanley tonight. Of course, considering all the
weapons involved it will probably make him sleep better. *sigh*
guys...
Theoretically, yesterday was our last
day of school. Of course, practically, with everything that has
happened here in the last month and a half, it isn't happening but we
almost made it. We have one chapter of Math to finish and a few weeks of Grammar.
I have decided to make it my custom to finish my year by reviewing the
curriculum that we used. (I have decided that since this is a
homeschool blogsite. hehe) The first one I will review this month
is Spell to Write and Read.
I don't know if I can bestow enough platitudes on this program.
When I went looking for a phonics curriculum for my son over three
years ago I could not find a complete one. I ended up using the
best scientific thinking I could muster and...I chose the one with the
train on the front. Not great, I know, but my son liked it.
I, on the other hand, was incredibly frustrated.
I could not figure out how kids were supposed to learn anything using
the books we had chosen. One of the main problems was there was
not enough "stuff" for reviews. The workbooks were consumable and
we didn't have a copier or a scanner at the time so when they were
consumed, we would have to buy brand new ones.
Stanley learned far too slowly for this method. There was nothing
written in there for people teaching children who didn't just "get it"
right off the bat. So we fought with this thing, and each other,
for nearly two years.
Then, in January of this year when we
started back to school Stanley did something amazing...he read. I
was so excited. I thought our troubles were through.
Ha! They had only just begun.
We were using Shurley
Grammar 1 for our Grammar and it required some writing. I noticed
right away that his spelling was atrocious so off I went on a hunt for
a spelling "program." I was going to use the ones suggested in
the Veritas Press catalogue but I decided to ask at the VP group for a
recommendation and a review of them. I got a recommendation and
review alright, but it wasn't the one I was expecting.
I was told in no uncertain terms that I should run, not walk or even
hesitate, to my nearest homeschool supplier and buy the books and cards
for Spell to Write and Read. I had never heard of this before so
I went down to Monrovia and picked up the book so I could read it over.
As I read I was amazed. This seemed to be so well thought out and
put together. In my nearly three years of homeschooling I had
never seen a program this well explained. But what truly amazed
me was when I read their critique of other psuedo-phonics programs,
they had one for the program we used and every problem the author said
would occur for children using this program was a problem Stanley had.
Of course I went out and bought the rest of the books and cards for
it. We have used it for about 6 mos now and Stanley is slowly but
surely coming along. He's had to unlearn everything he learned
before and now he is starting to grasp it. Last week he was
spelling "baby." At first he spelled it with an "i" at the end
instead of a "y," but then he corrected himself and said, "It can't be
an "i" because English words can't end in "i."" (Spelling rule
#6--in case you are wondering about spaghetti, et. al., an "i" at the
end of a word indicates a foreign spelling.)
The program seems
pricey up front but as soon as you realize that this will last you for
most of their schooling AND can be used for ALL your children without
ever having to replace anything but a $4.00 notebook each year
the cost is much smaller than anything else out there. Of course,
having kids who can read AND spell great is worth any cost, imo.
We have one chapter of Math to finish and a few weeks of Grammar.
I could not figure out how kids were supposed to learn anything using
the books we had chosen. One of the main problems was there was
not enough "stuff" for reviews. The workbooks were consumable and
we didn't have a copier or a scanner at the time so when they were
consumed, we would have to buy brand new ones.
the cost is much smaller than anything else out there. Of course,
having kids who can read AND spell great is worth any cost, imo.
