EFRU - Can we begin late in the year?

[cbollin]

We are in week 11 of CtG and have not yet used English from the Roots Up.

If I start now, should I start back at the beginning or just pick up where we are in the TM? Would it be too much to try to do two at a time or should I just plan to continue over the summer what we don't get to? (My girls are 2nd/4th grade.)

I don't know why I'm intimidated about starting this, especially considering my favorite college class was English Roots and I was a linguistics major. Hmmm...
Kim

Try going back and adding in those 11 or whatever number of words. If it is too much, save it for summer. I'd like to suggest that you not introduce 2 words on the same day unless you see that they can deal with it easily.

--crystal

[Julie in MN]

As I recall the Greek words started with Biblos (book) because it relates to "Bible." Then it just started at the beginning of EFRU Greek words & went in order, with a few words pulled out of order when they related to lessons (sauros for dinosaur words, as I recall?).

So that to me would mean that you could just start right in on the week you're at & any words that directly relate to your current lessons will match up correctly.

As for the words you missed, the actual author of EFRU as I recall has sort-of put them in an order to maximize word-building. For instance, starting with photos & graph so you can make "photograph." (But the connection that made "phonograph" meant nothing to my kids!) It's kind of fun for kids to see them match up at least a few times, so that would be the only reason I'd go back & squeeze in those first words -- to make it more interesting in building words. You could do that as you saw an opportunity. Make a little list on a sticky-note of the missed words & cover them as you saw a connection.

I also would look at whether your girls mind writing 2 cards in a week. My son greatly dislikes writing, and I only have him write the word, its definition, and the vocabulary words that come from it (then I write in the definitions of those); and he types his sentences at the keyboard. I was glad to wait until 5th to have him write 2 cards a week in RTR.

One more thought -- you drop the dictionary day in RTR, so make sure you make full use of that in CTG.

Julie

[MJ in IL]

In CtG, the earlier roots are a bit "easier" (biblos, photos, metros) and more common in our language. If I were in your place, I would make a list of what you miseed, pick up where your are in the curriculum and then either simply discuss the earlier words or add them in more formally as you are able. (Oh, I see this is what Julie suggested too!)

I also have different "levels" for each one...the 7th grader does 5 words/sentences, the 4th grader-3 and my 2nd grader-only 1 (he often finds a few extra words he finds interesting too).

It turns out that this is a favorite portion of our day for all of my kids! They love making the cards, pull them out to review even during free time!, and complain when I skip to catch up on other subjects.

Have fun with it!