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Post by Jen on Jan 8, 2009 12:42:56 GMT -5
Hi, I recently found out about CW from Andrew Campbell's book, "Latin Centered Curriculum". However, he suggests using it as a complete language arts curriculum. What do you think of this idea? Also, I have ordered Aesop A for my 3rd grader. I have a 5th grader who is very bright but an average writer. If I start him with CW in 6th grade I was thinking of starting him with Homer, is that correct? Campbell says we should use the "older beginner" book. Thank You!
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Post by Lene Mahler Jaqua on Jan 9, 2009 0:54:00 GMT -5
Older Beginners is typically for kids who are 6th grade or higher who are trying to get through CW faster.
A bright 5th grader would get more out of starting in Homer A and then doing Homer B, which is completely on track with our 'ideal' sequence.
Lene Jaqua
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Post by Jen on Jan 9, 2009 7:38:33 GMT -5
Thanks for the suggestion. Would you recommend using an additional grammar and spelling package or is CW enough? Thank you.
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Post by Lene Mahler Jaqua on Jan 9, 2009 13:38:38 GMT -5
We recommend a spelling curriculum in addition to CW for students 3rd through 5th grade, depending on how easily spelling comes to the individual student. [This is where homeschooling totally rocks because we do what we need to]. Generally an Aesop student is working about 10-15 minutes per day on a spelling curriculum on the side. A few rare 3-4th grade students do not need to do so. I tend to view my own kids as 'rarely rare' just to be on the safe side. A Homer student may or may not continue in spelling. Probably 50 % need to, and 50 % are confident and don't misspell common words and do better focusing on the vocabulary work Homer provides. [Etymology, root words, dictionary words, word usage]. Those kids who still need spelling should do a little less of the weekly Homer vocabulary work and work in their spelling curriculum to re-mediate their spelling issues. That being said, some students never learn to spell well. I don't mean give up on your atrociously spelling 8th grader [if you have such a critter in your house], but realize that spelling aids like word processors' spell check and OTHER PEOPLE PROOF-reading is what some of us need to survive the world of writing. There is nothing wrong with that. It's the same sort of handicap as I have in not being able to run a mile fast enough to pass a military fitness exam. Outside grammar work is not recommended for Aesop. We start serious grammar in Homer, and for that we recommend for most students that they complete an outside grammar curriculum in addition to the grammar application work we offer in Homer. Again, a few students and their teachers have found that Homer provides plenty of grammar instruction and that the outside curriculum is not needed. You be the judge of that. Certainly we present all the terms, define them, give examples, use them and drill them with the literature we analyze, but it takes a very bright student to keep up without additional reinforcement. -- Again, I tend to view my own students [brilliant as they seem to me] as not quite bright enough to fore-go the additional grammar instruction. I find it easier to drop the additional grammar later when I find them not challenged than to add it in down the road [which seems to affect some students adversely]. I hope that gives you some ideas... even if I do tend to say "one the one hand...", "one the other hand...". Lene
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