Kathleen wrote:Are you just starting Bigger? I know when we were just starting Bigger in August, it took a little bit to get used to the skills that were new to us with a new curriculum. Overall, I'd say that my 8 yo is doing
less writing this year with Bigger than last when we were doing a mix of textbooks. I had the Abeka LA 2nd grade workbook last year. (My then 7 yo thought it was way too much writing...so I toned that down. I also agree that if you're doing R&S 2, you probably don't need it as they cover some of the same things.)
I think that Carrie does a good job of spreading the skills out in a day's plans. We're now in Unit 12 of Bigger and the units follow the same plan as you go. I think the only thing that we write
daily is the poetry copywork and Cheerful Cursive. I saw a thread recently that talked about copywork (and it really helped me change the way I think about it). It suggested not having the goal as having the WHOLE poem copied my the end of the week, but to spend 4 days of the unit copying a line or 2 or 3 (depending what's comfortable for your child), and doing it well. This ccomplishes the goal of working on excellent handwriting - by doing less to a higher standard - and having the benefits of spelling things correctly and using punctuation. I used to see the goal as finishing the poem.
On the 5th day I let my son illustrate the poem.
The other things that you listed are kind of mixed in through the week along with History Notebooking, Vocabulary and the Timeline once a week. We also have some written work with DITHOR...I'm not sure if you're doing that.
Now what helped us as we started this year was to ease into the guide a bit. We did a few weeks of doing half the day's plans as we were learning new skills. (This also cut way down on the writing every day.
)
For R&S, I usually have my son write 5 sentences or if we choose part of the work that only requires a one word answer, I have him write out 8-10 of them. We do the rest orally. I also let him write his English on a white board. I have no clue why, but writing on the white board makes it take half the time and he loves it!
(Maybe you want to buy a little one, it did wonders for us!)
Vocabulary was a big struggle for us the 1st week. (I wanted him to do all the words and it overwhelmed him!
) Doing just one of them as the guide says you can may be a great option while still learning the needed skills there. The way we moved into doing it is that Grant finds the 1st word in the book, reads the sentence, makes a guess as to what it means, looks it up,
I write the definition as he dictates to me, he makes up a sentence which I also write down. THen repeat for word 2. THen for word 3, I listen to him read the word's sentence & make his guess, and then leave him to finish that word. He then draws his picture for all 3 words. This is workin' like a charm for us!
At the beginning of the year, I would write out the Bible verses on a white board for him to have him copy for his science notebooking rather than having him copy directly from his Bible. This made it easier for him not to lose his place. You could also have him put a 3x5 or sticky note under what he needs to copy to speed looking back and forth. Or doing that amount of copying for him if it's a fight would be totally fine, too.
Hopefully something in here may be helpful. I guess one other thing I don't think I've said is that I don't have my ds do all of his written work in one sitting. We break it up through the day. Having to sit and write for no more than 20 min at a time really helps the quality...and reduces daydreaming here!
Kathleen
I have found R&S 2 to include much more in-depth Lang. Arts topics than the Abeka 2. I'm always encouraged reading these posts and feel more freedom to slow down and enjoy since my son is on the young end of Bigger. Sometimes I think we moms put too much pressure on ourselves to get done by May.