ChristyH wrote:Does anyone use most everything that they recommend? I am familiar with most everything they recommend except Singapore and Spelling Power. Have the recommendations worked out well?
I want to be more successful with our homeschooling then we have been, not to mention smoother. ;0)
Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 11:18 am
Raising my hand, I do.
It is commonly said, you can use whatever language arts and math you want. Well, I like MFW's recommendations and like to try them first and then tweak if needed and change it completely if necessary.
Here’s more than you asked for. :)
Math:
I've been using MFW for so long that we started before they had a math recommendation for elementary. I didn't switch immediately from the math I was using. This year my dh and I evaluated if that program was still working and decided we needed to do something different. I did take a look at Singapore Math because MFW was recommending it. We trusted MFW's other suggestions so it made sense to start there. We really like Singapore and are glad we switched. Lessons are short and effective and it's a strong math program. Good program. Singapore has a strong program for math processing skills (i.e. mental math). Lessons are short, effective and really help with building concepts. You need to add flashcards to Singapore because in the country of Singapore the teacher’s add drill in the classroom. That’s why it is not in the text or student book. Singapore uses concrete and pictorial ways to teach math. It helps you to help your child learn to think.
Language Arts:
We really like PLL and ILL. Like that Charlotte Mason feel to it. Covers a lot of language arts components.
All in One English -- we're liking that for 6th grader. It's got all of those rules and easy to do. Practice is quick. And it is set up so that you can’t just fill in the pattern. I used another program for “grammar” that was “easy” – but my child was just filling in the blanks and circling things. She had figured out the pattern of the lessons. With All in One, she has to slow down enough to read it and practice and think about it first. Hmmm…. This is reminding of why we switched math programs. But I digress.
Spelling Power -- I was set to use Spelling Power before I heard of MFW. I was thrilled to be able to buy it and ECC at the same time. I started my child too young in Spelling Power and pushed too hard and tried to short cut the whole method in spelling power and well.... it didn't work. Duh! Put it aside for 1 year. Now, we're back to using Spelling Power. We're using it the way it is supposed to be used, with no short cuts, and I like it. I'm glad I went back to it.
Writing Strands has a lot of good stuff in it --- learning to expand sentences, basic paragraph structure, how to write in different tenses, 1st and 3rd person writing -- lots of those little skills that need to be taught along the way. And it fits so well with short lessons. At first I didn’t do a good job with using the book. I spent too much effort making my child try to do this book on her own and had the objective to be “do this assignment so that writing is out of the way.” WS is not a book to merely hand over to your student and expect them to magically become a good writer. Nor did I bother to read the helps and hints at the back of the book (blush). Oh no no no .... I wanted a pick up and go program. {blush}
Once I started to use WS level 3 as a way to make sure that I was teaching certain writing skills to my child I liked WS. If I used it to “just complete this assignment” then I didn’t like it. I also like how it has little checkpoints for the student to evaluate their own writing successes and areas for improvement and to keep track of it. I like that in the back of the Level 3 book there are examples of problems to avoid. It makes a nice resource for teaching writing.
Maybe this will make sense: it’s like having math drills. Drills are a tool that are part of the big picture of your math program. Same thing with Writing Strands --- it is not the completion of each exercise that makes you go “ah ha! my kid can write.” WS helps you to say “ah ha! we’re practicing those skills and we can work on it while doing our other assignments.”
Welcome to MFW. It's for those of us who can say: ideal world meet real world. And MFW helps me succeed in my real world. MFW is an answered prayer for me with all of that.
-crystal
microcarter wrote:I would really like to hear some opinions on the language arts recommendations (ILL, WS and SP) and on Singapore Math. Who really likes these, who doesn't and why? Is it best to at least try these recommendations first since this is my first year hs her?
Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2008 3:14 pm
My opinion is to give them a try and see how it goes. MFW likes to choose products that are going to help you not get bogged down with language arts and math.
Math:
I really like Singapore Math. It works really well with my strong math student (my oldest). And it works really well with my not as strong math student (my middle) to make her stronger. To start with Singapore, you need to take a placement test. Don’t be surprised if you test into a book number that is lower than your grade level. That is common because the book numbers in Singapore don’t necessarily parallel grade levels in the US.
Singapore has a very strong component to its program to help a student learn to think about how to solve word problems and to do some computations mentally. You will want to have some kind of manipulative (blocks, legos, straws, whatever) to help present the concepts in a concrete way. Then you move to the more abstract thinking stuff. The Singapore textbook has color pictures, thought process bubbles to help present the lesson. Then you move to the student workbook. Like with many math programs, you will probably need to add in some math fact drills.
The lessons are short and very effective and strong. I like the flowchart/rules feels to teaching Singapore.
Language Arts:
The language arts that are selected will help fill in the bits and pieces of language arts that are not covered in the unit studies of the main program you use. I should link to a post written by Marie Hazell, author of MFW, in which she describes the reason behind MFW ‘s recommendations for Language Arts. Here it is
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?t=3240
I use MFW’s recommendations for language arts and it really seems to help us. Intermediate Language Lessons is fairly easy to use. Some of it can be done orally. I like that it covers so much in language (poetry, outlining, intro to debate skills, copywork, narrations, art appreciation study etc.), but the lessons are short. Some of them I have tended to update just a tiny bit to make it something else meaningful to my child. As an example, we changed one of the debate topics from whatever it was in the book to “give Mom and Dad the pros and cons of why you should go to the youth retreat this weekend?” So, I found ILL flexible and chock a block full of great language arts skills.
I just wrote something about Spelling Power. Let me just link to that thread instead of copying a long answer b/c this is already getting long.
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?t=4715
Writing Strands. I find that WS helps me to coach my child with writing. It covers things that just aren’t being covered in other places. I personally don’t think at your child’s age it is a preferred route to just hand over WS to the child. But instead, use it as a guide with your child. There are a few bumps along the way in WS. If you use it and need help with it, chime in over here and we’ll help out. I’ve used WS 3 and am currently in WS level 4. It fits well in the day.
whew.... that was a long answer. Looking forward to hearing from others as well :)
--crystal
