Making the Switch to MP with many grade levels

[mater]

I feel like I've been following Memoria Press for 10 years but have never made the big leap! Now that our eldest is starting 6th grade and MP offers lessons plans and Classicaly Composition, my husband and I have decided to make the leap with all of our children to a MP education. And I need a lot of guidance. Tanya - help!

Here's our situation - starting in August, we'll have a 6th, 4th, 2nd, 1st and a 4 1/2 year old, along with a 1-year old. What we've been doing so far is Saxon Math (which I'm happy with I think, although I'm always open to change) but we've neglected Latin and Classical Studies, and they all play piano. I have my K and 1st grader doing Right Start Math together. The older boys are voracious readers and have read nearly every book from all of your literature selections for all grades, but never the literature guides. They've read Greek Myths, but I've never really gone through it with them. I've never done spelling with them. So, you see, we've kind of done the unschooling thing, but with a heavy emphasis on math and music. We have hired a local teacher to teach our older 2 kids latin with some other neighborhood kids. He is using Lingua Latina - what do you think?

So, I don't know where to start. I'd like to use what we have for the little ones - I teach them to read and phonics with 100 EZ Lessons and the Little Angel Readers curriculum. That usually takes us to the end of 2nd grade. Then we drop phonics and spelling, unfortunately.

I purchased the MP Classical Composition Fable package last year but haven't even used it I've felt so overwhelmed. I put it off for a bit, hoping to put my 4th and 6th graders in it together.

How do I go about putting together lesson plans and a curriculum package for so many kids? I simply cannot do so many different lessons throughout the day. I really do need to group them together as much as possible or else I will drop the entire program. We would like to start our school year August 1st so I would like to buy everything I need now, but I don't know where to start. I would also like to do some fun astronomy/nature things as well.

Help!

Thanks so much for all that you do.

[tanya]

Hello.

I am working on a plan for you, but I may not have it until the first of next week. I will be out of town until Mon. I just don't want you to think I've forgotten you!

Regards,

Tanya

[mater]

Thanks so much, Tanya for your guidance. Next week is fine - we're hoping to get our new stuff in the next few weeks. You're the best!

[Nov03baby]

I am homeschooling my 5. My oldest is 8 and he is just finishing 2nd grade. I have BBG triplets who are finishing up K. The two boys are using Memoria Press and my daughter (who has severe cerebral palsy) is using a mix of things and a 2 year old girl who wants to do "school" too.

A few things I did this year. I went through the 2nd grade and Kindergarten book list and bought a mix from both. We read either a K or 2nd grade story each week and I taught history and science that week from the grade level story we read. I did the same thing with the artist/music of the week. We switched each week from the Kindergarten and 2nd grade list. That way we had a good mix of each level.

For our core subjects: I would teach the reading/phonics lesson to my oldest while the other two had a few extra minutes of free time. Once he was able to do the workbook pages on his own I would teach the reading/phonics lessons to my younger boys. We would do math in the same fashion. When my boys were doing copy work and extras I would work with my daughter on her lessons.

My biggest struggle this year was with the baby. She wants my attention all the time. Last year, I wore her in a sling but this year was more difficult because she was on the move. I bought some items from the Timberdoddle toddler program this spring and this helped keep her busy. I am buying some more items from their toddler and preschool program for the fall.

I am also debating on using the workbox approach to help keep my large family more organized. I do think in the younger grades using multiple levels are doable. Anything we didn't finish we would add to the weekend. I think this coming year is going to be our true test. My spouse was dx with stage 3 colon cancer two days into our school year and has been going through surgeries and treatments all year. Because of this, I had to drop Latin this year. So my oldest will be a year behind. We are also just starting our last novel for the year and will finish up over the summer. I really thought we would be further behind with everything going on. So I am happy that we got as much done as we did.

Overall I am very pleased with Memoria Press. I am a former special education teacher and before this year created my own curriculum. I was afraid that a boxed curriculum wouldn’t meet my expectations but Memoria Press for the most has. I have my oldest using Singapore Math and my other two using both Singapore K and Rod and Staff. I have added some things here and there but for the most part follow Memoria Press as is.

I am working on a plan for teaching astronomy this coming year. I would be happy to share it with you when I am done with the planning. I started a yahoo group for Memoria press if you are interested in joining.

Melissa

[mollie]

Melissa- what an inspiring message! Thank you for sharing. I'm interested in the yahoo group.
Mollie

[Gloria]

I have not used a full plan, ever. However, if i did mp would be my choice, so take this opinion for what it is worth I have seen full plans, as I recommended mp to a family member who wanted a full plans. They looked very well done to me...

If you are happy with your little ones' plans as is, leave them alone. Solid reading and math skills are the main thing. It sounds like you have good literature in your life style.

As for the lit guides, you know, we've read everything before they came out too. I bought hobbit because I was curious and had one who hadn't read it yet. BEAUTIFULLY DONE. I was very impressed, very pleased. Then I saw the ones my family member used (younger grades) also well done. Here's some thoughts: these are classic works--if you already did them in school, it will not hurt to repeat (especially if you are trying to work to using a full curr. plan). Also, if you have been unschooling--these guides are going to be a change. Using something familiar might not hurt.....Honestly, for the younger grades---I am more of a read, discuss, write narration person.We don't do lit guides in younger years. the "class" work in mp guide is more than I require mine to do, but nevertheless these are my favorite ones. not that they are too hard; it's just i have different priorities for the younger ones. I would use them if I had to go with prepared lessons....

My thoughts
Take your older kids through intro to classic studies this year.

Pick maybe 2-3 lit guides from the 4-5 gr. list and do them with both your older kids. (or focus on getting your kids used to doing more written work this year and continue to read quality lit and start formal guides next year)

Rod and Staff spelling is quick and easy. you can probably have them do 2 lessons/week (or 2-3 books in 12 month year instead of school year) (as long as they are not overwhelmed) from 4-5 grade and get "caught" up in a year or 2. If your sixth is a natural speller, you could start in higher book, but if spelling is an issue, i'd start with 4th and just keep on going....

First form latin for both

Assuming you haven't done formal Grammar; Mp's 4th grade grammar if it is available or Rod and Staff gr. 4 for them both.


Math, you said you were happy....

Writing you have.

Geography 1.

If your sixth grader can handle science, too--the tiner books are enjoyable to read as is and mp uses them, or maybe something like fabre's story book of science or biographies of scientists/stories of inventions.

[tanya]

Hello.

Thanks for your patience in waiting for me. I see that you've had some help already, and this is all good advice. Here's my recommendation for classical studies:

Put the 4th and 6th grader together, and do Famous Men of Rome this year. For year 2, they can do Famous Men of the Middle Ages. In year 3, your 3rd-4th graders will be ready for our D'Aulaires' Greek Myths study, so the older 2 can listen to the stories as they are read (or even read them to the younger ones). Also, your older ones will be ready to study Famous Men of Greece and read The Trojan War in preparation for year 4. In year 4, they can do Mills' Greece and read Homer. Year 5 will be Mills' Rome and Virgil. Year 6 is Mills' Middle Ages and Dante. By then, your oldest will be almost ready to graduate and will have had a great classical education! In the meantime, your 3rd and 4th children should continue on the same path, starting Greek mythology when they are in 3rd-4th grades, FMR in 4th-5th, etc. This way, you will keep 2 children together in classical history, narrowing what you have to teach. And by the time these children are ready for classical history, the older two will be working well independently.

For literature, you can do the same thing. Pair the oldest two together with the 4th grade selections (which may be a little easy for the 6th grader, but by the time you get to the 5th grade selections, they will be challenging). Our literature selections begin to get more difficult with King Arthur, and after that, they will be plenty challenging for any age.

Your 4th and 6th graders should be able to do Classical Composition together too. It doesn't take that much time a day. You will take 2 weeks on each Fable, so it is only a little writing each day.

For Latin, I don't know anything about Lingua Latina, but I'll ask around and let you know.

I agree with the earlier posts about your primary students. Depending on their reading levels, you might could combine their literature. You can look at what we read in 1st grade on our website under StoryTime Treasures and compare that to our 2nd grade literature. It will really depend on how close they are in reading fluency as to how much you can combine here. The idea behind our 1st-2nd grade lit. is that the students will be reading to you, so you would need to choose books at their reading level. StoryTime Treasures starts with Little Bear, and 2nd grade starts with The Courage of Sarah Noble.

The 4th and 6th grader can do our first geography course that includes the U.S. Review, so they will be mastering states and capitals in a few minutes a week while also learning Europe, the Middle East, and No. Africa (areas heavily studied in classical history).

I hope this helps!

Tanya

[mater]

Thanks so much for the detailed replies. So incredibly helpful. I do have a question, Tanya. What is the difference between the Intro to Classical Studies Set guide and the individual guides that I can purchase with Famous Men of Rome/Greek Myths/Bible History? I have Greek Myths and the study guide here at home, which we're going to work through this summer, but do I need the Set or just the individual guide for Rome?

Thanks!

[tanya]

Hello.

The Intro. to Classical Studies guide is the original guide that we used when Cheryl Lowe began her school. It covers Greek mythology, Christian St., and Famous Men of Rome in one year, or you could slow it down to a 3-year cycle. Now that we have individual guides for all of those subjects, we don't use the Intro. guide any more. It is a crash course that moves really quickly, and we prefer slowing it down now that we have the resources available. So, we take a year to cover Greek mythology, a year to cover FMR, and 3 years to cover Christian Studies now.

Regards,

Tanya

[The Autumn Oak]

I looked into the Classical Studies at first because I thought it would be a good way for my son to catch up, but I didn't think the pages for FMOR lined up...Was there a different FMOR book back then?